Transcription
00:00:00
You.
00:00:04
Hey, I'm Jodie, event manager, business owner, educator, and podcast host. I'm an introverted homebody wannabe winemaster, and I truly believe in the power of events to inspire, delight, and ignite human potential. Every week, I take you backstage into the wonderful world of business events and give you the insider scoop on how to take your event to the next level. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and listen. Let's get into it.
00:00:38
Hello. Hello, and welcome to episode five of Events academy. I'm Jodie, your host, and it is a pleasure to be with you as always. Today, I am very excited to be joined by Libbie Ray, who is a director and founder of Connected Event Group, which includes AV, 24/7 digital Events, and Connected Studios. Now, Libbie is an event curator, a digital innovator, and an experience maker, which I just love.
00:01:07
And I've personally worked with Libbie on many occasions, and I just knew she would absolutely be the right person to come on the podcast and talk to you all about AV and technology for your event. So I hope you enjoy my chat with Libbie. We cover a lot of topics, and if you do want to reach out to Libbie, then you can connect with her via the links in the show notes. Well, Libbie, welcome to Events academy. Thank you.
00:01:32
Thank you so much for having me. Jodie it's a pleasure. And I always love having guests on who can share much more experience about a particular area of events than I can. So I'm grateful that you are joining us today. I wondered if you could share a little about your career journey and how you ended up running an event production company.
00:01:51
Yeah, happy too. It's a little bit of an eclectic background. I actually left school at 15 to become a chef. Oh, amazing. Yeah, maybe.
00:02:02
I'm not sure whether my parents were too pleased that I didn't finish high school, but it certainly is an interesting thing to mention when we're talking about technical production because it actually has very similar characteristics from a management perspective, it's both creative and technical. So I feel like I got a lot of that basic knowledge from the way that you can work in those two sides of your brain, starting from that chef and career that I came out with, then moved into event management. I worked for David Jones in their marketing department, quite a bit of a switch over there, and then moved into business development for venues. So worked in selling venues for events, probably much like your listeners interact with a lot day to day business, and I was doing sales there for probably about five, six years. In that particular industry, you'll get a bit of a theme that I'm, a career jumper, ended up moving into television production.
00:03:00
So I was a live TV producer for TVSN. Oh my gosh, was that stressful? Yes, but particularly coming from the chefing background and particularly where I'm working now, you might gather that stress is something that I'm drawn to. Yeah. And thrive on.
00:03:18
Absolutely. And then moving out of TV production, wanting to get back into that event space. Actually joined my husband around twelve years ago and we went on embarked on the journey to create audiovisual production company which is now called Connected Event Group. And why I am sitting here talking to you today yeah, amazing. And I know that that business as well has kind of had a few iterations.
00:03:44
Can you kind of talk about how it started and what you do now? Absolutely. So we started out as purely or primarily an exhibition AV services company and that was kind of where everything started from. So you're talking hundreds of television screens and exhibitions, Led screens, that sort of thing, and really sort of tried to capture that market, which we still have a very strong presence in today. However, as the business grew, and particularly from my skill set in the creative event production side, moving more into that creative conferencing, coming up with new ways to create new technology.
00:04:21
So we expanded probably about ten years ago into working in a lot around the fashion and beauty industry and then large scale conferences came a little later and then our wonderful thing that we all, as event professionals love to talk about, not so COVID hit. At that particular point in time, we had about 60 staff members, two officers, and then Friday the 13 march, as we all remember, everything went down. And there's a lot of stories that are quite similar to this. And I won't hang on it for too long, but just to answer your question, around the different iterations of the company, we, within two weeks, decided, well, we could either sit on our hands and wait and have a bit of a holiday, or we can see what we're made of. And what else can we do in this industry to support the industry that is struggling so much?
00:05:15
So within two weeks, we had actually built two broadcast studios and moved very quickly into the virtual side of things and really worked to bring my experience and the experience of our team members from the TV industry into the virtual space and over COVID we did around 700 virtual events. And that part of our business is still extremely strong today. We rebranded to Connected Event Group and we now have our virtual hybrid and live services that all seamlessly mix together to provide a much broader offering to our customers. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love that story and obviously I knew parts of it beforehand, but it's just always so amazing to hear how you've turned something negative into the new iteration of your business.
00:06:05
And I think as well, it just shows so much grit. And it's one of the things I love about the events industry, is like the people are just made of something different. And yeah, I just love that you just kind of never gave up and kept forming new ways of how you could do business and serve your clients, which is just awesome. You sort of touched on that connected event group is really about forming meaningful connections through events. What do you think it is that really makes a meaningful event?
00:06:33
It's a really great question and it's interesting because it's something I think about daily in events. Why do we do it? We want to bring people together, we want to interact. And I think COVID has shown us that we can't just sort of rest on our laurels and go, I'm going to put an event and people are going to come and enjoy it and be part of the process. But we have to work so much harder to create those connections and bring people in.
00:07:00
But for me around, what does it mean to make a meaningful event? It's easy conversations, it's easy interaction, it's easy learning and development. It's feeling, seeing and touching and really making sure that you're amusing all of the senses. So when you're talking about technology specifically, it's making sure that everything looks good, it sounds good because those sorts of things is what changes people's perspective on how they feel about your brand, how they feel about your business, and how they feel about how they're interacting with you. Yeah, so true.
00:07:34
And AV kind of in a nutshell, really does touch kind of all those senses as well, which is so important to make sure that we're getting it right. You deliver that in live virtual and hybrid, I want to know, like, I have feelings about all of them and I'm not a huge fan of hybrid events, but we don't really need to go into that. But I'm curious to know what your favorite format is to deliver. Well, this may come out and seem a little bit more like I'm a little bit nuts, but I'm actually going to say the one that you dislike very much. I knew you would hybrid.
00:08:12
I knew you would. Tell me why. Because it is super complex, but when it is done right, it expands your audience, it expands your opportunity to create a different experience for different people. I think where most people really dislike hybrid is misunderstanding around that they're kind of like one event doing two things. It's actually two completely different events.
00:08:40
This is exactly what I say and it's so hard to nail both. And I feel like if anyone can, you can. But yes, people often think about tacking on an element to an existing event and you really need to think about it as two separate events. And you know, that's really important. Really important point, Jodie, because that is exactly what happened before.
00:09:03
So before hybrid, events or virtual events. They weren't created in COVID, they existed before. But what the whole purpose of them before was let's put a camera at the back of the room and show people what they're missing out on so next time they turn up and come in in person. And so that was the purpose of it. It wasn't anything like obviously to reach people, but it wasn't to engage them, it wasn't for them to feel like they were part of that audience, it was to show them what they're missing out on.
00:09:37
Now, there are so many different types of people and I think it's important as a majority of event professionals are probably a little bit like myself, a bit outgoing. They're people. People they want to they're extroverts. But we also have to really remember that there are so many the other half of the world are introverts. Yeah, like me.
00:09:57
And you know what? Sometimes they do want to learn from you, sometimes they do want to be part of what you have to say, but they'd much rather be in their bed. We have the blanket over them typing away or whatever that might be. So we have to really understand that if we're only serving ourselves, then we're missing out on a whole opportunity to reach a completely different market. But like you said, and like a lot of people will talk about hybrid events not being a great thing, it is really important to get it right.
00:10:26
And if you're not going to do it right, you don't have the budget to do it right. Just don't do it. However still my favorite. Yeah, I mean, obviously then you get to play with all the fun technology and I would agree that if anyone is going to do a hybrid event, you absolutely need to make sure that you're using the right professionals to help you do that. So enough about hybrid events.
00:10:49
Let's talk live events because they're my phase when it comes to live events. What are some of the mistakes that people make when it comes to AV? Look, I think there's many things that happen and usually it's not on purpose. One of the biggest one is leaving it to the last minute. Yeah.
00:11:10
There'S a few issues with that. One is the world has changed and it is less easy to get a professional supplier than it was before. So if you're calling up someone a week before, you're probably going to get told no and you're going to end up at the bottom of the barrel. You're going to find a production company that has availability, which means they haven't been booked early enough and may not be the best person to support you. The other thing is technology can do so much in the creative process of the event.
00:11:42
So if you have a production partner bringing them in right at the beginning and letting them be part of that process, they can really help you to understand how to engage your audience better and also help with things like venue selection and making sure that those sorts of things are really nailed down, leaving it to the last minute. One, maybe you might have already had budgets signed off and you can't actually achieve the thing that you want to do. Could end up with a venue that's just not suitable. Or three, you're just not making the most of your time and your audience's time. The other thing is people tend to we see a lot is around content creation less likely now that we're going to see a four three presentation for a 16 nine screen?
00:12:26
I love that. Surprisingly, it still happens. I don't know, I still get people. Asking what format or what size is it? Do people still ask that question?
00:12:39
I think a lot of people that you'd actually talk to now, you'd say four three and they'd be like, what's? That depending on how experienced each of the people are. The other thing is a misunderstanding around what technology can do. And so that, again, really shows that maybe that people don't have that partnership with a technology company where they can actually really realize how much more technology can be part of the process. And that engagement side of things.
00:13:10
The other one is overcomplicating a little bit, the opposite of that, trying to overcomplicate what you do when you don't need to. You're making it bigger than Ben Her when it's just not necessary. And then the big one and it's easy enough coming from a technology side, but the big one is getting stuck in a price war. Apples are not apples in technology world. So it is so important to understand the value that comes with an experienced AV provider versus an inexperienced or lower cost solution.
00:13:43
I'm not saying that that is not the right answer, but just picking the right provider for the right event and not trying to think about, oh, someone's given me a $500 quote and someone's given me a $5,000 quote guarantee. There is a big difference in what you will receive in those sorts of things. Yeah, and I think there is a big range in AV, but you do need to remember that that's because there's a big range in technology and equipment and skill set and all of those sorts of things. So I think it's so true. We're not saying that the $5,000.01 is not ripping you off, but just to be aware that there is a big difference.
00:14:20
But there's so much I want to touch on that you've shared. The first thing is around venues, you were talking about kind of venue selection. What are some of the things that we need to consider when we're selecting our venue? Great question and a really good thing to get stuck into. Certainly power if you are wanting to provide a big Led screen or some great big parts of great big lights or different technology, you need to make sure there's enough power to support it.
00:14:50
Be surprised how many venues do not have enough power access. How are we going to get everything in? Is this venue right for the type of event that you're going to provide? Or can you get the truck in? Is there a place to park?
00:15:06
Those sorts of things are really important. You can always work around it. But I guarantee you if you pick a venue that is stair access only, loading straight off the street, it's just going to cost you more money. The AV production company or your theming company or anyone else that's part of that will have to charge an additional service fee to make sure that they have enough people and time to be able to bump in and bump out properly. The other one is around ambient lighting.
00:15:34
So depending on what kind of technology you want to use, for example, if you wanted to go with a lower cost visual solution like a projector and a projector screen, you can't do that in a venue with high ambient light if it's a daytime event. So just being mindful of that, there's always other options. You can use television screens, Led screens. However, if you want to do something specific, the lighting and the way that changes throughout the day can have a big impact on that one. I think just on that one, I think it is one of the really common mistakes that I see is particularly if a client has come to me after they've already selected their venue, is we think that daylight or natural light is a good thing and it is for a daytime conference.
00:16:22
That's lovely to have, but we don't think about the fact that actually there's going to be a lot of content on a projector screen, so daylight is probably not going to work for us. Absolutely. What are some of the other things? And then one of the other ones is what is a room made of? People don't quite understand.
00:16:42
They might come into the beautiful space and it's got glass all the way around and beautiful views of the ocean or wherever you might be. If you have a glass room, your audio is going to sound terrible. It is going to bounce from side to side to side to side. So you can have one glass window, one glass wall, but if you have three sides, those sorts of things are going to be really hard to manage. Even concrete buildings can be like that as well.
00:17:11
It's just really important. And there's some of the things that if you wanted to or if it was a large event, if you wanted to bring along your technology partner with you to your site inspections, they'd be able to manage those expectations for you as well. Yeah. So while we're on venues, I do just want to touch on kind of in house AV versus external suppliers. Often some venues will have an in house AV supplier or someone that they sort of say you have to use, which often means that we can't sort of shop around or bring in our preferred partner.
00:17:47
What are some tips for, I guess managing that and making sure that when someone has a monopoly on the venue that we're still getting sort of a fair price with them? Yeah, that's a great question and pending the size of the event, there's generally some ways around that. But also there's no point reinventing the wheel even if you do have an external technology partner. If there is an in house AV company that's got a PA system installed in the room, it just doesn't make sense to have an external provider do that. However, we generally work a lot with in house technology companies as well, so we would manage their services plus bring our services in over the top and operate.
00:18:30
That's not always necessary. One of the big tips I would say is around for your listeners if they're looking to find ways to make sure that they can manage that pricing. Because sadly, sometimes people actually overcomplicate it and just try to make everyone a little confused and you're like, do I need this? Why do I need this? What is this?
00:18:51
If you have a technology partner that you trust, just send them the quote. And even if you don't, I'm saying send me the quote and I will tell you which parts you need and which parts you don't and then you can send that back. I love that. Yeah, and I know I've done that with you before and it's super helpful. Yeah, because I do think sometimes as well, it can be back on us as well.
00:19:12
And I'm not saying that there's all these AV companies out there over quoting and ripping people off, but I do think that often we want to cover ourselves, right? And so the AV company might be putting things in there just to make sure they've got them so that if you turn around on the day and need it, they've covered themselves. So it might just be a case of being really clear in your brief from the get go as to what's happening throughout the event so that maybe the quotes able to come back are much more specific to what you need. Yeah, that's a really good point. It's sometimes just really difficult if you don't know AV.
00:19:47
It's really hard to understand what you need in that sense as well. But certainly being really clear on your brief is really important and having open conversations and don't be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by the fact that we're looking at something that we don't understand. As a technology person, it's our job to help you understand exactly what things are and we're all in events together, so just try and have open conversations as much as possible, and also people will negotiate as well. So I think that everyone should be happy to kind of push back and go, we just can't make it work in that particular way and see how creative the partner can be with different solutions too.
00:20:32
Yeah, I love that. I mean, at the end of the day, we're never going to be able to understand all of the AV terms because we're not AV experts. You are. And yeah, not to be, I guess, ashamed of that or anything. And just ask the question, even if you feel dumb, just ask, what is that?
00:20:49
Do we really need it? What does that do so that you can continue to learn and make sure that you are getting the right thing? I love that advice. Let's go virtual now and talk about virtual events. I feel like virtual events range so much from just a simple zoom meeting through to, like, a full on studio production, which you obviously have a lot of experience with.
00:21:08
What are some things to consider when figuring out what's the best solution and platform for a virtual event? I feel like a lot of the time, companies kind of go, right, we're going to run a virtual event, but it's like, where do I even start with figuring out what I need and how we're going to put this on? Great question. It's interesting because there are hundreds and hundreds of different ways that you can produce a virtual event. And so it can be very complicated trying to work out which way is the best way to go.
00:21:37
You have to start with what you're trying to achieve. So if you're wanting to if you've got a meeting, obviously, and you know how to use zoom and those sorts of things, and you're interacting with just some of your customers or like a small group of people, it should be absolutely fine to manage that side of things yourself. You want to understand who the audience is and how high profile the audience is and what they expect to see from you. And that is also around. We've all been in a zoom meeting where someone has been presenting, and then all of a sudden they've frozen and they look like a frog.
00:22:13
And so that can really come across really unprofessional. And so if that audience is expecting that not to happen, that's where you really want to start? Maybe. Okay, that's the time when I need to bring in someone else that can ensure that if something like that happens, my CEO is not going to be stuck on screen looking like a frog and ridiculous in front of his audience. So that's sort of some of the main ones who's presenting.
00:22:38
As I said, if it's a CEO, they tend to want the support. We want to put their best foot forward, making sure that they look good in front of the audience. And then the other one I wanted to mention is around if you want to use the content again, if you want to use it again, it's worth investing in the production just for that particular reason. So then once you're editing that, you're using it on socials, using the part of your marketing campaigns, it looks good enough that people will actually want to engage with that. Yeah, awesome.
00:23:10
Such good things to think about. And when it does come time to engage a professional, what can that look like? Is it always a full on studio production or what could that look like? Yeah, so again, it varies. So we manage events from completely virtual, so all the presenters are virtual.
00:23:30
We might send out lights and a camera to attach to their laptop if they want to have a little bit better visual experience sometimes. We will always test their content and make sure their internet is strong and if it's not, we send them backup internet to their place and so we go from there. Then the next stage would be is a pop up studio, which might be in someone's office. Oh, yeah. So we would bring in small amount of theming, the lights, the camera, fold back screen, so presenters can have their notes or teleprompters, so it looks like they're really engaging with their audience studios as well.
00:24:06
We have a studio in Alexandria and that's the full broadcast experience as well. The biggest thing is around safety and making sure we've got all the backup technology available. It can seem overwhelming when you start to look at the different things that are involved, but the amount of things that can actually go wrong. And I don't want to scare your audience, but there is a lot that can go wrong. And so when you're investing in doing it right, there is so much involved in doing that.
00:24:35
And that comes from our studio has a backup generator just in case the power shuts off. We've got four or five different internet lines, so each if one drops out or telstra shuts down, those sorts of things are all in place, so it can be quite big. And then the other part of it is as well is how people are engaging with it. We create customized platforms for our customers as well, or we work with any other platform that anyone wants to work with as well. So it ranges from quite a small experience to feeling like you're on the breakfast TV show.
00:25:10
Yeah. Amazing. So I guess it really does just come back to the purpose of the event. But also it sort of sounds like it really comes down to how important the event is and how bad it would be if something went wrong. And I guess if it is a more casual experience and if something went wrong, it wouldn't be the end of the world, then okay, maybe we can handle it ourselves, but if that's going to look bad for our brand, then, okay, let's bite the bullet and invest in getting professionals to help us.
00:25:35
Yes. So what are some of the event trends that you're seeing coming out of the AV and technology space? Great question. We have lots of new things that are coming out at the moment that people are starting to play around with. We create customized technology in house as well, so we get to do some really fun things.
00:25:55
Obviously. That kind of gamification style technology. We do a lot of work with motion sensors as well. Yeah, it's really fun. So if someone picks up one thing, then a particular type of content will play.
00:26:09
Or you walk past a big Led screen and as you walk, you become a character and you interact with that character and look like that character, but in a more gamified particular way. Amazing. Yes. Very fun. Neon is a big trend at the moment.
00:26:24
Oh, yeah. Love. Yeah. I don't know, I just can't get bored of it yet. Yeah, just love it.
00:26:31
It's great. The metaverse is obviously something that comes up a lot. I think it's still a fair while away from mainstream use. It still seems a little too gamey for people to to want engage with on an ongoing basis. The other one is that I quite like is audience participation from a choose your own adventure content perspective.
00:26:53
Love that audiences having the opportunity to vote on topics that things people are going to talk about on stage. And so it starts to then generate that conversation for people when they're at a conference. They can really decide as a group what kind of content that they want to receive from the people that are presenting. So that's a really new and fun thing. And also people love to feel like they're in control as well.
00:27:21
Yeah, I mean, I always say that events are in the events because there's people in the room or virtual room, but because there's people there, right. Otherwise it's not an event. So I love that we're kind of putting the power back in the guests hands as to like, well, you tell us, what do you want? Yeah, that's cool. Great.
00:27:38
And then they can't really complain about the content not being on topic if they're the ones that chose it. Exactly. Your ratings will just skyrocket. Exactly. And then the other one is just around that Immersive experience as well.
00:27:52
So that whether that be a visual Immersive experience, 360 projection or Led screen audio Immersive experience, when you walk into particular areas, there's some really cool products like directional speakers. So if I'm standing in point A, I hear nothing, if I move two or 3 right, I'm under a waterfall. So there's just really cool stuff with that you can play around with. But again, it comes back to what we were talking about earlier. How do we engage the senses and kind of overload them?
00:28:25
So there's some really cool things. That are coming out in that respect. Oh, my gosh, and there's so much to think about as well, which it can feel overwhelming, but I guess that's where it comes back to. If you do want to do something really cool, it's about engaging an event partner from the get go and just seeing what the options are and how you could achieve what you're trying to achieve through technology, which is amazing. I have one final question for you, and that is if you could sum up all your years of experience into one piece of advice for anyone who plans business events, what would it be?
00:28:58
This was a great question and I think my number one will be don't get stuck in what used to be done innovate or get lost at the sea. Audiences are less engaged than they used to be, so if you don't innovate, you're not going to get your audience there, or if you get them there, they're going to be not really there, if you know what I mean. They're not going to be paying attention. You have to think outside the box. You have to do things differently.
00:29:24
If you just keep on that rat race going or that rat wheel turning around, people have moved on from that. They are moving faster, they're less engaged. So innovate or die. It is certainly the most important part. Oh, yeah, people are definitely more fussy and protective of their time, which I think is a good thing.
00:29:43
But, yeah, we definitely need to be continually pushing the boundaries and innovating in the event space in order to get people to attend. But that's kind of a good thing, I think. I'm always about less boring events in the world is a good thing. I actually have one more question for you, which is if people want to reach out and connect with you and work with you, how can they find you? Well, I would love to hear from any of your listeners.
00:30:05
They can touch base with us on our website, connectedeventgroup.com. They can reach out to me directly, [email protected], or find us on the web by searching Connected Event Group. Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today, Libbie. Amazing.
00:30:22
Thanks for the chat, Jodie, thanks for. Listening to this episode of Events academy. If you loved it, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, share with your friends and I'll chat to you next week. Bye.
