Technology

Conferences can be an unexpected delight as well as functional

Conferences are often a part of everyday work life and a well-designed, well-equipped and highly functional conference room can make a massive impression on visitors.

Properly organised and handled, conferences can be well worth the preparation time and expense; building teamwork, inspiring new ways of thinking and disseminating beneficial information.

They can also, of course, be as dull as dish-water and a complete waste of time and money.

AMG55 TECH Conference 4Conferencing has changed. These days we need to look past traditional room designs and imagine how a mix of the latest technology can turn these rooms into dynamic communication hubs; quickly linking people, developing ideas, solving problems and improving decision-making.

Organisations have known for a long time that they could improve productivity by bringing more people together in meetings but now, with video conferencing and video-ready mobile devices, they can take these conferences to a new level. Paving the way is a host of new capabilities that are making conference rooms more accessible and easier to update than ever.

One of these is the wide range of software-based codecs, the technology that encodes and decodes the streams of digital data that make real-time communication possible. Such software solutions release organisations from having to rely on proprietary hardware that does not mesh well with corporate IP networks.

Cost savings and simplicity

AMG55 TECH Conference 3A major advantage they bring is in cost savings. Whereas conferencing systems once had reputations for being very expensive, the reduced cost today makes it much easier for prospective purchasers to justify fitting them to small conference rooms and office spaces.

This equipment is also much easier to use than in the past. Manufacturers have made a lot of progress in simplifying both the devices and the time taken to set them up. Having technical malfunctions while a large audience looks on must be every conference organiser’s nightmare.

So, modern equipment has not obviated the need to actually hold conferences, it has simply made it a lot easier to organise them, involve more participants and be more effective in their results. A modern conference room, with video or audio collaboration capabilities and screen-sharing tools, compresses the time involved while improving the opportunities for attendees to benefit from the new opportunities revealed.

Meetings can now routinely include all the key staff members who may not be on-site, such as sales staff, technicians and workers in branch or field locations, along with customers and other key people the company might contract or deal with.

Today’s conferencing technology can draw people in no matter where in the world they happen to be at meeting time, as long as they have access to a standard business-class network or viable internet access.

Making it memorable

However, nothing we have covered so far is going to make your conference more interesting. The best technology in the world won’t stop your conference being dull if the vital ingredients to make it absorbing are missing. Having guest speakers with that special ability to communicate will be a vital, but even excellent speakers will not make a conference memorable or spectacular.

AMG55 TECH Conference 2Obviously much depends on how large the conference is and what budget is available for entertainment, but it is good to be aware of just what might be possible at the upper end of the scale. For instance, when a stunning dinner held at Melbourne Park Function Centre caused an industry sensation.

Three months before this dinner, Lara Harley, sales manager of business events for Melbourne and Olympic Parks, spoke with evoke event staging’s creative director, Michael Davey, with an idea to create a bespoke experience that celebrated food and wine while dramatically re-interpreting the Melbourne Park Function Centre. It was to be an experience for only a few but one so magnificent that it would be talked about, shared and remembered. The team at evoke event staging started working on the idea of ‘Alice’, but not any old Alice in Wonderland would do!

With several event partners, they developed the idea of a secret dinner where the guests would have no idea what was about to unfold. Guests arrived to a very bare entry room.

All that changed with smoke, music and lighting and the appearance of the White Rabbit! Styled to perfection after two hours of makeup and prosthetics, he exclaimed “I’m late! I’m late for a very important date!”, and disappeared through a secret ‘rabbit hole’ in the wall that led guests to an enchanted garden.

This was the first real hint as to what was about to unfold: a forest filled with lush greenery, a misting fountain and even a caterpillar on a toadstool answering Alice’s repeated questions in a dream-like environment where lighting was the defining element.

The Mad Hatter made his grand entrance, cheekily teasing guests, berating the rabbit and causing all manner of mischief. A spectacle of sumptuous, tasty treats then appeared with bubbling, delicious cocktails.

AMG55 TECH Conference 1However, when guests thought that was it for the night, suddenly the golden gates were flung open to reveal a dining spectacular. Classic black and white flooring was the base to a long, bespoke dinner table, decked in carbon black and gold cutlery and the finest glassware. This dinner table was filled with touches of Alice in Wonderland and featured a 150kg garden that hovered over it and cascaded towards the guests.

It was a truly creative, gastronomic adventure where guests thought something was one thing but was really another, soups appeared out of tea pots and so on throughout the many courses. Everything was designed to evoke the extraordinary.

And that was nowhere near the end. More and more and surprises and delights kept on happening, far more than we can go into here.

But, as an example of thinking outside the square and onto the wall, it was said to be a triumph by those fortunate enough to attend. Just something to think about when it’s time to start planning your next conference!

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