The
Creative Treatment
Whatever
the event, it's contents has to be produced in a similar way
that a theatrical play or the food at a banquet has to be
produced. The content requires a creative treatment. Often
a theme is chosen as the basis of the creative treatment.
A beach theme, a sports theme, a European theme, an Animal
theme or even a theme that can transport you and your audience
through the stars into a future age where technology has finally
come to terms with humans and created the perfect environment
for us and our children to live. If the creative treatment
is new it’s not on a list because it han’t even
been thought of yet.
The
success of the creative treatment depends how well the treatment
enhances the message. It will take judgement, an understanding
of your objectives and a budget to find the most cost effective
creative treatment and the right people to execute it for
you.
Who provides the treatment?
The
independent event producer with no in house facilities. Their
contribution is their skill and experience. Their advantage
is that they live by their creative talent and reputation
so they can recommend the treatment they feel is best for
your event from the complete range of facilities available.
Public
relation companies and advertising agencies also fall into
a similar category but instead of dealing with an individual
talent there is a mix of creative (the jeans) and administrative
(the suits) people to work on your event.
Production
company with facilities. If you want a video made for your
event you can go to a video production company. If you want
speaker support material produced then a production house
specialising in graphics could be your choice. Some production
houses also offer an event management service with special
facilities geared to events like interactive systems or game
shows so the audience is able to participate rather than just
sit and watch
Facilities
Houses can be used where the organiser has the skill, time
and experience to make the creative decisions and take responsibility
for the production management. Each facility you start talking
to will let you know how valuable their particular facility
is to your event. Talk to the caterer and you will be told
that to impress your guests their extensive and delightful
menu and wine list will do the job while someone with
a theatrical background may persuade you to put your message
over via a short cameo production with live actors or magicians,
or impersonators or dancers to enhance the message. Those
skilled in technical and stage effects may suggest purpose
built sets or drapes, reveals, revolves, smoke, lasers and
moving lights.
In
the end it’s up to the organiser or producer to choose
the mix and make sure it works on the day.
The
presenters & performers
There
are presenters who can hold an audience enthralled for 90
minutes with no audiovisual support and no notes.
In my experience I have met very few such people.
Most
presenters at an event do a far better job when they have
notes or a script. Speaking to a larger audience has different
dynamics to a conversation, it becomes a performance and unfortunately
for a performance to be effective
and accurate it has to be rehearsed, in most cases to be rehearsed
it has to be written down so when
improvements are made it does not rely on the presenter in
the excitement of making the presentation to remember those
improvements.
The
Script
For
those who tell me ‘Ah I don’t need to write
a script and rehearse, I’ve done this presentations
lots of times before, I can do it off the cuff ‘ there
are various answers depending on the sophistication of the
event, the experience of the presenter and the nature of the
segment being discussed.
If
you are making the presentation for the first time my advise
is to do just that, but do it before the event and record
it. If you are going to have a few drinks at the event before
you speak then have a few drinks before you record it. Then
listen to it back, have the words transcribed into print and
then read it. I bet you’ll change it and improve it
and even if you don’t read it at the event. The presentation
or speech you make will be a far better one than if you had
not gone through the tedious process before hand.
For
a presentation where there is audiovisual support a script
helps the technicians prepare cues and ‘get back on
track’ if there is a technical problem. At worst case
treat the script as an insurance policy so someone else could
present if the original presenter is not able to do so.
Everything has to be produced
Often
people tell me ‘this is a low key event and doesn’t
require producing’ All events require producing.
Think
of producing as looking at all the variables and choosing
the right combinations to present the message and create the
right image for the event.
Casting
Whichever
treatment or combinations of treatments is chosen there is
casting - who is going to speak, sing, play, be the MC be
the best man. In all organisations there are those who present
better than others. The fact that a person presents well does
not necessarily mean they know more about their subject. I
have seen senior executives present very badly compared to
more junior people in the organisation. A senior executive
may not have the time to prepare and rehearse that a more
junior person can allocate. Some battle on with nobody being
able to tell the boss he’s not very good at this. An
outside producer could suggest that the boss introduces the
topic and then hand over to a subordinate to present the details.
No loss of face but a much more acceptable event for the audience.
It can also work the other way with the boss being introduced
to present this very important topic.
Presentations
at corporate events
Production
of graphics
At
most corporate events the main bulk of the presentation is
delivered from the lectern with some sort of speaker support
emphasising the spoken word. The same effect can be created
by overheads, slides and direct to screen presentations straight
off the computer projected onto the big screen.
More
important than the method of presentation is the clarity and
readability of what’s on the screen.
I
have seen so many presentations where the visuals are not
readable for more than half the audience.
The
rules are very hard. If you want to make visuals that contain
a lot of information that require a small font size to fit
them onto the screen then choose a venue with a very high
ceiling that will take a very large screen and use a device
with a high light output so you get a big bright clear image.
The
ultimate test is to go to the venue before production starts
with a visual containing different font sizes, project it
onto the biggest screen size that will fit the room so the
bottom of the screen is visible above the heads of the people
in front of you and see the smallest font size you can read.
You
can then brief the production people to make visuals with
your specified minimum font size.
To
further ensure clarity use a dark background like dark blue
or dark red with a light letter or graphic such as white or
yellow.
Most
graphics today are produced on computer and can be shown direct
to screen without going through a photographic process. Powerpoint
type presentations are being used in a lot of cases instead
of slides.
Beware
that what is readable on the computer screen is not necessarily
as big, bright and bold looking when it’s projected
onto the screen especialy for the audience near the back of
the room.
If
the presentation is a mixture of photographic slides and graphics
it may be more effective to show the graphics straight off
the computer but leave the high quality photographic slides
as slides rather than trying to scan them into the computer
with the loss of quality that can bring. It’s very
simple when presenting to use blanks in the slide projector
when the graphics are showing and blanks in the graphics when
the slides are showing.
Overheads
VS Slides
In
the overheads versus slides issue I suppose that tradition
dictates that slides are used for larger events while overheads
are used in smaller events and training sessions. For larger
events it looks much more impressive to push a button or click
a mouse from the lectern and watch one image dissolve into
the next.
Content
VS Overall Impression
Most
of the budget and effort goes in to an event assist the audience
remember the points and be
impressed with the content.
Please
note I said be impressed with the content, not the production.
Marshall Macluen once said ‘THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE’.
The event has to appeal to the audience on an emotional as
well as a practical level. I have seen too many product launches
and sales meetings that management have spent a fortune on,
only to have the audience leave saying how great the lasers
were or how much they enjoyed the video clip shown before
the coffee. As important as these elements are the object
should be to have the audience leave enhusing over the products
or message that the event was put on to promote.
Cultural
& private events
The
content of private events may be very different from the corporate
events but the principles in making them work are similar.
A run sheet would list all the elements from arrival to departure
and then each element could be considered in terms of it’s
suitability in terms of furthering the aims of the event and
those expected to attend.
From
production to staging
So
we now have a run sheet showing the content and logistics,
the creative treatment has been put in place and speaker support
and other pre recorded segments are in production it’s
time to concentrate on the staging..
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