|
|
|
|
the a/v executive
Ken Sanders The power of sight & sound
Ken Sanders is President of Freeman’s U.S. audio visual division.
MPG In 1983, while I was still in college, I took a summer job with AVHQ in Los Angeles. They were the most well-respected, high-end staging company in the business and provided some hospitality A/V. They had a very innovative team of people who worked mostly for Hollywood and producing live events.
AVHQ had a hotel division and, after working my way through accounting, procurement, and operations, I took a job as VP of hotel operations. I loved the hotel business because it was a steady stream of activity.
What’s new within Freeman’s A/V division? We recently acquired AVT, Audio Visual Technology, out of Chicago which represents a tremendous opportunity for Freeman. They provide a unique, cutting-edge product. We think the benefits of owning that group and building on their platform is key and we intend to grow this business very rapidly.
Will you be renaming AVT? Because they are so well known in this industry, we are keeping the name and simply expanding it to AVT, a Freeman Company.
How can an A/V company, through the use of sound and light, best support the meeting experience? Sight and sound are the senses that people use to create memories. You can enjoy reading a book, but seeing a play or a movie is always something more memorable than a one-dimensional experience.
Offering the best technology solutions to meeting planners has always been a challenge for A/V companies. In general, planners first decide what meeting they are going to have, where they’re going to have it, who’s coming, how they’ll get there, what they’ll eat, what activities, etc. After all of those decisions are made, they say, “We have x dollars left in the budget for A/V and our CEO is going to speak.”
I suggest that planners consider technology on the front end - not to take more of their budget - but to make sure the true value of their meeting, to convey their CEO’s message as clearly and concisely as possible, is accomplished. It requires that the event’s A/V is well-produced – ample and well-positioned screens, a bright and clear image, and high-quality sound. If they do it right, technology can make them look like an absolute hero.
On your Freeman website are the words “Transforming face-to-face marketing.” How is it being transformed? The perception of a meeting today has been skewed by the current economic conditions. If you’ve been following the news for example, the destination of Las Vegas has been labeled a boondoggle - if you go to Las Vegas, you must not be going there to do business. That simply is not true. In my mind, the value of face-to-face meetings is never going to change. It’s the perception of that value that we are battling right now.
In its attempt to be responsible with the TARP money, the new administration has inadvertently labeled meetings and events as “taboo.” We, as an industry, are standing up and fighting back. Bruce MacMillan, CEO of MPI, along with support from Freeman, has put together a consortium of industry associations and created an important, informational website, MeetingsMeanBusiness.com. I think you will see more in the upcoming weeks with regards to what is being planned.
I don’t see that face-to-face and event marketing will ever go away. It is the most effective way to communicate. For example, $110 million was spent on the President’s inauguration. Certainly it was a celebration but in effect it was his meeting to set forth his platform and new agenda. It was designed to inform the world about his goals and objectives but his message would not be as well conveyed without an audience.
What is the greatest challenge facing the meetings and conventions industry? It goes back to that issue of perception. If you’re a meeting planner, when you sit down to do your budget, you ask yourself this question – “Is my board and our shareholders going to come back to me and say forget about the economy?” I wonder.
When AIG was forced to cancel their meetings at Half Moon Bay, it impacted every waiter, every housekeeper, every A/V person, the whole staff. Everyone ends up suffering. We need to make sure that we are expressing the true value that live events and face-to-face meetings actually bring to a business.
We’ve been lead to believe that when you use a resort for a meeting, you are not conducting business. That is not the case, but it’s a tough sell.
Look ahead five years. Within this industry, what changes do you see? We’ll see technology being used to take advantage of the ability to extend the conference beyond the two or three day event. If you’ve always had a conference with 150 attendees, you now have the ability to take the conference, through digital services and digital media, and make it available to an additional audience who could not attend the event.
I’m not talking about recording it and then sending it out. I’m talking about a live broadcast and it’s very cost effective. Don’t eliminate the meeting. Extend the presence of that meeting beyond its on-site attendees and broaden your reach.
When your CEO gets up and speaks, it’s an important moment. When you pay a lot of money for a guest speaker to advise your team, it’s a moment you should share with more than just the people in the room. I think technology will really enable companies to keep their message front and center and extend it to as many people as possible. |
|
||||||
: