Corporate Events Plus

So valuable to be able to meet face to face as we did at a meeting in London recently, even if the meeting was in a public area – having been struggling to get a decision on budget confirmation for a particular design we were able to have a quick and frank conversation about build lead times and booking crew in advance whilst sat around a table. It is much easier to collaborate to come to a confirmation face to face.

I was at Gardeners World Autumn Fair event today – the overlay was well managed, the parking, the signage and the trackway way was constructed of a plastic – it seemed to be plenty robust enough for the traffic using it.

Every 3 years we update our learning for Emergency First aid at work. With so many crew on site on projects it is important we are able to help in an emergency.

Each time we attend the course there are updates to the ‘rules’ that have been set in the past and to keep abreast of the changes is key to being not only compliant but being useful.

This time you are alowed to have Asprin in the First Aid kit, luke warm water is best to use on scolds not cold water. And it was good to be reminded of Toxic Shock for example a rigger who might fall in his harness and be caught dangling for a while – how important it is to still go to A&E to get checked out.

In this heat wave we could all think of a different place to be than a classroom but if it helps save a life I am all for the short term discomfort.

This year the EpiPen has been added to the course instruction as well as the defibrillator, It’s not just a case of stabbing a patient in the leg, it is important to make a fist around the pen before administering incase you have the pen upside down – you don’t get an unwanted needle through your thumb! and you need to hold the pen in place for 10 seconds while the adrenalin is finding it’s way into the blood stream.

The live assessment’s of bandages for bleeds and the CPR continuous for 2 minutes with 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths had us all warmed up ! how to deal with choking another valuable learning.

One great benefit of working in Live Events is that sometimes we get to work in places that you don’t normally get to free access to. The end client is a sponsor of the venue and held the event dinner hosted for the Consumer Goods Forum in the Rijks Museum in the city of Amsterdam.

Dancers brought the museum paintings to life in a beautifully choreographed movement on 3 stages within the art gallery while the guests sat in awe. A very quick installation not dissimilar to working in the Natural History Museum in. London which we have done afew times.

A backdrop using Rembrandt & Van Gogh was pretty special.

April and May has been a busy couple of months with the preproduction of 3 events in 3 different countries.

A company gathering for 2,000 people in London for Sky working on the event Health and Safety for the venue with Media Powerhouse.

Building an exhibition for Sleek Events in Madrid for a software company and working on an event for Coca Cola in Amsterdam.

New clients and new teams of people to work with – it was quite refreshing to work with young people in the industry who are keen to learn the trade. You can not beat experience and knowledge passed on to a younger generation can only be good for the industry.

Next month we are working in Amsterdam – I still love travelling for work and experiencing different cities to work in although passport control due to Brexit is a chore for sure.

We were in a production meeting last year discussing a future project, one of the team had recently used a smart solution for locking technical room doors on exhibition builds. We elected to use the same system on site for 3 different rooms.

This Nuki lock system works really well – it has a host of features enabling you to see who locked or unlocked the doors at what time. The door pass was shared via invites to mobile phones via an app.

We will use this system again, check it out

https://nuki.io/en-uk/products/smart-lock-go

Keeping up to date with regulations and best practices of working is one thing – what about your own PPE (Personal Protection Equipment)

Having a look at my own lightweight hard hat and toe protector boots I thought it would be time to see what was on the market. This gear is picked up and carried job to job, kept ready to use and is part of the furniture so has been if I am honest slightly overlooked.

Well….if it is comfy , why change it?

So – after some research and some trying on I have decided that the helmet has been changed for a more protective shell and the leather boots have been changed for a composite lighter weight offering. I have of course been using the new shoes to break them in before christening them on site.

Interesting thinking about the saving of weight in these new items. Less weight, not so much to carry either in baggage or on your feet and head.

So I was thinking about the sustainability benefits and I had recieved recently an email from Trainline the booking agency for train travel in the UK and I have since 2021 travelled 61 journeys at a distance of 4,617 miles.

These have been mainly to Heathrow and Gatwick airports for work abroad.

Apparently I have saved enough CO2 to power a washing machine for 4 years!

An interesting statistic from Trainline but I do feel good about the green travel – I have also travelled many more times by train and tube but now it is cheaper to tap the credit card on the barriers than to book through trainline and pay the booking fee and then pay the company credit it card fee trainline charges.

One part of work is about keeping up to date with what suppliers have to offer or what is available in the market. This month I was fortunate to meet up again with Alan MacDonald the MD from Media PowerHouse. Alan and I started work together as apprentices at Samuleson Communications in the late 1980’s. Young 17 year olds keen as mustard to get involved with the industry.

Alan has been forging a path still within Audio Visual, Hybrid Event Production, Experiential solutions and Creative print but what interested me most was their permanent Virtual Gallery, managed by the Master Control Room, offering an immersive digital experience that brings together people on Collaboration Tools like Teams and Zoom and integrating them with other participants in remote offices and studio spaces, seamlessly creating a show that can be streamed globally, connecting audiences worldwide. Sounds like a mouthful but a slick solution for remote events.

With Alan in the Master Control room Virtual Gallery

Well, that was an interesting year of working in Exhibitions, Product Launches and Conferences. Our work is varied for sure but what makes earning a living in this industry worthwhile is the people you surround yourself with along the way. Here are some of my favourite group snaps of the year – I am hoping there will be many more next year too.

2 conferences this month in Madrid and London

Interestingly though, both events were related to internet systems and security.

I quite enjoyed this month working with Kahoot a fun voting audience participation tool and Singa, a Karaoke application that enabled delegates to join in with evening entertainment.

Knitting a team together on site is always a big part of the project and working home or abroad the crew make a massive difference to the success of the project.

This month has been a real pleasure working with new contacts and old contacts – Paul Wood and I first worked together at Samuleson Communications in 1988 – we are still working with Audio Visual although the projects are larger video based now than the slide projection roadshows back then.

September and October involved many face to face meetings and gatherings around working drawings but there are challenges managing the working day with calls that are also pre booked. It is very easy to fill the diary with back to back calls on Teams, Chime, slack huddle,Google chat and zoom depending on which agency is driving work.

After a couple of months of office work and meetings I am looking forward to November where we will be on site putting into fruition our pre event efforts on events in Madrid and London with visits to Barcelona for work next year