Suddenly summer is upon us, the office is unbearably hot (and smelling damp after a pipe burst and flooded carpet and ceilings, fortunately missing everything else).
We're in full work mode with a number of events and videos in production including our first outdoor event of the year this Bank Holiday weekend. Deliveries of all things big and small have been arriving with alarming regularity...
This is more like choreographed ensemble piece than a true flashmob, but it's well executed and great fun...
Congratulations to the new face of Iceland, Ellie Taylor from Bristol. Ellie has been chosen to appear in Iceland's commercials following a campaign on Facebook and Iceland's website.
The Cascade team, lead by Fiona, supported the two day 'X-Factor' style auditions and the 'in person' announcement of the winner last friday.
More details on Iceland's website
This is Ellie's audition...
and the announcement
Another great creation from creators of the original treadmill music video...
We like it!
If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:
A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!
Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.
The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.
A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.
Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!
As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to join now. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.
And ladies and gentlemen that is how a movement is made! Let's recap what we learned:
If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.
Be public. Be easy to follow!
But the biggest lesson here - did you catch it?
Leadership is over-glorified.
Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he'll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
There is no movement without the first follower.
We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.
More from Derek Sivers at http://sivers.org/
I think we can all relate to this very real experience of PowerPoint - of course we've being trying for years to avoid this sort of thing with the presentations we get our hands on - though we have to admit that we don't always succeed.
This is a useful colour chart we came across...
This is a great piece of scriptwriting and a great trick...I won't spoil it!
I got involved in what has been described as an 'un-conference' at the weekend as an outside viewer and contributer at Event Camp 2010 in New York. This was a grass roots gathering of like minded professional event organisers who had collaborated to get together for a one day conference all about Social Networking in Events.
There were guest speakers and open discussion sessions as well as some social time - there is a great description of the live event here - http://ow.ly/14VG5.
As a remote attendee as was able to watch the presenters on video through a live stream and was able to follow the discussions, comments and information from the 200 or so on-line followers on Twitter - there was a live feed from Twitter at the event and the facilitator was monitoring the Twitter feed for questions and relevant comments - so someone 4,000 miles away was able to ask a question of the presenter and another was able to ask for the camera to be repositioned during one presentation. After some of the sessions there were live interviews with the presenters, just for the on-line audience - these were a great tool for helping the viewers to feel more involved.
While the presenters did their thing, the twitterers were adding links, comments and experiences about what was being presented. One of the best examples was this diagram, featured on the PowerPoint and linked on Twitter almost immediately afterwards - it's a really useful tool to see all the different sites and services being employed by web users in the global conversation...
The overwhelming takeaway from Event Camp as a remote delegate was the fantastic opportunity it presented to engage informally with peers and professionals from different background but sharing a common interest - crucially, not through a structured trade association or involving travel, selling or cost.
I tend to concentrate on the experience rather than the content here - the content was excellent, challenging and in places inspirational - there were plenty of things to take away and go and do differently - well done to all involved in putting it together.
In many ways it reminded me of my first real internet experience on the Compuserv Group sharing with eventprofs before the internet explosion destroyed that sort of direct connection. Let's hope this sort of collaboration is here to stay.
More Information on Event Camp
There is a further excellent and detailed blog about Event Camp and the topics covered here: http://ow.ly/1522L
The art of great presentation - very simple storytelling. Done brilliantly here by Google in their Superbowl 44 ad...
A hybrid conference combines the benefits of a live audience at a live event, with the power of the internet and remotely accessed content and collaboration.
Hybrid as it can be delivered now is likely to be a glimpse of the future of conferences.
Managers attend a national conference. They are usually fairly passive - they watch and listen to presentations, maybe visit breakout groups and get to vote on something - and there might be a Q&A. All tried and tested and successful if delivered well. But very passive. These are
1 - Pre-event - Community
Involve the audience in the content, provide them with the mean to communicate with each other around the conference topics. Allow them to contribute to menu selection, to discussion topics, to vote and decide on some aspects of the conference - ahead of the conference. Encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas with each other - share best practice about their jobs. The conference is just a catalyst, but the existing comms channels often become stale or underused - a dedicated conference community adds to the success of the conference through engagement with the audience, but also has secondary benefits in the wider business.
2 - Missed the Event
There are always delegates who can't make it. Some because of holidays or illness but many for simple things - they don't like to travel, they can't get a 'pass' from home, they have childcare problems or there is no business cover for them. These delegates still need to be engaged and informed and if they miss the conference they become barren and lost until the next event or meeting. Streaming video of the conference over the web has been possible for a long time but because of the limitations of local internet speeds it has been rarely taken up.
With faster broadband everywhere and new technology in the way we process cameras at an event, streaming the conference live to a remote audience has never been better. Add to that the ability to continue the 'conversation' from the community through the forums or social networking tools such as Twitter, means that the remote delegate can feel involved and take part in the event from afar.
3 - A Second Audience
With Live video streaming so accessible, the possibility of adding additional audiences is very real. For example, in an ideal world you would invite the Deputy Manager to the conference so that there was an additional person to enthuse about the conference messages - or you might like key head office people to see the conference but don't want to provide the additional facilities and budget needed for that many attendees.
By opening an event TV channel for remote viewers to log in to, we can switch between live presentations from the live video feed, Presentation slides, pre-recorded video inserts or messages and a live host who could talk directly to the remote audience while other activities are going on at the conference - so effectively you end up with a second conference tailored to the remote audience via a live TV channel. It's not expensive to deliver.
4 - Outside-in
The final consideration with our remote audience and conference community is using social networking, like Twitter and Facebook, as well as on-site tools like SpotMe, to involve everyone at the conference and remotely viewing the conference, to talk, share, engage and collaborate. This could be through dedicated discussion sessions or through 'back channel' style Twitter feeds displayed at the venue and simultaneously on the Live feed.
These are just some of the applications of Hybrid conferencing for corporate events, without doubt the adoption of some or all of these new techniques will bring a totally new dimension to conferencing.
An exhibition of war photography by Don McCullin opens tonight at the Imperial War Museum North. http://north.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.24321
The exhibition coincides with Don McCullins' 75th year and includes this video piece edited by the Cascade team...
Cascade have a long association with IWM North having been involved with the production of the permanent Big Picture installations when the museum was still under construction. The Big Picture shows feature 35mm slides projected across 13 different unusually shaped screens. The IWM North is our last 35mm slide installation and the continued maintenance becomes increasingly difficult as film, slide mounts and slide trays go out of manufacture.
The Shaped by War special exhibition runs until 13 June 2010.
#eventprofs Watching the launch of Apple's latest toy the iPad on UStream Live. It's amazing that the norm now is that people are streaming live video from inside the auditorium, sharing photos of the screen and slides and blogging them live - Apple haven't finished their launch presentation and Twitter and the tech blogs are alive with feedback, comments and opinion. Extraordinary.
On a positive note, the simplicity of the conference set up is brilliant - a single large projection screen against a black backdrop, simple Keynote slides on a grey (graduated) background with single images or simple text. The presenter has the run of the stage with a lectern at the side for when its needed.
Short presentations from each presenter on a single subject with swift handovers to different content specialists.
The whole thing is simple, structured and slick - I just don't get the uncontrolled live streams from the audience - couldn't Apple have set up an official stream with good bandwidth and made it available to the press and tech blogs?
Will we buy an iPad? Probably won't be able to resist (Keynote looks particularly exciting on the iPad)
COMMENT ON THE iPAD - It's difficult to say whether the iPad will be a success and change the way we work. Time will tell. Our impression is that it will be defined by the Apps that are developed for it. The iPhone in its basic form is inferior to many of its' competitors - there are better phones with better specifications, better cameras, that handle email better and so on. But once the Apps started to come, the way we use the iPhone changed and the number of things we could do with it changed - to the point that true converts would feel naked without one in their hand.
I suspect that the iPad will follow a similar route. It will be normal to have an iPad by your side on the sofa or in a meeting. There will be no need for expensive software suites, instead there will be task specific Apps, at $9.99 or similar price point and you will be able to do lots with it.
Frustrations? DRM - Apple have set out to control video, music and book content and they don't want you to share it. Where is the webcam or camera - it seems an obvious oversight.
Looking forward to getting our hands on one and seeing how it works for real.
A PowerPoint presentation of 20 slides with fixed timing of 20 seconds per slide.
Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ?), usually pronounced in three syllables like "pe-chak-cha", is a presentation format in which content can be easily, efficiently and informally shown, usually at a public event designed for that purpose. Under the format, a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
It was devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo's Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa), who sought to give young designers a venue to meet, network, and show their work and to attract people to their experimental event space in Roppongi.[1] They devised a format that kept presentations very concise in order to encourage audience attention and increase the number of presenters within the course of one night. They took the name Pecha Kucha from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation ("chit-chat").
Klein and Dytham's event, called Pecha Kucha Night, has spread virally around the world. More than 170 cities now host such events.[2][3] (from Wikipedia)
We wouldn't recommend Pecha Kucha for corporate presentations - but the idea of an agreed disciplined approach is very interesting.
How hot was Ignite Portland 2 on Tuesday night?
So hot that 750 people filled the Bagdad Theater in Southeast Portland, and many more got turned away. So hot that the wacky, idea-sharing event rose to the second spot on the national Upcoming Web site, trailing only the wildly popular South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. So hot that the Bagdad ran out of pizza.
Crowds came to see 14 presenters, each giving a five-minute talk on -- well, just about anything. They got 20 slides, each displayed for 15 seconds, to tell a story about anything from building a rocket to ordering sushi. The show was, as one organizer described it, "attention deficit theater."
There were funny moments, such as Mario Schulzke's analysis of his native Germany's fascination with David Hasselhoff. "He fooled 80 million Germans for 20-plus years, and I'm going to tell you how he did it," Schulzke promised, backed up by German magazine covers and "Baywatch" nostalgia on his slides.
There were emotional moments, such as Adrienne Fritz's tale of overcoming a troubled childhood to rewrite the script for her life. "This is the only life we have," she told the crowd. "And it rocks!"
And there were calls to civic action, be it helping investors see Portland's potential or putting biodiesel in your car.
Ignite, a concept that began in Seattle, was intended as an event for techies. But organizers of the Portland version found presenters -- and audience members -- who spanned the continuum from proud-of-it geeks to creative types. One couple in the crowd won T-shirts for attending Ignite Portland as a first date (they met through Match.com).
If you missed Ignite, the talks should be posted in the next few days on theofficial site. Social networking sites from Twitter to Flickr will be abuzz (this crowd was so wired, organizers went online to update folks waiting to get inside the Bagdad).
And, hey, there's always the old-fashioned option: coming next time. Ignite Portland organizers hope to make this a quarterly event. Stay tuned for details on the next rendition.
This is a great collection of innovative and exciting typography in design. More here...
It seems that in the tech world, presenting a live twitter feed behind the presenter is becoming more common.
The way it works - the presenter presents, the audience listen and what the audience thinks as they listen, they Tweet - then the tweets are presented as a live update on the screen behind the presenter (so if someone tweets something funny, then the audience laugh regardless of how serious a point the presenter is making).
You can read an interesting article by Keir Whittaker which draws together some experiences of this in practice.
From our point of view at corporate events for UK companies, using Twitter 'live' could be a fantastic way draw in questions or comments for a Q&A or to promote interaction during a dedicated session for interaction, but the idea of having the audience accessing their phones and contemplating what to tweet during a presentation will inevitably lead to them not hearing or engaging with the very message that they are attending the conference to hear - which can only be a bad thing.
This is a video monologue from CNNs tech expert Chris Pirillo following an apparently bad experience at the Web09 conference in Paris:
Cascade have signed up to the 10:10 campaign to reduce emissions by 10% during 2010.
In October The British Standard for sustainable events was republished and at Cascade we have decided to review every aspect of our business using BS8901 as a framework (partly because we found that much of the way we work follows the guidelines already).
Although the British Standard look beyond environmental issues, we felt that the bets way to start off would be to sign up to the nationwide 10:10 campaign to reduce our emissions by 10% during 2010.
We are encouraging all of our clients, suppliers and crew to sign up and at the same time we are setting about changing some of the ways we work - particularly the way we travel.
I have no interest in what a celebrity is eating right now and I have better ways of communicating with close friends. But Twitter has a number of excellent uses:
Newsfeed. Lots of businesses, publications, newspapers and government departments are tweeting. Find those close to you or that interest you, follow them and you have an instant news wire.
Business News. You can track currency, stocks, tech news, get tips and advice
Broaden Horizons. By following lists or people you don't know you get exposed to news, stories, photos and video you wouldn't otherwise see
Sharing. Twitter works by people sharing information and re-tweeting things they discovered to spread them further.
And as a business tool? The jury's out for me. I'm not sure what benefit there is for business development beyond profile and PR.
As an event support tool it is very interesting. Creating a closed group for an event that delegates or people unable to attend can follow in the lead up to an event and also during an event, with tweets of key content and follow up live discussion.
The thing I like most about Twitter is that you never have to ready anything longer than a text message - so you can read through a lot of information very quickly.
Take a look, follow @Cascade_alan at www.Twitter.com
Foursquare is being feted as the Twitter of 2010.
The tie in between location, service and social networking are likely to have consequences for event planners in the future - in many ways the game parts of Foursquare mimmic the type of interactive team builds we have been running for some time.
For an insight into Foursquare and how it's working now...http://mashable.com/2010/01/16/foursquare-world/