Last night our director of operations, Jennifer Houlihan, was voted onto the A list of young achievers by Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine during a ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel, London.​ The event identifies and celebrates the top 35 event professionals under 35.
​You can read the full piece on Jennifer from C&IT magazine here >
What have we learned?
We're not whether Vine will be as successful as Twitter or any of the other short video sharing sites. But, what we we do believe is that there are lots of applications where short Snippets of video could illustrate different techniques and tips - particularly for service examples. We're working up more examples.
This week, the team went on a whistle stop tour of the UK in a series of surprise visits to incentive winners. Six Iceland store teams had won 'best in Region', voted by their customers at Christmas. The incentive was launched at the annual conference in Dublin in October.
Cascade put together the prize hampers and presentations and are organising the incentive winners' trip of a lifetime to New York. Throughout the two day tour, Cascade recording everything with video and stills, including the helicopter trips between locations (Saffron Lane (Leicester), Downham Market, Upminster, Port Talbot, Barmouth and Cheetham Hill (Manchester)).
We produce name badges for many of our conferences and we have done for years.
We've done clip on badges, pin on badges, credit card style, wallets on lanyards in a variety of sizes. business card ones, badges with printed agendas, hand written badges, accreditation and access control, photo badges and stickers.
We include job titles, companies, departments or regions, hotel references, table number, coach letter, breakout groups or colour groups, QR codes, barcodes and sponsors logos.
What are badges for? What is their first and most important job?
To show a name so that other people know who you are.
Last week I saw a great example of a great badge design. Just a really big name. Really big so that you didn't have to stare awkwardly to try to read it, big enough that it could be read from a distance (useful if you've forgotten the name of that person you met last year). And as an extra spin, it included a really big Twitter address, so of you knew that person from following them on Twitter, you would recognise the Twitter name straight away.
It reminded me not to lose sight of the simple things and the difference they make. Badges need big names.
Iceland Foods founder and Chief Executive recently wrote in his Retail Week column about the UK tax authorities attempting to tax conference 'fun'. This is his perspective on both the threat of tax and the effectiveness of looking after your people. #in
Extract:
"At Iceland, our biggest single strategic decision has been to focus on looking after our colleagues in the business, ensuring that they are happy and motivated. The logic is that they, in turn, will look after our customers well, and that will drive sales and profits.
We must be doing something right, because this year we were named by the Sunday Times the Best Big Company to Work For in the UK and nearly 95% of our staff tell us that they enjoy working for Iceland and would recommend us as a good employer.
A major component of this stellar rating has been our insistence that there is no conflict whatsoever between doing a great job for our customers and having fun. At Iceland, we believe in fun.
In pursuit of this, we have invested millions over the past seven years in giving our store managers and head office staff the best conferences money can buy: unique, mind-blowing events that bring them back to the business buzzing and hungry for more success.
Walker returned to Iceland in 2005 and there has been a conference each year since
I truly believe that this has been a key driver of our last seven years of strong profit growth, which in turn has enabled us to pay over £500m in UK tax, National Insurance and duty - see our chart: Iceland’s UK Tax Payments 2006-2012. Not a bad return from a business that was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when I came back to it in 2005.
You might think that the Government would be keen to learn from this success. Instead, they seem determined to do their utmost to snuff out the fun in business by taxing as a benefit in kind any corporate event that might be considered enjoyable.
So you are probably all right to fund a team-building exercise involving some oil drums, planks and ropes on a freezing fellside in the Lake District. But God forbid that you offer the survivors a hot meal plus a few drinks while they chew over the experience in the evening, or the taxman will demand his cut.
Yes, I know we all hate bankers, tax exiles and the others whose fancy footwork means that they don’t pay their fair share to the Exchequer. But if the Government actually wants to encourage businesses to grow and lift the economy out of recession, there could hardly be a worse way to go about it than by launching a nit-picking attack on fun."
Cascade are supporting Malcolm Walker and his team, on their expedition, walking to the South Pole. The expedition are following in the footsteps of Captain Scott, whose body was found 100 years ago this week, after their epic, failed bid to be the first to the South Pole.
The 2012 In the Footsteps of Legends Expedition sees a small team of walkers, lead by explorer David Hempleman-Adams, including Olympian Matthew Pinsent and 4 injured soldiers from the same regiment as Captain Oats, who famously said that 'I may be some time' as he left Scott to head to his death in the night, walk the last 2 degrees to the pole, dragging their own equipment on a sled.
The expedition is raising funds for Walking with the Wounded and Alzheimer's Research UK.
Cascade having been supporting the Expedition with video equipment, design and web development.
We wish them well.
Visit the expedition website for more information.
As an event organiser visiting the London 2012 Olympics was a rare opportunity to witness the greatest show on earth, up close, and observe the good and bad as a delegate. What we found was confirmation of much of what we do and some stark reminders of how important the details are. These are our big 6 observations:
1. Signage
London is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the World. As a city it welcomes millions of visitors every year. The Underground has a much copied 'Tube Map' and the simplicity of the station signage is legendary. And yet (brilliantly), LOCOG choose to make absolutely certain that everyone could find their venue. So, they overlaid Olympic venue signage everywhere - on the trains, maps and stations.
Then, to make absolutely certain that no one got lost, they added human signage in the form of the London Ambassadors. They were brightly dressed in pink and purple and positioned in and around the major transit points - all over London, not just close to the venues, and the airports and train companies changed their service staff hi-vis vests to pink to make them equally identifiable to visitors.
2. Pre-Show
At the sporting events themselves, the organisers added 'pre-show' entertainment. Sometimes simple cheerleaders or dancers, sometimes more specific entertainment; at the gymnastics for example, there was a display by a performance group replicating great gymnastic medal winners from the past on each apparatus, combined with archive TV footage on screens. In addition, at every event, a film was shown explaining the rules of the sport and what to look out for.
3. Personality - the Volunteers
There were 70,000 Gamesmaker volunteers recruited by LOCOG to support the running of the games and an additional 15,000 London Ambassadors recruited by the Mayor of London to provide support around the city itself. What this meant as a visitor to London was a sense of stepping off a train, tube or plane and immediately being welcomed and supported. At every major hub or meeting point there was a volunteer to help - always in good spirit, easily approachable, knowledgable and helpful. The volunteers had been briefed to look out for ways to actively help people. We saw many examples of them taking photographs for families and groups, mostly without being asked.
4. Sponsors
A good sponsorship example at London 2012 was McDonalds. They built an enormous restaurant in the Olympic park which was enlessly busy, at many of the venues there was no actual McDonalds presence beyond branding. They made the most of their sponsorship with their own promotions and advertising.
VISA on the other hand insisted that the only payment methods associated with the Olympics would be VISA (apart from cash) - ticket sales, merchandise, food, post-event memorabilia, even cash machines - only VISA accepted. There were a large number of instances of people queueing for a long time for merchandise or food only to find they could pay for it because they had Mastercard or Amex. This blog is typical of the views of people we spoke to.
VISA also had corporate hospitality groups supported by temporary 'brand ambassadors' who behaved with supreme arrogance and contempt towards the paying public.
Sponsorship has its place and the benefits are huge, but there is a line to be drawn on exclusivity. If the product is the best, people will choose it.
5. Everything Detail Matters
A visitor's experience to an event starts with the ticket or invitation and ends when they get home. Everything in between combines to build their event memory, good and bad. Some of it we have control over, some we don't. Toilets have to be clean, session start times considerate,, signage clear and so on; but probably high on most people's list would be food. At the 2012 Olympics all the catering was provided for through the same concessions (with the exception of McDonalds), which sold mostly Coca Cola and Cadbury products along with some staples like pastries or fish and chips.
Where existing venues were used, like Old Trafford, Wembley or the O2, the usually food offerings were replaced by the LOCOG offering, even though the usual offering might have variety and substantial food, the LOCOG range would be limited to a sausage roll, Cadburys chocolate and a drink - not as good.
At the Olympic stadium there were multiple catering windows, each offering a different type of food or drink. But with poorly trained staff, the queues were very long - up to 40 minutes to be served at each window. Which meant if you wanted beer with your chips, you would have to queue for close to an hour and a half. It didn't work and it became a significant memory, diminishing the overall experience (which was otherwise superb)
6. Finishing Touches
On one day we walked from Euston train station to St Pancras train station (a 15 min walk). There were volunteers and signage to direct us initially, then we turned into a long street and started to notice painted footsteps on the floor. Then another set, a different size foot in a different colour, but following a different pattern.
There were a whole sequence of painted footsteps to represent gold medal winning performances by athletes in different sports - there was the water jump from the 3000 steeplechase, a tumble sequence from the gymnastics floor exercise, a judo bout, the triple jump and so on. At the end of each sequence there was just the name of the athlete and the year of the performance. You had to work out the sport for yourself. They were fascinating and with beaming smiles, before we knew it we had arrived at St Pancras station (and looking forward to the walk back later).
The footsteps were a project by the Stan's Cafe theatre company, more details here.
7. Showtime
Whatever your opinion of the opening and closing ceremonies, what really mattered was the show, the lights, the music, effects, a story and the element of surprise. You cannot beat a live spectacular.
The Cascade team recently worked with GAME Stores to produce their annual conference, with a difference.
Held at the NEC, Birmingham, the event started with a 3 day conference for close to 800 store managers from GAME and Gamestation - the agenda included main stage presentations, keynote speeches from international guests, breakout presentations from game publishers including Microsoft, Activision and EA Games.
The two evenings were quite different with Guilty Pleasures on night one followed by a fancy dress awards dinner on night two, hosted by Ian Lee with entertainment from Comedy Dave and Dom from Radio 1 and closing with Jaguar Skills.
The final conference day included a trade show with stands and presentations of pre-release Christmas games for all the store managers.
With the managers gone, the scene was set for the trade show to open to the public. 15,000m2 of showspace and 30,000 tickets sold for the 3 days of the first public event meant a huge success - long queues - but overwhelmingly happy customers...
Panasonic's range of display Plasmas now includes 85 inch, 103 inch and a huge 152 inch screens - all with the option of 3D Stereoscopic display. These screens are all available to rent now.
Malcolm Walker, founder and CEO of Iceland, leaves for the Himalayas in a few weeks with an expedition team
lead by famous arctic explorer David Hempleman-Adams. Malcolm and his son Richard will be climbing the World's highest mountain via the Northeast Ridge. Malcolm has set his personal goal to reach the North Col at 23,000 but aiming for someone from the team of 10 aiming to plant the Iceland flag on the summit.
In January Malcolm and Richard climbed Kilimanjaro as an altitude training exercise!
Iceland have pledged to raise at least £1 million to enable one of the World's leading experts on dementia, Professor Nick Fox of University College, London, to expedite his research into the causes of early onset Alzheimer's disease and to advance the quest for a cure.
Having edited the footage from Kilimanjaro, the Cascade team are now prepared the video kit for the Everest Expedition.
We wish them every success with the climb and the fundraising.
Donate to the cause on JustGiving.com/icelandeverest
Find out more about the Expedition on IcelandEverest.org.uk
We really like the simplicity of the message in this TED Talk from TEDxToronto - good to watch if you're feeling a bit low...
#eventprofs
It's 2011 and no one waits for anything any longer, so as event organisers we have to recognise what's changing and adapt what we are doing to engage and inspire the audiences of today.
The current generation pause live TV, fast forward ads, enjoy endless reruns of their favourite tv shows on satellite, cable and using iPlayer. On demand TV and movie services increasingly mean they can watch what you want when you want to watch it, with no effort or patience needed. They can listen to and watch their favourite music artists anytime on YouTube. They can skip through every clip because the timeline is there for them to see.
They consume media in a totally different way. Most teens will watch TV while doing something else as well as having their laptop or smartphone to communicate with friends and stay connected using BBM on the Blackberry or text, MSN or Facebook. Even older people are enjoying live shows like X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing more because they are sharing the experience online with hundreds or thousands of other people through Twitter or Facebook groups. The experts warn about this Divided Attention Disorder or "DAD", others forecast that it is the beginning of the next phase of our evolution.
Whatever the future holds, this on demand age means people get what they want when they want it.
Whst does this mean for event producers?
There are some very specific challenges or solutions we are enjoying:
1. Shorter attention span. So presentations have to be shorter and tighter with more engagement. If the format is about "telling" a message with an onstage presenter, then use supporting media (PowerPoint) in an entertaining way. People are used to knowing where they are navigating to on the web or how much longer their YouTube clip is, so use graphics, lighting effects, the stage set or clever scripting to keep them informed, they will be more engaged.
2. Multimedia. Video is everywhere. Short clips are on thre web are in today's latest digital magazines, are on your phone, in TV ad breaks and everywhere online. Video in presentations no longer means expensive, time consuming, lengthy productions. It can be used generated content, endorsements, adecdotes, humourous or informative clips or specially commissioned pieces. The key is to include a variety of media in a presentation to vary the style and make it more engaging ad memorable.
3. Hybrid Events. Creating a live event for a live audience while simultaneously broadcasting across the web to a wider audience. The of the technology is completely natural to more and more people. If you can find a clip on YouTube, you can sign into a Hybrid event online.
4. Backchannel. Enabling the audience to communicate with the presenters, organisers and other audience members. Already unofficially widespread on Twitter and Facebook and easily embraced for live events.
5. New dinner formats. Fewer and fewer people are prepared to sit at a function making polite conversation with the people they have been chosen to sit next to until they end of dinner. They want to get up and move, to network. This is not restricted to the younger generation, this trend is widespread and we have to adapt the format of our seating and evening running orders to take it into account.
6. Photographs. We photograph events and sometime later will upload the photos to a website for everyone to enjoy. The need for this to be faster is fuelled by facebook photo tagging. While embracing this, we can also celebrate the fact that almost everyone now has a good quality camera on their phone or in their pocket and are capturing your event through their own eyes. By tapping into that bigger pool of photos there is a much wider view of the event to be shared.
7. Crowdsourcing. Perhaps the most important thing to embrace and yet the most difficult, is to let the audience decide, let them create, let them get involved in making the event their own. Let them conttribute content, choose menus and everything else.
We're excited about this demanding age and the opportunities it presents, what do you think?
#eventprofs
Faced with the challenge to do things differently, this is a conference with no venue.
500 delegates in 5 locations around their head office building - in meeting rooms, the canteen and reception. Each location with one or two huge Plasma screens, a simple backdrop and a camera, all connected to a control room.
The delegates arrived to discover a flatpacked, branded cardboard box for them to construct. The box had a coloured sticker with their name on it. At 10.00am precisely, cheerleaders passed through the offices collecting anyone with their coloured sticker - "...follow me the red team, this way, bring your box with you!!...". And so, by 10.10am all 500 people were snaking their way through the building, collecting a longer chain of people as they passed each new department, all carrying their boxes in front of them. Each of the 5 colours took a different route, passing each other on stairways and corridors. Each ended at a different one of the 5 locations.
So by 10.30 we were ready to start and Nick, the Marketing Director and host welcomed everyone from the first location - everyone could see him live on the Plasmas in the other locations. He introduced all the locations to each other, with a cheer, in true outside broadcast style.
He then proceeded to run a Q&A, questioning the other Directors live in other locations. He would ask the question and as they started to answer he would run to meet up with them in their location. Once we was by their side he would ask a follow up question.
All of the questions came from audience research in the week prior to the event - some were serious, about business performance and strategy, others were about more trivial matters.
In between the questions a series of videos were shown, each one created by a department in the audience in the weeks before the event - each of the 11 departments were give a professional camera crew for 3 hours and a professional editor for the day - they had to make their own video, featuring the company, with duration not more than 3 minutes.
And so there were lots of laughs with bits of Keystone Kops, Britain's Got Talent, Glee and more to entertain everyone.
After a couple of hours of questions, answers and fun videos it was all over and everyone went home - with a sandwich lunch and half a day off.
The feedback was excellent - it was something very different, the videos worked perfectly (and the buzz during the build up to the event was fantastic because no one was allowed to see any of the finished videos in advance), the host was the key role and we were lucky enough to have someone really talented to manage the live presenting - no easy task.
It was definitely something we would do again.
Cascade Productions have been announced as a finalist for the UK Event Awards. Iceland Foods' 2009 managers' conference, held in Florida, has shortlisted for the Best International Conference category at the awards. The UK Event Awards presentations will be held in Manchester on October 28th.
The entry submitted by Cascade included evidence of the financial performance of Iceland post event, measured and anecdotal feedback from the delegates as well as testimonials from Iceland's CEO, Malcolm Walker. The submission also included this short video highlights reel of the event.
The Iceland conference featured as a case study in Conference and Incentive Travel.
We didn't win (we were runners up to a Volvo event) but we were Commended and a good night was had by all. We're over it!
...this is a great music video depicting what life might be like! Great Fun.
Fireworks for recent private birthday party...
...take a look at the crew around you and ask if any of them fit these descriptions (hopefully not ours):
We've been following the use of QR Barcodes for sometime now and this is another great example of a practical application...