When planning your event, much of your attention is focused on details like venues and suppliers, social media and marketing, and cost. Especially cost. In the run up to your event, it’s easy to get distracted into thinking solely about details in terms of preparation. But the time for the event will eventually arrive. And then, success hinges on the memories your guests make through their senses.
When planning a corporate meeting or event, you’re going to find that the hotel or venue usually wants you to use their in-house services, particularly for audio-visual production. We’ve talked before about the extra hidden costs involved with these service providers, as well as the lower level of quality.
It can be exciting for your meeting attendees or guests to enter the room and take in the ambience, the theme, the decor all at once.
The surprises that await your audience can be breathtaking and awesome.
But the last thing you want as the event or meeting planner is a surprise.
At Jeff Barker Productions, we have decades of experience setting up many types of special events including audio visual productions, large theme designs, team building, and all types of executive meetings.
After 25 years in the corporate event planning business, we’ve noticed that the relationship dynamics between meeting planners and their vendors have changed.
In the past, these relationships were more personal - there were phone calls, in person networking events, business lunches, and evening social events.
Today, planners seem to be shut off from their vendors. Business is done over email and texting, and the human interaction has been replaced with an impersonal digital experience.
An increasing number of hotels have in-house audio visual companies today. What does this mean to you the meeting planner? This in-house trend means you are paying more than double the cost for what is typically an inferior service. To be fair, some hotel in-house av companies do provide a decent production, but the majority of the work is below average with skyrocking costs.
One of the things we strive for at Jeff Barker productions, is that no one even knows we’re there. We are invisible, but the effects of what we do drive the atmosphere of the entire event. We are working behind the scenes, but our presence is felt front and center.
Today’s hotel market has been drastically changing over the last five years. With the added pressure from Airbnb in last few years, the hotel markets have begun to add various streamline profit centers within the hotel itself. Corporate planners are beginning to see the effects: higher fees for using these services. And often, outrageous fees. So here are two ways you can deal with these new high cost in-house services.
Recently, JBP coordinated two simultaneous events at New York University in Brooklyn, NY. Inside the gymnasium, we coordinated the Brooklyn 5G Summit, hosted by NYU and Nokia. Outside in the courtyard, we set up seventy display tents, along with a complete sound system, for the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Research Fair.