Volume 17, Issue 37 — October 9, 2019

RavePro — Volume 17, Issue 37 — October 9, 2019

October 9, 2019 | Volume: 17 | Issue: 37

We’ve been talking a lot about meetings lately — making them better, more efficient, a better user experience for local and distant participants, starting on-time — in particular making sure the technology in the room improves the experience and doesn’t take away from it. Today Christopher Jaynes writes about something that those of us who care about improving work processes and effective meetings will find interesting — pre-meeting chatter. Read his column to learn statistics about how pre-meeting chatter can make a meeting successful (or quite the opposite).

Joel Rollins also talks about the old standby that is equipment request forms, in particular the shift he’s seen in what’s being requested and by whom. Unsurprisingly, it mirrors shifts in technology across the industry in general (e.g., more software-based collaboration and conferencing and less hardware codec-based conferencing), but I still learned a few things about issues (often IT related) that crop up when users request equipment for a temporary setup. If you’re in the rental business, what kinds of equipment are your customers requesting?

–Sara Abrons

COLUMNS

+ Equipment Requests [Joel Rollins]

My career has taken me far more into the staging end of the business, and it has been several years since I was directly concerned with the planning of “rental” inventory, the kind that you kept in a hotel office or which was simply delivered or picked up by a client, rather than being part of a crewed show. But this year, I have begun thinking about the items that would (or should) be requested for that type of inventory. Accordingly, I spoke to a number of friends around the country both in rental companies and in internal audiovisual support departments about what is being requested. None of the results were particularly surprising to me, although the occurrence of each type and their popularity came in a different order than I had expected.

+ Top Five Things to Make Your Digital Signage Content Memorable [Jim Nista]

For digital signage, everything about your content, including design, motion and messaging all go into making a memorable experience for your viewers. There’s no one right set of rules, since digital signage is used for everything from interactive wayfinding to menu boards, design guidelines vary. Creating memorable content for digital signage borrows best practices from other forms of out of home advertising and traditional signage. Taken together, there are guidelines that apply to most signs to help your content stand out and provide a more memorable experience for your viewers.

+ The Ripple Effect — Your Premeeting Chatter Matters [Christopher Jaynes]

The science of meetings is fascinating. How do we best communicate with one another when we find ourselves sitting across from each other in a conference room? How do we solve problems, build confidence in one another, share? It’s an interesting area of our lives to explore — particularly because the workday is composed of a series of meetings where (I hope) we’re trying to have meaningful impact.