By Newlight Creative Director, John Meillon Jnr

With almost 20 years experience in event production - conferences, meetings, product launches, award ceremonies and everything in between, John Meillon Jnr analyses how effective events are in delivering their message.

Producing an event is a process that is part alchemy, part bravado and a touch of luck - but assigning the job is just the beginning.

Countless hours are spent creating technical drawings to ensure an accurate and timely set. Gear is specified and prepped, crew is booked, the venue chosen and booked.

The big day arrives and the bump-in crew swing into action. Outside the ballroom the event host is dealing with the audience. Depending on the event this could be managing the arrival and registration of hundreds of conference attendees, or ensuring that the VIP audience for a launch or awards presentation are being feted with the finest wines and canapés. 

Ideally rehearsals are held, the guest speakers are made comfortable, the band is sound checked, MC wired up and the crew is on standby.

The show begins and dependent on the event, somewhere between 3 hours and several days later, the audience will leave and…what?

Ideally, they will have left the venue with a better understanding of a new process or management structure, an appreciation for the work done by their peers and a desire to equal or exceed their achievement. Maybe they will be buzzed about a new product they will sell or have learnt a new technique to improve customer service.

After all, that is what the event is all about right? With the exception of genuine parties, hosts rarely spend big bucks on an event without the expectation that the audience will come away, more knowledgeable, engaged or empowered by what they have seen.  

The question is, ARE they getting the message?

Sadly, the answer much of the time is ..well no!

It seems to me that in the 18 years since I began working in “events”, the communication component in many shows has been diluted and the focus shifted to be on the look of the room, the theming, the selection of food and wine and high class entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all elements that will help make a show memorable and in turn reinforce the message, however on their own, with no link or reason, these elements can become the thing that is remembered most by the audience, rather than the key message which is the reason for bringing all these people together in the first place.

So why is the message being diluted or ignored? I propose there are a number of reasons. 

The first is an old foe. PowerPoint. Back in the days of 35mm slides and the early days of computer graphics, when Persuasion and Director were king, and interactive, face-to-face communication brought greater audience engagement (what we know today as experiential communication), on screen content was created by art directors, graphic artists and designers. The message was the key factor, and due to the lead times required and the relatively difficult process of making changes on site, that message was well considered and generally placed in the hands of the content creator with plenty of lead time.

Then along came PPT. It created a revolution. No longer were designers needed as anyone could bash together a bunch of slides. As an Art Director mate of mine once quipped, “PowerPoint – Turning secretaries into designers”. Perhaps that is a bit unfair, after all they were only creating what their bosses told them to, which in most cases translated to the boss’s script in slide form, against a fetching background. Add in the full array of transitions and voila! The job is done.

However it’s ease of use has grown, its capabilities improved, and of course it costs less than getting the production company to do it. Besides..look at all those new transitions…

We all know PPT can be good, very good. There is also a belief from many companies that all the presentations can be done in-house, which means that rarely do you get cohesive presentations from different departments that all carry the same look, feel and focus. The phrase Death by PowerPoint didn’t appear for no reason. But it is the cost that keeps it in play.

And it is costs in other areas that have impacted the message.

Over the last twenty year’s AV technology has advanced at a cracking pace.

We have seen the advent of smaller brighter clearer projectors. Smarter lighting, advanced sound reinforcement, delivery platforms like Watchout, Montage and Encore, as well faster, smaller computers that allow broadcast quality vision to be played to the expectant audience.

These fabulous toys are a boon to content creation and delivery and allow the message to be physically delivered in a way that should make the content highly memorable.

However with these advancements there is also additional cost.

Add to this the fact that budgets aren’t what they once were, increased venue hire rates, increased cost pressure on bump in time rates and crews, F&B packages, airfares, accommodation and event management - there is little left in the budget for the main reason for attending the event. The Message.

Some year’s back I took a brief from a client who was making a massive change to the structure of their business. They had just on one hundred employees around Australia, and they wanted to bring them all to a luxury venue in Queensland and impart to them “the most significant piece of communication in this company’s history”.

The client had decided to use our communication and technical skills to deliver this groundbreaking message.

It was to be a two-day event, 2 x plenary sessions, an off site event, some small breakouts, a gala dinner then home. Our brief? Devise a theme to encompass and drive the message, create content for 4 speakers as well as an opening video, provide the technical production, on site direction and delivery and overall event management.

So how much to deliver the message, “the most significant piece of communication in this company’s history”? After F&B, accommodation, airfares, management and technical, the overall cost per head for the conference was $2,500. Of that $30 per head was assigned to content. A grand total of $3,000 out of $250,000.

While this was the worst case of the tail wagging the dog that I have seen, it is not unique. We regularly see budgets where the creative content, the message if you will and the production thereof amounts to as little as 5% of the overall event costs.

Often when delivering a show we see the faces of the audience and you can tell that they are just not getting it.  Sure there is content and people talking at them, but the messages come so quickly and often without context, and they are not part of an integrated idea that is designed to get all those people on the same page. There is no clear through line of communication.

Sometimes you can see that the client is aware of how much the exercise is costing and is determined to make the most of having all these people in the same place at the same time, but rather than focus on one or two major points, they try to cover a week’s worth of study in 45 minutes.

Ultimately they discover that hardly anyone has learnt anything.

It is true not every event warrants a full blown strategic solution, but it is equally true that poor communication is a waste of whatever budget is assigned to it.

The average audience member today is well versed in digital content and if a presentation is rendered in a haphazard fashion, poorly designed and overburdened with complexities, they will soon tire of the speaker. Without a clear idea and singularity of purpose across the agenda, the audience will become confused and lose interest.

This is where good event mangers, producers, creatives and content producers need to become involved. They have the skills and the experience to provide the direction needed to deliver your message.

The importance of this is something that even dedicated technical providers need to be aware of as perception is the client’s reality, and sooner or later, if the message is not being received, clients will look elsewhere for their event provider.

The bottom line is if the money is going to be spent then the focus needs to be on the communication and ensuring that the audience remembers the event for the content, not just the pretty lights, thumping PA, giant images and uber entertainers.

To quote Lilly Walters, (the author of five of the best-selling books about the professional speaking industry)

“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives”.

 Get the message?