Not everyone at InfoComm was there to display a bright new product. There is no use in having AV technology if it is not maximized for a specific space and audience.
AV professional Bill Magod attended the conference to “give them [class attendees] a crash course in event production, event planning, so they are better prepared to deal with us AV geeks.”
Tailored towards hospitality leaders, Magod said his classes “talk about the questions that need to be asked, so us AV guys can put together a proposal, and things to be aware of when it comes to hiring talent, choosing talent, choosing a venue, hiring a venue, then just a little bit on audio-video lighting, IT for webcasting, electricity generators, permits, fire codes, that sort of thing.”
Magod said his classes had a nice, diverse mix of venue people as well as independent event planners, wedding planners, and even a couple of AV people from universities.
“We wanted to learn more about putting it all together. It’s not just a sound system, but really a live event, there’s really a goal to the event, a purpose to the event, that we want our attendees to walk away with,” Magod added.
Magod says that it is the end-client—whether that is a Fortune 100, Fortune 500, a not-for-profit, a church, or a wedding, which itself could involve the bride and groom, the venue, the caterer, the florist, or the wedding planner—which is the one coordinating and hiring AV systems these days.
He pointed out that the problem is that people just want a quick price instead of thinking through what might be the best AV solution for a given space.
“How much for a large pizza? Well, a large pizza is going to feed 2-8 people. That’s not really the right thing for a group of 100 people having lunch. Then again, the AV you’d want for a 6-year-old’s party at Chuck E. Cheese is not the same AV that you’d have for President Trump and Queen Elizabeth if they were coming over,” Magod noted.
By providing hospitality professionals with a base of knowledge in the AV space, Magod believes they will leave with a better understanding of what systems could benefit their venue as opposed to the ‘one size fits all’ methods seen in the industry today.
“What’s exciting to me is having more and more of my colleagues getting the whole hospitality perspective,” Magod said. “Because it’s a lot more than just the right wireless mic tuned to the right frequency so that it works today here in Las Vegas and then for your show tomorrow in Los Angeles, which is a completely different set of frequencies.”
