NAHSL 2016 CPC: AV

Updated 10-26-2016

Not all AV companies are equal. The New Haven Omni works with a group called Encore Event Technologies, which provided several benefits. One, they were based there in the hotel so it was easy to find Encore staff when questions arose. Two, they know the venue and the best way to set things up in that space. Three, they had all the equipment needed right there so there were no situations where we needed a piece of equipment and they didn’t have one because it was “back at the office”. If you work with a provider that is not connected with the hotel, make sure that they will provide all the support and equipment necessary. Similarly, if you are working with a hotel that handles its own AV, watch out. They may not have enough (or the necessary) equipment, staff, etc.

Make arrangements to have a laptop in each room where someone will be presenting. In some cases, presenters will bring their own laptops, but in others, they will expect a laptop to be provided. We had to run around and ask conference committee members if we could borrow their laptop from time to time and it’s very inconvenient. It would be better to just have a laptop assigned to each room. Of course, there could be security issues, so don’t forget about that.

Get the name and phone number of the AV staff member assigned to the conference each day so that you can contact them if needed.

Check the wireless connections to make sure that (a) you can connect and (b) that the signal is strong enough for attendees.

Have a splash page or some kind of filler presentation running on the screen before and after the presenter is finished. In other words, have something on the screen between events.

In an ideal world, the files from all of the presents would be preloaded in order to avoid the situation where the AV person and the presenter fumble around trying to transfer files from their flash drive to the laptop.

There were a couple of vendors in New Haven who wanted to run their presentations live from the Internet instead of running a PowerPoint. This worked out OK in 2016, but I would discourage it in the future just in case the Internet connection isn’t reliable. One vendor, for instance, couldn’t get her presentation because her Google Docs account was blocked. Vendors should run PowerPoint or perhaps video presentations.

Mac users know that they need to have an adaptor with them that enables them to connect to a projector. This is because there is no VGA port on Mac laptops. Many new PCs now don’t have that port either. It was sacrificed in order to make them thin. Many new PC owners, however, are not aware of this or the fact that they now need an adaptor as well. Encore provided this cable in New Haven, but presenters should be reminded to bring whatever cables they need to connect to a projector. It probably would not hurt to have a PC adaptor standing by just in case.

AV needs do not change that much from year to year. Give prior year's AV list to hotel's AV company, and ask for quote based on that. There will be plenty of time for edits. If you do this early on, you will have an estimate of how much to budget.

Providing different AV and Internet capabilities to different speakers/instructors/presenters can get very expensive. Instead of asking them what they want, tell them what is available, and instruct them to discuss any varying needs. Do your best to help them get their presentations to work with the standard set-up. At a recent conference, NAHSL paid for extra capabilities for one session, at the request of presenter, and it was not even used in the end.

It is tempting to use the projectors available from NAHSL members' institutions, and hotels will generally accomodate that. However, most are not powerful enough for the large venues in which we have our sessions. If we use our own projectors, even a broken bulb can bring down the good intentions.

Conversely, using member-supplied LAPTOPS is helpful. try to have one iPad and one Windows laptop available.

Audio-Visual (AV)
DRAFT – Dina McKelvy 6/13/11

Purpose of Audio-Visual at the Conference:  The best conference program will be a disappointment if AV needs are not considered. While some AV problems are bound to occur, careful planning will prepare you with necessary knowledge, and backup equipment.

AV People:  The AV Chair on the conference planning committee should have a basic understanding of AV equipment, but by no means needs to be an expert. The AV Chair’s tasks include:

• Building a committee. At the conference, even with a good AV company on hand, you will be needed many places at once. Be sure to recruit several people to assist you.
• Working with the program chair to gather the presenters’ AV needs.  Anticipate their needs - even if the speaker does not ask for something, consider the information you have about their presentation (a Q&A session – do we need a wireless handheld mic?)
• Finding and pricing the AV company to handle the conference. In many cases, the hotel will provide this service at a cost, but an outside company may also be used.  Some elements to consider when choosing a company:
• Cost, and the units of cost. Can you bring your own equipment to offset the expense of using theirs?  If so, another task will be to gather as much spare equipment as possible to have on hand.
• Personnel. How many people will working your conference?
• Venue: How well does your company know the venue?
• Some AV companies allow the group to bring in some of their own equipment. Projectors, specifically are quite expensive from the company. The AV chair will try to identify NAHSL members who may be able to supply equipment at the time of the conference.