LIGHTING UNPLUGGED

DesignContact, working for AMCI Global of Marina Del Rey, developed a program for LEXUS That included these free standing, solar powered light trees. 

These units, with weighted bases and inbuilt lift points were dropped in position in moments and provided lighitng all night on a day's charge.  Battery packs in the base were charged by panels on the tops of each "branch".  Light sensitive switches turned the cells on at dusk and the LED light sources burned brightly all night, turning themselves off at dawn.

While used only for lighting in this application, there was ample power to supply juice for interactives and other applications.

Working with our sister company DC Connect, we are developing free standing [i]cell system technology interactives that are fully self sufficient for power and light, and impervious to weather.  More on that as it develops.

NCTA - MY WORLD STUDIOS

Wow- 27,000 square feet of scenery and new technology demos.  DesignContact created designs for the NCTA exhibit at CABLE 2010! at the LA Convention Center.

Have a look at just a few of the snapshots of the environments starting with the window of the WELCOME CENTER.  Peering in from the street you can see the Studio Briefing room and bits of the Studio Back Lot beyond. 

a panorama of the SPORTS BAR environment - with a dedicated Game Room, 3D Theater viewing area and new 3D Home Televisions.  YES - they are worth it!

This is a detail of the LOFT building -an environment created to house demos that show off technologies suited to the urban environment and upscale users.

and finally a glimpse at the exterior of the SINGLE FAMILY home which featured full home technologies that allowed you to move your entertainment and information with you as you travelled from room to room.

More to come in future posts, including a full rundown of the design for the show.

Is scenic scenery making a comeback?

A few recent projects have called for a refreshing revisit of traditional scenic design approaches. 

Two examples are our work for ADOBE on the MAX Users Conference at the NOKIA Theater designed for THE KENWOOD GROUP (top left)

and the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) CABLE!2010 at the LA Convention Center, designed for FREEMAN CREATIVE. (mid and bottom left)

In both cases, the call came for putting the attendee in a new environment that transported them from the theater and the convention hall respectively and immersed them in a world more closely related to the products and brand stories that needed to be told.                               

Then this week two new projects called for scenic solutions to the environment! We think there is a trend to this design approach as a refreshing alternative to the cooly abstract or trendy spaces that can feel disconnected from the customer experience.

More examples of these, and other projects can be had for a phone call +1.973.7463512 or an e:Mail to:
Tony.Castrigno@DesignContact.com

3D BRAINSTORMING at EXHIBITOR 2010

Join my partner John Moyik and me at EXHIBITOR 2010 for our hands on 3D Brainstorming program. The teams at the 2009 event had a great time and developed some creative solution and learned creative development skills that they can take back to their own teams.

http://www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitorshow/2010/session.asp?ID=S602

 S602 HALF-DAY WORKSHOP: Build a Better Booth Design

Discover a new way to collaborate with your design team and vendors to develop a stand out exhibit design and strategy. Discover how this unique “3 Dimensional Brainstorming” technique can help a non-design professional/exhibit manager have more impact in the preliminary design phase. You will learn to:

   ---Bring a collaborative process to your booth team

   ---Utilize a fun “3-D Brainstorming” process

   ---Use visual tools to unlock creative ideas

   ---Develop solutions in a test case with your colleagues

   ---Develop ‘stand up’ experience to help communicate your ideas

An introduction and hands-on demonstration will allow you to experience the method first-hand.   Here are some photos from the 2009 event that give you an idea of what to expect.  This team created a tropical oasis for a portable ice machine and hot box. Then they pitched the idea to the other participants.  

Still another team developed a MEGA MACHINES booth for custom spray painting of automobiles from digital files.

Google my Exhibition?

This recent article in the NY TIMES has interesting implications for the exhibit business... from LIVING STORIES that allow you to track content in real time around a specific news topic ... to VISUAL SEARCH whose picture recognition offers so many possiblities to expand the resources available to a visitor at a museum or exhibition.  Simply submit the photo of a product to the web and get specs, read reviews and even shop for it.  Similarly a photo of an artifact or painting could result in an indepth collection of web based information to aid appreciation.

Check it out at:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/google-charts-the-future-of-search/

CAN WE RETHINK OUR BUSINESS MODEL?

Has the time come to rethink the creative business model? The new 'new economy' has begun to emerge with a leaner and more focused meetings and events paradigm. While this evolves there remains uncertainty and confusion in the marketplace. Of course this has had an impact on the projects our clients undertake, driving down budgets and significantly reducing the time we have to produce events as decisions are often put off while clients get a better sense of what kind of event they even need to have.

The bid process has been made even more frustrating by awarded projects being significantly downsized and in some cases being abandoned. Bids are ever more frequently being cancelled in middle of the RFP process. The negative impact on agencies and producers is huge as very tight funds are expended on fruitless efforts. The effects on our clients - though not always apparent to them - is that ultimately these costs must be recovered in the fewer projects that do actually go forward.

The effect on creativity is formidable as well. There is less willingness to spend the time (and money) to get close to the client and understand thier culture and objectives. Less time is allocated to the process of developing a proposal (this can be positive - more on that later) and often fewer risks are taken creatively - partly due to time, but also because researching and pricing creative options is also expensive. The result - get to an idea quickly, do something we have done before and can price predictably, and focus on winning the job with the lowest up front costs possible.

This is not to say that moving quickly and going on your gut instinct (think BLINK) cannot often result in truer 'high concept' ideas that can be provocative and compelling. It takes a very confident sales team - and a progressive client - to be excited by an idea on a high level, and take it on faith (to some degree) that the creative and production team can deliver.

WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

Well - reeducating the marketplace is never easy. However we do have the economy as an ALLY in many ways. We have found clients a bit more open minded about the level of execution in a proposal - ready to acknowledge that their vendors (and sometimes friends) are facing a tough economic reality. Perhaps this is the time for our marketing efforts to include a new way to do business?

We would all like clients to select a vendor on the basis of past work and capabilities presentations. Of course because, as they say "past performance is not an indication of future results" - this may also need to include a high level pass at client specific solutions. Here is a suggestion for a way forward.

TALK TO THE CLIENTS - CURRENT AND PROSPECTIVE

BIDDING out a contract is not always the best way to get the results they are after. It is expensive to do and depending on the size of the project- even COST them real money - money they think they are saving through competition. It takes time for their team to prepare, solicit, brief, supervise and evaluate bidders AND bidders have to recover the cost of the bid somewhere, driving up prices.

That is not to say fostering competition is not a worthy by product of open contracting. My suggestion is we promote a three project or three year contract process (some may think me naive but this has worked) -

• YEAR ONE - Open competition - open to all comers - capabilities presentations, with a focus on big solutions related to the clients current challenge. Eliminate all but 3-4 bidders that compete for the project more completely.
• YEAR TWO - A performance review - which if satisfactory lets the vendor renew by presenting up to three ideas with a cost reduction in the budgets of at least 5% (net inflation) - which if accepted means a no bid renewal or award of the next project
• YEAR THREE - a non competitive pitch - new ideas, new budgets done early enough that if found unacceptable, still lets the client go to an open bid. This will motivate the vendor to be more inventive and cost effective to secure the business one more year.

After all of this a vendor may feel they have won and deserve the business in an ongoing basis, and they may. However the best way to prove that is in an open bid - and the process would repeat.

IS THIS A PIPE DREAM?

As I mentioned, this has worked successfully for the agencies and producers we work for on more than one account. The client has seen real benefit in continuity and even purchasing has seen the light as costs have been controlled and the money they all save from not doing an RFP is substantial. Management sees the vendor as still being held to account and the risk of losing the work at any stage via an agreed mechanism keeps us all on our toes!

Take the plunge - try this with your most open minded and trusted clients- blog about it- write about it - talk about it. This may not be THE answer- but it can be a catalyst for redefining our business in the new 'new economy'.

DESIGNING IN THE FUTURE - The new shape of meetings

Recently ONE+ Magazine ran an article called "DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE" in both it's North American and EMEA editions that begins to layout the shape of meetings in both of these markets. The range of perspectives the people contacted for the article brought to the discussion were truly fascinating. Of course the author Dalia Fahmy took a moment to talk with us about the future as well and we are quoted there. We believe the business purpose of meetings and their educational objectives are going to continue to grow as the measure of success of these events. Entertainment, excitement and motivation will continue to move from gratutious celebration to the natural outcome of solid learning and strategic planning experiences. In turn, business education has become more flexible, compelling and digestible in a faster paced environment that continues to bombard people with information - if not knowledge and understanding.

We are participating in this trend on many levels - we have been called on to create everything from more experiential face to face engagments to helping to create a stronger sense of place in virtual on line events.

Get in touch to get a preview of the future of meetings from us - Tony.Castrigno@DesignContact.com