I took as many notes as I could from this session. Ben Jordan clearly reminded the gathering of listeners and learners that everything is a process and everything takes a process.
“Process is king. It helps with everything.”
From the Trenches: Being Flexellent
Jul 8, ’11
8:00 AM
A large part of what we do at Vintage 56 is run the Audio and Video elements of events. Maybe it is over the top to call these experiences “the trenches of war,” but nonetheless we learn a lot from being out of the office and interfacing in with our fellow man in these semi-intense scenarios. One such lesson has come to the forefront at an event we recently ran; I like to call that lesson: being flexellent – both flexible and still excellent. This may sound like an easy thing, but very often it can be quite a bear depending on your personality type, and how truly prepared you are. Le’me explain.
Why We Don’t Complain About Clients
Jun 13, ’11
8:00 AM
It seems to be a trend with designers (and whole firms) these days to talk bad about clients. They may not single out an individual client to trash, but they’ll tweet, blog, and rant about how horrible clients can be; how so many of them don’t see their inherent genius. Honestly, it’s actually kind of amazing when you realize that these are adults demanding professional-level fees while acting like spoiled children.
My goal is not actually to complain about the lack of professionalism. If you want to know about how to be a design professional, I definitely recommend Andy Rutledge’s book, Design Professionalism. I actually just want to talk about why you won’t hear us complain about clients, and maybe give you and idea how to avoid complaining about your own clients.
B12Event.com: Small Site. Big Opportunities.
May 24, ’11
8:29 AM
B12Event.com
At Vintage 56, a lot of the work we do is on larger websites that need a redesign or mini-sites for a single event or product. When asked, though, it’s really fun to be able to work on a little gem of a website that will grow with it’s new owners as they go from a small organization to international status. That’s exactly the site we got to build for Gail McWilliams. Although, the organization had been around for years, their new venture, B12 Events, is very new. Building this small site, we recorded some of our important lessons:
Advice to Speakers: What Technical Team?
May 23, ’11
6:49 AM
Photo by Joel Wilson
I was recently asked to give tips to a group of public speakers on what they need to know regarding sound. My first round of advice was regarding microphone options and technical concerns. Then the conversation quickly turned toward how to interact with the technical team at the venue.
What technical team?
It’s easy to forget the people who work behind the scenes to pull off any event. When is the last time you thought about how well the line cook at the restaurant prepared your chop salad? In the same way, it’s easy to overlook the technical teams that make live events happen. They are usually only noticed when something goes awry. Yet, how guest speakers interact with them impacts the message conveyed as well as how the speaker is remembered.
