Technical Direction

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In 1980 I began a ten year association with Live Marketing, where I was a captive freelancer, serving as technical director and speaker support producer for meetings. In the early years there were just a few meetings and a lot of time was spent educating the owner/executive producer about the hows and whys of producing meetings. As her primary business was trade shows, she found executing meetings required individuals with a whole different skill set.

We began with small meetings (under 100 attendees) and by the mid-80s were regularly doing meetings with several hundred attendees. The largest meeting I was involved with had 1200 attendees. We also became involved, through a client, Milliken & Company, with large, very elaborate trade show booths and the coporate theatre at their headquarters in Spartanburg, SC.

Below are a few floor plans and photos representative of the meetings I worked on. Note that the floor plans were drawn by hand, as they predated CAD systems, and they all had to fit on standard 8.5" x 11" paper so they could be copied and mailed to clients, hotels, suppliers, etc. I was really glad I had had mechanical drawing in junior high shop class (although I never was able to master the very neat and formal printing part).

Keebler Food Service Meeting floor plan
One of our first meeting clients was Keebler Food Service division. They were a regular Live Marketing trade show client for many years and naturally became one of the first meeting clients.

Every venue has its challenges. The Monte Carlo room at the Doral Country Club had a relatively low ceiling with two large chandeliers on the center line of the room. Therefore I had to split the stage to accommodate a screen low enough to fit under a chandelier.

Keebler Retail Meeting floor plan

The meetings for Keebler Food Service were so successful that the Retail division began to use Live Marketing for their sales meetings as well.

This drawing was generated to show the client how the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego could be divided up to provide for breakouts around the perimeter leaving the center for the general session seating.

Levi Strauss Meeting floor plan
This floor plan was for a Levi Strauss National Sales Meeting.

The challenge here was to accommodate not just the Live Marketing segments (in this case a puppet in addition to live performers) but make the stage expand to allow for the Levi Strauss employee production which took place after dinner in the expanded area 3.

Kohler Meeting picture
This is a shot from a Kohler Dealer's Meeting in Dallas. The audience consisted of 1200 dealers of Kohler bathroom fixtures.

We used a major scenic studio for the sets and three camera video reinforcement during the meeting.

The theme was a mock TV station and I used nine slide projectors on a single screen to produce effective animation for the mock show opens and closes, station IDs, etc. The slide projectors were in another room with a TV camera on their screen.

Here you can see the relative size of the live performer on stage and the screen image behind him.

Milliken Highpoint Show Picture 1
One of the large trade show extravaganzas we did for Milliken & Company was at the Highpoint Furniture show on the Highpoint Civic Theatre stage.

The top shot is from the finale. There were lots of challenges here, including "optically correct" lighting for the color specialist presentation, full sets, multi-image produced, and a couple of "design as you go" elements.

This is a shot of the cast and crew (I'm back row, fourth from left) with the sets flown in.

I was the on-site producer for this show as there was so much more than the live talent segments to deal with. The live talent was always directed by someone else, usually a buddy of the owner of Live Marketing.

Milliken Highpoint Show Picture 1

Milliken corporate theater picture
This is a shot of the break-away screen we designed for the Milliken & Company corporate headquarters theatre.

It was designed with a projection surface on one side and space for product banners, etc. on the reverse. This way the screen could be made different sizes and shapes by revolving different panels.

You can just see, in the background the top of the large Visa logo our scenic studio produced for this event.

This was one of the best equipped stages I've ever worked on.

Everyone in the business seems to have a car show story. Mine is a meeting I produced for Live Marketing, for Volvo Australia. It was held at the Anaheim Hilton near Disneyland, so I didn't get to go to Australia (darn!). We had a "regular" meeting in one room: small stage, podium, 15 projector multi-image support on a 8' x 24' screen, sound reinforcement: the typical meeting of the day. This part was easy for me as the client produced all the media, I just had to hire the equipment and crew to run it.

Meanwhile we were setting up in the next room for dinner. I had sold the client on having a video projector in the back of the room on a draped platform which hid one car. The display car was on a raised and tilted turntable behind an electric projection screen.

Volvo Australia floor plan
After dinner a short promotional video about the new Volvo sedan was shown.

At the end of the video we switched to a still store shot of the display car while the screen raised to reveal the actual car, which then began revolving, with smoke and lights and deafening music accompaniment.

While the crowd was reacting to the sight in front of them, the drapes around the car in the back of the room were removed. When the lights came up on the car it was amazing: within 30 seconds it was surrounded by people; the hood, doors, and trunk were open, and six people were sitting inside.

The client, Volvo Australia's ad agency, was overjoyed. He relayed his client's comment: "Now that's a $100,000 (Australian) car!"

Oce Meeting floor plan

Oce Meeting stage front elevations

These are plans for the most technically involved meeting I did at Live Marketing, for the American introduction of the Oce copier.

The meeting had several nine projector multi-image shows (produced in the Netherlands) which I had to assemble into a coherent single show (learning an Apple Basic program ESCLAMP in order to to it). There also were pyrotechnics, lasers, a balloon release, confetti cannons, and not just live talent, but also a magician who used stage magic to reveal the company executives.

The stage was very complex and the drawings on the right show the front view of how it was put together, layer by layer, to allow for the various elements and the required fire exits.

As this meeting was held at a hotel in New York City, I had the additional requirements of a full union crew.

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	One of our first meeting clients was Keebler Food Service division. They were a regular Live Marketing trade show client for many years and naturally became one of the first meeting clients. Every venue has its challenges. The Monte Carlo room at the Doral Country Club had a relatively low ceiling with two large chandeliers on the center line of the room. Therefore I had to split the stage to accommodate a screen low enough to fit under a chandelier.
	The meetings for Keebler Food Service were so successful that the Retail division began to use Live Marketing for their sales meetings as well. This drawing was generated to show the client how the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego could be divided up to provide for breakouts around the perimeter leaving the center for the general session seating.
	This floor plan was for a Levi Strauss National Sales Meeting. The challenge here was to accommodate not just the Live Marketing segments (in this case a puppet in addition to live performers) but make the stage expand to allow for the Levi Strauss employee production which took place after dinner in the expanded area 3.
	This is a shot from a Kohler Dealer's Meeting in Dallas. The audience consisted of 1200 dealers of Kohler bathroom fixtures. We used a major scenic studio for the sets and three camera video reinforcement during the meeting. The theme was a mock TV station and I used nine slide projectors on a single screen to produce effective animation for the mock show opens and closes, station IDs, etc. The slide projectors were in another room with a TV camera on their screen. Here you can see the relative size of the live performer on stage and the screen image behind him.
	One of the large trade show extravaganzas we did for Milliken & Company was at the Highpoint Furniture show on the Highpoint Civic Theatre stage. The top shot is from the finale. There were lots of challenges here, including "optically correct" lighting for the color specialist presentation, full sets, multi-image produced, and a couple of "design as you go" elements. This is a shot of the cast and crew (I'm back row, fourth from left) with the sets flown in. I was the on-site producer for this show as there was so much more than the live talent segments to deal with. The live talent was always directed by someone else, usually a buddy of the owner of Live Marketing.

	This is a shot of the break-away screen we designed for the Milliken & Company corporate headquarters theatre. It was designed with a projection surface on one side and space for product banners, etc. on the reverse. This way the screen could be made different sizes and shapes by revolving different panels. You can just see, in the background the top of the large Visa logo our scenic studio produced for this event. This was one of the best equipped stages I've ever worked on.
Everyone in the business seems to have a car show story. Mine is a meeting I produced for Live Marketing, for Volvo Australia. It was held at the Anaheim Hilton near Disneyland, so I didn't get to go to Australia (darn!). We had a "regular" meeting in one room: small stage, podium, 15 projector multi-image support on a 8' x 24' screen, sound reinforcement: the typical meeting of the day. This part was easy for me as the client produced all the media, I just had to hire the equipment and crew to run it. Meanwhile we were setting up in the next room for dinner. I had sold the client on having a video projector in the back of the room on a draped platform which hid one car. The display car was on a raised and tilted turntable behind an electric projection screen.
	After dinner a short promotional video about the new Volvo sedan was shown. At the end of the video we switched to a still store shot of the display car while the screen raised to reveal the actual car, which then began revolving, with smoke and lights and deafening music accompaniment. While the crowd was reacting to the sight in front of them, the drapes around the car in the back of the room were removed. When the lights came up on the car it was amazing: within 30 seconds it was surrounded by people; the hood, doors, and trunk were open, and six people were sitting inside. The client, Volvo Australia's ad agency, was overjoyed. He relayed his client's comment: "Now that's a $100,000 (Australian) car!"

These are plans for the most technically involved meeting I did at Live Marketing, for the American introduction of the Oce copier. The meeting had several nine projector multi-image shows (produced in the Netherlands) which I had to assemble into a coherent single show (learning an Apple Basic program ESCLAMP in order to to it). There also were pyrotechnics, lasers, a balloon release, confetti cannons, and not just live talent, but also a magician who used stage magic to reveal the company executives. The stage was very complex and the drawings on the right show the front view of how it was put together, layer by layer, to allow for the various elements and the required fire exits. As this meeting was held at a hotel in New York City, I had the additional requirements of a full union crew.