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My first job in the event industry involved me crawling around on all fours in a suit hooking up RCA connectors and taping down pesky power cords in hotel ballrooms across Dallas.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t say with all honesty that I really enjoyed every aspect of that job, but for the most part, I truly love dealing with anything audio\/visual.\u00a0 And after working for The Expo Group developing interactive marketing content and helping exhibitors on the show floor for over five years,\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a few tips to share when it comes to avoiding A\/V headaches.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.\u00a0\u00a0 Power Problem<\/strong> \u2013 Never, ever assume that your booth comes with electricity included. At The Expo Group, when you order any kind of audio\/visual device for your exhibit, we make it a priority to contact you and ask if you want power for that device. But that is not an industry standard, so take note. Also, if you see a power cord behind the drape in your booth and you plug into it, be ready to pay for it. Those electricians don\u2019t mess around!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2.\u00a0\u00a0 Cord Confusion<\/strong> \u2013 I know you brought your Mac computer, but they packed a VGA cord and now you can\u2019t connect to the plasma to run your presentation.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019m actually seeing this problem less and less with HDMI cords becoming the norm, but older laptops don\u2019t have an HD connection and those panicky trips to Best Buy can be a pain.\u00a0 Make sure you pack a backup cord for the device that is powering your presentation.<\/p>\n \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Missing Mount<\/strong>\u2013 You\u2019ve got the perfect spot to hang up that 65\u201d flat screen you ordered on your exhibit wall but the A\/V rep says no can do.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 No mounting hardware.\u00a0 When you rent a monitor, you get\u2026the monitor.\u00a0 Not a wall mount and<\/em> a monitor.\u00a0 When creating your exhibit, your builder needs to plan for thathardware so be sure and discuss who will provide the mount.\u00a0 Along those same lines, always make sure your wall can handle the weight of that 65\u201d behemoth and include some sort of cutout in the back for cords.<\/p>\n \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4.\u00a0 Streaming Struggles<\/strong> \u2013 The exhibit hall has free Wi-Fi so, hey, why bother with ordering Internet, right?\u00a0 Wrong. Too many times I\u2019ve seen\u00a0 product demos deteriorate when the exhibitor relied on free convention center Wi-Fi.\u00a0 If your exhibit messaging depends on an online demonstration, pay for the hard-wired connection.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5.\u00a0\u00a0 Time for Testing<\/strong> \u2013 This really should go without saying, but test your content and your devices before you get to show site.\u00a0 Will that video play on your laptop? How does the volume sound?\u00a0 Test out that connection on your TV at home in place of the showsite plasma.\u00a0 Make sure the microphone works and your batteries are fresh. If all you have is a DVD, double-check and make sure it works before you get to the show and yikes! discover a giant scratch.\u00a0\u00a0 Practice means peace-of-mind and will allow you to focus on the business of making those important face-to-face connections.<\/p>\n Have you found some easy solutions for any A\/V problems at showsite?\u00a0 Feel free to share in the comments.<\/p>\n <\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Todd Carruth My first job in the event industry involved me crawling around on all fours in a suit hooking up RCA connectors and taping down pesky power cords[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c1mdevsite.com\/theexpogroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}