Enliven’s busy first quarter has meant conducting multiple conferences and meetings from coast to coast at some of the most beautiful venues in the country. We’re excited to share two of these events that both happened in Southern California. However, with respect to our first clients’ wish to remain anonymous, we’ll only discuss the venue and event details.
Hotel Casa Del Mar, Santa Monica, CA
The first conference we’ll review brought us to Hotel Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica, CA. The accommodations and service provided were simply exquisite. This luxury beachfront hotel offers immediate access to white sand beaches, panoramic ocean views, and some of the most amazing sunsets you can find on the West Coast.
As guests entered from either side of the expansive Colonnade Foyer, they were greeted by two of Enliven’s 40” digital signs. These vertically mounted video monitors reach 7’ high, and are supported with wide rectangular shaped stands wrapped in custom printed fabric showcasing the company’s logo and brand. In the foyer, we also placed a similarly designed and decorated Charging Station with a smaller digital sign to accommodate a variety of smart devices. For these three video monitors, we created event-themed custom graphics to support overlaying agendas, general event information and directions, which updated daily in real time via a privately installed, secure, network system we managed.
The Colonnade Ballroom, which has a 13’ ceiling, hosted the General Sessions. In a networking type event where attendees stand, this room can accommodate up to 400 people. When you add a high amount of stage, technical and scenic elements to support the conference, plus conference table and chair seating (classroom style), such as with this event, the room is more comfortably suited for around 100 attendees.
Overcoming Limitations
Keeping the room’s size and ceiling height in mind, we gave careful consideration to designing the appropriate technology and scenic elements. Enliven’s scenic design started with a light gray fabric backdrop set behind a 24’ x 8’ stage, that was up-lit with programmable, color changing lights - the customer’s logo colors were chosen. Two 11’ wide, rear projection screens swathed in matching gray drape flanked the stage. They provided duplicate, unobstructed views of the presentations, and the images were produced by two Laser DLP projectors. This new technology uses a laser light source – more reliable than lamps – for an ultra bright, crystal clear image. On the stage, we installed a custom tapered lectern, six white leather chairs and several small coffee tables for the panelists.
A 40” video confidence monitor, discreetly placed on the floor in front of the first row of conference tables, faced the stage. This monitor displayed the same images that were on the projection screens, allowing the speakers to see their presentations without turning away from the attendees. A large digital speaker timer was placed in the back of the room, counting down for each speaker how much time remained.
Lighting & Pristine Sound
Ample lighting for the lectern and stage area came from two vertical truss light-towers. So as not to block any attendees’ view, the towers were positioned on the outside edges of the room. Each tower included multiple top-mounted lighting fixtures - high enough to shoot light over the heads of all the attendees. To hide cables and create a finished, polished look, each tower was wrapped in black fabric.
A full digital sound system, featuring strategically placed loudspeakers and subwoofers, ensured consistent volume levels of pristine quality audio throughout the room. Using a combination of the highest quality audio support equipment, microphones and playback equipment meant that not only did every attendee see the presentations perfectly, every word of every message could be heard loud and clear.
All of Enliven’s technical team members have years of proven experience, as well as a thorough understanding of our client’s event goals and speaker needs. They anticipate the technology the presenters will use, and quickly supply and guide each speaker before they take the stage. The technology engineered into each system, whether for a full general session, or a small track or break-out meeting, all support the speaker’s needs in almost every possible situation. These ultra reliable and carefully thought out system designs come from years of field experience - a process that sets Enliven apart.
The meeting went off as planned, our execution was flawless, and the customer was extremely happy with the results.
The InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown
The second conference we’ll review was for Bank of the West (BOW). Their conference took place at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. This 73-story resort, the tallest building in Los Angeles, recently received two prestigious awards: the 2018 Travel + Leisure World's Best Hotel and the 2018 Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice winner. This luxury property has 94,000 square feet of event space that can accommodate thousands of attendees.
Their general sessions took place in the Wilshire Grand Ballroom, Salons 1 & 2, incorporating 150’ x 97’ of floor space, plenty of room for an exotic 75’ wide scenic backdrop, 32’ wide T-shaped stage, and custom tables and chairs for 450 attendees. With a 22’ ceiling, the bulk of the technical equipment was suspended in the air, removing the equipment from the attendees’ view, and making for an extremely clean floor appearance. Over 300’ of box truss suspended the equipment, including five separate LED wall sections, several remote-controlled high-def cameras, a full stage wash lighting system, a moving-effects lighting system, and a full concert line-array loudspeaker system.
Ultra HD Displays For All To See
Twenty-foot-high black velour drape was set across the entire front of the room, with dozens of color changing up-lights illuminating the drape and room perimeter. Hanging in front of the drape was the main attraction of this scenic design: a custom-configured 75’ wide LED wall. This wall, made from the latest LED technology, featured multiple LED video monitors mounted together in different configurations. The ultra high-definition, ultra bright monitors have such small seams (edges) between them that they become unnoticeable from only a few feet away. Each section looked like a beautiful, solid image.
The center LED display, configured as a vertical rectangle, was suspended directly behind center stage. This section was used to display the company’s logo, polling and Q&A information, plus animation. On either side of the center display, with several feet of negative (unused) space in between, two other suspended LED displays were configured as tall, thin columns. These showcased creative graphics that supported the company’s logo, as well as visual effects. Finally, following a few more feet of negative space, two final LED ultra-wide sections were suspended on the outsides of this set. The images on each of these sections mirrored one another, both capable of displaying widescreen presentations plus live video images simultaneously (such as a live, magnified video image of the presenter).
The massive video processing system we provided allowed for multiple images to be configured and displayed on this wall in ways limited only by the imagination.
Crystal clear audio was delivered to every corner of the room via a full-range concert line-array sound system. For the presenters and a panel of experts, five white leather chairs were placed on stage. Two 65” LED floor mounted video confidence monitors faced the stage so the presenters could see their content without turning their back to the audience.
Robotic Lighting & Video
In addition to ample white stage wash lighting to light up all sections of the stage, multiple robotic lights were programmed to add moving and color changing effects to the stage and set, and were coordinated with the color-changing up-lights for the drape and room perimeter. All were designed to compliment the company’s logo colors and help promote their brand.
Multiple robotic high-def video cameras were mounted in the ceiling truss rig, remotely controlled by video technicians behind the drape. These multiple cameras allowed the technicians to pan, tilt, zoom and switch between camera images to project different presenters and camera angles on the big displays.
To do their jobs properly, the audio and lighting technicians need to see everything that’s happening on the stage live. Their control booth, centered in the back of the room, was comprised of 24’ x 6’ stage risers set at 2’ high; this height provided them an unobstructed view of the stage. The booth was completely surrounded by an attractive black fabric wall to minimize its appearance. The entire technical team communicated with each other through wireless headset/microphone systems. This allowed them to fully, yet quietly, accomplish their functions without disturbing any attendees.
Despite the large amount of technology used, suspending most of it, and remotely operating it, produced a clean and neat room appearance which allowed the attendees to focus on the speakers and their presentations without any equipment distractions.
A Custom Event App
Finally, Enliven created a fully customized and branded event app for BOW with a variety of features including invitations and registration, scheduling and program information, attendee and speaker profiles, venue maps, document support, live polling and surveys, networking and social media support, chat and group discussions, and more. Plus, we incorporated event analytics so they knew exactly how successful the conference was - both during and after.
Enliven Your Next Event
We hope this article gives you insight to the creative capabilities and careful, strategic thought process we provide to all our clients and all of our events - large and small. Please contact us if you would like to “enliven” your next event with Enliven.
