October 14, 2020 • 37 mins
We all had to learn a new world of events, pivotting from the physical to the virtual space. We went from sleeping rooms and conference spaces to virtual meeting rooms and digital graphic specs. Join Staceyann and Patrick as they discuss the new world of virtual events. How? What? Why? Where (yes where)? Play this one for your boss!!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Staceyann VanHorne-Dori (00:17):
Welcome to Well Seasoned The Podcast.
We're back. I'm Stacey.
Patrick Brochu (00:22):
And I'm Patrick.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (00:23):
Sup, Patrick, how you doing today?
Patrick Brochu (00:25):
I'm doing really good.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (00:27):
Are you staying hydrated?
Patrick Brochu (00:28):
I am, I've actually been digging my
quarantine because I feel likeI'm drinking a little bit more
in the quarantine than Inormally would.
Staceyann VanHorne-D (00:35):
Everybody.
Patrick Brochu (00:36):
So to keep my calories down, I have been
enjoying the seltzer beverages.
Specifically today I'm doing themango flavor from Bud Light.
They're not a sponsor yet,everybody but yeah, mango. So
I'm not to say this, but Ireally enjoyed the mango. And
actually, if you want to likeclass it up a little bit, I
normally add a little bit ofmango rum to it, put it on ice,
add a sliced orange and a littlebit of orange juice that tastes
(00:59):
delicious. And if you're by apool or beach, you just blend
that sucker up. And it's like afrozen cocktail kind of drink
that no, it's pretty good. It'spretty - and it gets you there.
Staceyann VanHorne-Do (01:12):
Sometimes you need that. I would add a
jalapeno slice in it and make aspicy one. I'm drinking a local
brewery here 10Torr, and it's alavender lemonade, and it's
delicious.
Patrick Brochu (01:22):
Oh it does sound delicious.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:24):
And I would like to say yes, because
of quarantine. I have beendrinking more. That's what I'm
going to say.
Patrick Brochu (01:31):
Yeah, I don't think that anybody really
remembers at the beginning ofthe quarantine when Anthony
Fauci because everybody's like,oh, Dr. Fauci is so
knowledgeable, etc, etc. But theone thing that nobody listened
to when was when he was saying,but alcohol, it's actually worse
for what's going on differentreasons, like people putting
their guard down that it butnobody listens.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:52):
That's something I'm not about to
commit to memory. Absolutelynot.
Patrick Brochu (01:55):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:56):
I'm trying to stay sane you know,
Patrick Brochu (01:58):
when this whole thing was really, really
probably about April, or may, Iwould sign off my emails. And I
normally just say best. Andthere's a long story about why I
always say best and nothingelse. But I would always say
stay safe and sane. Right. So ifI didn't really know you stay
safe, stay sane, becauseeverybody was like, you know,
going crazy. Yeah. And then forpeople that I know, I would say
stay safe, sane and sober.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:22):
I never got the sober. So what
does that mean? You're assumingthat? Yeah.
Patrick Brochu (02:27):
Well, I mean, you're you're a sommelier a, you
know,
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:29):
I mean, I guess I am constantly
drinking wine in an educationalsetting
Patrick Brochu (02:35):
In an educational setting?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:36):
In an educational setting. Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick Brochu (02:38):
You're very smart to do that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:39):
Thank you. That's what I'm telling
myself. So you know what we'venever explained to people, I
just want to call you thisPepper?
Patrick Brochu (02:47):
Oh, my goodness.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:49):
Okay, so we're called Well Seasoned
the Podcast, we are WellSeasoned Education. And Patrick
is pepper. And I am Salt.
Patrick Brochu (02:59):
For anybody that hasn't seen us speak live yet.
Stacey and I have been touringgoing to different educational
events around the country,whether it be IMEX or at CITE
National different MPI chapters,etc. We go in speak about a
variety of topics. And we have acool website that you can check
out wellseasonededucation.com.
And the original idea of thatone was to do a podcast, but for
(03:22):
whatever reason, I pushed backon it. And then we came up with
all these topics. And I waslike, Well, you know, Stacy,
those would actually be goodtopics just to do speaking and
going to conferences. And that'show Well Seasoned Education was
born. And I don't exactlyremember why the salt and pepper
thing popped up and why the wellseasoned, but I just clicked and
(03:42):
clicked and clicked and it wasawesome. So if you go to our
website, you'll understand whywe call each other Salt and
Pepper and why it's WellSeasoned.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (03:51):
And I think it's hilarious, because
you didn't know, I'm black andhe's white. I'm Salt, he's
Pepper. And every time I have tointroduce ourselves to a group
of people, I always pausebecause I'm like, I can't
believe I'm saying this outloud. And then I introduce
ourselves and people look at usand they're like, I'm and I'm
(04:11):
like, it's as awkward for me asit is for you. Why, sweet black
baby Jesus? But anyway, let's -
Patrick Brochu (04:18):
Well you know what, okay, okay, but I don't
know if you and I have actuallytalked about this because there
was a reason. Originally, when Idid the first drawings and
again, if you guys see thewebsite, it's our heads on salt
and pepper shake. It was becauseStacey's a planner, and I'm a
supplier. So I was salt andStacey was pepper. And then
after I finished with that, Ithought, Hmm, I just made the
(04:41):
black girl the pepper. I can'tdo that. That can't be and then
I thought to myself, well, she'sStacey so Salt Stacey. And I'm
Patrick. So Patrick Pepper soI'll just be the Pepper. She'll
be the Salt that's in so weswitched around, because I was
like oh my goodness
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (04:57):
What you guys can't see is the blank
tare on my face right now. And hw I let this run through and I
m like, yeah, it
Patrick Brochu (05:06):
And our slogan with well seasoned is
delightfully. goofy, undeniablygood. And normally delightfully,
goofy goes under my name becauseI came up with kind of some of
the crazy imagery or themes toour educational programs. Yeah.
But Stacey actually came up withthe good content. So I'm
delightfully goofy, and she'sundeniably good. So yeah, that's
(05:28):
kind of the history behind that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:30):
That's Salt and Pepper, that's Well
Seasoned. I felt the need totell people that because I
almost said, let's get startedPepper.
Patrick Brochu (05:39):
Exactly.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:39):
So, back to my original statement.
Let's get started Pepper.
Patrick Brochu (05:43):
All right, let's do it.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:44):
We're just doing this podcast, and
we're gonna talk it out.
Patrick Brochu (05:47):
This is rare ones that we didn't really plan
or have a topic, we were justlike, why don't we do one?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:51):
Okay, I thought about this because
yesterday, Patrick called meabout virtual meetings. And we
clearly have a lot of meetingsgoing on. And we're talking
beyond the in office, person toperson meeting, we're talking
actual virtual events, right.
And the amount of work that goesinto this virtual and planning
these virtual events and howeveryone went from a complete
(06:12):
standstill in March and April,you have to think COVID, hit
right in the middle of our eventseason journey. So everyone was
just on the road busy, busybusy, then we had a little bit
of downtime, that's when Iadopted 20 plus plants, then all
of a sudden, we are now planningall these virtual events again,
(06:32):
because you know what? It'sstill event season, right? And
truth is show must go on. So wejust have to adjust to it. So
okay, let's start at the verybeginning of proposals and
quotes. I don't know if you feltit as much, but immediately went
to Okay, let's plan virtualevents, we were getting quotes.
But then nobody knew how toexecute these virtual events. So
(06:54):
it was just like, Did you findyourself putting out all these
quotes and nothing comingthrough?
Patrick Brochu (07:00):
So my timeframe was a little bit different from
a supplier perspective, andspecifically, technical
supplier. So somebody that doesaudio visual production going
into the space, we did haveexperience in virtual prior. But
even that experience versus whatwe're doing now is totally
different. What I will say is,it was around March, I would say
(07:21):
the last show that canceled wasprobably March 15, or something
like that. We had a meeting atthe office, and it was like,
okay, we're going to close downthe office because of everything
going on for a little while. Andit was all hands on everybody at
home, join any webinar, anythingthat you can do to start our
pivot. We knew at that point, wehad a pivot that had to happen.
(07:42):
And then all the quoting startedby midway through April, I
probably had 40 to 50 quotes outthere just floating, you know--
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (07:49):
That soon?
Patrick Brochu (07:50):
Yes, yes.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (07:51):
Wow.
Patrick Brochu (07:52):
At that point, we were quoting two people that
didn't know what they needed todo. They didn't know what dates
they didn't know, anything. Itwas like, I don't even know if
this is going to be a one daymeeting a five day meeting, I
don't know, our quotes, werejust all over the place.
Because, you know, we were beingasked all these things. And we
were like, okay, here are someranges, putting those out with
(08:13):
some capabilities and someimagery. And then we didn't hear
anything for a while. But morequotes were just coming in. I
remember having a conversationwith my CEO, he was like, I've
never been so busy in my entire40 plus year career and made no
money. It's like it was crazy,because we were all so busy. And
then on top of that, probablygoing more into May, it was
(08:33):
like, okay, all the happy hoursand all the virtual networking
events were happening. And thatwas actually good for my
company. Because we were able toget our name out there, do some
branding. And then we had morequotes coming in. We had a few
that booked over the summer. Butit wasn't until I would say
probably into June that all of asudden, it was like the
floodgates like, can you tightenthis up a little bit? Here's my
actual specs now. Yeah, dun,dun, dun, dun. And then we move
(08:56):
into August and here inSeptember, and things started
booking. And it was ironicbecause in our industry, the
joke is that everything alwaysis in you know, one set period
of time. And it's like, why,like space things out. But all
these events were happening allon the same time period, we
found ourselves, okay, we knowthat we could do up to so many
events at one time, executedperfectly. And then we started
(09:17):
having to turn people away thatcame back and said, Hey, you
quoted on this for me over thesummer. Well, we've booked that
time now. And we no longer canfulfill that because we're
booked, booked solid.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (09:27):
And from the planners point of view.
I know when this all hit in,I'll talk from my corporate
life. Everyone went into extremepanic mode. We were in the
middle of launching. So it waslike, Oh my God, we have to plan
something. We have to plansomething right now. Get quotes
for virtual meetings, figure itout, Stacy. So you get all these
quotes. And you go into planningthese virtual meetings, but
(09:50):
nobody knows how to plan avirtual meeting. Right? So it's
like, Okay, how are you going tokeep their attention? What's the
agenda going to be? Do you havea presentation because we were
talking about launching productsat trade shows. And so how are
we going to bring that tradeshowexperience into the virtual
platform? how exactly are wegoing to do it, and then it was
like, everyone's optimistic. Andthen it was, you have no money
(10:13):
cut. And so you went fromplanning to being like, Wait a
second, we're not making money,we're bleeding. We can't even
put this money back intoplanning a virtual event, it was
a hard pause. And so I thinkwhat happened on our side is
that we started planning a lotof virtual meetings on teams and
zoom and go to meetings, and youstart seeing these numbers pick
(10:37):
up, right, you start seeing thatmaybe if you're planning this in
person event, you might havegotten 100 people, but now
you're getting the attention of1000 people, because guess what,
they don't have to leave home,they can log on, and you start
seeing attendance pick up, youstart seeing engagement, you
know, people are emailing afterthat. And it's like, Wait a
second, this can actually work.
Now let's get back into it. Sothat August, September came
(11:00):
around, and we're, we were like,Okay, let's do this, let's
actually get an event on thebooks with a proper company. So,
you know, on my side, in termsof planning, I find myself
having to tell people that justbecause it's a virtual meeting
doesn't mean it could be in sixor eight hour meeting. I mean, I
don't know if you're fightingthat in your side. But I'm like,
(11:20):
dude, I can't keep yourattention for 30 minutes right
now. And you think you're goingto keep someone's attention for
eight hours? It's so hard doingthat.
Patrick Brochu (11:30):
100%, we're seeing that across the board. We
have people that because of thecost. And that's another thing
that we can talk about, butbecause of the cost of it,
they're like, Okay, well, whydon't we consolidate it down to
a one day meeting? We're goingto do it for eight in trust me
10 hours, whatever. Okay, well,that's good. But are you
expecting different people tohop on at different points? No,
everybody on for the whole day?
Well, okay. And I believe it wasMPI global, that put out a study
(11:52):
based on you know, this, andthey're really suggesting more
like Ted Talks, like for youractual keynote. So it's like,
okay, break it up into 15 minutesegments, you know, maybe a 30
minute segment here and there.
But you know, beyond that peoplearen't gonna pay attention. And
you know, maybe you have a fewof those day and break it up
over three days, and you do fourhours, four hours, four hours,
something like that. But as faras like a full on long meeting,
(12:14):
it's not the same, I tell myclients to think of it not as a
meeting. And I think that's themistake that some people are
getting into, they're thinkingof it as like a traditional
meeting, like they wouldn't haveballroom where you have
everybody all day going in andout of segments, taking those
coffee breaks, having thosehuman interactions. So you're
missing all of that. So it's notreally the same. What I always
say is, it's more likeinteractive TV, if you're gonna
(12:35):
sit there and watch your TV, howlong are you gonna watch your TV
before you need to get up andhave a break or do something,
you know, people go to the movietheater here in the United
States, in another part of theworld, not as much. But in the
United States, people go likethat was the best movie ever.
But it was too long. Well, youknow, they had to do that to get
off the continent, it's the samething with your meeting, if
you're talking about a meeting,that's going to be that long,
people aren't going to payattention. So you really need to
(12:56):
break it up.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (12:57):
You have to also be smart about your
agenda, too, you have to besmart about how you're planning
it because it's going to be TedTalk style, you don't have the
time, it's a different level ofengagement than having someone
sit in the ballroom. So let'stalk about common misperceptions
combined with some tips andtricks. Let's start with costs.
And I'm going to speak about itfrom the planner side, people
(13:19):
think that these virtualmeetings are going to be
significantly cheaper than inperson, the truth is, yes, you
don't have the overhead, youmight not have the food and
beverage, we'll get to why it'sa might, you are probably going
to have less speakers. So it isgoing to be cheaper or more cost
efficient on that side. But whenyou talk about AV, think about
(13:42):
when you have to live Skypesomeone into your ballroom, that
is a huge cost to make sure thatthat internet is stable, and
that you can do that this is ahuge cost. And so I know when I
went to the powers that be on myside to say it's going to cost X
amount, they were like, We don'tunderstand we do this on zoom
for free. And you know, I had tobe the voice of reality, aka the
(14:04):
controversial one. And I'm like,Hey, have you seen your last
meeting that you did on zoom?
That's not what you want torepresent for a larger meeting.
So when you go to budget, this,I would say, look at what your
AV costs are for a three daymeeting, and you're probably
going to come in around the samerate. I mean, it's going to be a
little less. Is it a faux pasfor me to kind of talk about
general price?
Patrick Brochu (14:26):
No, no.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (14:27):
Yeah, like, for a day meeting in a
virtual conference, you'reprobably looking at anywhere
between 25 to 30,000 per day,right? And that, if you're
lucky, includes pre productionand two days or three days of
testing, as well as the liveevent day. It's not a $5,000
(14:50):
meeting, if that's what you'regoing into this thinking, please
do get that out of your mind. Ifyou're looking at a $5,000
virtual setup that's verydifferent.
Patrick Brochu (14:58):
That sounds about right. If you have a
middle of the ground meetingyet, it's probably about the
same AV wise, if you have a muchlarger production, and I'm
talking like huge stage set,big, big speaker presenters
coming in, stuff like that. Ifeel like those people, their
cost is actually going to belower than what they experienced
in general session.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (15:19):
Right?
Right.
Patrick Brochu (15:20):
Because of certain things, they don't have
to pay the extra for the speakerto come in, they're able to zoom
them in or so you have some ofthat cost is lost there. And
there's not a huge cost when yougo from 500 people to 1000
people to 2000 people, there'snot a huge, huge cost
differential. So for thosepeople, they're actually winning
middle of the ground, I wouldsay they're probably coming in
about the same. If you're usedto spending like 50 to $100,000,
(15:43):
for like a 500 person meeting,you're probably going to be
about the same Yeah, into avirtual however, the people that
are really going to be sufferingand are suffering are the people
that have the lower budgetevents. Yes, in the lower budget
events. As far as AV goes, like,if you're just used to you're in
a nice high quality hotel, butyou're used to that podium
microphone screen kit. Andyou're used to having one AV
(16:05):
tech sitting there with you allday, when you go virtual, you're
having to add a lot more thingsthat you're not used to adding
because you have to take care ofall that for you. So those are
the people that their cost ismuch higher than they were
expecting.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (16:16):
To go along with that. A tip when you
get these quotes is to make surethat your quote includes those
pre production days, I can'tstress that enough. When we just
did a meeting on teams. For ourcustomer group. It took us about
a week to go through and testpresentations, make sure the
presenter knows how to presentso you don't look like you're
(16:39):
scripted. It's so important tohave those pre production days.
And I know a lot of people thinkoh, we can skip that. Because we
can do that ourselves. If youcan't. And along with those pre
production days comes the prerecording, you want to make sure
those keynote speakers, thoseimportant presentations, you
might want to pre record them,you might not want them to be
(17:01):
live just because you want tomitigate any outages or
challenges that would happen. Soit's really important to include
those pre recorded days. Do youhave a lot of people on your
end, Patrick, that one it kindof skip that?
Patrick Brochu (17:14):
Yeah, you want to pre record as much as
possible, because you're justtaking a lot of the guessing out
for exactly the reasons thatyou're talking about whether
it's an internet outage, a poweroutage, we had a speaker on that
was in Puerto Rico when ahurricane was going through, and
we lost their signal this pastyear. So luckily, that one was
on a pre recorded thing. So wejust rescheduled it and we're
able to do it. But what about ifthat happened on the actual show
(17:34):
day, you're gonna want tomitigate as much as possible. I
always tell people, hey, if thisparticular speaker presenter
doesn't have a actualinteraction with the attendees,
there's no reason because we'regoing to do what is known as a
look live. So it will look likepeople think it's live, but you
don't have to be live, you know,unless I'm actually or something
like that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (17:52):
Yeah, the reason that's so important,
because that's something I'mfighting right now is everyone
thinks, oh, I need to berecorded. I want to speak live
because it's a live event. Areyou taking Q&A Are you
interacting? Why are you puttingyourself in a situation where
maybe you're going to stumbleover abominable snowman can't
say that word, bom -- I don'tput myself in a situation where
(18:16):
I know I struggle over thisword. Or I know that when it
comes to these facts andstatistics, I need to be looking
at a screen or I need it righthere, pre record that because
talking about looking live, youcan play your video as if it's
live, and you have a live Q&Agoing on at the sides. Now
you're interacting with peopleas the video is going on. And so
(18:36):
it takes a little bit ofconvincing. But it's really,
really important to let themknow you're avoiding so many
things that can happen by prerecording. Another thing that
goes into the price that peopledon't think about is the number
of people on the back end thatit takes to actually put a show
on live. And I think that peoplethink that there's two people in
(19:00):
the room that Yeah, press playand pause. And that's it. How
big is your crew?
Patrick Brochu (19:05):
I would say not the most basic but the majority
of the virtual shows that we'redoing. There's about seven
people behind the scenes thatare running it live, we've had
some virtual shows that willhave 11-12 people. And that's
normally if we're using like astudio, we have some extra
camera operators, etc. But yeah,I mean, you're you got to think
about it just like you're goingbackstage at your actual show.
(19:26):
And this is a very technicalthing. You have your main
switcher, just like in regularaudio visual, that person is
basically taking all the contentand putting it out and
condensing it together andputting out that one image and
that person's going to anoperator that's running the
encoders and the encoders areactually what are taking those
images, compressing them andthen putting them up live to the
audience. You're going to have asound engineer with all those
(19:48):
feeds coming in, even if wedon't have the person in the
studio, all those audio feedsthat are coming in from whatever
we're using to communicate withspeakers and have speakers
coming in from any playbackgraphics. So you're gonna have
that audio person. Anotherposition that you will have is
your playback position playbackin the audio visual world is
whoever's running video. So ifyou have any videos like a
(20:08):
commercial or something thatneeds to play, or if we have a
pre recorded session that wasrecorded, that person will be
responsible for making sure thatthose flags, then we have an
operator of a system that wouldmanage all of the speakers
coming in. A lot of times on theback end, it's something as
simple as a goto meeting, or aWebEx, Skype, or even just a
Zoom, and those signals arecoming in to that center person.
(20:31):
And then they're putting it backout to the platform. So that's
five. Six would be the technicaldirector, and seven would be the
stage manager and stage managersjob is to communicate with the
speakers and get them up. Okay,you're coming up next, etc.
Let's work with this person. Sothat's seven person crew right
there. And like you said,Stacey, a lot of people think
that it's just two people in theroom. And I'm going, I didn't
(20:53):
mean, technical, but I felt likepeople need to know.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (20:55):
I feel as though people need to hear
how smart you are. So it'simportant that people hear all
of that, because they need toknow that it's not a two man
job. And when you're putting ona professional virtual event,
it's going to take a crew ofpeople much like if you're in
person, so that's talking aboutthe numbers and the number of 25
(21:20):
to 30,000, although thatincludes labor also includes the
license for the platform for youto actually host your meeting,
right?
Patrick Brochu (21:28):
Depending on the platform. Yeah, depending on
because some platforms arereally expensive, some are less.
And that's another thing to talkabout when I was talking earlier
about the timeframe that we wereworking in earlier this summer,
is that right? Now, a lot ofthese virtual platforms,
especially the higher end ones,you can't even get a meeting
with them because they're backedup. And I'm not going to name
names of particular platforms.
But there are some there's someclients have been talking with.
(21:51):
And they're like, Hey, you know,I just did an event with so and
so. And I did that because Icouldn't even get in a meeting
for three months with this otherplatform that I was really
interested in.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (22:02):
I had to explain that to my group,
when they wanted to changedates, I told them, it's not
that easy. The same as when youtry to book a hotel in the
middle of event season. Andthey're booked the same things
happening on the virtualplatform side. And they were
shocked when I said that wedon't understand. It's just a
(22:24):
platform. Just put it oninternet. That I don't know how
it works bruv.
Patrick Brochu (22:29):
Stacy, there's this kind of transitions? Well,
because there's something that Isaid even before all of this in
our industry. And for whateverreason the planners, they're
very educated on certain thingslike they know everything that
there is to know aboutattrition, you know, room rates,
food and beverage, even dealingwith dmcs or contracting
(22:51):
directly with individualproviders, like furniture rental
companies, except they knoweverything. But when it comes
for whatever reason to audiovisual, I've always said that it
feels like foreign language,we're dealing in an orient, it's
just as frustrating as it is onthe planner. And because on our
end we're dealing with I don'tmean anything derogatory about
us, but an uneducated buyerbecause right buyer doesn't know
(23:12):
what they don't know, I can'ttell you how many times I've
hopped on phone calls withpeople and it's, well, this
person's 30-$40,000 less thanyou and I don't understand why
well, okay, is this apples toapples? Yeah, well, let's
actually go through this. And Ihave an actual example. I did
the quote for two days show twodays of pre production for
virtual show. And this personwas telling me that the other
(23:34):
bidders were $30,000, less thanme, we actually went through it.
And it turns out, there was nopre production at all from the
other two companies. And theother two companies were only
quoting on a one day-
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (23:44):
Pre production is insurance, people.
It is insurance that you'llactually use.
Patrick Brochu (23:49):
That person didn't even realize that, you
know, until I was like, hey,these aren't apples to apples.
It's a totally differentballgame. And they wanted me to
quote based on those. And Ipushed back just saying, Listen,
if you don't have that preproduction, how is this whole
thing going to happen? How arewe going to rehearse anything,
but our clients and our plannersin today's world are more on
edge and it's not their fault?
It's deal, we're thrown intosomething that's brand new, but
(24:10):
they don't know what they don'tknow.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (24:12):
And let me say this, I just said it.
Pre production is yourinsurance, and it is insurance
you're going to use. That'snumber one. And I see it on the
planner side. I think thatpeople think, okay, I'm booking
the hotel, I'm booking, AV, I'mbooking transportation, I'm
booking entertainment, whatever.
It's their job to know whatthey're doing. I don't need to
know that. And I encourageeveryone to not do that. And to
(24:35):
really sit down and talk to yourvendors and your partners and
understand what's going on. Iknow that that has helped me
throughout the years sittingbackstage with the crew and
seeing what they're doing.
hearing their struggle whensomebody comes five minutes
before they go on stage with apresentation or during the
(24:58):
quoting process. Don't just getthe quote and scroll to the
bottom of the page and go, it'sin my budget, sign and return,
you might actually want to talkabout why exactly do you have a
person here? I don't understandthis, ask the questions. And
Patrick, I might be speaking foryou or for suppliers in general,
I don't think you mind whensomeone actually takes the time
(25:19):
to ask you that question justmeans that they're further
engaged and want to make surethey're putting on a proper
event.
Patrick Brochu (25:25):
I would definitely prefer that to the
alternative, which I find thathappens all too often is I'll go
back Hey, just following up onbla bla, bla quoted out, you
know, never heard back or, andthen you know, you finally get
in touch to person, oh, we wantsomebody else because of cost or
whatever. Well, okay, what couldwe have done differently? Well,
you had this and what was thereason that you had that? And
then it's like, why do youThat's why, before then, and
(25:48):
yeah, and or, you know, maybewe're going off of an old RFP
that they just sent us, but theyto give somebody else the most
up to date information. Or atthe same point, they didn't
realize that the other personwasn't including something that
was asked for in the RFP thatnow they realized that we had
that they didn't know that thatcost is changing anyway. You
know, that happens a lot.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (26:06):
Yeah.
So we talked about the contract,we talked about what goes into
it, let's talk about furtherengagement of your attendees on
virtual platforms, how can Iengage my customers or my
attendees, and there's so manydifferent ways. Just because
you're planning a five hourevent doesn't mean it's five
hours of non stop speaking,please, people include breaks,
(26:29):
especially during this time,when people are working from
home and kids are home and youhave all these distractions
going on. Please do not plan afive to six hour straight
meeting, I promise you, no oneis going to retain that
information and don't do it. Andyou could say to me, Stacy, I
(26:51):
have a limited budget, I can'tplan that much. And I bet you
you have talent within yourteam. So we're looking at
planning, cooking demos,planning our wine tasting, we're
actually planning an exercisebreak in the meeting. So it
could be just Hey, we found thison YouTube. And everyone's going
to do this exercise at the sametime. Or we have a yoga
(27:13):
instructor. She's going to teacha class to the group or a break.
We've spoken to Meir who doesamazing virtual events. He does
awards, he does virtual photobooths. There's different ways
to engage your attendees. Haveyou seen any creative things on
your site, Patrick?
Patrick Brochu (27:32):
One that's kind of cool. Coming up, I didn't
come up with this somebody elsedid. But it is a virtual wine
tasting event. And this is afundraising events that have a
gala, they decided you buytickets, they're going to send
you a three pack or five pack ofwine or six pack whatever of
wine. You can literally openthose bottles at your house and
they're having celebrities onthe other side who are going to
(27:55):
be tasting it talking about itwith a Sommelier. Again, when I
was saying earlier, it's less ofa meeting less of a gala, but it
is interactive TV. Now you'regoing through the TV screen
talking about this wine thatyou're tasting and watching big
time celebrities tasting theexact same thing that you're
tasting at home.
Staceyann VanHorne-Dor (28:12):
Exactly.
Patrick Brochu (28:13):
Think outside the box people.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (28:14):
Right, and you're not going to get me
not engaged in a wine tasting.
Patrick Brochu (28:18):
No 100%. And I and I've seen other things that
people are doing. There'sanother one, it is an incentive
and they are sending everybodystuff at home food wise that can
be delivered. So they can alsosay the same thing at home. I've
seen bigger conferences offeringinstead of that, and Uber Eats
gift cards. So everybody Yeah,yeah. He and not have to cook at
(28:40):
home so that it's up to them.
They can order whatever theywant. Yeah, so that they're all
engaged. So I've seeninteractive ways.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (28:46):
Yeah.
And you can do that. And trustme, people will appreciate it.
Because especially if you'reblocking their calendar, even
for four hours, they now don'thave to think about lunch or
meal, it's already provided.
Maybe you offer 15 minutebreaks. So somebody could look
at a menu place to order, evenif you came in. And I know it's
a lot of money, if you thinkabout Uber Eats, but even if you
(29:07):
came in at $100 per person perday, that is still significantly
less than what you would pay ata hotel. And so it's nice when
companies do that. And they'llsay, okay, we're gonna not only
provide you a meal, but for thenext two days, we know we're
going to keep your attention,you might not be able to get off
and cook dinner for the familybecause now you've finished a
(29:28):
meeting but you still have workto do. You can order dinner on
us for the family. So there'sjust so many different ways of
engaging your attendees and youdon't have to worry about it
being Stacey we have four hoursand we have four hours and 30
minutes of content. I don't havetime to give somebody a break.
It doesn't have to be long. 10minute breaks are appreciated.
(29:52):
It kind of resets your mind abio break. You can go to the
kitchen and get your smartsweets I'm eating smart, sweet,
delicious. And then it comesback, but it's appreciated on
that side.
Patrick Brochu (30:04):
We've covered a lot, but I feel like there's
still a lot to go.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (30:07):
So if you have any questions and you
want to learn more, email us at
wellseasonededucation@gmail.com
I think it's time for some
paprika. I like seeing paprika.
Patrick Brochu (30:30):
Stacey, can you remind everybody what is the
paprika that we always?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (30:33):
Okay, so it's our segment about
nothing much like paprika,although I really do like smoked
paprika, and I put it oneverything. But it's a segment
about nothing. It's just youknow, we give you a lot of
information you take it in andwe just want to leave on a note
of Hey, what's good in yourhood. So Patrick, do you have
(30:54):
anything that you would like toadd a little paprika on? Oh, I
have a paprika. So my dog's alunatic. Every day when we walk
him, we always go all the wayout in the desert. Yesterday he
was whining and complaining togo for a walk. He does not bark
except when he wants to go for awalk and so, we took him out for
a walk and we get a little bitfurther out there and somebody's
(31:18):
shooting which let's just sayit's a red flag warning people.
Why are you shooting right nowbut you know what? I'll let this
pass. My dog stops. Here's allthe gunshots. Immediately he
starts crying. I have a pitbullboxer. He's a punkest pitbull
boxer I have. So we go we walkin, I always take him off the
leash because it's open desertand he stays by me. It's fine.
(31:41):
Well, they start shooting and mydog takes off like Usain Bolt
runs, maybe a quarter of a milejust keeps going. And I'm like,
Oh, no, I can't chase him. Roccican't chase him. And I'm
standing there all Milo No,Milo, come back. And he looks --
(32:02):
he does not turn around. He justkeeps running. And living in
Nevada, open carry I'm likesomebody is gonna shoot my dog.
So as I'm screaming for my dog,he finally turns around and
stares at me runs towards me.
Here's more gunshots, turnsaround, runs back and I'm like,
I'm about to lose my dog. Idon't know what to do. Well,
eventually he did come back tome and I was able to put a leash
(32:24):
on him. But I'm gonna call himHussein from now on because
Usain Bolt took off. LikeRocci's like, I don't know what
you want me to do. I can't chasedog. And I'm like, Well, I mean,
you could have at least like,yelled at him do something. And
he's all Yeah, whatever. Little,bastard. But I almost lost my
dog yesterday. What about yourpaprika?
Patrick Brochu (32:48):
Well, there's one thing that's been on my
mind. And it's been it's, youknow, it's taken up my entire
life lately. And that is my kidsdoing virtual Elementary School.
In my living room, for those ofyou that don't know --
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (33:04):
you need to see how somber he got
just no
Patrick Brochu (33:06):
yeah. So I so I have five year old twins just
starting kindergarten for thefirst time. And my wife is a
high school teacher. And so inone room of the house, and the
guest room that's beentransformed into her gym slash
schoolroom. She's in thereteaching and she starts probably
(33:27):
about 8am. And she goes till3-3:30. And my kids, they start
at 7 (33:33):
30-8am in the living room, and I have this desk that we
purchased that is on wheels, androlls out and then opens up. So
it takes up the whole livingroom. Because there's two of
them in there have twocomputers, whatever. And being
the AV guy, I have all thesecords and wires and everything.
And it's all It's very nice. AndBut anyway, that comes out. And
(33:56):
first day I was like, Oh no,they can't do this by
themselves. They're wearingtheir headsets with their
microphones and everything. AndI can't hear anything. So I had
to plug in an adapter. So Icould hear another auxiliary
line that goes out to a littlespeaker that plays really
quietly. And so I have tolisten. And I thought, naively,
that I was going to be able tojust, you know, work on my
computer and do emails in themorning. No, I mean, it is
(34:17):
hands-on from 8am until about1:30pm.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (34:23):
You have them set up in the living
room with basically a speakergoing to your office so you can
listen to them the whole time?
Patrick Brochu (34:28):
No, I can't be in my office. I literally have
to be sitting at the table withthem. So I have my laptop in
there and I monitor emails but Ican't really I do short replies
or I just say Hey, I'll get backto you later this afternoon. And
then I go to my office around2pm I feed them lunch,
everything then they go back fora little bit and then they break
we typically give them a littlebit of tablet time or they watch
(34:51):
a movie or they color somethingthey're not disturbing my wife
because then I have to go work.
So from two to 330 they'rebasically on their own like You
know they're in the same housebut to where you neither one of
us they like we have to startour own thing. So I come out and
then I normally go from two tillsix working, that's about four
hours and then I take a dinnerbreak. And then I normally after
(35:12):
they go to bed around 830 goback into my office and I'm
there until probably 11 tomidnight, depending on what I
have going on. And then the nextday, it's like you just start
over but the thing that I wantto talk about was just the
classroom from home it's great.
I love, because in our world oftraveling so much, I have been
(35:34):
missing out on so much and thishas really opened my eyes to how
much I really missed them andhow grateful I am for them and
how awesome this is even thoughit's obviously detrimental to
our industry and everything buthow great this has been spending
this valuable time with them.
But this with the schooling is awhole nother ballgame. I'm over
it.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (35:53):
You're like, I would like to spend time
with them, before they go toschool, from 730 to 3.
Patrick Brochu (35:58):
Yeah, exactly.
It's going good. It's going --their teacher's doing a great
job, but I mean, it can't thisYeah, it's tough. It's tough.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:10):
You always play me. I say something
like, Oh my God, my dog ran awayand you're like, I just want to
bring the mood down a littlebit. My boys are home, it's just
so hard. I'm like, why did youlet me go first? Why?
Patrick Brochu (36:26):
I'm pretty sure that you just went first
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:28):
Fine then you know what? Switch it up
sound editor.
Lumbergh (36:32):
Yeah. Uh, okay, then.
Patrick Brochu (36:35):
Anyway, for all of you that are at home and have
kids doing school from home or--
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:41):
Gonna give them a Hallmark card now?
Patrick Brochu (36:42):
or anything. God love you, God bless you because
I'm seeing this firsthand. Andit's tough and thank goodness
that my employer is cool withit. I'm just like, Hey, guys, I
can't be on a conference callbefore 2pm but I'll work all
night. I don't care. It's justthat's been interesting
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:57):
You need some eye masks Thank you
everybody for joining us.
Patrick Brochu (37:03):
Thank you guys for listening. We really
appreciate it. Please do send usan email if you have a topic
that you would like for us tocover any suggestions we'd love
to hear from you.
wellseasonededucation@gmail.com
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (37:15):
Bye.
Peace out Cub Scouts
Patrick Brochu (37:18):
Peace out!
Staceyann VanHorne-Dori (37:23):
Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria. Soundediting by Rocci Doria and song
by Dr. Delight.
Welcome to Well Seasoned The Podcast.
We're back. I'm Stacey.
Patrick Brochu (00:22):
And I'm Patrick.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (00:23):
Sup, Patrick, how you doing today?
Patrick Brochu (00:25):
I'm doing really good.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (00:27):
Are you staying hydrated?
Patrick Brochu (00:28):
I am, I've actually been digging my
quarantine because I feel likeI'm drinking a little bit more
in the quarantine than Inormally would.
Staceyann VanHorne-D (00:35):
Everybody.
Patrick Brochu (00:36):
So to keep my calories down, I have been
enjoying the seltzer beverages.
Specifically today I'm doing themango flavor from Bud Light.
They're not a sponsor yet,everybody but yeah, mango. So
I'm not to say this, but Ireally enjoyed the mango. And
actually, if you want to likeclass it up a little bit, I
normally add a little bit ofmango rum to it, put it on ice,
add a sliced orange and a littlebit of orange juice that tastes
(00:59):
delicious. And if you're by apool or beach, you just blend
that sucker up. And it's like afrozen cocktail kind of drink
that no, it's pretty good. It'spretty - and it gets you there.
Staceyann VanHorne-Do (01:12):
Sometimes you need that. I would add a
jalapeno slice in it and make aspicy one. I'm drinking a local
brewery here 10Torr, and it's alavender lemonade, and it's
delicious.
Patrick Brochu (01:22):
Oh it does sound delicious.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:24):
And I would like to say yes, because
of quarantine. I have beendrinking more. That's what I'm
going to say.
Patrick Brochu (01:31):
Yeah, I don't think that anybody really
remembers at the beginning ofthe quarantine when Anthony
Fauci because everybody's like,oh, Dr. Fauci is so
knowledgeable, etc, etc. But theone thing that nobody listened
to when was when he was saying,but alcohol, it's actually worse
for what's going on differentreasons, like people putting
their guard down that it butnobody listens.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:52):
That's something I'm not about to
commit to memory. Absolutelynot.
Patrick Brochu (01:55):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (01:56):
I'm trying to stay sane you know,
Patrick Brochu (01:58):
when this whole thing was really, really
probably about April, or may, Iwould sign off my emails. And I
normally just say best. Andthere's a long story about why I
always say best and nothingelse. But I would always say
stay safe and sane. Right. So ifI didn't really know you stay
safe, stay sane, becauseeverybody was like, you know,
going crazy. Yeah. And then forpeople that I know, I would say
stay safe, sane and sober.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:22):
I never got the sober. So what
does that mean? You're assumingthat? Yeah.
Patrick Brochu (02:27):
Well, I mean, you're you're a sommelier a, you
know,
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:29):
I mean, I guess I am constantly
drinking wine in an educationalsetting
Patrick Brochu (02:35):
In an educational setting?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:36):
In an educational setting. Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick Brochu (02:38):
You're very smart to do that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:39):
Thank you. That's what I'm telling
myself. So you know what we'venever explained to people, I
just want to call you thisPepper?
Patrick Brochu (02:47):
Oh, my goodness.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (02:49):
Okay, so we're called Well Seasoned
the Podcast, we are WellSeasoned Education. And Patrick
is pepper. And I am Salt.
Patrick Brochu (02:59):
For anybody that hasn't seen us speak live yet.
Stacey and I have been touringgoing to different educational
events around the country,whether it be IMEX or at CITE
National different MPI chapters,etc. We go in speak about a
variety of topics. And we have acool website that you can check
out wellseasonededucation.com.
And the original idea of thatone was to do a podcast, but for
(03:22):
whatever reason, I pushed backon it. And then we came up with
all these topics. And I waslike, Well, you know, Stacy,
those would actually be goodtopics just to do speaking and
going to conferences. And that'show Well Seasoned Education was
born. And I don't exactlyremember why the salt and pepper
thing popped up and why the wellseasoned, but I just clicked and
(03:42):
clicked and clicked and it wasawesome. So if you go to our
website, you'll understand whywe call each other Salt and
Pepper and why it's WellSeasoned.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (03:51):
And I think it's hilarious, because
you didn't know, I'm black andhe's white. I'm Salt, he's
Pepper. And every time I have tointroduce ourselves to a group
of people, I always pausebecause I'm like, I can't
believe I'm saying this outloud. And then I introduce
ourselves and people look at usand they're like, I'm and I'm
(04:11):
like, it's as awkward for me asit is for you. Why, sweet black
baby Jesus? But anyway, let's -
Patrick Brochu (04:18):
Well you know what, okay, okay, but I don't
know if you and I have actuallytalked about this because there
was a reason. Originally, when Idid the first drawings and
again, if you guys see thewebsite, it's our heads on salt
and pepper shake. It was becauseStacey's a planner, and I'm a
supplier. So I was salt andStacey was pepper. And then
after I finished with that, Ithought, Hmm, I just made the
(04:41):
black girl the pepper. I can'tdo that. That can't be and then
I thought to myself, well, she'sStacey so Salt Stacey. And I'm
Patrick. So Patrick Pepper soI'll just be the Pepper. She'll
be the Salt that's in so weswitched around, because I was
like oh my goodness
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (04:57):
What you guys can't see is the blank
tare on my face right now. And hw I let this run through and I
m like, yeah, it
Patrick Brochu (05:06):
And our slogan with well seasoned is
delightfully. goofy, undeniablygood. And normally delightfully,
goofy goes under my name becauseI came up with kind of some of
the crazy imagery or themes toour educational programs. Yeah.
But Stacey actually came up withthe good content. So I'm
delightfully goofy, and she'sundeniably good. So yeah, that's
(05:28):
kind of the history behind that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:30):
That's Salt and Pepper, that's Well
Seasoned. I felt the need totell people that because I
almost said, let's get startedPepper.
Patrick Brochu (05:39):
Exactly.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:39):
So, back to my original statement.
Let's get started Pepper.
Patrick Brochu (05:43):
All right, let's do it.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:44):
We're just doing this podcast, and
we're gonna talk it out.
Patrick Brochu (05:47):
This is rare ones that we didn't really plan
or have a topic, we were justlike, why don't we do one?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (05:51):
Okay, I thought about this because
yesterday, Patrick called meabout virtual meetings. And we
clearly have a lot of meetingsgoing on. And we're talking
beyond the in office, person toperson meeting, we're talking
actual virtual events, right.
And the amount of work that goesinto this virtual and planning
these virtual events and howeveryone went from a complete
(06:12):
standstill in March and April,you have to think COVID, hit
right in the middle of our eventseason journey. So everyone was
just on the road busy, busybusy, then we had a little bit
of downtime, that's when Iadopted 20 plus plants, then all
of a sudden, we are now planningall these virtual events again,
(06:32):
because you know what? It'sstill event season, right? And
truth is show must go on. So wejust have to adjust to it. So
okay, let's start at the verybeginning of proposals and
quotes. I don't know if you feltit as much, but immediately went
to Okay, let's plan virtualevents, we were getting quotes.
But then nobody knew how toexecute these virtual events. So
(06:54):
it was just like, Did you findyourself putting out all these
quotes and nothing comingthrough?
Patrick Brochu (07:00):
So my timeframe was a little bit different from
a supplier perspective, andspecifically, technical
supplier. So somebody that doesaudio visual production going
into the space, we did haveexperience in virtual prior. But
even that experience versus whatwe're doing now is totally
different. What I will say is,it was around March, I would say
(07:21):
the last show that canceled wasprobably March 15, or something
like that. We had a meeting atthe office, and it was like,
okay, we're going to close downthe office because of everything
going on for a little while. Andit was all hands on everybody at
home, join any webinar, anythingthat you can do to start our
pivot. We knew at that point, wehad a pivot that had to happen.
(07:42):
And then all the quoting startedby midway through April, I
probably had 40 to 50 quotes outthere just floating, you know--
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (07:49):
That soon?
Patrick Brochu (07:50):
Yes, yes.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (07:51):
Wow.
Patrick Brochu (07:52):
At that point, we were quoting two people that
didn't know what they needed todo. They didn't know what dates
they didn't know, anything. Itwas like, I don't even know if
this is going to be a one daymeeting a five day meeting, I
don't know, our quotes, werejust all over the place.
Because, you know, we were beingasked all these things. And we
were like, okay, here are someranges, putting those out with
(08:13):
some capabilities and someimagery. And then we didn't hear
anything for a while. But morequotes were just coming in. I
remember having a conversationwith my CEO, he was like, I've
never been so busy in my entire40 plus year career and made no
money. It's like it was crazy,because we were all so busy. And
then on top of that, probablygoing more into May, it was
(08:33):
like, okay, all the happy hoursand all the virtual networking
events were happening. And thatwas actually good for my
company. Because we were able toget our name out there, do some
branding. And then we had morequotes coming in. We had a few
that booked over the summer. Butit wasn't until I would say
probably into June that all of asudden, it was like the
floodgates like, can you tightenthis up a little bit? Here's my
actual specs now. Yeah, dun,dun, dun, dun. And then we move
(08:56):
into August and here inSeptember, and things started
booking. And it was ironicbecause in our industry, the
joke is that everything alwaysis in you know, one set period
of time. And it's like, why,like space things out. But all
these events were happening allon the same time period, we
found ourselves, okay, we knowthat we could do up to so many
events at one time, executedperfectly. And then we started
(09:17):
having to turn people away thatcame back and said, Hey, you
quoted on this for me over thesummer. Well, we've booked that
time now. And we no longer canfulfill that because we're
booked, booked solid.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (09:27):
And from the planners point of view.
I know when this all hit in,I'll talk from my corporate
life. Everyone went into extremepanic mode. We were in the
middle of launching. So it waslike, Oh my God, we have to plan
something. We have to plansomething right now. Get quotes
for virtual meetings, figure itout, Stacy. So you get all these
quotes. And you go into planningthese virtual meetings, but
(09:50):
nobody knows how to plan avirtual meeting. Right? So it's
like, Okay, how are you going tokeep their attention? What's the
agenda going to be? Do you havea presentation because we were
talking about launching productsat trade shows. And so how are
we going to bring that tradeshowexperience into the virtual
platform? how exactly are wegoing to do it, and then it was
like, everyone's optimistic. Andthen it was, you have no money
(10:13):
cut. And so you went fromplanning to being like, Wait a
second, we're not making money,we're bleeding. We can't even
put this money back intoplanning a virtual event, it was
a hard pause. And so I thinkwhat happened on our side is
that we started planning a lotof virtual meetings on teams and
zoom and go to meetings, and youstart seeing these numbers pick
(10:37):
up, right, you start seeing thatmaybe if you're planning this in
person event, you might havegotten 100 people, but now
you're getting the attention of1000 people, because guess what,
they don't have to leave home,they can log on, and you start
seeing attendance pick up, youstart seeing engagement, you
know, people are emailing afterthat. And it's like, Wait a
second, this can actually work.
Now let's get back into it. Sothat August, September came
(11:00):
around, and we're, we were like,Okay, let's do this, let's
actually get an event on thebooks with a proper company. So,
you know, on my side, in termsof planning, I find myself
having to tell people that justbecause it's a virtual meeting
doesn't mean it could be in sixor eight hour meeting. I mean, I
don't know if you're fightingthat in your side. But I'm like,
(11:20):
dude, I can't keep yourattention for 30 minutes right
now. And you think you're goingto keep someone's attention for
eight hours? It's so hard doingthat.
Patrick Brochu (11:30):
100%, we're seeing that across the board. We
have people that because of thecost. And that's another thing
that we can talk about, butbecause of the cost of it,
they're like, Okay, well, whydon't we consolidate it down to
a one day meeting? We're goingto do it for eight in trust me
10 hours, whatever. Okay, well,that's good. But are you
expecting different people tohop on at different points? No,
everybody on for the whole day?
Well, okay. And I believe it wasMPI global, that put out a study
(11:52):
based on you know, this, andthey're really suggesting more
like Ted Talks, like for youractual keynote. So it's like,
okay, break it up into 15 minutesegments, you know, maybe a 30
minute segment here and there.
But you know, beyond that peoplearen't gonna pay attention. And
you know, maybe you have a fewof those day and break it up
over three days, and you do fourhours, four hours, four hours,
something like that. But as faras like a full on long meeting,
(12:14):
it's not the same, I tell myclients to think of it not as a
meeting. And I think that's themistake that some people are
getting into, they're thinkingof it as like a traditional
meeting, like they wouldn't haveballroom where you have
everybody all day going in andout of segments, taking those
coffee breaks, having thosehuman interactions. So you're
missing all of that. So it's notreally the same. What I always
say is, it's more likeinteractive TV, if you're gonna
(12:35):
sit there and watch your TV, howlong are you gonna watch your TV
before you need to get up andhave a break or do something,
you know, people go to the movietheater here in the United
States, in another part of theworld, not as much. But in the
United States, people go likethat was the best movie ever.
But it was too long. Well, youknow, they had to do that to get
off the continent, it's the samething with your meeting, if
you're talking about a meeting,that's going to be that long,
people aren't going to payattention. So you really need to
(12:56):
break it up.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (12:57):
You have to also be smart about your
agenda, too, you have to besmart about how you're planning
it because it's going to be TedTalk style, you don't have the
time, it's a different level ofengagement than having someone
sit in the ballroom. So let'stalk about common misperceptions
combined with some tips andtricks. Let's start with costs.
And I'm going to speak about itfrom the planner side, people
(13:19):
think that these virtualmeetings are going to be
significantly cheaper than inperson, the truth is, yes, you
don't have the overhead, youmight not have the food and
beverage, we'll get to why it'sa might, you are probably going
to have less speakers. So it isgoing to be cheaper or more cost
efficient on that side. But whenyou talk about AV, think about
(13:42):
when you have to live Skypesomeone into your ballroom, that
is a huge cost to make sure thatthat internet is stable, and
that you can do that this is ahuge cost. And so I know when I
went to the powers that be on myside to say it's going to cost X
amount, they were like, We don'tunderstand we do this on zoom
for free. And you know, I had tobe the voice of reality, aka the
(14:04):
controversial one. And I'm like,Hey, have you seen your last
meeting that you did on zoom?
That's not what you want torepresent for a larger meeting.
So when you go to budget, this,I would say, look at what your
AV costs are for a three daymeeting, and you're probably
going to come in around the samerate. I mean, it's going to be a
little less. Is it a faux pasfor me to kind of talk about
general price?
Patrick Brochu (14:26):
No, no.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (14:27):
Yeah, like, for a day meeting in a
virtual conference, you'reprobably looking at anywhere
between 25 to 30,000 per day,right? And that, if you're
lucky, includes pre productionand two days or three days of
testing, as well as the liveevent day. It's not a $5,000
(14:50):
meeting, if that's what you'regoing into this thinking, please
do get that out of your mind. Ifyou're looking at a $5,000
virtual setup that's verydifferent.
Patrick Brochu (14:58):
That sounds about right. If you have a
middle of the ground meetingyet, it's probably about the
same AV wise, if you have a muchlarger production, and I'm
talking like huge stage set,big, big speaker presenters
coming in, stuff like that. Ifeel like those people, their
cost is actually going to belower than what they experienced
in general session.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (15:19):
Right?
Right.
Patrick Brochu (15:20):
Because of certain things, they don't have
to pay the extra for the speakerto come in, they're able to zoom
them in or so you have some ofthat cost is lost there. And
there's not a huge cost when yougo from 500 people to 1000
people to 2000 people, there'snot a huge, huge cost
differential. So for thosepeople, they're actually winning
middle of the ground, I wouldsay they're probably coming in
about the same. If you're usedto spending like 50 to $100,000,
(15:43):
for like a 500 person meeting,you're probably going to be
about the same Yeah, into avirtual however, the people that
are really going to be sufferingand are suffering are the people
that have the lower budgetevents. Yes, in the lower budget
events. As far as AV goes, like,if you're just used to you're in
a nice high quality hotel, butyou're used to that podium
microphone screen kit. Andyou're used to having one AV
(16:05):
tech sitting there with you allday, when you go virtual, you're
having to add a lot more thingsthat you're not used to adding
because you have to take care ofall that for you. So those are
the people that their cost ismuch higher than they were
expecting.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (16:16):
To go along with that. A tip when you
get these quotes is to make surethat your quote includes those
pre production days, I can'tstress that enough. When we just
did a meeting on teams. For ourcustomer group. It took us about
a week to go through and testpresentations, make sure the
presenter knows how to presentso you don't look like you're
(16:39):
scripted. It's so important tohave those pre production days.
And I know a lot of people thinkoh, we can skip that. Because we
can do that ourselves. If youcan't. And along with those pre
production days comes the prerecording, you want to make sure
those keynote speakers, thoseimportant presentations, you
might want to pre record them,you might not want them to be
(17:01):
live just because you want tomitigate any outages or
challenges that would happen. Soit's really important to include
those pre recorded days. Do youhave a lot of people on your
end, Patrick, that one it kindof skip that?
Patrick Brochu (17:14):
Yeah, you want to pre record as much as
possible, because you're justtaking a lot of the guessing out
for exactly the reasons thatyou're talking about whether
it's an internet outage, a poweroutage, we had a speaker on that
was in Puerto Rico when ahurricane was going through, and
we lost their signal this pastyear. So luckily, that one was
on a pre recorded thing. So wejust rescheduled it and we're
able to do it. But what about ifthat happened on the actual show
(17:34):
day, you're gonna want tomitigate as much as possible. I
always tell people, hey, if thisparticular speaker presenter
doesn't have a actualinteraction with the attendees,
there's no reason because we'regoing to do what is known as a
look live. So it will look likepeople think it's live, but you
don't have to be live, you know,unless I'm actually or something
like that.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (17:52):
Yeah, the reason that's so important,
because that's something I'mfighting right now is everyone
thinks, oh, I need to berecorded. I want to speak live
because it's a live event. Areyou taking Q&A Are you
interacting? Why are you puttingyourself in a situation where
maybe you're going to stumbleover abominable snowman can't
say that word, bom -- I don'tput myself in a situation where
(18:16):
I know I struggle over thisword. Or I know that when it
comes to these facts andstatistics, I need to be looking
at a screen or I need it righthere, pre record that because
talking about looking live, youcan play your video as if it's
live, and you have a live Q&Agoing on at the sides. Now
you're interacting with peopleas the video is going on. And so
(18:36):
it takes a little bit ofconvincing. But it's really,
really important to let themknow you're avoiding so many
things that can happen by prerecording. Another thing that
goes into the price that peopledon't think about is the number
of people on the back end thatit takes to actually put a show
on live. And I think that peoplethink that there's two people in
(19:00):
the room that Yeah, press playand pause. And that's it. How
big is your crew?
Patrick Brochu (19:05):
I would say not the most basic but the majority
of the virtual shows that we'redoing. There's about seven
people behind the scenes thatare running it live, we've had
some virtual shows that willhave 11-12 people. And that's
normally if we're using like astudio, we have some extra
camera operators, etc. But yeah,I mean, you're you got to think
about it just like you're goingbackstage at your actual show.
(19:26):
And this is a very technicalthing. You have your main
switcher, just like in regularaudio visual, that person is
basically taking all the contentand putting it out and
condensing it together andputting out that one image and
that person's going to anoperator that's running the
encoders and the encoders areactually what are taking those
images, compressing them andthen putting them up live to the
audience. You're going to have asound engineer with all those
(19:48):
feeds coming in, even if wedon't have the person in the
studio, all those audio feedsthat are coming in from whatever
we're using to communicate withspeakers and have speakers
coming in from any playbackgraphics. So you're gonna have
that audio person. Anotherposition that you will have is
your playback position playbackin the audio visual world is
whoever's running video. So ifyou have any videos like a
(20:08):
commercial or something thatneeds to play, or if we have a
pre recorded session that wasrecorded, that person will be
responsible for making sure thatthose flags, then we have an
operator of a system that wouldmanage all of the speakers
coming in. A lot of times on theback end, it's something as
simple as a goto meeting, or aWebEx, Skype, or even just a
Zoom, and those signals arecoming in to that center person.
(20:31):
And then they're putting it backout to the platform. So that's
five. Six would be the technicaldirector, and seven would be the
stage manager and stage managersjob is to communicate with the
speakers and get them up. Okay,you're coming up next, etc.
Let's work with this person. Sothat's seven person crew right
there. And like you said,Stacey, a lot of people think
that it's just two people in theroom. And I'm going, I didn't
(20:53):
mean, technical, but I felt likepeople need to know.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (20:55):
I feel as though people need to hear
how smart you are. So it'simportant that people hear all
of that, because they need toknow that it's not a two man
job. And when you're putting ona professional virtual event,
it's going to take a crew ofpeople much like if you're in
person, so that's talking aboutthe numbers and the number of 25
(21:20):
to 30,000, although thatincludes labor also includes the
license for the platform for youto actually host your meeting,
right?
Patrick Brochu (21:28):
Depending on the platform. Yeah, depending on
because some platforms arereally expensive, some are less.
And that's another thing to talkabout when I was talking earlier
about the timeframe that we wereworking in earlier this summer,
is that right? Now, a lot ofthese virtual platforms,
especially the higher end ones,you can't even get a meeting
with them because they're backedup. And I'm not going to name
names of particular platforms.
But there are some there's someclients have been talking with.
(21:51):
And they're like, Hey, you know,I just did an event with so and
so. And I did that because Icouldn't even get in a meeting
for three months with this otherplatform that I was really
interested in.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (22:02):
I had to explain that to my group,
when they wanted to changedates, I told them, it's not
that easy. The same as when youtry to book a hotel in the
middle of event season. Andthey're booked the same things
happening on the virtualplatform side. And they were
shocked when I said that wedon't understand. It's just a
(22:24):
platform. Just put it oninternet. That I don't know how
it works bruv.
Patrick Brochu (22:29):
Stacy, there's this kind of transitions? Well,
because there's something that Isaid even before all of this in
our industry. And for whateverreason the planners, they're
very educated on certain thingslike they know everything that
there is to know aboutattrition, you know, room rates,
food and beverage, even dealingwith dmcs or contracting
(22:51):
directly with individualproviders, like furniture rental
companies, except they knoweverything. But when it comes
for whatever reason to audiovisual, I've always said that it
feels like foreign language,we're dealing in an orient, it's
just as frustrating as it is onthe planner. And because on our
end we're dealing with I don'tmean anything derogatory about
us, but an uneducated buyerbecause right buyer doesn't know
(23:12):
what they don't know, I can'ttell you how many times I've
hopped on phone calls withpeople and it's, well, this
person's 30-$40,000 less thanyou and I don't understand why
well, okay, is this apples toapples? Yeah, well, let's
actually go through this. And Ihave an actual example. I did
the quote for two days show twodays of pre production for
virtual show. And this personwas telling me that the other
(23:34):
bidders were $30,000, less thanme, we actually went through it.
And it turns out, there was nopre production at all from the
other two companies. And theother two companies were only
quoting on a one day-
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (23:44):
Pre production is insurance, people.
It is insurance that you'llactually use.
Patrick Brochu (23:49):
That person didn't even realize that, you
know, until I was like, hey,these aren't apples to apples.
It's a totally differentballgame. And they wanted me to
quote based on those. And Ipushed back just saying, Listen,
if you don't have that preproduction, how is this whole
thing going to happen? How arewe going to rehearse anything,
but our clients and our plannersin today's world are more on
edge and it's not their fault?
It's deal, we're thrown intosomething that's brand new, but
(24:10):
they don't know what they don'tknow.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (24:12):
And let me say this, I just said it.
Pre production is yourinsurance, and it is insurance
you're going to use. That'snumber one. And I see it on the
planner side. I think thatpeople think, okay, I'm booking
the hotel, I'm booking, AV, I'mbooking transportation, I'm
booking entertainment, whatever.
It's their job to know whatthey're doing. I don't need to
know that. And I encourageeveryone to not do that. And to
(24:35):
really sit down and talk to yourvendors and your partners and
understand what's going on. Iknow that that has helped me
throughout the years sittingbackstage with the crew and
seeing what they're doing.
hearing their struggle whensomebody comes five minutes
before they go on stage with apresentation or during the
(24:58):
quoting process. Don't just getthe quote and scroll to the
bottom of the page and go, it'sin my budget, sign and return,
you might actually want to talkabout why exactly do you have a
person here? I don't understandthis, ask the questions. And
Patrick, I might be speaking foryou or for suppliers in general,
I don't think you mind whensomeone actually takes the time
(25:19):
to ask you that question justmeans that they're further
engaged and want to make surethey're putting on a proper
event.
Patrick Brochu (25:25):
I would definitely prefer that to the
alternative, which I find thathappens all too often is I'll go
back Hey, just following up onbla bla, bla quoted out, you
know, never heard back or, andthen you know, you finally get
in touch to person, oh, we wantsomebody else because of cost or
whatever. Well, okay, what couldwe have done differently? Well,
you had this and what was thereason that you had that? And
then it's like, why do youThat's why, before then, and
(25:48):
yeah, and or, you know, maybewe're going off of an old RFP
that they just sent us, but theyto give somebody else the most
up to date information. Or atthe same point, they didn't
realize that the other personwasn't including something that
was asked for in the RFP thatnow they realized that we had
that they didn't know that thatcost is changing anyway. You
know, that happens a lot.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (26:06):
Yeah.
So we talked about the contract,we talked about what goes into
it, let's talk about furtherengagement of your attendees on
virtual platforms, how can Iengage my customers or my
attendees, and there's so manydifferent ways. Just because
you're planning a five hourevent doesn't mean it's five
hours of non stop speaking,please, people include breaks,
(26:29):
especially during this time,when people are working from
home and kids are home and youhave all these distractions
going on. Please do not plan afive to six hour straight
meeting, I promise you, no oneis going to retain that
information and don't do it. Andyou could say to me, Stacy, I
(26:51):
have a limited budget, I can'tplan that much. And I bet you
you have talent within yourteam. So we're looking at
planning, cooking demos,planning our wine tasting, we're
actually planning an exercisebreak in the meeting. So it
could be just Hey, we found thison YouTube. And everyone's going
to do this exercise at the sametime. Or we have a yoga
(27:13):
instructor. She's going to teacha class to the group or a break.
We've spoken to Meir who doesamazing virtual events. He does
awards, he does virtual photobooths. There's different ways
to engage your attendees. Haveyou seen any creative things on
your site, Patrick?
Patrick Brochu (27:32):
One that's kind of cool. Coming up, I didn't
come up with this somebody elsedid. But it is a virtual wine
tasting event. And this is afundraising events that have a
gala, they decided you buytickets, they're going to send
you a three pack or five pack ofwine or six pack whatever of
wine. You can literally openthose bottles at your house and
they're having celebrities onthe other side who are going to
(27:55):
be tasting it talking about itwith a Sommelier. Again, when I
was saying earlier, it's less ofa meeting less of a gala, but it
is interactive TV. Now you'regoing through the TV screen
talking about this wine thatyou're tasting and watching big
time celebrities tasting theexact same thing that you're
tasting at home.
Staceyann VanHorne-Dor (28:12):
Exactly.
Patrick Brochu (28:13):
Think outside the box people.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (28:14):
Right, and you're not going to get me
not engaged in a wine tasting.
Patrick Brochu (28:18):
No 100%. And I and I've seen other things that
people are doing. There'sanother one, it is an incentive
and they are sending everybodystuff at home food wise that can
be delivered. So they can alsosay the same thing at home. I've
seen bigger conferences offeringinstead of that, and Uber Eats
gift cards. So everybody Yeah,yeah. He and not have to cook at
(28:40):
home so that it's up to them.
They can order whatever theywant. Yeah, so that they're all
engaged. So I've seeninteractive ways.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (28:46):
Yeah.
And you can do that. And trustme, people will appreciate it.
Because especially if you'reblocking their calendar, even
for four hours, they now don'thave to think about lunch or
meal, it's already provided.
Maybe you offer 15 minutebreaks. So somebody could look
at a menu place to order, evenif you came in. And I know it's
a lot of money, if you thinkabout Uber Eats, but even if you
(29:07):
came in at $100 per person perday, that is still significantly
less than what you would pay ata hotel. And so it's nice when
companies do that. And they'llsay, okay, we're gonna not only
provide you a meal, but for thenext two days, we know we're
going to keep your attention,you might not be able to get off
and cook dinner for the familybecause now you've finished a
(29:28):
meeting but you still have workto do. You can order dinner on
us for the family. So there'sjust so many different ways of
engaging your attendees and youdon't have to worry about it
being Stacey we have four hoursand we have four hours and 30
minutes of content. I don't havetime to give somebody a break.
It doesn't have to be long. 10minute breaks are appreciated.
(29:52):
It kind of resets your mind abio break. You can go to the
kitchen and get your smartsweets I'm eating smart, sweet,
delicious. And then it comesback, but it's appreciated on
that side.
Patrick Brochu (30:04):
We've covered a lot, but I feel like there's
still a lot to go.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (30:07):
So if you have any questions and you
want to learn more, email us at
wellseasonededucation@gmail.com
I think it's time for some
paprika. I like seeing paprika.
Patrick Brochu (30:30):
Stacey, can you remind everybody what is the
paprika that we always?
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (30:33):
Okay, so it's our segment about
nothing much like paprika,although I really do like smoked
paprika, and I put it oneverything. But it's a segment
about nothing. It's just youknow, we give you a lot of
information you take it in andwe just want to leave on a note
of Hey, what's good in yourhood. So Patrick, do you have
(30:54):
anything that you would like toadd a little paprika on? Oh, I
have a paprika. So my dog's alunatic. Every day when we walk
him, we always go all the wayout in the desert. Yesterday he
was whining and complaining togo for a walk. He does not bark
except when he wants to go for awalk and so, we took him out for
a walk and we get a little bitfurther out there and somebody's
(31:18):
shooting which let's just sayit's a red flag warning people.
Why are you shooting right nowbut you know what? I'll let this
pass. My dog stops. Here's allthe gunshots. Immediately he
starts crying. I have a pitbullboxer. He's a punkest pitbull
boxer I have. So we go we walkin, I always take him off the
leash because it's open desertand he stays by me. It's fine.
(31:41):
Well, they start shooting and mydog takes off like Usain Bolt
runs, maybe a quarter of a milejust keeps going. And I'm like,
Oh, no, I can't chase him. Roccican't chase him. And I'm
standing there all Milo No,Milo, come back. And he looks --
(32:02):
he does not turn around. He justkeeps running. And living in
Nevada, open carry I'm likesomebody is gonna shoot my dog.
So as I'm screaming for my dog,he finally turns around and
stares at me runs towards me.
Here's more gunshots, turnsaround, runs back and I'm like,
I'm about to lose my dog. Idon't know what to do. Well,
eventually he did come back tome and I was able to put a leash
(32:24):
on him. But I'm gonna call himHussein from now on because
Usain Bolt took off. LikeRocci's like, I don't know what
you want me to do. I can't chasedog. And I'm like, Well, I mean,
you could have at least like,yelled at him do something. And
he's all Yeah, whatever. Little,bastard. But I almost lost my
dog yesterday. What about yourpaprika?
Patrick Brochu (32:48):
Well, there's one thing that's been on my
mind. And it's been it's, youknow, it's taken up my entire
life lately. And that is my kidsdoing virtual Elementary School.
In my living room, for those ofyou that don't know --
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (33:04):
you need to see how somber he got
just no
Patrick Brochu (33:06):
yeah. So I so I have five year old twins just
starting kindergarten for thefirst time. And my wife is a
high school teacher. And so inone room of the house, and the
guest room that's beentransformed into her gym slash
schoolroom. She's in thereteaching and she starts probably
(33:27):
about 8am. And she goes till3-3:30. And my kids, they start
at 7 (33:33):
30-8am in the living room, and I have this desk that we
purchased that is on wheels, androlls out and then opens up. So
it takes up the whole livingroom. Because there's two of
them in there have twocomputers, whatever. And being
the AV guy, I have all thesecords and wires and everything.
And it's all It's very nice. AndBut anyway, that comes out. And
(33:56):
first day I was like, Oh no,they can't do this by
themselves. They're wearingtheir headsets with their
microphones and everything. AndI can't hear anything. So I had
to plug in an adapter. So Icould hear another auxiliary
line that goes out to a littlespeaker that plays really
quietly. And so I have tolisten. And I thought, naively,
that I was going to be able tojust, you know, work on my
computer and do emails in themorning. No, I mean, it is
(34:17):
hands-on from 8am until about1:30pm.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (34:23):
You have them set up in the living
room with basically a speakergoing to your office so you can
listen to them the whole time?
Patrick Brochu (34:28):
No, I can't be in my office. I literally have
to be sitting at the table withthem. So I have my laptop in
there and I monitor emails but Ican't really I do short replies
or I just say Hey, I'll get backto you later this afternoon. And
then I go to my office around2pm I feed them lunch,
everything then they go back fora little bit and then they break
we typically give them a littlebit of tablet time or they watch
(34:51):
a movie or they color somethingthey're not disturbing my wife
because then I have to go work.
So from two to 330 they'rebasically on their own like You
know they're in the same housebut to where you neither one of
us they like we have to startour own thing. So I come out and
then I normally go from two tillsix working, that's about four
hours and then I take a dinnerbreak. And then I normally after
(35:12):
they go to bed around 830 goback into my office and I'm
there until probably 11 tomidnight, depending on what I
have going on. And then the nextday, it's like you just start
over but the thing that I wantto talk about was just the
classroom from home it's great.
I love, because in our world oftraveling so much, I have been
(35:34):
missing out on so much and thishas really opened my eyes to how
much I really missed them andhow grateful I am for them and
how awesome this is even thoughit's obviously detrimental to
our industry and everything buthow great this has been spending
this valuable time with them.
But this with the schooling is awhole nother ballgame. I'm over
it.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (35:53):
You're like, I would like to spend time
with them, before they go toschool, from 730 to 3.
Patrick Brochu (35:58):
Yeah, exactly.
It's going good. It's going --their teacher's doing a great
job, but I mean, it can't thisYeah, it's tough. It's tough.
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:10):
You always play me. I say something
like, Oh my God, my dog ran awayand you're like, I just want to
bring the mood down a littlebit. My boys are home, it's just
so hard. I'm like, why did youlet me go first? Why?
Patrick Brochu (36:26):
I'm pretty sure that you just went first
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:28):
Fine then you know what? Switch it up
sound editor.
Lumbergh (36:32):
Yeah. Uh, okay, then.
Patrick Brochu (36:35):
Anyway, for all of you that are at home and have
kids doing school from home or--
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:41):
Gonna give them a Hallmark card now?
Patrick Brochu (36:42):
or anything. God love you, God bless you because
I'm seeing this firsthand. Andit's tough and thank goodness
that my employer is cool withit. I'm just like, Hey, guys, I
can't be on a conference callbefore 2pm but I'll work all
night. I don't care. It's justthat's been interesting
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (36:57):
You need some eye masks Thank you
everybody for joining us.
Patrick Brochu (37:03):
Thank you guys for listening. We really
appreciate it. Please do send usan email if you have a topic
that you would like for us tocover any suggestions we'd love
to hear from you.
wellseasonededucation@gmail.com
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria (37:15):
Bye.
Peace out Cub Scouts
Patrick Brochu (37:18):
Peace out!
Staceyann VanHorne-Dori (37:23):
Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and
Staceyann VanHorne-Doria. Soundediting by Rocci Doria and song
by Dr. Delight.
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