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Virtual Conferences: Ready for Prime Time?

May 8th, 2012

The National Real Estate OnLine Convention and Exposition in April 2002 is typically cited as the world’s first “virtual conference.” Produced by the Real Estate CyberSpace Society, it attracted 10,000 pre-registered real estate professionals from 28 countries and drew another 15,000 “online walk-ins” over the event’s five days.

In 2009, one Microsoft division made its annual industry analyst event a virtual one. Sessions streamed over the web, meetings between executives and customers took place via tablet PC rentals, and the keynote featured slides with LiveMeeting. Surely one of the premier tech firms of all time would revolutionize the virtual conference, right? Wrong. Seven years after the first one, virtual conferences just weren’t catching on, although they’re starting to now.

Video Conference

Psychology, not video conferencing technology

After a decade of declining prices for videoconferencing technology – plasma display rentals, wall-sized screens and media-friendly computers – it turns out that it’s not technology, but psychology, that is holding up progress. User forums and corporate networks have their share of rants, raves and predictions (“Real-time 3D full-wall HD surround-sound conferencing coming soon!”) but much of the talk is about “intangibles.”

A common refrain is that there is “no substitute for personal interaction,” and that talking is still more efficient than iMessaging with an iPad rental. People pay attention to much more than the words they’re hearing, too, reading body language, interpreting “vibes” and observing how folks relate to one another. If you reflect on the number of intriguing conversations you’ve had in hallways, elevators and lunch lines, you know the intrinsic value of informal conversations.

Characteristics of virtual conferences

Virtual conferences save on obvious costs like air fare, hotels, dining and so forth, but you will still need event production rentals – just different ones than usual. Still, before there can be successful, smooth-running virtual conferences, they have to evolve the following characteristics:

• Excellent planning and execution. A virtual conference is a big, complicated production. Don’t underestimate the effort.

• Fail-safe technology. Streaming media is great, but everything needs to work regardless of what the attendees bring to the event (MacBook, PC laptop, smart phone).

• New model. There is still no consensus on the best model for virtual conferencing, although “informative” and “interactive” are two buzzwords that echo across the Internet. (Ideas, anyone?)

Perhaps in 2012 we will finally see the emergence of a workable virtual conferencing model. Most people need to be engaged and drawn into the action, but how this will get done virtually is still a mystery. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted as “virtual” turns into “reality” in the conference industry.

Here’s a dose of reality for you: CRE is your one-stop shop for trade show convention rentals, high-tech and high-powered post-production gear, potent laptops and desktop PCs, Macs, mass storage and more. A single call or e-mail, or a trip to our Quick Rental Quote page, puts an expert Account Executive to work solving your problem. Call now!

6 Top Marketing Tips During a Recession

April 19th, 2012

In a slow economy, management takes a hard look at all expenses. Some firms choose to rent laptops rather than buy them, and make other cost-effective changes, but should resist zeroing out the marketing budget. It seems counter-intuitive, but a recession can be an excellent time to inject some fresh thinking into your marketing efforts.

Here are six top tips for marketing in recessionary times.

1. Do an e-mail newsletter. Every modern iMac and Windows PC has an e-mail program with easy-to-use templates (“stationery”), so you don’t need design chops. Keeping the message short, focused and useful increases the likelihood that it will be forwarded (a good thing). However you assemble your mailing list, put an opt-out message in the footer of the newsletter.

2. Revisit your Rolodex. If there are still names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses buried in your business card pile and old paper-based Rolodex, it’s way past time to get them into your computer’s Address Book. Make a habit of visiting your (digital) Rolodex regularly.

3. Update and upgrade. When business is slow, especially in small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), some “free time” should be invested in your online presence. Whether you’re using Facebook as a business portal, working the “circles” in Google+ or doing a blog on the new all-in-one multitouch display PC, the Internet has a nearly limitless number of ways to connect, promote – and prevail!

4. Volunteer and contribute. Whether you are a creative pro that uses our AJA Io HD rental in post-production, or a CPA that “counts the beans” in the company coffers, you have valuable skills. Consider volunteering, on a one-shot or ongoing basis, at a local nonprofit. Share your corporate know-how, lend a helping hand and meet all kinds of people. You never know what it might lead to.

5. Start a breakfast meeting. One or two breakfasts each week – with former clients, current colleagues, even future competitors – can keep you abreast of potential opportunities. Take along a MacBook for written and/or verbal notes, and if you keep things interesting and useful, you could be moving from a table for two to the banquet room real soon.

6. Search offline, too. If you save all your e-mail (by archiving or using Gmail), and hang on to Post-It notes and inked-up napkins, then you should search all of it – there’s no telling what might spark a new idea. Notions that didn’t make sense at a certain time or in a certain context might be just right for today’s – or tomorrow’s – challenges.

To meet your big challenges – in post-production, at trade shows or with corporate presentations – you need the best tools and techniques. Simply call or e-mail CRE Rentals and an experienced Account Executive will assist you, or use the Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need. We’re always ready with the right solution – right now!

8 Tips to Polish your Presentation

March 22nd, 2012

Microsoft PowerPoint is the leading software for creating slide presentations, but the tips here can be applied to any workflow using open source, commercial or proprietary software, on a Windows PC or an iMac. Of the many commonsense tips for writing, designing and delivering an effective presentation, the top eight are below for your consideration.

1. Key phrases, essential info – Use key phrases and essential information only. Repeat key phrases from your top three or four points. Text should be short and sweet with a maximum of three bullets, as “negative” surrounding space makes it easy to read.

2. Go with the flow – Make your presentation easy to follow by having the title at the top of the slides. If you are using one of CRE’s Audience Response Systems rentals you should confirm with your audience that they can see the slide copy from the back rows.

3. No font follies – Use fonts designed for reading, like Verdana, Arial or Times New Roman. Use two fonts at most, one for headings and one for copy (no hard-to-read script). A MacBook Pro, or any other late-model Mac, will have excellent typefaces for all uses.

4. Simple language and NO CAPS! – On slides, punctuation marks diminish readability, and thus understanding, as do obscure words and all capital letters. All caps is also interpreted in our Internet culture as SHOUTING, but all it screams is, “low class!”

5. Play it safe– Themes or templates must be appropriate for the target viewers. For business, a no-nonsense layout is best. If you display your slides on a large-screen plasma display rentals, you can use any colors you like and get bright, clear, lifelike images.

6. Use images often – All kinds of images “speak louder than words” – charts, photos, graphs, even embedded video – and help keep your audience tuned in. Don’t do too many text-only slides.

7. Don’t overdo it – A reasonable number of slides ensures that the presentation will not be too long. One slide per minute is a common benchmark. Use digital recorder rentals to get your spoken presentation in sync with the slides.

8. Keep it simple – Transition effects and animation can add some emphasis (and fun), but the slides are visual aids for your presentation, not the focal point. Use a single transition style consistently.

If you have an upcoming presentation, call or e-mail an experienced CRE Account Executive and talk about displays, audio visual (AV) equipment rentals and everything else you may need. Already know what you need? Visit our Quick Rental Quote form and you’ll be on your way in no time!

Green Tech Update

March 6th, 2012

The green movement is no longer a fringe phenomenon, but a mainstream business strategy and lifestyle choice. One study shows that 56% of Americans are willing to pay a premium for green electronics that use less energy and are easily recycled. Thus, saving energy while reducing waste is a goal for manufacturers of tech devices, from the high-powered render farms that media professionals rely on, to new laptops that weigh (and cost) less all the time.

A comprehensive “green tech strategy” is unique for every product, addressing energy, cost, waste and sustainability in all phases of its life – R&D, design, manufacturing, marketing and sales, usage and disposal/recycling. Lenovo’s new ThinkPad laptops, for instance, use 10-25% recycled plastic. Apple products, from the entire Macintosh line to CRE’s popular iPad rentals, are designed with great attention to raw materials, advanced manufacturing techniques and easy recycling.

Multiple solutions

Companies are creating both hardware and software solutions. New energy-efficient desktops can run on one-third of the power a four-year-old PC requires. Intel’s new chips are more powerful without using more energy, like the one that appears destined for an updated Mac Pro. There are various methods for keeping computers in low-energy mode until users need more “juice” for tough tasks.

Even mundane products like office equipment rentals get the energy-smart treatment. Hewlett-Packard and other firms are making great progress with printers, scanners and “all-in-ones” that snap out of sleep mode quickly when needed, then go back to snoozing until needed again. Various new energy sources and strategies are being studied, but the best ways to reduce the overall eco-impact of computing are common sense and low-tech:

plug computers, monitors and printers into a single power strip and turn them off when not in use;
set your monitor to darken during inactivity, not run a bright, watt-hungry light show;
keep air slots unblocked, don’t let dust build up inside your PC and “keep it cool” computer-wise; and
extend the useful life of high-tech devices with proper care and maintenance.

We’re getting there

Tech firms need to consider environmental impact when crafting IT solutions and developing products for long, useful lives. Whether it’s a specialized Xserve RAID or something as common as a PC desktop computer rental, when high-tech devices reach the end of their usefulness, manufacturers and retailers work together to ensure that reusable components are properly reclaimed and recycled. Cradle to grave environmental responsibility? Not quite, but we’re getting there!

CRE takes its commitment to the environment seriously, the same way we take every customer question, concern or need. Got a conference coming up where you need to make a big splash with big plasma display rentals? Need some energy-efficient iMac rentals for that new project? One call or e-mail puts an experienced Account Executive on the job for you. If you know what you need, visit the Quick Rental Quote form and be on your way in minutes!

Challenge Your Tech Preconceptions

February 9th, 2012

A major problem facing businesses today is the tendency to hang on to poorly conceived, mistaken and/or outdated procedures. With every imaginable kind of firm now computerized and net-connected, there is always plenty of confusion and controversy over what to do as technology continues its huge leaps forward. (We recently blogged about the CES 2012 conference that showcased many of the newest “leapers.”)

We’ll use a common IT task – saving system reports (individually or en masse), as an example. An IT professional blogged recently about reviewing his two-year-old “best practices” documentation for saving these reports, or logs. He realized that the tasks had evolved over time and were not as described. He thought the documentation should reflect what was really happening. Good idea, right? Post It

“Good” is not always “right”

It may make sense from a “best practices” perspective to revise the documentation, but this assumes that what is happening is what’s supposed to be happening. Before we can decide if the material is still valid, we need to determine if it was valid in the first place with some pointed questions:

Why do we create and keep logs to begin with?
Who looks at them, and are they the right people?
What do they really do with the logs?
Should the logs be archived, or deleted after X number of days?
Are we asking the right people the right questions?

It turns out that the company was saving 300GB of logs nightly – the new daily reports plus a ton of old ones – on the same Xserve RAID devices CRE rents. This represented a real waste of resources, employee time and money, as few people looked at them. After determining what was really needed – and when, by whom, how much, etc. – our IT hero recommended that the company only save a week’s worth of logs in addition to the dailies.

Now the logs were compact, 10MB files small enough to review on an iPad rental. Our IT manager saved his company beaucoup bucks, brought new efficiencies and eliminated waste. He ended his tale by encouraging businesses to ask some hard questions:

• Do you review your security policies, workplace procedures, documentation, training materials and best practices regularly?

• Have you established (and updated as necessary) a way to gauge how relevant and effective these materials are in achieving your corporate goals?

• Do all the employees that use the logs have sufficient input into these discussions?

• How can your firm avoid the common pitfall of automatically adopting what sounds familiar and reasonable, whether or not it is properly thought out?

From intense post-production work, to a wide range of first-rate trade show convention rentals, our expert Account Executives can fix you right up. With a simple call or e-mail, or a visit to our Quick Rental Quote form, you’ll find us ready to help!

iPad Drives Conference Attendees to Websites

November 30th, 2011

Recent studies show that the popular iPad rental is an increasingly significant source of web traffic in the U.S. With a little planning – and some strategic insight into the ever-busier two-way street of mobile media – you can attend conferences and be confident in your ability to drive attendees to your website with iPad. Here’s how.

Traffic leader

The respected web analytics firm, comScore, reports that smartphones and tablets (from iPhones to WiFi-enabled tablet PC rentals) accounted for nearly 7% of total U.S. web traffic in August 2011. About two-thirds of that was from phones, the balance from tablets. Astonishingly, the iPad grabbed over 97% of tablet traffic.

But the iPad is also driving more web traffic than Apple’s own iPhone – a 46.8% share of all traffic originating from iOS devices (again, in August), as opposed to the iPhone’s 42.6%. Tellingly, the total iOS share of U.S. mobile web traffic that month was 58.5% – that’s market penetration, folks. This is true despite the continuing growth of Android, which just released version 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”).

In the mix of communication

Clearly, the iPad is right “in the mix” when it comes to communications today. What makes it so potent as a marketing device – before, during and after conferences – is its portability, for one thing. But the real power lies in its “double connectivity” (WiFI and cell) and all the great apps that have been customized for it. Although the MacBook Pro is portable, too, Apple’s tablet is supremely flexible, adaptable and focused.

With access to e-mail, social networking sites and the rest of the web, you can use your iPad in real-time from your exhibit booth to draw attendees there. In addition to communications apps, the iPad has a full array of office tools for creating, editing, printing, sending and otherwise managing all of your marketing materials. You can announce breakout sessions, invite participants to interactive presentations powered by Audience Response Systems (ARS) and steer attendees to both your booth and your website.

Bottom line for business professionals

According to comScore, in 2010 over 115 million Americans used mobile devices to browse the web, use/download apps or access content. This is nearly 20% greater than just the previous year – and the numbers are even more impressive among business users. Whether using a PC desktop computer rental or a mobile device, business users have come to depend on the ability to reach their targets – worldwide, around town and in a sea of conference attendees.

When you need more than just an Xserve RAID array or other high-tech tool – when you need a solution, a plan, a strategy – you need CRE. One call or e-mail, or one visit to our Quick Rental Quote online form, and an Account Executive is on the job for you. Just let us know what you need to do!

Video Conferencing Options from Free to Customized

November 22nd, 2011

Making video calls is easier and cheaper than ever. Home users can start with just a webcam and headset for video conferencing with family and friends, while businesses can choose from “industrial strength” online services and native, in-house systems. Let’s take a look at the whole range of video conferencing options from free to customized.

Free and low-cost video conferencing

Video Conferencing Skype, one of the first video calling services, is still the most popular VoIP voice and chat application. Only one-to-one communication is supported without adding (and debugging) third-party plug-ins. But Skype runs on everything, from an iPad rental or iPhone, to laptops and desktops running Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

ooVoo, another free video conferencing service, supports up to six users, plus video mail. Because the service has its own servers, it can offer good quality.

SightSpeed is a free PC-based calling and one-party video-conferencing application. At just $4.95 monthly, the paid service adds video mail, multi-user capability and file sharing. Running on All-In-One Multitouch Display PC, SightSpeed calling is like stepping into a Sci-Fi Channel feature.

Yugma offers free teleconferencing for as many as 10 participants. Like Skype, it is compatible with the three major OS packages, and the paid version supports up to 500 participants.

Tokbox offers free video conferencing with up to six users via your browser, making it the best kind of video conferencing on a PC Desktop Computer Rental – there’s nothing to download or install.

iChat is the messaging, VoIP and video conferencing application installed on all Macintoshes, like a iMac rental. A feature-rich solution, it requires you to have an AppleID or AOL account to do video calling.

Business services

Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional combines powerful audio and video conferencing, file sharing and a whiteboard – a “complete web communications solution” – in various pay-per-use plans with flexible pricing. Free trials can be arranged.

AT&T Connect, especially designed for corporate use, has scalable IP software architectures for voice and video communication. Partially hosted and partially on-site, firms negotiate a fixed price for either defined or unlimited usage.

WebEx – a paid video conferencing, chat and file sharing service – works with an installed application. A 14-day free trial lets you work with as many as 10 total participants, and paid solutions can be tailored for small, medium or large companies.

Companies with enough money (and need) can build custom in-house systems. The cost for a wall-size screen and all the other bells and whistles can be six figures or more.

In the meantime, whatever you need in high-tech gear, like a screaming-fast Mac Pro for post-production or some heavy-duty RAID storage, we’re here for you. One call, one-email or a few clicks on our Quick Rental Quote form, and an experienced Account Manager will help you overcome whatever challenges you face!

Top 5 Creative Uses for the Mac mini

November 17th, 2011

Although Apple does not capitalize the model name “mini,” the smallest Macintosh has still earned a reputation as “the little Mac that could.” Although it is always a generation behind in the CPU department, both G4 and Intel minis are popping up in some interesting places. Here are the top five creative uses for the Mac mini.

Mac Mini

1). Network storage – Soon, every office (and home) will need a central hub for storage, so Network Attached Storage (NAS) is going to proliferate. A new iMac would be overkill, but the Mac mini is ideal, with both wireless remote access and Gigabit Ethernet for heavy transfers. Post-production pros require our Xserve RAID with its swift 2Gb Fibre Channel interface, but small-to-medium sized businesses can do well with the mini.

2). Videoconferencing – With a little effort, you can connect an iSight camera and a DVI-to-S-Video adapter to the mini and use a TV set for videoconferencing. You can use it for business, or set it up with a wireless ADSL router and Apple Remote Desktop and run it remotely for less-techie colleagues. You could also insert an iPad rental into the mix as a remote control with the right apps.

3). Office automation – For post-production, you need a potent Mac Pro. But even the “lowly” mini makes a great office automation server. One of the first (and best) basic automation programs is Indigo, and the new version supports both Insteon and X10 devices.

4). Media hub – You can configure the mini as a media server, connecting it to something like our LCD touchscreen monitor rental. Add the Mac’s “cover flow” interface for instant access to music and movies, then enjoy! You can set custom schedules for different playlists based on time of day, weather, etc.

5). Conversion strategy – After upgrading to a new Mac, some mini owners have given their little Macs to parents, siblings or friends to replace Windows PCs. Once they use a Mac, many “PC forever” folks make the change (yes, it’s a two-way street). Minis of any vintage are capable computers if you know their limits (forget gaming and complex 3D work, for instance).

Honorable mentions

• You can attach a Firewire drive to a mini and use it as a file server for storage/streaming of HD video. Even an old G4 won’t break a sweat.

• Presenters can use minis for Power Point presentations, and by attaching a digitizer tablet they can demonstrate solutions right inside Power Point. Great idea!

Here’s another great idea: Call CRE when you need the right solution, right now. From trade show convention rentals to the latest and greatest high-end technology, we’re the one-stop shop. One call, one e-mail or one short visit to our Quick Rental Quote form, and you are ready to knock down those obstacles and get the job done!

Remembering The Man Who Made the Future

October 6th, 2011

The 2000′s didn’t start out well for technology, as the dot-com bust tore through Silicon Valley and other centers of high-tech power. There was one fellow at the time, however, who saw nothing but great opportunities ahead. Because of what he has done in the decade or so since then, he has been hailed as the

“CEO of the Decade” by Fortune magazine,
“Best-Performing CEO in the World” by the Harvard Business Review,
“Person of the Decade” by the Wall Street Journal and
man behind the “Brand of the Decade” by Adweek.

This person is Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at his Northern California home.

Remaking industries

You can get the whole Apple history elsewhere if you don’t know it already; we are focusing on the astonishing events of the last decade, as Jobs and Apple remade entire industries. Music and entertainment have been revolutionized by iTunes, and personal communications by the iPhone. Meanwhile, computers like MacBook Pro have been at the forefront of advances in mobile computing.

The decade of the 2000′s started with the revolutionary Bondi Blue iMac and futuristic OS X, and ended with a mature, industry-leading iPhone and Apple’s insanely great tablet – the iPad. It was January 2001 when Jobs announced his “digital hub” strategy. The analog era – with its records, cassette tapes and chemically-treated film – was at an end. The world and everything in it would “go digital,” with distribution over an ever-faster Internet.

Only (and always) “the best”

Always at the center of Jobs’ strategy and Apple’s approach would be the best hardware, the best software, the best OS, the best service and the best user experience. The proof of their success is discovered by every CRE customer that rents a Mac Pro or Apple laptops. And as a leader in iMac rentals and other Apple gear – as well as the specialized peripherals needed for digital media, like Ethernet disk RAID – CRE has adopted the same approach of offering “the best”.

The Future…

Steve Jobs has had a powerful effect on the world’s future and his legacy remains with the amazingly successful company he has left behind. Apple will continue to lead the technology industry with “out of the box” thinking and innovation … a tribute to the man that started it all – Steve Jobs.

Our sincerest sympathies to his family and friends.

The Growth of Webcasting | Simulcasting

September 27th, 2011

“Webcasting” delivers a media file over the Internet, or “streams” it, sending the same content to hundreds, thousands, even millions of simultaneous viewers. Like radio/TV broadcasts, the media can be live, recorded or both. As technology progresses and prices fall, the growth of webcasting continues in dramatic fashion. After being adopted at first for continuing education and other niche uses, it is now an important tool for corporate management teams.

As opposed to the government-delimited radio/TV spectrum, the Internet has enough bandwidth to accommodate plenty of webcasters. While today’s biggest ones are major media operations that “simulcast” their content, the most exciting thing about webcasting for businesspeople, especially marketing pros, is how easy, inexpensive and effective it can be.

A “Must-Have” Technology

Businesses have gleefully adopted the new technologies of the Internet Era as they have appeared. When the graphical layer of the Internet we call “the World Wide Web” launched in the early 1990s, having a website soon became a must. A series of other must-have technologies followed and, in fact, today’s iPad rentals are one of the most-wanted must-haves ever.

Right now, though, webcasting/simulcasting is the latest “big thing.” Webcasting is already being used quite extensively in firms large and small for presentations, annual meetings, e-learning (class simulcasts and “webinars”) and other communications activities. With potent CRE computer rentals for the media and webcasting duties – and everything from microphones to mixers to capture the “sights and sounds” of the event, courtesy of our audio visual rentals – we’ve got you covered.

Marketing Benefits

Simulcasting adds viewers around the world at very low cost. If you use CRE for your convention rentals, and plan to do a breakout session, we can help you simulcast it over the Internet. Major convention keynote speeches – and events like Sting’s upcoming appearance at Oracle OpenWorld 2011 – have been simulcast for several years now, but costs are now low enough for everyone.

The webcasting experience of Cisco, a major technology leader, is instructive. Adding webcasting to its annual event in 2009 was “a big risk,” or so the execs thought. The result? There were 10,000 at the live event, and another 5,000 remote attendees, over half of whom were first-timers. Better yet, between a quarter and a third of those remote attendees attended the annual event in later years. Cisco’s experience changed the way this already-successful company did business.

With live audiences, you can use CRE’s Audience Response System rentals to elicit real-time feedback. With a webcast, you have free reign to make it as interactive and collaborative as you want. The options are as numerous as the opportunities in this exciting era of “broadcast democratization,” and CRE can help you every step of the way. Call or e-mail an Account Executive, or use the Quick Rental Quote form, and get your show on the road – and simulcast it, too!

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