Vlog

Matt demonstrated how to create a better event through the use of storytelling. Using an event produced during the height of COVID for Sudara Matt shows how we delivered a better more compelling event to the viewers online.

Greetings. I wanted to take a little bit of time today to give an amazing production update on what we accomplished in October. And this is just sort of to say thanks to all of our clients and thanks to an amazing team. It is amazing what we accomplished. So let’s dig in. So first thing you got behind me here. This is the headquarters of Osprey. Osprey is a 50 year old bag backpack, bag manufacturer based in of all places Cortez, Colorado. You can go ahead and look it up. So what did we do? Okay. Well here Jason at the helm. Some of you have met Jason. Jason and Sammy ventured off to Cortez with me on day one. And we set it up. Obviously this is not what it looked like. And I can’t show you what it looked like. Because well let’s just say that a lot of what was shown is fall 25. Oh sorry fall 24 merchandise. So can’t show you. But it was really neat and I got a chance to do this too. But the last day of the production. Jason and Sammy were able to go ahead and go venture from Cortez out a little bit. And this is actually Mesa Verde. And so one of the reasons why you go to Cortez, Colorado is because of Mesa Verde. And it was truly truly amazing. I did leave them however. Jumped on a plane. This was a picture of me editing. There’s a video on here for an event later on. Where was I going? And I left on Monday. I was going to New York City. And I was joined in New York City by our sales and marketing person Molly Bull.And one of the things is I’ve never been to New York. I have never been to New York. I’m 50 years old and I’ve never been to New York.Pretty amazing right? Well that also was pretty amazing. Got a chance to go to my first deli. Why were we in New York? That’s the reason why. We actually went to a trade show in New York and exhibited our Remy production solution. We’ve been talking about Remy and we wanted to show people across the country what it looked like. Here’s a shot in the booth of essentially the Remy solution deployed. And that is in New York. And what we’re actually seeing is that is a multi view from here. From here. Bend, Oregon. So it was amazing. It was amazing to be there. This was Donovan here in Bend. That of course is the amazing Shannon. We’ve worked a lot with Shannon and you can see that’s her. She’s here in the studio. Another shot of her right there. Her eyes closed unfortunately. But that’s Shannon here in the studio. And what was really neat, I’ll show you a couple of videos here, is that she got a chance to hear me and we can actually participate clear across the country. So here’s Donovan checking some things out. But Shannon and I were actually talking and you can see that’s me in New York talking to Shannon here in Bend. And that’s Molly behind me. Again, just an amazing opportunity. Another shot here of Shannon here in the studio.And again, it was, you know, we were producing this. I was actually switching it from New York. Switching the switcher here in Bend from New York. Such an amazing, amazing opportunity. And it was a great showcase of our Remy solution. One more thing. Obviously, I have never been to New York. This was an amazing opportunity because if you haven’t been to New York, you know, you obviously wouldn’t get a chance. But this was ground zero where the Twin Towers fell September 11th. And obviously this was after September. This was October when we went.So, but it was just very surreal being here in this and the weather was absolutely perfect. Absolutely perfect. Okay. So, question is, we fly out on Saturday from New York. Well, we hit the ground the next week. First event we did that week. This was the team we were working with Visit Central Oregon here in Bend. And it was an amazing opportunity to showcase what’s going on with tourism and the tourism sort of community as a whole here in Central Oregon. We had a couple of cameras for recording. We had clocks on the stage. We had we were running all the video support, all the audio support. Plus, we had some lighting. It was a fairly simple setup for as far as sound and lighting. We didn’t do a lot, but just us being there helped them out. We also handled some breakout rooms. So, again, just, you know, another view. Sammy on the left, Jason. Jason was handing all the presentations. Amber was doing cameras. Donovan was switching. And Sammy was doing the clock. Okay, so that was start of the week. What did we do? Well, Hydro Flask. And again, unfortunately, not much. Not much I can show you on this one. But I wanted to take a chance to at least show you again another marketing meeting. This was us in studio. And yes, there’s a reason why those blue boxes are there. Those blue boxes are there because there’s product there that we cannot show you. This is again, this was a sales meeting for the next year. So this was fall 24, just like Osprey. This was another event to showcase products coming up. Donovan and I getting set up. These were taken by Sammy. And so she was also helping us out that day. Again, Donovan switching. And again, the great blue boxes you can’t see.So, yeah, that was an amazing event. And that day, well, it got more kooky because, well, we got a chance to, yeah, work with her. Well, it’s not specifically about her. What it’s actually is about above her. Ben Venture Conference. This is our 19th year. Amazing opportunity. So there’s me on the stage. Three confidence monitors on stage. We handled the just the more of the, you know, initial video support, plus some of the audio. The audio was really handled, though, more by the tower. Amazing staff with Eric and Matt and then lighting done by Mike Nowak at the tower. Just an amazing team that we just are so pleased to work with. We did the stage a little different this year. We actually use the full stage tower is added a 16 foot by nine foot screen. We ended up using that. It was just an amazing opportunity. So while Jason and I were at the tower, first thing, Donovan and Amber were actually at Tethero handling some recording and audio support and video support for the series of three sort of seminars that were pretty well attended. And then the team decided to come and join Jason and I. Jason’s on the right again. Sammy running clock, Amber running cameras, and then Donovan, obviously all the way on the left that night Thursday night. I got an amazing opportunity to help an amazing organization from Oregon Adaptive Sports. This is actually during a video that was played a standing ovation for one of the presenters that was actually featured in that video and just an amazing, amazing opportunity that night to help great, incredible organization. Race, you know, much needed funds to operate their organization. So if you haven’t, if you don’t know anything about Oregon Adaptive Sports, I tagged him in this post. Go check him out. Amazing organization. We’ve been privileged to help support them for several years now.I got an amazing assist from Flip Flop Sounds, Flip Flop Productions with the audio and a little bit of the lighting as well. It was just such an amazing night. I just, I can’t say more. So next night or next day, yep. Jumped right back into Ben Venture Conference.And same team, obviously. Added, if you’ve never got a chance to work with Marisa Hossack, she’s an amazing photographer. Most of the artwork that you see, including photos like this were done by her. Again, I tagged her in this post. She makes us look amazing.You know, just some amazing photos that we got out of that from her. And of course, this is the incredible team. Shannon there, sort of in the middle. She was the MC. You got Matt and Eric, who are the audio team. And then Mike, who from the tower, he’s on the far right. And of course, you know, the rest of the team is featured there. Of course, our logo, big on the screen is always nice. So what do we do? What do we do the next week? Well, so a couple of things we ended up doing the next week. Most of you do know that we also do full virtual production. And so this guy right here, Dietrich, he’s one of the guys that does, he produces events for another company, but we do it out of here. This was a full virtual event. We had a bunch of people coming in. You can see this is, this was later. We had four panelists on.On a panel on that screen to the far right, you’ve got preview and program. Just it was just a lot of fun. It was it’s always great working with Dietrich view of the multi view. This was when we were setting up for we were running a four person panel in one one well during the stream live. And then we were setting up for a three person panel coming up right after pretty amazing, absolutely fun to produce fun to direct and and Dietrich always makes it fun for me. And we always always have a few extra little things at the last minute as all live production does. But it’s just it’s a lot of fun to be able to produce virtual productions here, you know, in band and not have to go anywhere and producing that super high quality that same night. The very night. So we had two days of that. Donovan and I ended up out in Redmond for Redmond economic development and we helped support as well as record for ready. So it’s Redmond economic development, Inc. I think I can remember the is now, but we’ve been partnering with them for many years. You can see their sign on the stage and they had a sort of an event to let people know what they were doing. Also, Nosler, they’re opening a fairly large facility in Redmond. And so it was also a time to update one couple of final things that I ended up also being a part of. So the next thing I want to show just actually this is more just the final thing. This was a actual an event for Oregon Home Builders Association. It was at the River House again, flip flop productions brought me in. They were handling all the audio and all the essentially the what needed to be done. However, they needed some zoom support. And so we brought in our rack. We brought in our rack to help them have a better, you know, opportunity to get the people in zoom able to see the room better as well as then better presentation. On the screens and and yes, that is in the top right. That is the governor of the state of Oregon. She did actually speak to the room. And so again, the room was able to see her hear her very well. They took a few questions from the room. And so that just was sort of an opportunity to, you know, have a better experience. And again, we’re we’re built to do this day in and day out. You know, we can we can support zoom without a problem.Yeah, so that’s sort of a brief, you know, summary of what this last month look like. Thanks for joining me. I hope you watch the entire thing. I mean, lots of lots of incredible production. We did this this month. And I’m just so pleased and blessed to have some amazing, amazing clients and customers and as well as just just a team that we just we just love digging in for our clients. So thanks for joining me so much. Appreciate it very much. And, you know, wherever you are, hope you’re having a wonderful day.

One of the things we talk to our clients a lot about here at Hand in Hand Productions is sort of your why. And it’s important to actually think about that before you go into an event or any sort of production, because why is so important and that is the key to what we do. Why? Why are you doing it? Why are your people going to attend your event? Why are the people going to actually watch your event?It is so important that you start with the why and ultimately that why runs within everything that we do within Hand in Hand Productions as well as what we want for our clients. If you want to know more, give us a call. Also, check out Simon Sinek’s TED Talk on why.

At Hand in Hand Productions we do a lot of virtual production using Zoom. In this edition of Behind the Tech, our Head Pixel Pusher Matt Hand shows how to build a Zoom ISO computer in a rack-mounted enclosure. With this configuration, we need both an HDMI and an SDI output for both computer monitor outputs. This can present a challenge and with the challenge accepted Matt built this computer.

Hey there, Matt Hand, what are you doing? So part of our REMI solution that we’ve been working on is the ability to have setups remotely and switch it. And so I posted a video the other day on Instagram about a proof of concept. And what now is not a proof of concept, this is actually being done live.Actually, Sami come over here and kind of come around and see this screen right here. This is actually the screen at the multi-view at Riverhouse in Bend, we’re actually in Hermiston. And what I’m actually doing is I’m actually switching this right now here in Hermiston, as this is basically on the, you know, on going on. And actually up here on this screen, this is actually one of the computers actually at the venue. It’s actually going to zoom right up there.But we do have an operator on site just because this guy seems to be like to move around. So if I needed to do PTZ control, I totally can, but we’ve got an operator there doing that plus audio.So again, I mean, if I wanna essentially, that’s Sammy come over here. So you know what, I wanna give the slides in him, I press hit a button,I’m actually controlling the switcher on site.So we’re really excited about this and the possibility to be able to do this for clients and a lot of other people.

If I were to sum up events and what are three things that you would need for an event, the first obviously is your plan. Now when you look at a plan, obviously that is the beginning, the middle, the end. Now the beginning is pre-production. So the content production, the graphics, all of those other things, the middle is obviously the execution and the end is looking at that content in other ways and utilizing it the maximum way possible. Now second, I’m going to actually say that the second is actually your backups, your equipment, all of those other things. The second thing is probably almost more important than the first. Fortunately, we have invested in the future and we’ve invested in some gear that we know is just robust and we’ve always planned for a backup as well as a backup for the backup. And third is always a good partner. Now I’m not going to say choose us. Well, maybe I am going to say choose us. The reality is find somebody that you’re comfortable with, that you trust, that you know that in the end of the day they’re going to get the job done.

Hand in Hand Productions was honored with a Recognition Award from the Crook County School Board for their work helping the district with their streaming and support of the School Board Meetings.

At Hand in Hand Productions we get asked to produce all sorts of live events. One of our favorite ones to do is the live stream. Now a live stream is one to many, but what we get to do is provide the ability to kind of really get and get it to feel however we want it. You could be in a studio, you could be in a warehouse, you could be at your own office. The beautiful thing is this allows us to make it feel like how you want it to feel from the client’s standpoint. Come check us out, we can help you with your next live stream.

Welcome again. It’s time where I wax poetically. Well, I got to figure out some other line, but I don’t necessarily wax poetically. Today I wanted to talk about the importance of involving us early on in that strategic planning phase of your events. And we have worked with some amazing event planners over the years. And one of the things that I appreciate the most is them including us in that early stages of that planning for a few reasons. One, it allows us to make sure that we’re getting the overall experience in the room. And if you’re going to be live streaming it or even that hybrid approach, make sure that we’re touching all of those points, and two, it’s also gives us a chance to provide solutions for budget. What we see is budgets have grown, but sometimes people want to do more with less. So we come in and we try to tell you, okay, this is what we can do for your budget. And we make sure that we’re delivering on that. The other part of this is really, really digging into strategically what you’re trying to accomplish. And it’s so important to reach those people in the room. So what is your story? What resonates with the people in the room? And what we love to do is have that approach in the very beginning where we’re getting in there and really, really touching your audience through better graphics, better video, whatever that looks like, lighting, sound. There are so many ways that we can engage you to better engage your audience. So we really, really appreciate that strategic approach early on. Give us a call. Happy to help you out.