Moonfish Production, Ltd.

Events | Video | Case Studies

Case Studies

The Event

Mercury Interactive President’s Club – Maui, Hawaii

The Challenges

NO (“0,” Ziltch, Nada) lead time
Remote location
New Client
No (“0,” Ziltch, Nada) budget for event production management
Many talented, yet unorganized players

The Analysis

We were producing an incentive event in Telluride, Colorado in April, 2000 (that’s another story), and were asked by Mercury Interactive to fly to Maui directly from Telluride to help them with some production challenges on their impending event. Of course, we said yes, we’d help however we could.

When we got there, less than one week after our initial call, we found out that the event was the next night! It was an awards dinner, and although there were multiple players working on different aspects, nothing had really been decided or coordinated.

There was a graphics computer with files of pictures and names of award-winners, but no awards show had been developed. There was a group shooting a video candid show, but that group really was not equipped to show it at the awards event. The client wanted to stage the room on one wall, and the hotel was afraid that the attendees would not fit, but was afraid to tell the client. There were no decisions made on staging design, lighting or audio. There was no event schedule created. Simply put, there was no real game plan.

My associate producer and I split the duties. She would concentrate on the winners, the PowerPoint slides and the content of the event, and I would focus on staging the event, managing the various players and rehearsals.

I told the client that we needed to stage it so that the attendees would fit. She agreed. (whew!). I worked with the Hotel AV Company to procure equipment and personnel to get this event staged and crewed. Then, I created an event schedule, and worked with the client’s executives to rehearse (a concept they were not familiar with).

We ran through the entire event, everyone was on the same page, and we all felt more confident.

The Outcome

As the event started, I breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled to myself. The event occurred without a hitch. The executives ran through their presentations, the winners all cheered their comrades, all the technology was “invisible,” and the client – both meeting planners AND executives – were happy. Oh, and we had another story to tell.