Q & A

 

Leslie Harris
EVP, Production

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How To Pull Off The Big Production In No Time

Leslie Harris, EVP Production of TBA Global

When you are faced with a tight deadline and high expectations, there is no need to panic. In fact, if you plan it correctly a short lead time might even lead to your best work. Last year we helped Wal-Mart create an award-winning annual meeting for 15,000 associates, shareholders, and the media in just 7 weeks. In addition to developing traditional presentations for multiple speakers, the show required pre-produced videos, multiple staging areas, and a wide variety of entertainment including Jennifer Lopez, The Eagles and Sinbad. With careful planning and a top production team in place, the show went off without a hitch.

Here are a few steps to take to stay grounded and pull off the impossible:

1. Establish clear communications objectives (and financial expectations) up front. All decisions, from creative to production to vendors to personnel, will stem from your goals.

2. During the Program Kick Off Meeting, define and communicate roles & responsibilities for each member of the team member and establish who key partners are between client and agency in order to support clear lines of communication.

3. Choose a vendor or vendors you trust, and once your team is selected, trust them. They know what it takes to get the job pulled off and will tell you when seemingly small decisions might have an undesirable impact.

4. Try to anticipate your company’s needs AND be realistic. This is essential to developing a timeline and a list of milestones with your vendor partners that allows for some embedded and necessary flexibility and remains achievable. Next, look at wherever you can simplify and streamline. Challenge yourself to stay focused on the big picture results. When this executable plan is in place, stick to it. Don’t second-guess your decisions. When you achieve milestones, check the box and move on.

5. Establish clear lines of communication, and effective communication vehicles, for all team members. “Death by email” will slow down the process, so look into online project management software to keep everyone updated on key documents and calendars. Establish who the decision-makers are, and who owns content. To save time, invite only these essential personnel to production meetings, with the expectation they will communicate key updates down the line. Keep the meetings short and to the point. Always come to the meeting with a clear agenda – allow for free form at the end to provide the team with an opportunity to speak off agenda – but encourage everyone to keep input relevant to the task at hand.

6. When time is tight, choose a simple, elegant, and effective lighting and stage design. Stretched fabric, for instance, offers a lot of staging flexibility and doesn’t require a lot of rigging or installation time. Vertical LED screens can be changed quickly for different presentations and also used as scenic elements. Widescreen presentations can be more dramatic. But they require pre-programming, and are not as flexible, so if you know your CEO likes to change things up at the last minute, this isn’t for you.

7. Never compromise the finished product. Throughout the process, continue to look for the best ways to use the time you have. Review the amount of technical rehearsals needed to execute the show design. Do you have enough time for onsite rehearsals? Can you simplify the technology and gain more time? Are you using the most efficient technology available? Ask your A-team for suggestions and solutions. They’re the experts.

8. Once you’re on site, make those short, core team meetings even more focused and establish consistent and brief “catch ups” between key decision makers for the same time each day – early morning before the day gets started is optimal – to confirm objectives, ownership and troubleshoot any possible challenges.

Oh – and one last thing…and delegate, Delegate, DELEGATE! Delegation is an essential element for our annual cross-country tour for a financial services client. In order to deliver timely content and training to an evolving sales organization, final conference schedules are often developed at the last minute. Venue selection and vendor contracting often happen just days before the events. On the strength of TBA Global's network of offices, our destination management and logistics expertise, our loyal suppliers and long-standing working relationship with this account, our client is comfortable delegating, knowing we routinely deliver flawless events despite aggressive deadlines.

If your deadline seems impossible, don’t panic! Take a deep breath, and make that all-important first phone call to a vendor you can trust.

After that, you and your team will have plenty of reason to smile.

Contact Leslie Harris