Stagevision Helps OpenText Go Big with Enterprise World 2019 Event
When one of the largest technology companies in Canada rolls out new product innovations at its own conference, the audience expects a good show.
“Enterprise World is our annual gathering of our employees, prospects and customers,” said Alison Davidson, senior director of global events for OpenText. “We want them to derive inspiration and insight about the direction of the market overall and insights into how to run their businesses. It’s a really amazing moment for the OpenText team, to see our company in action and how it’s helping our customers.”
At the July 2019 Enterprise World conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, OpenText previewed a series of new products, introduced the latest versions of its enterprise information management systems and announced partnerships with Google Cloud and MasterCard, the heaviest of hitters in the digital realm. “We’re in a new era that is post-digital,” OpenText CEO and CTO Mark J. Barrenechea told the crowd. “Automation is not enough. It also needs to be machine-readable. It’s about unlocking that insight to build a smarter, better business.”
This may sound like corporate-speak, but OpenText backed its commitment to inspiration with some spectacular interactive tech, creating an opening event designed to connect with its audience. “We really wanted to bring them together at the top of the keynote,” said Davidson. “We wanted to interact within the audience and bring them into the event.”
Developing the Concept
OpenText began the planning process by creating storyboards with the company’s in-house video team many months before the show. “There was a lot of writing and music, and we did a kind of artificial intelligence, pretending that the video actually knew what people in the audience were thinking,” said Davidson. “We got people engaged and interacting.”
The result was a high-concept approach to a trade conference, designed to generate interest and excitement and set the tone for three days of seminars, workshops and events. OpenText intended for the collected stakeholders — both customers and employees — to see the company as a leading-edge developer of solutions that made their businesses better. To achieve this, they needed to take that big step outside the box, the one that can be so difficult for many large corporations to achieve.
To make this happen, they worked closely with Stagevision, a Mississauga, Ontario-based production company with facilities in Vancouver and Montreal. Among its many services, Stagevision provides event production including presentation design and development, multimedia staging, technical show management and interactive elements.
Going Large
From the beginning, the team knew the show would be big. “In the room, there was a 25-foot-tall by 220-foot-wide curved projection screen,” said Bryce Engelman, president of Stagevision’s staging and events division. “It was downlit with 60 [Chroma-Q] Color Force LED lights that would change color with the video. We had 24 Martin MAC Viper Profiles, 24 MAC Auras and 12 MAC Quantum Profiles.” One hundred Elation ZW19 moving luminaires and 40 Elation Platinum Beam XRs rounded out the lighting. “In all, we had 200 to 300 moving lights, all in sync with the video” hanging from 2,000 feet of lighting truss,” said Engelman.
An event with this much gear requires significant load-in and rehearsal time, Engelman noted. The show came in on 12 tractor trailers, packed with the massive main screen and seven Panasonic 32K lumen digital laser video projectors, as well as three 15-by-45-foot delay screens with 12 20K Barco HDX projectors. Four 8-core Xeon 3.7 GHZ, 2-terabyte SSD Raid 10 media servers managed the video and other effects. The Stagevision crew packed 2,000 feet of fiber optic cable, 12 show laptops and a 4 HD camera rig, including a robotic camera. A 150,000-watt sound system and four 12-core Mac Pro towers completed the hardware.
Four days of set up and two days of rehearsal preceded the show, Engelman said, with 16 show operators providing a staggering 40,000 hours of labor. “We load in on Tuesday, we’re rehearsing on Saturday afternoon. We flew PixMob in on the following Tuesday — “ (more on this in a moment) “ — and then the show started on Thursday.”
The high-energy video buildup and presentations by corporate officials culminated in a top-level keynote speaker: English singer-songwriter and human rights activist Peter Gabriel spoke and performed using the Düsseldorf piano Stagevision provided.
OpenText and Stagevision livestreamed the whole event globally. “It’s not the typical staid corporate event,” acknowledged Ryan Hill, director, public relations for OpenText. “We’re not just creating an event that speaks to what OpenText has to say; we want the audience to have a good time while they’re connecting with the event.”
An Interactive Event
The OpenText team also brought a pivotal idea to the table: distribution of LED wristbands to every seat in the presentation hall. The wristbands would light up at key points in the presentation.
“We saw these bracelets used in the sporting and entertainment worlds,” said Davidson, “and we wanted to try this for the conference. We found ways to use light and sync up with the bracelets.”
Stagevision engaged PixMob, a Montreal-based company, to supply the bracelets and instruct them on their use. PixMob’s wristband technology involves two high-brightness LEDs that “offer 16 million color possibilities,” according to the company’s website. The single-use, recyclable wristbands are hypoallergenic and adjustable, ensuring comfort for every audience member, while providing an opportunity for the excitement and fun audience members usually associate with a hip-hop concert.
“The video servers and media servers run time code to the light console, and not only the console but also the control device that beams out to the wristbands,” said Engelman. “The bracelets were a huge part of the overall experience. We had a robotic camera that was up overhead, shooting the audience, so they could see themselves and see what part of the room was lighting up.”
The result — hands waving in the air as wristbands lit up on one side of the room and then the other, changing colors automatically at specified moments in the video — turned the presentation into a memorable event that audience members talked about throughout the three-day conference.
Davidson noted that she saw smartphones come out and people taking photos as the wristbands began to light up,. “They were putting pictures on social media,” she said. “We were so proud of how well it went and how much our customers enjoyed it. I think it’s definitely something we would do again. We’re always looking for way to make it more interactive.”
