Joined: 8/6/2008
Posts: 14
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In very innovative alternative to a panel made up of only stagers, Tom Stimson presided over yesterday’s Rental & Staging Forum and devoted a large part of the program to hosting a panel made up of a corporate end user, an in-house corporate meeting planner, two producers, and a production designer. The result was an inside look not at how stagers would like to position themselves in the market, but what customers are looking for in a staging company partner.
On the panel, moderated by Tom Stimson, President-Elect of InfoComm and consultant to the staging industry, was Dahlton Bennington, Director of Business Meeting Services at Spherion Corporation; John Dubil, Group Director of Broadcast and Events at Fidelity Investments; Tom Kahn, President of Integrated Event Management;, Tommy Melacon, President and Lead Production Designer at Level 2 Design; and Gretchen Zito, Principal of Executive Productions.
In an in-depth and wide-ranging discussion that touched on all the key issues in staging– RFP’s, relationship selling, and other perennial topics in event production, the panel of end-users of staging companies offered rare insight into what it takes to be a successful partner to corporations and producers.
On the topic of evaluating staging services RFP’s, Dahlton Bennington said that she often seeks out RFP’s from “enterprise wide” companies, i.e. companies with multiple offices in many U.S. cities, because she does lots of events that are the same, but move to different cities.
Most of the panelists admitted to “looking at the last page of the RFP first”, but all agreed that it’s not just about picking the lowest bid.
“I look at last page of RFP first, but then track backward. Often, a RFP is low, in cost, but leaves out key gear or services. In today’s environments, that RFP is thrown out. We just don’t have time to go back and have that RFP ‘fixed’”, commented John Dubil of Fidelity Investments.
Turning the panel discussion to technology, Tom Stimson delved into product trends, the issue of whether big brand names, for gear, are important in the selection of staging vendors.
Stimson asked the panelists, “when do you want to hear about new technology”? Dahlton Bennington said that it depends on whether an event is a “first time” event or whether it’s a repeat of an established event.
Tom Kahn said that new, creative technology was key to their selection of vendors–although pitches from equipment manufacturers often do not get his attention. But he often seeks out new tech demos in shows that are running in his area.
Tom Stimson did a great job of hosting this, the best ever Rental & Staging Forum at InfoComm.. more coverage to follow in the next issue of Rental & Staging Systems...
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