The panel discussions, workshops and keynotes were enlightening and motivational. How to Create an Effective Mass Public Event was the last workshop we attended to close out “Thee Weekend”. Leading our workshop was John Vadino, CEO of The Production Network. Vadino [...]]]>

[Article continued from TPN April e-news contributing writer Matt Lawrence of Biznik]

The panel discussions, workshops and keynotes were enlightening and motivational. How to Create an Effective Mass Public Event was the last workshop we attended to close out “Thee Weekend”. Leading our workshop was John Vadino, CEO of The Production Network. Vadino told us about some of the experiences that his company had created. Most notable for me was Seeds of Compassion, a citywide event with over 144,000 people to see the Dalai Lama and a host of influential luminaries’ discussion on the socio-cultural benefits of practicing compassion.

Vadino’s style and strategy in developing a mass public event was to start by crafting “the story”. He writes what he calls the “Experience Document”. Rather than trying to start with a vision for the whole event – imagine the experience of a single participant and slowly, with detail, design the individual’s experience. OK, this was getting good. It was like working backwards in a long and twisty puzzle – and I like that.

A New Worlds Fair

For the next 75 minutes, we’d be working in groups to brainstorm ideas that could be put to use for the upcoming Seattle Worlds Fair: The Next 50. Emphasis on “put to use”. This is where it gets exciting for the participants. Rather than a simple educational lesson, we had a job to do. Believing that our work could affect the design of not just any real event – but this huge event with regional impact – yeah, you can say the whole team was officially engaged. Vadino doled out the core concepts that we were going to work on over the course of the workshop: Sustainability, Global Health, Science and Technology, Learning, Arts, Culture and Design. Our table was assigned Learning. So for the next 30 minutes, the strangers at our table tackled what kind of experience to create for The 2012 Seattle Worlds Fair: The Next 50. I am all for creative collaboration – it’s just usually not something I do with total strangers. It can be difficult enough with people I trust, let alone the public!

Vadino inspired us to think about the importance of a mass experience such as the original Seattle Worlds Fair. He was like a little kid staring down a gigantic water slide; he was excited, and wanted us to get excited too. I got the sense that the importance for Vadino was less a historical, critical review of the event, but that each and every single person who attended the event had a singularly moving experience. He wanted us to think about the potential value an event like this could have on our global awareness. He used the globally shared concern, clean water, as the vehicle to move the discussion.

It would have been much easier to blow off those 75 minutes with a lecture and a slide deck. Vadino probably could have done it in his sleep. Instead, he enlisted those who showed a passion for the event to work together, with him, and everyone else striving to make the Next 50 experience as valuable and important as possible.

That must be why John kept us on task, 15 minutes on each section. “Oh, and pick someone from your table so my assistant can contact you,” said Vadino. “Yes, you are now a part of the planning team.” My zeal for the project was evident; the table unanimously elected me…I feigned surprise.

Each table posted the big post-it style meeting notes on the wall for Vadino to review. He crossed off the stuff that was not interesting, and circled the stuff that was. He was methodical and humorous at the same time.

A Promise

At the end of the workshop, (which in case you didn’t notice was not lovey-dovey, but more, “CRAP! There is a lot of work to do for a higher good, let’s get to it!”) John told us that he was going to be in touch with us about the next steps. He soon introduced us to Meaghan Trueb, a writer and his executive assistant, in an email. Our workshop may have ended, but our good work would continue.

There is a lot at stake in The Next 50. The potential is there to touch people’s lives in a powerful, everlasting way – that is the job of a Worlds Fair. Lara and I are excited to be apart of the project any way we can, bringing that same potential to our membership and all who we are fortunate enough to work with.

Matt Lawrence is the Community Manager at Biznik. He offers support in a variety of ways to help enrich member experience.

Watch the webcast, powered by TPN, here http://compassionateseattle.dynamicwebcasting.net/

Get more details about the [...]]]> We were getting worried, we admit it. But the ash has cleared and the planes are flying again. Karen Armstrong will be giving her keynote in person afterall at the Compassionate Seattle: Its Up To Us event this Saturday April 24th.

Watch the webcast, powered by TPN, here http://compassionateseattle.dynamicwebcasting.net/

Get more details about the event here http://my.compassionateactionnetwork.com/events/compassionate-seattle-its-up

Learn more about Karen here http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/01/27/making-compassion-cool/

Buy your tickets to the event here http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/104534

Here is [...]]]> TPN is proud to be part of such a great event in partnership with Compassionate Action Network. The Compassionate Seattle: It’s Up To Us event is on April 24th at the Center for Spiritual Living. We’ll be webcasting the day’s program, including a keynote by Karen Armstrong, the 2008 TED prize winner.

Here is a link to the organizing website:

http://my.compassionateactionnetwork.com/

And here is a link to the Charter for Compassion website, to join the conversation and add your name to the Charter:

http://charterforcompassion.org/

We’re pretty excited about this event, and we know you are too.

Using Musion Eyeliner technology, a lifelike 3D holographic projection system as seen behind the speaker, Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the Intel architecture group, [...]]]>

Intel launch event at the Bently Reserve in San Francisco

We’re pretty excited about this event, and we know you are too.

Using Musion Eyeliner technology, a lifelike 3D holographic projection system as seen behind the speaker, Kirk Skaugen, vice president of the Intel architecture group, TPN helped bring the presentation to life with images seemingly floating on stage…

To satisfy your appetite for all things Intel, we’ve provided some more links below on the launch. Enjoy!

Intel Unveils New Server Chip

By Don Clark

Wall Street Journal

March 30, 2010

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304739104575154212321714670.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Intel Corp. completed a broad overhaul of its chips for server systems, vowing to move the technology it helped popularize in personal computers to the very largest machines used by businesses and government agencies.

Intel chip hits 8-core milestone

By Brooke Crothers

CNET

March 30, 2010

http://news.cnet.com/business-tech/?keyword=AND+6100
The Xeon 7500 offers what Intel is saying is the largest performance leap in the history of its Xeon line, with an average three-fold jump in performance. And the feat of putting eight cores on one die–the raw chip–offers practical advantages to data centers. As a yardstick, data centers can replace 20 single core, 4-chip servers with a single new Xeon 7500 processor series-based system, according to Intel.

Why Nehalem-EX matters

By Jonathan Eunice

CNET

March 30, 2010

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31114_3-10471701-258.html

Nehalem-EX (officially, the Intel Xeon 7500) completes the set with a high-end, server version. It ups the feeds and speeds, of course. More cores! More sockets! More memory! More widgets! Most important, it makes it straightforward for server vendors to create extremely powerful x86 servers. 4-socket/32-core servers are easy peasy. 8-socket/64-core servers-enormous by any historical standard-are not much harder. Vendors like IBM and NEC that have majored on scale-up will go even higher. At the same time, Nehalem-EX adds the I/O bandwidth and reliability/availability features needed to feed and care for such large resource pools. Sure, there may be more variants of Nehalem to come (preview: Even more cores! Even higher frequencies! Even more bandwidth!), but the entire range is now in play.

View the on-demand webcast:

http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/100330_NHM/index.htm

Read up on the event and technology with these handy-dandy press clippings:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Intel-Elevates-Its-Mainstream-x86-Processors-into-HPC-Space-639577/

“…Intel indicated that it is going both [...]]]> Yesterday TPNers Aaron, Alex, Matt and Robert helped CMD launch Intel’s new Xeon 7500 chip in San Fran using Musion’s Eyeliner technology.  Photos and more event detail coming soon…in the meantime…

View the on-demand webcast:

http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/100330_NHM/index.htm

Read up on the event and technology with these handy-dandy press clippings:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Intel-Elevates-Its-Mainstream-x86-Processors-into-HPC-Space-639577/

“…Intel indicated that it is going both upstream and mainstream at the same time…” Chris Preimesberger for eweek.com

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/03/intel_xeon_7500_8-cores_and_3x_faster.html

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/03/30/xeon.7500.can.handle.1tb.memory.256.chips/

OoVoo’s picking up streams

Dynamic Webcasting transforms events

WooMe makes dating a breeze

A Cisco research report that came out last summer estimated “video communications will increase ten fold from 2008-2013. And so far, their predictions are real – which has Marketers brushing up on the ‘humanizing’ side of [...]]]> Skype is all the hype

OoVoo’s picking up streams

Dynamic Webcasting transforms events

WooMe makes dating a breeze

A Cisco research report that came out last summer estimated “video communications will increase ten fold from 2008-2013. And so far, their predictions are real – which has Marketers brushing up on the ‘humanizing’ side of their brands. While the implications for advertising are immense, to me, the more interesting story is how new video technologies are changing market research.

How often have you left a focus group (that you shelled out thousands of dollars for) and wondered…How many people in that room were lying? Who was trying to impress? Who was honest? We’re humans after all and are programmed to perform, even those of us with very little tact. Meanwhile video chats are recordable and capture people when and where they are most comfortable – their homes. That’s not to say people aren’t “on” when the camera starts rolling, but researchers can look beyond what they are wearing or the bag they are carrying and, for example, see the products in their home. Companies who were savvy enough to get a foothold like QualVu http://www.qualvu.com/ reap the market research revenues as well as the advertising revenues – making the investment sing to the tune of 90% revenue. Video chat has provided research marketing with the sweet spot of quantity, quality and revenue!

An article on The Bravern’s “An Evening with Jimmy Choo” event published in the Puget Sound Business Journal this morning. So happy to see TPN get a mention for our behind the scenes work from the predominant Behind the Scenes journalist, Patty Payne (whose [...]]]>

one of the many displays in the transformed living room

An article on The Bravern’s “An Evening with Jimmy Choo” event published in the Puget Sound Business Journal this morning. So happy to see TPN get a mention for our behind the scenes work from the predominant Behind the Scenes journalist, Patty Payne (whose name I can’t hear without thinking of Peppermint Patty (hug) and my Aunt Patty (double-hug).

For more from Patty Payne see http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/

Here are some excerpts from the article…pick up a copy of PSBJ to read more!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Coffee talk

” — Not sure how business is in the new Jimmy Choo store at The Bravern in Bellevue. But recently they did have some remarkable sales at an event in Susie Naficy’s Medina waterfront home…Naficy’s living room was transformed by The Production Network (TPN). This company stages all sorts of extraordinary events, from the Dalai Lama’s visit here to product launches for T-Mobile and Boeing, to name a few…. “  – Patty Payne, Puget Sound Business Journal November 6, 2009

Check out [...]]]> In the past, most of the big news at E3 has been around games and what new versions of old favorites are coming out. There was plenty of that at today’s Xbox press briefing. Rock Band Beatles, Metal Gear: Rising, and Halo ODST were some of the big games shown onstage today.

Check out this video: http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/DA33AEC8-03F0-442C-BA95-257CB5B761F5/0/vidProjectNatalAnnounceHi.asx

Yesterday Xbox laid down the gauntlet to prove it is no longer just a gaming console. It wants to run your living room. The non-gaming announcements today included a partnership with Facebook and Twitter, a partnership with Last FM, a partnership with Britain’s Sky TV, and a quicker, more efficient version of their Netflix service. This last piece brings Xbox and the new Zune HD 1080p player together. The goal is to get non gamers to become familiar with Xbox, then convert all of the technology found in common dorms, living rooms, and dens into one device doing it all.

What wowed viewers the most though was the still in development Xbox Project Natal. This is a full body motion control camera system – in other words Xbox is devising a way to make the human body the remote control. Using cameras and microphones, characters onscreen react to a person’s actions as if one was in the video game. Onstage this did not look clunky or inaccurate at all. With Natal, Xbox is looking not only to catch Wii, but put it in its dust. And they mean business. Onstage it was said that a number of game developers were receiving this technology today so the next generation of games will be using this technology.

Here at TPN, we are amped up to support this Xbox revolution. Our exhibit designs will evolve from gamer-centric environments to involve and engage inexperienced users and people of all ages. All of the new ways to use the Xbox from movies to music to social networking to video games opens up doors for us to create fun ways to show it off. As we grow with this ever changing and fun client, we need to remember that even though in 5 years the console will be the same, it’s potential could be years ahead of that.

Our client requested a new booth, essentially light boxes 5′x16′. We partnered with three vendors (graphics, structure and wood accents) to produce this booth and didn’t have the opportunity for a preview. The first time the components were assembled together was the 16-hour first build day. Fortunately, my labor provider sent their [...]]]>

REALITY

Our client requested a new booth, essentially light boxes 5′x16′. We partnered with three vendors (graphics, structure and wood accents) to produce this booth and didn’t have the opportunity for a preview. The first time the components were assembled together was the 16-hour first build day. Fortunately, my labor provider sent their top notch team and everything went smoothly. Bottom line, the client is thrilled and we made the show opening with a day to spare.

RENDERING!