Busy, busy…

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First off just a reminder about our event next week on April 5th.

This will take place at the London College of Fashion on 20 John Prince’s Street,
London W1G 0BJ. We’ll hosted by the tech team, Led by Marcus Saunders and his colleagues Tamon and Oliver (upper right of picture, right to left) and various people from teams on the UAL campus plus guests. We’ll be gathering at the main entrance (pictured below) and at the end of the whole thing we will adjourn to the Phoenix Pub just on the corner of Prince St and Cavendish Sq (also pictured)

It’s going to be a very interesting day of show and tell and, as is our wont, nice and informal so we can chat with all and sundry depending on our interests. I think the whole set up at UAL on this extended campus will be engrossing. Do come along.

So, why is this little blog entry called ‘busy, busy..’?

Because that’s what March seemed like to me! It started with taking part on a panel at BVE the subject, AV/IT convergence. Yes that old chestnut. I went to the Christie open day at the Barbican, both of these sandwiching; TD17, the Reflex technology day, EventTech live at 1 Wimpole St and laying plans with our members at RIBA for a big AVCF event on 28th July (more of that soon, but put the date in your diaries).

So, after the dust settled at BVE.

IT/AV convergence is a big topic of course, with lots to talk about and many opinions.

I can sum my approach in the light hearted response to a tweet that came up in the days following, on an event happening in New York, for the AV User Group. It read:

Find out how AV/IT convergence resembles the Game Of Thrones storyline with @qsc @coryschaeffer at our New York meeting tomorrow #avtweeps

To which I had to reply, mischievously:

Yep, the battle lines are drawn 🙂 Ha ha, but AV professionals already have the dragons. Willing to negotiate. Discuss #avtweeps

Like I say, tongue in cheek and if you follow that show (you should) you’ll know where my thinking leads.

Discussion on the day was interesting and stimulating, and it did highlight a distinct gap in approach between the fields. My main point being that there is ‘no one size fits all’ solution. Communication is key, and IT technology per se is not a panacea for the AV Professional, just another set of solutions for the toolbox. Discuss.

Great to see some of the AVCF posse represented there and it certainly helped me as I looked out into the audience and see some friendly faces.

A great example of good communication and people aiming for the desired outcome was highlighted in a talk at TD17 by Adam Harvey and his colleague Matthew Bell. Worth watching and this presentation is available as a download from the nice people at Reflex via the following link:

https://www.reflex.co.uk/td17/td17-seminar-downloads/

And finally here’s an interesting link to an article by David Trott (Top ad creative and copywriter) on the Campaign web site, an interesting take on the ‘People, not boxes’ stance:

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/double-money/1426491#jpY0XZADBlRto06o.07

I’d recommend his book 1+1=3 because after all we AV bods are creative thinkers and problem solvers! Natch:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/One-Plus-Equals-Three-Masterclass-Creative-Thinking/1447287053/ref=pd_cp_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=J88KGKKZKE623D3YBWBX

Hope to see you at UAL on Wednesday.

Chris