High-End Presentation out of a Suitcase

Engage Conference is one of the leading events in the social media industry. Traditionally held in Prague, the 2015 edition counted 1,000 visitors, 50 speakers, 25 workshops, 15,000 tweets and 6,000 live streams. After such a success, the hosting company Social Bakers decided to take the show on the road to the major global destinations of New York, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Dubai and London. The Czech agency xlab in cooperation with JAD Productions created the event’s high-end presentation and took it across the globe to give each location the visual wow-effect it deserved.

Starting with content creation for the conference in Prague, xlab used the Ventuz software suite to create a sophisticated projection mapping for the main stage which consisted of shaped projection surfaces and an LED backdrop wall. Each speaker came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation, so a major task for xlab was to design animated background graphics and to embed each speaker’s presentation into this environment to maintain a continuous and appealing look and feel. Additionally, the event was spiced up with dance and show performances, each supported by a uniquely created real-time graphics package by xlab.

As the entire event was streamed live to Youtube, additional graphics for the broadcast output were required. Again Ventuz came into play as xlab combined the PowerPoint presentations with live camera input and overlay graphics for text to create a holistic experience for the online audience.

After a successful Engage Conference in Prague, the entire project including hardware had to be packed and brought to the other five destinations. A real challenge, as everything needed to fit into carry-on luggage to save as much time as possible during the extremely short setup and breakdown periods. xlab used powerful multi-output laptops to supply the necessary graphics power for the Ventuz installations.

All events saw record numbers of visitors and online participation. Indeed, Engage Prague received a lot of praise from all over the world and was awarded the best conference in 2015 at the eubea International Festival of Events and Live Communication.