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Conferences Services

Holding a Conference? If you’re involved in an association or large corporation or state agency other type of organization, you’ve probably attended a conference of some kind by now.  A “Conference” can mean any thing from a small group meeting in a conference room to a major event in a convention center with hundreds or thousands in attendance.
It's easy to book, just call our office and let our staff assist you with your rental needs.  Call us at 315-463-4187 or toll free at 800-535-4328.

Probably the most popular definition is where an association or state agency is holding a conference in a hotel or conference center.  In these you will usually find –

At least one general session will kick-off the conference.  Often there is more than one general session.  At these gatherings you often are treated to special guest speakers, food, a run-down of daily activities and often times a special audio-visual presentation.  Francis Audio-Visual can supply A-V equipment for general sessions that may involve using large fast-fold screens for front or rear projection, large venue LCD or DLP Projectors with special lenses for front or rear projection and a variety of playback devices.  These days everyone is used to PowerPoint originating from a laptop computer.  Some people occasionally still use 35mm slides and on rare occasion you will still see an overhead transparency.  DVD videos are much more common.  Francis Audio-Visual can supply the equipment and the technical staff to operate it.

One important but under-rated element in any breakout session is audio.  Obviously the podium needs a microphone.  Often if your guest speaker likes to move about the stage you will need a wireless hand-held microphone or lapel clip-on microphone.  If a panel discussion is involved, you will want to make sure each person or at least every other person on the panel has a table microphone.  Often times conference planners will want to record the guest speaker(s) on audio or video.  Selling an audio CD to attendees is common.  Francis Audio-Visual can supply wireless microphones as well as the PA system to fit the room you’re in.  Generally speaking, house PA systems are not hi-fidelity and a freestanding PA system is highly recommended to substitute or complement the house PA.

I-mag or Image Magnification – Not too many people outside the A-V industry are familiar with this term.  All it refers to is putting a large, close-up live video image of the presenter up onto a large screen for better viewing.  This is done by having a video camera usually to the rear of the audience feed the image to the projector and screen.  If you’ve ever watched the Academy awards you know what I-mag is.

Breakout Sessions - After the general session people usually attend “breakout sessions” in smaller rooms.  Francis Audio-Visual can work with your conference planner to coordinate the equipment needs for each room.  Typically a portable screen, an LCD projector and occasionally a PA system with microphone are commonly needed.  Most presenters bring their own laptop computers but we also can provide those if necessary. 

In planning your conference regardless of what A-V company you go with, it is important to choose a company that is big on service.  Conferences run on a schedule.  If there is equipment failure you need to have immediate service to salvage that meeting.  Rooms are constantly being “flipped”.  That is to say they are being broken down and re-set for different seating.  That means you’re A-V supplier needs to be on the scene to tear-down its equipment and reset for the next group in a timely manner.  If your A-V supplier is not the in-house A-V company, they should be planning on working with you to find an onsite storage room to store and dispatch equipment from.  These important details should be addressed in their proposal to you.