Iacono Productions

DELIVER A CEO KEYNOTE ADDRESS THAT SPARKLES

April 22, 2013

The CEO Keynote address comes just once a year.   Whether delivered to 10 board members in a small conference room or 10,000 associates in a huge sports arena, it’s often one of the best attended and most closely followed company events of the year.  So it’s natural to feel overwhelmed as you prepare.  Here are six helpful suggestions for connecting with your audience and delivering a memorable address.

• MASTER THE CONTENT

Practice! Rehearse before the rehearsal. When comfortable, record it and listen with a critical ear so you can refine both the content and your delivery.

• SPEAK FROM TELEPROMPTED BULLET POINTS

 No one knows the content better than you. Bullet points ensure every important topic is covered, while allowing a more relaxed, natural and spontaneous delivery. 

• SHARE THE COMPANY CULTURE

Half the audience could be first time attendees.  They want to hear your vision; but they also want to know how it was shaped by the culture.  Understanding the company values is critical to embracing the opportunity.

• STAY BIG PICTURE

The view from 10,000 feet provides the perspective to explore key company initiatives, as well as the far-ranging themes that inspire and motivate your audience. 

• USE MINIMAL GRAPHIC SUPPORT

Less is often more.  Punctuate your address with a few critical graphics. Let the other members of your Executive Team dig into the details.

• BE YOURSELF

The audience wants to know you. They want an insight into who you are, how you feel, and what you believe.  To remember this important point, try posting a card backstage that reads: “BE YOURSELF.” Place it where you’ll see it just before you walk on stage. 

By: Mike

Iacono's Theatrical Set Construction.

May 17, 2011

Broadway is calling on our theatrical fabrication expertise once again. Word of our excellent set construction skills has reached yet another Broadway touring company. We have just completed construction on the set for the traveling production of “Peter Pan.”

Many of the designers and craftsman that work in our shop come from the world of theater and it is an easy transition to apply these skills to both “Business Theater” and “Broadway Theater.” The design skills and production expertise learned in each of these unique segments of our business, benefit our clients across the board. This mix of work gives our team a unique creative and fabrication ad...

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By: Dan

Iacono Water Wall in Local TV Spot

April 20, 2011

Recently one of our local TV stations came to us and asked to use our Water Wall as a background in a spot promoting their local weather coverage.  One of their video producers saw the Water Wall in action and knew it would be a great prop for the video shoot. We set up the Water Wall up in our fabrication plant and provided special effects lighting as well as the graphics that would be displayed on the wall during the shoot. You can see photos here. The shoot was a great success and the spot is now running on Channel 12. We understand that Weather Authority Tim Hendricks was very impressed with our ability to control the rainfall during the video shoot.

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By: Dan

Off to Dallas for a Site Survey

April 20, 2011

I recently participated in a site survey for one of our upcoming events and it was a great opportunity to confirm the importance of this critical step in the event production process. Iacono Productions produces events in venues all over the U.S. and each of these venues is unique. In order to insure that we understand each of these sites to the fullest we send a team of experts to the venue to gather critical information. Every aspect of the venue is investigated from an engineering, logistics and design point of view. Power, rigging points, room sizes, loading docks, seating and access are just a few of the items that receive our attention on these surveys. In most cases our clients send their event planners on these visits as well and standing in the center of a large hall or arena w...

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By: Dan

Theatre Fire

March 3, 2011

Flaming drapes at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Indiana on 9 Feb 2011.  Unofficial reports indicate that the SL Main Act Curtain (pictured) caught fire when a lighting instrument was knocked over and contacted the curtain.  Fortunately, no one was hurt—evacuation of the all audience members occurred safely and automatic sprinklers put out the fire.  Cell phone videos taken by audience members are here and here.   

Any theatre fire immediately brings to mind the Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre Fire of Dec 30, 1903.  Fir...

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By: Nels

Solution Set

February 15, 2011

First impressions are undoubtedly the most important. They create a perception that lasts. So keep in mind, as your audience enters the meeting space, unsure of what to expect, the first thing they see is the set. Their reaction is critical. It excites or disappoints; and it either raises or lowers expectations. Meetings need a set that makes a memorable first impression, one that generates enthusiasm, without blowing the budget.  All of which begs the question: how can your set make a lasting first impression when your budget is tight? Well, Iacono Productions has a solution that may interest you – the “Solution Set.”

As a full service event production company, we maintain a fully staf...

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By: Dan

Tag you're on

February 1, 2011

One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of today’s business environment is the ongoing and rapidly accelerating impact of technology. This has always been the case throughout history and it will continue. For those of us in the world of event production these changes have had the greatest impact on how we create, produce and present content. Analog to digital has had the greatest impact over the past several years. But now as the digital conversion phase has almost reached its zenith the next challenge awaits.

The manner in which we communicate and interact with each other is changing dramatically and getting more complex. It is having tremendous impact on how information is disseminated and collected. We all see it everyday. Email and social media are now taken ...

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By: Dan

Big Banners to SUNY

January 24, 2011

One of the many in house services that we offer is large format printing that takes the form of banners, posters, way finding and many other applications. We use these large prints in the production of all of our events. In addition, we provide this service to many of our clients for their particular application. We recently created a series of banners for the LPK Design Agency. Their client The State University of New York (SUNY) used the banners at a speech given the SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher in Albany, New York.

The banners that you see in the background of the photo are flexible and mounted on retractable banner stands. These stands make for easy ...

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By: Dan

A Whole New World

January 21, 2011

Blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Yelp....

The list goes on and is growing every day. Social media is here to stay and finding out how to use these powerful communication tools for business is a challenge. I am sure that many of you are facing the same dilemma - you know you need to have a presence in social media but how best to go about accomplishing this task.

In an effort to learn how to leverage social media to our advantage, I have been researching and reading as much as I can about social media and the sites that tie it all together.

I have found ...

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By: Dan