#side note but these screenshots are giving me good drawing references for other ships I have

[bisexualmultifandommess]

Ahhhhhh look at them 😭😭😭

[mappinglasirena]

Bothersome Beams in Sirena’s Sickbay

You know how I’ve drawn a clean layout of the Captain’s Quarters to make it reflect the room as seen on screen by e.g. erasing the false door, adding in furniture and marks for the windows, etc? I've been doing that for a bunch of other places as well (toooootally not because I’m procrastinating the two Deep Dives I should be working on....), and a few days ago I started on sickbay. And now I'm stuck.

I've been staring at this so long my brain is turning to mush, so now you all get to suffer with me!

(Fair warning: there be loads of extremely pedantic observations ahead. I hope you like staring at deck plans :D)

This is the outline of sickbay on the deck plans from the blu-ray Set Me Up featurette:

(For orientation and because it will become important later: The front of the ship is on the right-hand side, the back is on the left.)

A quick reminder of the relevant main features: the round part of sickbay has walls that slope outward towards the top, a counter running along the wall around 2/5 of the way up, and three support beams cutting through the wall and the counter.

(Note that in reality, the beams are all straight across the top; they just appear curved here due to lense distortion.)

Looking at the concentric circles in the outline above, let’s try to figure out what’s what. Easiest: the broken grey lines, i.e. the largest two circles, surely must be where the wall meets the ceiling at its widest extension. (Here marked in blue.)

Next, when we look at the transition between the rectangular alcove at the back of the room (marked “med bay” in the plan) and the round “lab area”, we see that it’s smooth and there is no step in between.

(Again: the walls are straight, not curved, it looks that way because of lense effects.)

Given that and the thickness of the line, I think it’s safe to assume this is the outline of the wall, most likely at floor level:

These, as far as I can tell, are the windows at the front of the room, next to the door.

As you can see, they extend almost to the top of the wall and stop short of the unidentified outer circle. Looking at a screenshot...

...the windows sit right above the counter, so it makes sense that the remaining lines would be the outline of said counter (here in green):

So far so good.

Here’s the rub. I was trying to figure out what the vertical lines dividing the counter next to the support beams might be, when I noticed these four bits:

Those look like the places where the support beams cut through the counter.

That makes sense, right?

As you’ve probably noticed before, these beams run throughout the entire ship. We see them everywhere on the upper and lower deck, they are clearly the skeleton that holds Sirena together. You can tell how important they are to the structural integrity because all the deck plans have these vertical, broken grey lines to indicate where the beams are located.

Now, take another look at the markings where the beam towards the back of the room cuts through the counter (I magnified the one on the bottom left):

As you can see pretty clearly, the marking in the counter doesn’t line up with the normal position of the beams, indicated by the broken grey lines. It isn’t off by much. My rough estimate so far is that the beams are about a foot wide with seven feet between them, so this is a difference of maybe 15cm (~6″, apparently). But something is clearly strange here.

You can tell there’s something different at the back of the room, because where the beams in the middle and front are marked by long rectangles, the one in the back is only a small square. It looks almost as if there was only a single column on either side. If that was the case, it would probably mean that the beam at the back of the room was a fake, not technically connected to the beams at the rest of the ship like the middle and front ones.

But does that mean it was also moved a few centimetres further to the front? This has been driving me nuts.

There are a few possible explanations for what might be happening here.

1. I am wrong about those being the markers for where the beams cut through the counter. That is entirely possible.

2. Some changes were made to the set that aren’t yet reflected in this version of the layout. As I said elsewhere, these plans aren’t quite accurate to the final set in all details (e.g. the two steps between the mess hall and sickbay aren’t marked), so it’s possible that this is some intermediate version where the counter design varies a little from its final configuration.

3. The support beams at the back of sickbay do not line up with the beams in the rest of the ship. The production designers decided that they wanted sickbay to be the exact size we see in the plans, but for some logistical or aesthetic reason, having the beams at the back of the room in the logical position (i.e. parallel to the ones on the upper deck) didn’t work, so they moved them forward a little bit.

I cannot tell you how long I spent over the weekend trying to make heads or tails of this. 

At first I thought: Well, obviously the beams must have been moved to the front. The grey line marking where they should be goes right across the front of the rectangular bit of the room. They’d block the way if they were in the “correct” place, right?

Except I realized my spatial reasoning is woefully inadequate when trying to visualize a round room with sloped walls, so I did the only reasonable thing: I taught myself how to use SketchUp (again) to make a very, very crude 3D sketch of the relevant sections of this room.

Turns out: when you put the beam exactly where it’s supposed to go, it does actually work out okay. I know it’s a little too small here compared to what it should be...

...but that’s probably more due to my estimates for the thickness of the beams and especially the height of the room being off.

I did another version where I moved the beam forward so it sits where the counter is marked on the deck plan, and the difference is pretty negligible:

It looks a little closer to what we see on screen, but again, that’s probably more a miscalculation issue than an honest-to-god result.

As a last-ditch effort I had another look through my screenshot collection. My thinking was that if the beam was moved forward slightly from where it was “supposed” to be, that would mean we’d see more of it.

(On the left, the beam lines up with the grey lines. The area where it intersects with the counter (solid red) is smaller than in the right-hand example, where the beam was moved to align with the marking in the counter.)

Likewise, the distance the beams extend under the counter would be different, if not by much.

(The beam on the right is moved slightly towards the middle of the room. You can see that it dips lower than the beam on the left, which is in the “correct” position.)

If this was the case we should be able to see it in the screenshots, right? Except...

This is the view towards the front of the room. It’s difficult to tell with the perspective, but I don’t think there is much of a difference in how far the beam towards the front of the room (far right) and the one at the back of the room (far left) extend below the counter?

Maaayyybe there’s a difference there? But then again, if you compare how far they dip below the tops of the chests of drawers, that seems pretty similar...

And this is the point where I decided this insanity had gone on long enough and I should probably stop before my brain got entirely scrambled (since, sadly, I don’t have an EMH to unscramble it for me).

So, what’s the takeaway here?

1.: Short of somebody from the production team giving confirmation either way, we won’t know what happened here. I might have misread the set plan, the plan might have changed, or the beams might have been moved. It will have to remain a mystery until we get more shots with incontrovertible evidence, or somebody takes a measuring tape to the set and reports back ;9

2.: For the purposes of drawing a layout of sickbay, I’m going to assume the beams are in the correct position, since that makes more sense in-universe. I’ll move the counter markings accordingly. If I have to make a correction to that at some point, at least I have done the legwork and can refer back to this post instead of having to explain the whole issue again.

3.: Yes, I did just spend half the weekend obsessing over 15 centimetres, to the point where I taught myself SketchUp (again) and wrote a way too long blog post (I did warn you ;9 ), only to come to the conclusion that, as we say over here: “Nichts Genaues weiß man nicht.” - I guess we’ll never know. I have absolutely no regrets!

And finally 4.: staring at images of sickbay for hours on end really makes you appreciate just how beautiful that space is. Scroll up again and have a look at the screenshots. The way the circle repeats in the lights and the table and the concentric markings on the floor. The intricate holograms projected by the ceiling lights. The plants and tools all along the counters that give the room so much texture and make it seem like a real, lived-in place. The way the crisp black and white paint on the beams and the gleaming floor contrast with the cared-for but scuffed up plating and worn-off red paint all over the rest of Sirena... I just really love this ship, okay?

Anyway. If you have any thoughts on this, or you’ve noticed something I missed, I’d love to hear about it!

I was about to say “I promise the next post will be shorter”, but who are we kidding? My brain doesn’t do brief. And what is this blog for if not extremely rambly analyses that give us all an excuse to ogle screenshots of La Sirena for a few minutes?

[zzpopzz]

Really long rant about how I made Vanilla Twilight, I typed it at 2am so it’s kinda crappy and boring, just skip through this post.

So I'd been thinking about it for a long time now, even before finishing Vanilla Twilight that I'd talk about it if someone asked, well that never happened so I was just thinking that I'd let it go but that post is so important to me so well fuck it I'll just talk about it anyway. I did it completely on a wimp like how cool would it be if I make a lyricstuck for Toumaki like I'd be the first (if anyone did this before me im sorry). The first song I intended to do wasn't VT, it was a much shorter and easier song. I saw the music video first time after a while and the lyrics gave me some scenes to draw right away, like the tones, the atmosphere, the lyrics all fit them very well, made me wanted to draw something happy but sad. The ending for it was a happy one instead of a sad one like other songs I did (I didn't post the ending for any of them, just let the viewers decide what it's gonna be) I was very scared like what if it won't turn out ok and people gonna hate me for it or no one even gonna look at it. Also what I visualized are mostly illustrations with backgrounds, what I never done before so high chance it won't go anywhere. I thought well let's just see how far will I get and won't talk about it at all until I post it so at least I won't be all barks no bite. I was very traumatized that someone might know about what I did so I locked all the files when I shut down my PC in case someone hack into it lmao. I started with making a storyboard(kinda) for it, this is where I first got trouble because there was some part I didn't think of when I visualized what I'd draw at first ( 'I don't feel so alone' part mostly and some in between) and it's only at this point that I realized how many I'd have to draw (over 40 images total) and it's mind blowing for someone who rarely finish a painting like me at that time, that number is more than what I'd draw in a year. VT doesn't have choruses that meant I can't do tricks like repeat some panels (I don't like this anyway). I usually painted on small canvas before that but I wanna make sure I can fix things later and some idea I had was pretty big so I used 3000x5000px canvas then trimmed them down ( I didn't know how big it was and it's huge). The idea was to make a tumblr scroll-post like a lyricstuck (my favorites are by paperseverywhere and toastyhat/emptyfeet , they made really cool tutorials about these) so I tried to drew out compositions that would look good scrolling down panel by panel and have some connections between them (this didn't turn out so good in the end because I wasn't good lol) Since I was scared that people might point out that I draw something wrong, it took me almost a week or something searching for references (check my pinterest board) like the streets, sky, houses, roads, outfits, poses,... I was going to draw. I got some knowledge about bikes by this too, like I can tell the differences between road bike, mtb, touring bikes,... I also see and captured bunches of screenshots and reread ywpd trivia countless time to make sure I won't get anything wrong. If you take notice, every outfit Toumaki wear in there are all canon, from anime or promos. The first few panels was really exciting because I had never painted so many with backgrounds before, I was really happy when I almost finished the first verse even compared to the full 3:50 of the song it was only 20 seconds and I thought maybe I can pull this after all. The last panel was intended to be Makichan standing infront of his house looking at the sky but I wanted to show the sky at the end of the panel and that wouldn't work on scroll-down post so I had to leave it for later, I repainted this panel for about 3 times and finished it just 30' before posting. The first panel of the second verse wasn't turning out alright too because that was my first time doing a 3 points perspective drawing and the colors didn't turn out as I wanted either (my intention was a green/gold dawn scene). Things kinda worked well despite that until the scene when Toudou sits in his ink, gdi I didn't know why I was so caught up in that and painted every piece of that wooden floor, it took me almost a week but turned out better than I expected so I was ok with it. I was going to make sketchy paintings for all of the panel but I did too much details on that one so it gave me the impression that I'll have to do just as much for every others. Now I still had school to go and that semester my uni got me pretty crappy schedule that made me have to wait for classes at school frequently, I was frustrated because I didn't get to paint during that time and I might finish it too late (even though I didn't set a deadline) and when I got home I just spent so much time checking twitter and just can't pick myself up to draw and ended up feeling shitty about it. *Side story*  I was so mad because I didn't get anything done and there's still more than half of the whole thing to do and the worst part is that I had no one that I can talk to because I didn't have any friend who ship Toumaki and I also don't want to publicly talk about what I was doing, I wanted to surprise people when I'm done, I didn't wanna give people the expectation then screw it up (I literally thought I'd drop a bomb not a grenade lmao) I can't remember how long was that shitty phase but I felt like it was so long, I barely finished verse 2 at that point. I was so mad at myself and my progress so I spent a few days to look at time management threads and this helped a lot, I changed my habits completely  by this and I still apply those methods now, like I used to stay up til 3am to read fics (bless you writers you fueled me with your writings bless you all) then I switch to bed before 12 and get up early for a good start or reduce working time while increasing quality* After that I kinda got things together,I just went ahead with painting tho it's still kinda tiring, I had to work on 5 essays during this time too. At this point I was like screw all, I give no shit about what everyone thinks I'm just gonna finish this and get some good nap (I practiced power nap to get more focus time for painting but dude everyone wants a good long nap) 10 days before uploading I found out that there's a Toumaki day (I'm so sorry), I was going to posted on the first sunday of June (I did researched on which was the best time to post on social medias so I randomly picked a sunday) and Toumaki day is the last sunday of May, that meant I had 10 days left and 15 panels to paint! I was going to ignore that but I already made it big I should make it right too so I shit my pants going through those last panels. I purposely hiding Toudou's face till the last verse to emphasize the feelz and got so relieved that I finally got to paint him (I read some tags that some viewers got emotional at this part so I'm so glad it worked). The whole things was put under Makichan's perspective so I was so sick of painting him at that point, he showed up in every panel and I can't paint him ugly because he's beautiful (especially his hair, I spent shitload of time painting them). I can talk lots about why I picked to do so but that's headcanon shit and it's embarrassing so let's just skip that. The last day I had only 3 panels left and I was hell confident that I've got this and somehow spent the whole evening rewatch Toumaki pingpong ep (end me). Of course that didn't end well, I managed to finish those by midnight but I still had like 3 panels that needed  repaint completely and all 43 needed retouch and edits. My plan was to post at 9am sunday (thats 9pm saturday est) so I had to get up at 5am and finish all that, I ended up cutting down 2 panels and simplified the instrumental panel (some tags said that was nice so I was at least relieved). Unlike other songs I did, the length of every line's quite different and the original sizes I did would make viewers have to scroll slower or faster at different parts. I didn't plan this beforehand and had to trim down some panels even the parts that I really liked and spent lots of time on. I also found out that people outside the homestuck fandom might not familiar with this type of post so I made a video too (I’m sorry I have zero skill in editing). After posting I was terrified of people's reactions or worse, there won't be any reaction so I turned everything off and went to sleep and woke up with an unimaginable number of notes I'd got, I set the target of 500 notes and I really didn't think that I'd get past that number like maybe 2-300 (well my other songs didnt even get 200), at the end I got 5000. I spent the next week reading and screencap tags given in reblogs, I put them on desktop and they're still my motivation til now. Vanilla Twilight is the thing I'm proud of the most even until now, when I've done other songs and projects that look somewhat better. If I have to recommend one thing on my blog I'd recommend it despite its' unskilled paneling, poor composition and muddy colors. It was the first time in my life that I'd put so much effort into something and went through such emotional roller coaster, the feelings I put into it was raw and the idea was very original compared to other songs, I improved and changed a lot during the 2 months I spent on it and never once regret doing it. ***Anyway, you sure have much free time to read it this far, here's a little game for you: I put random things in VT and HF like some characters/stuff from other series, my ocs,... (there wasn't anything purposeless in there even the logo on their cups or the bags they wear) just send me anything you find and I'll draw you something in return**

[whiskeyworen]

Name: Cyrus

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Gods: Blessed by Balthazar, favored by Lyssa

Class: Ranger (chooses not to be Druid because he doesn’t much like it.)

Allies:  Tenna Danae, Verula Faithbreaker, Moryggan Deraleth

Relationships:  Just his team. Has respect for Sonnya Danae. Takes care of Tenna, in his own distant way.

Weapons: Alchemist’s Shortbow, Peacemaker’s Sword, Sunspear Warsickle. Not much is known about Cyrus. Disaffected by the big city, Cyrus had a chance encounter with a sylvari who was on a mission to learn from all the races. A sylvari named Ceara. Becoming acquaintances, they kept in touch via mail until she dropped off the map. Having been accepted into the Durmand Priory, Cyrus continued to find disatisfaction everywhere; The Priory’s library and archives were full of lost knowledge and random bits of magical and technical innovation…that they were doing absolutely nothing with. His frustration grew to the point he was almost on notice by Steward Gixx, when the War in Orr concluded. Cyrus was considering leaving the Priory when a piece of mail arrived with a familiar name on it. Ceara was in Lion’s Arch and wanted to talk.

Upon arrival, he quickly learned she had changed very much in the last year, and no longer referred to herself as Ceara. Instead, she called herself Scarlet Briar. And she had a job opportunity for him. Access to all kinds of technology and technomagical research, unhindered and unfettered so long as it aided her goal.

Cyrus never asked what the goal was. He didn’t care much. While she talked about building an army, about planting an agent on the Captain’s council in Lion’s Arch, all he saw were the designs she was creating. The weapons. The armor. The self-mobile devices.

It was part-way through her attacks on Tyria, when she brought out the Marionette, that Cyrus questioned her. Her motives. The need for a weapon that could annihilate an entire region of the world. Partly through arrogance, but partly because some part of her remembered their pleasant conversations in the past, she told him. Told him the Truth.

He stayed by her side a bit longer, as she stole Queen Jennah’s Watchwork creatures and remoulded them – hacked them – into machines she needed. He stayed while her probes sent pulses that woke a horrific, multi-headed Jungle Wurm in the Bloodtide Coast.

But when she declared she would burn Tyria to the ground in her pursuit, in violation of that Truth she had told him, he realized her madness had taken over. It was no longer the frantic pursuit of her Goal anymore; the fear and insanity she’d kept at bay had long-since taken over. The Marionette was left discarded as she retooled her flagship. The final Goal of the plan was still in effect but… Scarlet was barely cognizant of it. The fight was what she was pursuing now. Testing her own prowess, her gear, her troops, all her weapons… they were no longer for the Goal, but toys for her to lay terror into the heart of Tyria. So he left. He told her he was leaving, and swore to her that he’d not give up any secrets he’d gleaned. And through the haze of madness, she had oddly accepted it. No troops sent to find him. No assumption that he’d turn over information to the authorities. Once again, that long-ago friendship poked through. Later that year, after the Tower of Nightmares incident, Cyrus was among the ‘ally’ troops that re-invaded Lion’s Arch amidst the Miasma. He pretended to fight alongside them until he was on the Breachmaker, where he and his pet faded away into the shadows, using their own IDs and passcodes to access the systems of the ship. What he saw worried him. The damage the Pact was doing to the Breachmaker in their heady rush to get to Scarlet and to stop the machine was destabilizing it. The fine-tuned mechanisms were going off kilter. Generators overloading, systems frying all around. The ship was NOT going to do what it was supposed to do. In fact…all evidence pointed to something worse happening. He tried to warn her, but she was too far gone. A single moment of clarity had her tell him to evacuate. The last dying gasp of the friend within the monster. Cyrus didn’t wait around. He was gone from Lion’s Arch before the Breachmaker went down. Before its death signalled the waking of the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. Before the Goal was completely and utterly failed in the most spectacular way. Hiding the fact he had been an Aetherblade by association, Cyrus tried to find purpose again. Meaning. The Gods said nothing to him. The Pale Tree looked at him funny when he asked odd questions. He stayed away from Divinity’s Reach because he couldn’t be sure if any surviving Aetherblades would have recognized him as being one of them. Along the way, he ended up encountering first Verula Faithbreaker, late of the Iron Legion, and befriending the curmudgeonly grumpy warrior, as well as drawing the attention of the aloof Moryggan Deralith, a sylvari mesmer who’s skill with the blade matched his own. Finally, through Priory contacts he’d nearly forgotten he had, he’d recieved word from a certain Asura named Tenna Danae. She needed help and was recruiting krewe members. The odder the better. Of course he accepted. Even with her strange virus coursing through her veins, Tenna didn’t shock him. Very little did, honestly. If anything, in spite of her enhancements, he found that Tenna was more vulnerable now than before; if the virus got out of hand, she needed to be monitored, fed, and kept from doing heinous things. Between him and the rest of the team, they could manage that. Just like they could manage each other. He now wears his personal Aetherblade Magitech armor in public; enough time has passed that the sight of the armor isn’t a threat. With Tenna’s and Verula’s help both with technomagical things and metal-crafting, his suit contains all kinds of hidden features that were merely wishful thinking when he was an Aetherblade. Things that had been on the design table but never were implemented. As a Ranger, he’s quite odd, with his obsession for technology, and swears that one day he will be able to use rifles and pistols effectively. It’s only a matter of time. —- (Notes from Me: Okay…first thing’s first. Cyrus technically has TWO backstories, but I’m really embarrassed by the other one, since it, and him, are literally Self-Inserts. LoL. I literally made him to put MYSELF in the game as best I could. I hadn’t made good Ranger yet, and I wanted to learn how to play as one, so I made him one, even though he should have been a Thief or Engineer. Even writing his OTHER backstory down embarrasses me, because it takes a lateral step to the left and implies things that aren’t game related. So rather than Gary-Stu, I gave him the background above. Which is kinda disjointed, honestly, but you can at least follow a timeline. I just didn’t include specific things. It’s all kinda general. He’s kinda a guilty-pleasure. As a Self-Insert, I made him to represent me. He was supposed to just stay that way, but when I started writing up stories and then made characters like Tenna and Miriya and Sonnya, and the others, I realized that in addition to the A-Team, I needed the B-Team. The Outcasts. The Other Guys. And so I ended up linking him to them. Specifically, he and Tenna had kinda worked together in the Priory on a few projects, even if it was by mail. That’s how she knew to contact him, especially when she learned he’d stepped away from the Priory like she had. Kind of a kindred spirit. One of these days, I’ll get a proper Avvie pic of him done to replace the screenshot I have for my avvie here. That bruise on his face and eye isn’t actually supposed to be a scar or anything. There was a story to that, but it’s pretty self-indulgent. So think what you like about it. Edit: had to reupload when I realized that the images were all shrunk and tiny. WTF Tumblr.)

[sandiegodjstaci]

Inject "Rock Star" Steroids into Your Conference Planning: Lessons from SMMW17

Inject "Rock Star" Steroids into Your Conference Planning: Lessons from SMMW17

All the same complaints people have about weddings (Chicken Dance anyone?), they have about conferences as well. Last week at Social Media Marketing World (SMMW), yea, I learned a shit ton about social media…but I also was blown away by “the experience.” How do these social media geeks manage to inject “rock star” steroids into conference planning?

SMMW is the world’s largest social media conference (3k attendees from over 40+ different countries) and it oozes “rock star” at every step. I was both the SMMW conference DJ and an attendee (my 2nd year), so I can take you behind-the-scenes on both sides.

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Sure are a lot of people here…3,000 to be exact. How many more registration tables can we squeeze in the lobby?

  #1 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Over-Staff Your Registration Area

I have been to conferences with 700 people in which the line to register was a mile long because THE BOSS and 2 helpers were the only people handling registrations. When I got to the front, my badge could not be found so they had me stand there clogging the mile-long line for 5-10 minutes while they printed me one. DON’T. BE. THAT. CONFERENCE.

SMMW had like 20 registration counters. And you know who wasn’t working at any of them? The guy in charge. Get a volunteer staff, train them thoroughly (or else they are useless), and delegate. Imagine how you would feel arriving to a conference you paid dearly for and your first impression is “I should have worn comfortable shoes…sigh.”

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Social Media Marketing World’s Opening Night Party on the USS Midway

  #2 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Have an “Opening Night” Party

Don’t think you are going to bring a big, diverse group of strangers together and have “the ice broken” just by playing an upbeat video or having an engaging host crack some one-liners. SMMW does NOT sponsor their opening night party or do ANYTHING remotely sales-y there.

SMMW’s opening night party is held aboard the USS Midway, a retired aircraft carrier parked in San Diego harbor…how’s that for rock star? Conference attendees get shuttled in from area hotels by SMMW’s buses and greeted with a red carpet. Yep. Oh, and they are also greeted by a horde of smiling volunteers giving out high-fives and waving welcome signs.

Once on the USS Midway, conference-goers can go on flight simulators, eat a catered dinner, listen to a live band at one end or my jams at the other. This year there was a donut bar in addition to an alcohol bar, which was very popular. There were also charging stations, belly bars, networking bingo cards, portable heaters for the outdoor parts of the ship…and, of course, the opportunity to snap pics with the conference logo backdrop.

The level of detail is amazing. It is obvious that my fun and comfort as an attendee were considered at every step.

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Some seriously SEXY content from Social Media Marketing World

  #3 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Splurge on Content, Not on Fluff

Did I not love the Starbucks coupons floating around in the mornings each day at SMMW? Of course. Did I enjoy the free mini bags of popcorn passed out each afternoon for NO REASON whatsoever? Damn straight. But those niceties were not the draw….the fact that I learned about Twitter from a TEAM (yes, a power business duo) all the way from England, who–within 10 minutes of starting their presentation–had earned my trust enough that I was whipping my phone out to do my first Twitter video reply in a room full of strangers…THAT is the draw of SMMW.

If you are at the budget level where you need to choose “goodies” over “good speakers”…choose good speakers.

Content is everything. I recently attended a conference where the “goodies” were better than the content…not worth it. Goodies will never win people over if the content stinks. Content doesn’t always have to mean paying for expensive presenters–SMMW added a ton of value by having presenters lead structured networking discussions each day at specified lunch tables. Easiest networking I ever did…AND there I am sharing box lunches with a bunch of fellow super-star bloggers!

#4 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Don’t Plan in a Vacuum

Again, the less-than-stellar conference I recently went to was such a great comparison against SMMW…it was like, “This is how we’ve always done it, so we’re going to keep doing it.” Yea, Einstein, that is not the recipe. You better get yourself a PhD in what other conferences are doing (two 12-hour days or three 8-hour days? meals included? tables for note-taking or just chairs? pre-recorded presenter introductions?) Step out of your box and get ideas from other conferences. Get inspired!

#5 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Offer a Virtual Ticket

So people can be cheap about certain things–it’s a fact of life. As a DJ, I offer a DIY package where I put all of my “dance floor secret sauce” into a series of ebooks and playlists for those who can’t afford to have me perform live at their weddings. I ain’t too proud to offer a price point that literally anyone can afford.

Any other conference I’ve ever attended cost around $200-$300. SMMW costs 3x that…and then some. But why does a BMW cost more than a Geo Metro? Guess what, you can sell both on your lot! Another conference I attended offered a VIP upgrade to get a reserved seat in the front row, early backstage access to presenters/special guests, and “no waiting” registration. It was $200 extra. Then tables for note-taking were taken away from anyone who didn’t buy VIP. Boo!

The virtual ticket concept is MUCH better. Be a BMW conference and offer the lower-priced option rather than being a Geo Metro conference offering an upgraded sun roof and leather seats. You know what that white speck on top of chicken doodoo is? Yep, it’s still doodoo! Content over “goodies.”

SMMW’s virtual ticket gives access to each presenter’s slides, an audio of the presentation, and a video of the slides & audio together. It costs around $300…AND it’s included free with the full price ticket. $300 to hear some 50 or so presentations from industry rockstars. No brainer, right?

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Jasmine Star jumped on stage and was immediately mid-story. All side chat instantly stopped so we could find out why this legendary photographer and Instagram expert was crying over a bowl of pasta 5 years ago.

  #6 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Prepare Your Presenters Like Kindergartners

Conference calls with what to expect, question-answering, deadlines, rules, A/V info, etc…your speakers are the engine that keep the car going. Pamper them! I believe SMMW has presenters find their rooms the day before and do a FULL rehearsal of their presentations with the A/V staff in the room–everything as it will be during the real deal (slides, mic, up on stage…FULL dress rehearsal). At SMMW, there is also a special “green room” type area especially for presenters (not the same as the private staff room) with some snacks and just a quite place to recharge–a nice touch that really does not add much cost to the event.

Some great presenter tips you should be giving to your “engine” include:

Tell the presenters everything you know demographically about who will be in attendance (FT? PT? Corporations? Solopreneurs? Mostly men? Mostly newbies? Mostly local? International?)

Don’t make presenters worry about ANY tech issues. Provide all the equipment, hook it up for them, have the A/V staff offer mic tips for sounding good, let the presenters worry about their content and presentations ONLY.

Don’t be salesy. This is a BIGGIE!!! The “boo” conference I recently attended started off the first session of the conference with a book talk from a book having ZERO to do with the conference’s industry…but it’s author was a well-known member of that industry. The entire presentation was just chapters of his off-topic book 🙁

Tell them to PRACTICE!!

Make sure you have back-up copies of their slideshows. Always have a Plan B if a projector dies or a laptop freezes.

Give general pointers like, “Don’t start with, ‘Man, it’s early…I need more coffee. How is everyone?'” Snooze! Start with a power punch and give the audience the ride of their lives! Avoid religion and politics if you’re not at a religion or politics conference. Avoid generic inspirational advice–get to the specific, actionable items, case studies, screenshots of the tips in action, and so on.

Let them know whether swearing is OK or not.

Final two tidbits: personally listen to your own “quality control” session recordings, and let presenters know your organization is happy to write them a reference letter to speak at other conferences if they like.

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – SMMW sponsored the raffle for those who submitted conference feedback for a chance to win free tickets for next year…Genius!

  #7 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Dos & Don’ts of Conference Sponsorship

The “other” conference I have attended has break-out rooms for sponsors to do infomercial-style presentations. Hmmm…in my numerous years attending that conference, how many times have I walked away from the “conference main street” to voluntarily attend a live infomercial off in some new room? Umm, never. Don’t expect attendees to seek out sponsors, put the sponsors’ messages in front of the attendees.

(c) San Diego DJ Staci – I had to sit around in the dark at this DJ conference (how can I see to take notes?) just because a DJ lighting company was one of the sponsors. See their green lights behind the presenter? Turn the lights back on please so I can record this valuable content!

Now this tip is coming from me…this is not how SMMW does it, just to be clear. So it’s a bit of an experiment, but I think it would be a win-win. What if exhibitors got to sponsor the seminars? Nice value add-on for them, right? “Ladies & gentlemen, welcome to ‘Spin the Pin: How DJs Can Kill it on Pinterest’ presented by Canva! Canva offers free Pinterest templates to make gorgeous, optimized pins every time. See them at booth #73. And now let’s give it up for your presenter, DJ Staci Nichols!”(Yes, this is my topic at the upcoming Wedding MBA conference in October…ut ut!)

Now imagine a Canva ad up on the projector screen as this is being said AND maybe a rep from Canva standing up front smiling and waving (the rep can stick around and pass out Canva swag to attendees as they leave the seminar too).

Wow! Now you just gave the exhibitor a live almost TV-style ad in front of a very targeted audience. Didn’t cost you anything to add this value for the exhibitor either. Of course, the sponsor would be printed in the program and all that too.

Depending on the size of the conference and how many exhibitors you have, you might have to make the seminar sponsorship an upgrade for exhibitors -or- you might be able to bring in non-exhibitor sponsors (like the virtual ticket of sponsorship LOL). Either way, provide top value for exhibitors WITHOUT detracting from content!

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – SMMW’s branded, consistent presentation opener images (first slides).

  #8 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Branded Slideshow Openers

Another ninja-level hack from SMMW is to require presenters to use your organization’s own branded slideshow page template as their opening slide. It gives a consistency to the presentations and provides a professional feel for virtual attendees.

Now, if you like tip #7, you can even throw the sponsor’s logo onto the bottom corner of the template or have the presenter include the sponsor’s logo elsewhere.

#9 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Offer Different Types of Presentations

Don’t make all of your conference content one speaker standing up and talking with a Power Point in the back. How about getting a panel of your website writers together for a Q&A so attendees can pick their brains about articles they read throughout the year on your site? How about small workshops limited to 50 people plus the hands-off mega lectures? How about a panel discussion with 3 industry leaders lead by a host? Get creative because not everyone learns the same way.

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Look I made a new friend at SMMW

  #10 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Working the Networking

Free-for-all parties with alcohol and dancing and food are great for getting attendees together, but you also need structured networking activities to help them break the ice and really make friends they will keep in touch with after the conference. SMMW has their networking bingo cards at the Opening Night Party and structured networking at specified lunch tables (i.e. “table talks”), but they also offer a morning networking break where nothing is on the schedule for 45 minutes. The introverts check in with the office and clean out their in-boxes, but everyone else is wandering through exhibits, buying presenter books in the book store, and casually chatting.

SMMW also starts the networking well before the conference and loops in virtual attendees as well as in-person attendees. They start a Linked In group and Facebook Event and asked everyone to introduce themselves there. They have networking on Slack. They have networking on the conference app, Buzzaboo. They had an “official” after-party at the hotel the night after the last Keynote that a ton of presenters attended (it was just casual drinks at the hotel bar, but it was announced a few times before and after Keynotes so everyone knew about it).

#11 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Offer Lots of Effective Badge Stick-Ons

Make sure to have stick-on ribbons or something similar for people’s badges that say “First Timer,” “Alumni,” “Speaker,” etc to help attendees more easily start conversations. At SMMW, in addition to these easy-to-read sticker ribbons that hang from the bottom of the badge, they also had stickers to put ON the actual badges saying things like, “Blogger,” “Influencer,” “Snapchat Expert,” and so on. The more you provide these kind of labels for the attendees, the easier it is for them to get conversations started. While cutesy badge stick-ons that say, “Party Animal,” “Girl Power,” or “I’m Tired” are fun, they are not as effective at helping attendees find like-minded allies as the first type of stick-ons are.

#12 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Provide Meals for Attendees

If your conference is at a location with a lot of eating options (i.e. a casino in Vegas), it can be tempting to let everyone loose for lunch, but when attendees disperse like that they are far less likely to network. The more the attendees make valuable contacts at your conference, the more value it provides them…and the more likely they are to return the next year. By providing a box lunch or food stations in such a way that keeps attendees from dispersing, you are much more likely to see attendees swapping business cards over their turkey wraps and laughing together. When they disperse, they are super likely to end up eating lunch alone or with the same one or two friends they already made.

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – #SMMW17 is still super happening the week after the conference!

  #13 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Get your Conference #Trending!

Have a conference hashtag AND encourage attendees to use it. Offer give-aways to those posting with your hashtag. Post almost all of the professional pics from your staff photography crew to the conference hashtag so attendees can see that group shot they posed for last night (that probably won’t make the conference highlight video or the website for next year…but still has value). Ensure your organization has someone monitoring the conference hashtag throughout the conference and liking, commenting, and retweeting as much as possible. When those using the conference hashtag are rewarded with retweets and comments, they will only want to promote your conference for you for free MORE!

Attendees will go on Instagram and Twitter (maybe even Facebook) and check the conference hashtag regularly…and this will also help them network. I make A LOT of conference connections by first developing a relationship on Linked In (pre-conference networking in the Linked In group), Twitter, or Instagram and then recognizing that online acquaintance at lunch or in the hallway. “Hey, it’s you from Instagram. OMG! Nice to finally meet you in person.” Easiest #Networking ever.

And, don’t forget, your virtual attendees will be going crazy with jealousy at all the fun everyone is having without them when they check the conference hashtag. Hello, upgrade for next year!

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci – Hey, she looks familiar!

#14 CONFERENCE PLANNING TIP: Now We Talk About Entertainment

See how this is the bottom item? Having some music by a DJ or band adds a lot of energy…even the right pre-recorded music is better than nothing. At SMMW, they had me DJ 30 minutes before and after each Keynote  as everyone was coming in and out. I was set up on a small stage in a big, open networking area between the doors and the Keynote room. When attendees opened the door to come in off the street, grab a coffee, and find a seat, “Good Day Sunshine” (Beatles) or “Lovely Day” (Bill Withers) was the first thing that became a part of that day’s conference experience for them. On the last day after the final Keynote, their good-bye music was “Takin’ Care of Business” (BTO) and “Don’t Stop Thinkin’ About Tomorrow” (Fleetwood Mac). The music connects with them and taps their “conference loyalty” button.

Up on the Keynote stage, SMMW had different live bands not just playing upbeat music but interacting with the crowd. The energy was through the roof! They also had a Calypso band play during that morning networking break right by the breakfast area. How “feel good” is Calypso??? Ever meet anyone who didn’t like Calypso music???

OUTRO

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