Hope everyone got back safely from St. Louis.
I attended 9 seminars this year and had a few suggests everyone will agree with. These points deal with equipment, titles, and presenters. I also will tell you the ones I found most interesting and why.
First and most important, everyone giving a seminar must be equip with a projector set up provided by either the trade-show itself or the seminar's presenter. A lot of the classes dealt with detail oriented subjects such as make-up, faux painting and detail other scenic aspects of your haunt so the lack or a projector made for a huge downgrade in quality. I list this point first because regardless of your class or organization you must have the proper gear and back-end tech ready to present your information, this goes for microphones too.
While the seminars were described on the HAA site, the class names differ too much from the descriptions. Case in point, "Air Brush Make-up for Haunted Attractions" I really liked this class, I love seeing demos and processes. The problem here is that anyone just seeing the title might think that the class is about how to best utilize airbrush make-up in your attraction. In reality the description was "three live demos", why not have the title, "Airbrush Demonstrations by: *Blane Quam" or "Q and A Airbrushing Demo"
A second example of this title confusion, "How to Bring your Giant Costumes and Puppet Characters to Life!", your first thoughts would be, "techniques on puppeteering." The reality is that the class was more focused on how you can utilize your costume in the haunt, out of the haunt, and outside of a haunting environment (i.e. promotional events)
The other main tool that would be helpful for next year's seminars would be a rating system, something that the presenters set to let you know who would learn the most from that particular lecture. Say for example: 1-3 class levels
Level 1: Home haunters and first year houses
Level 2: Established names looking for learn more and grow
Level 3: Advanced classes in marketing, through-put, and managing large staffs for haunts that process 5,000-10,000 customers a night (busiest nights)
Every seminar has the potential of being a hour long commercial for a product. Product info sessions would not be an issue if they were free, but these class go for $40-$60. Any presenter that uses the time to hock their product should not be allowed to charge for the seminar.
With that stated, here were my favorite seminars/moments:
"How to Bring your Giant Costumes and Puppet Characters to Life!"
The best part of this class was seeing Kevin put on the costume and show the true range of motion. Everyone clapped when he bent over at a 90 degree angle with the Wraith on and effortlessly corrected. Just seeing one person put it on without help and take it off was impressive, letting the product do the talking is the best way to go with sessions like these.
"Face and Body Painting"
This session had the most practical tips and tricks out or all the air brushing classes, the only problem being that the demos were not projected and that made it hard for people in the back to get a good look at the process. The presenter didn't spend much time talking about the make-up he was sponsored by, rather he let the make-up speak for itself.
"Air Brush Make-up for Haunted Attractions"
This seminar had the projector and slide show set up, but the real benefit was that the presenter, Blane Quam, a 13th Gate make-up artist. It's nice knowing that the presenter is from a haunt looking to share techniques rather than a company trying to sell you their product.
"Over the Top Costuming! What you need to know!"
This session was my favorite because it met all my expectations. Even if your haunted house already has costuming down, Ben provides strong views and philosophies most haunters aren't willing to share with other houses.
Seeing how these seminar's execution can be improved has my own wheels turning as I begin to dig into work back at home. I hope to see better classes and better titles so people know exactly what to expect. Remember presenters, technology is there to help, use the microphones and projectors. Help push the industry forward, sharing ideas leads to bigger better ones that come back to you.
-mciii
twitter.com/miguelcoronado3
I attended 9 seminars this year and had a few suggests everyone will agree with. These points deal with equipment, titles, and presenters. I also will tell you the ones I found most interesting and why.
First and most important, everyone giving a seminar must be equip with a projector set up provided by either the trade-show itself or the seminar's presenter. A lot of the classes dealt with detail oriented subjects such as make-up, faux painting and detail other scenic aspects of your haunt so the lack or a projector made for a huge downgrade in quality. I list this point first because regardless of your class or organization you must have the proper gear and back-end tech ready to present your information, this goes for microphones too.
While the seminars were described on the HAA site, the class names differ too much from the descriptions. Case in point, "Air Brush Make-up for Haunted Attractions" I really liked this class, I love seeing demos and processes. The problem here is that anyone just seeing the title might think that the class is about how to best utilize airbrush make-up in your attraction. In reality the description was "three live demos", why not have the title, "Airbrush Demonstrations by: *Blane Quam" or "Q and A Airbrushing Demo"
A second example of this title confusion, "How to Bring your Giant Costumes and Puppet Characters to Life!", your first thoughts would be, "techniques on puppeteering." The reality is that the class was more focused on how you can utilize your costume in the haunt, out of the haunt, and outside of a haunting environment (i.e. promotional events)
The other main tool that would be helpful for next year's seminars would be a rating system, something that the presenters set to let you know who would learn the most from that particular lecture. Say for example: 1-3 class levels
Level 1: Home haunters and first year houses
Level 2: Established names looking for learn more and grow
Level 3: Advanced classes in marketing, through-put, and managing large staffs for haunts that process 5,000-10,000 customers a night (busiest nights)
Every seminar has the potential of being a hour long commercial for a product. Product info sessions would not be an issue if they were free, but these class go for $40-$60. Any presenter that uses the time to hock their product should not be allowed to charge for the seminar.
With that stated, here were my favorite seminars/moments:
"How to Bring your Giant Costumes and Puppet Characters to Life!"
The best part of this class was seeing Kevin put on the costume and show the true range of motion. Everyone clapped when he bent over at a 90 degree angle with the Wraith on and effortlessly corrected. Just seeing one person put it on without help and take it off was impressive, letting the product do the talking is the best way to go with sessions like these.
"Face and Body Painting"
This session had the most practical tips and tricks out or all the air brushing classes, the only problem being that the demos were not projected and that made it hard for people in the back to get a good look at the process. The presenter didn't spend much time talking about the make-up he was sponsored by, rather he let the make-up speak for itself.
"Air Brush Make-up for Haunted Attractions"
This seminar had the projector and slide show set up, but the real benefit was that the presenter, Blane Quam, a 13th Gate make-up artist. It's nice knowing that the presenter is from a haunt looking to share techniques rather than a company trying to sell you their product.
"Over the Top Costuming! What you need to know!"
This session was my favorite because it met all my expectations. Even if your haunted house already has costuming down, Ben provides strong views and philosophies most haunters aren't willing to share with other houses.
Seeing how these seminar's execution can be improved has my own wheels turning as I begin to dig into work back at home. I hope to see better classes and better titles so people know exactly what to expect. Remember presenters, technology is there to help, use the microphones and projectors. Help push the industry forward, sharing ideas leads to bigger better ones that come back to you.
-mciii
twitter.com/miguelcoronado3
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