the stage. The size of the screens is dictated by
two factors: number of attendees and the ceiling
height of the room. A low ceiling does not allow
for large screens and with 600 people in attendance, a couple of smaller screens in a traditional
stage set were simply not going to work. And
when the room is long and narrow with a low
ceiling, the challenges are even greater when
designing a meeting room layout. Media Matrix
designed a very simple solution: place the stage
right down the middle of the room with the
audience seated on both sides. The four large
projection screens were placed behind the
audience so they looked past the stage and past
their colleagues on the other side of the stage to
see the screens. Since there were only 5 rows of
seats on either side of the stage, the distance was
not that far. An additional benefit was that presenters would easily be able to see everyone in the
audience at a glance. That helped make the
presentation more immediate and impactful. “It
was imperative to provide a different room layout
since we had the physical challenges of the space
to overcome, and our client wanted something
different,” said Media Matrix President Michael
Olenski. “We needed to take a creative approach
to ensure that the presenters would have the
impact and sense of closeness that they wanted.
We found a way to use the unique dimensions of
the room to our advantage.”
On the morning that the meeting opened the
audience, upon arrival, found themselves facing
a tunnel leading into the main meeting room.
All attendees had to walk through this 30 foot
tunnel just to get into the meeting room. “Ladies
and gentlemen, leave your preconceived notions
behind,” an announcer advised, assuring the
audience that they were in for a very different
experience.
Once in the room, the attendees were greeted by
an atmosphere of haze and smoke, a mysterious
environment with a long catwalk-like 50 feet long
and six feet wide stage, extending right down the
middle of the audience. An opening video then
played, setting up the premise of EMD Millipore’s
mission for the future. Just as the audience was
settling in for a “typical” meeting presentation,
pyrotechnics brought a surprise to the audience as
The Traveler appeared center stage once the
smoke and fog had lifted. Dressed in a futuristic
costume, The Traveler quickly outlined who he was
and why he was there. The concept: The Traveler
was an EMD Millipore employee from 100 years in
the future who realized that the company’s
outstanding success in the 22nd century stemmed
from a crucial business meeting early in the 21st
century: the very one the attendees were experiencing. The Traveler had returned (time travel
being relatively common by his time) to find out
exactly what happened at this meeting to make
EMD Millipore so successful in the future.
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The Traveler’s delivery was only part of an illusion that captivated the audience.
The Traveler carried a battered time capsule filled with agendas, index cards and
other memorabilia – weathered after 100 years. He interacted with presenters in
ways that showed he knew who they were and what they would go on to
contribute. And there was an internal logic to the concept: a new, shiny time
capsule was introduced at the end of the meeting in which to store the memorabilia from the meeting. The Traveler also explained that he was prohibited by the
rules of time travel fro