Planning

A company picnic can be anything from a food truck and a tent in the parking lot for a casual lunchtime, to a full-blown evening/weekend event at a nice country club or resort.

 With the weather in the northeast, a lot of these events are in big tents.

Municipal parks are a great place for company picnics.

Like any major corporate event, planning should start no less than 60 to 90 days out. That's when you need to choose your venue and vendors.

• Security
• Catering
• Entertainment
• DJ/ Band
• Tent
• Staging
• Tables and Chairs
• Event Planner
• Production Company Rental/AV Equipment

If it’s a large event you should already have narrowed your list of event planner partners by now to a few and then down to one.  And last but not least, your AV partner!  Please do not wait until two weeks out to find this one. 

At the 30-to-45-day mark on your timeline, you should meet with your AV provider at the picnic location.

Venue

Whether it’s your company parking lot or a municipal park, take this time to physically inspect the environment.  Do not rely just on pictures.  

Is there easy access to power? Is the ground level? If it’s a public park, is the grass cut? Do they keep it cut on a regular basis?  Is setting up the tent the day before allowed?  When does it have to be out?

Even at 30 days out, you have no idea what the actual weather is going to be on picnic day. It could be 90° and humid or it could be 60° and rainy.  Make sure your tent comes with walls.  

And what about background noise? This is often hard to anticipate also but think about noise from close-by highways, airports, fire stations, etc.  

What if there is no onsite electrical power access?  You’re going to have to have a generator present and that makes noise. Also, what if it is 90 degrees that day.  You don’t want people sweating and uncomfortable so if you need to rent fans they also make noise.  Both of these can detract from the effectiveness of your PA system, so you need to locate the generator away from the tent and presenter stage.  Fan noise is unavoidable and guests seated near a fan may have trouble hearing.  Your sound system provider needs to adjust for this.

Confirm with your tent provider your tent will have walls to keep out wind and rain and help keep out external noise from traffic or nearby construction etc.

Is somebody from the park going to be around and reachable at the time of your picnic if there are any issues?

AV Support

PA System

Clear, intelligible audio is even more important than video in many cases. If your guests can't hear the keynote speaker, that is what they will remember about your event.

For 200-300 guests at 10 people to a table, we're talking about a tent that may be up to 120ft long. A DJ will not always have the equipment to fill a large tent for music and announcements in a big area. This is where a production company comes in!

When you need audio distributed throughout a large space to cover every seat, a good production company will get the job done. This is not your local Taylor Rental or party decoration company, and not a DJ service.

Your DJ can still make announcements, play music, etc. because they will be "wired in" to the PA system.

Stage

Presenters and your MC connecting with their audience through a good PA system is important. It’s also important to get them up on a platform or stage where they can be seen. Again, you don’t want people seated towards the extreme left and right ends of the tent to feel left out. If they’re talking from a podium, you probably want an 8‘ x 8‘ stage or minimum of 4‘ x 8‘, one or two feet high.  If there are awards presentations or group photos, you’ll need a bigger stage.

Video

Depending on your budget, video screens need to be selected to reach your whole audience. They need to be bright enough to deal with the ambient daylight that comes through the roof and side walls of that big white tent.

Projecting video using projectors and screens like you would inside a building is not practical and will perform poorly. Do not attempt to do this. 

Video Walls – They perform well but they are expensive and one or two will still not reach everyone as well as several large TVs.  Think one 86 inch TV for approximately every 50-75 people.

Distributing large TVs along the side of the tent is more effective.  TVs are high brightness and high contrast and do pretty well against the filtered daylight you find in a tent.

 Image Magnification aka "IMAG"

In a tent, daylight is still present, but it is dimmed. When people look at the person speaking on stage, their view will be darkened because of the daylight behind the stage. 

Image magnification aka IMAG is a great way to give everyone at the extreme ends of the tent a good view of the person speaking.

If you really want to do it right, an experienced AV live events company will provide a stage with a neutral-colored drape behind it and a little bit of front lighting. Your guests will thank you!  This will also make a huge improvement on the video quality on your TVs of the person speaking.

Details like this can make the difference between a forgettable experience and a lasting impression.  You want your audience to connect with your presenter, right?

Graphics and Video Playback

Although visuals are important, studies show people tend to tune out after only the fourth PowerPoint slide! 

Keep your slides very simple and easy to understand, the fewer words the better. Use big fonts, symbols and basic charts and easy to understand messages! Make them fun and engaging. Why waste time with informational slides if they’re just going to be ignored, right?

An AV Live Events company is there primarily to manage content.  Usually the client wants to advance their own PowerPoint slides.  Your AV company should ask for your content ahead of time to run through it and test it on their laptops.  If a company insists on using their own equipment we can’t guarantee playback is going to be trouble-free. We don’t know the condition of the laptop or what other software is present on their computer

Show Technician

This is a big event for you and your company and you don’t want people walking away spreading bad comments about the food or anything else, including not being able to hear or see well. Last but not least, make sure and have not only the right equipment, but experienced A-V show technicians present to run the A-V. 

Having amateurs deal with technical problems during a live event is not a good situation. If you have a choice, you do not want that on your plate.  Remember that vendor list.  You have a lot of people to coordinate with.  A-V professionals will handle all the wiring and playback and adjustments and issues unexpected issues that pop up during the event and that’s the way it should be.