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Joel Rollins
rAVe [Publications]
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Past articles by Joel:
Crew Call: It’s a Jungle in Here
Every environment has its own homegrown bugs, and videoconferencing is no different. Whether you are running the meeting, or simply sitting still, hoping your RAF (Resting Attentive Face) has convinced the meeting organizer you are paying attention, it’s a good idea to know the creatures that are waiting for you in the virtual meeting biosphere. → Read More
Crew Call: Event Planning During a Pandemic
I’ve been chatting with event planners in my spare time. They’re rearing to get out there, but are appropriately cautious. It’s worth a browse through our conversation to know what kind of supplies and support they need now, and what they’ll be asking us (rental and staging #AVtweeps) for when it’s finally showtime. → Read More
Redefined: New Terms to Mark the Changes to Rental and Staging
Now, a lot of people have predicted the decline of the rental and staging portion of the industry due to the accelerated pace of change brought on by the pandemic. The more I prepare for summer events, the more we realize that we are not an industry in decline, but an industry that is doing what we have done many times before. → Read More
It's a Match — How Dating Apps Can Help You Navigate Rental CRM – rAVe [PUBS]
For a long time now, I have advocated the use of commonly available online tools to organize a rental and staging operation. Personally, I have long loved an SaaS application called BaseCamp, but there are many available tools like this one that enable us to organize our projects without having to i → Read More
Going Viral: How Disease Outbreaks Affect the AV Rental Business – rAVe [PUBS]
I believe that there is both current danger and opportunity in the coronavirus outbreak that is happening in China. I have been in the audiovisual business through several major flu outbreaks and through the SARS epidemic, and each time the AV business was affected in roughly the same way. For those of you who have not been through it before, let me give you the benefit of my hindsight. → Read More
What I Learned from Bill Sharer
For some time now, I have meant to do an article about sales and marketing for rental and staging, how they are different from the rest of our industry, how they are the same and how they are changing. I was not sure when I would put this on my schedule, but this week I … → Read More
You Got Drones in My Huddle Room
If you read our industry press at all (and I hope you do) you will note large numbers of articles on two subjects: 1. The “Huddle Room” and 2. Drones When two subjects like these fascinate an industry, it is almost inevitable that they combine in some way. (I consider this the “you got peanut … → Read More
Clippy Apocalypse
I am fairly involved in the worlds of virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence and have a strong interest in how they will alter the future of our industry. Our equipment is already being built in robotic factories, using artificial intelligence. But before we push ahead into a future where our “help” is robotic instead … → Read More
It's Beginning to Look a lot like Maintenance…
“’twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop not an order is stirring so let’s get out the mop…” Yes, the holidays are upon us again. And with the exception of holiday parties and events, many of us can find ourselves looking for things to do. Having spent a few years working in … → Read More
Losing Our Lunch
This morning I was involved in testing two of the new virtual reality conferencing environments. As most of you will be painfully aware, the conferencing industry has gone through a number of revolutions in the past decade, from videoconferencing to telepresence to collaboration and now on to VR. At each of them, we tout the … → Read More
A Roadshow By Any Other Name
Well, as you have probably heard, our international trade association has changed its name. I have heard a lot of opinions about it this week (or at least been sent a lot of emoticons about it). Those of you who have been around a while may know that this is not the first time we … → Read More
Can AV Pull Off a 360?
The onslaught If you have been to any of the major electronics shows this year, or even if you have only been looking at websites for the advance sales for the holiday season, it is pretty obvious that this year’s hot holiday gift will be VR equipment. All of the major gaming manufacturers, the major … → Read More
Are You the Keymaster?
In the original movie Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis (in his immortal role as Vince Tully, CPA) is taken over by an evil spirit from another dimension and transformed into the Keymaster, the minion who will enable Gozer the Gozerian to enter our plane of existence and destroy the world. First, if you don’t understand that reference, … → Read More
Tear the Tents Down, Clean the Cages
It’s the last day of the show, and TGIF. It really has been a great show, setting records for attendance, and I think the attendees really got their money’s worth this year. There was lots of new technology and ideas, and most new products that were introduced seem to be shipping, which means people can … → Read More
Tech Crew Global: Saving Kids Through AV
OK, so on the second day of the show I found the best thing I have seen so far this year. And it isn’t a product. It’s a program. Let me back up a bit. This morning, two longtime friends and colleagues from “down under,” Rod Brown and Jonathan Seller, introduced me to two friends … → Read More
A Whole New Crowd
Well, InfoComm got off to a roaring start yesterday, and it continued into today. The show floor is packed, and the manufacturers and distributors I have talked to seemed happy with the attendance. And so am I, for a number of reasons. International attendance — I have often complained that the show of the International … → Read More
Wednesday (Day 1) Afternoon
You know, every year I can’t wait to come to this show — and then I remember the parts of it that I deliberately forget during the year, like the eternal wait for coffee and the fact that my feet hurt. OK, now that I am done being cranky (at least for today) lets talk about … → Read More
State of the, Um, Art
If you move back in history, the human race progresses from crude tool to artform along a predictable path. For instance, once humans learned to break rocks, that path began. We progressed from using the rocks to break each other to turning the broken rocks into crude tools and then to using the crude tools … → Read More
The Crazy, Cautious and Amazing Future of Collaboration Boards
I am in Amsterdam. Or, at least I believe I am at this point. As many of you know, I am in the middle of a very large project and was unable to travel to Amsterdam for ISE this year. This is a pilgrimage I’ve made every year for quite a long time, in fact … → Read More
The Future Is Here
Over the last couple of months, a lot of the articles here on rAVePubs have had to do with new technology adoption, and the costs involved with being either too early or too late with any new technology. I am a long-suffering “Innovator” (for those of you who have read Crossing the Chasm, something I … → Read More