Cheryl Higgins' product-launch meetings need to pack a punch. As vice president of market development for Chicago-based Destiny Health, it is her job to ensure that during these meetings important product information is disseminated to her company's health insurance brokers, speakers present on schedule, and attendees are so motivated by the presentations that they go out and sell. “We do short meetings where we introduce our selling partners to something new and different from our product portfolio,” says Higgins. “I need to wow them and make a quick impression.”

Higgins relies on an event-production company, Downers Grove, Ill.-based One Smooth Stone, to assist her with theme development, staging, lighting, entertainment, video production, and even quantifying return on investment once the event has wrapped. It is a partnership she values greatly. “I once tried another production company and was really disappointed,” she recalls. “The creative was flat, and they were sloppier about the sound production. A couple of times a video was supposed to go on and it was just dead air.”

While the slip-ups may seem minor, Higgins says that when it comes to event production, even small mistakes can have a big negative impact. “At these meetings our objective is to showcase the company and our product enhancements so we have to put our best foot forward. These missteps made us appear not quite as sharp as we normally are.”

On the other hand, Higgins says that partnering with the right event-production company — one that also understands her corporate culture and product line — has boosted her meetings' ROI. For example, she credits One Smooth Stone with helping to pull off a recent product launch meeting for 400 health insurance brokers that resulted in a large spike in insurance sales and a staggering 60 percent of brokers registering for additional training sessions.

“My CEO wants to know how we measure the ROI from the event,” Higgins notes. He will say, ‘The meeting was great, but can we measure whether it really had an impact?’” She works with One Smooth Stone to come up with an ROI benefit analysis that she presents to her CEO following each meeting. It is a three-pronged approach that determines if attendees liked the meeting, if it helped drive new product sales in general, and how many brokers in attendance subsequently went out and sold the new product. “[This information] is what the CEO really wants to know,” says Higgins. The help with ROI analysis that she gets from her event-production company makes One Smooth Stone “a true partner, someone who can make the event look good and make me look good.”

Can They Talk Strategy?

Each event-production company markets itself differently and has different skill sets, so doing the research is the first step in finding the right one for your meetings. Planners need to look for multiple skills. Top production companies focus on the logistics of producing an event as well as its creative and thematic elements — and they are usually well-versed in the technical aspects of production, including AV, lighting, video production, stage design, and set design. Some also book talent acts, offer services in speech writing and speech coaching, and even handle catering and décor.

Event-production personnel also work closely with speakers — and can be particularly helpful when it comes to coaching senior executives. “One Smooth Stone helps my speakers during rehearsals to make sure the program runs flawlessly,” says Higgins. “As a third party they can eloquently give feedback to my high-level execs that maybe I couldn't give, like suggesting a TelePrompTer or a podium if someone is having trouble remembering his lines.”

For Kathy Miller, president and chief creative officer of Schaumberg, Ill.-based Total Event Resources, a big difference between production companies is whether they are task-driven or strategic-driven. Julio Campos, founder of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Campos Creative Works, agrees. “We treat an event as a mini-campaign. It involves creating a theme that contains the messaging of the event, and that carries through to the attendees from the moment they receive the first ‘save the date’ to when they walk out that door and go home.”

Most production companies have a core team of in-house experts as well as multiple freelancers to assist with projects. In the case of Campos Creative Works, the company has a staff of 30 as well as 25 to 30 “perma-lancers” who work almost exclusively for the company. For One Smooth Stone, the makeup is a little different: The company relies entirely on freelance specialists, who are brought in to help with each event as needed.

The freelance crew the production company hires to work on the event can be critical to whether or not the event runs smoothly, says Earl Grout, manager of meetings and special events, Symetra Financial, Bellevue, Wash. Grout looks for a partner who is not going to cut corners when it comes to hiring quality freelancers, even if that means paying a higher price. “It cost us more than usual to go to [the Ritz-Carlton] Amelia Island in Florida this year for our annual incentive conference because our production company, Miami-based Showmode Production Group, had to go to Orlando to get the best people to work with for the event,” he says — adding that it was well worth the extra dollars.

“We want to do it right and make [the conference] worthwhile for our attendees,” Grout adds. That means hiring a company and crew who will do whatever it takes. For instance, make sure your production people are willing to work in the wee hours, if necessary. “We often have to set up after midnight,” Grout notes. “Our producer hires a willing crew and we pay overtime.”

Personal oversight from the head producer also helps to ensure a smooth-running event. In the case of Showmode Production, says Grout, his producer “brings in the people he has worked with for years and he is there personally to make sure everything is perfect.”