radar blog update (new photo album)

To all you RSS subscribers, Radar has just updated the blog with a new photo album featuring highlights from the NLA event. Click here to access the new photo album and click here to read the updated blog entry (with new pics).

fsi wins two more awards

FSI has won two more awards, taking top honors at the 2006 Communicator Awards: Award of Excellence for Training and the Award of Distinction for Editing (Corey Yaktus).

fsi is an official selection at toronto film fest

FSI, Interthinx’s™ training DVD (produced by Radar) that has taken the mortgage banking industry by storm, is now an official selection at the World of Comedy Film Festival in Toronto. FSI was entered into the animation and mockumentary category along with 400 other entries. On Sunday, March 11th, FSI will screen in front of 200 people at a small theater. Festival director Carla Nolan told Warren that she thought the production value was so great on FSI, she made an exception to her “no training videos” rule at the fest, allowing FSI to be not only entered but shown.

jafra’s national leadership academy

The overall message and theme for this year’s National Leadership Academy was clear: the Jafra home party is back and 500 of Jafra’s consultants, leaders and support staff all agree.

Working with Jafra’s marketing, training & events teams, Radar produced more than 250 keynote slides; more than 12 videos; an opening module that kicked off the event and a closing dance number that got the crowd to their feet. The event was held February 9-11, 2007 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, the event venue for the past four years.

Radar also handled all seven breakout sessions on Friday and Saturday; all of the room decor, scenic, one kabuki drop, lighting, audio, video, teleprompting, stage management, show direction, keynote design & on-site operation, pre-recorded and live music & entertainment and more than 53 pre-recorded VOG’s to help bring presenters on and off the stage.

Working with the theme “Your Time Is Now,” Radar had a little more than three months lead-time to produce the event and all of the elements needed to help tell Jafra’s story.

The Radar Difference:

- Radar placed the stage on the longer wall, making the room wide and shallow as oppose to narrow and deep (the setup used in the past). Radar’s non-traditional approach allowed for a more intimate setting for the awards gala and effectively brought guests closer to the presenters.

- A 40-foot wide kabuki drop revealed the 38 “ladies in red” (Jafra’s District Directors) standing on stage. This was a first for Jafra and certainly not the last — they’re already figuring out a way to use the kabuki drop (or several of them) for the Hispanic Division in 2007.

- Instead of relying on “canned” music during the night of the gala, Radar added a subtle touch and featured a harpist for dinner music and hired a live band to play during dancing.

- An interactive opening module was created to help kick off the general session which featured a real-life success story of one of Jafra’s very own District Managers. The piece was real, live and dramatically effective.

- Radar worked with Jafra’s marketing department in order to create a spa-like experience for 500 women. Sounds easy, right? But when you have less than 45 minutes to change the room from a general session to a full-out spa environment, it allows for challenges to arise. So Radar got in the right mood immediately by playing soft relaxing music and lighting candles on every table during the change-over. They also played a soothing wallpaper loop while women entered the room. The actual fragrance from the spa product filled the room (thanks to ScentEvents™) creating an immediate product experience that worked. Most of the ladies surveyed said this was one of their favorite parts of the 3-day event. Not bad for 45 minutes.

- A closing dance number brought an electric energy into the room Sunday morning, bringing 500 women to their feet and closing out the 3-day event.

- Radar also took more than 80 images from the event and set them to music, creating an emotional and inspiring piece that left the women looking forward to next year’s event.

Click here to view highlights from the event.

Photos courtesy of Moses Sparks Photography.

radar updates wendycreed.com

Radar recently launched a new website for Wendy Creed Productions. The original HTML website, created in 1997, was scrapped and replaced with a newly designed flash website that boasts fast image loading, transitions and an overall elegant design — exactly what Wendy Creed was looking for.

dynamic presentation slides for jafra

Radar used Apple’s Keynote to create more than 240 rich, dynamic presentation slides for Jafra’s National Leadership Academy, February 9-11, 2007. Designed by Radar’s Drew Lucas, the slides featured video loops, animation and transitions and allowed presenters to highlight certain aspects of the slides with ease. This marks the fourth event where Radar has used Keynote with great success.