Plan an event like the Wright Brothers

The Year is 1903. 

The Place is on the Potomac River, U.S.A.

Just weeks before Wilbur and Orville Wright were to fly the world’s first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Samuel Pierpont Langley, a well-funded engineer and inventor, was launching an airplane of his own – with the assistance of an entire staff.

Langley thought if you put a big enough engine on the thing, it would fly. He focused all his effort on that one project: creating an engine powerful enough for the plane to go airborne. On October 7th, 1903, Langley tested his model for the very first time.

The plane crashed immediately after leaving the launch pad.

Two months later, just eight days before the Wright Brothers’ successful flight, Langley made a second attempt.

This time the tail and rear wing collapsed completely.

Wilbur and Orville Wright had a completely different approach: build a glider that would glide from a hilltop with no engine at all. They focused their energy on balance and steering. Power was almost an afterthought. Only after the glider worked by itself would they try to put an engine on it.

After three years of tedious experimentation the glider was working well, so they commissioned bicycle shop machinist Charlie Taylor to build them an engine. It was the smallest engine he could design – a twelve-horsepower unit that weighed 180 pounds.

And on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright made history.

Samuel Pierpont Langley died in 1906, a broken and disappointed man.

Langley focused on “Gear” — the engine.

The Wright Brothers focused on “The Event” — the plane, its wings, its aerodynamics.

Planning an event is hard work there are many elements that need to be taken into account to make it a success. If your event is well conceived then good gear can make it great but no amount of gear will save an event that is ill conceived. 

A motor without a good set of wings does you no good. When you put an engine on a glider, you have lift off. 

When you get your AV company to focus on the Event from the beginning you fly, if you get your AV company to focus on the Gear at the end of the process you stand the risk of crashing.

At Sight and Sound, we focusing our attention on getting the entire Event ‘wright’ we want to make sure that the entire experience of the day is perfect.

From a Free Ideation Briefing Session to inhouse manufacturing, to onsite support on the day, it is very important to us that the entire events’ experience is enjoyed from beginning to end.

To book some time with us please click here and I will get hold of you to plan your next Inspiring.PowerFull.Experience 

Here are pics of a few recent events we have completed lately

I look forward to hearing from you soon