Talk Show Guest Guide
Location
ThinkTech Hawaii Studios are located in the heart of downtown Honolulu at 1164 Bishop Street, Suite 603, in Finance Factors Center. It is walking distance from the State Capitol, Chinatown, Hawaii Pacific University and all major downtown buildings. Bus and bike routes are close by.
Parking
ThinkTech does not validate parking for hosts or guests but there are several garages ranging in cost. The most reasonable parking in the area is in Kukui Plaza on the Mauka side of Beretania Street, and in Alii Place on Alakea Street.
Clothing
Aloha wear and business casual is appropriate. Coats and ties or jackets for women are totally optional but T-shirts are not appropriate. Shorts are permitted, since you will be seated and the audience will not see below your midriff.
Arriving
It’s critical that you get to the studio on time so that we can start the show on time. If the broadcast begins at 4:00 p.m., for example, please get there by 3:45 p.m. so we can get you ready and without unnecessary show time pressure.
Signing in
When you arrive in the studio, please sign in on our online ThinkTech Guest Entry page. It will be helpful if you also provide your business card to our engineer. We want to get the spelling of your name, title and affiliation correct on the screen.
Caution in the Studio
The studio is loaded with fragile equipment and wires; cameras, tripods, cables, monitors, computers, and other electronics. As you walk around, please take care not to trip on the wires or break the equipment. The broadcast equipment is operated by our engineer and is off limits to the public. Food is not allowed in the studio.
Restrooms
The restrooms on our floor are accessible by key. Take the appropriate restroom key with you, walk out to the lobby area and turn right. Make sure to bring the key back with you. Once a broadcast begins, there is not enough time to stop for a restroom break.
Program Content
Your host and you will agree on a topic and a title. The host will provide ThinkTech with a description of your program that will be posted on our Email Advisories promoting the show to our followers. This should be done 24 hours before the show. The program is 30 minutes long with an optional one minute break in the middle.
We have found that the shows most popular with our followers are the ones with the highest quality of content. Please therefore try to be relevant, accurate and articulate in what you say. Advanced preparation with your host can be key, although hosts have different styles and methods for prep.
Please avoid defamation or profanity, either oral or in any graphics you may bring onto the program. Likewise, we ask that you do not bring graphics or sound that may be in bad taste or an infringement of someone else’s copyright or right of privacy.
We strive for a news focus bringing programs to our audience that meets our mission of raising public awareness and promoting civic engagement.
Promotion of the Show
We encourage guests to tell their friends and colleagues about the show. This is likely to increase viewership. We will send you a YouTube link to the show after it is over, and you can send this to your friends and colleagues for their viewing enjoyment.
Delivery of Images
If you’d like to refer to graphics (including logos, websites, phone numbers, photos or short video clips) during the show, email them to your host and our production staff at shows@thinktechhawaii.com the day before the show. Our production software can be compatible with PNG, JPEG, GIF or TIFF formatted graphics. Quicktime, mov and mp4s are acceptable for short video clips.
If there is any doubt that our engineer has received your graphics or videos, please bring them on a thumb drive with you in hopes we will have time before the show to upload them on to our broadcast system. If you don’t get them to us early enough, we may not have enough time to include them in the show.
Commercial Content
Guests should not openly promote commercial ventures or the sale of goods or products during the show, since that is likely to disqualify the show for broadcast on Community Television. Of course, upcoming events, programs, new books, and other newsworthy items are all good topics for shows. Let us know if you have any questions about this.
Length of comments
When you respond to the host in the interview format, you want to keep your answers to no more than about two minutes to let your host take you to the next question. If you go on too long, or if your answers are monosyllabic, you’re likely to lose the audience. The important thing is to be informative and interesting, and to have fun.
Frequently, hosts may give you the opportunity at the end of the program to leave a message with the audience, so you should be prepared to do that.
Cooperation
We expect guests to be congenial, respectful and cooperative with our staff and to accede to our studio conventions and requirements. We also expect guests to be appropriately attired for video production and to refrain from chewing gum or engaging in other habits or conduct that may distract from the quality of the production.
Ownership of videos
All rights in the video and audio produced are and remain the property of ThinkTech Hawaii. The guests do not have any rights in the video or audio or any other aspect or element of the content created. ThinkTech will be free to treat, process, edit, broadcast, disseminate, distribute, publicize and promote this content in any way it sees fit, or to determine not to use it at all. If you want to post or disseminate your show under a Creative Commons license, please let us know. We will want you to retain our ThinkTech bumpers and bug so that the work is clearly identified as our original production.
