HOLDING FUTURE LIVE EVENTS SAFELY

Hello, production world, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to the Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is courtesy of LMG with your host, Les Goldberg. Today I have three interesting guests. I have Colin Murphy, who is the president founder of Bangalore Scenic. I have Mark Hailey who is the president of Smart City Networks, and I have the CEO and founder of Christie Lites, Huntly Christie. Welcome to the show, guys. I'd like to ask you, when do you think we're going to be doing live events again? So let me throw it to Colin and say, Colin, what do you think? Well, thanks, Les. Thanks for having me here today. I appreciate the offer. When do we do live events? I been thinking about that a lot. Obviously, lately. And I think that, you know, when sporting events come back and large stadium events of some sort, come back, that's when we're going to start doing live events. So do I think that's going to be this year? I can't say for certain, but I do think that by the end of this year, we will see some form of live events. I don't think we'll see the type of live events that we've seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic until sometime next year. Huntley, do you agree or disagree? I'd like a contrarian view. Please be optimistic for me. I wish, I wish I could help you with the optimism. I think we're looking at different market sectors. So in corporate land, we've already heard Facebook announce no live events until June 2021. Microsoft has said no live events until July 2021, and we may see a sort of a follow the leader mentality in the corporate world. I believe it's typically, in my opinion, the concert world is a little more rogue and maybe risk taking. I think we're going to see smaller bands and live music, maybe lead a little bit of this. I certainly agree that the sports piece is going to lead the large arena piece substantially. We are seeing in in Hollywood studio work, which I guess is in exactly live events, but from a stage lighting perspective and video perspective, I think we're going to see that start to get a real push. Third quarter. So we may see some opportunities there. But generally I think this year is a pretty serious write off for all of us in the events industry. Hey. Hey, Mark, what do you think from Smart City? Who have I think you have 38 convention centers. What is your viewpoint on when live events will return? So in looking from the convention and meeting standpoint, you know, I'd like to be optimistic and say we'll start to see some events start to occur in July. But I think it's really going to be based on I'll look at it from a regional perspective. Obviously, New York City is not going to be doing any conventions in the near future, in the long future. I just heard that Javits may extend the hospital through the fall in anticipation of COVID coming back again for a second wave in the fall. So it depends on, I think, in the cities where they've been hardest hit, how quickly they will reconvert some of these convention centers back into a convention center as opposed to being a support facility. So I know there's a lot of groups that are pushing to to meet. But, you know, from I wish I could be optimistic and say in the third quarter we'd see something. But I think the hit on the economy will also have something to do with that as well. We're going back to work now, Huntly. And what do we have to do to have a safe event? What do they have to do to keep your crew and in total environment safe? In your opinion, what are the steps that are going to be needed? Well, this is a very difficult issue because if you think about it for a second, the current guidelines would suggest that if someone on your shift catches this, you're expected to have that shift quarantine for 14 days. Now, if that were to be the case on a road crew, you could be taking a risk that at any day someone in that crew reports positive, and now the whole road crew is just expected to quarantine for 14 days. So I think we need to see some changes in some of these expectations before people are going to spend a lot of money mounting a tour that that would have that type of risk associated with it. I think we can look toward the airline industry that's already struggling around how to seek passengers and make that work. If if we see airlines carrying planes full or reasonably full of people, that may, in a way, punch its way through to some of these other issues that relate to people working close together. My gut is that we're going to get to a place that if people are wearing masks, they're allowed to get close to one another, and that may be a way to have a have a concert work. So, Colin, you've heard Huntly, what do you think about sending out a crew and building a set in a ballroom? What are you going to do to protect your crew other than masks? What are your thoughts? Yeah. Well, we've we've thought about how we change our current protocols and what are our policies regarding how to do things as simple as unloading trucks. You know, you're in close quarters. And and I think that, you know, the federal guidelines are going to have to shift before we see things like that happen. So as long as the federal guidelines are still, for example, centering around a six foot distancing and and things of that nature, I don't see us in a situation where we can have multiple people in a scissor lift up, putting up lights, or putting a set together, or double stacking road cases in the back of a of a truck. So it's going to follow along the guidelines and what comes from that. And so you know they're going to be hand-washing stations. Yes. How are we going to deal with catering. And how are we going to deal with all of the things that we take for granted every time we're loading in a show, every at any given venue around the country? So things that we're having to struggle with now and, and have a find a way to foresee what they're going to look like in the future so that we can be prepared for it. So, Mark, I'm curious to of all your convention centers, what do you do to protect your team as they deploy all your IT solutions? Well, we're already starting to see plans from different venues on what their expectations are of what, how they're going to operate with the new protocols from their staff and certainly from their third party vendors who are housed in the buildings like us, indicators and so forth. I think the real trick is going to be when the events start to come back, and then show management comes in and they have a series of vendors that also have to abide by those rules, and it's going to take that partnership between the events and the venues to make sure there's a consistent application of these new safety protocols. But, you know, we're starting to see things already that one of our venues are requiring each of the in-house providers to have on site temperature check monitors, so you can check the temperatures of all your employees every day. So I anticipate that we're just going to have to follow the lead of each of those venues and making sure that we have those protocols in place moving forward before we can open back up again. So I agree that with all of you that they're going to be new rules for how we deliver what we do and those rules, we're going to have to figure out how to abide. And they might be different in different environments. Whether you're doing a road tour or you're doing a convention or you're doing an exhibition. But but what size events will return, you know, what are the things that we can look forward to in the short term? And I say short term, which sounds like from this conversation sometime in the third quarter, is very hopeful, you know, is it a physical size, the type of events? What do you think? I, I think it comes a little bit more down to type of events. Again, I think I think we're going to see studio work, which does involve the live event or the event industry's participation. I think we're going to see those more controlled environments come back online first. I think. The convention centers, the the corporate events, as I said earlier, I think there'll be a little slower to follow. How big an audience size do you think we'll come back first? Well, right now if you look at Sweden, for instance, who's from from the very beginning has allowed gatherings of up to 50 people. It may be less than I'm doing weddings or, you know, we may be doing some small events, let's put it that way at that first. So I think the smaller facilities are naturally going to have an earlier start date. Hey Colin, do you agree 50 people or are you feeling differently? Well, I want to be that counterpoint for you less, but I, I do agree it's going to be small groups of people, you know, just in the limited opportunities that we've seen in front of us in the last couple of weeks, for example, where we potentially, you know, we see clients that have dreams of having events, you know, early in the third quarter, late in the second quarter, you know, they're talking about 50 people events. Now, while I don't think those events are going to happen, I do think that that is what whenever the events start to come back, those are the type of events we're going to be looking at. So we're we're talking about broadcast events of some sort, webcast or something of that nature that might have a very small audience. And the reality is, you know, from a production level, you got 50 people on the production team before you put an audience in their, in their in the first place. So. Sure. Yeah. So, so Mark, let me ask you this. How has our business changed forever permanently for COVID? What will be permanent changes forever in our industry? I think that the the permanent changes is going to be the focus on hygiene across the board. Certainly, you know that being in the, you know, the face to face business, we're going to take that into consideration a lot more since we're doing such so much more international business as well in all of these meetings. So I think the fact that you're going to have this started internationally in China and has traveled around the world, I think it's just going to put the focus more on these new protocols for hygiene and for for safety ahead. You know, that will just become part of our the DNA and how we do these events. So, Mark, is the handshake gone forever? I hope not. You know, I'll be optimistic about it. Certainly elbow bumps or there was the there were some other there's a foot pump. Yeah. The foot, the foot bump. The Wuhan foot bump supposedly. But you know, I would hope that handshakes don't go away. You know, it's always a nice way to connect with someone. But, you know, like we said, things may change in the future. So, Huntly, a year from now, when we reflect back at what has happened this year in 2020. What will we most remember in our industry? The. Well, you know, I was I was going to be your contrarian on how we how we look at this. Looking back, if you if we look at Legionnaires SARS which which I went through, I mean the the Spanish flu after the Spanish flu. Broadway biggest growth in the following decade that it ever had. I mean, half the seats on Broadway right now were built in the decade following the Spanish flu. I think we all forgot about SARS a few years later. I think we're going to forget about this in a couple of years. Pandemics are going to be with us indefinitely. It doesn't mean we would. We're going to willfully disregard opportunities to reduce risk. But I think as social creatures, we're going to be in a couple of years behaving just the same as we were in 2018, 2019. Mark, do you agree with Huntly? I do, I do think we are inherently social creatures, and we'll want to get back together and we'll want to have personal face to face meetings. You know, I think we'll we'll see how this goes with the supposed second wave. But, you know, it certainly has embedded in the psyche of a lot of folks in terms of the impact. But I think in the long run, as Huntley said, you know, we've been through other things like this before, and I think things will come back to it'll be a new normal. But I don't think as bad of a new normal as as we would anticipate in the long run because we've been through things like this before. Well, what I would remember the most is how business has, you know, has stopped and we've literally halted in such a quick manner. And to think how the world changed, how quickly everything could go away, is the thing that I'm probably most puzzled by how something could happen somewhere in China. And the next thing you know, all the shows are done. You know, Colin, do you have any thoughts on what you'll remember the most? I want to I want to agree with Huntly. I do think, first of all, that in two plus years, you know, we will see some version of what the old normal that will grow from there in the following years after that. So I, I don't think that we will this will forever change. I think this will change it in the near future and mid range future. But if eventually we'll get back to growth and seeing some of the positive numbers that we've seen and with regard to looking back a year from now, and what I remember is absolutely how in the beginning of February, we were planning for what was going to be a phenomenal 2020, and then a month later, we were trying to figure out how to be as creative as possible to make sure we were around by the end of 2020. So. So, Mark, I want to ask you this question. And how long will it be before our companies get back to 2019 levels, which for many of us were like the best year ever. So, Mark, what do you think? Well, I think the two year range is Huntly and Colin have both mentioned, you know, and getting back to a normal of operating, you know, we put put this in the rearview mirror and you know, and move forward. If the economy continues to pick, you know, pick back up, I think in the next 2 to 3 years, you know, we could be seeing some some good things again where we were on more of a growth curve. Well, I think the idea is that all of us have businesses that we're trying to run, and we have to have to, at this point, contract and try to retool for the new normal, which is coming. And as Colin said, we just want to kind of be here sometime in the future long enough to see that future growth spurt. You know, every time, you know, you think you've seen it all. This is definitely something that I think has changed our industry. You know, we as we sit and look at big warehouses full of equipment and it sits dormant because there's no demand. While there is definitely a future. It's just about the waiting game. And it's how long till we get to deploy. And I don't think I'll ever, ever be unhappy about working long hours on shows in ballrooms anywhere in the world. I think that will bring me so much happiness, joy. I, you know, calling and saying, I have to work late, honey, we've got ten more shows that have to go. I hope that is in my future at some point. You know what, guys? I first, I want to thank you all for joining me today just to get your insight and view on the world. I just want to ask if anyone has any closing thoughts on, you know, our industry, and I will give you a little pontificate. The I think the industry generally is absolutely an essential industry as far as communicating and, you know, recognizing employees and setting up networking events and using all the technology, whether it's live or virtual and and the bandwidth that is required for all the cool things that we're able to do now, I think it's absolutely essential. And, you know, all of the big global companies like Google and Facebook and IBM and Microsoft, none of it would work without that data bandwidth path. And I think that it's here to stay the industry. It's just this is what I would call a big bump in the road. And it'd be interesting to see what it looks like on the other side. And I'm ready to start looking if we can get over the hill. Does anyone have any other thoughts? Huntly, do you have any closing thoughts? I would agree with you about the industry. I think if if this has taught us anything, we've had the chance to try to connect through Zoom and all sorts of digital media. And while I think there's been some real opportunities to enhance our communication through these alternate methods, it's really certainly taught me and many of my colleagues that we're not going to replace live events, theater, concert tours and the like through a digital media. They will, in my opinion, forever be a different experience. There's room for both of them, but I don't see the live experience disappearing. I think it's, as you would say, less. It's an essential piece of our of our humanity. I agree, I think deals are done, especially large transactions are done in person and they're not done over a video calls most of the time. I'm sure there's been a few exceptions. Call on any closing thoughts? I couldn't agree more that the while I think it's amazing how we have reached to technology to help us continue through this time right now. And, you know, the idea of Zoom meetings and such are helping us get by. They are doing just that, just helping us get by. It's it's the live in person meetings. It's the synergy that happens when multiple people come together and the excitement that happens that helps ideas be born and grow and creativity comes from that. And so I think that that absolutely will be a big part of why this industry will never, never end. Mark, what are your closing thoughts for the guy who provides the most bandwidth of everyone on this call? Well, you know, I think that while we were seeing tremendous growth in a lot of it was attributed to the economy, I think really what we were seeing in the, in the meetings industry was really the intersection of a strong economy, people wanting to do business together and figuring out new ways to use the technology more effectively. And I think this, as you call it, a bump in the road will also has also forced us to use technology differently, and that will just spur more innovation when people get together. So I think, you know, when when, you know, hard times come up, people get creative, people get resilient and figure out new ways to do things. And when we all come back together, I think it's just going to spur that growth even further in the future. Well, thank you all for participating in my podcast, The Road Ahead. I appreciate all three of you really smart guys and you know, to better times ahead. Thank you and have a great day. Great. Thanks. Thank you.