THE VIRTUAL CREW

Hello, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to The Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is dedicated to the future of the live events business, bringing together industry experts. Hello, production world, this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Today I have three amazing guests. I have Damian Gravois, I have Chelsea Messina and Josh Bailey. All three of them are from ETP, our technical team, part of BrainHub. Everyone, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Thank you. So this is all part of our technical team. These are three of our amazing persons. And we are going to talk about what it means to be part of the virtual crew. The virtual crew is kind of the term we use now when we're doing all these shows. And the crew may or may not be in the same room, they may be doing roles that are very different than they did maybe a year ago, and their lives are probably a little bit different, as well as their frequent flier mileage or cards that they have. They're probably not making those same levels. So I'm going to throw the first question to Chelsea, and Chelsea, I want to know, how has your world changed from going from a ballroom, which would have been your traditional place? You would have gone to deploy and do shows and change from the ballroom to going to the virtual event space? A lot has changed. I'm home more, so that was the biggest, biggest thing that changed for me. And not not being able to see everybody in person. You know, we're remoting into these computers. We're doing these live shows from home. So I think that was the biggest change for me was I'm not seeing everybody. I'm not in person with everybody. I'm home doing this, remoting into these computers, pulling off these virtual shows. So Chelsea are you're also doing the same thing at our office too, because, you know, at our headquarters, you're based in Florida, we're open. So you're just not doing as much travel. Correct, correct. And it's it's been it's been an interesting experience going virtual and learning all these new ways that we can pull off a virtual show that I would have never thought of in the beginning. And now that we're in the middle of it and just, you know, kind of thinking outside the box of how we can pull certain certain things to make the clients happy, it's been very interesting and very rewarding as far as learning, learning everything. Hey, Chelsea, tell me one more thing. What did you used to do when we were deploying live events? What was your other role that used to have? And then kind of what is the role that you focus on now? My other roles that I was focusing on when I was still doing live shows, you know, dealing with their kiosk playback, graphics, you know, all the new media related stuff as well. That was my main objective and goal as far as, you know, being in a live setting. But now that we're doing virtual, I'm still kind of doing the same thing as far as playback and graphics and video streaming as well. Got it. So you had to learn some new things. Same question to Josh. So Josh and I know your background as a lighting designer, a lighting technical person. Tell me about how you know your world has changed and what you've had to learn. And and you know, you know, how is life different? Well, for me, it's been very different. It's been challenging at times. You know, the the pivot was the most challenging part for me with learning to be a video guy after being a lighting guy for so many, so many years. But it's been a welcome challenge and being at home has really been great for me and my family. I know that that's a little different than most people, but for me it's really been great. Our family bonds have gotten stronger despite the challenges and making that pivot into the virtual world. Learning to become a video guy from a lighting guy standpoint was was interesting. So. So how is it radically different from, you know, pushing buttons and making lights go to working in the, you know, cloud based computing software? Why don't you share your thoughts on what what's so different? It was the computers itself, really, because we've been using lighting consoles and stuff for so long. We don't really do a whole lot on PCs except for drafting and things like that. So for me, learning to become an IT guy, to change IP addresses on remote computers and learning all this new software like OBS, as well as using remote programs like TeamViewer and Google Remote Desktop and all that stuff. That's not something that we ever really had to do, at least from my my experience as a lighting guy, I didn't do that very often. So that was that was the main change. Got it. Okay. To Damian. Damian, how is your life different and going from, you know, the ballroom, what did you used to do in the ballroom? And tell us what you do now and tell us maybe what's a little different? Yeah. So in the ballroom, you know, behind the drape, behind the scenes was switching on different types of high res broadcast switchers. Being a TD, directing the experience hasn't changed drastically from the sense of what we've been doing in the video side, but more of where we have been. And then really the personality types have shown through as the extroverts to the introverts as well. On show site, you know, you're around all of these people, you're constantly engaging, and you have a lot of, you know, relationship building with those people. Once we went virtual, you kind of became isolated. And although those people were still on the virtual show site, not being there with people made a significant difference. And I think it really gave an opportunity for some of the introverted people to shine. They were comfortable where they were. They were able to become sort of whoever they wanted to be in the virtual space. And you saw a lot of people kind of come out of their shell, grow as a person in the virtual space, and personalities really became more apparent. So, Damian, have you had to learn a lot of new things? Absolutely. I think having the skill sets that all three of us have had from our disciplines were instrumentally helpful. But learning Josh had the keyword, pivoting those skills to the new equipment, the new workflows, bringing all of the facets together to say, how does this need to work? Now was an absolute Everest to climb up as a team. You know, it's interesting that you say workflow because I think that's one of the most important things in how we accomplish and deliver virtual events. And as we continue down this path, we're going to kind of transition to hybrid events. But it's it's having a defined workflow and everyone having very specific roles. And those roles are all important for everyone to do their jobs for, no different than if we were doing a live event in a ballroom. The team has to function. And and I think having those new roles and having those, whether it was a live or remote presenter. So I'm going to do a follow up question. Question with you, Damian. It's how is it different when you have remote presenters, you know, versus being in a ballroom and you're behind a switcher and you can see those people at the on stage and now you've got these remote presenters. How is that experience like, and can you maybe share your thoughts. Yeah. So the remote presenter has been just game changing. The experience for the presenter is think similar to what I was saying and the comfortability level of not having to be on the big shining light and stage. So they come off a little more involved and engaged from a technical standpoint and the entire crew. That can become a little challenging because they don't come to the virtual stage kind of in in learning mode. You know, they they kind of think, okay, this is a normal VC platform. I'm speaking, you know, virtually. There's a level where the technical team kind of has to dive into them and say, hey, this is going to be, you know, different to what you're expecting. And the technical team having to troubleshoot with them virtually, having to remind them of some tips that they might not be used to, remember to look at the camera. Remember to smile when other people are talking. There's a lot of new tools and tips that we kind of have to interface with the remote presenter that we didn't have to do in the real, the on site experience. So learning those and remembering those is super important. You know, very interesting what you were sharing about having to smile when you're looking at the camera. I know we do both live and prerecorded, and I think it's it's easier to have a greater sense of awareness when you're in a ballroom and you have a live audience. It's kind of the same theory. There's like no play that can actually happen without the audience because the audience is needed. And I think it's tougher for presenters unless they get some kind of feedback to to really kind of have a good view of their selves. So this question goes back to Chelsea. Chelsea, when you're bringing a presenter in and maybe doing the inbound tech role, you know, how does that communication go and how do you get a presenter to feel comfortable and how do you coach them? And especially when you're going through the setup of their gear to the how to sit and look and the lights and all the little nuances, really think that it helps when you first meet them on online, you know, just to be friendly and kind of understand that not everyone is technically savvy. They just need to feel comfortable that even though they may know a lot or may not know what they need to do to make sure they're getting into the experience that we will be there to help them. And that's one of the things that I learned. I don't think I was really good at public speaking prior to this, and now that I've spoken to so many people, I feel like I got better at, you know, not only helping them troubleshoot, which is, you know, where the it if they can't get in, we got to help them, you know, sort out what's going on. And I feel like I gotten so much better at it because of the virtual world that we're, that we're in right now. So. Sure, sure. So, so so Josh, have you ever had to tell a presenter something kind of talking about what Chelsea was saying is, is and tell them, oh, I need you to stop. We need to redo this. You're not getting good audio. You don't look good in the camera. Have you had to be critical? And and how do you do it? In a nice way. What's challenging sometimes to do it in a nice way. Sometimes they really don't want to hear it. You know, internet is one of our worst enemies in the in the virtual world, and it gets difficult to tell somebody who is maybe a fairly high level CEO even of certain companies that we've worked with that, that their internet is terrible. You know, a lot of these guys don't like to hear that. And so you got to be very confident and very politically correct, obviously. And like Chelsea said, friendly. Friendly is good and it works out well when you can tell somebody in a nice manner that, you know, we just we saw a little glitch in the in the internet feed there. Can we just run a quick speed test. We just like to check your internet. Just make sure that when we capture your content, it's the very best that it can be. And that usually sets them right at ease and gets them going. But yeah, we've definitely had to do it. You know what, Josh? I that's the most diplomatic I've ever heard you. So diplomacy must be a new art that you've had to learn in doing virtual events. And we are going back to the ballroom. I'm just letting you know that this is a temporary phenomenon that you all needed to become experts at some new skill. So we decided to take a year of your life and separate it from the ballroom. And then we decided when we go back to the ballroom, you're going to be that much better. So this questions to Damian. Damian, what percentage of events are doing prerecorded versus doing them live? Can you maybe share what the experience that you're having? I would say today that percentage has changed drastically from maybe 6 to 8 months ago where we are today. I think that the pre records are actually starting to taper off. We're getting back to more kind of deep diving, but the virtual pre-record slash live shows, if I had to put a percentage number I would say we're probably in the 60/40 range with pre records being on the 60 side and live being on the 40, but even diving deeper into that, within that 40 live, there's probably 10 to 15% of our live virtual shows with a heavy amount of prerecorded content. Those those are really popular for a couple different reasons. Josh hit on it most with certain executives or, you know, just presenters from these companies that maybe their internet speeds aren't the greatest or their dependability or their schedules are full. We're finding that producers are being really flexible and saying, let's bring some recorded sessions in that are recorded live. So they do flow very well in show flows of a live session. So that's where we find that 60/40 split I think is where we are today. Got it. So Chelsea, this is a question. Have you done much in our studios or any studio for that matter, working on these events? Have you had any of those experiences? Yeah, I actually just did a show where I got to be a D3 operator for a for a show that was mainly just prerecorded. They spent the whole month pre-recording, you know, these executives, these presenters with graphics and everything and playback and then all got edited together and we played them back via a media, you know, D3. So that was a great experience for me because I actually never done a D3 show before. So today that was a new skill to learn, and I was so happy to do it because I've always wanted to operate a media server. So that was a great experience. And you know, all prerecorded that whole month was just the recording. So Josh, can you share, you know, the difference of maybe working in a cloud based environment versus a master control room? Yeah, I can Chelsea and I just did that. That event she was just referencing. We were on that event together and it was very interesting. It was my first time working in a well, actually, I think it was my second time working in a master control room, but it was certainly my first time in the mess. I had done some other stuff in the CoiL studio as well, but it was very interesting, and it was one of my few roles that the opportunities that I've had to be a streaming tech. So I was working with somewhat new technology again, something new that I had to learn to pivot to, which was the the outbound streaming role. It was interesting. I like the way we have it set up, and it brought some of that camaraderie back that we used to have on show site when we were doing live events and stuff, and that was the part about it that I enjoyed the most was the, you know, the little short conversations that you had with people that you wouldn't have in the virtual world, you know, the niceties and whatnot, exchanging pleasantries throughout the day, that kind of stuff. Oh, sure. When people are gathering, obviously in Florida were completely open. So. Right. Obviously the studio activity has has been plentiful. This question is to Damian. Damian, what do you think hybrid events are going to look like? Maybe you could opine that take some of your live and some of your hybrid and mix it together, or your virtual and mix it together. What do you think it looks like? I think hybrid events are going to look like two very produced shows running in harmony. I think that we're going to see a lot of the new things that we've been doing in the virtual space over the past year transition to the in-house space, the on site space, and we'll almost need to rework those workflows so that they make sense on site in the ballroom at the venue. Depending on what part of the industry you know you're performing in, the hybrid is going to fluctuate. I don't think we're going to do two shows that are ever going to be the same, but that's kind of the fun part of the industry is I think there's a lot of opportunity for the virtual space to continue onto the live space, and I think it's going to give a lot of opportunity to reach a lot more audience than we would have in the live space exclusively. Got it. And this question to Josh is and and going back to live events and hybrid events, how do you think health and safety is going to play a role? And when you're out on site and what might be different? Well, I'm actually doing a drawing right now for a event that's coming up here early May at our convention center at the OC. And one of the first things that I noticed as I'm doing the drawing is that they've got a plan to put all the audience at six foot tables, one person per table, throughout the entire Valencia ballroom. So it's it's only seating for 300, which that the capacity of that room is much, much more. But because of COVID, that's, that's just one, you know, change that I noticed is that they're doing things like that where the audience is going to be really spread out. You're not going to have the capacity. You're not going to be full to capacity inside the ballroom. I'll be interested to know what they do for, you know, from house positions and stuff like that, to try to keep people spread out and separated from each other, so to speak. You know, during the early parts of the recovery from the pandemic, it'll be interesting to see, I think later it's going to get a little bit crazy and people will start crowding back into the rooms a little bit more, as much as the government lets them, you know, there's different jurisdictions and they'll have different densities. But hopefully if the through mass vaccinations, we're going to all see a better outcome moving forward and we're all going to get back to doing what we love to do, and we're going to be better than we were a year ago. Because not only did we have the live skills to operate the equipment and deliver that live show, we have the same skills for the virtual experience, and it just makes everyone more versatile and to be able to deliver. I think, as Damian said, the the two different shows in Harmony, the virtual show and the live show and and they might have intersection points, but anyway. Well, well for all of you I so appreciate you joining today. Damian, Chelsea and Josh, you are part of a very talented team at BrainHub, and we look forward to getting back to the ballroom and continuing to do virtual events, hybrid events, live events. And and we look forward to a prosperous recovery. And hopefully to quote one of our guys here, we're going to go from pandemic to pandemonium and the craziness is coming. So hopefully for all of you, I hope you're all prepared. And this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Thank you all. Good job. Yeah, that was great. Thanks. Appreciate you having us.