TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION FOR LIVE EVENTS

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 on The Road Ahead. Today, I have three amazing guests. I have Ormilla Vengersammy. She is the director of academic programs with CoiL, an ETP company. I have Rob McCaffrey. He's the interim dean, School of Arts and Entertainment for Valencia College. And I have Jordan Turner, who's a technical development manager for BrainHub. Everyone, welcome to the show, and thanks for joining today. Thanks, Les. So today's topic is training the next generation for the live events business. And it's so important, especially with the last two years of going through COVID and having lost so many people from our industry. And some people have retired. Some people have passed away. Some people have changed industries. Our industry right now is kind of bursting at the seams, trying to return to whatever the new normal is. And finding people and qualified people is simply one of the most important things that all the companies that are in the industry are challenged with. So today, we're going to talk about everything that you all are doing to engage and embrace the idea of bringing on the next generation. And I applaud all of you for your efforts because the opportunities in our business are, it's a fun business, but it's tough to get into our business. So I'm going to start this question. And the first question goes to Rob. Rob, what is it about the entertainment business that people are attracted to? I mean, I could be a welder. I could be a veterinarian. But why would I want to be in the entertainment business? Well, it's one of those blue-collar creative jobs that there's so few of anymore, right? I think it attracts people that like working on teams. I think it attracts people that like storytelling and communication. If you get a tingle of excitement from getting a reaction from a live audience, I think that's what is the motivating factor for people who want to jump in on live events. Same question, Ormilla. Why do people want to be in the entertainment business? And I know you've had a lot of people go through the CoiL program. Yes, definitely. The students that I've spoken to, they're all excited about the glamour that the audience experience while they're in a live event, whether it's a concert or a convention, a conference that's going on in the convention center. So I think the students, what they see is that, you know, the appreciation from the audience and the way that the lights bring out the story that that event is trying to tell. So I think there is a great passion in that industry. I've worked with many, many students that feel that they want to become like artists or possibly work in the music industry. But when they're actually introduced to entertainment technology, their eyes light up. There's like a new whole door that has opened to them. They don't realize there's so much more that they can actually do behind the scenes to bring out that great audience experience. So I feel like, you know, it's definitely for the young, especially for the younger generation when it comes to entertainment. They really want to give that experience that they have seen in the concert and they have that curiosity about how is that done. So I think it's always going to be that passion there. It's what happens behind the curtains. So, you know, and obviously I'm going to ask the same question to Jordan Turner, but Jordan actually comes to us with, I don't know how many thousands of days of being on tour, many, many thousands. So I'll ask the question. So Jordan, why are people attracted to the entertainment business and maybe why were you attracted to the entertainment business? Well, I'll answer that in two parts. I was attracted because my godfather got me involved in it. And so I looked up to him as a role model and I just wanted to follow what he did. And then, of course, I fell in love with it. But I think other people from a different standpoint, they see the Hollywood glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry and they say, I want to do exactly what they do. And they don't really realize that there's behind the scenes positions dedicated to these. They just know that they want the glitz and glamour part of it. And then as they start to get further involved in the industry, they realize, oh, wait, I didn't know this position existed. Let me dig further to see how this relates to what I originally thought I would be joining this career for. So I know I have a lot of people come to me and say, how is it to work with this artist? Well, some of these artists I don't, I barely talk to. A lot of times they come and go and I've done my job for years for them without them even knowing my name necessarily. There's other ones that I have to know fully exactly every move that they do. But I think it's just the excitement that there's something intangible that happens when you see something on TV or something that seems a far-fetched idea of joining the entertainment industry and then seeing all the parts of it. The celebrity angle that Jordan and Ormilla are mentioning, I think is, I agree with it. The people that I see that actually start to make it, those are the things that they're posting. The first time that they're on a show with their favorite band or their favorite comedian, they get a real kick out of that closeness and the contribution that they're making to the overall experience. I think social media has been invented to show pictures of people in different places having experiences. I'm at this festival, I'm at this concert, I'm here, I'm there. It's all about trying to have shared experiences. And that's kind of the glitz and glamour. But they don't realize when the truck shows up at 10 a.m. and you open the doors, there's a lot of work between 10 a.m. and we'll just say when the curtain goes down or up or when the lights flash and the artists start and the fans scream. That eight, 10-hour day is a tough day, unloading those trucks and building the show, so to speak. Okay, I'm going to move on. Okay, so I'm going to throw back to Rob. Rob, what kind of programs are offered, and especially that you're a part of a college, that help develop the next generation of people that want to be in the entertainment and live entertainment business? What kind of programs are available? Sure, and there are different approaches. The way that it's done here, Valencia College has a service area in central Florida, in Osceola and Orange Counties. And so our approach for developing people in this area are two-year AS degree programs, which are designed to get people working after a short period of study. And examples would be live event design and production, which is really close to the work that LMG does. And then digital media, which Valencia has a really heavy digital video production flavor. Film production, audio technology and sound production, and graphics technology, graphic arts. And yeah, they've got a small amount of general education. The majority of those classes are technical classes. The nice thing, and what I like about the state college or the two-year program, is that you can do it and the success is measured by coming and learning the stuff and demonstrating the competencies and then getting out and getting to work. Well, I think in our industry, spending many, many years in college versus going out and having that on-site experience is one of those things that's very tangible. You learn the fundamentals and then you go out and you do it. You go out and you experience it. There's nothing like going to, whether it's a venue, a convention center, a performing arts center, and building the show and operating the equipment. Okay, this same question, Ormilla, could you maybe talk a little bit about CoiL and what we do to develop the next generation of person for our industry? Yes, definitely. We have a few different programs that we have for our students in the community. We have the professional internship program. Basically, the professional internship program is a semester-long program, basically taking the concept that the students learn in the classroom and apply it in the real-world work environment. So, we teach on the business side, right? We'll be talking about the technical side, but in order for the technical side, for our technicians and the technology to be ready to go on show site, we also have that business side to help prepare and to help plan and execute that. So, we offer the business side where we have different internships in our marketing department, accounting department. We have it in show services. We have it in BrainHub. So, we also want to teach the business side and we find that a lot of students, even though they want to get into entertainment, they find that learning more about the behind-the-scenes in order to get the show going is very valuable. So, a lot of students may walk out of here saying that I didn't realize that I want to become an account executive or I did not realize that I want to become a project manager or someone that wants to plan an event. So, our professional internship program basically offers a variety of different skill sets. Not only are you working in the department, but you also have the ability to or the opportunity to shadow other departments as well. So, someone that's in the marketing department can actually go ahead and shadow someone in the more technical field or they're more like BrainHub, for example. We also have our apprenticeship program, which is called FlexForce. It's basically more of a flexible program. We work with the student's schedule. They can pick whatever shifts that they want to work with. They, again, they have more of the hands-on with the equipment. So, concepts that they may learn in the classroom, they come here to learn more about the technology. One of the great things that feedback that I received from many of the students is that, wow, we have a warehouse with millions of dollars of gear, something that is not available in, necessarily available in their schools. So, with a professional internship and also our FlexForce apprenticeship program, they basically work hand in hand together where we offer the opportunity for students to come here to be able to see where their true passion lies. A lot of students might be studying entertainment, right, or event management, but when they actually come into this industry, they realize that maybe they're more gravitated to the technology, the more technical aspects of the industry, or perhaps more of the business side of the industry. Not only do we teach them the technical skills, but they learn so much of that, the soft skills that need to be successful in the workplace, as well as when they're ready to go on show site. They learn about communication. They learn about leadership. They learn about integrity, right? So, we realize that the passion that students have to work in this industry has a very successful outcome rate. At the end of the semester, we have seen big transformations, right, of our students. The program, they learn, not only learn new skills, but they become more confident in themselves and their abilities. Their overall disposition of the industry has changed. Well, a lot of those students that are working for us, they end up coming on full time. They end up taking careers with us, and so this becomes a feeder program to us to help develop new people. You know, it's interesting. Go ahead, Rob. I was going to say, what impressed me so much with CoiL, because I've gotten a chance to see it through, you know, high school visits that we've taken to LMG and a professional internship that LMG hosted me, and it's, you know, this earn and learn model where you're already working as a So, and a lot of times, I would say, this is a couple of years ago, but I would say people are making, you know, better money as that base level tech than they could in many other jobs in the area, and then you're getting these workshops, which are just as, you know, it's what you would pay for to go to at NAB or Infocomm. You know, the equipment is the top of the line equipment. The people are the experts that are working at the company, and you're getting this super high level of exposure and training at the same time. So, what I've determined is when I go and maybe I speak to any group of people that want to be in the industry, there's a technical path, and then there's a creative path, and there's a fine line between do you want to be the one designing or the one who is help executing and maybe wiring and troubleshooting and really delivering. That, I'm going to throw the same question to Jordan. Jordan, tell us about BrainHub and what they do in developing people and, you know, how does that work? Yeah, so our programs are a lot alike, except for in my program, we're in a little bit more of a faster pace. My goal is to really take people that were already interested in this industry, and hopefully they've been working as a of some sort or, you know, have seen shows that they've been a part of that they can hopefully have some type of background understanding how shows flow, and then I take them and I try and get them from zero to hero. Basically, meaning that we're going to make them full-time techs before the program's done. Zero to hero. I like that. That's a hashtag for the day. Absolutely. So, out of that, you know, what I'm really looking for for each person is high customer service because I know that they don't have the technical skills to be a full-time technician yet. So, now what they do need to have before I join forces with them is to, you know, know that they have the customer service that, you know, a CEO can walk up to them and I feel comfortable with them talking to them. You know, know that they, in a tough situation when things go awry, they won't snap and do something silly with our clients, you know, something that we can trust them in this type of environment. And then we'll try and instill in them the technical skills that will form certain roles for us. You know, it's interesting, you know, your transition to my next question, which was one of the qualities we're looking in candidates, but I will tell you, knowing what to say and not to say is super important. If you're a technical person on show site, there's a certain protocol on headset. And, you know, and then how do you report if you have a technical issue or you communicate to the right people in that format? You know, it's a very interesting thing. I find that if you invest in people, then they tend to want to put a lot of energy behind it. You know, the excitement you get when you're fresh in this industry and you'll do anything versus the opposite, which would maybe be someone who's a little jaded, who's been doing this a long time, who doesn't have that same level of excitement, you know, instead of being your 60th show, and maybe it's your 6,000th show, you just, maybe it's not as exciting, you know? So I'm going to throw the same question to Rob. Rob, what are the qualities are we looking for candidates that might want to be in our business, our industry? Yeah, I would say that it's people who are willing to be flexible, people that are interested in learning all the time because the technology changes quickly. And, you know, if you want to do things the way that you did five years ago, you're only going to be viable for a limited amount of time. And then back to what you were saying, right? You have to have that sense, or at least be willing to develop the sense of knowing when to say, hey, I have no idea what you're talking about. Can you, you know, slow down and walk me through it? And when to, you know, kind of go it alone and try to figure out something to, you know, let the other people on the team do their work. I know this, when someone asked me something I wasn't sure of, I would always say, hold on, let me get right back with you. And then I would find someone smarter than myself for clarity. And then I wanted to always give the person a very thoughtful response and not a knee jerk response. Sometimes you can say the wrong thing and appear to lack competency or you appear to have no confidence. But I also realized that I know for someone to be successful in this industry, it's got to be something you love. It's not for to just go, yeah, I do this. It's not super exciting. If you don't get the little pitter patter in your stomach before the nervousness of a show about to start, then maybe this isn't the industry for you. Maybe there's another industry. Ormilla, could you add to the comments by Rob about any qualities that he didn't include for candidates? Yes, definitely. There's two things that I always look for in my candidates are passion and curiosity. Passion shows that how much you want to grow in this industry, right? How much you like this industry, understanding that there's going to be days, it's going to be like 17 hour days. It might be 60 hours weeks that you may have to work. So having that passion for what entertainment is about and being in this industry is very important. That's number one. The second thing is curiosity. And that's the tag on to what Rob was saying. Curious to learn, right? Being able to say, hey, there's a new technology that is out. I want to learn more about that technology. Curious about what is the next trend that is out there. Curious about the other departments and how they can work hand in hand with other people as well. Passion and curiosity. Those are two I like to add to that list. I can remember, Les, when I visited and you guys were trying to figure out how to put a camera and ball that the audience could throw around during a concert, right? It was like something that didn't exist at all at the time. This has to be three or four years ago. And just, you know, trial and error and research and development, you know, trying different things out. You know, evolution of anything, it starts with trying new things. And I will tell you, in the last two years, we've tried a lot of new things, especially having to delve into the virtual world and hybrid worlds and XR worlds and virtual reality worlds and extended reality worlds. This question is to Jordan. How would you describe our industry for someone who's looking to get into it? Like, what would your description be? Tell me about the entertainment business. How would you describe the industry and would it mostly get people more interested or would you persuade them not to be in the business? How would you approach this? Well, the first thing I think you, everybody's kind of repeated is that you have to have passion for this industry in every aspect of this entertainment industry. You have to have passion for it. Otherwise, this is not the industry for you. And that might be for every job, honestly, but definitely in this industry, you're going to work some long hours. You're going to deal with some clients that are going to be tough to work with. You're going to have some moments where, you're going to like, okay, is this worth it? And then you're going to see the final result and you're like, yep, it was absolutely worth it. So I think the passion has to be number one, what I would describe in the industry and say, if you have passion for it, then this is the industry for you. And now I'll say that to everybody as I open up. And then I'll start describing it saying that now for me personally, this is a dream come true. It's a dream job for me. I would have did this for free if they didn't tell me there was a paycheck involved a long time ago. Because I get chance to travel. I get chance to make decent money. I get chance to be around people of power and high position. I get chance to play with new technologies that have just come out. I get chance to be behind the scenes with things that maybe products that haven't been yet. Or with artists that hasn't come out with a song. All the things that are, you know, quote, unquote, forbidding for other people. Now being in the entertainment industry, now you're a part of that secret society. Got it. The secret society. So to Rob, this question is to you. What brings you the greatest rewards when you see a student or an intern succeed? You know, you obviously have thousands of students come through Valencia every year. Sure. Yeah. No, I mean, that's the passion at the community college level, right, is people come to you wanting to achieve a goal and whatever that goal is, whether it's to get to a four-year institution or get into work. It is exhilarating to find someone, you know, and to do really well. You know, and you were mentioning social media before, right, when we're seeing our students post from all of these exotic locations or building these insane camera rigs or, you know, you posted that thing that Chris Jack had built for you all, that server that had this beautiful set of coils in the back. You know, there had to be 4,000 of them and they were pristine as far as the lengths and the ties together. You know, it's a kick every time it happens. Sometimes the wiring and how the racks look is a piece of art. Absolutely. And one of our engineers, that guy Chris Jack, I think when he's finished, he signs those engineering racks because of the pride involved in doing it. I think everyone in our industry has a certain level of pride and they want the show to go well. They want it to look good. And I also think something we haven't talked about is everyone wants to be part of a winning team. You know, this idea is, you know, something that went well and you're like, I worked on that. And I think there's a certain amount of gratitude that you get from that kind of thing. Okay. I've got two more questions. This is to Ormilla. Ormilla, can you describe in 60 seconds or less, because we're running late, CoiL, what it is? Okay. CoiL is a safe haven where we offer opportunities for individuals to learn, to brainstorm, to take, to be able to explore in a way that they have never done before. It's a place that they can be able to engage with others, a place that they can network, be able to lead, teach and learn about the industry, about a place that they can be able to self-develop in their personal life, as well as in their career. So we basically offer a skew of different classes that you can be able to take to help you with your personal development, as well as your work development. So CoiL stands for Continuous Improvement and Learning. And if you came to the CoiL Learning Center, you would see a cable as part of the logo, because the first thing in our industry you learn to do is to coil a cable. And if you can't coil the cable, you are out. So that is the test. You've got to pass that test. Okay. I'm going to throw it to Jordan for my final question. Jordan, how do you see the industry outlook for future talent requirements as you see people getting developed and the demand? What are your thoughts on the outlook for the need for talent? Well, my goodness. We had a big shift from COVID. So we desperately need people, a lot of people in all the disciplines, honestly. But the interesting thing about it is that before, previously, I will say before COVID and a little bit before, people were learning a single discipline. Now we need people to know multiple disciplines so that they have their best shot for helping the company out and also staying employed. Maybe before they chose audio and one thing inside of audio or maybe video and one thing inside of video. Now we're like, no, let's expand beyond and make you a camera, video, projector, and LED person, instead of just making you a projector person. So the more I know, the more valuable I can be, and then the more different utilization for the more opportunities. And it's really like a win-win by having that knowledge. Do you all see that happening where people would jump from department to department? Not as much as from department to audio, lighting, video, LED, more so inside of the department. Usually they were specializing in, let's say, just maybe an RF guy. Now we need to be an RF com and A2 guy. I got you. So by diversifying your skillset, you add value and people will demand your services because of that. Well, listen, I am so excited about the idea that we're generating new energy and new people for our industry and goodness gracious, we need all those people and more. And I want to thank Rob, Ormilla, and Jordan for joining us today. And I feel like the efforts that you do to enrich people's lives are more than you would ever know. And I bet you, if you look back to how many people's lives you've touched in all the different areas, it is quite a large number. And this is Les Goldberg and The Road Ahead. Everybody, good job. Thank you.