Categories
Opinion

Numbers, numbers…

Andy Stinton

Owner, Event Studio
Co-founder, Live Event Community

Everyone keeps talking about what number of people attending an event is safe. This seems to be based on capacities for event facilities, set by governing bodies. As a producer of a range of live events, the roadblocks to live events are much more complicated than these numbers suggest.

I’m not going to win popularity here, but as a business owner, there are realities that I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. These realities affect anyone in our business, and we should be mindful of them.

In person corporate events are not going to happen for some time, due to liability and insurance issues;

In person corporate events are not going to happen for some time, due to liability and insurance issues; no corporation is going to expose themselves to lawsuits and liabilities. Actually, “Lawsuits and Liabilities” would be a great name for a law firm, but I digress.

Many industry sectors have a ban on non-essential travel: no people, no live event. Additionally, the incentive to save company money is immense. A domestic, Canadian corporate in-person convention can cost $2.5 million, including costs for travel, hotel, food, rental and production. This can be replaced with a webcast/ broadcast. Say you pull out all the stops with a high-end online broadcast of this event, it might cost $250,000. That is big savings to the company, and the webcast/broadcast can go global, potentially reaching a much larger audience. Very attractive to the company bean counter.

Since April, I have been approaching my clients with our broadcast platform, which is visually sexy. Time and again, I’ve been turned away by clients who use heavy production for their live meetings, “Thanks, Andy. It looks great, but we are happy with Zoom”. How does one fight a platform costing $25 a month?

Now it’s August, and I’m starting to see the tide turning quite dramatically towards virtual events. Clients from every sector admit that they thought this COVID “thing” would be over by September. Well, it’s not, and these clients still have to communicate with their target audience in a more non-Zoom like way. Companies are looking at long-term virtual strategies and investing on a long-term basis.

Many events are ticketed and targeted at the public and industry, like Collision and Boots and Haerts . It’s obvious that attendance is king, but today in Canada there’s hesitation to even go to restaurants or board a plane. Promoters will back away until ALL the number crunching makes sense. I often hear about hybrid events, with simultaneous in-person and online elements. Adding a virtual component to a live event increases the budget, in an era where lowering overheads is the objective.

I could go on about presenters and bands trying to jump on a plane and cross borders, let alone the two-week isolation at either end of the gig.

Many still think that live events will come back shortly, and that online and virtual are passing fads. Smaller industry companies like A/V supply, Staging, Decor, Meeting Planners, and other industry suppliers are scared – they do not have the money in the bank to survive in the long term. Many industry suppliers fancy themselves webcast experts … this will not end well for them. However, webcast/broadcast need studios, and our techs and our industry have the skills to adapt to this work. They will stumble back, maybe not in its former glory, but let’s try to remain confident for some short-term success.

So standby in 5, 4, 3, ?????

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Categories
Opinion

Back to work? Not soon.

Andy Stinton

Owner, Event Studio
Co-founder, Live Event Community

Well, here we are mid-June, the CERB payments have been continued (sadly skipping a 2 week period) which will affect many of us in the live event industry. I also hear people being disappointed in the government for their way of handing out the money. I have no understanding of why – it may be operational and the government may have to redo their systems. It could be bad governing however that’s the way it is. I avoid partisan arguments as I think the provincial and federal governments have done a good job under the circumstances.

I don’t see the live event industry coming back anytime soon

Andy Stinton, Event Studio

The bigger issue is that I don’t see the live event industry coming back anytime soon and when it does hobble back, it will be with reduced staffing needs. As a producer, I had to find alternative sources of income. I am now producing webcasts notice the word producing. Sadly my competition has expanded to just about everybody who has a laptop and some software. A lot of my competition comes from AV suppliers,

stand by for big pyro fx explosion
!!! BANG !!!

HANG ON THERE I DON’T RENT AV GEAR and am by the way a customer.

Unfortunately, this is the way not just now but in the future, our roles in the business are in jeopardy or don’t exist. It’s every person for themselves, the AV companies in their minds owe freelancers nothing. (notice the absence of them on Live Event Community) So if you are mad or worried about missing some payments from CERB, I would respectfully suggest that you worry about having a job and sadly start looking for other sources of income ’cause CERB is going to end and your rent will still be due.

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Categories
Opinion

Ask for help, be upfront & move forward

Morgan Myler

VP, IATSE Local 58
Co-founder, Live Event Community

On January 25, 2020 the COVID-19 virus hit our shores and has changed the landscape for our industry drastically. This March many workers, professionals and artists, companies, festivals have seen an entire stoppage.

I have heard tell of some of you afraid to contact the various sources of relief offered by the government. Afraid of audits, tax issues and the like. These situations are tough and I understand that our industry has encouraged this underground economy and you can be assured that a recovery will involve our respective governments looking harder to recover the funds for this and all the essential services that require funding ongoing, as they are going to put stimulus packages on the table. This is a team effort and recovery will be all of our responsibility. There is no way the industry will continue the way it has for some of us.

apply for the help you need financially you need to survive this

Firstly apply for the help you need financially you need to survive this. Secondly get financial affairs in order as best you can and get up to date. File your taxes, be open and honest and get through it. Start talking about the way these “Sole proprietor” and or cash jobs are paying out, and get protected for the future. We are all going to need to do our part in moving forward and that will mean (don’t throw fruit at me) paying taxes, becoming proper employees or sorting your taxes and benefits out properly and not getting caught again like this and avoiding future issues when our country is looking to recover from this.

We will all have to do a part when work returns to make the industry stable again and you do not want to be left behind now or in recovery. First and foremost apply for help when the programs are rolled out and get the help you need now.

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