Speaker 0 00:00:04 This is the gig ready podcast.
Speaker 0 00:00:23 Good afternoon, everyone kind of a different bit of a show today, Joe. And I just wanted to take a few minutes and talk about where the industry is. We're going to get a quick update, uh, in a little bit from our good buddy, Dwayne, who is working for the live event coalition, and they've been working on Capitol Hill and with other awesome, uh, politicians that are in our corner, looking at the live event industry and how we can, um, find ways to help keep us sustained just a little bit longer as we're trying to get back into the swing of things. We're excited for that. Um, but quick reminder, tell your friends, we hope that you've been enjoying what you're hearing and, uh, bring in value, whether it is talking about scenic or video or audio, or, you know, making fun of video guys like myself, uh, who run their cables in the wrong directions.
Speaker 0 00:01:22 Kind of like last week with our friend Mike, who was knocking my chops a little bit, but, uh, we just wanted to say, thanks for listening and tell some other people about it. Subscribe to the podcast on your podcast app, whichever one you choose, whether it's Spotify, Stitcher, Apple podcasts, or any of the, like there's tons of 'em out there. And, um, we would love to hear from you. So, uh, you can email both Joe and myself, Joe
[email protected]. And we want to know what you guys want to hear. Uh, I think next week, we're going to do a really great episode talking with some business owners who have gone from being a technician to being a business owner and what that road and what that process was like, got some great guests that we're going to have. But this week we just wanted to take a few minutes and talk about where the industry is. What are we doing? What are we seeing? Um, Joe and I both have been having a lot of great conversations with technicians and other people that are getting back to work and we're excited about it. So I guess we'll just kick it off, Joe. Great to be here. Thanks for being here. We appreciate having you.
Speaker 1 00:02:30 I love being here
Speaker 0 00:02:31 Every Monday. That's right. Every Monday we're excited about it. Um, so we're seeing a lot of movement. I have, uh, my company has seen four shows in the last five weeks. Um, just happen in popping up all kinds of last minute stuff that has been coming around the corner. Give me an idea of where you're at. What, who have you been talking to? What are some of the excitements exciting things you've seen so far? Well, I've seen a few things, uh, popping up here in the
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Pacific Northwest. We've got, um, blues Fest coming up, uh, this summer. Uh, they usually do good around July 4th weekend, but they are, uh, they're actually loading in the, um, the stage for it this week, I believe. And it's going to be up the entire summer for, um, uh, artists and whoever wants to, to hold an outdoor event, um, on the South waterfront of, uh, Portland. Awesome. Um, and it's, it's going to be available to anybody who wants to breeze through town and, and, uh, run a show, which I think is pretty cool. I think it's a great way to, I think it's a great way to keep, you know, keep artists and keep music rolling. Um, even though you can't necessarily do it in, uh, indoors or, you know, based on whatever COVID guidelines are or the flavor of
Speaker 0 00:03:48 The day. Yeah. It's like,
Speaker 2 00:03:51 How about, how about you? How about to them,
Speaker 0 00:03:53 Like going to Baskin-Robbins when it comes to COVID compliance per state, it's like, w what, what is, what are we going to be required to do today?
Speaker 2 00:04:02 Um, yeah, but you know, I've also seen, I've also seen, um, you know, friends, uh, down in, so Cal doing, uh, Disney, you know, they they're, they're only open currently to, um, residents of California, um, which is, which is fine, you know, keeps, it, keeps it in-house. But, um, uh, they from all reports, the, the, um, their processes and the safety and the social distancing and, uh, has been, uh, very well received by the guests. Um, I imagine the, the lines are awesome because there are no lines, uh, you know, when you're at like 25% at Disneyland, that's like the best day at Disneyland. Right. And so I can only imagine, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 0 00:04:49 And I heard some people go into Disney world, went back when they first opened last year in July and August. And they said that it was incredible because there was nobody there, you walk through the lines. I mean, it's boom, you're on. And they were just doing everything that they wanted to do. Um, I know of course they've changed some of their procedures. Like you have to register for a park before you can go into it. So then they're, they're pre, uh, they're in advance keeping the numbers low, so you don't get there. And then suddenly be like, Oh, sorry, we're at capacity. And you get turned away. They're actually doing that all in advance, which, um, could be a really cool way for them going forward to help, uh, manage people. Um, and I think for live events too, you know, if we're, if we're setting the capacity and you know, of course with ticket sales, you can limit whatever you want, but then you just know where capacity is. It's set up, it's easily done in advance. Um, and, uh, you know, like, uh, maybe I don't want to say it'll do away with general admission, but it'll, you know, w it might change the way GA has done at concerts, things like that for, um, for, you know, non seated events, things like when
Speaker 2 00:05:58 I think you can also, you know, I think some of the, the data and information that we're going to gain from this, uh, this time is going to be really critical, uh, for how to be better at, at everything, you know, um, I know Disney uses those wristbands, um, to, to be your, you know, fast pass or whatever. Um, and they can use that as, as a tracking device as well. So they can, you know, kind of see how, uh, how rides are moving and where people, what people want to go on and whether they don't go on to things. Um, you know, I think they'll learn a lot about, you know, maybe this ride isn't that great. So they get rid of it and put it in a new one that will be, um, so I think it's, I think it's a really interesting time for us because we have this like reset button that's just been pushed and now we get to, now we get to see what boots up and what order and in the best way, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:06:56 No, I, I think so there's one of the great things about change is twofold. Number one, we have the opportunity to learn through it. Uh, I'll be at very hard and challenging. Um, I read a quote this last week, this, uh, the, one of the personal trainers for some of the best basketball players that exist in the world, Tim Grover, he, he coached Michael Jordan, uh, in terms of a personal trainer, Kobe Bryant, um, Dwayne Wade, excuse me. And he, he made the comment in his book. He was like, so you can deal with change one of two ways. You can either deal with it once, accept it and move and move past that point of change. Or you can constantly complain about it forever. You basically have one of two things. And, um, that really hit me smack in the face saying, you know, how much have I been complaining about, or at least making my own thoughts and feelings known about everything going on in our industry, or looking at it and saying, you know what, there's nothing that I can do about this.
Speaker 0 00:08:03 We have to move in a new direction. It took a while when we, a year ago, when we got into this, that I, it took me a while to move into that. Cause I was just frustrated by changes and, and your brain gets overwhelmed with change, uh, after a while, but it's brought us some incredible new technologies. It's brought us opportunity that I don't think we would've had so readily if it hadn't happened and FA you know, pushed us over the edge. Um, you know, so just as Disney is going to learn new stuff, we're going to learn new things, new ways of doing stuff, whether it's hybrid, uh, whether it is different pieces of equipment that we didn't really know how to take the best advantage of especially live streaming and in an integration components where you can do interactive stuff between people live in the room and people that are outside of the room, like an XR. There's some really cool technology where you can bring someone in from a green screen as if they're standing right there with you in the room, but yet they could be on the other side of the world and you're interacting with them as if they're there in real time. It's it's wild stuff. Um, and it looks broadcast like you're both standing in the same place. Um,
Speaker 2 00:09:19 Minds me of the, it reminds me of a Coachella when they had to puck, you know, the ghost of Tupac was an Epic show, but, but, uh, uh, it really reminds me of that this, this, uh, evident of XR and being able to integrate, you know, multiple things into one visual picture, uh, is, is pretty cool stuff. I'm actually, I'm in the process of, of learning this guy's server and, and how it all works. And, and just so just so I have a, a solid understanding of, you know, what it can and can't do so that when, you know, when the time comes and a client says, Hey, we want to do this thing. How do we do it? And I'll be like, okay, well, this is the right tool for the job. And then we get the people in place to do it. That's right.
Speaker 0 00:10:03 And, and do you think you would have tried to learn the disguise server if any of this had ever happened? Like, is that something that you had been thinking about for a while? Or did you just jump into it now because of everything that's been going on for the last 12 months?
Speaker 2 00:10:19 No, we, we actually been using <inaudible> on auto shows for several years, but, but because of the capabilities of disguise growing in the way they have, uh, you know, it got me thinking that, okay, I really should go, you know, dive deep on that a little bit more. Um, so that, that when, when the technology gets to where it should be and, uh, um, and the right opportunity for using it comes to pass, then, then I can, I can jump in the saddle and say, Hey, this is what we should do. And this is how we should do it. Um, but because I've had the time to actually sit down and, and learn, it's, it's been great because it's, it's pretty, you know, it's pretty deep, there's a lot of layers to that system.
Speaker 0 00:11:07 No, there are, there are tons of layers. Um, did it push you to learn it sooner you think then than you would have otherwise?
Speaker 2 00:11:16 Uh, probably I actually had a client that asked, uh, asked me to look, um, cause they're, they're putting in a system, um, up in Seattle for a client up there. Uh, and, and it's going to be a full-time system. So they need, they need programmers. They need people who can, who can do it. So, uh, I'm jumping in for that reason
Speaker 0 00:11:37 Makes sense. And they, like, I mean, as a, as a, um, as a vendor for them, you know, that is a relationship that they wanted to see, you know, apply to another facet of, you know, the events industry. So you're, you're changing. Um, you know, who was it, Mike Tyson that said everybody has a great plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Speaker 2 00:12:01 I shouldn't have face. Yeah. That's a great one. That's one of my,
Speaker 0 00:12:05 Which is, which is so true. I mean, dude really, truly for me, the last 12 to 14 months up until probably February of this year, really just felt like a huge punch in the face. I mean, it's like, yeah, all the change and everything going on, but, um, we're, we're going to grow through it and we're adaptable. I mean, how many times has the client walked into the ballroom and everything has been set up and it all looks amazing and your programming and stuff. And they say, you know, I was thinking, and then whatever that next I was thinking thing happens. And then the technical director looks at him and says, well, it's going to cost you about $40,000. Yeah. I think we should do that. You know, and then whatever it is, like, you know, you move the stage from one side of the room to the other, which I've had happen. You know, it's like, ah, we should do this the long way instead of the short way or, um, any number of things
Speaker 2 00:13:02 I think I want to, I think I want to get a, uh, uh, like a taxi meter that the second the client says, so I've been thinking, you know, knock it down and let that, let that roll. Okay. Here's how it's of here's how much it's gonna cost.
Speaker 0 00:13:19 Um, but I mean, it really is no different than that. Yes. In those instances, that's a much shorter timeline of change, but it really is an example. We can either get angry at it and push against it or come in and say, okay, here it is. How are we going to solve this? Because that's what we do in our, we solve problems, you know, w we have a veterans,
Speaker 2 00:13:45 I think you also plan for the problems. You know, you said Mike Tyson said, you know, if you, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, I always plan for that first punch in my mouth and have a plan B a plan C plan D because ultimately you are going to get punched in the mouth and you're going to have to figure your way out of it. And if you've thought through all those problems, you're not going to have a problem.
Speaker 0 00:14:10 Yeah. Well, and now we've just added one more thing that we can look at going forward to say, well, we've got to at least have some sort of thought out contingency for acts. Um, how are we going to handle that? And that way we can be better planned going forward. Um, I know that I've seen talking to a lot of people over the last couple of weeks. Uh, I know some people that have had four or five, six shows April may, I'm booked out until June in a lot of ways. June seems like it's going to be a little bit slower, but, um, we, we've definitely seen, uh, some really great opportunity. I think that's coming and, um, and, and really opening up outdoors. I mean, I think we talked about this last week. BottleRock is going to happen with, I think 42,000 capacity out in Northern California. Um, the
Speaker 2 00:15:07 Chicago auto show, it was just announced, uh, they're going to do a, an event in, um, it's going to be like six days or seven days in July. Oh, wow. And it's only gonna be the West hall McCormick place. So that's not, that's not the norm, we're normally in the other halls, but, uh, and then they're going to do a bunch of out outdoor stuff on Indiana Avenue that are off the West side. So, uh, that, that should be interesting. I don't, I don't know that that any of my clients are going to be involved. Um, if they're going to do any booth build-outs or anything I haven't heard. Um, so I got to get on the horn and find out if that'd be quick,
Speaker 0 00:15:43 You're doing some stuff out of the doors. It's a total. It would be a totally different Avenue to approach a car show outdoors. And, you know, I don't even know
Speaker 2 00:15:53 Was mostly the ride and drive kind of stuff. You know, where, where you can actually test drive the cars they'll, they'll build, um, like a Jeep usually builds like a big outdoor structure in New York, and you can drive up this massive mountain and back down and like test all the suspension. Cause you're rolling over fake rocks and that kind of stuff. So, um, and then there's like ones where you can, uh, you get in like a souped up, you know, Dodge charger, and they drive you straight at a wall at like 60 miles an hour and then break, you know, two seconds before, but you don't get to drive that that's professional drivers that, into that stuff. Wow. But it's terrifying. It's fun, but terrifying. Have you actually done that? Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. They, they, they are, they're basically trying to show you the zero to 60 and whatever 3.5 seconds and, and got it. It goes, they go there fast and then they stop real fast. Wow. So, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:52 Well, that's good though. I mean, that's all good news that they're doing. I mean, I think they've, at this point, you know, you can't really keep everybody not working for too much longer before it yeah. I don't even know what would happen if, if it were to keep, if they were to keep going the way that it was up until about two, three months ago. So, um, thankfully I don't think we're going to have to think about it. I think that we'll be able to move forward. People have found ways to, uh, adapt within what we're within the confines of the current guidelines with the CDC and States and federal government and all that sort of stuff. And,
Speaker 2 00:17:28 Um, yeah, I think that, I think all of the, the summer, um, sporting events, that kind of stuff, you know, limbics especially, um, is going to be one that, that the world is really watching to see how it manifests itself and how we're able to do things in a, in a, uh, sustainable manner after the Olympics, you know, for, for other big events, sporting events, super bowls, you know, NBA, um, all of those things. And, and like we were talking about in the touring show that that sports is going to be the one that tells us how to do it. And Disney is going to be the one to show us how to do it. Um, and then, and then we'll follow suit. And then the corporate, you know, all the, all the events side of things, the rock shows and that kind of stuff, we'll, we'll be the first ones. And then the, the corporate shows I think will trickle in following that. Yeah, it sounds we have a playbook
Speaker 0 00:18:25 And some corporate shows that have gone two of the last three jobs that we've done, our corporate shows. Uh, and then we've got one more in Dallas next week. Um, that's going on, um, you know, limited capacity, but they're still doing it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:18:40 I was gonna say, are they, are they big? Are they, they large, large amount. Right.
Speaker 0 00:18:44 I think like, um, let me see here. I can actually tell you, cause I'm looking at the drawings right now. So the way that they've got it done is they've got a ballroom that looks to be roughly a hundred. Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be 150 by 150, maybe 200 by 150. And I think that they're limiting the number of people in the room to 200 and some.
Speaker 2 00:19:20 Okay. That's pretty, that's pretty doable. Yeah. Too much
Speaker 0 00:19:23 Space. Yeah. A lot. So lots of space tables spread out when I'm looking at the drawings here. Um, no, sorry. 300. So the rooms bigger than I realized the room is like 30,000 square feet ish. So, but still, I mean, good size, um, you know, reasonable table spread and everything else and, and, you know, bigger screens, like normally in this case, they would have done, you know, this was a breakout that would have been able to be done in a smaller room, but it, and it would have been probably 16 by nine screens or something similar to that. But in this case, they're doing 20 by 11 with, uh, you know, outboard monitors and some other stuff. So they've added in some video and some other, uh, some other items that will allow for, um, that will allow them to, to increase the capacity back into the back.
Speaker 0 00:20:16 So you don't have to have everybody so close. Um, and then they're doing sound, uh, the way they have it laid out right now, they're actually doing sound on all four sides of the ballroom. So then they keep it, uh, so they keep everything as, you know, within reasonable distance to everybody. So then they have, um, you know, good sound coverage so that everybody feels like they're a part of the show and so on. So I think that if you take it into account, um, and you just think through all the different nuances of what it is to have an event, it, I don't think it's a problem at all. You just go in and understanding that, you know, you're bigger rooms and as events come back, hotels that still have tons of meeting space, so, Oh, okay. So you open up a bigger room instead of a room you cut in half, you just leave the whole thing open and a little more coverage, a little bit bigger video screens. And ultimately the cost is not astronomically different. You know, you still have the same people doing the same jobs. You still have the same crew coming in, you know, delivering video and audio. And so on changing a little bit of your pattern of how you interact with speakers and Mike people up and things of that nature. Um, and how you, uh, you know, get, get, uh, you know, we're, we've been passing PowerPoints and stuff digitally for years, so it's not like that's, you know, somehow a new process. Um,
Speaker 2 00:21:38 So are you finding, are you having to, cause I know like a back of house video village and that kind of stuff, dimmer land has always been, you know, packed in at as tight as space as possible, uh, to, to make for the most room for the attendees side of things, you know, are, are you finding the, now you're having to add, you know, twice as much space to, to keep the crew distanced to
Speaker 0 00:22:06 Uh, no, not twice as much space, not that much. Um, we just transition where we store equipment. So for instance, you know, the smaller breakout rooms might not, you know, in some hotels they have rooms that aren't, you know, that you would probably be able to put 15 people into, okay, well let's put gear in those rooms and we just use the space backstage for, you know, to spread the people out. And then that way you don't have to worry about, uh, equipment storage and things like that. You put those into other rooms and then you just spread the, spread the room out when you try and jam all the gear and the people backstage, uh, instead let's take the gear and, you know, and you can even use equipment, honestly, it's like separators and stuff like that. If you needed to like, you know, if, if that was something that was concerning, but um, in this particular, Oh, and something else actually. So the show we did yet last week, uh, they moved the lighting guy backstage to minimize front of house. Um, I know that that's not ideal for you. I get, I get that
Speaker 2 00:23:09 If there was a lot of video coverage so that he could actually see,
Speaker 0 00:23:12 Correct. So there was, there was actually what they did was they had, uh, they had two different cameras at front of house. They had a wide shot that was a locked Iris and locked, um, camera shot out front, giving a full Vista view of the whole thing. And then they put a monitor, a big like 55 inch monitor on a stand for the, for the LD in front of it. So he could still see everything, do it, you know, program and all that. So he programmed out front before they, before the job, and then they rolled the console backstage and then he could see everything that he was playing back, uh, backstage. So then that way they could get a smaller front of house position and, um, and then minimize the space out there.
Speaker 2 00:23:54 So not, not too much on the fly was more, more really scripted. And yeah, it wasn't half,
Speaker 0 00:24:01 It was all like plenary type, um, you know, keynote, one keynote speaker talking to a group of 300 executives kind of thing. I'm sure. But they had like 300 people there and the ballroom was, uh, you know, 200 feet long. I mean, it was big. It was, it was a really long room. Um, but you know, a little bit bigger screen size, um, you know, brighter, better projectors, but again, still very minimal cost difference compared to, you know, doing two rooms let's say or something of that nature.
Speaker 2 00:24:35 Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm also, uh, I keep, it's like just picking at the back of my brain is, is, um, how people are interacting with one another, because you know, you go out, you go out to the store, you go out to a restaurant or whatever, and people are on edge. There's a lot of people, uh, you know, getting into arguments about masks and this and that and the other. And, and, and I wonder, I wonder about how the event side of things and the people that we're working with. And, you know, a lot of us haven't worked for over a year and that's gonna, that's gonna weigh on, on everybody's psyche a little bit. And, um, I'm, I'm a little worried about how, how it's going to be coming back when, when we're full throttle, you know, and the stress of, of working again, rears its ugly head and, and, you know, you're dealing with just a million things.
Speaker 2 00:25:40 And I'm curious as to see how that's gonna manifest itself on the on show side, when, when we're, when we're gigging full-time and just going balls to the wall, you know, how those egos, then how that, that time to yourself, that you've had to really dive deep on yourself and make yourself a better person. Well, maybe you're not going to put up with that anymore. You know, that those things that, that pissed you off. So I'm, I'm really curious to see how we, as a, as an industry bounce back from this, what are your, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 0 00:26:19 Uh, I mean, it just like we talked about last week, I mean, respect is going to be the biggest thing and listening, um, listening before you speak really and listening a lot before you speak, um, the words coming out of your mouth are not nearly as important as the words coming out of the person across from you's mouth. And, but that goes both. So it's not just one directional. It's not just that you, you know, your words, the things that you say are less important than everyone else's, it's merely when you're in that situation, taking account of what someone else is asking, requesting, talking about, and then making the conscious choice to slow your interactions down. So one of the biggest things they talk about when it comes to negotiation, and there's a book, a gentleman named Chris Voss has wrote a book called never split the difference.
Speaker 0 00:27:12 I actually highly recommend it to anybody who's ever. Um, who's ever wanted to learn more about negotiation, how to truly negotiate with someone else. And there's so many good principles, but one of the things he talks about in there that I, that I really love, um, is the idea that when you're in a negotiation, you are negotiating all the time. It doesn't matter who it is. You're negotiating with your kids, with your, with your spouse, with your, uh, with your business colleagues. You're always negotiating. Everything you do is in negotiation. So what you do is you slow it down instead of allowing it to amplify and get bigger and bigger and bigger, which is what most people do. Most people think that getting angry and getting bigger on raw will, will solve a problem when it never does. It only creates a calm, combative, defensive nature.
Speaker 0 00:28:06 Now that comes out of a defensive nature in, in, in most of the time in us, you know, I know when I get upset and angry, most of the time I'm just getting defensive because it's something that would require change or adjustment or something to be fixed on my part when I don't want to have to do any of that. Um, but one thing he recommends is he says, slow it down, take it, take a breath. Don't instantly respond out of that. Carnal, like the, the, the thing that makes you want to punch someone in the face,
Speaker 3 00:28:37 You know, if somebody said something to you,
Speaker 0 00:28:39 Somebody criticizes your work. For instance, if someone were to walk up to you like the producer and be like, Joe Mack, that sucked. And like, that was the best thing you've done all day. And you felt like it was amazing. And you were like, I want to do that again. And then like, in that moment, you probably want to,
Speaker 3 00:28:55 We've definitely worked together. You're telling the story like it's firsthand. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:29:03 And, and, but instead of that, you pause, you take stock in what was just said, and then you, you look at it and say, okay, what can I take from this, within this interaction that is going to help and move, move us forward. But ultimately just slowing it down. You slow yourself down into a place where you can then negotiate, because that's what you're going to end up doing. If someone, someone comes up and says, I don't even know, like, um, you know, Hey, your table is four feet from me, not six. And we need to maintain a six foot bit of social distancing or, or whatever the standard is at the time. We have no idea, you know, when you're doing a show and yeah, anyhow, but let's say that they were to do that instead of just being, you know, getting raw or, you know, you can't tell me what to do, but you stop deep breath.
Speaker 0 00:29:59 Okay. I understand what they're asking. What is that going to involve? If I move nine times out of 10, it's probably a two-minute thing that's going to require you to do almost nothing. Yeah. And so why waste your energy, your brain space and everything on something that is so simple and so straightforward, and really, truly won't affect you or anyone else just because you've got a stupid ego or an issue with pride, you just slow it down. You listen, you respectfully respond in a way that makes sense within that situation. And then you move on and let's deal with the problems that actually are important in this world. And not the ones that don't make a difference, you know, not the ones that aren't gonna hurt you or anybody else in the grand scheme of things. Um,
Speaker 2 00:30:47 And I, I think, I think, you know, all of that is, is sound advice and it, I approach things that way. I don't, you know, jump into the deep end without thinking and sitting before I speak. But I think, I think not everybody does that. Correct. And, and especially in our industry, there's several, you know, there's a lot of people that don't. Yeah. Um, I can, I can think of about a hundred instances. Uh, so, so I mean, I, I just, I, I really want to come up with a, a, that getting punched in the face strategy, that plan and, and exactly what you laid out there, taking that deep breath and being ready to negotiate in a, in a productive, uh, you know, light, full delight, full manner and make it, make it a positive and not a, not a negative. Yeah. Um, so one of my, one of my favorite quotes, uh, I just found earlier this year was see the light in others and treat them as if that's all you see, if you can, if you can approach any interaction with any human being in that way, you're always gonna win.
Speaker 2 00:32:05 Yeah. Cause you're, you're, you know, you're seeing it from their perspective. And I, that's the one thing I really want, I want to try and be better at when I'm on a job site is to understand what people are going through, what people have been through, what people are, you know, what they dealt with that morning, just, just so that we can treat them in the respect that and give them the respect that they need, give them the space they need, let them do their job and do their best work while we, as a team, do our best work.
Speaker 0 00:32:38 Yeah, no, I agree. And, and you really have to approach it from the idea that nine times out of 10, 9.9 times out of 10, whatever the person is asking of you. They're not, I, I personally believe in our industry. They're not trying to be a jerk. Um, they're not trying to, to get something over on you pull, you know, pull the wool over your eyes and so on. They are just trying to get done what they need to get done and, and, and do it well within the confines of the event. And if we can continue to work together to find ways to make that successful, um, then we win and that will make for better events that will make for a much, a much better group of people to work with onsite so that we can really just create and create awesome creative experiences for people, uh, that they want to come back to as we, uh, as we grow out of this man, and we find some really cool stuff, we see some really awesome things that are just going to be amazing.
Speaker 0 00:33:43 So those are my thoughts. Um, cool. You know, I think that, uh, we should probably bring Dwayne in here for a minute and let him kind of give us a quick update on where the live events coalition is, what they've been doing with the political arm of the events industry as it's been newly founded in the last 12 months. And, uh, I'm really excited to hear about it. So let's bring Dwayne in and see where we're at guys. We're here with Dwayne Thomas, the governmental affairs liaison for the live events coalition. And, you know, we wanted to get a quick update on what's going on in Washington, uh, and other governments that are around the country. I mean, the live event coalition is a growing body of, uh, groups of professionals from the live events industry that really are beginning to advocate on behalf of our industry. Something that we've never had. Uh, and so we wanted to just take five minutes real quick, get Dwayne's update on what's happening, what's going on, uh, around the country. Um, and, uh, so yeah, Dwayne, give us a quick update. Where are we at with legislation and advocacy and all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 4 00:34:50 Thanks, Jordan. Uh, well, it's been a heck, um, 14 months, first of all, um, w I won't belabor all the points of what we have gotten done and what we've been influenced with the move on to, uh, or honestly what we haven't gotten done. Um, everybody knows that there's a lot of us that are still falling through the cracks in terms of small and medium sized businesses. Um, we're, we're proud to have gotten worker relief, you know, in the form of unemployment done, but still there's a lot of a small business hanging out there. So that's really the drum we're beating right now have been for a minute now, uh, let's say by the beginning of the second or third week of January, we already knew what we were getting out of. So we, we began the conversation then, and they've tried everything SPO to be butter, uh, to, uh, maybe getting our feet into the restaurant sack.
Speaker 4 00:35:41 We successfully got caters in there. So that was a win, but are still about 80% of the industry is still left without any significant relief. Now that their PPP second draws run out. So candidly, what we're working on right now, w w we stopped short of giving it a name of naming the vehicle that they bring us the release through, because there are so many kind of nebulous, little proposals floating around the Hill right now, some of them do involve amending the SPOG, but they tend to amend the SPOG and only let one small group in like hospitality or like the trade show industry specifically, or this or that, or the other thing. So we, what we've decided is that we're going to take an industry agnostic approach when we talk to our members of Congress. And when we talked to the media and we talked to Olander, other interested parties on, uh, in terms of advocacy, we do talk about our industry.
Speaker 4 00:36:31 Cause it's the one we know, and we know how hard hit we are. We can say the numbers, but we also aware that there are others who are in the city boat. So we, we know that the trick here is to not allow Congress to pick winners and losers again, with that, we don't want to commit the same sin that's already been committed. Yes. Has to be, Oh, G is great for performance values and talent agencies. Let's, we're fantastically happy for them. Yes. Restaurants turns out we were going to be able to get catered some help through that, but we, we, we don't want to do another one of these, uh, that does anything other than allow you to qualify because revenue threshold is so low that you now meet the standards. We would also want to make sure that the very hard hit get help first and get help the most.
Speaker 4 00:37:18 So if you're down 75% in your comparison period or pandemic period, over your period of the year before you should get more help than the ones who are down 50% and they should get more help than the ones who are down 25, for sure. Having nothing to do with what industry you're in. We're just one of the industries that's going to be fighting for that along those lines. And this is important. LEC has now officially partnered with three other industry organizations, sister organizations, if you will, that would be the American dental association, which everybody knows is going to include a whole lot of people in the events business to, to party and have event rentals. Roughly 30% of their membership, uh, fits that bill so that they're happy to heavily lobbying with us. Now, the next one is American society of travel advisors, basically travel agencies.
Speaker 4 00:38:03 Their businesses are all down 75% plus. So they're all small businesses, all mom and pop just a handful or more than 50 or 60 people in them. And then the last one is, uh, international association of amusement, parks and attractions. We are working on other stuff, sister, industry organizations, such as motor coach, American DJ, um, destinations and our national, uh, small business majority, uh, folks like this to also come on board this year, cognitive coalition of coalitions that we've built. And by the way, we're, we're calling it the economic bridge coalition. Uh, we're just finishing our position piece. Uh, literally today I just got out of a meeting with all the organizations, lobbyists. And so that piece is done. We're throwing a logos on it, and we just finished our first press release, which launches on Monday. So that's kind of another thing let's call it overarching for LEC.
Speaker 4 00:38:59 Now we're not alone. We have partners in crime fighting, and most importantly, these partners in crime or in sister industries that we all meshed well with each other, and there's a lot of overlap. Um, and again, we're going to try to build, uh, the number of organizations involved in this effort, consensus building, um, hard as it is when you're talking about folks who all have the same story to tell, and that story is I'm about to lose my business. If I don't get some help I've taken on all the debt that I can take, I've drained my savings. If you find other organizations to have those stories, to tell, built, pulling the consensus is actually easier than you think it's actually harder to get the zoom meeting. Then once you're in the June meeting in that consensus. So, um, so on a Hill, uh, you know, they have infrastructure fever right now up there, and they have a whole lot of pandemic relief, fatigue that's as candid as I can make it.
Speaker 4 00:39:55 And I don't want your listeners to think, well, it's not going to happen for us. You know, we don't of course know if it will happen for us, but we're definitely not. We're not done. And there is good news every day, every single day, we have another champion on the Hill. Um, we are now at 76 point something percent saturation on the 45 members of Congress that are in the two, uh, small business committees in the Senate and the house we are through 76% of them with meetings with the members. Uh, we have just a few outliers. There's a few where we already know we're not going to talk to, we already know what their position is going to be. Okay. But not true. Ration saw. We're actually at the point where we're circling back around with them and we're connecting the folks that we've talked to that have said the similar things.
Speaker 4 00:40:48 So in other words, if somebody from a German Cardin's office said, who are you? Who are you talking to? Um, it, Chris, Chris Coons his office because he knew because he knows them well, right. And we're going to connect them and let them talk about what we talked separately with both of those offices about. And so we're, we're fomenting the conversation, making sure it continues. We're also aware of one particular effort to create. Um, and I'm going to say this. I don't like saying it, but w we're not specific about what you call our program, but I'll just tell you that some, somebody is working on a PPP round three, and we became aware of it about a month ago. And so we've been invited in to help with legislative text to make sure that the rules change enough on it, that it is automatic, that gets forgiven, um, that the amount that is awarded slides with the amount that you've lost and that the artists hit get help first.
Speaker 4 00:41:44 Um, so that is underway. We do not know if this particular Senate is Senator is going to actually drop this bill, but we are writing it. Uh, so that is definitely forward motion. Um, it is a freshman Senator, I'll say that. So he's very hungry. He wants to get a star on the sidewalk. And we have, honestly, on the house side, we have a freshman Congress person who also wants their star on the sidewalk and is in the D the other party. So things like that have started to take root. Um, I'm, it goes so fast for us to change and the number of things we have to absorb and the moods, how they shift and who's working on what shifts. And no, you can't talk to them anymore because they're about to drop this other bill. Uh, and there are going to be an accessible for two weeks.
Speaker 4 00:42:39 And at the same time, it moves fast. Jordan, I will tell you, it moves colossally, slow, just mute, at least slow compared to what all of us in the events are used to. You know, we have deadlines, we know how to get it done fast. We don't know how to get it done on budget. Um, it's not like that with governance. It you're, you're frantically moving at a snail's pace if I can put it simply. And that's about, that's kind of the, the, the that's the 30,000 foot view, maybe 15,000 foot view of what's going on the days are full they're often frustrating, but they're often you walk away going. Okay. I think we moved the needle a little bit today and, um, I remain confident. Um, I will stop short of saying, like I said, a minute ago, I'll, I'll stop short of saying that it's going to happen.
Speaker 4 00:43:31 I can't know that. Um, but this government affairs group at live events, coalition is just all full time. There's six of us. This is all we do. Uh, I got one person. All she does is just go out. State to state, will identify a member of Congress that we need to talk to. And she will go find the constituents in that district that have stories to tell like yours and mine. And that's, that's, that's a really heavy lift. And she's just one of these Badger people that'll just go after it does not care. She'll just write the letter. And that's what the work looks like. You have to drop your pride, you have to drop your fear, um, and, and go get it. And, and if any group can do it, I suppose it would be a group like ours. We're not perfect. We're always looking for help. Uh, we're looking for people who have a mind like this, that can, that can cut through the clutter. So there's any of your listeners out there that wanna, you know, go to the live events, coalition.org website, and find out how you can volunteer. You can actually click on government affairs and we'll get to meet you and hear what you have to say and hear what you might have to offer. Awesome. Yeah. Cool. So then of course, the news
Speaker 5 00:44:41 Continue to reach out to your congressmen and your senators, keeping, uh, the advocacy on the front lines of, of making sure that they understand that we've had we're we're we're at month 14 at this point, and still going
Speaker 4 00:44:57 We're about ready to hit that. Mark. Uh, I want to say tomorrow is month 14, something like that completed. And yes. Do your, do your point is never, it's never not good to reach out to your own congressperson or you're on Senator, you're on us center. And to just, you know, don't go in the weeds about what the fix is, go into the weeds about what the problem is. Tell your story, tell what happened to your business. Tell how you've still kept your doors open, uh, your pounced and ready once the business comes down, maybe. Sure. Right now, one of things we hear is, well, everything's reopening. You'll be fine in a minute. Won't you and candidly? No, no. That's not how the business cycle works in events. As soon as the States and all States, I don't want to say are open, open, open, then our clients will start saying, okay, now we go full throttle.
Speaker 4 00:45:52 Yes. A handful of things are happening. No, it won't for most businesses. It won't look like 2000, 19 month. So we got a bit to go here and let's not forget. We just suffered 14 months, almost completely without revenue without actually completely without revenue. Now, how much gas do you think we have in the tech to gear back up? So it's a combination of being able to gear up and get to do the work and then waiting for the work to actually come in and write the check to us. Yeah. That's why we call this the economic bridge coalition, this new coalition we've built with the other works. Uh, so be sure when you call your Congressman or Senator, you're welcome to mention our name. You know, that you're, you you've heard we're working on it. I just want to let you know, I'm one of the people that's in that industry, don't go down the rabbit hole on, on how it is they're going to fix it. They're going to fix it, how they fix it. You let them know you need a financial bridge and you can't take on any more debt you've already taken on. Part of your PPP didn't get forgiven or you got an idle loan or all of the above. You've already drained your savings. Right. Save the real human story. That's what, as their constituent they need to hear from you. Yeah,
Speaker 5 00:47:06 That's awesome. Well, I love it, man. Well, Duane, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to dive in and give us a quick update on what's going on. Uh, great, great words on letting people know what the issues are because they're already working on fixes. And so just voicing your opinion on what the fix should be as one individual versus being a crowd of voices that say here's what the problem is. Now come up with a solution, um, is, is definitely by far the way to go. I think in government advocacy, um, you know, cause we have professionals like, you know, those in the live event coalition who are writing these, these bills and these documents that help them better understand how to actually fix the problem on a, on a, you know, country-wide scale versus Justin Little bits and pieces around the country. So thanks Dwayne. And uh, anytime you ring me up, I'm happy to, you know, get the latest, uh, anytime in real, everybody turn your, turn, your fear into fight and your worry into work. Awesome. Well, thanks guys. Appreciate it. And thanks for coming and we'll talk to you soon. Dwayne, have a great day. Cheers. Take care,
Speaker 0 00:48:15 Great updates. We've got a lot going on in the live event industry. Thankfully we're seeing things come back and come back quickly, be ready, be prepared for the future that you're going to have as a successful event. Professional brush up on your skills, get things ready to go, and we'll see you next time here on the gig ready podcast.
