THE VALUE OF A TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Hello, production world, this is Les Goldberg, and welcome to The Road Ahead. The Road Ahead podcast is courtesy of LMG with your host, Les Goldberg. Hello everyone! Today I have two amazing technical directors, Tom Spital and Tom Podiak. I have the Toms. Welcome to the show, guys. Thanks. Thank you, thank you. Be here. So today we're going to talk about the value of the technical director and why technical directors rule the world in my book. So we're going to go right to Tom and ask him, how did you find yourself becoming a technical director? Well, it was many, many years ago. I began in theater and ended up being exposed to a lot of different disciplines, mostly because there weren't a whole lot of people helping out. So. So you became the guy who just had to figure it out. Exactly. Got it. And how many years have you been a technical director? He's counting lots. It was in the 70s. In the 70s. Okay, so you have lots of experience. We'll go with lots of experience. Okay. And, Mr. Spital, could you tell me, how did you find yourself becoming a technical director? Well, just like Tom, I started in theater. I was in theater and dance. I came to the corporate theater world a little bit later, because I had a whole whole career touring with dance companies and things like that, running some venues. And then I, by trade as a stage manager, ran into some other technical directors. I'm like, I can do that. And then it was fortunate to have been hired by a very great production company in New York and took it from there, just had the right skill set for it. I think every show needs a TD, and I think shows that don't have TDs don't go as well as shows that do have TDs. I think when people don't see the value in a TD, it can be very short sighted. So. So Tom, could you tell me what does a TD really do? Well, hopefully if I'm doing my job right you don't see what I do. It's letting all the other departments do their job and keeping an eye on them and making sure that everything stays coordinated. So ultimately a TD is a master coordinator. Yes. Taking care of logistics, coordination, consolidation, realistic budgeting and then taking the blame when it doesn't go well. Okay. Blame Mr. Spital as chief of blame. Would you be able to add anything to the description that Mr. Podiak has said? As far as what do you really do? The lion's share of our work is done before site. It's the pre-show is the planning. You know, I like to say the best compliment I can get on site is I'm standing around drinking coffee because all other disciplines are are putting in place the plans that we've created. So that's that's really is. But it is sometime unsung, you know. But that's that's good. It is. You know, it's all the behind the scenes and the prep work where our value is. So you don't really see how awesome a TD is. If everything just goes well, that's just great preparation and planning. But but I want there are reasons. There are reasons we aren't on stage instead of. And that's why we're backstage. Got it. So so Tom, could you explain to me if if I was trying to hire a TD, how can a competent TD save the client money and provide value to a show? Primarily it's scheduling and logistics as we're loading in making sure that we're cutting people and we need to be cut, making sure deliveries are coming in in a timely way, sometimes saying, yes, we'll take another hour here and it's going to save us in the long run. And then once we get into rehearsals, making sure that the producer and the stage manager are aware of the implications if they change the schedule. Okay. And Tom Spital, do you have anything else to add? Communication. It's keeping everyone in the loop, you know, being a big conduit between all the different departments and keeping everyone on the same page is that's what our skill set is, is being able to take a step back and look at the big picture and manage that, and just making everyone aware of where we are now. Well, Tom Spital, when someone hires you, they're getting years and years of experience and all this knowledge and all the different types of shows you've set up. And how can you quantify that compared to maybe someone who's a young person who's becoming a TD or who doesn't have that experience level? How can you equate that to a client? Because I think that experience is invaluable. The probably thousands of shows you've done. Well, I mean, if you look at a group of TDs standing around, we're all either no hair or gray hair. It's that's how you become a TD is from years of experience. Obviously, we need to be able to sell that to a company that maybe doesn't know of us. But you know, our entire industry is word of mouth. I haven't had a resume and God, I don't know. It's all a word of mouth. It's your reputation. We talk about, you know, gray hair, no hair. Forget about just having hair is a miracle at this point. But how do you equate the experiences that have you had if you go back the last 20 or 30 years and all the size and scale shows and you've done from the smallest to the biggest, and how can you equate that? When a client hires you to do a project, they're buying that experience, and that's not something that you can go out and purchase that. That is hard work and effort. That's blood, sweat and tears. And typically I bring more experience to the table than most of the producers do anymore. The clients do. And what I can tell them is I may not know everything that works, but I know a lot that doesn't work based on experience. So experience is like a calling card for a technical director. The more of it, the more seasoned that person is then it helps the customer in the long run make great decisions. Yeah. So what's the most fun thing, Tom Spital, about being a technical director? Oh, it's it's it's the it's the people. You know, I have a magnificent road family also the satisfaction of putting together the, you know, putting together a package. Take a good from the very beginning and just seeing it grow and then that you're able to see it in fruition and all that, you know, it's fun. And yeah, there's travel is is sometimes wonderful. That's sometimes awful. But it is. It's just being with the, you know, just being in the in the community. You know, it's the big team. No one is more important than anyone else. It's just being part of the team. So, Tom, I have been part of your road family for many years, and we've had some interesting late nights and early mornings. I won't go into details, but what do you find personally satisfying as being a technical director? Because you've done this for most of your life. I think seeing the excitement or satisfaction on the attendees or the audience and from the clients. So the applause. Me yeah. And ultimately, you know, nowadays and this crazy world we're living in, we're having to do things like virtual events versus live events. And what is it like being a technical director for a virtual event versus doing it for a live event, or conversely, maybe a hybrid event where you're doing both? And I'm just curious. So why don't you, Tom Spital, why don't you elaborate about, you know, how that experience is different than the in-person live experience? Well, certainly, you know where the majority of our skill sets are, the nuts and bolts things. You know, the running of the labor, the scene, the scenery, the lighting, the audio, the video, all of those elements. Now we've gone into more of a broadcast scenario where there's still levels of organization that we have to be doing. But, but, but it's different. You know, we need to it's again, more about more specific communication and the coordination of getting all the elements together are much more vital. And, you know, face it, we're all learning how to do this in real time. Now. Our industry has changed significantly and we need to adapt to it. But it's not the first time that we need to do this, you know, so we will be able to deal with it. It's just all different now. So. So on the different note, Mr. Tom Podiak, how do you feel about virtual events versus live events? You know, you don't have to worry about the temperature of the ballroom. Yeah. Very true. A lot of it, as Tom said, is the same kind of thing with logistics, budgeting, planning. One thing that we do get doing the virtual things is often a second chance because we get it. We get the take another time. Excellent point. Well, you know, a lot of a lot of virtual events have live components and they have canned components, right? I don't know of too many virtual events where the entire event is live and they don't, you know, pre-record some of it. I think for them to be successful, they have to have a live component because that makes it feel fresh, you know? What is your experience, Tom? I think one of the things that is a challenge is making sure that it's interesting, and it probably is a mix of that and bringing in some other elements into it. So people are watching, paying attention and absorbing the content as opposed to checking their email, you know, sitting behind a flat, two dimensional screen and trying to have the same experience, like you're in a ballroom with 3000 people, with the applause and the emotion and the lights and the sound, it's very difficult. I think it's probably one of the most challenging things for someone who's putting this kind of thing together. So why don't you guys both respond to this and we'll throw it to Tom Spital, the idea of a hybrid event. So you're going to have this live component of some audience of whether it's ten or 100 or 250, depending upon what the CDC allows at the time of the event. I know the number is only going to go up, because right now you can only have a meeting at some places that are very small numbers. But when you have a live audience and you have a virtual audience, what's the challenge in mixing those two shows? Well, there are two shows, you know, so you have the live event that we've traditionally been doing all along. I mean, it's also something that's not brand new to us. I mean, we've we've all experienced the the live event with the broadcast event on site. So where it's inherently different, it really isn't. It is just more of more coordination. You know, just, you know, dealing with a more diverse team, you know, got it right. And understanding that we understand that it's two different shows. It's one experience for the people in the ballroom. It's another experience for the people that are watching. And you try to keep them as close together as possible, at least with the content that they're getting. And I think that what we'll also have is that we're going to continue to have people brought in remotely. I think that's going to be much more common. And I think we'll also it'll be much more common for there to be audience that are remote as well. So so what advice would you give? And I'll let Tom finish this thought to a producer that's doing a live show and a virtual show, what advice would you give to them to that producer? Like a best practice, maybe a takeaway from this, a separate video director. So someone who's directing that virtual show completely autonomously from the general session, who's switching the show because they're having a different experience? Yes. And Tom Spital, would you have a different producer? Are you seeing it as a two unique producers, one who's producing the general show and general session, and one who's producing the virtual by having a separate producer, does that help having a different experience? Absolutely. I mean, they are there two different elements. They are there are two different things that have different, you know, different needs. So yeah, it definitely needs to have a streaming producer. Absolutely and absolutely. Tom, I agree with him that, you know, someone needs fresh and dedicated eyes dealing with that in identifying what the folks at home are seeing different than what the experience in the room is. So, Tom, if you were talking to some younger person who was getting out of college, maybe going through the theater program, what advice would you give someone if they wanted to be a technical director? What what wisdom can you share? You look. Ponder your pondering. Yes. Do is do as much as you can on as many projects as you can. So diversity of type of projects helps you gain knowledge and experience for different types of things, right? Because you're then going to be talking to the audio people, the video people, and you need to understand what they're saying for sure. And Tom Spital, what would you give advice if you had someone who was 21 years old coming out of college and said, I dream about doing what you do. I would say spend, you know, get 20 years of experience doing everything else before you consider being a TD. You know, load trucks, pin mics on dealing, know, know how to learn rig rigging. I mean, it's all about the experience. And then also that's all the technical side. But also open yourself up to understanding content and what messaging is important at all. You know, we as TDs need to really cover all bases. So you need the experience. You know you can't come out of college and be a TD. You can't. I mean, you can, but you're not going to be ineffective. One. So guys we're going to go back to ballrooms. I would say hopefully in the in the months to come sooner than later. But what do you think will be different when you start running a new crew for that next show? The first thing that will be different is how the ballroom set up seating wise. Oh, the foot, the seating chart for sure. And then also, how do you keep the crew safe, whether it's during loading or during the running of the show? Sure. Okay. And Tom Spital, do you have any ideas of what will be different, other than the crew and the keeping the crew safe and the seating charts? Well, certainly, I think everything that comes in contact think about what a position is at this point, who is the front of line with our executives. So that is going to be level. I see all production staff having their own headset. Windscreens are going to be disposable. Audience loading into the room. What is that? You know we're doing temperature scans the crew. How do we lay out backstage. How do we do front of house, you know, in terms of the spacings and all. And my big question is who is defining what the rules are? Is there going to be some sort of certification that's developed or something? You know, all of us, just like we're having a conversation now, is trying to come up with the idea, but is there going to be some sort of list of rules that we need to accomplish? You know, I think there's still a lot of work to be done before we're safely going into a ballroom. Do you think, Tom, do you think attendees are going to show up? Do you think people are going to be concerned about coming to that show in Las Vegas or in Florida or wherever the ballroom is? What do you think the audience is going to feel like before we get a full house? Because there's a theory that says some of the meetings will be smaller, where not everyone will either feel comfortable traveling, or they might have a demographic or a health issue, which might prevent them from becoming a person. Well, if you remember, after 9/11, people said nobody was going to get on an airplane and travel again. Well, that obviously didn't hold long, right? And I think that people are going to get sick of Zoom meetings, and they are going to need the interaction with people. So you think you're sure will will get people to get out of their offices and their houses and get them on planes to go to these events, because they've been in home jail confinement for some period of time. Yes. And of course, as I said earlier, there are going to be components where people won't go and we do have to take them into account and send it out to them, whether it's through a barrel cast or through a Zoom type thing. Got it. And Tom, do you have anything else to add? Do you think people are ready to go back to live events, or do you think it's still too early this week? No, but I mean face. The strength of the whole business meeting is folks literally breathing the same air together. It's the face to face. It is the it's so much you get the general session and the breakout, but it's also those walks from those sessions where they, you know, everyone meets in the hallway. That is the value. That's where, you know, the real work is happening. And that's the big value to, frankly, what we do. But I absolutely agree with Tom is that it is a it's a hybrid event. Now there's the live element for the folks who can be there. But you've got to, you know, also need to be dealing with the folks at home. I just heard literally 15 minutes ago, they just came over the wire that CES is going to happen, the world's largest show. And that is encouraging to me because it makes me become a believer that there's still this hope for the live event industry. So to to close on this subject, I want you to opine and we'll start with you, Tom. Pontificate about the future with your crystal ball. I think we are going to be seeing large events again. Probably not this calendar year, but next calendar year. Yes. So 2021, we're back. Yes, we're going to see some. I've already got a couple on the books for this year, but I think it's going to come back strong next year. Okay. And do you agree? Tom Spital absolutely no. Face it. The barometer that we're looking at is Vegas and Orlando and any of the big places, you know, when they are able to open up the doors, you know, we're going to follow in after. But until everyone is satisfied with their levels of compliance to, you know, the whatever rules we need to get done until they are doing that, we really are. Our hands are a little bit tied until that. Well, I will tell you, Las Vegas is opening at 1201 tonight, and it is my personal opinion that Las Vegas will do anything humanly possible to get their live event business back. And I think there'll be this new normal where we're going to have to kind of adapt to it. But a year from now, I think it's business as usual. We may have a medical solution, but I think what I've come to appreciate over my 36 years of owning a business is that when a client comes to us and says, we're doing a show and I ask, who's the TD? And they say, oh, it's it's Tom one or Tom two, or any of the Toms or any of the other names of people I know that are technical directors. There's a sigh of relief knowing that there's someone competently who's coordinating all the pieces of the puzzle, because when you don't have that role filled with a competent, experienced person, then it makes everyone's life more painful. I'm sure it makes the producers life more painful, and I'm sure it's the staging companies more life, more painful. So I'm here to tell you, no matter how many times in the world people don't know how much they appreciate, I appreciate what both of you do and the industry of all technical directors. And I agree, it takes time to be great at anything. And I think it's kind of like paying your dues. And I think both of you guys have graduated to super Lord as TDs because you've put enough time and effort and and I think you're well respected in the industry. And I appreciate your thoughts today. And I look forward to doing more shows in ballrooms where we don't have to wear hazmat suits and we can have happy clients. Nothing better than applause. And I appreciate both of you joining me today so everyone can hear the value of what you guys do. So thank you both again. Tom one and Tom two. The best Toms in the biz. Thank you. And we appreciate you too. Yes. All right guys thanks. Take care. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Bye bye. Okay. You know, as I reflect on today's podcast, I realize not only have a work with both of the Toms for many years as technical directors, but to really see the value in what a technical director does and how they make the show happen, you really kind of have to see it from a very high level. You know, they're taking care of the producer, they're watching the budget, they're making sure all the department heads and the crew executes as on plan, and they keep the money in check. There is so much value there, and I think sometimes they don't get the credit they deserve.