NewBay Media would like congratulate Wallace Johnson, Vice President of Business Development at MertzCrew, for his appointment as the Chair of the InfoComm Live Events Council. InfoComm Live Events Council members were of course involved in the selection, and Johnson is great choice to anchor the Council in this time of booming business and ongoing challenges.
And it’s a good time to say—changing the name of the council from the “Rental & Staging Council” to the Live Events Council was a good idea. The term “rental & staging” is still used by much of the industry, but the market has evolved to the point that new business segments from trade show booth design to interactive live events are now changing the landscape. On the InfoComm update section in this issue, Johnson is profiled, and offers some perspective as we head to the InfoComm show in Las Vegas in June. It seems that the staging community does not get all the attention it needs at a show as large as InfoComm. After all, the installed AV world is a bigger world. But InfoComm has shown a commitment to organizing the live events community to advance the industry in all its permutations, at the InfoComm show and throughout the year.
Speaking of the ongoing challenges of the staging business, in this issue Les Goldberg of LMG talks about the ins and outs of the Venue Contract. Les always has strong opinions on business practices of staging companies big and small, venues, producers, and end users. As he should, being at the top of the industry for such a long time and with such success.
And in this issue, we look at the issue of drones. You will be seeing a lot more drones in the staging and live events business and in other parts of the economy. You should be prepared for the technical, regulatory, and other issues that are tricky and are a long way from being clarified. It’s a brave new world out there. And BTW, look for more drone activity at InfoComm in June. Keep your eyes scanning the “skies” of the Las Vegas Convention Center for some products and applications that might change your opinion on these curios new tools for not just flying cameras but for injecting a novel and exciting new platform into live events.
