Did you see Fortune’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in 2009?” Don’t kill yourself looking for your company on the list because it’s not there. Not a single company from the live event production industry made the list. Who are they kidding? The number one company to work for, according to the Great Place to Work Institute, is top-rated because of its “down-to-earth management ethos.” That may be so in the computer industry, but when it comes to down-to-earth, no one compares to Fred Foster, CEO of ETC, and his Birkenstock sandals. Or on his bicycle-propelled ice cream cart, which he used to serve ice cream to his employees last June.
You want down-to-earth? How about Eric Von Fange of The Light Source, and his dog Buckie, the company mascot, who appears in their ads and catalogs and who has free run of the facilities? Or the employees’ dogs at Malcolm Hackney’s Bright Star Productions in Houston? Down-to-earth? Have you ever seen Bill Sapsis of Sapsis Rigging wear a tie? Or Dave Shadoan of Sound Image wear anything but flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt? I challenge the Great Place to Work Institute to find anyone more down to earth than Joel Nichols, the owner of Apollo Design Technology, or Adrian Segeren, president of Ultratec Special Effects, or — I could go on and on. As an industry, our earthiness is legendary.
Another reason cited for the number one ranking is that “the benefits are tops.” Among the benefits offered by the top company, the article says, are five paid days for volunteer work. That’s nice of them. But it’s going to be hard to top some of our bosses’ legendary philanthropy. Like Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid, Bob Geldof’s Live Aid or Kevin Wall’s Live Earth. Or Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Foundation and his Christmas Pudding concerts. And that’s just scratching the proverbial surface.
Ironically, the graphic chosen for the article shows a few employees playing golf, presumably on company premises, probably during working hours. The irony is that no matter how much fun they might be having, you can bet your backstage passes they would gladly trade their break-time golf for any one of our industry events, like the Parnelli Golf Tournament last October during LDI. That was when Alice Cooper flew in directly from a gig in Nova Scotia and drove straight to the golf course from the airport. But as fun as it was hanging out with Alice or former Moody Blues and Wings guitar player Denny Lane, it was just as great hanging out with industry people who feel like a big, dysfunctional extended family.
Number 94 on the list, Build-A-Bear Workshop, is cited as being a great place to work because, as one employee said, “I love my job. It keeps me young and happy.” That does sound like a great place to work. But it can’t compare to the fun of designing a 3D model of a stage replete with staging, rigging, and lighting, programming it on a console using nothing but an oversized monitor or two in a virtual world, and then watching it come to life before a full house. Nothing you could ever do at any computer company could match the anticipation you feel five minutes before the first downbeat. And nothing at a stuffed animal workshop could even come close to giving you goose bumps like feeling a wave of awe come over a crowd because you pressed the “Go” button on a console.
You want young and happy? Nothing keeps you as young as learning a new console or cranking out your first project using a new lighting design software package. Nothing makes you as happy as building a piece of gear and then seeing it on stage with Coldplay, or stage managing a Broadway show like Wicked or Hairspray. No way can working anywhere compare to the happiness you feel when you open a box and smell a brand new console or when you fix a broken light five minutes before doors. As an industry, we have a corner on love and happiness.
Sorry, Great Place to Work For Institute, the best company to work for is not a computer company or a teddy bear workshop. It’s all of the companies in the live event production industry.
