Many accomplishments highlight effectiveness of industry organization
In 1987, Homer Simpson made his debut appearance on The Tracy Ullman Show, the Bangles were walking like Egyptians and 25 theatrical sup-ply companies decided it was time they banded together to promote and protect their interests. Simpson ended up with his own show, the Bangles walked right into obscurity and the organization that began as the Theatrical Dealers Association that year in Las Vegas is now the Entertainment Services and Technology Association, better known as ESTA.
Today, ESTA celebrates a significant landmark in its existence after growing into one of the most influential organizations in the industry. Just over 500 dealers, manufacturers, production companies, service companies and others make up the membership of the organization that runs the Techni-cal Standards Program and the Entertainment Technician Certification Program, publishes the quarterly magazine Protocol, plus monthly industry-related credit reports.
Setting the Bar
What were some of the issues that inspired them to organize in the first place? “One of the earliest goals was to establish standards in a variety of areas including equipment, business and membership,” says Executive Director Lori Rubinstein.
Without a doubt, this is an area where ESTA has had the biggest impact on the industry. “There has been tremendous member involvement in cre-ating and supporting standards, which shows how ready the industry was for these efforts,” she says. “It began with the establishment of high stan-dards for membership in ESTA because we wanted customers to have confidence in who they were dealing with. The logical next step was the in-troduction of the ESTA Code of Conduct, which became the model for many of the other associations in our industry. The desire for standards for the manufacture and use of equipment was addressed by the creation of the Technical Standards Program in 1994 and standards for personnel by the Entertainment Technician Certification Program.”
But there were other reasons that drove the first dealers to band together. “Certainly a big problem dealers were facing at the time was the rising cost of business insurance and the lack of understanding of our industry by insurance agents,” says Rubinstein.
Indeed, liability insurance is an important consideration for businesses, and the dealers in our industry are no exception. “Although we can’t control what insurance rates do, we have come a long way toward solving our problem by utilizing an agent who specializes in our industry and works hard to get both the best price and the most appropriate coverage for members,” Rubinstein says. “There isn’t an agent out there who understands what our members actually do more than (ESTA Insurance Program Agent) Neil Huff does, or who is willing to go to bat with insurance companies to get them to offer coverage and discounts where they have previously been unwilling.
According to Rubenstein, “Dealers were looking to reduce costs in as many areas as possible, and the Association quickly learned how to pool the volume of our members to achieve better buying power for a variety of business services, such as credit card acceptance and freight. Members were also concerned about keeping bad debt to a minimum. Before the Association was formed, customers would often go from dealer to dealer without paying their bills,” she says. “The monthly credit report was one of the first real benefits and continues to be a valuable tool in helping members minimize risk.”
Educating members about how to run their businesses more efficiently, profitably and safely was another goal of the organization. Rubenstein ex-plains, “Our Business Education Committee has addressed this in many ways over the years, offering seminars by experts on a wide variety of top-ics, holding member roundtables and conducting surveys to provide industry benchmarks. All of these programs help to educate our members and their staffs and provide them with tools to make more informed business decisions.”
In addition, Customer Service Surveys, The Dealers’ Choice and Manufacturers’ Choice Awards were established by ESTA to help increase the level of customer service within the industry.
Pivot Point: Manufacturers Want In
In 1994, a group of manufacturers brought to the Theatrical Dealers Association a proposal that would change the structure of the organization. The idea was to create the Technical Standards Program, but with a condition: They wanted to be full partners in the organization with an equal voice. The organization felt that it had more to gain, and the industry had more to gain, by allowing all types of businesses to work together under the same umbrella. It then changed from a dealers-only organization to one in which everyone in the industry was welcomed — manufacturers, produc-tion and rental companies, consultants, designers, manufacturers’ reps, unions, etc. — basically any organization supplying a product or service to the industry that could meet the membership criteria.
For Rubenstein, “[T]he mission of ESTA really began to focus on the larger picture and on creating a stronger, safer, more knowledgeable, more profitable industry. To do this, it was critical to shift the thinking from a dealers versus everyone else mentality to, ‘We can accomplish far greater things by improving communication and working together to achieve our goals.’ We have tried to be sensitive to the unique needs of each of the membership groups and to offer programs and services that address those needs, while at the same time highlighting areas where it is critical to work together such as on the development of standards and certifications.”
Standards for Miles
That was the beginning of ESTA’s key involvement in creating a number of industry standards. Over the years, the number of standards has grown and continues to grow. Technical Standards Manager Karl Ruling predicts the trend to continue in the foreseeable future.
“The volume (of new standards) will probably increase for several reasons:
1) The technology is getting more sophisticated. Standards help people to assemble systems and to manage and use complex things without having to be software, mechanical, chemical or electrical engineers. 2) The industry is getting more careful and is taking its safety responsibilities more seriously. This is not to say that people were sloppy or reckless before, but once upon a time ‘That looks like it will hold’ seemed to be good enough. Now, we want to know that the structures we’re assembling, the things we’re doing, are safe. Standards help us to know what is reasonable and prudent. 3) Standards are never finished. Published standards need to be revisited on a regular basis to be reaffirmed, revised or withdrawn,” Ruling says. “Some standards do become obsolete and are withdrawn, but most of the time, unless the world has changed radically since a standard was first published, there is still a need for it, so the standard is reaffirmed or revised. Really simple standards might be reaffirmed, but usually we’ve learned something since a standard was published, so it is revised to make it better, more useful. Thus, the standards portfolio grows as we add new ones and keep refining the old ones.”
Certification Program Begins
The latest new programs, and one of the most ambitious, undertaken by ESTA is the Entertainment Technician Certification Program. After exten-sive development, certification exams are now being offered for arena riggers, theatre riggers and entertainment electricians. The ETCP Council has been holding discussions about the possibility of developing future certifications, but their main focus at the moment is on developing demand for the three existing certifications to allow the program to become self-sustaining. The program seems to be gaining traction with major employers like Live Nation and Global Spectrum, who are phasing in requirements for ETCP-certified technicians in their venues. Still, much remains to be done.
“Developing rigorous, legally defensible certifications is a very expensive undertaking,” Rubinstein says. “One thing that people might not realize is the enormous amount of maintenance that goes into every certification once it is launched. Questions used in the exams are continuously re-viewed by subject matter experts and the psychometrician (the certification exam expert) to determine how they are performing, and new questions must be consistently added to the item bank. She further states, “Our long-term vision for the program is certainly to continue to promote safety in the workplace and to recognize technicians’ skills by developing new certifications in response to the needs of the industry.”
Despite the massive efforts undertaken by the organization, Rubinstein is upbeat and positive about her experiences. “The best thing about working with ESTA,” she says, “has been the people. I am constantly amazed at the volunteers who commit enormous amounts of time and energy to the Association. ESTA members are a remarkable group of talented, committed, supportive and generally fun people. They have shown a remarkable ability to leave their personal agendas at the door and to put on their ‘for the good of the industry’ hats. This has certainly made my job easier,” Rubenstein says, “but most importantly, has allowed us to accomplish an enormous amount in the last 20 years that has had a major and very posi-tive impact on our industry. I have met and worked with many wonderful people over the years and am fortunate to count quite a few of them as close friends.”
Long after Homer Simpson is a fond memory, ESTA will still be going strong. Here’s to the next 20 years.
