Well, hello again! Where do I even begin? It’s been over a year since my last column in PLSN, and my goodness, a lot has happened and changed. But has it all been bad? I know many of my industry friends and colleagues have had very difficult months, weeks, days and hours over the last 18 months. What has always impressed me though about folks who are passionate about doing what we do is our resilience! We never give up believing we are meant to be in the industry and to follow our dreams. Sure, many of us have decided to take other paths during this time, but that has been out of necessity, not truly by choice. I believe once the industry is back on stable footing, many of us will return to live events because, well, it’s in our blood!
A Complete Shutdown
In June of 2019, I joined disguise and began commuting between Las Vegas and L.A., rotating weeks here and there doing training courses and learning about really cool things like projection mapping, OmniCal, and DMX Sockpuppet. Business was booming, and we were filling our training classes as fast as we could schedule them in the disguise offices, and in many other cities as well. In fact, we had scheduled a North American open house/training mini tour for most of 2020 and had just completed the first one in Phoenix in February 2020 when we started hearing about Covid possibly affecting us here in the U.S. But it was not something we expected to become a complete shutdown. In fact, when we all left the office on March 13 to “work from home” for two weeks, we thought, “Oh this will be nice, a short period to slow down and catch up on a few things that were floating around.” But within a very short amount of time, the reality of what was happening hit home, and many of my colleagues and good friends in every aspect of this business were laid off indefinitely. I couldn’t believe how quickly our world changed, and overnight.
Beacons of Hope
The summer of 2020 was tough, and as I reached out to friends to check in, I became more and more convinced that I needed to do as much as I could to help as many people as I could. By the grace of God ran through my head every day, and still, to this day, I feel so grateful to have been able to remain working through the entire shutdown despite seeing all types of live events completely disappear all in a matter of days. As for my path during the shutdown, it changed dramatically: disguise pivoted, as we all had to do to survive, and in the process, xR emerged as a shining light of hope that somehow entertainment could still carry on at least in some way… and I found myself at the front edge of a completely different form of entertainment than I had even been involved with, learning about the world of render engines and Mandalorian-type virtual productions. But I was still able to do what I love doing, and in the process of pivoting, I’ve realized more about what is truly important to me: helping others learn, grow and succeed.
In September 2020, the entertainment industry around the world bonded in such an amazing and powerful way, standing together for a series of awareness events as a part of the #WeMakeEvents, #SaveOurStages, and numerous “Empty Events” that were coordinated across the world. All of these events were striving to help raise awareness of the millions of industry professionals affected by the sudden overnight loss of income. In the U.S., the number of professionals was estimated at over 12 million, and that number likely didn’t include all of the ancillary supporting industries like trucking and logistics, costumers and shoemakers, hair and makeup artists, caterers, and the list goes on and on. Once I started reaching out to others to see what we could do to support each other, I found so many like-minded folks here in Las Vegas and Reno who passionately care about what we do. As a result, I had the opportunity to participate in an absolutely amazing “Awareness Walk” here in Las Vegas, my first ever peaceful “protest,” and then later on was invited to be a team leader for the Vegas region during the #WeMakeEventsNorthAmerica #RedAlert event. During all of these events, I found myself meeting some wonderful new friends while working together toward a common goal! In fact, in the midst of coordinating all of the Vegas projects, I learned more about my city and the folks who keep this town purring along than I had ever known. I’m so grateful for those memories, even as hard as this whole thing has been!
The Shows Will Go On
Now the year has passed, and vaccines are available, yet we still find ourselves in the midst of navigating through the uncertainty of a life with Covid variants. At the time I type this, NAB 2021 has just been cancelled. LDI is scheduled for November and just announced a full vaccination requirement to attend. All of these new rules are being added in order to help our industry get back on its feet as soon as possible. Living in Las Vegas as I do, I’ve always had an eye focused on the shows opening up and tradeshows coming to town, and I’m proud that there have already been many successful shows that have taken place in Las Vegas in 2021. I’m hopeful that, as everyone’s confidence grows, we will continue to see the return of our beloved live events industry. Why? Because we truly love what we do and believe that “the show must go on,” and I know, it will!
Stay healthy my friends, and I look forward to seeing all of you again as soon as possible!
Reach Vickie Claiborne at vclaiborne@plsn.com
