As The Year Flies By
Jim
Highlights from the 1st half of 2011:
The year started in Las Vegas directing live studio broadcasts for RJO (NY). Educational seminars for Novartis spanned two days with three cameras, crew and talent crammed into two small studio spaces. Later that month, back in San Francisco for Wind River. Their products are used in cellular phones, auto braking systems, routers, digital cameras, projectors, set-top boxes, traffic signals, and even the Mars Rovers! Theme of the conference was "Break on Through" so naturally Ray Manzarek - keyboardist for the Doors - was there to play a few tunes.
North to Seattle for a Boeing meeting, produced by Goalen Group and staged by Creative Technologies. As I fly United most of the time, it was interesting to hear the keynote speaker, new United CEO Jeff Smisek, talk about the recent merger with Continental.
A little ski break then it was down to New Orleans for the annual Cisco Partner Summit. Great staging and some excellent music featuring the Playing for Change band and local street musician Grandpa Elliott. ThePlaying for Changeprogram is one of the best uses of video bringing musicians from all over the world together - in the cloud. Thanks to Stage Manager extraordinaire, Gretchen Van Horn for the picture! Mardi Gras was in full swing so some of the crew and I celebrated on Canal Street and caught quite a few beads...
Next in New York, I directed the Safilo Fashion Show for SparksEvents. Always an enjoyable show, hosted by Carson Kressly and featruing the latest in fashion eye wear.
What a winter we had; off to Tahoe for some more skiing!
A few more shows... while I continued editing for the Optimal Lifeseries on Diabetes. Editing a Spanish translation version soon then start a new series on Asthma.
April in Beverly Hills for the Annual Milken Global Institute - detailed in previous blogs. Back up to Seattle for another Boeing event with the same crew & producer. Home to SF for the Citrix Synergy & Summit (also detailed previously).
Microsoft announced their $8b purchase on Skype in May. The press conference was basically an "all-nighter" with an 11pm end of rehearsal and a 3:30 am call time for the satellite broadcast to Europe. Gail & Rice produced and CT provided the staging - I got to switch the record, screens and clean camera feed on the new Barco FSN 150. Basically a "one guy can do it all" HD switcher.
Summer was fast approaching and time to take the 1st "real" (read at least a week) family vacation in quite a few years. Big Island of Hawaii is my favorite of all the islands - so far... If your a fan of vacation slide shows, go nuts here.
Thanks to former InVision Production Director, Ken Goodrich for a great tour of the Volcano Area and this awesome photo of Kilauea!
2nd half of the year started with the Sunrider Conference for Harris Goldman Productions and Video Applications. Show day was 15 hours, the show's entertainment included: Celine Dion, Franki Valli, Cher, Elton John and Michael Jackson (did I mention they were celebrity impersonators?). Actually great acts, staging and a great crew.
Stay tuned for the 2nd half of the year report - have some great shows "on the books!"