End of Summer Wrap

Tomorrow being Labor Day it seems like a fitting moment to wrap up the events of this summer. I’m directing the news tomorrow, so I’m writingt his ahead of time to really get set for the fall season and what may come.

These past few months have been busy at SDL. In addition to my day job in the news I’ve been working on a lot of sports since the spring, we’ve also begun a new video series with our friends at Stanlaw Fitness, and we’ve been working on pre-production for two documentaries, one of which we had our first meeting for today. All that said, we are always taking on new clients and hoping to expand our small business portfolio.

For now, a short story of an event:

We are still living in pretty weird times. Even though the world has slowly begun to open up, we can travel, most sports leagues are back to hosting fans and many more live events are beginning to open up, the summer was a whirlwind. Covid protocols are different everywhere you go, and of course in constant flux, toward the end of summer the Delta variant ramped up and so many industries began ramping down business once again. I’ve had the privilege of working on the ISKA World Martial Arts Championship for the last few years.I joined the media team in 2019 for the first time and learned the ins and outs of the event, and was in early pre-production for 2020 when the event was canceled due to Covid. The event returned this year and preparations and pre-production began in the early spring. Little did I know what a whirl-wind the event would become. In part due to Covid, and in part due to the changing viewing habits of audiences our event was undergoing drastic changes even up to the week of the event. As a production manager, this is difficult, we always have back up plans, but costs become an issue, logistics become an issue, and personnel becomes an issue. Ultimately the event went off, awards were distributed, new world martial arts rankings were released, and the team had another successful event.For me, the takeaway is this: start making my own plans NOW to help compensate for any changes that may occur THEN. This is a lot to put on yourself if you are an independent contractor or small business owner, you’re working other gigs, you aren’t necessarily officially “booked” for the next event… but in an attempt to save myself some frustration and some time, and perhaps make myself an even more valuable asset to the team, I’m planning on working some of the details this fall. Of course, I’m not planning to do this full time by any means, but little by little, information gathering and preparations when I am not in the midst of other projects, is going to go a LONG way in helping the team out for next year’s event.

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