2011: 2nd Half Highlights

72 hours onsite in 5 days; split shift crews over the week; massive set change 2 days before show; 8 cameras, 2 jibs; Metallica. Must be Dreamforce! The Salesforce.com show at Moscone Convention Center has a reputation for  last minute changes and the costs be damned! Lolipop thrust off the stage required more than the usual number of cameras: 3 long-lens at 3,6 & 9 o’clock; a jib near the stage and one in the back of the house; wireless handheld camera and a couple of robo-cams. Rarely have so many worked so hard; Jack Morton Worldwide and VideoApplications kept the ship sailing.

1st trip out of the country in 2011 was Directing for Creative Technology at the SIBOS conference in Toronto. Most challenging part of the job was clearing customs and hoping the reams of paperwork that allow foreigners to work in Canada were in order.

Our video setup included 5 robo-cams surrounding a boxing-ring style stage with raked seating for 200. Lots of discussions by business, financial and technology leaders – I found the mobile banking segments most interesting.

Off to the desert of Arizona for Google’s Zeitgeist. One of those TED-like conferences where Google and their Partners come together to hear leading thinkers of our time. One comes away from these talks feeling better knowing there are people out there striving to make the word a better place.

Produced by Group X, speakers & performers over the two days included: Eric Schmidt, Robert Reich, Sandra Day O’Connor,  Dean Ornish, Gilberto Gill & Son, Sal Masekela, Jane McGonigal, Tony Hawk, Sir Richard Branson, Cindy McCain, Ted Koppel & Arianna Huffington (click here to watch video), Celine & Fabien Cousteau, Chelsea Clinton, Tim O’Reilly, Ray Kurzweil, Deepak Chopra and Mark Cuban. Pretty impressive line-up!

Oracle Open World and Pay Pal X conferences leveraged the 1st half of October.

The 2nd half was my 2nd trip out of the country: Citrix Synergy & Summit shows in Barcelona. Half of my excellent video crew was from France, the other local. As the camera ops spoke very little English and I, no Catalan, I directed the show in Español.

The north coast part of town, where the convention center is located, was totally redeveloped for the 1992 Olympics. One evening I went to the other side of town – with a couple of my French crew (and 90,000 fans) – to see a futbol match between the Host city and Seville at Camp Nou stadium. A great treat to see the top FC in the world. At the end of the show, my wife joined me for a mini vacation. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in this great city!

November went from coast to coast. An executive conference in Pebble Beach for Harris Creative and a Cisco event, produced by InVision in Miami Beach.

Much of the rest of the year was spent on the 27″ iMac, editing Optimal Life a series hosted by Dr. Christine Lee. Last year saw the release of The Essentials of Diabetes and The Essentials of Breast cancer. In 2012 we’ll finish a Spanish version of Diabetes plus the next Series: The Essentials of Asthma. Anyone you know who is dealing with these conditions should watch these videos.

2011 was a strong year, I feel very fortunate to be connected to so many talented production companies, producers and video staging companies. 2012 looks to continue on that path. Let it roll!!!

Tags: Cindy McCain, Cisco InVision, Citrix Summit, Citrix Synergy Barcelona, Dean Ornish, Dreamforce, Eric Schmidt, Gilberto Gill & Son, Google, Harris Creative, Jane McGonigal, Oracle Open Word, PayPal X, Robert Reich, Sal Masekela, Salesforec.com, Sandra Day O'Connor, SIBOS, Sir Richard Branson, Ted Koppel & Arianna Huffington, Tony Hawk, Video Director
Filed under: Blog

5/01/09: Milken Conference, Bay Area Council & VMware

April had some interesting and challenging events. Directing for Video Applications, the Milken Educator Awards were held in downtown LA. 70 Teachers from around the country were acknowledged for their accomplishments with $25,000 prizes. My challenge was to run two switching systems – one for the screens in Hi-Def and one for the SD record. Presenters for the conference included Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota.

The day the show ended I hopped a flight back to SFO and drove down to Palo Alto to direct for InVision Communications on a VMware event. VMware (the name combines virtual machine and software) is one of the tech companies that offer software and hardware in the cloud. VMware hosts other operating systems in such a way that each operating system behaves as if it were installed on a self-contained computer with its own set of programs and hardware resources. Now you’re more confused that ever!

The presentation took place in the basketball gym on the new VMware campus. This show’s video elements were even more complex: One switcher to do the screens (two in the gym and an LED screen outside); I ran the video switcher for the record cut and a third switcher was used for the webcast. . Good exercise for the brain: directing the cameras to the screens, all elements to the records and dual picture in picture (pip) to the webcast. John Chambers and Michael Dell made short presentations. (Screen shot of the webcast)

In between celebrating my wife & daughter’s birthdays I directed the video for the Bay Area Council’s Outlook 2009 program in San Francisco. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was interviewed on Heavy Lifting: What’s Next for the People’s Governor?

A couple of days later and it was back to LA for the Milken Global Conference. (check out the link for videos). I’ve done this show four years running and hands down, it has the most star studded list of presenters of any one show I’m involved in – well it is in Beverly Hills. There are over 100 presentations in three days. Panelists on shows I directed included: Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (that’s the Governator twice in one week!), John Huntsman (Utah) and Edward Rendell (Pennsylvania). A panel on Sports Philanthropy included Andre Agassi, Mia Hamm, Chris Waddell (paralympic athlete who will attempt to become the first paraplegic to summit Kilimanjaro unassisted later this year), skateboarded Tony Hawk, and golf legend Annika Sorenstam. The second days political panel was a left vs. right discussion with former SF Mayor and Speaker of the House Willie Brown & Rush Limbaugh. Fights were breaking out in the audience – not on the stage! (Screen shot of the webcast)

Heading East in May: Las Vegas, then my first ever gig in….. Arkansas.

Tags: Andre Agassi, Annika Sorenstam, Chris Waddell, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor Edward Rendell, Governor John Huntsman, InVision Communications, John Chambers, Mia Hamm, Michael Dell, Milken Family Foundation, Milken Global Conference, Rush Limbaugh, Tony Hawk, Video Director, VMware, Willie Brown
Filed under: Blog