Where do we go now?

Our industry faces the biggest crisis ever in the history of entertainment and there is no point talking about what is already doing the rounds. What’s important is that we begin starting to do something about this

You have probably thought of every possible way to stay afloat, you have been worried sick about all the insurmountable issues that are cropping up, financially, socially, mentally and even physically give the fact that your movement is restricted

I am going to talk about what you should be doing rather than complaining about the systems, the government, and the industry. Right now any time spent on talking about it is futile. It’s the time to move on; it’s the time to cut of the umbilical cord of the attachment we have to our equipment which is currently a pile of dumb metal.

Although its difficult, we have to reshape ourselves and remould ourselves into fresh ideas for business or business opportunities so how do we begin. If you’re an equipment owner or a sound engineer, the first thing I would urge you to do is write down what your good at besides your core work and are you capable of making any of those skills an enterprise for example as simple as if you’re a good cook or baker, can you start making comfort food and digitalise your ability to reach out to many to start a home delivery of your passionate second option that was dormant over these decades then you have a chance to survive Covid-19’s associated problems. This is just one such example! The problem is people remember their old earning capabilities. For me I always say that making a profit of 10K in these times are like making a 100K and you should relish and savour that profitability. It’s that small money that people are not willing to push themselves to put themselves out there.

Everyone is talking about re-skilling or improving your skills and I am just wondering how does spending so much time on skilling is going to make a big impact to an already dormant industry, what’s important is that you learn new skills and not re-skills, you should have probably known all those core skills on systems, mixing & RF even before lockdown and whilst manufacturers were putting stuff out there you should be only learning advanced skills or absolutely new skills. Now this is also fallen out of fashion and manufacturers have also exhausted their training resources for free and those who make a living out of training have fewer subscribers.

I do not have a crystal ball and I cannot predict the future, Your guess will be as good as mine, but if you are living in the delirium that a vaccine is around the corner and things will be fine after the vaccine, you are heading down the wrong road and you need to start working towards a future whether there is a vaccine on not. A vaccine does not guarantee your industry from restarting neither does it guarantee a humans complete immunity otherwise we would have been free from all diseases & germs. What will really help you is to build physical and mental immunity. The medical industry is still, getting a grip of the new respiratory disease and its all too new to come to any conclusion.

But its not all gloom and this is a time that the industry has come together and EESA (Event Equipment Services Association) has gone national and I urge everyone in our industry that owns rental equipment & services to the professional event industry to join EESA. The benefits are immense and EESA is working on a lot of matters that will benefit our community by representation at FICCI & Indian Chamber of Commerce to represent our point of view. Finally we will also have an association to take up matters/problems related into GST, E-Way Billing by having a body to represent us.  Our representatives of the association will also be able to communicate with other associations or industries to improve working conditions - for example to be able to talk to the hotels and ask them to allow our staff to bring in food and to be able to get a small area to have meals etc. And to talk to Event Companies and insist that proper breaks are given for food timings etc. The benefits are immense! Do visit the website www.eesa.in or DM me at warren.dsouza@gmail.com and I will put you onto the appropriate contacts.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay connected with the world and learn to take whatever comes your way no matter who you are, giants have fallen in these times so there is no need to be hard on yourself. Keep the faith and we shall sooner than later be gigging in venues. Better times definitely ahead!!