Call Time 4 Events
Call Time 4 Events
RE-Release: Episode 1 - Remember When...
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In our very first episode, we revisit the first 9 months of the COVID pandemic and the initial impact on the event world. More Importantly, the people that make events happen. We take a brief stroll down memory lane about what we miss with the live events from the event worker standpoint and remember when the times were better. Please join Collin, Heather and Kristin as they introduce themselves and deliver your Call Time 4 Events.
We do not own the rights to any music herein.
On January 8th, 2020, the CDC issued its first public alert for something we had never seen before: a novel virus originating in Wuhan, China. The official warning read, in part, quote, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring a reported cluster of pneumonia of unknown etiology with possible epidemiologic links to a large wholesale fish and live animal market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. An outbreak investigation by local officials is ongoing in China. The World Health Organization is the lead international public health agency. There are no known U.S. cases, nor have cases been reported in countries other than China. End quote. His answer was, quote, it's going to be just fine. End quote.
SPEAKER_04From January 22nd to March 11th, the number of cases of this strange virus kept growing. The response kept spinning and changing. Business started slowing, and finally, the day we all dreaded, the event industry decided to react. On March 11th, the NCAA announced that the March Madness tournament would be played behind closed doors and for officials only. The very next day, they would announce an all-out cancellation of the tournament, concurrently with the NBA's announcement of a suspension of the rest of their season. It was like a dam broke. The virus that no one could explain was toppling our industry. After that, one by one, the events and entertainment industry fell. Hundreds of thousands of event workers found themselves immediately unemployed. Very little explanation was offered, and no real timeline for when things would be back up and running. Our industry and all of its workers were the first to lose their jobs because of something that we still don't fully understand.
SPEAKER_02We were out of work, watching everything we knew, our entire industry collapse, and a whole nation get sick. We were all hit with a perfect storm of confusion, desperation, anger, and frustration. We are 10 months from the announcement of the virus. Nearly a quarter of a million people have died because of the virus. And our industry is trying to come back, but we are still out of work. Our craft is 3,000 years old. And if 3,000 years of history in sports, music, and the theater world have taught us anything, it is that we are all resilient, passionate, and dedicated. We will weather this storm, and our industry will come back.
SPEAKER_01Wow. That is a lot, and those masses and those all those events those are right. We're here. Hi everyone, and welcome to All Time, a podcast that is creating a place for event workers. I'm Colin.
SPEAKER_04I'm Heather. I'm Kristen.
SPEAKER_01We are thrilled to have you with us today, and even more excited to get this podcast off the ground. In today's episode, we are going to talk about the C-word, the thing we didn't see coming, the thing that shut us down, and the thing that we all hate. COVID-19, aka the Rona, aka the coronavirus. Enter what other four-letter words you want here to describe this virus.
SPEAKER_04Well, before we do that, we thought we'd introduce ourselves and share how this idea came to life, how we came together as a team, and where we go from here.
SPEAKER_02How did we come together? How did we come together? Um Heather Colin and I met doing events right here in Denver, Colorado. That is where we are as we record this today. But I come from the theater world. Um I feat all. Just like about just about anybody that you meet, they all started in dance. We all started in dance when we were four. It was probably ballet. Um and that's where I started. But I just I've been involved in performing arts my entire life, whether it's dance class, choir, I was even in a bell choir, like those handbell choirs in church one time. Uh I went straight into theater in high school when I was 18. I started collecting a paycheck for doing theater. I was living the dream. Majored in college. I'm born and raised very proudly. And I say that because y'all are gonna laugh about Heather's answer. Um, very proudly born and raised in New Mexico. Um, and I attended New Mexico State University. Oh, woo-hoo! I got a theater degree. Yeah, and I was hired by, I'm just gonna tell you who I was hired by, a Walt Disney World right out of college. And so I moved to Florida, lived there for 20 years, and did everything. I did entertainment at the parks, I did uh theater in theaters, I did theater in the street, I did, I taught, I performed, I was backstage, you name it. I've been very, very blessed in my time. Um, and then I moved out here to Colorado, wanted to get closer to home, thought I was gonna get a PhD in theater. That's how far I thought I was taking this crazy drink. Uh what?
SPEAKER_01A FUD.
SPEAKER_02A FUD. That's right. I was gonna I was gonna do that. But hey, Colin, this one's for you. I thought I was gonna get a PhD at CU Boulder.
SPEAKER_01Hey, that's for you.
SPEAKER_02Um that didn't work out, but I am still doing events. Um, and I've just we'll we'll talk a lot more about our experience through the throughout our time, but that's how I got here and started doing the really big events, like football games and the concerts, and it's really exciting. And so the last Yay events, yay events, the last uh 30 years of my life. I've been getting a paycheck, but my entire life I've been doing this. I know it's crazy. Right on.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's I mean, that's that's not a bad way to spend your adulthood is in theater and in the events world.
SPEAKER_03I agree.
SPEAKER_01Hi, everybody. I'm I am uh I'm Colin. I have 23 years of experience of go ongoing 23 years of experience in the event industry, more so on the event staff and security side of things. My uh predominant has been working in the backstage areas at various venues around the Denver metro area, as well as uh with various response team type things and a cadre of other type of positions and whatnot.
SPEAKER_02Cadre points for that word.
SPEAKER_01Cadre, cadre. Uh I did go to the University of Colorado, bowler go buffs, go buffs.
SPEAKER_03See, I saw Go Buffs. The rise is real.
SPEAKER_01The rise is real. Uh you know, here's here is coming. I I can't wait for for the schedule of things to get back to normal, and that's why we're here talking. But I I just I throughout this entire pandemic that we've experienced, the theater or the uh the events, you know, theater, music, concerts, that's where I've made my life as my my family, my family and my friends. I've got tattoos of people on my body that we've lost the net in industry, and this means everything to me. And I have I had another career in my life as a probation officer and working in the corrections side of things as well. But my passion is with the events world. But we're not talking about the probation side of things. I mean, we're not I mean it's not top secret or anything, but it's not extraordinarily entertaining.
SPEAKER_04So um I'll go ahead and just uh wrap us our our introductions up. My name is Heather, and I have far less experience than these two rock stars in this industry. I'm just getting started. Yeah, um I really only what a voice, what a voice. Um, so I actually have um about three and a half years of um events experience here in Denver. Um that's about the time that I relocated here to Colorado from New Mexico, just like Kristen. However, my alma mater is the University of New Mexico, so we're actually Yeah, we're actually uh we attended competing colleges, so we like to poke fun at that. Um so although that I I haven't actually had years um and a lifetime working in events, I have been an avid concertgoer and music festival attendee since I was a wee little one in high school. So I definitely have a passion for this industry, and I really have seen how it affected my life, not only as an attendee, but also as a worker within the industry. So I'm just loving it, and it just really piques my interest. And since moving to Colorado, I've been able to widen my horizons of events I've been interested in. I now enjoy sporting events and um and theater and all of the good stuff that comes with this industry.
SPEAKER_01So that was there when you got punched for the first time.
SPEAKER_04Punch!
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I feel like Heather gotta love those Broncos fans. I feel like Heather is like the super fan that we all need and wish we could be. Can I get a high? You know? I am I'm a proud super fan. I love that. I love this. And let's I mean that's that's amazing. And let's just be honest, she's the hot one. Oh, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_04I think we're all equal. Well, you're the one but a you. Oh, you're sweet, you're sweet. Stop it, stop it. Um, so anyway, I would really love to discuss with you two what we miss um about this amazing industry that we have you two have dedicated your lives to, and I'm just getting started. I really want to discuss, you know, our feelings towards what has occurred and why and how kept COVID has affected us and kind of just take some time to reminisce for the audience um about our feelings.
SPEAKER_02I uh agree. I I'll let I'll let Colin what is your name? Colin, is that your name? I'll let Colin start.
SPEAKER_01I've been called everything. Uh I I mean, I miss I miss everything. Like I s like I just said, I mean, I I grew up in this industry and I didn't even realize that that's what I was doing, but I was making lifetime connections, and not just with the other people doing the event staffing and security, but everything from people that work uh on the road as as tour personnel or people that work with the professional sports teams or collegiate teams in the metro area here in Denver, or you know, the the bartenders, the cleaning crew. Like, you know, when you go to an event, I mean I still after 23 plus years, I still get that like adrenaline rush or butterflies as I'm approaching the venue, as I'm getting ready for the event that day. And and it's not out of nerves, it's out of excitement, it's out of, you know, anything can happen. And and you know, I'm sure over the course of this podcast we'll talk about many of those stories of the things that have happened because uh and this is just one tiny little corner of the universe here in Denver, and and we'll hear from other people and through the interviews and stuff that we're gonna have around the country and in different industries, but my gosh, like there's nothing that compares to this industry. It's the type of industry where you know you have like Warp Tour, for instance, a few years ago had t-shirts on all their crew that said my life versus your vacation, and that's so true. It is so true of what it is when you get the event bug, and it doesn't matter what your passion is, and as Heather, you just said, you you were becoming a sports fan, and you're becoming a fan of other types of events and and other types of music, or at least an appreciative uh ear and eye to those things, and that's great because that's what it's all about. I mean, I can't even tell you how many bands that I now listen to and follow religiously because of my experience in the events world that I wouldn't have had exposure to if I wasn't doing this, or the amount of amazing sporting events and sporting spectacles that I was in the building for. I can't say I watched it because that's I was I was I was working, but I was there for a lot of cool things, and we all have been in. Everybody listening, I'm sure you have a bunch of things that you've heard or that you just had come into your your memory banks right now as we said that. But just the camaraderie, the family, the the thrill, whether it's a small event at a small theater or a huge event at a huge stadium or amplitheater or convention, whatever it is, that that just the rush is it's like jumping out of a plane every day.
SPEAKER_04It really is. Exactly. I absolutely agree. Um, just to kind of you know piggyback off of that, just like how you mentioned, I miss the variety of people happening each and every day that I had exposure to. The experiences um were different every single day. And I think what I miss most is just the anticipation of you know, seeing a band you've never even heard of and being exposed to new types of music, seeing um, you know, a sporting event like soccer, baseball, something that you wouldn't typically get to go to, or even a special experience like my me personally, getting to see Hamilton.
SPEAKER_00Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton.
SPEAKER_04Which was something that I am deeply appreciative of, that you know, I wouldn't typically be able to afford an experience like that as an attendee, and I got to work that. And so special experiences like that and um the type of anticipation you feel when you look forward to working them is something that is severely, severely missed, at least. Um, I I know the three of us can agree on that, but just the interaction with the people that I work with, yeah, and the and just all of the good stuff is just so dearly missed.
SPEAKER_01And the fans, my god, the fans' diversity too.
SPEAKER_04Exactly, exactly. Diversity and different groups of people and crowds. We're all spending so much time alone together, or like alone but separate nowadays. I just can't wait until we can all be together together again.
SPEAKER_02Well, and it's funny that you say alone but separate, because that right there is what I miss. And and specifically, like I'll talk about uh the moments. I miss the moments, and so having come from theater, it's really easy for me to say that I miss working a show where I can run from backstage to the back of the house so I can watch certain moments in a show, and and anybody in theater will tell you there are moments in a show that those of us that are geeks for it, or those of us that that work it, you know, that that we watch it like Phantom of the Opera, we're waiting for the chandelier to drop, and I know that all my phantom fans know what I'm talking about. Um you know, that kind of thing. But we worked, and I think all three of us worked, and if if not at least two of us worked, but the Garth Brooks concert. When Garth Brooks came to Denver, um, this is what I miss. This is the thing. I don't miss Garth Brooks. I mean, he's great. Um, but when he came to Denver, um, you know, he has what I like to call an anthem, a song that everybody knows. I don't care what kind of music you like, I don't care where you come from, I don't care how old you are, you know at least five words to his big song, Friends in Little Places, and he knows it. And he plays it, and it was the largest content cover out of history. And there were, I don't know, were there 86,000 people in the in the football stadium?
SPEAKER_01I think it was like 84, 83, 84, but yeah.
SPEAKER_0284,000 or something like that. And he gets to friends in the places and and he's doing the chorus, and um, you know, he takes his hands off his guitar, and 84,000 people sing his song for him, and that's it. Those are the moments I miss. 84,000 people singing a beer drinking song. It's it's amazing. I miss when I I don't necessarily miss the touchdowns being scored, I miss the reaction to them. I I really do miss the crowd, and it's everything. It's it's everything. Moments like that give you goosebumps.
SPEAKER_04You just get goosebumps when you when you hear everyone all singing together or doing the same like action, all moving together. It's just so so cool.
SPEAKER_01So I want to that and the different the different emotions that you get because you go to a sporting event and there's gotta be a winner, there's gotta be a loser. And you have opposing sides, and you know, if your team wins and it's the home team, especially, you know, everybody's excited and and they're cheering loud and there's this energy, but when there's that loss, there's that sense of just melancholy and sadness. Whereas you go to a concert, there's no losers. Everybody's rooting for the same thing. Everybody's rooting for the same team, pretty much. You know, if you will go to a theater, you know, people are uh have a different level of appreciation. I mean, and and I haven't been to nearly as many shows and have nearly as many experiences in the theater as as Kristen has. But, you know, I've been to some shows where, you know, when there's that standing ovation at the end of the night, it's just as exciting as when there's an overtime goal scored in a hockey game or a touchdown scored late to win the game, or uh uh, you know, a big band comes on and plays their big hit, but they do like a super long rendition of it and they have like some you know crazy uh special performance of it, you know.
SPEAKER_04And it or from my expertise, when the song gets to its peak and then they they call it the drop, the drop happen. That's the best part.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, who's our EDM expert? I don't have any idea, but right. Um our resident EDM. That's right. Our raver.
SPEAKER_01You're new school EDM, I'm old school EDM.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's true. So we love that and we miss that. Um, and so here we are, and and to a lot of people, I think a lot of people are gonna relate to this. They're gonna love and miss it too, and they're gonna say, oh my gosh, yes, I was there at that concert, I was there at that show. But and that's great, but for us, it is our job, it is our life, it is our paycheck. And the thing that I want everybody within, you know, earshot of this podcast to know is that people who work events are like salt-to-the-earth people. They are they are break their back willing to make this event happen for you, and I miss them. And I I mean, who doesn't miss the paycheck? But we were the first out. Our industry was the first out, and we're gonna be the last that I can. And we have people that work in our industry that I don't know, very well may be homeless, and I'm not okay with that. That's that's not okay, and we gotta get that back.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, and I mean, just to hit on that point about about that, j uh uh there was a very large sports network that is a national sports network on their website today published an article about where each one of the 32 NFL teams is with allowing fans into the stance.
SPEAKER_02I wonder what sports network that is.
SPEAKER_01I think it's pronounced Espen.
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_01The yeah, ESPN.com uh had uh had an article, and just skimming through that article, everything is from no fans in some stadiums, and it's not necessarily congruent with a certain part of the country or not. You know, but some fans are zero fans, some stadiums are zero fans, other stadiums are up to 25% capacity, and yeah, the different challenges that that brings. I mean, we even experienced that here in Denver. So, you know, being the last ones in, I mean, we're not only are we gonna be the last ones in, but it's gonna be the toe dipping into the pool type of a thing, toe dipping into the water and easing in the things.
SPEAKER_04There's no I mean, we're already unpredictable. Go ahead. I don't know. Just just unpredictable and just um not not the same as everywhere else. It's inconsistent, is what I meant to say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and we're already back. At football games and Denver is one of the stadiums open, but it's only at I mean I don't even think it's a quarter of a thing. I mean, it's less than that. And we're still having I mean, put your mask on your face. Football with 5,000 people is not fun. Put your mask on. Let's just get this done. Let's just get it out there and get it over. We gotta get back to this. Put your mask on. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, well, oh my gosh, if we could do this all night, right? We could talk and talk about what we miss. But what we also want to make sure we do is make this available as I don't know if you thought that Colin said this. Tall time. We are creating a place for event workers. This is your resource. Right now, we just want to be um something friendly and safe for you to listen to. But it will expand. We'll have lots of resources for you. But we want you to be a voice in this podcast. Okay, so we want to hear from you. And we want to thank you for listening today, but we want to hear from you, so make sure you follow us on social media and on Spotify and um Apple Music. Is that right, guys? Is that iTunes? iTunes, I'm not an iPhone person. I used to be, I'm not an iPhone person. Um, but our social media is dun dun dun dun. We have an Instagram, we have a Twitter, and we have a Facebook page. Um our handle is at call time for events. That is one word, call time the number four events. C-A-L-L-T-I-M-E, the number four, E-V-E-N-T-S. That's Twitter and Instagram. And I'm sure our amazing social media manager will also have the same name on the Facebook page, am I right?
SPEAKER_03Correct.
SPEAKER_02Yes, please come to social media and hang out with us. Give us your ideas. Wanna what you want to hear us talk about. We're excited. Yep. And then next time, and you guys, let's talk about this. Um, on our next episode, before we tune out and sign off, our next episode, um, we're gonna do an interview, our first interview, with the costume designer of uh the Netflix series Ozark.
SPEAKER_00Deciding to invest in your family's future and taking responsibility for the consequences of those actions.
SPEAKER_02Main costume designer. I know, I know. Have you guys watched Ozark?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. I haven't finished season three yet, but I will.
SPEAKER_04I have been keeping busy during COVID, and I'm trying not to get sucked into the Netflix and any other streaming service whole.
SPEAKER_02No, you'll definitely binge watch this and you'll be like addicted. Um, Stephanie Lewis, and we get we got to talk to her. It was amazing. Uh, we also have to serve her husband, um, who is a camera operator. And the thing that struck me is that here is this costume designer for a major, major television show. And COVID hit and she lost her job. She's right there with us. You know, she was out of work, had to consider working at a grocery store to make ends. And that's what you'll hear that in the interview.
SPEAKER_04But that was a wonderful interview, and I'm really excited for our audience members to hear it.
SPEAKER_01I agree. It was a it was a very enlightening interview, and being able to talk to the both of them and finding out about how you know the not only what it is that they do on set, because you go, you know, you get done seeing a TV show or a movie or whatever, and you see what seemingly is like 5,212 names scroll by with different positions and what the heck do they do? And we got a little bit of insight into that. And also how they're doing on in that part of the entertainment industry with COVID. So I don't know, it wasn't it was very, very enlightening interview, and I can't wait for everybody to hear.
SPEAKER_02Same, same. So, same bat time, same bat channel. I don't know about things. Did I just date myself? Did somebody understand that?
SPEAKER_01I do.
SPEAKER_02Oh, excellent. And once again, Heather does not get it. We're gonna have to interrupt you. And there was this superhero way back when called Batman.
SPEAKER_01The Adam West Batman.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, I have seen, I have not seen any of those movies whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01This is way before the movies. This is the TV show of Adam West. That's right.
SPEAKER_03Oh.
SPEAKER_01Where they had actual like cartoon, like boom, wham, pow, like powbles come up when you punch somebody, so they didn't actually have to show stunts of the biggest.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01That's great.
SPEAKER_02All right, guys, thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you next time. Woo! Call time.