S2, Ep.2: Wedding Anthems and Business Beats

This is our first episode of our second season on Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. We look back at our journey, rating our debut season a B plus. Listener feedback has been invaluable, pointing us towards longer episodes and more playful banter. Just like building an unforgettable DJ set, we explore how to keep our podcast fresh and engaging by resetting the energy and uncovering those forgotten tunes that make for memorable moments.

In this episode, we're turning our attention to the business side of things. Managing AV services at local venues opens up a world of opportunities and challenges. Imagine stepping into the corporate world on weekdays, providing essential AV setups and diversifying your income streams. We've learned from past experiences the importance of investing in quality equipment and smart delegation, and we're ready to share those insights with you. It's all about nurturing new connections with venues and planners to ensure a steady flow of gigs and never resting on our laurels.

When it comes to staying ahead in the industry, it's crucial to choose the right events and conferences. From DJX's legendary show floor to the intimate Pittsburgh DJ Summit, we break down the unique perks of each gathering. Networking and learning opportunities abound, whether it's the massive turnouts in Las Vegas or the innovative sessions at smaller conferences. These events aren't just about gear and gadgets; they're about connecting with like-minded professionals and gaining fresh perspectives. Join us as we navigate this vibrant landscape, offering you a roadmap to maximize your growth and inspiration in the DJ and entertainment world.

If you're a true Booth Head (super fan of the pod), join our Patreon for all the extras and one-off goodies. You can get there by going to: patreon.com/BeyondTheDJBoothPodcast

Transcript

Joe Bunn 1:43

ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, we are back. Season two, episode two of Beyond the DJ Booth Podcast. What's up, brian B? What's up? Happy New Year.

Brian B 1:55

Feels weird a little saying that it feels weird why.

Joe Bunn 1:57

It is coming out Batch content session, but it will come out early January. What'd you think about season one? I guess that would be my first question your true assessment as somebody that basically goes back and listens to all the episodes, cleans up the ums, the ahs, the awkwardness of it.

Brian B 2:14

Yeah.

Joe Bunn 2:14

What's your assessment of season one beyond the DJ booth podcast? How do you feel I came?

Brian B 2:19

out a good, solid B plus, and I don't feel like I'm being too generous. No what I've noticed when you're doing a duo podcast there's chemistry of knowing when people stop talking not talking over someone. We had some moments like that, but for the most part I felt like it was super organic, like we didn't really have to fake the funk, as they say.

Joe Bunn 2:38

What's been your feedback from the masses People either DMing you or messaging you or emailing you or whatever.

Brian B 2:44

The constant thing is wish they were longer.

Joe Bunn 2:46

Yeah, I got that a lot too. I got a lot of we wish it was longer. Don't feel like you guys have to cut straight to the business part or straight to the meat, Like they like the bullshit back and forth. You know what I mean.

Brian B 2:58

It's like playing a show right. You kind of don't want to take them all the way to the edge where it's like, hey, we want you to stop. Now you do want them to kind of want more. That's to me a sign of a great show.

Joe Bunn 3:07

Speaking of and I think you probably do it in a year span more often than I do, which is playing like a what I would consider a long dance set at a private event, and to me long would be three plus hours. We did it saturday 7 30 to 10 30 this past wedding and it's it's exactly what you're saying like. There has to be like an ebb and flow, or I love that term. You use all the time where you're like I use it to reset the room. I love that Like.

Joe Bunn 3:31

Whenever you say that and I kind of was thinking about that as I was playing this past Saturday I was like, yeah, dude, I gotta, I gotta reset the room, you know, because you could either see, like you know, there was too many like 128 bpm type songs or something. I was like, all right, I'm just gonna kind of hard stop echo out of this and then drop back to like 78. This is when I knew I was like I feel like I'm firmly in control to be able to drop this. Uh, all I want for christmas is you mariah remix from scooter. I played like a verse and a chorus of it, but it kind of went over I mean, we were you know, 16 days from christmas, yeah well.

Brian B 4:04

I had a similar situation where the room needed a reset.

Joe Bunn 4:07

Yeah.

Brian B 4:07

And this wedding I just did this past weekend. The names were odd Ashlyn, which isn't I don't hear that name very often, and the groom a total Southern name, wynn.

Joe Bunn 4:17

Yeah, W-I-N-N yeah.

Brian B 4:19

And I was like, hmm, okay, and one of the things I haven't done a whole lot and I'm gonna start doing this was in florida in florida, okay, and I like to look for songs that have the name of the couple in there, okay, right yeah, and so I'm surprised this one didn't get in there, but it kind of came to me as I'm in the middle of the night. I'm like I need to reset this. We've been kind of going hardcore for a bit.

Brian B 4:41

So I literally like stopped the music and said and win was super like introverted, you know, not really wanting, I didn't want the, the spotlight on him, him and his mom's dance was like 60 seconds, yeah, at the most. But everybody loves the guy, like you could just tell everybody loved him, and so I go hey, you know, I was thinking about what to play for win tonight and I'm like I can't think of a better song and I dropped.

Brian B 5:05

All I do is win right right they went nuts and it wasn't even really. I think it may have been on their list but it wasn't like something that was like must play or anything like that. But I'm like how do you not drop that for this? Yeah they loved it, but it was like a room reset moment right for me of using a song that like what was that song?

Joe Bunn 5:22

it's not very old, it's like win, win win, win, win, win. You remember that song. It's a hip hop song. I was going through all my music last night trying to find like forgotten bangers. Yeah, me and you were working on that just last week.

Brian B 5:33

I'll send you that, okay.

Joe Bunn 5:34

If you ever do another wedding with win. It was like you could even have just played the chorus. Play it, cause you know, no, I just happened to be kind of scrolling through my library last night and it came up.

Brian B 5:46

All right yeah.

Joe Bunn 5:48

Interesting I do love. All I do is win, though, as as a room reset, especially that fuse edit I have with the. We are the champions at the beginning. Oh, I don't know yeah. It works really well. All into it that we are the champion, no time for losing, and then it goes. All I do, oh, okay, okay people think you're doing it yeah, yeah you're a hero.

Brian B 6:14

I posted a reel the other day and this girl's like yeah you're cute and I'm like no, that was fuse made that, fuse made that anyway.

Brian B 6:22

When this drops yes it's either going to be on the Wednesday, which is January 1st, or the day before or two days before, whenever we decide to do it. But thinking of start of a new year, what's like something in the bun business, something that you always do to start your year off, and maybe you know this last year was an interesting year. I don't know if you felt it, we were off a little bit on our numbers Sure.

Networking and Business Strategy Discussion

Brian B 6:43

So is there anything you're tweaking to kind of make up for what happened last year, to change it up just a little bit?

Joe Bunn 6:50

Is there anything.

Brian B 6:51

So what's a consistent thing you do every time, every year, and what's one new thing you're going to try?

Joe Bunn 6:55

The consistent thing is some sort of a. It's not necessarily business related, it's almost more just like mental health reorganization. So like I might come in here and just like change around the whole office wow and like clean up and everything, or just to the point where I'm like moving everything out, but maybe rearrange I guess, and then clean out, like the files from 2024, make new, you know folders for 2025 which has gotten to be less and less over the years, obviously as the digital age, yeah has trickled in Like clean the office, almost like spring cleaning if that makes sense, and is that like a January 1 thing or first Monday?

Brian B 7:33

It's just early.

Joe Bunn 7:35

When people go back to work, which is, let's call it, like the 6th of January probably it would be around then.

Joe Bunn 7:41

Okay, and just to kind of reset the year Business-wise not characteristically, but I am doing so this year you and I were talking about it a little bit ago Definitely adding some I don't want to call them enhancements, but definitely adding some other services Got it Including cold sparks and a small AV rig for a venue around the corner, almost exclusively for this venue. Right, for a venue around the corner, almost exclusively for this venue. They have so much business that is not being taken care of properly and the bigger AV companies here won't touch it. So if I kind of come in in that $1,000 to $2,000 for like a screen projector, one mic, maybe a podium, I'll be a hero. And it's weekday money. They have weddings Friday, saturday, sunday.

Joe Bunn 8:26

So Saquon could go out and do it, I could go out and do it, randy could go out and do it. You sit on it for a few hours, make sure that their presentation's working, and I guarantee it's. Probably it could be an extra $20,000 to $40,000. That's how many corporate events they're doing a year. That calculate it and I'm and I'll I'll have 10 000 in it in the gear. Again, I don't want to really carry it all over, raleigh, sure, I don't want to get into, you know, video walls and line arrays or anything where I have to get on a ladder, right scaffolding or a lift, like it's very, very basic the whole room is 60 by 40 now you mentioned, uh, cold sparks as an enhancement last year.

Brian B 9:03

I would say the one you brought in was those audio books. I did, did those do?

Joe Bunn 9:07

well, I would give it a C. So you made your money back, made money back on the first time. They went out 100%, even paying Randy to kind of edit the file down. Sure, we did, to be fair, run it on Black Friday and did really well with it. So we probably sold another 10 over Black Friday and instead of $350, I think we asked for $200. So again, I think that costs $200. You have an hour in cleaning up the file and that's about it. Is there a ton of money in it? No, but I mean it's worth having two or three of them. Sure, they just sit in that closet right there beside you. They have a little table tent that goes beside them and that's all we do.

Brian B 9:39

So with the cold sparks, you have a goal in mind. What would be a success with that one?

Joe Bunn 9:44

I'm going to start with four and I think that a lot of places here are going to say it's not allowed indoors. If I had to guess and I'm going to just do them for the exit and probably do 400 a can, so 800 bucks for an exit for two of them. Or if you want four, you can get four.

Brian B 10:02

Now does that mean bringing another staff person? How does that work?

Joe Bunn 10:04

100% Okay. This is where I failed the first time. There was two reasons that this failed the first time out the gate.

Brian B 10:10

I didn't know you got it before.

Joe Bunn 10:11

I did. I had four before. One reason was they were just not a good brand. They were super cheap, Not good, Couldn't keep them running. Problem two was I was tasking the DJ with doing it, and tasking the DJ there's just too much. My guys don't have an assistant. When Saquon and I did it, he could do it. I'd say 15 minutes before the last song.

Brian B 10:31

I'd say go heat it up.

Joe Bunn 10:32

I'm like let's get this going Now. As you know, I'm a both lighting fanatic. Everything I have now, all my lights, are both lighting. My cold sparks are going to be both lighting, and I'm going to buy the battery packs to go with these cold sparks so I don't have to be out there, you know, in the middle of the night running cables, looking for power, this, that and the other. I saw them run this past week at an event that I was a guest at. They're a little bigger than a cold spark, looks like a little platform. One cable boom. You charge up the base, put the can on top, hit the remote. All four of them went off. Yeah, I walked over, picked the whole thing up and walked right out While the party was still going on. Nobody even noticed he came through. You're kidding. No cables, no tape, no gaff. And is it going to double the cost of the investment? Probably, but to me it's going to be well worth it. Sure, I'll be the guinea pig on this, but I'm confident. What about you?

Brian B 11:27

What's going on?

Joe Bunn 11:27

reset of 2025 Brian B policies. So I actually like to do it a couple of days before January 1st that awkwardness between the 25th of December and January 1, where nobody's doing jack shit, Brian B's getting after it.

Brian B 11:34

Well, I just know at that point where I'm going to land for the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm usually doing like a lot of recon on what the last year was like who sent me the most leads, who booked me the most, what was the average ticket, like some of those metrics that you probably should be checking regularly. That I'm not. You know that I needed to do for like a year end assessment because I know that I'm not going to get any more shows between that 26th and the 31st, more than likely.

Brian B 11:58

So, I like to just kind of have a thought of how do I adjust, after I've seen those metrics to the next year, if I need to follow up with a couple planners or venues that I didn't get a whole lot in. So I like to like look at those then rather than waiting three weeks later finally looking at it and going wrong game plan.

Brian B 12:13

I'm kind of doing that ahead of the year to start. I like that Something new. I don't think it's new. I just have been a little lax on like making new relationships. I've been hanging on to the old ones, and so I really want to kind of go after a couple of new venues, new planners, just start to kind of increase the fold a bit and not be reliant on same old, same old. I'm a victim of that too we both are right.

Joe Bunn 12:35

I mean because you, you get comfortable, you get in a click, especially you with engage, like you just know those people. You know the people you want to be around, but there's a new batch of people that always come and engage. Tonight I'm playing, you know, in a few hours for the Nace holiday party. Like I need to make it my goal, those first couple hours when people aren't dancing, to go around and talk to some of these newer people.

Brian B 12:53

Right.

Joe Bunn 12:54

Because there's a whole group of 25 to 32 year olds that are entering this business in this new chapter. Right, I don't really know them. You know what I mean and I need to do better in just assuming shit. I'm Joe Bunn, everybody knows me, you know what I mean. That's a shitty attitude, To be fair. It's why I play the party. This party went off last year.

Joe Bunn 13:12

I killed this thing last year and I intentionally killed it. So there are at the very least, if I don't, a guest. For the first part they had a band. Me and saquon set up a second system, you know, for the night time, the 11 to 1 late night. I mean, I intentionally went in there with the goal of, like, I'm gonna smash, this 150 year old house is going to be barely standing, and we just went after it and played it like somebody that was not a wedding dj, like I intentionally was, like man.

Joe Bunn 13:43

These people hear the same shit every week. Yes, yeah you know the september and the blah, blah, blah and the. You know I was like let's play it like different both of these parties. I got zero dollars out of it right, but it's a showcase. You know what I mean. You do any things like that, oh yeah, all the time.

Brian B 13:58

Yeah, I try to do that. That's like the only way that I'll usually be a part of a networking thing is if I can do something that would showcase more than just playing background music.

Joe Bunn 14:07

I know you do it at Engage like regularly. I got it coming up.

Brian B 14:11

I'm going next week and I'm not scheduled to do any of the main parties. I have an agency doing that. But, you better believe I'm going to be doing some kind of underground after party at some point.

Joe Bunn 14:21

Yeah, like a suite or something like that absolutely.

Show Prep and Event Conferences

Joe Bunn 14:23

It's the best investment you can make, man a hundred percent, man, I mean I, I think that a lot of people know you kind of from that chapter of engage where you're like, okay, well, this party's over, but the brian b late night is in suite 225, totally, and just get after it. Yeah, I mean, you made a name for yourself doing that. And again, yeah, doing the networking, sure, and the music for the walk-ups and right, you know, the walk-offs, the walk-ups, emceeing ladies and gentlemen, presenting blah, blah, blah, like all that stuff. Just it goes a long, long way because I think so many people do it poorly when a planner or producer of a show see somebody do it.

Joe Bunn 14:57

Well, right it's 10 business opportunities fly right there in your face. Thousand percent anyway are we talking. Are we talking question?

Brian B 15:03

today. Let's do it. Yeah, are we still doing the same format? I think so. Season two, okay, and this is a good one because it kind of leads into the next year. Yeah, it does. It's a great question.

Joe Bunn 15:11

You know Billy Rears.

Brian B 15:12

I know him.

Joe Bunn 15:13

Yeah, he's a cool cat. He's a barber too. What upcoming conferences are you looking into attending and what are the options out there? First off, before we get into this, I will say I think that there's too many things now.

Brian B 15:31

Really.

Joe Bunn 15:32

Yeah, man.

Brian B 15:33

Because there used to be how many.

Joe Bunn 15:34

Let's call it two. It was Mobile Beat, which is now Mex. Yeah, and it was. Dj Times which is now DJX, so you had one-on-one coast at the beginning of the year and you had the other on the other coast at the let's call it the end of summer. Those were the ones you needed to be at, and I feel like it's a little out of hand right now there's a lot, so you think that they're all chopping the pie?

Joe Bunn 15:56

then I think the pie is just chopped up. I don't know. Man, we have a graphic that we're getting ready to put up of just what I did off the top of my dome this morning when you and I were talking about show prep. Now, to be completely fair, I didn't go deep dive down the rabbit hole, so if I missed somebody, please don't jump in my inbox and shit on me. I did this off the top of my head of what I've seen come up across my feed or the things that I've personally been to over the last 20, 30 years. Yeah, so if I missed yours, I apologize, but I think there's a lot. And we're not even mentioning LDI, which is like a lighting thing. I think that's going on right now in Las Vegas.

Brian B 16:36

It was a special event.

Joe Bunn 16:37

You got the NACE national conference Right. That's not the same thing as the special event, is it? You got four to six Engage conferences that you could go to. There's some big Orlando wedding conference. I saw that Kristen Hubbard and another friend of mine here are speaking at, that's brand new.

Joe Bunn 16:51

Yeah. So I'm not even mentioning five things right there. I just think people don't know where to go, don't know where to spend their money. So hopefully this list will help a little bit for somebody that's like Billy, that's a private event DJ, whether you're a multi-op, single op, whatever.

Brian B 17:05

Well, you want to go through them a little bit. Maybe you talk about the bents of each. Sure, I think that what you have to do as a show producer in these is really separate yourself as to like what you're known for, because if it's all the same, then you are cutting the pie and just chopping it up, if you are able to kind of say this is what we're going to tackle. As an example, djx is known for their show floor. Out of all of them, that's probably their calling card.

Brian B 17:30

I would say Not that their education is not there. But that's what like if you're going to go get gear and see a show floor. I don't want to go out of order here, but like. I'm just saying like that's something in there. I see what you're saying.

Joe Bunn 17:40

What is your differentiator? Why do I want you to spend 350 bucks and come here? So talk about this first one, cause I don't. I mean you and I don't know anything about this Pittsburgh DJ summit. We know some people involved and I don't know what she's got to do with it, but Jess McKelvey DJ, jess Bill Jacob, I think he's part of it and I've seen some people that are a either going or be, and they were, you know, well-known names.

Brian B 18:03

Well, digital, dave's the keynote. Okay, this particular one. I think Pittsburgh is one of those like untapped markets with really great talent. I mean ADMC is there.

Joe Bunn 18:13

That's a great point, solid point.

Brian B 18:14

Pittsburgh's like got a good scene. Digital Dave's helped build that. Right ADMC has helped build that and kind of put them on the map. But it's a good city.

Joe Bunn 18:23

Yeah.

Brian B 18:24

They deserve to kind of get their flowers. I don't know too much about this one either. It started last year.

Joe Bunn 18:28

It was the first year Okay.

Brian B 18:29

Mike Walter spoke there last year. I believe. Yeah, and I don't know the format, I have no idea. Yeah, but it looks like a boutique show. Yeah, I think more and more kind of, would you?

Joe Bunn 18:39

categorize boutique like 50 to 100 people. Yeah, me too.

Brian B 18:43

But I mean, why would you go to something like this? If you're in the area and you're looking for education, you don't got to go far. Sure, you just drive up there to Pittsburgh.

Joe Bunn 18:51

Spend a couple days there and learn. There's no way you're going to leave there and not learn something. That's the way I feel about any conference. If I leave with just something, even if it's like whatever, just some little thing that somebody did for wedding planners that just popped off, if I can leave with one thing that I'm not doing that I can easily implement, I'm like this is a win Win, win, win, win. Namm again is January 21st through the 25th. It's in Anaheim in California. I mean, I wouldn't say this is a DJ thing either. It's really it's like National Association of Music Merchants. In fact, you can't even really buy a pass that. I don't think you have. I don't know that you can either. I get my pass from EV.

Brian B 19:33

You've got to be a store.

Joe Bunn 19:34

If you really want to go, you can definitely reach out to your local. Whoever you buy gear from NLFX, agi, whoever and they'll probably hook you up. Have you been? I have been once have you?

Brian B 19:53

Oh many crazy. Yeah, I definitely haven't been many times, but it was because you live in california I did.

Joe Bunn 19:54

I worked for pioneers, I was working the booths and I mean, if you ever walk it, it's it's days, it's unreal days to get through it. It is unbelievable how much gear I mean drums, keyboards, organs, bj gear. I mean the networking again is great if you are a content creator and you want to. You know, meet somebody from shore and say, hey, man, I love your microphones, I want to shoot videos for you. That guy is probably going to be there, right girl's going to be there.

Brian B 20:10

A lot of celebs come who are musicians, a lot of like um.

Joe Bunn 20:13

High profile like scratch djs are there. You can meet them, take a picture with them. I mean I've seen stevie wonder there, john mayer, I mean anybody who's.

Brian B 20:21

Anybody comes through usually the one thing you can't do with this show is buy gear. That's right. So it's literally display only.

Joe Bunn 20:27

Most of it is not even out yet. Like I know there's stuff EV's showing will be out like in March or April.

Brian B 20:33

So they're showing it.

Joe Bunn 20:34

Yes, the retailers are ordering it and then you're buying it from the retailers. Right, that's the way it works. I'll be there, I am going to that. I'm going to go World a million times. Oh, do you know the next one?

Brian B 20:51

That's our thing.

Joe Bunn 20:52

That's our thing.

Brian B 20:53

This is the Recharge, which is a little bit different a take than the main conference. Hold on TO.

Joe Bunn 20:59

Low key. Did you kind of miss the big conference in November? I mean not the work, not the work. No, I did, but just that feeling of damn.

Brian B 21:09

We just put on an awesome job.

Joe Bunn 21:10

Well, especially everything coming up in your memories, in the memories. That's what I kept thinking about. I'm just like oh man.

Brian B 21:13

I forgot how good that Atlanta one was. It was really good man. I don't know I might be a little too biased being in the midst of it.

Joe Bunn 21:21

Right, we're super close to it. We money and time and passion into it. But damn dude, like when I see those pictures come up, I'm like nobody's ever done this. Nobody may ever do it again. Right, we really we killed that shit.

Brian B 21:33

Yeah, I was super.

Joe Bunn 21:34

It's one of the most proud things that I've done Right as a DJ or as an adult really, as as a business person.

Brian B 21:41

It stretched us. By the way shows they don't get the the love that they should, because it's a lot of work.

Joe Bunn 21:51

Just go to the shows, people, because these people spend a lot of money, they're putting out a lot of risk and they're probably not making a lot of money. No, and hopefully they're in it for the right reasons, which we were for sure. Listen, I'm not gonna sit here and say we didn't want to make some money. We did want to make money but at the end of the day, we wanted to put on a killer conference, the bests For the best we could do with the money we had. Charge a premium price, bring in the best talent, the best speakers. Pay the talent, pay the speakers, have it in the best hotels, the best venues, and I feel like we did that. Man, it's just very hard to keep it going.

Brian B 22:25

Especially in this environment. It's tough when you've got 15 shows. I know I'm exaggerating here, but like a lot of shows.

Joe Bunn 22:30

You're not far off, because we're forgetting some stuff.

Brian B 22:32

Well, and there's also workshops, right? Sure, there's all kinds of things that are out there.

Joe Bunn 22:36

Absolutely, you've got the Marbeca things, the this guy, that guy, the entertainment experience, bill Herman, yeah, I mean all of it Anyway.

DJ Show Networking and Education

Brian B 22:47

So talk a little bit about the recharge. What makes this one different from November? How does this stack up? Not necessarily quality wise, but just the difference in what it's aimed for. I think it's the most unique one out of the set.

Joe Bunn 22:56

It is it is Because it is more of a workshop than it is a conference. You know what I mean. I mean you, me and Jan, and let's call it 70% of the talking. We've brought in some special guests to hit the high levels of stuff that we're not super familiar with and I think, like any DJ collective, whether there's 150 people there or 50 people there, it is all about what happens outside of those education moments. I mean, you and I were talking about how often somebody sends us a picture of them with somebody that they had no business meeting in this world. They met at the collective.

Joe Bunn 23:32

And this guy that is in Idaho brought in this guy from California because he needed what was to be considered a sharpshooter on this event. You know what I mean. Or this guy in Florida brought in this guy from Pittsburgh to play a show because they met at the DJ Collective. They started knowing about each other, whatever, whatever. It blows my mind and I know Engage kind of started that hashtag was like because of Engage or whatever, but like we could have a hashtag because of DJC. Oh, a thousand percent.

Brian B 23:59

It would pop off. I think this one's interesting, though, because one the three of us aren't ever at the same shows, usually speaking.

Joe Bunn 24:06

That's true.

Brian B 24:07

So to pull us to be able to sit on the stools, essentially, and talk about things that are. This is stripped down. To me it's kind of like an acoustic show.

Joe Bunn 24:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like we're pulling back the curtain.

Brian B 24:18

Ask us anything.

Joe Bunn 24:20

It's definitely an AMA. Ask me anything kind of scene, Whether you catch me sitting up there in front of the crowd or you just catch me at the bar. Right, whether you catch me sitting up there in front of the crowd, or you just catch me at the bar and right, and how do you really do? This? Fact that it's in arizona always is a plus. In february, february, I guarantee it'll be 75 degrees, 80 degrees. I'm ready, I'm in. Next mobile entertainment experience. This is what mobile beat was correct.

Brian B 24:42

Now it's paired with the pbx show which is correct.

Joe Bunn 24:44

Photo booth.

Brian B 24:45

Photo booth expo which combined, it's the biggest show when you put pbx with me I think you're right as far as like dj shows, I mean nam's definitely in its own category, that doesn't count yeah, but in this context I would think there's going to be more booths, more attendees at that show.

Joe Bunn 25:02

Pbx slash nex than any combined. Huge las vegas at south point hotel, not much else to say yeah, a good time of year to do it Sure February Midwest CJ's live. I'll be there, you will, I will be there.

Brian B 25:15

Are you speaking?

Joe Bunn 25:16

No speaking, just taking the bun gear command center and whatever else we're selling at that time and showing that stuff off a little bit and just hanging out. It's been a few years since I've been I since I've been.

Brian B 25:24

Where is it I?

Joe Bunn 25:25

love that show Milwaukee.

Brian B 25:26

Milwaukee, that's right.

Joe Bunn 25:27

Yeah, that's April, so it's starting to warm up there, then, thank God you know I'm not a cold fan.

Brian B 25:31

You've been before. Right, I have a few times. Yeah, I spoke there once. I performed one time. It's a good show.

Joe Bunn 25:37

They do an awesome job, man, which? Is great it is, yeah, so all those people are just giving their time. That's nate, now his own, like the nightlife committee.

Brian B 25:50

He's bringing in some big dogs, mitch, of course. They're very good about making sure the speakers are as top-notch as they can do. I'm always been impressed with the way that they've I'm excited.

Joe Bunn 25:59

Yeah, it's been a few years you want to talk about marquee that's in chicago ish yeah, that's true.

Brian B 26:05

Yeah, it's on the outskirts there we go. It's gotten bigger and bigger. Yeah, I feel like the quality keeps getting better every time that they do it. Yeah, they have grown their show floor. I wasn't there last year, but the year before I was they're operating it differently too, in the sense that they have multiple things happening at the same time.

Brian B 26:21

So it's not like just one yeah speaking session where everybody goes to. Yeah, pick and your tracks, if you want in certain ways, so that's in june and the only one in the summer, pretty much that we know of.

Joe Bunn 26:32

Then, djx, august 11th, through the 14th atlantic city, new jersey. We kind of touched on that. What about wedding nba? I hadn't been in a long time I used to perform. Yeah, you used to work, it pretty hard, you and jenna.

Brian B 26:43

Yeah, and then we did. We both spoke at it before. It's a good show. I mean, if you're looking to get to know other categories, it's probably the better one. I feel like the DJ sector of it is growing.

Joe Bunn 26:54

Oh, I was about to say the same thing. I feel like they put a lot more attention now on the DJ sector and then this just happened. Harvest of Sound was a few days ago, boston-esque In December.

Brian B 27:05

That's a tough sell.

Joe Bunn 27:11

It austin in december.

Brian B 27:11

That's a tough sell, it's tough bro, but hey, I mean in january is also a tough sell. So the fact that these guys and ladies who are putting this stuff on, are making an effort to do it yeah, a challenging season and a challenging location I would think, yeah, for people to get to yes, kudos to them, because they see the value in it too, and heard good things about harvest this year. Uh, they do the speaker shootout. Yeah, that's one thing I know for sure. I've never been to it. Have you been to it?

Joe Bunn 27:30

I have, yeah once or twice the speaker shootout. This year I think they hid the speakers oh you know, because people are so brand religious you know in a brand bias they hit them and they played. It's cool actually, yeah I thought it was kind of cool too. I saw some pictures of ben stowe kind of leads that you know he's the sound guru and so he put them behind kind of like a sheer fabric or whatever and then play them. And then people were like oh, that's the love of life.

Brian B 27:49

Got to be this. Yeah, exposed it, or?

Joe Bunn 27:51

whatever afterwards. So they did a good job as well. Again, you know smaller show, but all these are definitely worth attending. Billy, I mean it's a great question. I'm sure we left some out. Apologies to anybody we left out Comments. Please throw the date, throw the link. We're happy to promote it. You know we'll talk about it on a future episode. Yeah for sure. Recaps or whatever.

Brian B 28:10

Anything else. To wrap this one up, Education's important and let's just end it with that right. I feel that's so underrated in our business. These little networking opportunities and learning sessions, just to get away from your office for a hot minute.

Joe Bunn 28:29

And be around like-minded professionals that are trying to do the same thing that you're doing and, more importantly, are probably not in your area, is a beautiful thing. Yeah, some of my best friends. If I got married again which I'm not I would invite to my wedding. I have met at these things. Yeah, no shit. Like I would definitely say that, like the majority of my adult friends have come from these meetups right, these conferences, so good. Yeah, let's wrap it all right. Thanks everybody for listening to beyond the dj booth podcast. Again, I'm joe bunn, that is my guy, brian b, and we'll be back next week. Brand new episode. Bye.