8 months down... 8 months to go (at least)!

 These past eight (8) months has taken forever, it feels... and we are still in the thick of this pandemic with full-on remote work, virtual meetings, and more!

In the beginning, we all thought this stay-at-home orders and working from home situation would last a month... but 8 months later, we are still here but with quick thinking and fast modifications, my event production team and our work is just as busy as if we were in-person.

Back in early April, until around June, we were trying to figure out how to effectively run our events in a digital, remote world. Most of my time was spent searching for and participating in online courses, video training, and virtual webinars... some focusing on equipment features, some on software possibilities, and others discussed the media/events/production industry as a whole. By mid-June, the Event Production (EP) New York team was working with colleagues around the world to figure out best practices and troubleshooting with each other and researching different production platforms to enhance the virtual meetings that we were producing. Now, in November, our global EP team has a plethora of production solutions available to us - both internal systems and third-party platforms that we are utilizing to create a higher-level of production for these digital events.

I often tell people that, especially in this digital world, my role is to work with Google departments to produce a highly-visual and engaging event-that is more than just talking heads and a screen-share. As Google recently announced that the offices would not *fully* reopen until July 1, 2021... so this remote, virtual world is our new normal.

Oh, and only a few weeks ago, I passed my one year Google-versary... what a wild year it has been!!

COVID Hits the Events Industry Hard

I know I have been slacking on my posts here, but during normal days, I am quite busy with the Events team at Google New York, along with my continuous freelance gig for Barclays Center TV; plus having a social life!

Anyway, life has drastically changed since my last post in November... both with (another) new role for FIRST Events at Google and this whole COVID-19 chaos. 

Firstly, I began working for FIRST Events on-site at Google New York as an Event Production Technician and quickly hit the ground running with lots of hands-on training and being thrown into operating the audio-visual equipment for their live events. Our Production team runs everything from controlling multiple robotic cams and TD/video switching, coordinating presentation decks and unique Google-specific graphics, as well as all the audio from setting up microphones for presenters and live mixing the show! Additionally, we often do some post-production edits to finesse and master the final file before exporting to the client.

As Google drastically expands their New York campus, so does our Event Production team. Once the staffing model was determined for the new expanded campus buildings, the leadership decided to transfer my role down to this campus! With my knowledge in multimedia management and digital signage, my new role will revolve around creating, coordinating, monitoring, and supervising the Digital Signage and Video/LED Walls around the new campus.

Unfortunately, COVID chaos hit us hard and all of our events were cancelled/postponed or moved digital. Due to this change, my new Multimedia/Digital Signage role has been put on hold, as well as gig at Barclays Center being paused - with no in-person events happening in the arena. During this quarantine time, all of my work has become focused in video training/tutorials and online courses; most of these courses revolve around certificate programs for the on-site equipment and specific workflows ranging from our ETC lighting boards, Ross video switchers, Telemetrics/Panasonic robotic cameras, Evertz routers, Shure and Dante audio systems, plus lots of internal Google protocols!