Speaker 1: 0:01

What's up? Denver Event Professionals? It's Jared Judge. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the Denver NACE podcast. I am joined here by a friend and colleague, someone who was one of the first people I met when I moved to Denver and joined NACE, which is Matt Palmer of ShowTech Events. Matt, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Yeah, thanks, jared. I appreciate you having me man. This has been a long time coming, obviously, but very excited for it and looking forward to our interview.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Awesome, me too. So first off, tell us a little bit about ShowTech Events. What is the company, what do they do and what do you do for ShowTech?

Speaker 2: 0:41

You got it, man, showtech Events is predominantly an AV or audio visual company. We specialize in mostly concert audio, but we've got a few other realms, obviously, that we can do, and I've been working on bolstering our ability to do different video type events with. You know, I've got some TV monitors, I've got projectors and screens, that kind of thing, and then we do lighting and decor as well. You know staging. We kind of encompass everything you could imagine almost within that AV field. And then we've been around for 17 years.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Showtech was founded by a couple gentlemen who were in a band together and they decided, hey, we can turn this into a profession as well, as you know, also still have fun playing music. The two things are definitely very intertwined. And yeah, 17 years later we've kind of undergone a little bit of a transition of sorts, and that involved me coming into the company about a year and a half ago and assuming most of the sales responsibilities. And then you know also a lot of the day to day stuff that goes on like hiring and you know payroll and all those types of things. So it's a I'm a man of many hats is how I describe myself to anybody that I'm talking to. So that's kind of the gist of where we are and how we got here.

Speaker 1: 2:19

That is awesome and, yeah, you sound like many people I've interviewed in the events industry You're the chief everything officer.

Speaker 2: 2:28

But I'm glad that's a common thing?

Speaker 1: 2:30

Oh yeah, we all do it all, from cooking, cleaning, doing all the dishes and so forth. Now you are the first person that I've interviewed that is in the production side of things, which is very exciting. I don't know about many of our listeners, but when I think of production, I think of like Red Rocks concerts with gigantic arrays of speakers, lights, smoke machines, lasers just shining everywhere. Is that kind of the excitement that you guys bring to private events?

Speaker 2: 3:05

Yes, and we do offer, like I do, a ton of concert series, so we have we have that element as well. But, yes, those are all things that we bring to private events and you know, really anything that we're given the opportunity to do, there's a lot of, a lot of glitz, glamour, excitement. Yeah, I am also asked for like more tone down. Like I can't do lasers at Shanahan steakhouse, you know, for a dinner. They definitely frown on that. So that's a little different thing. But, yeah, I mean, we do it all and we do it all with a smile, and you know we've got high standards, high expectations that we're striving for, and you know. But we want to make sure that we're tailoring what we're doing to each individual client and that's my commitment to the clientele.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Yeah, that's awesome. What's kind of like the elevator pitch for bringing in professional production. Why should they do that?

Speaker 2: 4:12

Dude, I don't even know if I have a dedicated elevator pitch, speaking on behalf, like as a person who came in from the outside. It's something that it seems feasible for you to do, but it's not like it's. I guess the best way to describe it is you know the like I can compare it to like an auto mechanic. Or you know somebody who does HVAC. Like you're paying us not for the necessary, like you know the three hours on site you're paying, you know for the experience to know what to do if something goes wrong. And inevitably you know there's going to be issues with audio, there's going to be issues with, you know projectors, the lenses, like there's a lot of finicky technology that we're dealing with.

Speaker 2: 5:05

And yeah sure, you know like a lay person can plug things in and you know, expect reasonably that they're going to work properly. But if they don't, how do you correct that? And that's you know, that's what we're, that's our expertise. You know we can not just figure out what went wrong but fix it in a very short period of time, so that even with issues popping up, we're still going to be set well in advance of when the event is supposed to start. And really unless the planner or like whoever is paying attention. No one's ever the wiser as to what's going on. There was you know, hey, how's everything going. It's like ah, it's fine, everything could be on fire, but there's no way they're going to know. So that's why you pay professionals to do production.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Oh, yeah, for sure, that's awesome. I loved the first thing that you said was, like sure, anybody could like plug in a speaker and hit play. But should you? Right? It's not just about preventing things that are going wrong, it's also about like freeing your mind up to the other tasks that your event has, which every event has a million moving parts, and you shouldn't have to worry about every single one of them. So that's super cool, yes, Awesome. So then you know, I think we have a pretty well educated audience, or at least they've all been around production equipment at some point or another. Can you get a little bit into the weeds about you know? What do you do as far as audio setups? What do you do as far as video setups?

Speaker 2: 6:42

So, like we call a junior PA system is like a couple speakers, a mixer, a mic. The speakers are on stands. Those are things that we're going to use for like a corporate dinner, you know, like a Shanahan's or a Perry Steakhouse or something like that. It's on the more basic side, and the other end of that spectrum is concert audio, where you've got you know multiple different types of speakers. You've got highs, you've got mids, you've got subwoofers which deliver the lows, and you've got you know different speakers depending on which band is playing. Like you know, they all want to hear their own mix and I mean I could get into the weeds on this, obviously, like Jared said, like you can go down a rabbit hole, so to speak, with all the different components that are involved. But if you picture, like Jared said, you want to Red Rocks, you know we're not on that scale per se. But if it's a 10 piece band, you know you've got you have 20 different speakers. You've got you know at least 10 mics. You've got a, you know like a 32 channel mixer, because all of this has to be plugged into a central sound board so that you know everything's getting, or all the sound is getting put out accordingly. And you know you may have to adjust the levels because one guy doesn't want to hear the same level of sound, as you know, say, the guitarist next to him. So the engineer that's in charge of this like they've got to be on point, you know, communicating effectively with each member of that band and giving them, you know, the exact sound that they're looking to hear. And it can get pretty intense, like I've witnessed a ton of different sound checks and, yeah, it's chaos and it's not always the most friendly interaction between people. So you've got to have some thick skin when you're doing this stuff too. So that's kind of the scope of the audio Video doesn't have the same range. You know we're doing like a 55 inch monitor with like a laptop and a couple speakers. Like that's kind of the more basic thing on the video side.

Speaker 2: 9:15

I had a show earlier this spring where we had two 14 by eight projector screens and you've got pipe and drape surrounding those or like a drape kit surrounding those. You've got laptops connected, you've got projectors set up behind those screens and because of spacing we had to do what's called a short throw lens. So you get the same type of picture but it's sitting much closer to the screens and then you've got like a switcher connected to that, so you've got a guy managing that he can see exactly what's on the screens. And then he's got like a bailout slide in case, you know, there's an issue with the presentation, so he can just switch over and like there's still something showing on the screens and people aren't sitting there going. Well, they have all this cool stuff set up and I can't see anything. So so, yeah, that gets pretty. I kind of dumbed it down, but that gets pretty complex too With all the different points involved.

Speaker 1: 10:14

That's awesome, and you just kind of spent three or four minutes going into the weeds and further selling everybody on. You should not do this yourself, which I think is it's perfect, because you really shouldn't do all this yourself. I see what you did there, thanks. Now you did it yourself. No, you mentioned having a sound engineer, and so for every one of the shows that you do, you know there's staff that comes along with this right. What does that? What does that typically look like? How many people and what are they doing? Because you know, I'm a musician, I work with sound engineers. I know how much goes into making me sound good, and I don't think everybody else knows. What do sound and video engineers do?

Speaker 2: 10:58

Right. So when, when equipment arrives, I'll have a couple guys. One of them might be sound or video engineer, depending on budget. Be all guys, unload, unload the truck, start setting things up and then, during that process, you'll have the sound slash video engineer. One or the other could be both if the show is large enough, or they'll kind of start setting up a lot of that more specific equipment and and making sure that they're getting that ready.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Well, you've got another you know guy or two like a stage hand or you know general tech, who's you know running wire, getting things plugged in, you know, to the power source, while these, you know the more experienced specialized technicians, are getting the, getting the video or getting the, the mixing board set up and making sure that Everything that is supposed to be working is working. So, and then Once people start arriving, you know you've got to test. You know all the different sound. If you've got instruments, you've got musicians, you've got mics, like, you've got to dial all that in, make it all blend together or mix it. And then on the video side, you know you may have to tune the lenses. You've got to test content. Nobody gets us content on time.

Speaker 2: 12:26

A lot of the time you get a day of show and it's like, well, yeah, it's PowerPoint presentation, guarantee it's gonna work. Not necessarily if that PowerPoint was built on, you know, like a Microsoft platform or something like that. And you know we use a lot of Macs because of a variety of reasons. I don't want to get into that because people are so, you know, like loyal to certain brands, but we use a lot of Mac technology and you've got a format it. You've got to make sure that any embedded audio comes out and is audible, because if not, I mean that doesn't do anybody any good. You can't hear what's going on in the video that's in the presentation. So, yeah, there's a ton of this, there's a ton of stuff that goes into these productions. And, and again, jarrett, to your point, I'm hoping I'm reinforcing, like why you know you really not that you couldn't, but you really don't want to take this on. Just let us do it.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Yeah, no for sure. Well, thanks for explaining all that stuff. I know that a common issue that happens at a lot of events is feedback. So feedback from the microphones I mean I probably hear this at one in five events that I attend is just some Mike squeals at some point. Sir, why does that happen and how could that be prevented or fixed?

Speaker 2: 13:52

so microphones are Are on a frequency and they're subject to interference, which is unfortunate. There are some mics that are no longer able to be sold because they're they're on the same frequency as, like, the emergency platform. Not that people don't still use them, because they are out there, you can get them. But as far as feedback goes, there's frequency, there's, you know, there's other signals that are in the area that are interfering If people are standing too close to a speaker, if people are standing in front of the speaker, like it's all a, it's a spacing game.

Speaker 2: 14:29

You've got a, you got a, you know. And this is where, again, where we come into play, because we can tell the person who's on the mic. Like, you know, don't cross this imaginary line, you know, don't go over here, don't go over there. We're mindful of that. And, and you know, unfortunately, like mics are finicky, especially those, those little lavaliers that are cool, they're a low profile, I know, they're easy to conceal, but you know, those things are temperamental, and More so than regular mics. But yeah, it's just, there's a lot of things that you've got to take into account when you're setting these things up and and yeah, it's, it's a complex thing.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Yeah, that's awesome. So I'm curious how did you Figure all this stuff out? How did you get involved in sound and video production side of things?

Speaker 2: 15:23

so my my prior career was in the financial industry and the gentleman that did found this company, along with his then partner about five years ago, were relying on me for a lot of their banking needs.

Speaker 2: 15:39

You know company growth, you know that kind of thing. And once the banking industry kind of experienced its turmoil on the On the heels of the pandemic sort of it was like early 20, 21 he and I ran into each other and kind of told him about my, my transition, and he's like, hey Well, you know, I could really use someone to do sales and you so I don't know anything about AV outside of the little experience I have with home audio and car audio. And he's like, ah, it's fine, like he didn't know anything about banking when you started. I was like, yeah, that's true, ok, good call. So I've learned a lot in a short period of time. But yeah, it was certainly almost by accident that I came into this and I'm fortunate to have gotten to know a lot of people that have been doing different parts of AV for 10, 20, 30 years in some cases, and I try my hardest to learn quickly and as much as possible so that I can effectively be with clients and ultimately offer them solutions to what they're looking for.

Speaker 1: 16:54

Yeah, that's awesome. I always hold 100% the philosophy that you can learn anything if you try. So you're living proof that that's the case. And the audience? Yeah for sure. And audio I'm like an amateur audio person myself, like I run my own sound, which I probably shouldn't, as I've learned on this podcast. But it is super fun, like messing around with all the dials, plugging stuff in, changing up the effects. So it's super fun to learn all that.

Speaker 2: 17:27

Well seeing, you're learning a ton by playing with all that on your own. You know Exactly.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Yeah, that's huge Sweet. Well, so this is the Denver Nays podcast. How did you get involved in our Nays chapter here?

Speaker 2: 17:45

So the founder and his partner he's still in the industry or his former partner he branched out into a different company. So he and I still speak on almost a daily basis, which is kind of funny. But they both stressed the importance of making connections and being a part of Nays and kind of getting your name out there and all those things. And so I went to like my first one was June of 22. And yeah, I was like man, this is cool. You know, you run into different people like Jared, with different backgrounds, who you know. Jared and I come from the same awesome place, wisconsin.

Speaker 2: 18:29

But yeah, you run into a variety of different people who, have you know, are all over the spectrum of the events industry and they've all got, you know, different perspectives and all that stuff. And you know, and I mean being so new, I'm a sponge. I mean I'll tell people, you know a challenge that I'm having or something like that. The best example is earlier this spring I told someone that I was having issues with hiring and like retention and stuff like that, and she's like you ever thought about posting on Indeed? No, definitely not, because when I had, you know, to staff my previous business, someone did that for me. You know they'd send me, you know, names or whatever, and I just had to make some phone calls If that, like a lot of times, it was just hey, you have an interview, cool, thanks, you know, like super hands off until the end of the process. And now it's like I got to source this myself.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Chief everything officer, as we said, before Chief everything officer, exactly, you know. So it's like, well, that's, I would have never thought of that without you know, that conversation that I had with her at an ace meeting and, bam, you know, I found a dozen people that I've added to the team over the last call of four months or so.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Yeah, so we had a much more productive and effective summer than we did last year, where it seemed like, you know, every week was a fire drill. So, yeah, I owe her a huge amount of gratitude.

Speaker 1: 20:02

That's awesome. Do you mind mentioning who that was that gave you that idea? I want to say it was Barney. Awesome. We just had Bonnie on the podcast last week. Oh, terrific.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Okay, good, hopefully she hears this.

Speaker 1: 20:17

I'm sure she will. Well, that's great. What are some of the other cool things that you've done at NACE? Maybe some of your favorite events, things like that?

Speaker 2: 20:26

Oh, friends fundraiser was fantastic. That was really cool. That was the first like big. Well, I'll not take that back. That was the second large gathering that I had been to. The other really cool one was at the Slate Hotel. That was last. I think that was last summer, like August or something. But yeah, those were both really really cool. Met a few people who I had heard about because they were already, you know, clients and but I hadn't yet met them because I was so new. So that was kind of interesting. But yeah, it's, they're both at unique venues. I want to say, friends, was that at the Denver Art?

Speaker 1: 21:12

Museum. Yeah, that was, that was the one that I played at.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Okay, yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, that's okay. That might have been where I met you too. I think it was. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, those two are my favorite by far. I mean unique places. The Denver Art Museum is, I mean, widely regarded as like one of the coolest art museums in the entire country. So, you know, getting the chance to spend an evening there and they gave us free admission, so I got to check out some of the exhibits beforehand and, yeah, that was just a really cool experience. And plus it's Friends theme slash like nineties. I mean you can't go wrong. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 21:49

You know, that's you kind of mentioned like an interesting thing about the events industry that I hadn't really thought about before, which is like the people in the events industry, in their own way, are kind of like celebrities, right, because you said you had heard about these clients, you've worked with them in the past, but you've never had a chance to meet them. Yeah, and being in the events industry is one of the insiders. It's like you get to meet and work with all of these really high profile people like chefs and company owners and basically celebrities, which I think is pretty cool. Never thought about it that way before. No, that's interesting.

Speaker 2: 22:28

I hadn't either, until you connected the dots like that.

Speaker 1: 22:31

Yeah, well, that's awesome. So I guess would you recommend joining NACE to anybody who is listening to this and is not currently a member.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Oh, absolutely, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the board. No, it's cool. I mean, networking is where it's at and it does require patience, it does require a consistent presence at our monthly functions. But I mean, even just the conversation I had with Bonnie about just telling her just casually about how much of a struggle I was having with hiring Like there's a ton of value just in that. So those are things that you're just not going to get if you're not going.

Speaker 2: 23:23

I mean, we're all in this together and I love that people are so willing to offer guidance, especially to someone like myself who's very well versed in business as a whole but not so well versed in the events industry and kind of the like. Every challenge that I encounter is a new one. It's like like staffing from a macro perspective. It's like, yeah, I had that issue in the past too, because hiring people is not easy. But, man, when you're livelihood depends on finding someone, like almost immediately, because it's about to be the crazy season. Like that's tough, but everybody can relate to it, you know. So they're happy to offer insight, guidance, ideas, encouragement. All that stuff goes a long way. But again, you're not going to get those kinds of things if you're not going.

Speaker 1: 24:17

Yeah, that's very true. Have you ever read Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill?

Speaker 2: 24:25

I have read that.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Yes, what you just said reminded me of one of the principles inside it, which is the formation of a mastermind, and you know, if you haven't read it, you know the idea behind a mastermind is just bring together a group of people and collectively the power of their mind is greater than the individual brains inside of it, which naces kind of like a mastermind for the events industry, which is pretty cool because you could just be complaining about something but then get a solution to a problem that's been bugging you for months, and I think that's really cool.

Speaker 2: 25:04

That's an awesome analogy and I will have to read that book again.

Speaker 1: 25:10

Yeah, it's kind of hard to read, it's a little more old-fashioned, but like, the principles are amazing.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Well, totally yeah. I mean it's definitely a learning experience, for sure. I'm surprised that was a book that was definitely heavily discussed in the financial industry. I was not expecting to hear that from someone in the events industry.

Speaker 1: 25:32

He knows you, jared. Thank you, I'm just full of surprises. One last question, or maybe one question before we wrap up. You mentioned you're on the board for our chapter. What is your position? I am on the fundraising committee. That is awesome, and what made you get into that position?

Speaker 2: 25:53

You know I wanted to make a difference and I wanted to learn ultimately. So, you know, I just felt like, hey, you know this is a great way to do both, because and you know, if you're going to encourage people to join NACE, I mean it certainly helps to have, you know, an elevated role. You know kind of put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. But you know that's met some great people and it's been a cool experience and it's been a short period of time. But yeah, I was like you know I love learning stuff and you know why not Like this is so far out of like my comfort zone that you know I'd be foolish not to try.

Speaker 1: 26:45

Yeah, that's awesome, super inspirational and clearly to me that's a testament of the power of NACE and the networking opportunities that affords is if you love a group so much that you decide to become a leader within that group, like that is the biggest stamp of approval that I could see. So props to you and yeah, for sure, Anything, any questions that I didn't ask or things that you feel our audience should know about you?

Speaker 2: 27:13

Showtech or NACE Um geez, you would ask me something tough right at the end. I mean as far as. As far as NACE goes, like I mean everybody that I've met is fantastic, and I mean it's a little intimidating joining something, especially when you're like brand new to what you're doing, and it's like man I hope nobody asked me much because I'm not going to have adequate answers, but everybody's so welcoming and friendly, it's, you know, it's like okay, like you know, after a year of going to the, you know the monthly gatherings, it's, it's, it's cool, you know it's, it's a, they're all positive. I mean it's, it's more than just like hey, you know we're going to whatever on a you know Tuesday night. It's, it's almost like a family at this point. So which is fantastic. And what should people know about me?

Speaker 2: 28:21

Or Showtech man, I just love, I love helping people and it's, it's, I mean it's fun, like I get a lot of, I get a lot of fulfillment out of, out of working with people and you know the collaboration kind of thing and I know a lot of what we do is stressful, but you know I try to make make the whole experience as stress free and enjoyable as possible and you know I'm committed to that, showtech's committed to that, and you know I I enjoy challenges.

Speaker 2: 28:56

You know I'm not going to. You know, get, get out of my my area of expertise, but but I'm committed to helping people figure out a way to make things happen and, you know, at the same time working within their budget so that it's you know they're getting what they expect. But but I can tailor it to, you know, also not be like a costly endeavor, and that's you know, that's one of the biggest challenges for people is like, you know they want the world and they're like, oh wow, did not realize this was going to be that expensive. And it's like, well, you know, we, we can scale it down a little bit. You're still going to. You know your audience is still going to be blown away, but you know you're not going to be paying champagne money for it. So you know you kind of find a sweet spot for people and that's that's my specialty.

Speaker 1: 29:43

So that's awesome, very cool. Well, where could listeners of our company or listeners to our podcast find out more about your company?

Speaker 2: 29:51

All right, the website is wwwgoshowtechcom, and that's G OS H O W T E K.

Speaker 1: 30:00

That is awesome. Well, thank you so much, matt. This has been Matt Palmer of ShowTech Events and this has been another amazing episode of the Denver Nays podcast. If you're interested in learning more about our chapter of Nays, go to nasedenvercom. That's N? A C E stands for National Association for Catering and Events. N A, c, e, d, e, n V E R dot com. All right, thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great rest of your season.