Show up trained.
Get to work.

My time in live events started about 17 years ago in the Brighton club scene, working sound and lights while cutting my teeth with a local crew company pushing flight cases around the Brighton Centre and loading trucks for touring bands. I eventually went freelance in the corporate sector as an audio tech. In those early days, I learned by making my mistakes, using those challenges to expand my skillset into video and graphics. Over nearly two decades, that experience grew into senior roles. Today, I'm regularly booked for A1 Audio, Video Tech, and Technical Project Management work by production houses across the UK and Europe.

For me, the industry is as much about the people as the gear. It's a brilliant, highly social world where I've made lifelong friends. That's why I founded OK.Standby: to teach the trade, pass on what I've learned, and help the next generation find their feet so we can keep this industry an amazing place to work in.

After studying film production at college and university, I started my career in the AV industry working in the video and vision departments in 2011. During this time I would work as the sole representative of the company or as part of the larger AV team to deliver events to the best technical standard. I specialise in all things video, notably video switching, including Barco systems, projection and cameras.

I am a certified Barco Event Master technician, having attended their training at their head office in Belgium. I have also trained in Christie, Analog Way and other video systems.

I went freelance in 2019 and have continued to grow my skillset since, working on jobs that range from the smallest conference rooms to some of the largest venues across Europe.

I have now worked in live events in some form for over twenty years. I fell into the industry by pure chance. OK.Standby is an opportunity to introduce the live events and AV industries to a new audience and show it's a viable and exciting industry to be part of. It is also a great chance for existing members of the industry to learn new skills and broaden their reach.

I began my career with a degree in Animation before finding my way into live events in 2010, starting on cables and gradually working up into visuals, system schematics and CAD.

From there, I was introduced to disguise in its early days, completed official training and moved into media servers, which became my gateway into the wider world of video. Since then, I've developed experience across switching, playback, signal flow, Barco Event Master, presentation graphics in PowerPoint and Keynote, and speaker preview/content management, as well as completing training with PIXERA.

I went freelance in 2021 and now specialise across live event video, media servers, graphics and content workflows.

I joined OK.Standby because my own route into the industry showed me just how hidden it can be. So many people simply don't know these careers exist, and I want to help change that by giving the next generation of technicians a clearer, more practical route into the industry.

I started working in the industry in the early-mid 90s, going to work with my dad who worked for the BBC, working as assistant runner, cable basher for the dolly cameras, coffee maker, general help. I was lucky enough to work on several high-profile shows from the Last Night of the Proms through to the Royal Tournament as other in-between. This experience gave me a good understanding of fast-paced, high-pressure environments.

I went on to college to do industry-specific training.

On leaving college, I chose to go into theatre rather than TV, as I preferred the live audience reaction to working on film shoots with no live audience.

I went on tour with a couple of West End shows as a lighting tech before settling down to full-time roles in various theatres over the years, doing every role from follow spots, lighting, audio and stage management, ending up as senior tech and then technical manager.

I decided I needed a new challenge and started moving over to the corporate sector, working full-time for a number of companies over the years in various roles, from general tech working my way up to project manager. Having done that for many years, and having the opportunity of being in charge of multiple high-profile events every year in the UK and Europe, I decided I needed a bit of a break and chose to go freelance while I decided what to do next. This came along in the form of Senior Technical Producer, another full-time role I have, along with my involvement in OK.Standby.