Industry Issues
Biz Talk: Mad Crazy Money
It was back to the future at CX Roadshow when I did an encore performance of my Crazy Money seminars from 2012. They were very popular then, and again this summer, pitched at small businesses that are the backbone of entertainment. Almost every freelancer is a small business, and we had plenty from all walks…
Read MorePassion and Money: the lo$$e$ I don’t regret
You’re looking at an Australian Monitor AM 1600 mosfet power amplifier, made by my firm and designed by Stuart McLean. Greg Hicks was the foreman at the factory we set up behind Graftons Sound and Lighting in Campbell street east Sydney in 1986. Hundreds of these still solider on, testimony to the brutal engineering.…
Read MoreKnockoff Gear: Melbourne Company Named
6 MARCH 2014 (Updated 7 March 2014 at end) When Steve Devine started a Facebook Group against Knock Off Equipment, he had no idea whether anyone was interested. They sure were, and now the Group (now administered by CX) has identified a Melbourne based importer offering fake Martin Audio loudspeaker and amplifier products, under the…
Read MoreWoeful Lightshow for The Radiators
It was a night off, a trip down that lane called memory with another memory, Karen my former wife. We share a like for retro rock and beer, so we headed to Asquith Leagues Club which is confusingly located in Sydney’s north at Waitara. The other werid aspect to all this is that we don’t…
Read More1,500 Event ‘Professionals’ tested on tech knowledge…..
The Event Leadership Institute in the USA tested 1,500 Event Planners for technical knowledge with an online test and found an average score of 48 out of 100. This shouldn’t surprise any AV tech working on the nervous coalface of corporate AV, but it needs improvement, since this was a survey of PROFESSIONAL planners who…
Read MoreCX Training Venture Fails – Again!
After a year CX has pulled the plug on a short course partnership with Chatswood venue The Concourse. Offering short and sharp live sound and lighting courses, each with a two day duration and selling under $300, the demand was disappointing. Previously Juliusmedia Group were associated with accredited courses run at Julius Events College in…
Read MoreTRADESHOWS TAKE (ALL) THE MONEY
(Picture: trade shows headed for life support? Actual exhibit at INTEGRATE 2013!) Our guest editorial in CX this month by Jason Allen makes the startling yet believable claim that total visitor time spent attending all three trade shows held in Sydney this year was worth $14,404,000. Jason says assuming your time is worth $800 a…
Read MoreWe are not LAME, says EEAA boss
Not long after CXtra went to air on CX-TV (HERE) with our editorializing about the forthcoming shift of all Sydney tradeshows to Glebe Island next year, we had a rocket call from Joyce DiMascio, CEO of the Exhibition & Event Association of Australasia (EEAA). (The item in contention is at 14.00 in the June edition…
Read MoreIndustry Training in terminal decline
Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses for the live production industry are winding up, with declining government support and almost no protest from the performing arts community. Led by the Victorian Government, TAFE courses for ‘creative’ industries are rapidly becoming up to 400% more expensive as subsidies are scaled back. This has fueled the cancellation…
Read MoreEmployee or Contractor: Are YOU Sham Contracting?
This from Phill, who runs a crew agency: Over the past couple of years, the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has increasingly been investigating instances of sham contracting under the Fair Work Act 2009. In a nut shell, sham contracting is where a worker is engaged as a contractor but is doing the same work, or…
Read MoreFreelance: How much $hould I charge?
How long is a piece of string? The key is how many hours a week and a year you can work. This is a great tool to help you decide: It lives at http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/ and it is currency agnostic. You just enter the unit of currency you want. I did a little example based on…
Read MoreThe Problem for Women in the Industry
By Jason Allen On International Women’s Day (March 8), I read an article by musician, producer and blogger Madeleine Bloom about her experiences working tech support at DAW company Ableton. Noticing only a very small percentage of people contacting her were women, she dug into the numbers for confirmation – only 7% of Ableton’s registered…
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