WHAT IS ENTECH COMMUNITY?’

Former Channels contributor Buck Freeman reunites with his editor Julius Grafton over a long-distance lunch to unpack this.

J: Been too long! What and where are you?

B: Lubbock Texas, college tour doing stage with The Wilts. It’s midday lay-day so late breakfast at Skooners Grill. Got an Austin Straight on ice. Chicken steak comin’. You?

J: 3am in Sydney, watching trash TV to stay awake. Cheese board and Chardonnay.

B: You asked me to grill you – no puns – on your latest ENTECH twist, the ‘Community’ thing. ENTECH started after we met – where? NAMM 91, I think?

J: Yes, it’s 30 this year. Let’s talk about our ilk, those who work with tech on shows. If you scratch most audio visual techs, workers on set, or in theatre, you’ll find bands were their college.

B: Indeed. Carry on.

J: ENTECH has a primary purpose: bringing buyers to sellers. Buyers are everyone who works with the tech. Sellers sell tech and solutions, like services as well as kit. The old idea is that a buyer has a big flashing light hat that says ‘money’. Wrong. Every tech is an influencer now. No rational buyer signs off on big dollars without asking the people who drive the gear.

B: I still go to NAMM and some of the other shows when possible. They have colour-coded badges for ‘buyers’ so I get sidelined as ‘just old crew’. Pisses me off.

J: We don’t code badges. The people we see getting ignored are sometimes female, which pisses ME off. Some sellers used to diss the churchies until they did the math on where their gear goes. Much as I love our exhibitors, there’s a small hard core of rump gristle who need to get into this century.

B: Community?

J: Kate and I hosted some info nights in April. It’s obvious to us that there are a lot of isolated people who work in our lane. Especially freelancers. They usually carry top skills but the people they work with on a show, season, tour, or project today are directly competing with them for work tomorrow.

I see the same thing on the floor at ENTECH. We have, by virtue of what we are, a level playing field where people network, and not just for the next gig or project or sale. Where else can you find ground zero like ours? You go to a product launch and – rightly – you’re the guest of the brand. ENTECH is Switzerland.

B: In my case I’m in a clique of crew working a known slew of clients. It’s less of the Squid Game, minus the millions, that the kids endure.

J: Kate and I want our audience to know that we know. We know the lows. Too many good people disappeared in the pandemic, got ‘real’ jobs paying weekly in multiples. Tech pay is lousy here; $30 to $40 an hour in a country where the national average wage is 100 grand or $57 per hour. And health outcomes are lousy due to unmoveable deadlines. The show goes on or the project opens on time. That’s it. You make it be. “Sleep when you die”, one manager told a crew.

ENTECH always champions those who support. That started right after our first show in 1994.

My mentor Roger Barratt died. On his death bed he asked me to run a Barratt Lighting Scholarship, and said it was provided for. With help of many, especially Roger’s then business partner Tony Davies, we sent a guy to London as Roger’s estate was bogged down. Then his executor/lawyer called me to say, “there is no scholarship in the will”. That ended it.

B: Executor and lawyer. Says it all.

J: We’ve had an open space policy for those who do the support work – ARCA, Crew Care, Support Act, Entertainment Assist, LPA, Tech Sisters – anyone. They get free space and publicity if they want it. So that’s one part of ‘Community’. The other is we’re running some free ‘Community Nights’ in June, to give back a bit.

B: Maybe get AA and some rehab shops too?

J: Well… ummm.

B: Mental health is a new thing in our timeline, right?

J: Yes, very much, as is also recognising and managing bullies and bad employers. They still exist and always will, now they’re just hiding behind a suit. I’ve met a few in the venue management biz over recent years too, which is why we won’t run our show at certain venues.

B: Well, best with that. My chicken steak is here, so I’ll jet. Love your work.

J: Have another A Straight!

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Register for ENTECH Community Nights at https://www.entech-roadshow.com/community

Sydney Tuesday June 11 – Royal Oak Hotel, 36A Curtis Road, Balmain, NSW 2041
Melbourne Tuesday June 18 – Harlow, 447 Church Street, Richmond, VIC 3121
Brisbane Tuesday June 25 – The Mix Bar, 765 Stanley Street, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102

ENTECH Road Show runs across NZ in August, and AU in October.

www.entech-roadshow.com