Access All Areas Supplements The Next Generation Supplement | Page 11

NOVEMBER 2018 | THIRTY
The thirty
Ryan Hilson, Collective
Festivals
Luke Jackson, PRG
I was born in Albania and immigrated
to the UK when I was three years old.
I love living in London, it is one of the
busiest and most vibrant cities in the world. I also
frequently travel back to Albania to visit family
and friends, which has given me the opportunity
to experience two completely different cultures.
I began working in events at the age of 16,
when I joined Shocklogic as an apprentice, in
a junior software developer role. Shocklogic
has been my tech haven for the duration of my
career and continues to allow me to run with my
imagination.
Now, at 23, I am a senior software developer at
Shocklogic. I believe that I have found my place in
this industry, surrounding myself with innovative
and like-minded people.
I have helped to lead the modernisation of
many products at Shocklogic, pioneering the
company to move away from monolithic to
microservice architecture, allowing us to rapidly
expand our systems, all in the best interest of our
clients.
My favourite events are festivals. Music festivals
have a talent for bringing people together, and
creating an experience like no other, for not only
the attendees but all involved - from the techies
to the organisers. That’s what this industry is all
about. Working in PRG’s Production Technicians
Team since early 2010, Jackson’s new role sees
him working for Rich Gorrod as part of the team
representing PRG onsite at many of the tours,
festivals, special events and television shows that
the team support.
Rich Gorrod commented: “It’s great to see
talent progressing through the company - the
skills and experience Luke continued to develop
as a PRG production technician will be valuable
as we take on the challenges of some amazing
events over the coming months.”
Jackson added: “It’s great to be working with
Rich, Gordon, Sam and Ben and to be part of
some of the most exciting events PRG support.
2012 is going to be an incredible year and having
studied at the Brit School, I’m excited to be
starting my new role working on this year’s Brit
Awards Ceremony at the O2.”
Main stage lighting crew chief Luke Jackson
explained the logistics of lighting a major festival
like BST Hyde Park: “There’s a lot of work that
takes place before you see the band on stage.
The headline acts load in and out overnight,
with the smaller ones either utilising the ‘house’
rig, or adding their lighting/video requirements
supplementary to the headliners. Obviously, the
current night’s main act needs to load out of the
stage before the next one can load in, so our teams
are literally working all through the night. Even
when the lighting and video hardware is hung, the
data needs to be flashed through, and tweaks to
existing programming made. The night shift will
then hand over to a team of lighting technicians
covering the daytime, until they clock back on.”
My previous experience stems from
working within the charitable sector.
Working for the 16-21 age range
of The Woodcraft Folk, a national charity
based around equality, hard work, youth
empowerment and political engagement, gave
me a deeper understanding of how events
can educate and engage people in a safe and
supportive environment, which in turn really
built my passion for positive, meaningful event
management. While there I performed roles
as an event manager, vice chair and treasurer,
allowing me to directly organise or oversee a total
of 21 events. Unsurprisingly this led to a lot of
highlights and fond memories, but what I’m most
proud of has to be booking Natalie Bennett to join
local MPs for our very own question time, she
made a brilliant addition and you could really feel
the passion for politics grow among the attendees
after seeing such an inspirational figure speak
about topics we all hold close to our hearts.
As event managers we have a unique
opportunity to engage our audiences. Because of
this fact we have a duty to explore social issues and
ensure our events are at the forefront of promoting
change. I believe we are seeing this already as
more events commit to solving issues of gender
diversity and sustainability, and I predict this
ethos will only grow moving forward. Festivals
will likely become smaller and more community
led in a way that should help prove our value
while making a truly positive impact to our
communities.”
Mario Husha, Shocklogic