“How the Mobility Light Orchestra was Born ”

By Inigo Lopez, BiCortex Languages

How The Mobility Light Orchestra Was Born

It was in June 2022 during the EuRA conference in Seville, when Maximiliano Cao from CSM Globals and myself, Inigo Lopez from BiCortex Languages & Translations, started to imagine a band made of people from our industry that would play at Global Mobility conferences. We didn’t know then that The Mobility Light Orchestra (MLO) had just been born.

But what about the musicians? What about the instruments? What about rehearsals? What about sponsorship? There were far too many “what abouts” at that time!

We decided we should target the ERC conference in Vegas for our first show. We started to look for musicians in our industry. We found many that were going to attend ERC. However, nobody knew MLO (we didn’t even have a name at that time), and we couldn’t prove that we were any good! Timing didn’t help, as it was only a few months away from the conference date. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Eura Trusting Mlo

However, someone did listen to us: Sophie Rehberg, who was and is still on the EuRA board. We discussed a little bit at the marketplace of the ERC conference, with a glass of wine in our hands. A few weeks later, the email came: EuRA wanted us to play at the Gala dinner of the global conference in Dublin. This email felt even better than winning an RFP. Max and I were so excited!

“I immediately thought it was a great idea for the conference,”

Sophie told me, saying it was unanimously supported at the EuRA EG Meeting. “The coordination of the venue, the band, necessary instruments were a true team effort and we are thrilled it worked and can’t wait for next year.”

“The guys were so amazingly enthusiastic about it,” COO Dominic Tidey said. “The work that they put into making the evening such a special event was phenomenal from meetings and rehearsals to the night itself. The collaboration with our Production Team, the work they did to bring in other member volunteers just made for a great live experience. The feedback was amazing and we all really hope we can make this happen again in Portugal.”

Finding The Musicians

We had the drums covered (Max). What about the rest of the band? Easy, I thought. Let’s just contact the musicians we had identified for ERC. That was a natural step. However, many of them were not going to attend the EuRA conference. It was late November, and we were missing a number of key instrumentalists. We asked many people from our industry if they knew any musicians in Global Mobility - it seemed like a long shot. As a last resort, we thought about one of the LinkedIn gurus, Ken Nickel-Lane. He made a post asking for musicians that reached many people and one of our key players was recommended.

We finally had a band. The next step was to choose the songs and make everyone feel comfortable with them. This was a long process, many discussions, but with 110% involvement of all members. The “must have” song was Sweet Caroline. No doubt about it. A few weeks before the conference, the band got a name: The Mobility Light Orchestra, and a few days after, a logo and then a LinkedIn page

REHEARSALS: ONLINE VERSUS IN-PERSON

What about the rehearsals? Well, with people in MLO based in the UK, USA, Argentina, Spain and Germany, we couldn’t rehearse online, due to the sound delays over the internet. Each person was going to rehearse on their own, and we would have some time during the conference to do a proper rehearsal. It wasn’t easy - the proper rehearsal was very limited, as the room was used for the conference, and for each rehearsal (two in total, 2 hours each), we had to spend at least 30-60 minutes setting up the instruments and do sound tests.

“I probably sounded like ‘Dr. No’ on the zoom calls, and honestly I was a little worried,” confessed our keyboardist John D’Ambrogio. “No team practice; I knew no one; we didn’t know our abilities....and then BAM! at our ‘real’ practice 24 hours prior, everything gelled. I think it worked out better than anyone had hoped.”

“I must confess that I was in two minds about whether to commit to being a guest vocalist for the Mobility Light Orchestra,” our guest singer, Stuart McAlister explained. “I have sung in bands but not for more than 20 years. However, after meeting with Inigo and the band I realised how professional everyone is and whilst that didn’t make the prospect of singing in front of several hundred people any less scary, I felt confident that the band would be very strong and my only job would be to sing well. As it turned out I nearly lost my voice during the day of the concert, but I made it and absolutely loved the experience! Would I do it again? Just try to stop me…”

Our guest drummer, Alistair Murray, also felt under pressure: “I honestly can’t remember the last time I was that nervous when making my guest appearance with MLO. I’m absolutely fine with public speaking but that felt completely different. And yet, as soon as it was over, I just wanted to do it all again. A fantastic experience and one that I’m incredibly grateful to Inigo, Max and the band for. Such great fun.”

Max, who was our main drummer, said that innovative projects like this can provoke mixed emotions, “I believe that being a little insecure is normal. However, right after the first real rehearsal, I felt very comfortable with my colleagues. We went to an Irish bar and a lot of good vibes came to us... plenty of songs playing there, musicians on stage performing part of our set…, like a confirmation that we all were on the right path. It was amazing!”

The final result? Well, it took the crowd 10 seconds of the first song to be on the dance floor, non-stop, for the full duration of the performance, “I felt like I was a kid again, with big striped hair and parachute pants, playing the college bar scene,” said John.

Future Of Mlo

EuRA has shown great trust in us, and they have kindly confirmed that MLO will play at the next Global conference in Vilamoura. We really appreciate the support. We are already working on a few surprises for an epic performance!

Written by: Inigo Lopez

Bicortex Languages & Translations

MLO team (Dublin 2023):

• Inigo Lopez, BiCortex Languages & Translations (EMCEE)

• Diego Vozza (lead singer)

• Maximiliano CAO, CSM Global (drums)

• Christian Ward, Missing Link (bass)

• Gavin Carruthers, K2 Corporate Mobility (guitar and backing vocalist)

• John D'Ambrogio, Properties Chicago (keyboards)

• Luciano Basilico, virtually from Argentina (technical support and backing tracks)

• Stuart McAlister, Inter Relocation (guest singer)

• Alistair Murray, Packimpex (guest drummer)