PSA: A Month in the Life

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

A MONTH IN THE LIFE

PSA rounds up a busy month of meetings...

Meetings, we go to a lot of meetings, we also have meetings to discuss what went on at all the meetings and what we have to do to get beneficial outcomes for our industry from all the bloody meetings. This month, we thought it might be fun and cathartic to look back at November’s diary and give a little synopsis of some of the meetings we’ve been to, especially the ones we’re not allowed to talk about.

BORING THE NEXT GENERATION Mum, Dad, I’m going to be a sound engineer, say several dozen people every year. Some of them enrol on courses, some really good courses that teach real, practical skills. DbS, formerly in Plymouth but now in Bristol, has been doing that for a good few years now. As part of their professional practice module, the PSA’s GM pops in once a year to deliver a guest lecture on ‘Professionalisnm and How Trade Associations Can Help’. Not one line is checked, not one fader is moved, as students spend an hour being dazzled by facts, figures, practicalities and, well, all the other stuff they never knew they needed to know but now they do know they won’t have to learn the hard way. STANDARDISING THE BORING BITS

Are you creative? Are you a manager? Are you an entrepreneur? None of them are exclusive; you can be all 3, apparently. Thing is, out there in the world of creativity, there are people who don’t realise that they have the management or entrepreneurial potential to help grow the industry.

At least, that’s what the British Council and its partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and the UK think, which is why they put together Live Skills, a project which aims to design and pilot a series of original learning programmes for professionals and people looking to develop a career in the Audiovisual and Live Performance sectors, the programmes are designed to fill skills gaps already identified by research in the 4 partner countries, namely management, marketing and entrepreneurialism.

The PSA was asked to sit on the advisory group, looking at the work of those developing the programmes and offering insight and suggestion for both development and deployment. This month, this involved a dash to the lovely city of Sofia to spend and afternoon critiquing their work before leaving the working groups to pick up the pieces. Our advice is, if you’re going to be on a group, be on an advisory group. Liveskills.eu is where you can learn more about the project. INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

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Off the plane from Sofia, straight to Wakefield and Production Park for the third Production Futures event, and what an event it was.

Take several hundred students and recent graduates, mix in a few employers looking to fill vacancies expand their subcontractor pool, add a programme of on-stage interviews with key industry figures, season with a programme of hands on technical sessions and career development advice and you have the recipe for a phenomenal event, both engaging and encouraging for everyone involved. Rounding the day off with a Burrito from on-site caterers Rockpool Tour Catering seemed to go down well too.

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE NEXT GENERATION We’re also quite keen on protecting the interests of the current generation, keeping healthy and safe is key to that aim and love ‘em or loath ‘em, the Health and Safety Executive are charged with ensuring we do just that, by HM The Queen, no less. To that end, we, other associations, unions and large employers from the entertainment sector get round a table under the name of the HSE’s Joint Advisory Committee for Entertainment (JACE).

This month’s meeting was interesting and enlightening, especially the presentation on the machinery directive that kind of suggested that many of the moving elements in shows should be classified as machines and tested as such, something that’s not currently happening. Topics discussed included workplace stress, accident reporting and casual labour. We’re now roped into presenting our work on improving our approach to mental health, we also mentioned the work we’d done with crew companies in producing a guide to using casual labour, a document that is now getting the HSE once-over. Someone did mention chairing a guidance committee, GM ducked that one.

Seriously though, JACE does give us great insight into areas of work and enforcement by the HSE, it’s no accident that we’ve developed tools and guidance to help our members improve in the areas of focus. You may even remember this column a couple of months ago covered accident reporting and the design of forms to make it easier and more effective; the author is no progressing towards the development of online systems that we can adopt and host.

It’s great that the entertainment sector has an open, constructive (usually) rapport with the HSE, but it’s equally important to have the opportunity to discuss safety related matters amongst ourselves. That’s exactly what happened at the Safety Advisors’ Group for Entertainment (SAGE). This is a room full of safety advisers from venues, production companies, trade bodies, TV and film that gather to exchange information, concerns and tips on all manner of safety related issues, with conversation straying beyond the jurisdiction of HSE into public safety. This month’s meeting gave fascinating insights into many areas, especially the increase in threats to staff at theatre shows, who’d have thought it? One to keep eyes on for the future

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

is the notion that security measures should become a legal requirement, with agencies looking at which current regulations could be added to; way down the line but something that we’re all keeping an eye on.

SCANNING THE BREXIT HORIZON We have very little to say about a move that could have profound effects on our members, that’s because we are, literally, sworn to secrecy every time we are called to discuss Brexit. All we can say is that some very hard working, very clever people have your interests in mind while agreements are written, deals negotiated and all possible outcomes and their impacts are assessed and minimised. We are one of the channels through which information will be disseminated.

IT’S NOT ONLY ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BUT… If your business is reliant on live music, whatever the genre, it’s helpful to have a healthy, thriving live music industry from which you can derive an income. Key to that aim is UK Music and its Live Music Group, of which we are a founder member. They are the key to political representation for every trade body within the core live music sector, they are responsible for some key legislative protections such as the Agent of Change amendment to planning laws, protecting live venues from licensing challenges from new neighbouring developments. This month’s meeting revolved around the DCMS Live Music Enquiry, yes they have been talking about things other than the B word, as well as the development of a funding pipeline for Grassroots Music Venues.

We’ll be hanging around after the Live Group meeting to take our seat at the UK Music Skills Board, another talent pipeline clearance initiative, working from protecting music education in schools to promoting the full breadth of careers available within the music industry.

IT’S NOT ONLY MUSIC If UK Music is the lobbying voice for the music side of our business, then the Business Visits and Events Partnership does the same for the corporate world. Another effective association of associations, BVEP does great work in encouraging Government to sell the UK as a destination for business events, with the PSA there to remind all that our talented pool of design and technical abilities is a big part of that sales pitch. We meet this month to discuss the future structure and funding of BVEP, as well as feed into the agenda of the Events Industry Board, a government/ industry board that shares the aims of BVEP.

And there’s the snapshot of not-quitea-month of meetings that we squeeze in between phone calls, admin and, well, action points from all the meetings. Next up is a jaunt across the pond to catch up on the work of the Event Safety Alliance, and a PSA Council meeting to make sense of all the meetings and work out who’s going to attend the next lot. TPi www.psa.org.uk

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