Jim Digby: Formula E After Show Concert Senior Producer

JIM DIGBY, FORMULA E AFTER SHOW CONCERT SENIOR PRODUCER

AFTER A CAREER TOURING THE WORLD WITH ROCK BANDS, AMERICAN PRODUCTION VETERAN, JIM DIGBY, HAS SET HIS SIGHTS ON SOME SPECIAL PROJECTS. RECENTLY, HE UNDERTOOK THE FORMULA E AFTER SHOW CONCERT AS THE EVENT’S SENIOR PRODUCER & SHOW DIRECTOR. HE TELLS TPMEA ABOUT THE SAUDI ARABIAN PRODUCTION...

I was requested to take on the Show Director / Senior Producer role of the Formula E After Show Concert by colleagues in the region. Previously, I’d been in the area with some of the artists I’ve worked with over the years; coincidentally one occasion was with Linkin Park at the Formula 1 race in Abu Dhabi.

The experiences on each of those occasions were very positive and demonstrated an overwhelming ability to succeed that permeates the region.

For the Formula E project in Saudi Arabia, the entire event came about in a significantly compressed timeline. The first contact relating to the music event with Formula E was a mere 80 days from the first performance. Initially defined as a three-day festival with some of the world’s foremost bands, it was an enormous undertaking.

Fortunately, the Saudi stakeholders were aware of the challenges of the compressed timeline and empowered a fullcourt-press to succeed, and were prepared to move mountains to ensure success. Complete cooperation along the way with the full weight of the stakeholders was required and delivered to clear any obstructions to the processes. Early on, we collated the technical riders of the known committed artists at the time and began to design around their needs. With the help of Earlybird Visual we were able to homogenise the production requests into a festival rig that would satisfy the needs of the artists.

The greatest challenge with this project was the short delivery window; fortunately, everyone tasked with delivering the project was ‘in for the win’ and worked to meet the challenge from the very first moment, keeping in mind the actual ‘go’ orders to move equipment to the site came with less than 30 days to go! There was an undeniable driving attitude of ‘we can do this’ as the deadlines loomed, which played a huge part of creating the success, thankfully the spirit of collaboration and cooperation prevailed keeping us from losing ground. As obstacles arose, we acknowledged openly and positively the enormity of the demands and took measures to address concerns immediately and aggressively.

Long before we got the actual commitment, time was invested in face-to-face meetings with each of the regional vendors to discover concerns that might possibly impact the ability to succeed and the daily shrinking window of time.

To our great advantage, the supply chain was made up of many of the known and

successful providers in the region including: Show Makers as the Show Direction team, TESS for health and safety, PRG Gearhouse’s for lights, IMAG and LED, EFM’s freighting expertise, Delta Sound for audio, Grucci’s brilliant fireworks, Showsec for event security, Matrix Laser as SFX and laser supplier, ME I for backline, SSE Audio Group (out of the UK) for the artist’s audio rider, Gulf Crewing for labour, Blink for the race site activation, AES for staging, FAB for hospitality coordination, power suppliers Aggreko and

Earlybird for visuals.

Considering the scope and scale of the event, the regional challenges, the artist coordination and the short time to delivery it was an incredible team achievement with very few significant errors, that credit goes to the spirit of success that permeated all of the teams who came to win.

For me personally, confidence in the local supply chain was as high as it would be in the United States or anywhere else in the world - it’s clear that the major providers have matured

well in the Saudi region and are ready for any undertaking.

Early and important steps were made prior to any commitments preparing for the possibility of the event and many of those plans were executed exactly as forecast.

It’s also essential to give high accolades to the Formula E leadership team, they were incredible hosts, transparent and very much a catalyst of the ‘winning ethos’. Photos: AES and TPMEA