Exhibition crew in Essen Messe

Skilled English speaking crew in the heart of North Rhine-Westfalia

The Essen Exhibition and Congress Centre is one of Germany’s leading trade exhibition venues, hosting 70+ events a year the Messe attracts over 1.5 million visitors annually. Stagehands.net has recent been catering to many project in the venue and continues to work closely with event organisers to staff the many trade shows throughout the year.

English speaking hands are often requested to assist clients and crews in the venue. Stagehands.net has multilingual crew available upon request and often caters for these international events.
After working in the venue so often, the crew are also able to provide some insight in the layout and operation of the exhibition centre, insight that can prove invaluable for clients during stressful builds.

This kind of local knowledge and familiarity helps provide a smoother and stress free event for all of the clients coming to the venue. As long as the truck isn’t late..

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(picture: By EnergieAgentur.NRW [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Eurovision song contest in the spotlight!

What does it take to put on the biggest song contest in the world?

 

The Eurovision is watched the world over, with an audience of over 200 million worldwide and thousands more in attendance, there is no doubt that it is a huge undertaking for the production staff involved. This year’s 62nd instalment was no different, with another show full of ridiculous and eccentric entries we have all come to expect.

It’s a huge event; but it’s also the sheer number of different stage designs that take such an immense amount of planning. With each country putting on a unique, and usually explosive, performance, careful consideration has to be given to the requirements of each contestant as well as the show as a whole. This means thousands of lights and screens, literally hundreds of kilometres of cables, endless speakers, pyrotechnics and cameras, along with an entire division of technicians, runners, riggers, drivers, operators and of course, stagehands!

Some entries are intimate, slow performances with single spotlight on a woman in a ball gown with some dry ice at her feet..usually with some visuals of ice or some birds. Others are great explosive affairs with whole dance troops running around dressed as horses in tuxedoes or waving unrelated colourful flags! Either way, they are all a different challenge for the staff involved.

We want to acknowledge the effort made by our colleagues across the industry and say a big congratulations to everyone that helped build the 2017 Eurovision. It was a great show, we saw it from here in Berlin and we liked it so much we wrote an article about it!
If you are planning a show like Eurovision, stagehands.net can even provide local crew in the Ukraine, so give us a call today..or email us, its 2017 after all.
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(picture:By Frédéric de Villamil from Paris, France (The main stage before the second semi final) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Côte d’Azur- Hiring hands!

After a recent surge of crew request in the area, French regional manager Cormac O’Neil has visited Cannes to meet new crew members and expand the stagehands.net presence in the area.
The effort to strengthen the team in the region will allow stagehands to cater to bigger project and in more locations than before. The crew will now extend beyond Cannes, Marseille, Monaco and Nice into the rural areas of the country.

“The goal has always been to provide a quality service for our clients. Finding extra bodies is easy, but it is important to have a strong, committed team if we want to keep providing that quality” Said Cormac on finding new crew.
The Stagehands.net network is always growing, but this bolstering, of an already popular area, will help the team to moving forward in more ways that you might expect. New members working will only provide more expertise and experience to the team, the sharing of tricks of the trade will create a stronger, more reliable, happy and hardworking crew, which will benefit the clients they serve!

If, like most people given the chance, you would like to work in the south of France or if you need a highly trained team of stagehands to help you in an upcoming project…let us know!

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(picture:http://wwwBy Moody Dreiza (Moody751 at English Wikipedia) (Own work) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons.urlaubstadt.com/cote-dazur/cote-dazur-1/)

Sun, Sea and Stagehands!

As the Sun finally comes back to Europe and Spring breathes life back into nature, the Stagehands crew are revitalized and ready for the season ahead.
The sun brings with it a busy time in the events industry; fashion weeks, launch parties, parades and even the start of the festival season are just a few of challenges for the event staff spread across the continent.
The stagehands team have already had some fun in the sun, the Paris crew made an appearance in Disneyland this week and the Berlin crew at the premier of a new movie in the cities prestigious Sony Centre. Our Turkish crew has also been in action in the always sunny Antalya this month, providing technical support to shops in the countries capital.

Working in venues and locations like this gives the crew vital experience and expertise to be used in all projects throughout the season, what a crew may learn when setting up barriers for the Paris Marathon, they may put in practise at the Monaco Formula 1 or a truck loading tip from Lollapalooza may save the day at La Tomatina.
With countless festivities set to take place over the coming months, this versatility and experience will prove a vital part of the stagehands.net service. Whether its Stockholm pride or the infamous Cooper’s hill Cheese rolling, local crew can provide insight and knowledge money can’t buy…message us today for a quote!
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(Picture: stagehands.net crew, Berlin)

Working Language English?

Stagehands.net has a global network.
Providing support staff to locations all over the world, as you can imagine, often involves working in many different languages and terminologies. English is the obvious go-to dialect for most international crews working together, but what happens when a crew doesn’t share English, just how many languages can the stagehands crew speak and just how important is a multilingual crew?

Well, the Stagehands.net crew in Berlin alone can speak over 20 different languages, including; Norwegian, Portuguese, Greek, Icelandic, Turkish and Russian among many others. The linguistic diversity of the crew has proven to be hugely important to the service they provide.
Having even one member of the local crew being able to speak your mother tongue makes a project a far more comfortable experience for everyone involved. There is nothing worse on a stressful show than having to consult Google translate before shouting at the new French guy for forgetting his safety boots. ((Disclaimer: our French speaking crew and all other French nationals in the industry are highly skilled and would, I imagine, never make such an unforgivable error))

Having a crew that can speak the local language and a working language (often English) is one thing, but having a multilingual network of technicians and stagehands means being able to cater to all needs and overcome some barrier that would otherwise cause difficult on a building site.
The diversity of the crew grows with the industry, and as long as the world needs event hands, it will continue to grow.

Stagehands.net- Now you’re speaking my language.

(Picture: Stagehands.net Paris crew in full working clothes…including boots)

A HAPPY ENDING FOR CISCOLIVE!

The final days of CiscoLive saw over 200 of the stagehands.net and its partners crew on site. With the event drawn to a close the production team was left with only a few days to pull down more the stages, lighting fixtures, projectors, truss, loud speakers and lecterns than you can shake a ratchet strap at.

This mammoth task was achieved with a combination of fantastic planning, hard work and above all, teamwork. Working alongside UK crew Showforce, among others, the team was able to facilitate a smooth load out for all.
After a short break and with the end of CiscoLive 2017, the stagehands.net team and crew look forward to the coming spring and beyond.

Stagehands would like to extend a huge thank you to all crew, suppliers and partners that were involved in this year’s CiscoLive!
We hope to see you all again soon!

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(picture:Stagehands and Showforce crew finish work)

Production days for Cisco Live!

After a week of long days and hard work, Cisco Live 2017 is ready to receive visitors!

The exhibition is once again being held in Messe, Berlin this year and once again stagehands.net are providing show support throughout. With upwards of 50 crew on site a day, and up to 150 for days still to come, preparing the Messe’s vast halls has been a testing time for the crew and the organizers. Working closely with partners both foreign and domestic, the multi lingual crew have provide a range of services as well as playing arbitrator between local technicians and English speaking crew.

Cisco Live opened its doors today with a packed program for the thousands of delegates in attendance. The various arenas will be in use, among many other things, for workshops, keynote speakers, breakout sessions and exhibiting new technologies, all these events require the crew to be on hand for changeovers and maintenance. With plenty more to come from Cisco this week the stagehands.net team will meet the challenge.

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(photo: Stagehand.net in City Cube Berlin)

Stagehands.net gets a taste of Europe’s High Fashion Scene!

The Stagehands team are no strangers to high profile events and this week is no exception as the crew take on builds in Christian Louboutin stores across Europe. Locations in Luxenberg, Brussels, Munich and Copenhagen will be visited by the team to install display booths for upcoming events in the chain.

Christian Louboutin’s stores are in over 30 locations around the world, are notoriously elegant and are designed to match Mr Louboutin’s signature red color scheme. Being a high fashion designer chain, the stores design and appearance are integral to the brand, so the stagehands team will need to treat the build with the up most care and professionalism when inside the store.
Providing small teams in locations across Europe like this is a specialty of stagehands.net; if the shoe fits, the stagehands team can build it.

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(picture: By Arroser (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commonschristian louboutin brussels store)

Let’s Go Tokyo Motor Show!

The Stagehands.net crew are set to staff the 45th Tokyo Motor Show later this year, with team of local technicians and international coordinators.
Hosted in one of Japans largest and most impressive venues, Tokyo Big Sight, the Motor Show is one of the largest of its kind and has been a hugely popular event since its first appearance in 1954. This year’s theme of “Beyond the Motor” is intended to give the show a broader spectrum of innovations and technologies. With this will come a new set of design challenges for event’s organisers (JAMA-Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association) and the production team building the numerous display platforms and stages.

The exhibition has a tradition of debuting concept cars as oppose to passenger vehicles, and despite moving to involve more commercial vehicles in recent years, the one of a kind cars the show does still include deserve one of a kind unveilings! With a whole host of rotating platforms, curtain drops and lightshows to showcase the motors, the event staff will have their work cut out for them.

Stagehands.net Tokyo office manager, Bernd Erbs, will lead the team throughout the event and is currently taking crew orders for the show. Bernd is fluent Japanese, German & English, this will prove useful in to help planning and crew coordination on site, as well as working closely with international clients to fulfil any special requirements.

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(picture: By Akinori YAMADA from Tokorozawa, SAITAMA, Japan (Tokyo Motor Show 2013) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Stagehands.net congratulates new Event Manager Franziska Bauer!

Franziska moves into a full time position in the stagehands team after successfully passing her Event Management apprenticeship. Joining the team back in October 2015 as a trainee to accompany her study, Franzi has worked part time in the Berlin headquarters to learn about the industry and gain vital experience for her new role.
The demanding lifestyle has paid off! With recent success in her final exams, Franzi has earned a qualification that will help begin a career in the events industry.

With the inclusion of Frankziska, the Stagehands.net Berlin team is now able to handle a much larger work flow and serve more clients than ever before. As both a full time project coordinator and assistant to the accounting department, the new role will allow Franzi put her new education to practice and push stagehand.net to new levels.

“We are very excited to have Franzi on board! After completing her training in our company it is an easy fit for the team and we are lucky to have her staying with us for the coming year and beyond” Regional Manager, Nico Brenner

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(picture: Berlin HQ welcomes Franzi  with flowers)