Priscilla Chan

Through a contact of a contact, I was put in touch with Janice, an event planner with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. She (very kindly) agreed to let me shadow her for the Keith Urban concert in late September.

It was a really fun day for me. I got to wear a reflector vest, steel toed boots and a walkie-talkie all day. I met the guy behind Fin, and stood in the same room as Henrik Sedin, Russell Crowe and Keith Urban. I watched parts of the concert from different vantage points such as the Canucks press box, the spotter’s bench and backstage. And I got all the popcorn I could eat.

Besides fun, the day was also really enlightening. I was with Janice every time she had to troubleshoot a problem. I was present for the security briefing and the post-event briefing. I learned about all the ins and outs of a concert production including load-in and set-up, ticketing, security, staffing, logistics, meet and greets and load-outs. I learned that concert production is a VERY long day (I was there from 7am-12:45am while Janice stayed until 3am). I learned that you have to work well with everyone, even if you don’t personally like someone. I learned that multi-tasking is a MUST and a well-charged phone makes everyone’s life easy. While glamorous and exciting, putting on a large production like a concert takes a lot of prep work, a lot of creative solutions and little sleep.

I had a fantastic day and want to thank Janice for giving me such a great opportunity. This day really reinforced my desire to work in the events industry and I would LOVE to put on large-scale productions such as concerts one day.