New Format, New Focus for PLASA Rigging Conference

	2016 PLASA Rigging Conference

The eighth PLASA Rigging Conference, being held again during PLASA 2017 at Olympia, London, on Monday, September 18, sees a change in its format and the focus of its content as it moves away from more traditional presentations allowing more time for discussion with delegates and panels of experts.

With a keynote presentation delivered by Morris Lyda, former tour truck driver, roadie, latterly prodigious production manager, and owner of the Morris Lyda Organisation, the conference targets a broader audience, focusing not only on rigging topics but on production and safety issues as well.

Content will be themed around questions raised by the rigging and production communities over the past 12 months and will continue to be developed as additional, pertinent issues are highlighted and will be very much a "talking shop."

"In previous years, we've had traditional style presentations with question and answer sessions," says content curator Chris Higgs. "This year, we're giving the floor to those attending, while still providing informed and current opinion from panelists."

"Guided by the views of the rigging community, the intention is to widen our audience to include anyone involved in production that has a connection with rigging, to keep pace with the growth of media content requiring screens or projection, the advances in audio technology and ever more elaborate sets and props. We'll have panelists representing producers, production and venue safety, manufacturers and standards writers, and of course, riggers.

"We're delighted that we have managed to persuade one of the industry's legendary figures, Morris Lyda, to deliver the keynote presentation. Morris has worked with artists ranging from Traffic in his 20s to a multi-tour relationship with David Bowie, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Three Tenors, and Phil Collins. Following a move to Australia in the late '90s, Morris focused on special events such as the Barcelona and Sydney Olympics and a diverse array of demanding projects, specializing in building and motivating people to produce extraordinary outcomes. Morris will be escorting us on an exploration of the shortcomings, values, and obscurities of our industry and a contemplation of its uncertainties."

"What value can an old roadie like myself contribute to these young and developing professionals?" says Lyda. "The pressure to deliver entertainment projects within increasingly stringent paradigms of safety and simultaneously achieve economies is enormous. Safety and budgets were always a consideration in my early days, but these agendas frequently took a backseat to vision. Vision and a commitment to that vision is what we will be talking about."

To make it more affordable and allow more people to attend, the pricing for the conference has also been reviewed and includes a new half-day rate and a much lower full-day rate for early bird bookings:
* £95 + vat full-day delegate rate (until August 1)
* £120 + vat full-day delegate rate (from August 1)
* £65 + vat half-day rate for either the morning or afternoon sessions.

Initial program and further details can be found on the PLASA Show website at the URL below.