Member Benefits0.
Enjoy 'Gift of Training' Year-Round
For 50 years, USITT has been a little like Santa Claus – in the spotlight for one giant annual event, backstage the rest of the year.
USITT is known for throwing the best design and technology conference in the entertainment industry, including the 2013 USITT Annual Conference & Stage Expo March 20 to 23, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“We want to be known as more than a once-a-year organization,” Executive Director David Grindle said. “We are a year-round organization.” That’s why the Institute is launching USITT Presents, a collaboration with industry leaders to offer specialized training throughout the year to its members in the field.
David calls it “the gift of training.” USITT is partnering with leading sound, lighting, and stage design companies to offer training sessions on their products – at a very affordable rate -- to members who use the gear. USITT Presents will offer workshops around the country in a number of disciplines including audio, lighting, automation, and media servers. Ron Procopio, Special Events Coordinator, said, “We want to bring people with challenges together with people with solutions.”
The first session will be at Meyer Sound Laboratories’ Nashville, Tennessee, office on February 20. USITT Presents: Quick System Setup and Alignment will focus on practical methods for quickly and efficiently designing, installing, and optimizing basic to complex sound systems for different applications under tight time restrictions. The session will be led by Meyer’s Jason McCarrick, a technician, rigger, and sound engineer who has toured with Cirque du Soleil, Metallica, Rod Stewart, and Li’l Wayne. The workshop will cover approaches for aligning level, phase, and polarity with and without a SIM 3 analyzer, as well as how to use such Meyer tools as MAPP Online Pro, Compass, and M Series.
The cost of the Meyer workshop will be $25 for USITT’s student/early career members and $50 for other USITT members, or $50 and $100 for student and other non-members. The fee includes a box lunch. The workshop is limited to 25 people, so be sure to register soon.
USITT is reaching out to TMB, Panasonic, Harman, and others to offer training on their products that the Institute can market to its 4,000 members. The companies will provide the same types of training they already offer at their own headquarters, but USITT will be able to offer it to members for a very affordable cost, Ron said.
“For someone in the field to take a mixing course would cost $200, but we are charging one-tenth of that as a member benefit,” he said. “So we are basically delivering a new audience to our training partners and a new training opportunity to our members.”For more information about USITT Presents, contact Ron Procopio at 800-938-7488, ext. 107, or Ron@usitt.org. For more on USITT, visit www.usitt.org.
