Contributed by Jane Anderson | President, Edge Productions
EDGE Productions, DECA National Advisory Board partner, began in December of 2017 with a successful year in 2018 and a record-breaking year in 2019; albeit that was not difficult to achieve for just a three-year-old company. And then in February of 2020, the world shut down, especially the live events industry. We took call after call with contract cancellations for the remainder of 2020 that bled into the 2021 calendar year.
Disruption of all industries resulted in innovation. For the live events industry and specifically for EDGE, it meant packaging remote cameras and green screens that could be sent to the homes of talent who would otherwise be on stage if it were the usual live event.
Teamwork was paramount in that product and equipment had to be purchased that were quickly being gobbled up by any company trying to also bridge the communication gap that existed because we could no longer meet face-to-face. Our team quickly filmed and edited tutorials for those using these remote filming kits, as a streamline setup would be key for the most novice talent.
Health and safety protocols were established and followed for those who were to receive our remote kits and for our team in the office, as we depended on the team to follow best practices and the CDC guidelines.
This new way of remote filming became the norm with conference calls from our home office to anywhere in the country, coaching and guiding with teleprompting. This was step one. Step two was editing the hours of footage into a coherent message. Step three was transforming our warehouse into a studio with lighting, sound and video that brought to life a client’s message. Massachusetts DECA and Illinois DECA reimagined their state CDC with this new format. This is how much of 2020 and the Spring of 2021 progressed.
Out of the box, creative thinking arose because of COVID.
Then in the latter months of 2021, with restrictions lifting yet much of the nation still not meeting face-to-face, EDGE was able to bring talent into our fully customized studio. This helped the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum reach thousands of people nationwide with their signature Better Conversations series.
And Oklahoma’s highest honor, induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame was held virtually for the first time in its 93-year history.
Many high school and college classes across multi-disciplines will be studying the results of COVID-19 for years to come, as it literally impacted every single industry. It strengthened our client relationships, our team’s cohesiveness, our ingenuity and even the relationship with the bank that provided our small business loan to begin the company in 2017. While it’s easy to talk about how COVID-19 divided us, there are just as many stories about how we came together to solve challenges and find solutions.
