Production Live! Coverage 2020: What You Need To Know To Tour In 2020

Industry vet and longtime Bon Jovi team member Paul Korzilius hosted an illustrious Production Live! panel, which gave the audience six important things to consider in touring 2020.

First up was Todd Dyer, VP sales – venues, music tours, live events at CAPS Payroll, a so-called employer of record payroll company to the entertainment industry.

Dyer advises clients on how to withhold and remit taxes, provide workers compensation insurance, make sure they’re wage and hour compliant, etc.

He went into a couple of changes that are new in 2020. For instance, there was a new Form W-4, which regulates the correct federal income tax employers can withhold from an employee’s pay. 

Dyer said the new form was very different to the old one. He also pointed out that the taxable wage limit has increased to $137,700 in 2020, and pointed to  new 401K limits, several state and local minimum wage increases, as well as new federal over time limits, details of which could be found online. 

Bill Edwards, CPP, CIMP, associate principal, Thornton Tomasetti, briefly talked about drones. Identifying drones at live events would become more and more important, he said, seeing that they could be steered by someone with nefarious goals, or by someone simply trying to take pictures.

According to Edwards, it was “really difficult to detect and monitor drones.”

The past has seen drone incursions into airspace, or at major sporting events. The recent shut-downs of London airports Heathrow and Gatwick were proof that a little drone incident can cause huge losses in revenues.

The issue of drones at live events was bound to gain in importance now that they’re able to carry significant payloads. 

Next up was Steve Lemon, founder, Steve Lemon & Associates, who talked about how employers and employees in this business could make sure they aren’t held accountable in case of accidents. 

Lemon’s look into 2020 began with a flashback to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA).

He pointed towards a section in the Act that’s usually overlooked: the part that holds employees accountable for not applying their received personal protective equipment (PPE) and training on the job.

In case of accidents during the production of a concert in 2020, the main question in court will still be: did you do the reasonable to protect your employees. 

Most insurance claims revolved around workers compensation, property claims, and liability claims, which include bodily injury. Slip, trip and fall accidents were still the number one cause of injuries and death on the job.

Lemon went into the most common risks when producing events, including poor planning and communications, sleep deprivation (“mistakes mostly happen during load outs”), alcohol/drugs on the job (interesting in light of cannabis legalisation) and others.

This was followed by the four ways of mitigating risks: eliminate or mitigate the risk, transfer the risk (contractually), insure for the risk, or simply accept the risk.

He concluded with a few things that any employer working in production could start implementing tomorrow in order to make sure they’re on the safe side in case of accidents:

– make sure all employees receive their PPE

– read contracts and insurance policies and employment agreements

– check first aid kits, AEDs

– develop a safety policy and manual

– create a “code of conduct”

– training: first aid/CPR, OSHA10 for employees, OSHA35 for supervisors. 

– ID Tags on all bags

– keep a clean site

– smart traveller enrollment program (STEP)

– risk assessments

– have a personal action plans: emergency, weather, evacuation (particularly at festivals)

He encouraged the audience to put themselves first in all considerations, rather than the band or the tour.

Bob O’Brien, director of entertainment & touring division, SOS Global Express, talked about Brexit.

While Brexit was here now, he still wasn’t sure what it meant. No one really seems to do. 

“We have plans in place, as I’m sure all the other freight companies and suppliers have,” he said, admitting that there would be certain issues, certainly when it came to border crossings. 

In freight, everybody moving gear in and out of countries is back to the old system of ATA Carnets, O’Brien explained, describing a carnet as “the passport for your equipment.” 

“You shouldn’t leave home without a carnet,” O’Brien emphasized.

Checking in gear as checked luggage was traditionally no issue, but it seemed to be getting harder, according to the expert. If bands didn’t have all necessary carnets in place, chances are their equipment won’t make the flight.

“If you’ve got any artist or band going out, do a carnet,” he said, adding that the cost compared to watching an entire tour fall apart was absolutely worth it.

South America and Asia, in particular, could be very strict when it comes to having the right carnets in place.

He also went into rising costs for transport in 2020, and that it may not be viable to take huge productions around to world, in particular to remote places in Asia or Australia. The freight costs might swallow all of a band’s touring budget, which established bands may put up with in order to play new territories, but mid-size acts won’t be able to afford. 

O’Brien suggested coming up with A and B rigs, or duplicate rigs as a solution.

He also went into Merch, and the “massive revenue stream” it constituted. Switzerland, for example, got much more stringent with its checks of imports of goods, and apparently sends officer to the actual gigs now, who make sure the amount of merchandise sold on site matches the declarations on the import forms.

Doug Oliver, the GM at Pioneer Coach, went into some of the things that would move the transportation industry in 2020, and identified “growth and collaboration as a theme to expect.”

With growing touring markets, and artists touring more, buses were running longer than ever, companies were adding buses to their fleets, and new companies entered the market. 

He pointed towards the Entertainer Motorcoach Council, which was a way for the transportation industry to sit around one table and share best practices. 

Some things to consider for 2020: belts on buses, electronic logging devices, cameras that synch up with radar for advanced lane departure and collision warning, electronic mirrors that aren’t bothered by weather, adaptive breaking, and first forays into driverless buses.  

In all of this, safety was the number one priority, Oliver emphasized.

Joerg Philipp, owner of Beat The Street, which just entered the U.S., had the last word. 

He said his company has dealt a lot with Brexit, and has long established a fleet in the U.K.. Brexit could still affect German drivers riding Austrian buses in the U.K., though, although it was too early to tell.

Philipp said that not even the politicians in the U.K. seemed to know what was going on. “Everything stays the same until the end of the year, and I cannot see how they’ll solve all issues that couldn’t be solved over the course of the past years,” he said.

For Beat The Street, 2020 will be all about “trying our luck with double deckers” in the U.S.

Philipp explained that it took a while to establish a business that was in line with all U.S. regulations, but announced that the first two double deckers would hit U.S. roads next week on the first jobs. 

“You either love ’em or hate ’em,” he told the mostly U.S. audience, who has come to appreciate the single deckers for decades.

Korzilius rounded out the session by going through a couple of audience questions. One addressed venue security, to which Korzilius responded, that screening would gain in importance in 2020.

Not just screening of the audience, but also everyone coming in through the back. Who’s there, why and how long? Answering those questions for everyone present at a live event will become the norm.