We’re Proud AV Event Production Network Members
During the pandemic, our leadership team sought ways to connect with other industry leaders to adapt to the growing obstacles and challenges impacting our day-to-day operations. Community is vital, especially during times of uncertainty, and one thing stood out as we cracked open our Rolodex to connect with other industry experts. They were all Event Production Network (EPN) members.
EPN is a collective of North American meeting planners and event professionals who use innovative AV solutions to present unique event experiences. The network of partners produces more than 30,000 experiences annually in the form of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events for corporate, nonprofit, trade, and government clients.
With the recommendation and encouragement of a current partner in the Chicago region willing to share ownership of the Chicago market (each market usually has one representative), we officially were welcomed as members in April 2022. To be accepted as a member, your business must be reviewed to ensure you meet a standard of excellence that matches other members. EPN sent board members and other EPN representatives to tour our facilities, review our business practices, and meet with our staff. As soon as our membership was official, we quickly became heavily involved and watched as our membership benefited our clients, staff, and production capabilities.
Events Industry Education and Knowledge Sharing
Being part of a collective, we can do more for our industry and elevate the standard of our events and others within the network. Continued education is critical to further developing our team and solidifying our place as a respected industry leader. All of our staff can take advantage of the workshops or sessions made available by EPN to grow their skill sets and better understand the changes in our industry. They also allow members from a particular department to connect and learn from one another, learning things that directly tie to their everyday work. The Summer Symposium provides extensive, in-depth training over multiple days, and AV Chicago plans to bring their entire leadership to benefit from it in 2023.
Network Support
Partnership is a crucial component of EPN membership. As members, we can rely on partners in other regions to help us when we work in another market, providing gear or crew members to work with our project managers and audio/video staff. This reduces the need to ship equipment around the country, which can be costly or allow the gear to be unavailable for long periods.
The opportunity to work with member companies allows us to efficiently service our clients nationally, especially those with a presence in multiple cities. This also allows us to service our clients more affordably since we can reduce or eliminate the travel and shipment costs of bringing our entire team out. We trust that if they are an EPN member, they operate at a similar level to us and have the technology to match our operating standards of excellence. AV Chicago excels at providing a consistent show for our partners, and these partnerships allow us to do that, no matter the location.
Trust
Trust is one of the strongest pillars of the EPN network. When AV Chicago staff connect with fellow members, we can have high-level, candid conversations about our industry and business practices, trusting we are working together and not thinking of each other as competitors. Members of the leadership team have visited member companies to tour their facilities, learn from their practices, and discuss future partnerships. There are no passive members within the organization, and we can always rely on each other no matter what, pandemic, or whatever may come our way in the future.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today!