This was 2 mins into a scheduled 2 hour broadcast. SPOILER ALERT: There was no back-up car. This isn’t a how-to on crisis management when things go wrong on a live broadcast. It’s a story about mindset. One job requirement in our line of work is to be perpetual optimists; willfully suspending disbelief. We have to look past the "what is" and dream up the "what could be." It's our responsibility to take the client's vision and bring it to life. While I might never think up an autonomous racing series, F1 drivers racing Zamboni’s, or insert wild idea here, we’ve got to be world-class at "yes, and"-ing it into reality. But that optimism also needs just the right dose of healthy skepticism. For this project, we were promised some seriously cool stuff: Super fast self-driving cars, a gamified metaverse racetrack, and a killer soundtrack. SPOILER ALERT #2: We got none of it. The closest was the song "Work It" by Marie Davidson (Unfortunately NOT the Missy Elliot version 😫 ) This might be the only clip you've ever seen of Roborace, and if you're thinking, "Wow, what an epic fail!" Well, you're not wrong. Linkedin is full of people and companies trumpeting successes. This? Not a success. (Unless you count going viral for the wrong reasons as a KPI?) So, what did we learn? 1. Ask the tough questions The possibility of the car crashing was always there. We had asked about back-up plans and like all of our broadcasts, we had materials and ideas in back-up for “Oh Sh#t” moments. However, we were not prepared for the car to self destruct so quickly. Doh. 2. Context is Key Like a rocket launch, this event was always going to be a bit of a science experiment. In hindsight, we needed to do a better job of contextualizing that and bringing the audience in on the expectation 3. And for the love of all things holy, get a deposit upfront. Trust me on this one. (but that’s a lesson for a later day :-)
Tes Sewell
5mo
"deposit upfront"😯. You did get a glorious 15 second clip out of it though!
The Berry
5mo
😮
Mark Taylor
5mo
LinkedIn needs a different emoji to react to this post!?!?
Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Multi-Camera Director: live, music, variety, comedy, award shows, specials, interactive programs, corporate events
5moWhat a great post. Having directed rocket launches, I’ve had countless sleepless nights thinking about contingencies upon contingencies. (Fortunately, all of my rocket launches were safe and successful as they were crewed!)…but this is why we do what we do. The thrill of live storytelling especially when we’re trying something new. Bummer to hear about the $…ugh.