J Davis Pro Sound and Light Sets the Stage for Women Walk Together Global Campaign
J Davis Pro Sound and Lighting rental company recently handled an event for the inaugural Women Walk Together initiative, organized by the international #WomenWalkTogether community.
The event took place at Opus, Bangalore on the 18th of July 2018 marked as Nelson Mandela’s 100th birth anniversary along with the Elders 10th Anniversary Walk Together campaign, a group of independent global leaders working for international peace and human rights, founded by Mandela.
The event was organized as the first ever global showcase for women in the event industry and was simultaneously held in India (Bangalore), South Africa (Johannesburg), Brazil (Sao Paolo), United Kingdom (London) and Guinea (Boke). All events were connected on the day, created a groundbreaking and powerful global platform to support visibility and inspiration for female technicians on the frontline of the industry.
WWT India Initiative is a part of the Global Initiative where J Davis took up the lead in supporting this Global Cause. Santana Davis, J Davis CEO, says, “It was my responsibility to hold this event in Bangalore and build the Women Community in India, who would also be a part of the Global Community.”
The initiative to raise awareness for jobs for women through this historic and ground-breaking international showcase was the biggest ever international response to support women in the event industry.
Working in unison with the event management company, Distinct Communication, Davis and his team handled all aspects of the event, from conceptualization and programming through to the smooth running of the day. Held at the Opus Performance Club, installed with a QSC Wide-Line 10-line array system, K12 monitors and a DiGiCo S31 console, the venue’s sound and lighting system was complemented by Davis through the use of a Sennheiser ew 300 G4 wireless microphone system with Shure UR4D receivers, and Elation Platinum Beam, Platinum Beam 5R, LED Molefays and LED PAR lights.
The Event was a great success and was massively covered by Media and Press with the audience also comprising of almost all the event companies of Bangalore with their Nominated Female Staff. It saw the participation of the production specialists, artists, venues as well as the inspirational local and global organizations.
The women such as sound engineers, visual designers and production managers, who are the architects behind the successful events, came together under one roof. Monisha Das from Kolkata was the Sound Engineer for the Day and Karuna Sahu from Mumbai was the Stage Tech who handled the complete change over on stage.
The event also saw panel discussions and a series of performances by various artists, managed entirely by a team of women.
Nikita Khatri, who handled the production and planning of the event, said, “This was much needed in this male-dominated industry. There have been many times when I wanted to be a part of the production and the process behind the scenes. We shouldn’t be left out of such roles.”
Poornima KB, artist manager, said, “Normally, women get recruited only in client servicing, the creative field or marketing. We are trying to break the notion that sound engineering, light engineering, handling artistes and backstage production works are solely for men.”
She adds, “Despite irregular timings, irrespective of whether they’re married or not, women are also capable of running a show. We need to create more awareness about this.”
This event really paved the way for numerous benefits such as connecting to a global network of inspirational female technicians; visibility support and promotion of crew and event groups across the global network; future onsite training opportunities in India and UK; and the support and access to the expert production advice.