It’s Showtime Folks!

Events with the use of tech today maybe a given today, but 25 years ago one man stood in the forefront of ‘Technology at Events’ Michael Menezes Chairman of Showtime and founder president of EEMA, passed away peacefully in his sleep. To me Michael was the “MasterYoda” of event technology a pioneer, a trendsetter a mentor a guide and a friend to even people who could do nothing for him. I can say I have been privileged to work this exceptional human being who has left a legion of people with his legacy.

Today the need for technology at events is growing at such a fast pace and we have to constantly keep ahead of the times but not many knew that there was a guy who was convincing his clients to use high end technology and then would push us service providers to procure them and execute them in his vision, that two decades ago even if the technology wasn’t available and neither did we have the resources to invest in them, he lead the way and invest in the mechanization himself. There was no doubt in the 90’s Showtime had the best lasers in India, they had the best access to technical knowledge and the looked the length and breath of this country to get it and if it wasn’t available they imported it.

Michael trusted his cadres only because he made great choices in people and that’s the vision of a true leader and very often he would also encourage using skill set from overseas whilst many in India opposed this as to why not give locals a chance, little did we know that we sub-consciously learnt show tech production from these individuals and there were occasions where we got a chance to prove ourselves too, he had a healthy combination of international and domestic skill set on his productions and this culture still exists today with his organization.

Michael Menezes

I have had many journeys in the field with Michael Sir and we even travelled together to Davos for the World Economic Forum and executed events in sub zero temperatures. A lot of industry people think that it is the artists who demand for the latest technology but that isn’t entirely true it’s the event managers too who are looking for the same and taking a cue from Michael spawned so many other event companies who had to play catch up to his ideas of flying cars, lasers, vivid video, surround sound, scenic design par excellence.

I also remember Michael encouraging me to come to his office and give his staff workshops in technology so that they could use it to their best potential. He always had a great team that focused on automation and were hungry to execute the same. So what happens when your driven on the top, it gets rubbed off to your team and they too get interested on the same and even when they move on they keep these ideologies in mind.

His legacy continues with Avik, GodBless & GodSpeed Sir Michael, you do not know how many people you have inspired.

The event industry is laden with the creative and the enterprise and there are few individuals who recognize this, we have to be grateful and we should celebrate such individuals who have married both to reproduce a great event because it pushes you to use technology to its full potential. I vividly remember we did an event for Castrol and needed 48 speakers flown in pairs in a multi-channel format, the challenge wasn’t the box count as much was the array frame count. We achieved the quantities and the results sonically and Michael just gave me a pat on my back “Lazy Catholic Boy, Well Done “and the name Catholic Boy stuck.

I could not be there for his last moments but knowing Michael he would have not wanted us to leave our responsibilities for him “The Show Must Go On” and I dedicate the best of 2020 to you, the one and only doyen of this event industry “Sir Michael” There can never be another like you!