Tell us a little bit about yourself…
Who/ what inspired you to go into marketing?
I was originally a theater major and had every intent to be a lighting designer. When in grad school I interned for Moody, Ravitz, and Hollingsworth (Visual Terrain), a light design firm in Los Angeles. My mentor, Jim Moody, suggested that after grad school I should work at a production house in rental/sales so that I had the opportunity to meet and learn from other designers and to begin to grow my network.
My first big client was Robert Isabell who was responsible for designing the Met Gala and other high-profile events. In conjunction with many concerts, movie-premieres, car shows, and other large events that we had going in and out of our doors at the production house, I got the bug and I realized that I really wanted to be in the creative seat designing and strategizing events.
Tell us one thing we might not learn about you right away?
I am a sucker for winter weather and cold temperatures! Give a good snowstorm, warm hot chocolate, and a fireplace any day! I’m an avid curler (yep, the sport with the brooms), which goes with the cold weather theme and to tie a bow around the whole love of winter I was born during blizzard and lived in Minnesota for four years.
What do you love the most about what you do?
I love that no one event is ever the same and that each event has its own story that collectively we help the client share the joy of that experience with others.
Where did you grow up?
Nebraska City, NE. The Home of Arbor Day.
What's your event gone wrong horror story?
I’ll save the story of all stories over a drink sometime, but one time I was managing the load-in of one of my top and favorite clients.
The load-in was tight and our scaled back crew was pushing it before the talent came in for rehearsal. Frazzled, but with a few minutes to spare, my Audio Engineer finishes his last bit of work as the talent arrives.
Asking if I could help to take some weight off the Audio Engineer, he said if I could just hand the client the mic while he continued to dial in the audio console would be great help to him.
I went down to meet the talent with our client before we began to start. As we started the Audio Engineer wanted to pause to make some additional board adjustments. From the balcony he yelled down to the stage, “Mr. Piano Man, could you just play a few notes for me.” My heart sunk. “Mr. Piano Man” happened to be Mr. Alan Menken famous for writing some of the most notable scores for Disney (our client) like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and this case Newsies which was about to debut on Broadway. It didn’t phase Mr. Menken, but the client nervously wiped his brow and we had a good lesson learned laugh about it later.
What made you interested in participating in ILEA?
The community. When I first moved to Chicago from NYC, one of the first networking events that I attended was an ILEA event. The members were welcoming and felt like a tight group that I should be a part of. The timing didn’t work and when I started my company last year, I knew this was an organization I needed to be a part of.
Connect with Jason:
Instagram: @MixedSpaceStudios
LinkedIn: Jason Weible
Facebook: MixedSpaceStudios