Run the Damn Dock.

Tag: operations

  • On the Road Again: Episode1 Hells Kitchen, Fanatics Fest, coming home…

    On the Road Again: Episode1 Hells Kitchen, Fanatics Fest, coming home…

    I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in New York working Fanatics Fest, and every time I come here I’m reminded why this city has the reputation it does.

    The headlines usually focus on celebrities, athletes, and million-dollar collectibles. Mine start a little earlier—before sunrise, with steel, forklifts, coffee, and 30,000 steps a day.

    This wasn’t a vacation. It was work. The kind of work our industry understands.

    I stayed in Hell’s Kitchen, and it was probably my favorite part of the trip. Not because it was polished—it wasn’t. It felt gritty, loud, crowded, and alive. Walking those streets, I couldn’t help but think about all the stories I’d heard growing up about New York decades ago. Whether that’s exactly what it was like or not, the neighborhood still carries a rough-around-the-edges character that feels authentic. It’s a place where you keep your head up, keep moving, and mind your business.

    That same attitude carries over into the convention business.

    Inside the Javits Center, thousands of people are doing jobs most attendees will never notice. Carpenters, electricians, freight teams, labor crews, account teams, project managers, operations—everyone pulling in the same direction so that when the doors open, the fans think it all just appeared overnight.

    MSG.

    It didn’t.

    It was built.

    Some days topped 30,000 steps. Between the July heat, long shifts, and constant movement across the building, it almost felt like New York itself was part of the workload. Then, in true NYC fashion, a tornado warning rolled through and changed everyone’s plans, adding another day to the trip.

    That’s live events.

    You can have the best schedule in the world, but eventually reality gets a vote.

    One of my favorite moments was simply walking the city after shift. Grabbing dinner in Hell’s Kitchen, watching people from every corner of the world moving in every direction, then waking up a few hours later to do it all again. It’s exhausting, but it’s also why people fall in love with New York.

    Fanatics Fest is an incredible event, but what sticks with me isn’t just the athletes or the displays.

    It’s the people building them.

    The fans see the show.

    We build the experience.

    #RunTheDamnDock #RTDD #FanaticsFest #FanaticsFestNYC #FFNY26 #BehindTheScenes #EventProfs #TradeShows #LiveEvents #EventOperations #ConventionCenter #JavitsCenter #NewYorkCity #HellsKitchen #BlueCollar #BuiltNotBought #BuildTheExperience #SportsBusiness #Vlog

  • Show Ponies

    Show Ponies

    There’s a strange thing that happens in modern work.

    The people who say things get celebrated.

    The people who do things get pressure.

    Not applause.

    Pressure.

    At the top of the hourglass is the world of buzzwords.

    Strategy.

    Innovation.

    Alignment.

    Transformation.

    AI.

    Culture.

    Vision.

    It sounds great. It photographs well. It makes for good LinkedIn posts and keynote slides.

    But gravity eventually takes over.

    And gravity always lands on operations.

    Because at the bottom of the hourglass is the part of the world that doesn’t care about words.

    It cares about:

    Trucks arriving on time Forklifts moving safely Crews showing up at 2am Power being on Carpet being straight Doors opening when the public walks in

    That’s where the sand falls.

    Every idea.

    Every promise.

    Every timeline someone confidently committed to in a meeting.

    Eventually it lands on the people whose job is to make it real.

    And here’s the pressure nobody talks about.

    The people above the hourglass are allowed to be wrong.

    The people below it are not.

    If strategy changes, that’s evolution.

    If operations fails, that’s catastrophe.

    No one writes case studies about the thousand things that had to go right for the show to open on time.

    But everyone notices the one thing that didn’t.

    So the operators live in a different world.

    A world where:

    You carry the weight of decisions you didn’t make.

    You inherit timelines that were dreamed up in conference rooms.

    You solve problems that didn’t exist until reality showed up.

    And you do it quietly.

    Because the real job isn’t saying.

    The real job is doing.

    The trucks don’t move because someone used the word synergy.

    The lights don’t turn on because someone said innovation.

    The show doesn’t open because someone had a great meeting.

    It opens because somewhere, usually out of sight, a group of people decided:

    “Alright. Enough talking. Let’s run the damn dock.”

    And if you’ve ever lived in that world, you know something most people never will.

    The people at the bottom of the hourglass aren’t the loudest.

    But they’re the ones holding the entire thing up.