Mobile Beat

I have to say that I do not easily warm to American people in general and I certainly don’t subscribe to all this high-five…whooping it up…ram it down your throat rubbish but I have been reading some of the Mobile Beat Show material and watched some of the live streams and it is certainly very impressive. Thing is whatever we might say about the Americans they would appear to know how to organise a proper Pro DJ event. They have sponsorship and support from real big commercial players in the DJ world such as Pioneer. They focus it mainly on seminars…ok lets be honest they are more like lectures or training sessions but if you can manage to block out the Americanisms some of them are informative and even inspiring. They schedule the show mid-week when real live professional DJs can attend and the main thing that I notice is that the DJs themselves throw themselves into it, they actually stay on site so the business can start early and finish late and they actually socialise and take part in the official and unofficial evening dinners and parties.

At this year’s MBLVX they actually had Coolio, Sugar Hill Gang and J Milano live at the big Riv party. Could you imagine that at a DJ show in this country?...What a joke, I have been involved in organising events when the English DJs have argued about putting up a poxy fiver towards the cost of holding an evening party and then breaking into snipes and arguments about who should be the DJ, another time there was an offer of a night club staying open late for us and there was total apathy, another time there were 2 main groups that split after a show and went their separate ways and another time no prior arrangements were made even for a late bar so at 10.30pm it was all over…I mean it normally ends up that there are little groups of 4 or 5 that slide off to a hotel room with a bottle of cheap Vodka and a pair of active 8s and that’s the after show party.

At MBLVX the attendees generally start to arrive on the Monday evening and business begins early on the Tuesday morning. This means that real full-time DJs can work the Fri, Sat & Sun nights and rest up for the best part of Monday before making their way to the show, then its all over by the following week-end so they can go off to work again. The American DJs appear to behave like, have the same sort of respect and be generally accepted like other ‘respectable professionals’ such as lawyers, builders, accountants etc. Oh…and as for dragging the partner and kids along…lol. In the UK all the DJ events with the exception of the DFB Open Night would appear to be at daft times and totally unsuitable for the ‘Pro’ DJs…I mean how can I get home at about 3 or 4am on a Sunday morning and then make it to an event 100 miles away and then get to a venue for setting-up at about 6pm on The Sunday evening and be awake and alert enough to offer my client the attention they deserve and are paying me for…but, its ok as long as there is something for the partner and off-spring…what next?...an ice cream van on the car park, a hand bag stall in the corner of the seminar room, bouncy castles in-between the Skytech and DJ Tech stand and a ball pit in-between the Numark and Cool Sound stands

I like to consider myself a ‘pro’ DJ, I can’t afford to miss out on any week-end’s work, I need to do about 160 bookings per year to make my business pay and earn a reasonable living out of it, my week-ends are pretty much stitched up in terms of Friday and Saturday nights for more than a year in advance and during the summer especially I work almost every Sunday…even one of my regular venues are now offering substantial discounts for Sunday Weddings so its going to get busier on a Sunday for me. Its not just that, the events don’t usually start till 10 or even 11am as the UK DJs are too lazy to get out of bed and too bloody tight to stay near the venue the night before…I mean FFS when they do stay over its usually a Travel Lodge and a grotty hairy ar5ed truckers caravan style breakfast bar and they even sleep on the floor in each other’s rooms to save money. The high point of the conversation is normally who can drink and eat the most and produce the most disgusting farts.

The content of the events in the UK bugs me too. We usually get a hall with several exhibiters all crammed together and each one trying to see who can play the most bassy distorted music? The loudest. I must admit that in recent years the seminar content has improved but even though its stuff of little use IMO of course Don’t think there has been a show without the DMX seminar and then of course there is the scratching demo by DJ Wicky Wacky itchy scratchy limp wrist. At MBLVX there are some cracking seminars that actually focus on improving the service we provide and increasing our income…things like making our Brides feel involved and important, working a crowd effectively and confidently, making everyone join in and feel part of an event, making key guests feel as though they belong and how to give us the edge over our competitors. There is so much to pick up from them about how to be client focused and constantly monitor and improve our quality of service…fair enough I know there is a lot of crap too but the good content is there for the finding. We need to be careful how we convert and use the various nuggets we pick out of the American seminars as for a start the UK audiences aren’t as bold as the American audiences…whilst UK Brides do like to be the centre of attention there is a limit to how much fuss and patronising they will stand, but the main thing I notice about the American seminars is firstly that they are presented by experts in their fields that have earnt the respect of their peers and secondly that they are more focused on us as entertainers or MCs or Hosts or Party Makers or whatever you want to call it.

As you can prob tell I have a real downer on the UK shows and events and even more of a downer on the UK DJs that don’t appear to be very much into networking, don’t like admitting that they might have room for improvement and most of all who have the apparent reluctance to spend a few quid and devote some time on an event that might just help them to make a lot more out of this business in the long-term.

Interesting too that the Americans have a Hall of Fame…could be fun over here or maybe we should have a hall of wa**ers…whose first for nominations…I’m saying nothing

I went to Mobile Beat 2009.........what an experience. If it wasn't for the cost I'd go every year.

The seminars are aimed at developing your business and service. Last year the variety was excelent and during the day a choice of three or four rooms holding seminars at the same time. So you could pick and choose which ones you wanted to attend......and at times there were two gooduns on at the same time so me and Paul split up then shared notes over a brandy!!!! The nice thing was....there was something for everyone; wedding DJs, wedding DJ/MC, party DJ etc etc.

I do agree with Andy about the hi 5s and whooping bit.....I found it quite uncomfortable at first but must admit, I met some fabulous people, was made to feel really welcome, learnt a lot from some of the top dogs in the game over there (and I'm not talking about willy wavers who like the sound of their own voice on forums but guys that are earning in excess of £1500 per gig)....and best of all....got invited to some of the select parties.

We desperately need something of the same quality in this country. There are actually quite a lot of really professional and forward thinking DJs in the Uk including myself who would love to go to such an event if we could be sure to be able avoid the gobby idiots who are just out to buy as much cheap kit as they can and get pizzed.

Maybe in the not too distant future AMPDJ could be the ones to take on such a project as it has to be the UK's fastest growing DJ organisation and judging by the newsletters there would be lots of decent content for seminars.

Ive just joined AMPDJ, would be interesting to see what they could come up with.

Apart from DFB ive never been to a show, it has always appealed to me but either other comitments get in the way, im too knackered after the weekends work or im not aloud to go (my partner) as she knows ill end up spending too much money lol

Would be good to see some of the seminars as ive heard from other shows that they can be very informative.

Well of course I know Paul and Sandy at AMPDJ so folk will think its bias but the newsletters are interesting and they do concentrate on all aspects of improving ones service...Just like at MBLVX.

You mention DFB and that just prooves my point because DFB Open Night is usually a Monday evening and it gets really well attended. I'm pretty convinced that if shows like NADJ and BPM were mid-week rather than at our busy time...the week-ends they would get better attended and they might even make a decent profit which would allow them to spend out on proper facilitaters to run seminars...I mean I know loads of full-time DJs that can't attend them at week-ends due to work commitments.

only reason i went to DFB was becuase it was a monday night and because of the forum. I knew so many people off of the forum but never got a chance to meet any of them.

I remeber i took Danno and another chap from coventry and my g/f at the time. Everyone apart from me won something in the raffle if i remeber correctley.

I would love to goto some more of the meetings and shows but can never justify the expense for just going to look at some equipment. I may as well take a trip to a local supplier in Birmingham who have most of he things for sale and in stock. The seminars could be very useful, possibly showing me things that ive not thought about or even considered.

Well I pretty much agree with all of that. We can find out all about kit off forums and by visiting the larger stores such as HTFR or DFB etc. It is the seminars that could be the big draw...along the same lines as the American ones but tamed a little bit for our UK market.

From my only visit to the DFB open night last November I was really shocked to see how busy it was and especially to see how busy Ralph's lighting sessions were which just goes to proove the thirst for knowledge is there. From what I can gather SEDA also have a good format to their by-monthly meetings...fair enough they are on a smaller scale but they are regional and for those in the S/E a massive asscet...I have often said I wish I lived in that area so I could attend SEDA.

The big thing for me about the week-end meets is not only does it cost to attend for things such as travel, admission, a hotel and food...it also costs in terms of lost income, I'm not tight and don't mind paying the natural costs to attend an event if it is going to be worthwhile but when it comes to loosing income too it can get into the rhelms of costing £500+ for a 6 hour long Sunday event.