With the upcoming Entertainment Experience Workshop conducted by Bill Hermann scheduled for August 2017 in Australia, a few DJs have asked me “Is it worth it?” and “what is it all about?”. So I thought I would take a few moments to share what I’ve learnt from Bill Hermann.
I first met Bill while in the USA for a DJ convention. Prior to that I had heard about him through various DJ groups, social media and online chat sites (yeah, remember those). Bill is held in high regard by so many, that initially I was a little intimidated when I first met him, however that quickly disappeared.
As an Aussie, we can often find Americans to have personalities that are a little hard for us to handle, however Bill was warm, friendly and very much understood Aussie humour. It wasn’t long before Bill & I were Facebook official and getting along well.
I had been wanting to do the Entertainment Experience for a long time, so when things started to form for it’s first tour of Australia I was quick to get involved to help make it happen. Both my wife and I purchased tickets for the workshop.
It took exactly 6 hours of workshop (not even the end of Day 1) for me to realise that I had got more value from the workshop than what I paid. But the true value didn’t show itself until much later. The skills that are taught in the workshop started to enhance my performance as a wedding MC and lead to better feedback not only from brides and grooms, but also from other wedding suppliers.
The advice and mentorship hasn’t stopped after the workshop either. On more than one occasion Bill has been there to give me the right advice at the right moment. This literally happened in the middle of the night when I was stressed about a last minute MC job I was asked to do. Like a magic genie, Bill popped up on Facebook messenger and said hello. He was willing to talk me through the issue and helped me create something cool for the event.
One of the unique lessons that Bill has taught me is about accepting compliments. This is something I had struggled with for a long time and his advice worked a treat.
So to answer the questions at the start of this blog: Yes, it’s definitely worth it. And the only way to see what it’s all about, is to jump in the deep end and give it a go. What you’ll get out of it will vary greatly from person to person. This workshop is rarely made available, so you can either get a seat now, while you still can, or spend years waiting for it to come around again, cursing yourself for not doing it sooner.
This post was contributed by Glenn Mackay. Glenn is an Accredited Member of the Alliance and an ABIA Award Winner, based in Brisbane, Queensland. He currently holds a position on the DJAA Committee and together with wife Miranda runs the G&M Event Group. G&M Event Group provides DJs, MCs, Lighting Design, AV and Production options for ceremony and reception.