Joshua designs the moment a general session starts to feel like something: the stage, the floor plan, the sound, and the silence before the first word. As Associate Director of Imprint Media Productions, he brings a touring guitarist's ear and years of corporate A/V production to Imprint programs, so the technology fades into the background and the story takes the room.
The Silence Before the Set
Joshua's design brief starts with a memory from his touring days: the silence right before a set begins. “The lights dim, the house music attenuates, and the anticipation swells,” he says. “In the corporate world it's important to try and capture that feeling, especially for the initial general session.”
That feeling shapes the staging, the sound and the cue sequence long before anyone takes a seat. Joshua says his team starts all designs with the experience in mind, and the opening moments of a general session are where that thinking shows up first.
From AC/DC DVDs to the Sound System
It started with a living room and a DVD player. Joshua and his dad watched AC/DC concerts together, and he decided, “that's what I want to do.” He picked up a guitar, was immediately obsessed, and at 18 joined a band and went on tour.
On the road, his attention drifted from the stage to the systems behind it: speakers, microphones, consoles and outboard gear, different in every venue. After the band, he studied audio production, interned at a well-known studio in Los Angeles, and then followed what he missed most about live production back to Phoenix, where he staged and engineered shows for bands around the city.
The Show That Changed the Plan
A colleague in Phoenix asked Joshua to help cover a corporate event. “I had no idea what that meant at the time, but was happy to jump in,” he says. “That was the show that changed my entire perspective on what I would be doing for a career.”
From there, Joshua moved into full-time corporate technical work, then through project management, account executive and producer roles to his current post as Associate Director. That route gives him a view of an event from the planning table as well as the production floor.
What He Builds Before Anyone Arrives
Joshua's work starts on paper and on screen. He is responsible for stage and show designs, technical floor plans, photo-realistic renders and sourcing technical vendors, and he makes sure every branch of his team communicates well enough to deliver what he calls “a holistic product.”
For clients, that means the room can be seen before it exists. A photo-realistic render turns a stage concept into something a team can react to, and a technical floor plan gives the crew a shared map to build from.
When A/V Becomes Production
Joshua describes A/V as the foundation: the means for attendees to see and hear content. Production is what gets built on it. As he puts it, “when you add production as the driver, we switch gears to how we make people feel.”
In practice, that can mean a general session that goes beyond a recap of the year's numbers and tells the story of where a company started, where it is going and what that means for its employees. “We don't rush through the General Session, we carefully craft the storytelling and pacing to bring out real emotions and drive relationship building far after the session is over,” he says.
The effect is hard to put a number on. “You know it when you experience it.”
The Chatter the Client Doesn't Hear
Event day starts with a good coffee, because there won't be time later and, in Joshua's words, “the hotel coffee will liquify your esophagus.” His team arrives about an hour before doors to load updated content and fit in last-minute rehearsals with presenters who missed their original blocks.
Then the moment months of prep were building toward arrives and passes in a blur of cues, stage movements and slide decks. What the client doesn't hear is the near-constant stream on the team's comms: time checks, cue standbys, slide counts and questions like “do you have Mr. Smith on RF04?” That steady communication, Joshua says, is crucial to a show that runs without error.
And then comes the strike, everyone's least favorite part. Joshua has watched an executive or two walk back in after three hours to discover the entire set already on its way to a truck.
Five Minutes Is an Eternity
Touring with a smaller band meant roughly one day to set up and no crew of their own. Inclement weather or interstate traffic sometimes pushed the band's arrival to about an hour before doors, with the whole load-in still ahead. Out of those days came one of Joshua's favorite sayings: “5 minutes is an eternity in production.”
The other lesson was about people. Production brings together crews who may have never met, from different places and with different skill sets, on schedules that can be grueling. “You attract more flies with honey,” Joshua says, and staying gracious, calm and positive is how he manages new crews and strengthens the relationships he already has.
Solved Before Anyone Shows Up
Ask Joshua what people underestimate about production and he gives two answers, one real and one funny. The real one is time. Two months out feels like plenty of runway to people outside the industry. In production, he says, it counts as “close.”
“Our biggest goal before putting boots on the ground is solving problems before we ever show up,” he says, and that can take considerable time to dial in when a program includes specialty content or complex programming. His own standard is a candid one: “If the audience is noticing something wrong, we likely failed in the pre-production stage or are having a very bad day at the office.”
The funny answer is copper. The “ungodly amount” of cable it takes to connect everything still surprises even Joshua. “If I had a dollar for every time a presenter has said, ‘Wow! There is a lot going on back here,’ I'd be close to retiring already.”
The Audience Is the Throughline
Ask Joshua for the line that connects the touring guitarist to the corporate A/V expert and he points to the room. The throughline, he says, is performing and designing shows with the audience in mind. The people in the seats are there for a unified reason, and “we need to deliver on their expectations.”
That is what Joshua brings to Imprint programs: design that starts with how the room should feel, planning that solves problems before load-in, and a team that stays calm when five minutes is all that's left. The opportunity for clients is a general session where the technology fades into the background and the story is what everyone remembers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an Associate Director of Imprint Media Productions do?
At Imprint, Joshua leads stage and show design, technical floor plans, photo-realistic renders and technical vendor sourcing for corporate events. He also makes sure every branch of the production team communicates and delivers one cohesive experience.
What is the difference between corporate A/V and event production?
A/V is the foundation: the audio, video and display systems that let attendees see and hear content. Event production builds on that foundation, shaping storytelling, pacing and emotion so a general session connects people as well as informs them.
How does touring as a musician prepare someone for corporate A/V production?
Touring builds habits that carry into live event production: staying calm under pressure, working to a tight load-in schedule, and collaborating with crews you may be meeting for the first time. Joshua also developed an early interest in the audio systems behind each show, from speakers and microphones to consoles and outboard gear.
How early should a company start planning technical production for a corporate event?
Earlier than many people expect. Joshua notes that even two months out counts as close in production terms, and programs with specialty content or complex programming need considerable time to dial in. Starting the production conversation early gives the team room to solve problems before anyone arrives on site.
Want a production team that designs the silence before your first word? Get in touch with Imprint. Let's make the room go quiet for the right reason.
