MADE FOR THIS SERIES: Live Events
MADE FOR THIS SERIES
In the third volume of our MADE FOR THIS series, we dive into live event production with SG’s Senior Producer, Asha Robinson!
Like many team members at Solomon Group, Asha's career journey has always gravitated toward entertainment. With an actress mother and her background as a child actor, she seamlessly transitioned into live entertainment production. Having worked in the music industry, she honed her skills backstage, working with countless artists on their shows. This led to Asha eventually finding her niche in Live Event production, combining her love of music, theater and entertainment with her organizational skills to pull off a great show. Asha emphasizes the need for a unique spirit to thrive in this fast-paced industry, where she says planning is a constant cycle of anticipation, adjustment, and reevaluation. When it comes to large-scale live event production, a “Made for This” mentality is key to getting the job done under the immense pressure of deadlines and client-crowd expectations.
For Asha, the pressure and hard work is all worth it the moment the doors to her events are opened, and crowds flood in. In that moment, time stops, and she can see the ideas come to life from paper to reality, only fueling her passion to create more experiences that excite, entertain, and inspire other people.
That feeling is especially true for some of Solomon Group’s largest events, for which Asha manages every challenge and unpredictability. What better way to understand the breadth of Asha’s production skills and responsibilities, than through the lens of ESSENCE Festival – an annual festival of culture in New Orleans which draws over 500,000 attendees.
Spanning multiple locations throughout the day and evening, ESSENCE Fest requires six months of meticulous planning by Solomon Group and Essence Communications, resulting in the activation of over a million square feet of venue space full of seminars, panels, sponsor activations, food halls, art markets, concert stages, VIP lounges, and much more. Beyond the live execution of the event, Asha’s responsibilities include creative input, design, planning, production management, technology implementation, fabrication, sponsorship activation, venue management, and all of the logistical planning that keeps 500,000 attendees safe, organized, and having fun!
The energy, excitement, and sheer numbers of energetic crowds like ESSENCE Festival create an unparalleled experience, making every challenge and unpredictability worthwhile in her eyes. For anyone who want to get into event production, Asha says “There are many different avenues to express yourself within production, try everything out. Be open and DON’T plan to sleep!”
Thank you, Asha, for perfectly encapsulating the MADE FOR THIS mentality and knocking it out of the park for our clients and guests!
