At Mediaco, the walls are covered with letters from clients, praising the skills and upbeat attitudes of our staff. Meet the producers and technicians who inspire this applause.

Tom Bigelow, on the Mediaco Vancouver team, is the kind of production manager you want running your event: accomplished, sharp, thorough and calm. In his nearly 20 years in the audiovisual production industry, Tom's passion for excellence has been amply demonstrated at events in Five Star and Five Diamond facilities, and as producer of world-leader summits. A recent career highlight was co-producing the event where Vancouver got the nod to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Tom is on Mediaco's national Communications and Operations team.

Daniel B. Bowie is a production coordinator with Mediaco Calgary. An unfailing ability to save the day for event planners when things don't go quite as planned makes Daniel an indispensable team member.

James Brett, a founder and principal of Mediaco, started at age 16 as a technician in the corporate events and entertainment industry, working for a leading west coast audiovisual company. Three years later, he started Mediaco with business partner Kevin Leinbach. James and Kevin saw the opportunity to meet the demand for a higher level of innovation and excellence. Focusing on that vision, and leveraging emerging video and computer technologies, they built Mediaco from a local audiovisual provider into a specialized national company. James heads up business development, chairs the national Sales and Marketing team, and serves as chief innovator and guardian of overall production quality.

Kyle Brooks, one of the tremendously talented Production Managers in the Toronto office, has an extensive background in theatre production and stage management. He brings to his work a particular focus on artistic detail and finesse, having staged theatrical and corporate events across Canada and around the world. Kyle manages events from concept through to fruition with exceptional enthusiasm and dedication.

Stephen Campbell - brought an impressive background drawn from events such as linking the space shuttle to a global conference to working on events on all five continents and hundreds of other meetings and functions to his appointment as Mediaco Ottawa's general manager. Ottawa of course means politics, and Stephen has excelled in such events as the several Canadian Political Conventions. Imaginative and always willing to work on the cutting edge, Stephen favours events that push technical and creative boundaries. Stephen has been in the event industry for more than 20 years and is a member of our Business Development Team.

Mike Chambers is a production coordinator in Vancouver. One of Mediaco's first employees, Mike has contributed tremendously to the company's success and reputation for innovation. His eye for detail, and an ability to craft "impossible" solutions, have made him an indispensable player in shows of every calibre and size. Mike is on the national Training Advisory team.

Peter Cornforth is general manager of Mediaco Calgary, and a principal of the company. Over his 20-year career in the audiovisual and staging industry, Peter has become well known to public and private sector clients for his rich knowledge of events staging. His passion is to make each event unique and successful. Peter is a key member of the national Sales and Marketing team.

Lou Dechant is a production manager at Mediaco Edmonton, attending to every detail of budget, concept, facility, resources, content and live execution. Lou's passion is the creative use of technology to transform an embryonic vision into an exciting event. Examples? The 2004 Juno Awards, projecting the Sistine Chapel on a ballroom ceiling, inventing an interactive game show in PowerPoint, and more recently, a pull-out-the-stops event opener involving laser, lighting and pyro special effects. ("The crowd went wild," recounts Lou.) This avid motorcycle enthusiast has been in the industry for close to 15 years, and serves on the national Training Advisory team.

Bob Dreger is a partner in Mediaco Edmonton and Calgary. He serves as operations manager for Alberta, providing timely and effective coordination of traffic and resources in the region. His decade of experience includes management of audiovisual services at both Edmonton and Victoria convention centres. Bob also chairs the Technical Advisory team.

Jim Frith is a director of production based at Mediaco Vancouver. To be really precise, you'd have to say Jim's 30-plus grown-up years in the industry actually began in Grade 5, when he was selected to act as school projectionist. Like just about everyone at Mediaco, Jim is thoroughly hooked on the constant fascination afforded by the variety of events, people, venues and new challenges. Although Jim has been an innovator with many technologies, it's his unquestioned reliability and calming demeanour that have made him one of our most requested production managers. Jim serves on the Training team, and is also Mediaco's health and safety officer.

Michael Fuoco is Mediaco Vancouver's director of sales, and puts to use a wealth of events experience that few in the industry can equal. In over 25 years he has applied his technical expertise and uncompromising service standards to some of the country's biggest, most challenging events. Mike is actively involved on the Sales and Marketing team, as well as the Technical Advisory team.

Bruce Hennel is an Edmonton based production manager who for more than twelve years has toured across Canada and the US focusing on theatre and other multi faceted events. His experience managing complex video, lighting and audio productions is extensive, including such highlights as, production manager for the Canada Arctic Winter Games. Bruce believes every event is special in its own way and he enjoys making sure clients get not just everything they want...but much more.

Neil Konkel is a production coordinator with Mediaco's Toronto team. He enjoys his knack for keeping things "positive and productive" during events. The drive for quality is what motivates Neil; he has established strong rapport with clients over the past 5 years. He is known for his calm and relaxed demeanour even during stressful situations - for example, the high-stakes and very successful Pres. George W. Bush press conference in Ottawa in 2004. A background in music and sound recording gives Neil a strong advantage in show situations. Famously reliable and creative, Neil has made many friends in the audiovisual world and continues to excel his way toward a bright future.

Kevin Leinbach, a founder and principal of Mediaco, began his career in the industry working as a technician and sales manager in the early 1980s for a leading west coast audiovisual company. In 1989, he launched Mediaco with business partner James Brett. Kevin and James saw rich possibilities for a company that could distinguish itself through true innovation and an unswerving commitment to excellence. By focusing on that vision, and harnessing emerging video and computer technologies, they built Mediaco from a local audiovisual provider into an exceptional national presentation company. Kevin serves as chief operating officer, and has been a key force in the company's expansion successes. He chairs the national Communications and Operations team.

Ryan Lippert a production manager at Mediaco Toronto for five years, has clearly come a long way since his teenage days when he innovated tomato-can flood lights with homemade dimmers for a rock band gig. Like most Mediaco staff, operational responsibilities on location are closest to his heart. The essential "technology man", Ryan applies huge enthusiasm for innovation to the pursuit of client satisfaction whether it's a small company event or a world-leader summit. He is a member of the Technical Advisory team.

Neil MacNeil, a company principal, is both general manager of Mediaco Edmonton and a distinguished technical director and audio operator. Neil is fully involved in the creative aspects of event planning and production for Edmonton based events. He serves on both the national Communication and Operations team, and the Sales and Marketing team.

Chris Melito, Production Coordinator, and brings over 10 years of experience in the audiovisual industry to the production team. He has a passion for technology, and excels in understanding how best to apply it to enliven any communications strategy. His technical and artistic background serves him well in both the audio visual industry and with local theatre groups. A "jack of all trades" and master of quite a few, Chris is a bona fide audiophile, baseball fanatic and avid photographer

Bob Nagy is a technical coordinator with Mediaco Calgary. Bob's diverse background has given him strong capabilities in virtually every aspect of events technology including sound, lighting, visuals, video conferencing and set design. Graphics and 3D animation for live events and television is a key strength. In those rare spare moments, Bob enjoys writing and recording music on his own 16-track digital board. After 15 years in the audio visual production industry, Bob still loves the essence of the business: creating successful events and thrilled clients.

Derek Orr is on Mediaco's Calgary team where he works in sales and event coordination and implementation. Derek brings an enviably diverse 10-year background in the industry. Five years in event planning with Canadian Pacific Hotels gave him a foundation in sales, customer relations, team leadership and large facility management. It takes much more than large complex events to rattle Derek - he's professional skydiving instructor with over 2,000 jumps! Since joining the audio visual sector, he has developed a strong array of technical skills with a special interest in visuals.

Thom Pardoe is Mediaco Calgary's operations coordinator responsible for assembly and delivery of every component of an event's requirements, along with inventory and rentals management. Thom is also a writer, a musician of some note in Calgary, and an actor who has worked in print and radio journalism, theatre and local television (he started out playing a radio announcer in a play at age 10). With this rich media background, Thom often contributes above and beyond his core operations role.

Norman Reid, director of sales in Mediaco's Ottawa branch, has been supporting customers in the meeting and convention industry for over two decades. He has held positions as a technician, account executive and manager, locally and nationally. An unparalleled depth of experience in client services has come from events such as the Olympic Games, International Summits and Federal Election campaigns - not to mention hundreds of government meetings and private sector conferences and conventions. Norman's specialty is meeting every client's needs, ensuring that his customers and their events look great.

Jamie Richardson is general manager of Mediaco Toronto. A passion for theatre led to a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Victoria. A livelong theatre and music-lover (and guitar player) Jamie puts this creative focus to truly amazing use in designing and supervising extraordinary solutions for all manner of events. Memorable projects? Too numerous to mention but he highlights the recent Federal Election campaign, having met two Prime Ministers, and a visit by HRH Prince Charles. However, Jamie says, "My best experiences are when I know we've contributed to our client's success. It's even better when an event has a larger political or social significance - when I see the joy and relief in my client's eyes!" Jamie serves on the national Sales and Marketing and Training teams.

Todd Rosner, is Mediaco's National Information Technology manager who's responsible for the overall design, deployment, production and uptime of Mediaco's nation-wide network. Todd's proven ability to transform business needs into effective technical solutions is complimented by strong data management, technical documentation and creative problem solving skills. Todd brings several years of diverse IT related skills that include but are not limited to; UNIX, Linux, Windows, network design, Internet security, streaming media, VOIP, database administration and web application programming. "Mediaco is one of the most challenging environments that I've ever worked in, largely due to the challenging nature of the AV Industry and how it can cross-over into IT. If you're looking for a challenge, join Mediaco!"

Kevin Schnarr is an Alberta production manager based in Edmonton who has been involved in live event production for 10 years. In addition to production management, Kevin is a video specialist. He is highly experienced in projection, camera, switching and technical direction.

Guy Skipworth is Mediaco's director of strategic initiatives, and comes equipped with 20 years of successfully promoting ideas, services, products and personalities in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Guy's career started in journalism as a reporter for a daily newspaper and since then he has advised Premiers, Prime Ministers, Ministers and CEOs in the art of communicating their message. Our clients benefit from Guy's understanding of the media and the challenges faced by those working to deliver their message. A co-founder of satellite provider Star Choice, Guy has organized events across Canada, and in such diverse places as Rockefeller Centre in New York and the Presidential Residence in Mexico. He holds a degree in Political Science and Law from Carleton University, completed the Canadian Securities Course - and has suffered for many years as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

Shawn Smith is a production coordinator at Mediaco Edmonton. Equally at home at the audio controls, Shawn is also known as a mastermind of graphics, animation and video. He has developed advanced graphics techniques that mimic the production values of television - the kind of innovation that exemplifies the Mediaco difference. A memorable moment? "When the legendary Alice Cooper sat down beside me at the 2004 Junos and asked, `What does this button do?'"

Steve Therrien is both Mediaco Vancouver's operations manager and a production manager. As operations manager and resident problem-solver, he supports production managers by ensuring that every component of the project plan - equipment, personnel, vehicles - is in place for a successful event. Case in point: the recent federal election campaign that saw Mediaco serving the campaigns of all three major parties. Steve, assigned to the NDP, calls the experience a career highpoint. How much does Steve love his job? Maybe too much - "My wife sometimes has to call me and remind me to come home."

Paul Webber is an account executive with Mediaco Calgary. He comes to Mediaco with 17 years experience in the audio visual production and event staging industry. Equipped with both technical and sales skills, Paul has handled all aspects of event production, from developing the concept to executing the show. Right from his beginning in the industry, Paul has had a passion for deploying video projection in interesting, unique ways to enhance special events.