M+E Connections

Have you been enjoying your stay in the Upside Down World? These past nine months have been an astonishing 17 years for us, too. We are in awe of our friends in data, IT, and security who have delivered sweeping changes to corporate technology infrastructure in the midst of — and despite — the global turmoil. Standing ovation from us to you all.

If we’ve learned anything from 2020, it’s how vital data, security, and enterprise solutions are to our business. Indeed, these three legs of M&E infrastructure are keeping many companies open for business while delivering entertainment to a world that desperately needs an escape from these times.

For years now, we’ve been talking about “the future.” Many of us thought it was at least five years away. Little did we know that the journey to the “New Hollywood,” which is more Silicon Beach than stars and agents, would only take six months. What we’ve accomplished during this global crisis is revolutionary and will reverberate through the emergence and dovetail back into the real “new normal”.

It is only through the lens of this pandemic that we are realizing that the ideas we thought would take years are happening immediately.

To be sure, we’re standing at the intersection of cloud-based services and platform products that are weaving the fabric of thousands of interconnected systems designed to take a project from inception to infinity. Once upon a time, we were busy connecting the supply chain to get people into physical experiences.

Now, we are the direct link from creator to consumer, delivering home-based virtual experiences rather than at checkout or in the theater.

So what’s next? How do we maintain our relationships while adhering to local, regional, national and global safety guidelines? When will we get back to the glory days of dining and drinking and being part of a massive audience enjoying a concert, taking in a keynote, attending an all-hands company meeting? No one can say for sure, and in the interim MESA’s communities are solidifying our connection to constituents, and launching new platforms and programs to ensure we expand our network along with our possibilities.

We’re going to work harder to keep people connected, to keep our tools sharp and to be prepared for that opportunity as soon as it (safely) becomes available.

And there is so much we can do in this virtualized, diverse, equitable and inclusive technology universe. There are no borders nor barriers and (with a nod to Bill Gates) we can finally do “business at the speed of thought.”

For many of us, 2021 promises to be one of the most exciting times in our careers. It’s what our community predicted before the advent of IP-based delivery systems and what we’ve been working toward for years.

Where we once were connecting supply chains that drove people to physical experiences, now we’re a direct link to the consumer, creating more pathways to virtual experiences in their own homes. And it is that interconnectedness that makes this so novel and dependent upon a comprehensive strategy for those three pillars of data, IT and security.

Simply put: the inevitability of evolution is upon us. Let’s welcome new workflows, robust metadata, advanced security solutions, and the next step in technology to make it happen.

Technological evolutions are, in a real sense, a small part of this watershed year. The more important work has come around diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s humbling to hear of MESA community members ready to roll up their sleeves to do the hard work.

We at MESA stand united with the charge to greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in our technology workforce. It’s going to take longer than the nine months it took us to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean we can shrink from our responsibility.

Each of us brings something unique to this world, and we owe each other our very best. Yes, we are business people doing business things, but it’s time to rally, nurture, and inspire. It’s to grow. It’s time to entertain.

So, what’s next for you? You’re definitely in the right place. You always have been and we’re relying on you. No pressure. 😉

* By Guy Finley, president of MESA

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