IPS has recently said goodbye to our Summer Staff – find out what they got up to here
Every year, IPS takes on a small team of new event industry starters over the summer season. Mainly working the busy Staging and Structures side of the company, the summer staff get involved with all the practical aspects of production from warehouse prep to onsite delivery. Typically, the summer staff are students on technical courses who join us over their summer break to get practical experience, and earn some money, before continuing their studies. 
The summer staff tend to get involved in projects right from the start, and this year was no exception with Davis, Jay, Owen, Ray and Rhys quickly getting to know the rest of the IPS team. They also had the opportunity to work in some of the technical departments of the company – between them covering most of our production areas.
The 2019 summer staff have worked on projects with Rod Stewart, Rammstein (to drop some names) and at all sorts of festival sites across the UK, plus a range of venues from the NEC and 02 Arena to the Marshall Arena here in Milton Keynes.Although they will have learnt a lot about LiteDeck, 
a wide range of tasks have been completed from building staging, loading and unloading trucks to testing equipment, setting up LED Screen systems and Lighting rigs and much more. The summer staff all worked really hard alongside our team, and we very much appreciate their efforts and would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them again, and we hope to see them all again soon.
Many of the IPS team have either studied on an entertainment related course or have started with the company on a summer staff basis. This gives both sides an opportunity to see how things work – and in many cases has led to some long-term working relationships. 
There isn’t really a typical way into this industry, and a combination of experience and qualification is always a good starting point. Although we focus a lot on equipment, it is the people that really make things happen.
Production Futures is an event that IPS have been supporting for a while and are delighted to be involved again for the 2019. This event is where we first met some of this year’s staff – and where we’ll start the search for the right people for the summer 2020 season. We also currently have various full-time warehouse-based vacancies, so have a look on the website here for application details if this is of interest. 
The 2019 Production Futures event is taking place at Fly by Nite Studios in Redditch on Wednesday 13th November. If you are just starting out, and looking to get into the technical side of the entertainment industry, Find out more about the event here: https://www.productionfutures.co.uk/
IPS will be exhibiting at the show, and there will be a chance to meet some of the team, find out a bit more about what we do, and find out more about the experiences of the 2019 summer staff - perhaps we’ll see you there!
