UK - Production agency Mobile Promotions has joined forces with corporate events specialist Lloyd Paul Events. Taking effect from 20 January, Lloyd Paul Events will be integrated within and become part of Mobile Promotions, with the complimentary portfolio of clients strengthening the conference and incentive travel side of the company.

Both sharing legacies in the events industry of over 20 years, the two companies will work as one to grow all sides of the business, from brand engagement activities, roadshows and stunts to award, conference and event production, with an enhanced focu

UK - Blitz has added Andy Johnston to its workforce in the capacity of business development Manager.

Blitz has achieved five successive years of growth, with significant investment in both technology and project management talent, ensuring their service offering is at the highest level. With 15 years' experience in the events industry, most recently at MCL London, Andy brings a wealth of experience to the team; he will be ensuring the promotion of Blitz's increasing portfolio of services, and their expanding range of technologies unique to the events sector, says the company.

Sales

UK - Backstage Academy hosted a series of educational sessions about live events industry careers for students from South Yorkshire at the National Skills Academy's Creative Choices event in Sheffield on 10 January.

The creative industries careers event took place across Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield Theatres and the O2 Academy. It attracted over 350 14 -19-year-olds eager to learn about employment and career pathways in the creative industries. Live Nation's Paul Latham introduced the event by talking about how he got into the event industry, followed by talks from BBC Introducing's

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) have confirmed their continued sponsorship of promising young UK racing driver, Jack Goff, who is a hotly tipped contender in the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.

Jack returns with RCIB Insurance Racing Squad, to drive the Vauxhall Insignia for a second full season.

AC-ET were delighted with Jack's performance in his 2013 debut BTCC Championship last year. He achieved great pace over the season, including being second fastest for most of the race day at Silverstone and a well-earned second place podium finis

Grammy Awards - French dance duo Daft Punk took top honours at the Grammy Awards, winning five prizes including album and record of the year. Hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took four awards - best new artist plus best rap album, song and performance Justin Timberlake won three, while New Zealand teenager Lorde picked up two including song of the year for Royals.

Sir Paul McCartney was among the other double winners and also reunited with his Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr. The pair teamed up for Sir Paul's song Queenie Eye during the ceremony, which is known for its

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light has announced the appointment of industry veteran Ken Berreen as the company's distribution sales manager. Ken brings to the role more than 30 years experience with lighting and sound technology having worked at all levels of the entertainment industry. Previous roles include project management, lighting design, installation, hire, and sales experience most recently as European sales manager for well-known stage lighting manufacturers.

"I am happy to welcome Ken to White Light," says Peter Threadgold, White Light sales direc

USA / UK - PLASA has announced the launch of its International interactive job board. With its focus on the creative industries, the PLASA Job Board offers its members - and the creative industries at large - an easy-to-use and highly targeted resource for online employment connections.

"We're very excited about the PLASA Job Board because we know how critical it is for employers in the industry to attract first-rate talent with a minimum expenditure of time and resources," said Kacey Coffin, Director of Membership for PLASA worldwide. "And it's important for us to help

UK - Live entertainment sustainability consultancy :entertaining sustainability is partnering with energy measurement experts Measure My Energy to provide their full range of sophisticated, web-enabled smart energy meters.

The system, which is perfectly adapted for use in either performing arts buildings or supply chain warehouses has been developed to deliver easy-to-read live consumption information for electricity, water and gas direct to buildings or facilities managers securely over the internet.

The information gathered can help drive down energy use by identifying exact wasta

Sheffield triumphs - Sheffield Theatres has been named the best regional theatre for the second year running at the Stage Awards. The organisation, which runs the Crucible and Lyceum venues, was recognised for its range of new shows in the past season, such as its stage adaptation of The Full Monty.

The entertainment industry newspaper's 2014 awards also saw Hampstead Theatre named London theatre of the year. Michael Grandage's company was named producer of the year. The Donmar Warehouse's former artistic director was praised for his inaugural West End season, which feat

South Africa - DWR Distribution has announced the appointment of Bradley Bruchhausen who will provide sales and support to clients in Cape Town.

"Having a full time representative in Cape Town is something we always hoped for," said Duncan Riley of DWR. "It's so much easier for our clients to make a phone call and be assisted with someone who is in the area and who can help straight away." The team at DWR have wonderful Cape Town industry friends, which means that there will still be regular visits, roadshow and training. Once new premises have been found, the new

UK - Following a rigorous competitive tendering process, Star Events Group has announced a three-year contract to supply all of the East Ringside Hospitality Facility requirements for the Royal Windsor Horse Show (RWHS) at Windsor Castle, for the period 2014 to 2016.

Tez Sheals-Barrett, project manager and bid team leader for this contract for Star Events said that the news is perfectly timed, as the centre-piece of the contract is the company's new VISTA corporate viewing system, which is being officially launched at the Event Production Show. Star's delivery team includes their regu

UK - Creative & Cultural Skills' fifth Annual Conference, taking place on 6 March at The Backstage Centre, will attract 300 leaders from the education sector and the creative industries.

Keynote speakers include Ed Vaizey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Doug Richard, Founder of the School for Startups, Dragon's Den panellist and author of the Richard Review of Apprenticeships, Wayne Hemingway, Founder of HemingwayDesign, and Stella Mbubaegbu, Principal and Chief Executive, Highbury College, Portsmouth.

The creative indus

Russia - For the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014, Showforce has been working hard behind the scenes to help keep the build programme on schedule.

On behalf of logistics service provider, DB Schenker, Showforce has been working across 10 separate venues in the Russian city, supplying expert crew to fulfil detailed briefs and technical specifications. Five forklift drivers, each fluent in Russian, have been transporting and setting up broadcasting equipment for various broadcasters.

"This has been an extremely prestigious project for us," explains Showforce's COO Mike Smith. &quo

UK - Martin Locket has joined TSL Lighting as a business strategist. Martin, through his company Visible Spectrum, will be supporting MD Sam Tamplin and his team in developing and growing the range of services offered by TSL and the market sectors they are active in.

Martin commented, "I am really looking forward to working with TSL Lighting, as it is an exciting new approach to the lighting rental industry and a strong team behind a high quality emerging brand. There are lots of opportunities available to the company and I am looking forward to a long term involvement with the w

Education Initiative - The Musicians' Union has urged the government to do more to support music hubs, after a critical report from Ofsted claimed the publicly-funded initiative was largely failing. The union re-iterated its concern that the "completely unrealistic timeframe" set by the government to establish the hubs, combined with local authority funding cuts, had allowed the "postcode lottery" of provision in schools to worsen.

Funded by the Department for Education and administered through Arts Council England, the three-year £171 million programme was c

UK - Delta Sound has announced that Martin Locket will be working with their global senior management team, as a business strategy adviser. He will be providing input to the Delta Sound companies in the UK, Dubai and Qatar in various areas of business development and diversification; advising the team headed by Mark Bonner, Paul Keating and Andy Jackson on how to develop business and maximise opportunities. "2014 will be a year of advancement and opportunity," says Delta Sound.

Martin commented: "I am working with a number of exciting companies and brands in the product

UK - Event production skills training centre Backstage Academy has announced its new BS 7909 course. The two-day course is aimed at people working in the entertainment and events industry who want to gain an understanding of temporary electrical systems.

Based on the BS 7909 code of practice, which applies to a wide range of events, delegates will learn about the design, implementation and operation of temporary electrical systems.

Said Backstage Academy technical director Gareth Welbourn, "With the development of new technologies in our industry, we are working in an increasin

USA - PLASA Focus: Nashville 2014 looks set to be bigger and better than ever with over 60 exhibitors confirmed and organizers PLASA Events reporting a 20% increase in visitor registrations over the debut PLASA Focus: Nashville event, of July 2012. This year's show is returning to the same venue, the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, on 18-19 February, 2014.

On Tuesday, 18 February, Happy Hour will be held on the show floor from 5.00pm until 7.00pm, allowing visitors and exhibitors to continue networking into the evening. The reception is being supported by Gold Sponsors Link and Utralt

UK - PLASA has announced the launch of a major new industry survey designed to help guide the Association's future development of technical qualifications for the industry.

PLASA is carrying out a survey of employers and technicians across both theatre and live events in the UK in relation to the further development of qualifications and are calling for participation from employers and technicians in the live events and theatre sector. It is hoped data will emerge on how many technicians are working, both employed and freelance, and in which areas of specialism - and it will assess th

Shipping Bulletin - Sting's musical about shipbuilding in the North East of England has found a home on Broadway. The Last Ship, which is inspired by the singer's own childhood, will open at the Neil Simon Theatre on 30 September. The cast will include New York stage star Michael Esper and Irish singer and actress Rachel Tucker. It will also star fellow North East star Jimmy Nail, who Sting has previously said "gave me the courage to carry on" with the project. "He said 'this is very important, you have to do this, this story needs to be told,'" the musician t

UK - Fisher Productions has hired two new heads of departments to help further the company's continued growth.

Fisher's relationships with venues form a key part of their business and the expanding event production company have built a new Venues Team dedicated to planning and delivering events for this sector.

Rebecca Harris joins Fisher as general manager for venues, bringing 18 years events industry experience with her. Rebecca's career spans across agencies, catering and venues and her previous roles include positions at Hospitality Line, Concerto Live, Harbour & Jones, The Hemp

USA - CEDIA (the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) has announced a new modularised format for its EST (electronic systems technician) training courses to provide new and experienced installers with a more manageable training schedule which doesn't require too much time off site.

This restructure sees the EST1 Boot Camp and EST2 Technical School courses split down into more specific modules, each lasting one day and ending with an examination. As a result, the length of the units are reduced, meaning that installers can focus on a particular topic of interest and com

Canada - CAST of Toronto has launched The CAST Forum at http://forum.cast-soft.com. The forum is open to everyone and aims to serve both CAST product users as well as the entire entertainment & event production community, it is not just about CAST products. Forum members can post projects, ask questions, get technical support from the Community or just browse to see what others are doing.

The Forum is meant to bring members together regarding everything from design and programming for lighting, multimedia, audio, to new technologies, to working in other countries, to sharing tricks of

Record Breakers - London's major commercial and subsidised theatres have reported their 10th consecutive year of record box office takings, with more people visiting theatre in the capital in 2013 than ever before. Figures published by the Society of London Theatre - whose membership includes the 52 principal commercial and not-for-profit theatres in central London - revealed that gross box office returns rose to more than £585m, up 11% on 2012; attendances also increased, by 4%, up to 14.6m

According to SOLT, the results were down to the popularity of the shows on offer, with t

Latest Issue. . .