Simão Silva: “Happy teams make an event successful”

Simão Silva

It was 'a little bit by chance' that Simão Silva ended up in the events industry.

Currently one of the business unit managers at RXF, he joined the audiovisual and multimedia company even before it was created...

"I jokingly say that I'm employee zero, because I was already working with Pedro [Miguel Ramos, the company's owner] on some IT projects before the company was born. And so, I was invited to join this great company," he explains.

IT is his field of expertise, "more specifically systems and networks." At the beginning of RXF's activities, he held the position of IT technician, providing support to the offices of the 15 clients the company had at the time. "In reality, the audiovisual field passed me by a bit and I wasn't even that interested," he emphasizes.

But the scenario would change. "Sometime in early 2009, we started to have the IT Department becoming increasingly necessary in the events industry. It was increasingly requested to design network architecture at various conferences and also with interactivity solutions. From then on, I became 'addicted' and never let go of this area that provides us with so many experiences and dynamism. It's like watching a child grow," he adds.

Simão Silva's main motivation "is to see RXF growing day by day." "Having joined since day one, on March 20, 2007, it is really impressive to see what we were, what we achieved during the Covid phase, in 2020 and 2021, and what we have already achieved in 2022," says Simão Silva. He adds that there is another motivation, "which is not always unanimous," which is related to the dynamism of the events industry. "One day we can be in a hotel in Lisbon, the next day we can be in Seville or Budapest at a completely different type of event. Although it is challenging on a personal level, it becomes fantastic to see the result of all projects, regardless of their complexity."

This is undoubtedly what Simão Silva likes about this activity, "seeing the final result of a project after several months of planning, where teams from various areas work together for the success of the event. And I always have a maxim that is: we do each project with professionalism and fun, because if we don't, it's because we're not doing it well. Happy teams make the success of an event."

On the other hand, "the less pleasant side of this area will undoubtedly be the hours spent on each project so that the client has their event as they envisioned. I say less pleasant because, in reality, it ends up being part of almost all projects, as sometimes we have some unpredictabilities that we cannot control and are normal in all areas," he emphasizes.

"Meeting all the challenges presented"

Faced with the difficulty of choosing the most significant event of his career, Simão Silva created a 'Top 3'. Thus, he highlights the BCG event in 2019, "where we had several venues simultaneously, with about 2,000 people, for a week"; the Portuguese Congress of Cardiology in 2016, "as it was RXF's debut in this congress and medical society, where we were responsible for audiovisuals, platforms, digital posters, etc."; and the reinvention of the company in times of Covid, "perhaps the most significant event" and a mandatory reference.

"After we closed in mid-March, we were able to gather the entire team and design our future, even in a new direction. By May 2020, we were already doing events in our studio 1, and in the last quarter of that year, we produced all events that were usually face-to-face in a completely virtual mode, and successfully," he emphasizes.

For Simão Silva, this "was a phase where we had to do things differently and we did it quickly and effectively." And he adds: "Today we can clearly state that, in addition to helping existing clients with different innovative solutions during this Covid phase, we also had new clients who sought us out for innovation."

This was, therefore, a very important and remarkable phase, which led to the reinvention of the company, starting in March 2020, with hybrid events. "We were able to respond to all the challenges proposed, and that can only be achieved with a fantastic team where everyone - logistics, audiovisuals, video and photography, and information technologies - contributed."

"We all ended the day laughing about the situation"

Simão Silva has several stories related to his work. One of the most memorable happened at an event that was supposed to end in the late afternoon, but due to the hurricane 'Leslie,' if I remember correctly, they had to close the event in the morning and do one of the fastest dismantlings of their life.

Another memorable event that Simão Silva remembers was when he started migrating to the events area. He was challenged to do the presentations alone in front of an auditorium with about 500 people. "I just have to say that I was only 21 years old and had never been in such an imposing room. After that initial and necessary nervousness that makes us grow, I managed to do the event with a lot of sweat," he says.

In his 15 years of activity in the field, Simão Silva has accumulated many hilarious moments. "The problem is that there isn't just one..." Among so many episodes, the business unit manager of RXF refers to one that happened during a live broadcast of an otorhinolaryngology surgery for an event that was taking place elsewhere, where the participants were.

"The team was new and one of the camera operators had not told us that he was sensitive to this type of surgery and blood. Shortly after the surgery started, we noticed that one of the cameras was slowly pointing to the ceiling of the operating room. Amidst the chaos of trying to solve and communicate with the other operators, we realized that the operator of that camera had fainted due to his sensitivity to this type of live intervention! After a few minutes, we had to find a replacement in the team and ask for support from a nurse in the hospital," he recalls, adding: "Although it was a frustrating situation for the client, we all ended the day laughing about it. That operator still works with us today, but we leave this type of project to another team."

Regarding those moments when things may not have gone exactly as planned, Simão Silva remembers that "in this field, we usually say that no matter how much planning and backup we have, we are always 'hostages to the equipment'". And he explains that "sometimes, we can have the biggest and most complex setup mounted and a cable fails, but here, my opinion is that anything can happen. With a safeguard, it is about solving the situation as quickly as possible."

Simão Silva concludes by saying that "to this day, we have no record of anything serious happening that was not resolved by the start of the event, and we hope it stays that way for many more years."

Published by: Event Point