Spotlight on… Britt Yenser, Director of Event Technology, Moravian University
Connect with Britt:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/britt-yenser
Thank you for joining me for this month’s edition of the “Tech Manager Spotlight.” Start by telling us a little about what you do and a little about your background.
Thanks for inviting me! I am currently the Director of Event Technology at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I oversee the technology needed for events, from planning to post-production. I support a wide range of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events including but not limited to meetings, conferences, guest lecturers, performers, and annual campus events. By the end of our fiscal year, the Media Services calendar typically shows we’ve supported about 500 events. I accomplish this work with help from our Audiovisual Specialist and a small team of student employees, all of whom I oversee. In addition to all of the planning, communicating, and managing that go into my role, I often actively work events as the AV technician.
This is all a far cry from my background. I was a first-generation college student who wasn’t always confident I was going to graduate from college, let alone work at one. As a student, I worked for the Media Center anywhere from 15-20 hours per week, I was on the Residence Life Staff, and I was studying English and Secondary Education. When I graduated in 2014, I was amazed that I’d navigated the Higher Ed waters in four years; I was tired, hungry, broke, and off to pursue my then-calling—teaching.
Have you always worked in AV? What did the path look like for you to get to where you are now?
Nope! As I alluded to above, I started my career as a High School English teacher. Not only was I a certified teacher working full time, but I was also a Teach for America (TFA) corps member. I taught English for two years in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I wouldn’t give up that experience for anything. It was challenging, rewarding, and helped me hone all of the soft skills I still rely on today. It also taught me the importance of data, which I don’t think I would have learned otherwise.
Unfortunately for my CT teaching career, I am a Pennsylvania girl at heart. Two years in CT meant two years of missing my home state. (I mean, really, there is not a single Wawa in CT.) I made the difficult decision to move back to PA, where I was presented with the opportunity to pursue a new career with my beloved Media Center at Moravian. This was a tough call, but I decided to pivot. I credited the Media Center with my ability to graduate in the first place, as all of the income I’d made at that job went toward my tuition and frugal living expenses. I didn’t feel 100% confident as an AV professional, given my only experience was as a student employee. But I did know and love the campus, I had a good amount of experience with the campus’s technology, and I leaned into my belief that anyone can learn anything if they put their mind to it.
Over time, it became obvious that our events were increasing in volume and complexity, and they needed a dedicated professional to oversee their AV goals. My aforementioned soft skills and the AV I felt confident with lead me to my current role in our small department.
What is your morning routine?
I’ll be honest, I did not have a solid routine until I started this new year. My morning always consisted of certain things, but they weren’t always in the same order, and they definitely did not happen in a timely manner. I live with the depression/anxiety cocktail, and somedays “Get out of bed” might as well be “Go climb Mount Everest.” That said, this is the routine I’ve settled into, and am gently pushing myself to maintain: Wake up at 5:45 AM. Read a Bible passage (this allows me to wake up my brain and feel motivated to start my day without quite leaving my bed yet). Drink water! Work out. Get ready for work and leave by 7:20 AM.
A fun fact about my commute: I stop by my in-law’s house every morning in order to drop off my dog, Swayze, because he has severe separation anxiety and can’t be without an Emotional Support Human.
I get to work at 8 AM, at which point I do the morning half of my Five-Minute Journal and check in on my weekly goals. I drink coffee. I catch up with colleagues and talk about our goals for the day, as well as write and send thank you notes. I eat whatever breakfast I packed for myself. I literally keep my Google calendar blocked off from 8 AM to 8:30 AM every day in order to maintain this morning structure, and to be able to ease into my day. I’ve learned that structure and routine are important to my mental health.
What does an average weekday look like for you?
I learned that if you do not schedule your day, someone else will schedule it for you. My average day has the first 30 minutes blocked as described above. I also block the last 30 minutes, so I have dedicated time to wrap up my day and set my schedule for the next day. I’m an inbox zero person, so I have 2-3 strategically placed 20-minute time blocks for emails and the action items they generate. I average between 2-4 meetings per day. And each time a meeting is added to my calendar, I block some amount of time before and after it. (That way I have travel time on campus, I can prepare for the meeting, and I can revisit my notes and generate action items immediately following the meeting). If it’s a lighter meeting day, I will schedule out and complete tasks like processing upcoming event needs, projects, and professional development.
When I’m off of work, I’ll spend time with my husband (Chase,) dog (Swayze,) and cat (Mona.) I’ll do some chores, read a book, do my volunteer work—pretty mundane stuff. I always end my day with the second half of my Five-Minute Journal and pushing Swayze off of my pillow.
What does your busiest day look like? What are the challenges your role faces, and how do you overcome those?
My busiest day is the one where I have my “event technician” hat on. Sometimes, for whatever reason, neither the student employees nor the AV Specialist can support an event—so I cover the AV labor. I do enjoy working events, but this means I have less time for all of my administrative, planning, and managing duties. But those things still need to get done…so I end up “cramming 10 tons of stuff into a 5-ton bag” as my mom would say.
I would argue the biggest challenge for my role is managing the student employees. While this has eased up a little bit now that I have an AV Specialist to take on some of these duties, it’s still its own job. And it is a never-ending job, because of its high “turn over.” Even if you hire a freshman in their first semester, you only have them for four years—that’s not actually a long time given how much there is to learn for this position. I overcome the challenges associated with running a student employment program by sticking to the program I developed. We have a solid Common Purpose and Quality Standards, recruiting cycle, onboarding process, training program, management protocol, and even “offboarding” so that we say, “So long, and thanks for all the fish!” to each student in the right way. If I hadn’t developed the program the way I have, I would probably go insane.
What do you enjoy doing on weekends? How do you spend your time outside of work?
I really enjoy being involved with my church. It’s our 150th Anniversary this year, and I am actually the chair of the committee that’s organizing all of our celebratory events. (Do I just like, LOVE events, or what?)
I also enjoy going to the movies with my friends. It’s not so much about seeing a movie as it is getting together to do something. (Although we do ascribe to the “so bad, it’s good” philosophy when choosing a movie to see). If it’s May through October, you’ll find us at The Mahoning Drive In Theater, where the movies are on 35 MM film, and we can bring Swayze along. One of our friends even organized a pro wrestling show at the drive in, and Swayze was a big fan of that. We’ve also seen some great acts at The Mahoning, like Bruce Campbell when he was on his Keep Your Distance Tour.
When I need to unplug, I garden. I yard sale. When I need to feel really good, I do (I kid you not) a Richard Simmons workout. I have an extensive Richard Simmons collection, most of which are VHS I found at the aforementioned yard sales.
What energizes you and inspires you?
As an introvert, I’m energized by quiet alone time. If this quiet alone time is outside, that’s even better. I’m inspired by people who are excited about what they do. If someone else is enthusiastic, I will catch that enthusiasm and be excited right along with them.
If another tech manager were to follow you around all day, what would they most be surprised by? What would they learn?
They might be surprised by how I can still be analog with some things. While I do most of my work and even personal projects digitally, I still carry around a notebook and different colored pens. I also still prefer to read physical books. I have no real reasoning for either of this. Sometimes my brain just wants paper and pens, or to hold a book and turn the page.
They also might be surprised by how much of my work is resource based. By that I mean AV that is added to the room and not already installed. Our campus does not have a dedicated events center or even a space that is most commonly used for events. That means I am often tasked with determining what equipment can be added to a space, either in addition to installed equipment or stand-alone, temporarily to meet the AV goal.
I think they would learn about time management and organization. I need to balance a lot of work tasks with volunteer work, personal projects, self-care, and time with my family. Successfully integrating all of that into a day means careful planning and finding ways for tasks to go as smoothly as possible. I know exactly what I’m doing next, where things are, who needs to do what, how things need to get done, and why.
Tell us about the project(s) you are currently working on now?
Now that it’s the Spring Semester, my biggest project is planning for Commencement. We transform either Makuvek Field or the ARC (weather dependent) into an event venue worthy of Commencement. We can’t always fit all of the guests into the main event space, especially if we move indoors, so we also plan for overflow locations around the campus. It takes at least 4 months of planning, coordinating, and testing equipment to host a successful Commencement from an AV perspective.
The Spring Semester is also event heavy in general, averaging about 43 events per month. So, I will be busy taking care of the AV for all of the student, faculty, staff, and external client events taking place on campus.
Comparing your career path over time, what are some of the moments, accomplishments, or projects that you’re most proud of?
I think the event support I’m most proud of was the 2021 Bethlehem Conference on Moravian History and Music. This is a large, international conference, and in 2021 the pandemic was still ongoing, so the conference needed to be virtual. In order to prepare and plan for the conference, I researched not just AV best practices but event best practices. The events industry is its own vertical with vast amounts of accessible information if you know what to Google. I put together my own Best Practices documentation based on what I knew about the technology and what I knew the events industry considered to be key elements of virtual events. I shared these best practices with every key player of the conference. I trained their presenters and moderators on both the technology and the soft skills. (Soft skills are what take a virtual gathering to “this looks like a meeting” to “this looks like an event.”) I then trained the AV staff so they knew Zoom Webinar inside and out—what to do, what could go wrong, what to do when something went wrong, what to do when THAT went wrong, ad nauseum. Since this was a virtual event, I was also in charge of the venue—Zoom Webinar. I needed to juggle three webinar licenses in order to successfully schedule every session of the five-day, concurrent session conference. (And then make sure my technicians knew which license went to which session). When all was said and done, the conference was a huge success. So much so, that a faculty member later shared with me that when a conference attendee from Germany later had to create their own virtual conference, they said, “We modeled it off of what you did in Bethlehem.” You heard it here first, folks! I set international trends!
You’re involved with our higher ed AV-industry orgs. Talk about why you get involved in the way you do and how that is impacting both you and our vertical?
I only recently got more involved in higher ed AV-industry orgs, and I am bummed I didn’t start sooner. I enjoy connecting with other higher ed AV professionals because this is such a niche vertical. It’s amazing to talk to someone who knows exactly what you’re talking about. As I mentioned, I’m energized when people are excited by what they do. So, the more I talk to people about their work in higher ed AV, the more excited I am to do this work. I also appreciate how much we are willing to learn and share with one another. There’s no gatekeeping. There is a quote, “A rising tide raises all ships.” The more we communicate with and encourage each other, the better our vertical can be.
Where do you see your career trajectory going in the next five years? Where do you envision yourself?
Dude, I am so impressed by people who have an answer to this question. It might be surprising that I, the person who plans and organizes so many things, do not have a “five-year plan.” That’s not to say I don’t have goals, or don’t have some things mapped out. I think I see the future as an abstract concept, and I won’t know what I’m doing five years from now until I get there. I can definitely envision myself as being CTS, and probably still working in Higher Ed. Maybe I will have finally planted some garlic, since I think about adding that to my garden every year and then don’t. But, who’s to say? Check in again in five years, and I’ll let you know how things turned out.
What is your life motto and how do you apply it to your daily routine?
It’s not a motto so much as an affirmation, but my go-to is, “God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control.” This affirmation has gotten me through every type of day and situation.
The unofficial motto of my AV team is “Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.” As much as we plan, something is bound to go sideways in a live event. That’s what makes it challenging and rewarding. We aren’t just a team of AV technicians. We are an improv troupe, masters of mental acrobatics, and winners.
And, finally, I have three quotes hung at my desk that serve as inspiration to me throughout the day:
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the Ark; professionals built the Titanic.”
“If the apocalypse comes, beep me.”