We get that question almost every day as we put our noses to the proverbial grindstone and crank out dates for bands such as Coldplay and Biohazard. How does a company such as ours manage to find people that can understand tour-date methodology in order to grasp the significance of Elton John playing in Canada or Julia Fordham appearing at a Virgin Megastore in Denver? And while we’re at it, how many virgins does a store need before it can be considered a “megastore,” anyway?”

Our employee screening process has come a long way since our founder, Festus Pollstar, used to stumble through the streets of Fresno offering anyone who would listen five cents an hour for entering Little Richard and Cab Calloway Orchestra tour information. Of course, Ol’ Festus had no intention of coughing up a single nickel, preferring instead to beat each and every worker unconscious when they demanded their pay at the end of the workday, and then sell their barely breathing, corpse-like bodies to non-accredited medical schools where they would be used for rib spreader demonstrations.

But modern labor laws being what they are, we no longer follow the human resources trail blazed by Festus more than 70 years ago. However, filling the processing pits with workers that can handle the daily data flow of dates for Aerosmith, Ian Anderson and Beth Orton is only half the battle. Like all companies, we must prepare for the days ahead as well. As the old proverb goes, “Those who do not remember the past, such as Vanilla Ice in Albany, New York on July 11th are condemned to repeat it,” and most of you probably would agree that a little “Ice, Ice, Baby” goes a long way in 2002.

So many worthy applicants, so few jobs. And we hate to turn away highly qualified people who are perfectly capable of processing schedules for Anthony Gomes and Original Sinners just because all our cubicles are full. That is why we select a handful of the best daily applicants and then cryogenically freeze them so that their talents may be utilized to the best of our advantage in the years to come.

But, alas. We still find ourselves turning away hundreds upon hundreds of hopeful workers from our gates each morning. No matter if we’re hiring someone to handle today’s dates for the Goo Goo Dolls or tomorrow’s dates for Cher, we must interview thousands of people in order to find a few good men and women to toss on ice for that day when we’ll need them most – entering the 2005 Jimmy Buffett tour, the 2010 Britney Spears tour and 2075 tour for The Rolling Stones.

You might even say, that when it comes to our hiring practices, many are called, but few are frozen.