Jake Berry Announced To Lead Pollstar’s Production Live! Programming

Hyoung Chang/ The Denver Post – Jake Berry
Production legend Jake Berry has been announced to lead Pollstar’s 2019 Production Live! programming. Here, Berry stands before U2’s famed 360 tour claw at Denver’s Mile High Stadium on May 19, 2011.

Pollstar today announced that tour production legend Jake Berry has been hired to lead the programming of Production Live!, the production component of the 2019 Pollstar Live! conference and awards which runs Feb. 11-13 at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton.  

Berry, whose Jake Berry Productions has run tour production for everyone from U2, Rolling Stones and Beyoncé to AC/DC, Madonna and Motley Crue (as well as Barney the Dinosaur’s live show) has more than forty years experience working in the trenches and front line of some of the concert business’ most massive tours. In addition to working on U2’s record-setting 360 Tour, this week Berry wrapped U2’s latest Experience + Innocence tour in Berlin. 

“The road crew can make or break your show and what happens every night,” said Berry, who has more experience creating concert productions that both enhance artistry and wow fans than anyone in the industry.  With that in mind, Berry said his goal in programming Production Live!, to take place Feb. 11, is to “create exciting panels filled with what people want to hear about and not have subjects rammed down their throats. We want to make them interesting, funny, educational and informative.” 

“Production Live has been the fastest-growing segment of Pollstar Live! and bringing into the fold Jake Berry, whose resume in live entertainment is unparalleled, will insure we have the most insightful, entertaining and informative discussions on concert production in the world,” said Ray Waddell, president of OVG’s Media & Conferences division which oversees Pollstar Live! “The opportunity to tap into Jake’s vast concert production experience, along with his humor and unique worldview, will only serve to add to Production Live’s growing reputation as the most premium production-centric gathering anywhere. If you’re in the business of producing live events, you need to come to Production Live and mind-meld with Jake!”

Berry, a touring veteran who got his start in an incredibly “roundabout” way (helping his brother repair Yes’ Rick Wakeman’s thatched roof house in Devon, England), explained why he is a fan of active audience participation. “There’s no set format and anybody can come and ask any question about anything at any time, like, ‘Have you had any major screw-ups on the road?’ Or ‘What’s the funniest story you can remember?’”

Thus far, Production Live! has announced the following panels:

• Rock N Roll Fantasy: How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Can Transform Live Entertainment
• Bells & Whistles & Shiny New Toys: The Hot Stuff in Sound, Lights & Videos

• OK, What Do I Need to Know: Global Regulations Update

For more information on Production Live! and Pollstar Live! and to get early-bird registration rates while you still can, click here.