Getting To Know Your Pollstar Live! Panelists: Trent Hemphill

Pollstar Live!, the world’s largest gathering of live entertainment professionals, returns to the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, Feb. 21-23. The three-day conference is a flagship event for Pollstar magazine with compelling keynotes, panels, roundtables and the Pollstar Awards, celebrating the best in the business, along with plenty of opportunities to network and engage in insightful discussions.

Pollstar Live! kicks off with Production Live!, the one-day companion conference that features panels on all topics related to staging live events including lighting, video, stage management, sound technique, concert production, video, regulations, security and more.

Click these links for the Production Live! schedule and the Pollstar Live! schedule. Register for Pollstar Live! here.

Getting To Know Your Pollstar Live! Panelists

Trent Hemphill
President & CEO, Hemphill Brothers Coach Company
Panel: Fuel Prices, Labor and Gear: 2023 Outlook
Date/Time: Tuesday l Feb. 21 l 11:00 a.m.

Why must everyone go to your panel?
With 42 years of experience dealing with every issue you can imagine in the motorcoach industry and a whole gambit of clients from rock ’n’ roll to movie stars to presidents, myself, as well as everyone on the panel, is an expert in their field, so the amount of knowledge is immeasurable.

What story will you tell during the panel?
I will be telling stories about key interactions with some of our clients and moments where our company came through in tough times. For instance, when Taylor Swift’s dad brought her by to meet us at the young age of 14 or maybe the story of when Bob Dylan came by for a visit.

What’s the story you won’t tell?
Over the years, I have been required to sign many non-disclosures, so those are the stories I won’t be telling.

What may cause tempers to flare?
Our limited availability and our pricing in 2023.

What was the best part of your 2022?
We were able to run the whole fleet all year for the first time since 2019.

Your predictions for 2023’s live industry highlights?
We can already tell by what is on the books, it will be a record year for Hemphill Brothers. I think there will be some large stadium tours from some artists that we haven’t seen in a while. I feel like 2023 will set attendance records due to these factors.

Career tentpoles you are most proud of?
Supplying buses for “Good Morning America” for over 10 years during their sweeps weeks. Supplying buses for Oprah’s “ Wildest Dreams shows.” Building armored buses that are currently in the Secret Service’s fleet for the Presidential Detail that are basically rolling White Houses. (This is a first in history).

Furthered the recognition for the custom bus industry by filming a series of the show “Extreme RVs” that airs on the Travel Channel.

Hemphill Brothers were pioneers in developing a “Star Coach” for the entertainer industry. Up until then, 12 sleeper band and crew buses were primarily available.