JC Entertainment & Events offering live streaming from West Gosford
Event companies were one of the first industries shut down amid COVID-19 and are likely be one of the last to return when restrictions ease. But one innovative company refuses to quit.
Central Coast
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When the Flavours by the Sea festival was cancelled on March 21 — two days before Australia went into total lockdown — JC Entertainment & Events live streamed two of the bands that were to play.
Little did they realise at the time it was the start of a whole new way the company would reinvent itself to survive during the unprecedented pandemic sweeping the world.
Co-owners James Callaghan and Emma Paulley-Hughes said they watched as their bookings started to cancel as the state and federal governments began implementing social distancing measures.
“Then there was a 500 people event limit, then it quickly went down to 100 and then it went to nothing,” Ms Paulley-Hughes said.
“Most of our weddings were postponed and then all our corporate events.”
For an events business which was doing about five to six weddings a weekend, along with corporate functions and outdoor festivals for Central Coast Council, the writing was on the wall.
Ms Paulley-Hughes said they felt like rolling down the shutters and joining the unemployment line until things returned to normal.
“We (events industry) were the first to go and we’ll be the last to come back,” she said.
“But my partner is incredible like that, he said we’re not giving up.”
The couple cleared a space in their West Gosford warehouse, which usually housed trucks and converted it into a state-of-the-art live streaming studio.
The studio is available for anyone who needs to stream music, dance, gym or yoga classes, record and stream podcasts or a business looking to launch a new product or service.
A drummer by trade, Mr Callaghan originally started the business as an entertainment company with the motto “keep music alive” before Ms Paulley-Hughes added events to its offerings.
She said the live streaming studio was a return to the company’s roots in that they don’t charge bands who want to use it.
Instead they split whatever money is made down the middle.
Ms Paulley-Hughes said the live streaming has been “really successful” in keeping them busy and promoting their brand but conceded it was “not so much financially”.
With restrictions starting to ease for some businesses from Friday, Ms Paulley-Hughes anticipates it will be a long road ahead until the events industry bounces back.
“I don’t think it will be anything until we get to that 100 (people) mark for weddings,” she said.
“Although the current restrictions are in place, we are still planning ahead and hope things will return sooner rather than later.”
In the meantime their live streaming studio is available for anyone who needs to reach out to the masses.