I was talking with Peter Monahan and Josh Jacobstein over at the Rose Brand booth (#1039) and they were telling me that the current Hairspray tour probably looks a wee bit different than the Broadway version because assistant lighting designer Philip Rosenberg swapped out the LED units that were the hallmark of the original production with a Main Light Soft-LED curtain. It was done mostly as cost-cutting measure, but Monahan says it still looks pretty cool. I’m hoping we can cover that in more detail in an upcoming issue of Live Design.

ESTA just held a press conference officially announcing the Behind the Scenes initiative, which will provide financial support to entertainment technology professionals when they are seriously ill or injured. The ESTA Foundation is raising money for this event through several means, including the $125,000 Altman Family Challenge Grant, which Mike Wood spoke about earlier this morning. The Altman family will match all pledges and funds raised for Behind The Scenes in the first year–dollar for dollar–up to $125,000. At the press conference, ESTA announced they were already over the $40,000 mark, thanks in part to a $30k contribution to the program by the Foundation’s board of directors.

ESTA also unveiled the sweet new Harley-Davidson Sportser XL 883 that will be raffled off at the end of the show, the proceeds of which will go to Behind The Scenes. Yours truly bought two, and I don’tknow the first thing about them there motorcycles. But if I win, I encourage you all to get your cameras ready for a good laugh.

Hey, I know there are a lot of charities out there. But this is geared to our industry, and I think it’s something we should all try and get behind, Harley or no Harley. So get out those wallets and support this cause!

For more info check out theESTA Foundaton site.

Good morning all we’re standing here at the Live Design booth just before the show opens with Mr. Mike Wood, Treasurer for ESTA. I’ve snagged him here to get his comments about last night’s ESTA Dinner, which was by all accounts a huge success. Mike, what would you say were the high points?

MIKE:“For me it has to be Bobby Altman’s speech, where he discussed the reasons he and his family chose to support the brand new ESTA Foundation’s Behind The Scenes, the charitable endowment created to support technicians working in the entertainment technology business. He did a great job of getting to the heart of why we as an industry have a need, in fact an imperative, to help support our own.

“The performers have support and many other sectors of the industry have backup and safety nets to catch them if they fall whereas back-stage staff don’t. Bobby and his family have had the foresight to realize this and make the first challenge grant to the new endowment fund. If everyone follows Bobby’s lead we will very quickly be in a position to give back to the industry that we all love.”

That’s great, Mike, thanks for your time. We’re off to the ribbon cutting!

It’s just about 5pm here on the show floor Thursday evening and things are starting to shape up. Those with smaller booths (or those who have larger booths but are so organized its embarrassing to the rest of us) are ready to go for tomorrow’s 10am opening. The rest of us are still here, still sweaty in this air-condition-less hall, still wondering why it’s so hard to find coffee, and still putting on the finishing touches on the booths.

The Live Design staff are heading out of here in a few minutes to get ready for tonight’s ESTA Dinner over at the Rosen Plaza. ESTA Prez Bill Groener and company have a lot of important stuff to announce tonight so it’s expected to be a jam-packed evening. But they promise it won’t turn into an endless evening of Jerry Lewis telethon like proportions, and we’ll take their word for it.

We’ll have more on that event tomorrow, when the LDI blog really hits the ground running. In the meantime, maybe we’ll see some of you at the bar later. But not too later.

Welcome to the first ever edition of the LDI blog, where you will find updates on happenings from the show floor and after show activities, brought to you by the editors of the new Live Design magazine (formerly Lighting Dimensions and Entertainment Design). In addition to input from our editorial staff, we‘ll be featuring views from a variety of guest bloggers.

Stay tuned and check back regularly for updates throughout the show days…