What is a technical assistant?

Every few months, artlogic features a different type of event crew to offer a better understanding of its roles and responsibilities. This month we will focus on technical assistants.

Technical assistants – or Tech Assists as we like to call them – are one of the three main types of crew that artlogic provides:

•  Support Staff, such as stagehands, work under the supervision and follow the instructions of an assistant or technician and are not responsible for the work accomplished. Their main tasks include loading/unloading, moving furniture…
• Technical assistants follow the instructions of a technician, work independently but are not responsible for the work accomplished. Their main tasks include assisting with AV/sound/lighting installations, setting up booths…
• Specialists, such as technicians (light, sound, AV), forklift drivers, crew coordinators, decorators… They work independently without supervision and are responsible for the work accomplished.

 artlogic initiated the use of the term “technical assistants”  many years ago in order to distinguish between crews in terms of experience and knowledge. This helped improve the quality of the teams and better match its client’s needs onsite. 

Technical assistants have experience as well as a basic level of knowledge in AV, sound and lighting. They can assist booth builders or technicians for example. Once they are given instructions, they can work independently without supervision. A technician is then required to approve the work accomplished. As opposed to a specialist, technical assistants are not responsible for the work accomplished onsite but they can work independently unlike a stagehand. 

From experience, when booking stagehands for example, it is highly beneficial to book one of the crew as a technical assistant to increase the quality of the crew. Or for even better results, instead of booking 6 stagehands, book 4 technical assistants: faster at lesser cost.

At artlogic, our new crew can start as stagehands and are given the opportunity to become a tech assist and evolve towards a technician position thanks to our internal training and great work/projects in the events industry.

If you would like further information on the types of crew we provide, please do not hesitate to contact your local artlogic office.