From Theater To Audio-Visual Talents, It's Showtime For CTI Honoree Rachel Harris

ST. LOUIS, March 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Rachael Harris' LinkedIn page, immediately beneath her name is a six-word motto – sort of a bumper sticker for her life. It reads, "Showtime. All the time. Let's go!"

It pays homage to her 14 years in New York City theater as a lighting technician, technical director, stage manager, and production manager before she joined the corporate AV world. But it also refers to her continuing work ethic.

"My showtime mentality is one of the things that makes the way I work unique," she explains. "If you call me up and say, 'I want to do this show tomorrow,' I'll do it. That's where my heart and mentality lies. If we can do it, we'll do it. Although it sounds morbid, I'd actually be very comfortable having that [motto] on my tombstone."

Conference Technologies, Inc.® (CTI), a leading custom audio-visual systems integration solutions specialist, announced today that it is recognizing Harris as part of a "Heroes" campaign that honors outstanding people in the AV industry.

A theater arts major at Rutgers University, Harris worked for a variety of theatrical organizations, including the Apollo Theater, El Museo del Barrio, and MIST Harlem. That last venue had three performance spaces featuring film, live music, spoken word, and comedy from African and Latino artists, plus a restaurant.

"It was a new venue, very ambitious and very under-resourced," Harris recalls, "so I had a lot of opportunity to spread out and learn all the aspects of venue management. At any given time I could be the acting catering director, event salesperson, IT manager, technical director.

"We had a very complicated, high-end AV system, too, and were already livestreaming events back in 2012. We did all kinds of stuff, from big-name acts like Jill Scott and Lauren Hill to corporate events for PepsiCo and Essence Magazine."

Despite the excitement and learning involved in such work, Harris was finding it "a difficult life to build a life in. You pay for it in never being available to see your friends, because when it's time to play, you're working the play.

"I love the arts, and I always want to be a part of the arts. But I realized that maybe there were other ways for me to participate instead of having to sweat and bleed for it. I started thinking maybe I could build my career in another way in order to be more of a supporter of the arts than an executor. And the AV industry has allowed me to do that."

In 2016, Harris joined AVMI, a global AV integrator headquartered in the UK. (It was acquired by Kinly in 2020.) She managed the video-conferencing and events needs for financial institutions in the Greater New York area. Just over a year later, she joined one of those clients – Deutsche Bank – as its full-time AVP Service Delivery Manager. And then, in 2018, she jumped to American Express as a Senior Infrastructure Engineer, responsible primarily for livestreaming a wide variety of events to colleagues around the globe.

"It was an easy transition to make," says Harris, 41, "and it happened very quickly. I attribute that to my skill set, stagehand mentality, access to great leadership, and the inclusive and welcoming culture at American Express."

At the start of the pandemic, Harris and her five-member team had to quickly revamp the entire Amex live-events lineup into a virtual format. But they pulled it off and then watched as the entire corporate AV industry transitioned and expanded.
Harris says the biggest issue facing the AV industry today is the continuing refinement of the hybrid technology that made that transition possible. Some people will return to the office, but many won't, and developing technology needs to make that bridge continually better.

"Remember the old conference phone that was on the table during meetings?" she asks. "The people on the line couldn't hear half of the things being discussed. Well, that's over. Virtual attendees are no longer an afterthought. So what does hybrid technology mean, what does it look like, and how is it going to develop in the next few years? That's going to be very interesting and stimulating."

About Conference Technologies Inc.

Conference Technologies, Inc.® (CTI) (www.conferencetech.com) is a leading custom audio-visual systems integration solutions specialist. The St. Louis-based company, founded in 1988, has more than 20 offices across the country and offers a wide variety of services to customers in various industries around the world.

SOURCE Conference Technologies, Inc.