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Behind the scenes stories, experiences and lessons shared by the world's leading event experts. Hosted by Christian Napier.
S1E12 - Ursula Romero
Christian | October 26, 2023 | Organizational history and stories
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Speaker A This is Event Masters. Behind the scenes stories,
experiences, and lessons shared by the world's leading
event experts, hosted by Christian Napier.
Speaker B Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Event
Masters, a behind the scenes look at the organization of
the world's most iconic events. And today we have one of
the world's most iconic guests with us, Ursula Romero.
It's a real honor to have you join us today, Ursula.
Thank you for joining. And why don't you just tell us
where you're joining us from and what you're currently
doing?
Speaker A Hello, Christian. Well, thank you for having me. It's
the same here. It's an honor. I am joining, I am
currently in a small town called Munopero, which is
about 100 km outside of Madrid, and I've come to spend
the weekend with my mom. So that's where I'm joining
from in Spain.
Speaker C Wow. Well, thank you for carving out time from your
weekend with mom to have a conversation with me. I mean,
I'm really, really grateful. Just so your guests or our
guests, the viewers and the listeners on the podcast
know a little bit more about you. So you are a producer,
a director, you've won awards, you've been in Cannes.
You are now also the co owner and the managing director
of ISB Company, which does host broadcasting and rights
distribution for major international sport events. And
according to your bio, most recently you produced the
live TV broadcast for the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf,
Germany. And you've also received international awards
for your film, Alan and the documentary Blindfold. One
thing I really want to ask you about is you studied
film, and you earned a BA in Film Studies from the
University of Utah, which is my hometown. I'm joining
from Sandy, Utah, and my wife and I are both University
of Utah alums. And you have an MA master of arts on
filmmaking by the London Film Academy. And then I have
to look here at my list because you speak so many
different languages english, Spanish, German, French,
Italian, Portuguese. What did I do? English, French,
German, French, Italian, Portuguese. That's six that
you're fluent in. And you can also converse in Russian,
Chinese and Greek. This is amazing. What an incredible
background. Ursula, like I said, man, this is a huge
honor for us to have you on here. And what I want to do
is ask you how you got started in this whole thing, how
you got started in this business, how you decided that
you wanted to have a career in film and in broadcast.
Speaker A Well, it's actually quite simple. Like many other young
girls, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I was not very
good in math. So my dad, who kind of dragged us around
the world doing television, one day said to me, do you
want to work at an event? And he sent me off to Germany
to work on the 1993 Athletics World Championships as a
runner or a liaison officer I can't remember. And I
worked for German TV and I just loved it. It was great.
It was spending the summer with Carl Lewis, et cetera at
the time. And on top of that, I can make some extra
money. So I said, I want to do this more. And then I
think the next one was 1994, the World Cup in Dallas,
where I worked for German television, again as a driver,
where I got lost few times in Dallas driving around. And
it was just so much fun that I said, well, I want to do
this forever. And then my dad, manola Romero opened ISB
in Salt Lake, and I started working there. But of course
he told me, as every good father, you need to have a
university. I said, you know, what should I do? And the
closest thing to TV was film. And I've always loved
film. So I started dreaming about Hollywood and LA. And
maybe going to UCLA. But then I just somehow I thought,
I can't do that to my parents and make them spend so
much money on big universities. And I thought,
University of Utah is right there. So I signed up for
the Film for Bachelor's at University of Utah. And I got
in and I was able to work on the Salt Lake Games and go
to university at the same time. So there you go.
Speaker C Wow. So your father, so for the five people who are
viewing this, who have not heard the name Manolo Romero,
really legend in this industry, who very, very sadly
left us last year, but he kind of got you started in
this family business. Did he push it, or was it just
completely up to you, hey, here's an opportunity. If you
want to do it, great. But do your own thing?
Speaker D No, he didn't push me at all. I think he probably would
have preferred me to be an engineer or a doctor or
something else, but it just kind of fell into it and I
just really enjoyed it. I love being at the event. I
love being around the people. I love the whole the
athletes being there. And at the same time, it is kind
of telling a story. So whether you do it in film or
whether you do it live, it's actually much more exciting
to do it live. And as you know, being at an event and
being at an Olympics, it's super thrilling and super
just having the whole world come together and meeting
all these people from everywhere. And I just loved it. I
did dabble a little bit in film, but at the end I always
ended up coming back because it was just so cool to be
able to live different places, meet new people from all
over the world. And it was just a natural sort of
progression. I tried to get away sometimes, which, when
I went to London after Salt lake. I actually moved to
Athens for the Olympics there and it was really great.
But then I said, okay, I'm going to try and do a
master's degree in film. And I did spend a year after I
did my Master's trying to find my way in the film world,
but I get reeled back in and we did the Pan American
Games in Rio. So it was like living in London or going
to know. So it was just kind of a no brainer, which is
where I met Michele for the first time. I know you did a
podcast with her and just meeting people like now. You
just had such a privilege and it's just a huge know. You
go from one Olympics to the other and you meet amazing
people like Tricia, like Christy, Nicolay, I mean, all
these people that you've already interviewed. So it was
just an amazing experience. And I think I just had my
first Olympics as experience that I remember is 1984 in
La where I was a spectator. And I remember going to see
Mary Lou Retton in gymnastics and we had accreditation.
My mom and I were able to go everywhere and it was
amazing. Barcelona, 1992, I think, was the last Olympics
that I actually went as a spectator. And just to be
there was just so cool. The Dream Team being able to
meet all these just I don't know, I just kind of got
hooked, I guess. And still to this day, I'm still
hooked. I mean, I just came back two days ago from
China. I was working on a cycling event. So it's just
the event world is fascinating.
Speaker C It is fascinating. And when you're telling me about your
experiences, I get the sense that you are really
fascinated by the stories of people, whether they're the
athletes or others, which has attracted you to this and
also to the film and the documentary side. And I'm
curious from your perspective, maybe you can give us a
little bit more detail about some of the key stories or
experiences that really helped shape you. You mentioned
that you got started actually on the work side of things
in 1993 in Germany. Why don't you unpack that experience
a little bit for us? Let us know what that was like.
Just coming in as a runner, in your first real
professional work experience doing a major event.
Speaker C Well, like I said, I think I didn't really have to learn
much because, you know, through osmosis and through
moving around because my parents and I basically moved
around with the Olympics for quite a while. I think
technically I am an Olympic Baby because I think I was
made in 1976 in Montreal, so my mom tells me. So I think
I just had an inside, but I just remember the whole
feeling of getting there. I was the young one and it was
just so cool because the other runners kind of took me
under their wing. I am by nature a shy person, I think.
So it was just really nice to feel like you're part of a
family. And everybody is in the same boat. And being
able to be in the stadium and get the feeling of all
these I mean, at the end of the day, as a liaison
officer, I was taking care of all the commentators and
running up and down the stairs in the stadium that was
packed. And back then, you had all the commentators were
there, and it was just so cool to be able to have on one
side German commentator, and the next to it, it was the
South American commentator and then the Russians, and
they were all there together, and it was just this
multitude of different countries. I think that's what
mostly attracted me to it, that you were able to have
under one roof the entire world. And everybody was there
for the same. And everybody, nobody looked at you, where
you're from, what you spoke, what accent you have or you
don't. Everybody is there for the same thing, and
everybody is admiring these incredible athletes. And to
be able to put that into images, I just thought it was
fascinating. So also, it was my first time. Away from
home, alone, so I was part of the adult world. So that
was also very cool. I got into trouble a couple of times
just because I forgot that I was 16 and I hung out with
the 20 something year old. So I got into trouble for
staying out too late one time. But it was a lot of fun.
And I think that's when I just realized this event world
is something special. It takes somebody special as well
to do it. I don't think not everybody is up for
sometimes you work 18 hours a day, sometimes you're you
know but it's so exciting that it doesn't really matter.
You just want to be part of it. And I think that's just
what attracted me to it. And I think the fact that it
was in Germany my mom is German, so my mother tongue is
German. And it was just very cool to be able to work for
German TV. And they also kind of took me under their
wing because I was the young one. And back then,
actually, it was quite funny because I was a little bit,
as you know, you kind of have these crazy ideas in your
head, but I was kind of embarrassed to be Manolo
Romero's daughter because I didn't want people to know
that I'm there. And I thought, I don't want people to
think that I'm treated differently or better. So I was
trying to pretend like I'm not. But, yeah, it was just a
great experience. And actually, one of the things that
kind of pushed me to go further is that they were
looking for somebody who spoke good English, and they
asked me if I could do some interviews in the mixed
zone. And that was just amazing. So I got to interview
like I said, I got to interview Carl Lewis, who was my
huge I was a huge fan and it was just know to be there
and to be able to interview all these amazing athletes.
Speaker C So, yeah, wow, I can't imagine what that experience to
be like as a 16 year old kid being able to interview an
athlete like Carl Lewis. I mean, how did you handle
that? I would have just been fumbling over my words. I
wouldn't have any idea how to handle myself as a 16 year
old.
Speaker D I think the interview probably didn't end up very good
because I don't know I'm already terrified of cameras,
but I think it went pretty well because I had a German
journalist with me, so I had to translate, but I was
overwhelmed. And then again, 94 the following year at
the World Cup in Dallas. That was also amazing because
they figured out that my driving skills in Dallas
weren't that great. So they sent me out to become a
stringer and to look know because of my language. And at
the end of the day, because of my name, I was able to go
and go to the different in the IBC, I was going around
to the different studios and asking to exchange athletes
for interviews to come into the German studio. So that
was also quite cool to be able to go, oh, I'm terrible
with names, but Pele, for example, or all those guys
that were sometimes working as commentators for other
studios. So I would go and say, hey, can we ask Pele to
come over in the German studio and to do an interview?
And so I would be like the young one that they would
send out to do all those kind of favors.
Speaker B Which again, I think is absolutely amazing because you
say, well, I'm camera shy, maybe I'm a little bit
introverted, but look at you going out and doing all of
this stuff. One of the questions I have for you is
you've had opportunity to work all over the globe doing
these things. And things work differently in different
countries. You mentioned Brazil. You mentioned Germany.
Here in the States you were just in China. Things work
differently. And you have to work with a lot of
stakeholders as a broadcaster to make sure that you have
the right access to the venue, that you've got the
camera positions and the proper places and so on and so
forth. And they have different cultures and different
ways of doing things. And so how have you been? Or maybe
you can tell us some stories about how you've navigated
that in different cultures, in different areas of the
world with a variety of stakeholders, because that can
be a challenging thing to figure out how to work
effectively in all these different places.
Speaker D Yeah, absolutely. Again, it's fascinating because I
think you need to like to be able to talk to people. I
love different cultures. I think one of the things that
I am extremely grateful of having this, being grown up
like this, is that my parents never I'm an only child as
well, so I think that it helps as well. But I change
schools so often that you just kind of have to suck it
up and go, okay, I'm either going to make friends or I'm
going to sit in the corner and be alone. And I opted for
the first version. So I've never been shy to talk to
people or make friends. And at the end of the day, we're
all people and everybody has their own way of doing
things, but I think you just have to adapt. So I think
there's challenges in every country, obviously. For
example, I don't know, Brazil. Things are a bit more
relaxed there, and you can't go in with a hammer saying,
okay, we need to get this done now. But you have to go
and have coffee and talk about life first and then
really make them realize that you're actually a friend.
And then you can start demanding camera platforms when
you're in other countries. You have to have a list and
you have to have it ready to go. Otherwise, if it's not
written down, it doesn't serve for anything. When you're
in China, you have to see China, for example, the first
time I got there to do the first surveys for 2008 for
the Olympics, people barely spoke English, and people
barely had seen foreigners anyway. And for a woman to
come in And tell them what to do, well, that was also
kind of a new thing, especially a foreign woman. So I
remember having my Chinese deputy. She was great. And we
would go to these meetings outside of Beijing to discuss
the cycling road venue, which was by the beautiful Great
Wall of China. But I remember being in a scene like
something out of James Bond, where we arrived in this
big room with a bunch of men sitting around smoking. And
we were the only females in the room. And every time I
would try and explain to them that I would like them to
put a camera position here or there or remove a pole
because it would block a camera position, they would
literally not even look at me. But they would only look
at my colleague. And she would then have to translate.
And then they would tell her, and she would translate,
but they would never actually look at me until I
actually and maybe this is not politically correct, but
I actually went for dinner and decided to join in the
drinking and got a little bit too drunk. But the next
day they were all smiling at me and shaking my hands,
and somehow the barrier was broken because I made a few
jokes and managed to not fall over. Somehow I'd gained
their trust and their respect, and after that, things
just went very smoothly. So I think you just have to
adapt and kind of feel what the vibe is and what people
are like and how they work. I think you can never come
into the country thinking that you know it all, but on
the contrary, you have to listen and you have to adapt.
And most of all, you have to offer your assistance
rather than saying, I know it better. And I think that's
what has been sort of my way of doing things. And so
far, I think it's been pretty successful.
Speaker B Well, I love this lesson that ultimately it comes down
to trust and building trust with people. And it is all
about people, because at the end of the day, even with
all of this incredible technology that we have, it all
comes down to the relationships. And so I appreciate you
sharing that. That being said, it is very complex, this
undertaking. Technology is constantly evolving. I'm
curious, from your perspective, did you face any
situations where something broke down, it wasn't
working? We had last week on Frank Supovitz, and he
talked about working the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans,
and the power went out for 35 minutes right after the
beginning of the second half. And he walked through how
they dealt with that situation. And that's one of the
unique things I think, about this business, is you just
can't push it back. You can't say, well, folks, can we
just postpone the Games another four months because
we're just not quite ready. I mean, you go when you go.
You have these deadlines and you have to meet them. And
sometimes everything works perfectly, and sometimes it
does not. And I'm just curious, in your experience, were
there any situations where something didn't work as you
were planning and you had to make decisions very rapidly
about, okay, well, this is what we're going to do?
Speaker D Well, I can certainly think of quite a few. And like you
said, the biggest difference between filmmaking, for
example, and live TV is that in film you can cut. And
you can go again and say, action, and go as many times
as the film is available or as the camera rolls. But in
live, you just have to go. And sometimes stuff happens.
Luckily. Well, I consider myself lucky that we haven't
had too many really bad situations. And generally for
big events like the Olympics and so on, we have a backup
for a backup of a backup. But for example, a few years
ago I remember we had just got our purchased a brand
new, beautiful little truck. And we were on our way me
and the technical manager were on our way to London just
after the Olympics, actually and we were doing a boxing
event at the Excel and we were told that everything was
fine. That the fiber was working perfectly, power,
everything was amazing. Don't worry, we've got
everything under control. And as soon as we got there,
they told us that there was no fiber available, even
though they had promised us. So we said okay, no
problem, we have our little satellite. We had a DSNG on
the truck, no problem, yeah, that's fine, you can jump
onto the satellite. We organized the satellite,
everybody was happy. And the next morning we started
setting up and we wanted to test the satellite. But of
course nobody has thought that the Excel is right in the
flight path with London City Airport. So we couldn't
find a satellite or we couldn't reach point at a
satellite. I mean, we tried everything. And then 3 hours
before the match, the first march started, my technical
manager looked at me and he said look, we can't get out,
we can't get the signal out. So we started calling. Of
course there was no other satellite truck was available.
It was all booked out and we were moving the truck
around. It was literally like putting a puzzle and it
just wouldn't work. And all of a sudden I had the whole
entire basketball boxing federation yelling at me saying
what the hell is going on? And I just said, look, I
can't do anything. I can't stick my finger out and point
at the satellite because it just doesn't work. And of
course the event organizers just kind of threw their
hands up in the air and said, well, there's nothing we
can do. And luckily, by sheer coincidence, there was a
friend of a friend of a friend who owned a small DSNG
company who happened to have a DSNG close by and they
came up screeching wheels around the corner and I think
the first hour of the session was recorded. And then the
rest we were not live, but it was probably the worst 5
hours of my life and I just wanted to find hole and jump
into it. But then you just have to gather all your
smiles and all your good positive energy and say, guys,
I'm sorry, it's nothing we can do. It's live television
and we'll try to fix it as much as possible and in the
end we did. But it happens.
Speaker B Oh man, I can't imagine the pressure you've got to have
some what I would call a roll with the punches
mentality, I think, to survive in this game. Because if
you don't have that then it will just overwhelm you. How
is it that you keep these experiences in perspective and
maintain your sanity when everything is just falling
apart around you?
Speaker D I don't know. I think I'm just probably quite a calm
person or calmer than I think. But in situations like
that I tend to just kind of go, well, there's nothing I
can do. There's only so much you just have to be
confident that you've done everything possible in your
power. And then I guess you need to have the right phone
number to call. You need to know who to contact. And if
you've done all your ABCD and you've come to the end of
the road, then that's it. And sometimes you just can't.
And then of course, you have to remind yourself that
we're not saving lives. There's actually a very funny
cartoon. It's a cartoon. It's like a meme where you have
two surgeons and they're in surgery and they're
stressing out over a person that they're doing surgery
on. And one of the doctors looks, looks at the other and
says, don't stress out, man. It's not live television.
So I guess it's the same thing. You just have to remind
yourself that at the end of the day, it's just
television and we're not saving lives. But we do have a
tendency to overdramatize sometimes. And I think that's
why a lot of people end up giving up or quitting in this
industry because it is quite stressful and you just have
to keep your calm and just say, look, there's always a
solution. My dad used to say, big problems have big
solutions. And then the other thing that unfortunately I
hate to use the saying that. He used and again,
apologies for the bad word, but he used to say
assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups. So you just
have to make sure that you cover all your what ifs and
buts. And if it doesn't work out, then that's it.
Speaker B Well, it sounds like to me like. He passed on a lot of
really valuable and hard won knowledge to you. And you
have kind of taken this over. We're talking about some
of the technical aspects of the broadcast elements with
live events, but you're actually running this business.
And I'm curious about the evolution from going from
someone who's kind of on the ground doing production to
then leading more of the production efforts to actually
then running the company. It requires certainly domain
expertise, but also some different or maybe
complementary skill sets. So perhaps you can just share
a little bit about how that evolution was for you going
from the 16 year old runner in Germany to now basically
running this business.
Speaker D I don't know. Like I said before. I think I'm pretty
good listener and I'm a good learner. So I think I just
kind of always listened to him and paid close attention
to him. We're a very small family, so we talked a lot.
He always explained everything to me and just by being
around him. But obviously I have my own ways. And I
think I've been kind of running the company now since
2000, I would say 2016, 2017. And then we had the
pandemic in between, which obviously brought everything
to a screeching halt. But I don't know, it's really
difficult. Also now is quite difficult than I think what
my dad lived because now the competition is very high.
There's so many events, there's so many different ways
of broadcasting events. You don't have just
broadcasting, you have streaming. You have anything from
Tier A level productions to, I don't know, D level
productions where it's just streaming through a phone.
And I think that has become also quite difficult in
trying to navigate and trying to understand what kind of
quality people are expecting or wanting and needing. And
at the same time, the good thing is that ISB is a fairly
small company. We're ten people and we grow depending on
the event. Last week. Obviously in order to grow, being
a private company, we have to go out and bid a lot,
which is the hardest thing actually for me because I
actually like being at the event and running around. But
doing the bidding and going out and selling. I don't
like to use that word, but at the end of the day is
finding clients. That to me is the most stressful part,
but you have to do it. But the good thing is that we are
a very small core team and we've all known each other
for a long time. We know how we work with each other and
then depending on the size of the event, we grow. But
sometimes it's basically just the ten of us and we roll
up our sleeves and if we have to pull cables, we pull
cable. If we have to run camera, run camera. I like to
direct quite a lot as well. So if I need to direct
something, I'll direct. Like a couple of weeks ago we
did the local Baseball Federation event here in Madrid
with five cameras and we did it basically, again, just
the ten of us. In a couple of weeks we're doing an event
with the International Modern Pentathlon Union in Bali,
which is only for streaming and it's a small event, but
again, it's all of us doing it. So we're all going to
travel together with our equipment and we're going to
just have some fun. And then obviously you have to deal
with events like the Invictus Games, where we had 230
people from all over the world in Germany in seven days
last year in Birmingham, Alabama, we had the World
Games, which were close to 350 people. So it just
shrinks and grows depending on the size of the event and
the beauty. And also the complication is that, again,
depending on where you are and which part of the world
you are, you have to use different approaches and
different methods to lead the group. And I'm a very
hands on and I don't believe in micromanagement. I want
to be able to delegate. And give people the benefit of
the doubt, which I think helps as well. But I also need
to know that I have people that I can trust. And if I
need to get angry or mad, then I will do it. But I have
a tendency to be, as people say, too good. But that's
just the way I am. I don't want to be a harsh leader or
anything like that. I think I'm part of the team and
we're all part of the team. And if I need to stay up
until three in the morning pulling cable, then I will do
that. And if I need to make coffee because people are
getting tired and we need to make coffee or sandwiches,
then I'm the first one there. And that's my philosophy.
I don't know if that's right or wrong, but that's how I
think I am. And my dad is also one of those people that
he has a reputation of having been tough, but I know
he's also the first one who will be the first one there
and the last one there. And same thing, if bricks need
to be laid or platform needs to be built removed, he
will be the first one who would have rolled up his
sleeves and done it. I think that's a very important
philosophy for this kind of work anyway, and that's what
I'm proud of. I think that's what I'm good at and making
people feel that we're all part of a team.
Speaker C Well, I want to ask you about that a little bit more and
you addressed it already, I think, in some of your
response here, but you mentioned that it's a small team,
but you've been together a long time, so whatever you're
doing is working because people want to stay. If you
weren't doing it that way then you would have a lot of
turnover and you'd always have to be cycling in new
people. But your core team, it sounds to me, from what
you're saying, is it's been together for a long time, so
that's a credit to you for being able to maintain that.
And one of the questions I have for you is how did you
navigate the pandemic? Because like you said, everything
just shut down. And I know for me, my own personal
experience, my contracts were frozen for extended period
of time. It was pretty dicey financially there for
little while and how were you able to actually maintain
it? There were a lot of people that left this industry
when it shut down. How were you able to actually
maintain your core during such a difficult, tricky,
uncertain time period?
Speaker D Well, obviously we all ended up working from home. I
think my dad and I had a long discussion and we felt
that this was going to be overcome and we kind of took a
step back and the first thing we did was talk to every
single one of our employees and said, look, you're
welcome to stay. Obviously the government ended up
giving out help and so on. But we decided that we were
going to offer our employees a reduced income. So we
reduced everybody's, including everyone, and we asked
everyone if they were willing to stay for a reduced
salary or if they wanted to quit and then go on to
welfare. But luckily, or luckily or I don't know if
luckily or not, but everybody decided to stay. We did
have to let go of one person, but that was something
because they had just recently joined and it was in
their benefit to go back home. Also what we also did is
we also kind of all of us pulled together and just
really went through every single bid tender process
there was. We came up with ideas, for example, with the
Karate Federation, which we have long standing
relationship with. We came up with some ideas to do some
streaming, to do some recaps with this Riverside, Zoom,
all these different platforms that came up. And we did
some sort of live commentary from experts, karate
experts from around the world. And we did a few things
here and there, but we really just did decide to go for
it. And we had enough of savings so that we can sustain
our employees. I think they all really appreciate it.
Obviously, at the end of the day, I did come kind of
down hard this year because we had a lot of events. So
we went from not doing much to really going crazy this
year. So it's been a really tough year in a good sense,
but it's been really tough with everything else that's
happened and it's been kind of full on. So we went from
doing absolutely nothing to all of a sudden being full
on. And I think somehow what comes around goes around.
And I believe in karma. I think being good and being
kind and being generous at the end of the day does pay
off somehow. And like I said, that's my way of life and
I think I'm not going to change that for a while at
least.
Speaker B Well, I think it's a great way to go. You mentioned that
you had to become creative in this pandemic because
we're all going to be working remotely and we have
commentators who are joining events remotely. That
wasn't really a thing. And I'm curious how you make that
shift. You're figuring this stuff out on the fly, but
then looking ahead, as you mentioned, the landscape is
rapidly evolving with all of these different streaming
options on social media and so on and so forth. And so
I'm curious to hear your take as well about what the
future holds for ISB and also for broadcast more
broadly. What does the future look like? Because things
seem to be changing very rapidly here in the last few
years.
Speaker D Well, I was just actually invited on a panel discussion
a few weeks ago at the IBC in Amsterdam, and it was
precisely about that. And it was talking about remote
production, whether it's good or not, whether it's
effective or not, whether it's sustainable or not,
whether it's more effective. And we have this chat with
our clients quite a lot, because obviously rumors go
around about remote production and TV productions, and
you can do so much. And of course you can, but there's
always a bunch of buts you need to have the right
scenario. You need to have the right conditions. And I
think, even though I shouldn't be saying this probably,
but I actually think that television is kind of a thing
of the past. And I think that more and more we are maybe
not my generation, but I don't think very many people
are going to be watching sports on television for very
much longer. Also, I don't think that you will have many
people sitting down and watchi whole football game or an
entire Athletics World Championships unless you are an
athlete yourself or you are a huge fan. So I think all
the content, the peripheral content that goes with it is
becoming more and more interesting. I think people are
more and more interested in the behind the scenes
stories and the side stories. And I also think that it
needs to be content that is quickly and easily
accessible, meaning over the phone or Ipad or one of the
many devices. So I think, for example, we work together
with the World Games Association and the next World
Games are going to be in China in 2025, which I'm
actually off on Sunday to have some meetings already to
start planning. And my chat to them is always we need to
think much more social media, we need to think vertical,
we need to think putting stories on that will go viral,
especially in a place like China where they love
anything that is on TikTok or any stories like that. I
think the consumption and the way we consume is changing
drastically. And of course, it's amazing to have your
big screen TV at home. And I think people still will
want to have their big screen TV at home to invite
people over so they can watch it in HDR, 4K, 8K, what
have you. But I think the general population doesn't
really care that much about the actual quality, but it's
more about the access to the actual sport and access to
their heroes. And I think that also changes the approach
of the production. It changes the budgets. And budgets
are in some occasions are becoming smaller and smaller
for the big sports like football, basketball, American
football, sorry, soccer. Obviously that's not going to
change for a while, but for other sports, I think the
federations and the organizers really have to rethink on
how they are presented. And we certainly are. I think
one of the pluses of having a small company like ours is
that we can easily sit down with our clients and talk to
them and listen to them and try and adapt for them and
come up with solutions for them. And we're always trying
to investigate and also test. I don't know, every time I
go to China, I come back with new ideas because they
always have new ideas on how to broadcast stuff and how
to stream it in a different way, in a more efficient
way, or maybe perhaps in a cheaper way. But at the end
of the day, it works. So we just have to open our minds
and maybe come up with new ideas. But we have to be very
careful when we use the word remote production. Because
it's not necessarily as easy or as simple or cheap as it
sounds. So I think it's a fine balance between what is
it that we want to tell, how do we want to tell it, and
most of all for whom. And that way I think that's also
one of the reasons why my film background is coming more
and more to the surface, because content production is
becoming more interesting, especially for sports. So now
we've also created a branch that is going to be focusing
more on content production because obviously there's so
many beautiful and fascinating stories out there. And I
think people are looking for more and more of these kind
of inspiring stories around the event, and not just
during the event. I don't know if I went a little I
think I went a little bit...
Speaker B I'm soaking it all in because what you're saying really
resonates with me. Because I am fascinated by people's
stories. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing here,
having conversations with people like you, because it
gives me an opportunity to hear the stories of amazing
people. And these stories are very powerful. I'm
preaching to the choir here, I know, but when you hear
somebody's story, whether it's a famous athlete or it's
the person who's running concessions or whatever, it
builds empathy and you build human connection. And I
think that even though we're all super plugged into our
devices, we're all using these things all the time. But
a lot of that consumption and a lot of this usage is to
try to build connection with people, right? So we are
watching stories, we're consuming content, we're sharing
content that's meaningful to us, with our tribe, and
it's all about connection. And so I think you're coming
from a great place because ultimately what you're trying
to do with your clients is find the ways that they can
connect with the people that they serve. And ultimately
it just comes down to that. So I think what you're doing
is absolutely so I appreciate you coming on and taking
an hour of your time to share your experiences.
Speaker B Before we wrap it up, though, I wanted to tell you as an
example I was just thinking, because you said if I had
examples but just now, as I was in China for the cycling
Tour of Guanxi, which is the last UCI world tour bring.
I usually go as a director or assistant director and I
bring motorbike teams. And my favorite helicopter camera
operator on the planet, which the commentator we had
there actually called Da Vinci because his shots were
just stunning. And Guanxi is an area that I just
recommend anyone to go because it's so stunningly
beautiful. But one of the stages he managed to and it
went viral on Chinese social media, but he managed to
grab close up of four Chinese people that had climbed on
one of these mountain. It's a very mountainous area, and
they had climbed and he managed to zoom in and get these
five people who had climbed up probably 100 meters just
to watch the cycling race. And he zoomed in and then
zoomed out and then revealed over this beautiful hill,
revealed the cyclist. And the social media said, who
thought that in China cycling is not popular. So these
people had climbed up all the way this mountain to be
able to see it. And the video went viral in you know, we
all assume that nobody watches cycling in China, but
obviously they do. And these are the little stories that
make it so.
Speaker B Oh, wow, that's now, I'm leaving open ended here. Any
other stories that you want to share with us?
Experiences that you've had in any of these wonderful
parts of the world that you've been able to serve in?
Any other stories that you want to share with us before
we wrap it up?
Speaker A Oh, my God. I don't know. There's so many. I don't know.
Speaker D For me, one of the most amazing moments was when I was
able to work on the opening ceremony in Beijing, and I
was able to go to the meetings with the creative
director of the opening ceremony, who is, for me, one of
my idols. And his name is Zhang Yimou. He's a Chinese
film director, and I studied him at the University of
Utah. And when I was able to go and hang out in his
creative meetings, it was just for me, it was like so
one of the days that we were there, it was really late
night, and I finally got the courage to ask his
assistants if I could actually go and say hello to him
personally. So that was very cool, I think. Barcelona
92, I remember being able to go onto the field of play
with all the athletes in the opening ceremony which was
also very amazing. I got to hang out with the Dream Team
or the NBA team. I don't know. There's so many amazing
stories. Also Salt Lake for the opening ceremony during
rehearsals, the guy who was the choreographer, his name
was Kenny Ortega. And chatting to him one evening turns
out that he was dancing with Fred Astaire. And then I
found out a few years later that he was choreographing
Michael Jackson's last tour, just things like that where
you don't even realize it. But then there's so many cool
moments that you just - My mom. I remember she was
telling me the other day she had lunch one time with
Jane Fonda in Switzerland, and then she was on the
helicopter with on the plane. I think they were flying
in 94, going from one venue to the other they were on a
plane together with Placido Domingo, the opera singer.
And then I remember she came back. And she was all
excited because she had seen Clinton right behind her.
So just silly things like that, but that just makes it
all there are moments that you just a really there's lot
of stories. I mean, I could go on forever. Which I'm
sure Michele had a lot of stories like that as well.
She's another amazing person.
Speaker B Yeah, she's fantastic. You can sit around at a bar and
you can just tell stories for hours, right? This is kind
of what we do in this event space. You get together and
everybody just starts telling stories, and before you
know it five hours have passed and everybody's sitting
around telling stories, which is one of the things that
I love about this industry. And I'm sorry that this
form, this podcast form doesn't give us that opportunity
unless we did want to record for five hours, but
everybody be exhausted by then. But this has been
absolutely fascinating, and I'm sure you've got many
more incredible wxperiences to come for you and for ISB.
If viewers and listeners, if they want to learn more
about the services ISB provides or the things that you
do, what's the best way for folks to actually reach out
and connect with you?
Speaker D Well, I'm on LinkedIn as Ursula Romero, and we also have
a website which is www.isbtv.es. And that's it. You're
welcome to reach out. Our web page is not very fancy,
but it has a lot it's basically what we do, who we are.
And our team is always happy to listen. And if we can
help in any know, we always love to help out. Even if
it's know advice or consulting or a happy hello.
Speaker C All right, fantastic. Well, Ursula will put that contact
information in the show notes for the podcast. Thank you
so much for sharing an hour of your day with me and with
our viewers and listeners. It's really appreciated. And
viewers, listeners, please like and subscribe to our
podcast and we'll catch you again soon. Ursula, thank
you so much.
Speaker D Thank you, Christian. Have a good day.
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