A day in the life of Joshua Cox, AV Media Production Manager at the IACC-certified OLC Education & Conference Center

Ten minutes before a virtual presentation, a CFO joining from another country lost his camera.

He was due to go live. The clock was moving. He offered to drive to his office, but the office was ten minutes away and his presentation was ten minutes away. Joshua Cox, the OLC’s AV Media Production Manager, was already on a video call with him, working through the possibilities.

Josh asked whether another laptop was available. He prepared for the possibility that the speaker might have to join with audio only. Then he asked one last question: Did the laptop have a small privacy cover over its camera?

It did. The cover was closed.

The presenter opened it, the camera returned, and the session began on time. No one watching knew how close the format had come to changing. Cox was already looking ahead to the next cue.

For Josh, the episode is a useful example of the work. The best technical saves are not always elaborate. They depend on staying composed, understanding how the system fits together and asking the right question before the clock runs out.

Josh has more than 15 years of experience in events and spent nine years working with the OLC as an independent contractor before joining the staff. His title is AV Media Production Manager. In practice, the job begins well before a speaker reaches the podium and continues through every transition the audience is not supposed to notice.

AV is an Expense – and a Form of Risk Management

Audiovisual production already occupies a significant place in event budgets. In PCMA’s latest Meetings Market Survey, 58% of planners expected AV to be one of their largest upcoming expenses, second only to food and beverage. At the same time, 30% reported that they had already reduced their AV budgets.

That creates a difficult calculation. Planners are being asked to control costs while relying on more microphones, screens, recordings, livestreams, remote speakers and digital content than many events required in the past.

But the real cost of AV is not limited to the equipment invoice. It can also be measured in:

• Agenda time lost while a presentation is reconnected
• Attendees struggling to hear a speaker
• A remote participant who cannot follow the conversation
• A presenter distracted by their own slides or equipment
• A recording that cannot be reused after the event
• Technicians reacting to problems instead of preparing for the next cue

There is also a less visible reputational cost. Researchers who presented people with identical conference talks and interviews found that both the research and the researcher were evaluated less favorably when the audio quality was poor. The ideas did not change. The sound did – and the audience’s perception changed with it.

In another series of experiments involving 593 participants, lower-quality audio led people to rate speakers as less credible, reliable and trustworthy. Participants also remembered less of what they heard. In other words, attendees may attribute a technical problem to the person standing at the podium.

“The audience usually looks toward the presenter, not the equipment booth,” Josh explains. The AV team’s job is to prevent that moment so the speaker can focus on the material rather than the machinery surrounding it.

The Room is Part of the System

He looks at where presenters will stand and whether they are likely to move. He considers the position of the loudspeakers and the risk of microphone feedback. He checks how laptops will connect, how the team will move from one presentation to the next and whether embedded video, program audio or remote participants need special routing.

Lighting is part of the same calculation. The room must be bright enough for the audience to see the speaker without washing out the projection screens. Cox checks whether usable lighting presets already exist or need to be built for the event.[1]

These details help explain why two venues with similar equipment lists can produce very different experiences.

AV does not operate independently of the room. It interacts with acoustics, lighting, sightlines, electrical capacity, internet infrastructure, stage layout and audience configuration. A system designed for the space begins from a different position than one assembled temporarily inside it.

A Venue Built Around the Work

This is an important distinction at the OLC. The 14,000-plus-square-foot facility was built for meetings, multimedia presentations, medical education and hands-on training. Its installed infrastructure includes HD projectors and cameras, large LED presentation screens, an on-site production and editing suite, and an HD broadcast studio capable of recording and livestreaming. Core HD AV equipment is included with the meeting space. [6]

In 2025, the OLC became one of only seven venues in Illinois to earn IACC certification. The distinction is held by fewer than 400 venues worldwide and is reserved for meeting environments that meet rigorous standards for design, acoustics, technology, service and operations. It is not simply a designation for an attractive room; it recognizes a venue built around how people meet and learn. [7]

For planners, that purpose-built starting point has practical value. At many hotels or traditional venues, equipment must be delivered, installed, configured and tested before rehearsal can begin. At the OLC, the core system is already in the room and tuned for it. Additional equipment can still be added when a program calls for more, but the client is not starting from an empty ballroom.