What Working in Live Events Taught Me About Pressure

I’ve worked in tech long enough to know that failure happens — but working in live events technology? That’s where I learned what pressure really feels like.

Imagine this: 80,000 people in a stadium. A show starting in 4 minutes. And a critical system — maybe Wi-Fi, maybe IPTV, maybe a live feed to the scoreboard — suddenly goes dark. There’s no version of “we’ll fix it later.” There’s only now.

This is a world where fail fast isn’t just a concept — it’s a necessity. Because in live events, there is no fallback, no second shot. The moment is either captured, connected, and delivered… or it’s missed forever.

Here’s what I’ve learned about high-pressure environments from the inside out — and why this experience has made me a better leader, technician, and human being.

1. Pressure Exposes What’s Real

You can’t fake preparation under pressure. You can’t talk your way out of a critical outage. When things break mid-event, you learn exactly what’s built to last — and what’s not.

The systems. The processes. The team.

And most importantly — yourself.

Under pressure, you find out if your instincts are solid, if your troubleshooting is sharp, and if your communication gets clearer or collapses. You see your blind spots up close. You find your edge.

And that edge, once you find it, becomes your new floor.

2. The Stakes Are Higher — and So Is the Noise

In a normal environment, when something breaks, there’s a ticket. A Slack thread. Maybe a meeting.

In a stadium or arena? There’s screaming. There’s confusion. There’s a show director yelling in one ear and a broadcast team in another. There’s the internal voice saying, “Don’t mess this up.”

Working in live event tech trains you to filter noise fast. You learn to:

• Prioritize the signal over the panic

• Focus on root cause, not emotion

• Speak calmly when everyone else is escalating

This ability to regulate yourself when nothing else is calm? That’s leadership.

3. You Learn to Fix What You Didn’t Break

One of the most humbling parts of live tech is realizing: you’re always cleaning up something someone else missed.

Bad cabling from a vendor. Unlabeled ports from a rushed install. Software that worked in QA but breaks when there’s 50,000 concurrent users.

You learn to stop saying “that’s not my problem” and start saying:

• "What can I do right now?"

• "What’s the fastest way to stabilize this?"

• "What’s the smartest move in the next 60 seconds?"

You stop blaming. You start solving.

4. There’s No Glory in the Good Days

Most of the time? If everything works, no one notices you exist.

That’s the job.

You’re backstage. Behind the screen. Under the access point. Your win is when someone doesn’t tweet that something’s broken.

And if you’re doing it for recognition, you’ll burn out fast.

You learn to find pride in quiet victories:

• The 2 seconds you shaved off a process

• The seamless handoff no one saw

• The clean log files after a 14-hour day

You redefine success by what doesn’t go wrong.

5. Chaos Will Happen — What Matters Is How You Reset

No matter how prepared you are, something will break. A router will crash. A cable will pull loose. Someone will spill a drink in a critical area. Or a script will bug at the worst moment.

In that moment, it’s not about what happened. It’s about how fast you can breathe, reassess, and act.

• Can you find the one line of config that matters?

• Can you communicate clearly while fixing it?

• Can you lead people while doing the technical work?

It’s triage. It’s rhythm. It’s self-control. And those things only come from reps under pressure.

6. The Team Around You Matters More Than Anything In Live Events

You can be the smartest person on the floor, but if your team panics, you’re sunk.

In live events, you realize quickly:

• Who runs toward the fire

• Who freezes

• Who makes everything worse

• And who quietly, calmly, fixes everything

This experience will teach you how to build the right team, not just the most technically gifted one. You’ll value:

• Clear communicators

• Pressure-tested problem solvers

• People who know how to make decisions fast

• People who know when to shut up and work

It’s a brotherhood, a crew, a unit. And when it clicks, it’s magic.

7. You Never See Tech the Same Way Again

After working in live events, every time you attend a game, concert, or keynote, you’ll scan the ceiling.

You’ll notice the APs. The cables. The timing. You’ll wonder what’s running behind that scoreboard. You’ll think, “God, I hope they have failover.”

You develop respect — not just for the tech, but for the people who hold it all together.

Because now you know what it takes.

8. You Build a Calm That Carries Over Everywhere

You can’t live at full panic forever. So your nervous system learns to adapt. You stop overreacting. You stop catastrophizing.

And this calm — this groundedness — it bleeds into everything else:

• You become the steady voice at home

• You stop freaking out over minor things

• You show up clearer, calmer, more focused

Live events tech makes you crisis-proof. Not because you never feel fear — but because you’ve felt it before, and still performed.

9. It’s Not Sustainable Forever — But It Leaves a Permanent Mark

Let’s be real: this life is exhausting. It’s long hours. Late nights. Emotional drain. Physical stress.

But it makes you something else:

• Faster

• Sharper

• More present

• More empathetic

And when you leave that world, even if just for a season, it stays with you. You bring that intensity. That rhythm. That now-thinking.

It’s a gift you earn through repetition and resilience.

Final Thoughts

Working in live events tech taught me how to stay calm when it counts. It taught me to communicate clearly, act fast, and lead without a script.

It gave me a kind of resilience you can’t learn in a classroom or behind a desk.

So if you’ve been through it too — you know.And if you haven’t yet — well, buckle up. You’ll learn fast.

And you’ll never see a blinking light the same way again.