By Patrick Logan
I grew up around this work and this industry.
Not in a formal way. I wasn’t thinking about “live event production” as a career when I was younger. I was just around it, watching how things came together, seeing how people worked, being close enough to understand that a lot more goes into a show than what an outsider ever sees.
At some point, that stops feeling like something you’re observing and starts feeling like something you’re responsible for. That shift carries some weight.
Showorks was built long before I stepped into it in a real way. The standard and expectations were already there. There were people who had been doing this work so well for so many years, and they had all of the trust, and that trust was genuinely earned. So stepping into that wasn’t about starting something new. It was about figuring out how to carry it forward without lowering the bar.
And at the same time, not being afraid to change what needed to be better. That balance isn’t always simple.
On one hand, there’s a lot of respect for how things have been done. On the other, you can’t hold onto something just because it’s familiar. “We’ve always done it this way” doesn’t hold up for long in this industry. Everything around here is constantly changing and if you can’t adapt, you’ll be left behind.
A lot of how I approach that comes from how I learned early on.
I’ve always been someone who tries to think things through before making a move. Not in a hesitant way, but in a way that’s intentional, rational, or smart. I like to understand what the outcome should look like, and then work backward from there. That means thinking about what could go right, but also what could go wrong. All of those What Ifs come naturally to me.
But, that part can get exhausting if you let it. You start to see every possible issue before it happens and it keeps you honest and forces you to prepare. It forces you to make decisions that you stand behind even when things aren’t going exactly the way you think they should.
Another thing that stuck with me early on was something my dad said about hiring people who are smarter than you. That sounds simple, but it shapes how you build a team.
If you’re trying to be the one who knows everything, you’re going to hit a ceiling pretty quickly. This work is too layered for that. You need people who are better than you in different areas. You need people who will speak up,catch things you don’t, and will push forward no matter what.
That only works if you’re willing to set your ego aside. And that’s been a big part of how I’ve tried to operate.
There were times where I had to step into situations and take full ownership, even when I wasn’t completely ready. Not because it was comfortable, but because it was necessary. If something was going to go wrong, it needed to be mine to learn from.
That’s how you build confidence that actually means something. Not by avoiding mistakes, but by working through them and getting better on the other side.
Over the past few years, Showorks has changed. Some of that is because of me. Some of it is because the industry itself has shifted. Most of it is just the reality that staying the same isn’t an option. We’ve adjusted how we plan, communicate., build our teams and approach our projects from the start.
But the core of it hasn’t moved.
The expectation is still that we take ownership of all of the outcomes. We prepare better than anyone else and we pay attention to the details from the start. We show up, and we do things the right way.
That’s the part I feel responsible for protecting. And I’m focused on us getting better every day.
I’m always thinking about how something could be better. How we communicate more clearly, plan more thoroughly, build a stronger team around the work. That mindset doesn’t really turn off, and I don’t think it should.
Because this work is real and people are counting on it. That’s something I learned early, even before I could fully explain it.
Now, it doesn’t feel like I’m stepping into something that’s finished. It feels like I’m responsible for what comes next and carrying forward what’s been built, while continuing to raise the standard. That’s the job.
