Sammy, AJ and I were recruited for AV work at Tzu Chi’s 2022 Northwest Charity Concert by Hope SB. Like the others, I immediately said yes to both the shows on the 19th and the 20th.
Saturday’s show was the scary one. It was from 7pm to 9pm meaning I had to stay late and come early (we were told to be at the Santa Clara Convention Center by 7am). To prepare, I took many precautions. The day before, I went to sleep at 9pm and made sure not to drink any caffeine. I also looked up possible escape routes (VTA Orange => Bus 56, Uber, Lyft, etc.) in case I got worn out too early.
The day of, I got up at 6:15am. One hour later, I was at the Convention Center. (Thanks AJ for driving us all!) The three of us were AV volunteers, but in reality, we mostly did other tasks.
Santa Clara Convention Center charges exorbitant fees for using its equipment so Tzu Chi decided to use its own audio / video equipment from the San Jose office. All that junk needed a lot of lifting; the three of us did just that the first half of the day.
After a lunch of vegetarian sushi, we were guided towards our true calling. The audio and visual panels already had specially hired professionals (aka Michael and Peter) controlling them, so we were assigned the spotlights. These lights were a much simpler task, but they were still not easy.
Once rehearsal was finished, there were a few hours to kill before the guests arrived at 6:30pm. The three of us helped with assembling paper piggy banks celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tzu Chi in the Bay Area. Considering that there were 1,200 guests coming, a lot of factory work was required. (My right hand is still sore from pressing down so many lids.)
The concert itself went fine. There were two other events going on (aka CAIR California 28th Anniversary Gala and Touch-A-Life World Kindness Day) at approximately the same time, but the Convention Center was not all that crowded. Traffic was nonexistent and I was back home by 9:51pm.
