What does a… …venue service operator actually do?

One man, two Habegger venues. Andreas has been working for Habegger as a venue service operator for over two years and has worked at our partner event location, the Hallenstadion Zurich, for a long time. He recently joined the Habegger team at Trafo Baden. His daily business at the Hallenstadion Zurich was mainly working as an operator for concerts by international artists. However, at Trafo Baden, Andreas is now busy with a variety of corporate events.

A concert in summer

Review August 2023. Andreas smiles as he talks about a major concert. In the Hallenstadion Zurich arena, rigging starts in the early hours of the morning. Andreas, on the other hand, doesn’t start work until 1 pm on event days and works for however long it takes to complete the necessary tasks as part of a four-person team in Switzerland’s largest indoor event location. “There’s always something to do,” explains the 26-year-old from Basel. In addition to event operations, the maintenance and upkeep of a building of this kind should not be underestimated.

Close cooperation with event organisers

Before the start of each concert, Andreas consults with the organiser and clarifies any special technical requirements. Is an additional sound level measurement required or is a connection to the location’s lighting control system desired? In the Hallenstadion, he also provides information via the digital signage, the 300 controllable screens. As soon as the key points have been clarified, he gets started with the assembly and installation. Once the tests have been completed successfully, it is finally time to turn the house lights off. “From this point onwards, we are on standby until the concert is over. The event-specific technology is the responsibility of the organiser. We come in when the technology installed in the building doesn’t work properly,” says Andreas. Until then, he can enjoy the best view of the show from the control room.

Andreas at the Hallenstadion controll room.

In the halls of the Trafo Baden

Over 300 events are organised every year in his new home with a total of 15 different event rooms. Andreas and his team are fully responsible for the technology at the event location, from set-up to dismantling; there are no consultations with external technical teams and organisers. This means he works even more closely with the client and discusses all the technical requests and requirements with them. A normal day for the venue service operator? “I set up the stage and put the control room into operation. We operate the audio, video and lighting technology from the in-house control room.” As soon as everything is set up, Andreas goes through the event schedule with the respective client, microphones the speakers and tests the videos or presentations that the clients bring with them.

All-rounder expertise required

Unlike traditional event technicians, who work at events regardless of location and usually specialise in one discipline, a venue service operator has to be an all-rounder. He must be familiar with all of the trades and be able to operate all the technology in the venue. “One major difference is certainly that we are in direct contact with the client – greeting them when they arrive and saying goodbye again when the event is over,” explains Andreas, who, thanks to his wide-ranging expertise, also frequently works as a stand-in at other Habegger venues.

From carpenter to event technician

His professional career did not begin in the catacombs of a large event location, but in the small workshop of a carpentry shop in Basel. However, during his apprenticeship as a carpenter, Andreas realised that he could not imagine a future in this profession: “As I was – both then and now – privately involved in the cultural sector and am also part of a collective for the promotion of hip-hop talent in Switzerland, I decided to break off my apprenticeship and complete a new apprenticeship to obtain the Swiss certificate of proficiency as an event expert.” Thanks to a fateful encounter with a schoolmate who still works for Habegger today, Andreas finally joined the Habegger team in 2021.

Good teamwork

Whether at the Hallenstadion Zurich or Trafo Baden:

We are a great team, everyone brings different skills that complement each other incredibly well.

When asked where the journey will take him in the future, the passionate technician smiles: “I feel very comfortable at the moment, but I have a distant dream. Running a venue as a one-man operation in Basel at some point. Small and cosy, close to the client and my private environment.”