- Name: Gene Peterson
- Age: 28
- Current location: Anchorage, Alaska, USA
- Home town: Brisbane, Australia
- Education: High school
- Current position: Owner & Director, Onyx Productions
- Bio: Gene Peterson has spent the past 7 years performing in 1500 shows in over 30 tours around the world. In 2011 he founded Onyx Productions, which in its first three years of operation produced four different shows and coordinated 13 major tours across Australia, Europe, Asia & America.
- Countries I've worked in: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, United Arab Emirates, UK, USA, Canada
- Sector / subsectors: Entrepreneur, Arts, Business
- Areas of expertise: Director, Producer, Entrepreneur, Drums, Piano, Musician
- Country: Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, United Arab Emirates, United States
- Region: North America, Middle East, Europe, Oceania, Asia
- Sector: Arts
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Who are you and what do you do?
Meet Gene Peterson, owner and director of Onyx Productions, and professional touring musician.
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What's an average day or week for you like?
Gene's days are broken down into two types: on tour, and not on tour.
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Tell us about your career trajectory. How did you get to where you are now?
Gene tells us how we went from a drummer on tour for a dance company, to owning his own company and creating his own stage shows.
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So you've produced several different touring shows with your company, Onyx Productions. Can you tell us about your most recent one?
Gene gives us a breakdown of 360 ALLSTARS, the show he created and performs in while touring the world for the past four years.. and what inspired its creation.
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How do you sell these shows abroad? How do you decide where to go?
Gene breaks down the business end of the touring industry.
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You own Onyx Productions and are basically your own boss. What are the challenges?
Gene talks about the importance of casting when you're creating a touring act, and how to create a cast that gets along. Not easy when you're working and living together 24 hours a day for weeks at a time.
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What's your favourite part about working internationally?
Gene combines his love of music with his love of travel.
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What's the biggest challenge you face working cross-culturally?
Gene talks about the huge learning curve when it comes to working out the logistics of a travelling tour in foreign countries - from "loading" in, to "bumping" out.
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What are some of the other challenges you face as a travelling stage show?
When your tour consists of seven people with seven unique skill sets, your biggest enemies are injury and illness.
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What abilities and qualities are important when it comes to touring as an artist/musician?
Gene talks about how positivity and negativity are equally contagious - and how that can affect your entire group.
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What's your best advice for someone trying to get into this industry?
Gene subscribes to the 10,000 hour rule.
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You talked earlier about going to conferences and networking. What are your networking tips?
It's not just about making a connection, it's about maintaining those connections as well.
Tags: networking -
When you network, it's coming from a sales perspective to get your show sold. Can you talk to us about that?
It's all about knowing who you're networking with - and changing your pitch based on their needs.
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Can you tell us more about the different roles in this industry?
The Creator. The Producer. The Presenter.
