Managing freelancers for events can be time-consuming and complicated without the proper tools. Without a system that allows you to onboard new freelancers, negotiate contracts, and schedule them for events, the process of freelance management can add to your stress and make it more difficult to create events that will wow your clients and entertain their audiences.

Producing a successful and entertaining experience requires event management. With the right freelancers on your crew, everything will go as planned and the result is a happy client. The best way to ensure smooth sailing is to choose skilled freelancers and assign them to event roles where they can do their best work.

On May 15th, the Freelance Isn’t Free Act went into effect in New York City.  Below we share important details of the law and what it means for AV companies working with freelancers in New York City.

Once you have found a potential AV technician to fill a role on your project, what is your process to qualify this individual to determine if they are the best fit?

Here are 6 best practices to select the right people for your project:

#1 Start Early
A best practice for an operation is to start lining up technicians as soon as you are aware of a project's potential, all the way down to the stagehands. You're not the only company with a busy season so make sure you don’t get stuck competing with others to find techs.  If you wait too long, your available quality will go down and your costs could go up! 

The AV industry relies on a large population of talented freelance technicians. But most AV companies are not experts in understanding how to decide whether a person should be an employee or a contractor, and quite frankly, there are a lot of differing opinions about how to make this determination.

From an insurance perspective, there are a number of risks and benefits to consider regarding the AV technicians that will work on your project. This is true whether the technician is an employee of your company or is a contracted freelancer for a specific project. In particular, one important risk for you to consider before a contracted freelancer begins work on your project is how your company will manage a  Worker’s Compensation claim (or worse, a lawsuit!) from injuries incurred by the contractor while working on your project.

At Mertzcrew, we’re all about simplicity. Our all-in-one AV crew management platform has given AV companies the ability to centralize project details, services/hours rendered, payments, communications, project updates, and more for both the company’s employees and the freelancers Mertzcrew helps to contract.

The gig economy may be expanding in various industries, but it’s always been a big part of the AV world. Freelancers have long been a part of AV projects, providing specialized skill sets and extra hands on deck when large projects land on an AV company’s desk.

AV freelancers have long been a part of executing projects in the AV industry. Yet even with their longstanding role in the AV industry, there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding how to properly pay AV freelancers.