It is not my style to hold on to the ways “we have always done it.” I don’t dwell on the way things are. However, reflecting on the past is always an important activity. It is crucial to learn from all the actions, experiments, learning, and successes.

January

Every year begins with Family. We gather together for the New Year, raise a glass and celebrate together. Soon after, we often celebrate my Birthday as a Capricorn. It is a blessing for myself. It is a wonderful way to start every year.

And after the new year began in full swing, some trips to Europe started off the annual work season. With one of the great new initiatives of getting out to extend the EVS Community through outreach. The first stop of 2024 was in northern Belgium. It was at one of the many schools around the world that EVS is engaged with, Thomas More.

EVS Community initiative… School outreach

In 2024, we focused on supporting our EVS community. We started more outreach and discussions. These discussions cover how schools can work with EVS to extend their student activities. The outreach started with stops in Mechelen – Belgium. It continued in New Jersey – USA and Oklahoma – USA. We were off to a great first start.

February

February is often filled with actions around a Super Bowl site. This year, Las Vegas served as the location. The visit had a great stop to spend time with our EVS Leadership team at the Super Bowl Compound. It also included a retirement celebration with a long-time EVS operator, Charles Burke. Additionally, there was an evening celebrating EVS 30 years. More than 75 EVS users attended before the Super Bowl productions took place. The Super Bowl game is only one of many activities in the city. I was fortunate to spend some long-needed catch up with my friend Dave Taylor. He enables the WWE events to succeed with EVS at the core.

March

This month continued with visits to sites. We went back to Vegas for the Nascar event. We also had some great discussions with our EVS users at the site. Many of which are taking full advantage of LSM-VIA, and XtraMotion. While in Vegas, we visited the SVG Venue Summit. We also kicked off the event as the title sponsor for the Stadium Venue market’s annual get together.

April

The challenging time of the year… NAB trade show in Las Vegas is always in full swing. In 2024, there was a great meet-up with LSM Replay operators in Las Vegas. There were also multiple Cerebrum Engineers for user meet-ups.

The latter part of April included a visit to one of our university partners, Montclair State University. They managed a live production for students using EVS. One of our Belgian schools (Thomas More) visited the US West Coast. They stopped by multiple production sites. Their tour included a visit to FOX Sports PICO Lot.

The personal highlight was an organized surprise for my wife Jeanine’s 50th birthday. We gathered about 45 of her close friends. They surprised her with a dinner and celebration.

May

The month of May was a bittersweet milestone. We witnessed the conclusion of 4 years of college baseball for our son Gavin Stellpflug. He made his final debut from the bullpen at Rutgers University.

I had many visits throughout the month in the Kentucky USA area. I visited for the PGA Championship. I also visited Louisville University and Univ Kentucky. While making some visits to Detroit to visit the MLB venue and productions for the game.

June

June brought visits to Germeny for the EURO 2024. I had a surprise while walking to the game from our parking lot. I accidentally bumped into my lifelong friend Maureen. It’s a small world! This was a team building event, with our CEO and other colleagues to the match day.

My younger sister Wendy got married in the later part of June in the Dominica Republic. I was blessed to walk her down the aisle. I gave her away to my new brother-in-law Patrick.

July

July was the mid-year point, with support at the IDEA conference to engage all our users from the Stadium/Venue market. The event support for our hundreds of EVS users working for the Olympics started with some visits. We went to Lille, France, and Paris for the 30-year celebrations for EVS. The EVS House was our home for hundreds of EVS users making a visit to unwind and celebrate together.

August

With extra breakaways from Paris, I visited some other sites managing production for the Olympics. I met up with many other users at different sites far and wide. There are users in Paris, London, and Stamford. Many more are in dozens of other locations around the world that I did not make it to.

While coming back home, I took some brief time away to travel with my youngest son and family. We made some potential college visits in the USA. We were seeing where he will pursue his further education in the 2025 horizon.

September

This month, now back in full swing for the fall, included visits to the US Open tennis site. I also visited the Big Ten Network production Center. There were some visits to various college football games sites as well. This month brought an extra game squeezed in. We watched my son’s girlfriend compete in her final season as a college Soccer Player. She plans to move towards professional Soccer in the years to come.

I had the brief chance to see lifelong friends at the game. I also had a long needed visit with my Aunt Peggy in the Madison WI area. First, I will resume travel for an NFL visit to Thursday Night Football for Amazon. Then, I will visit Nascar’s facility in Charlotte.

October

The fall period includes visits to EVS headquarters for meetings. The weekend is filled with an NFL London visit. This allows for engagement with some EVS Guarantee Engineers from the London market. It also involves traveling replay operators for the game site and NFL leadership in London.

While the Mr. October visits of MLB Playoffs were in full swing for the FOX crew. They were running on the latest LSM-VIA versions for the baseball season final games.

November

November brought team building with colleagues in a simulated production domain. This allowed all our non-technical members to experience live production cadence and demands themselves.

Throughout the year, it is needed to take a small break. We celebrated my wife (Jeanine Stellpflug) successful stages of completing some medical milestones. It warranted a Celebration of Life together. We had a brief getaway to the Canary Islands.

This before bouncing back to the US and managing some NFL game site visits in Philadelphia.

December

The wrap up to 2024 ended with the annual tradition of the EVS Americas holiday party. Some new colleagues are joining the group for 2024. The annual New York City visit for Piper, with an early AM train ride with dad to the city… and James making a last minute visit to University of Maryland for some continued partnership discussions with a colleague.

2025 Onward

As I look into the 2025 cycle, I hope to cross everyone’s path this year. I wish everyone the best in their endeavors much like mine.