April 12 marked 10 years since I started Sideline Productions out of my garage in Brookings, South Dakota. My vision for the company was pretty straightforward: Bring a visual aspect to live events that improves the overall experience for their audiences. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
We’ve had some changes over the years. I moved out of my garage and into our first shop in the fall of 2012 and then built our own shop in 2018 after outgrowing our previous space. Now we have the room we need to store our video displays and all the equipment that goes along with them, as well as a nice office space to help with other aspects of the business.
It also didn’t take long before we hired our first employee, Brian Sander. He’s been our director of operations since January of 2013. Between Brian and I, we cover all the main aspects of the business including scheduling, set up, event operation, tear down and all the travel that goes along with it.
Over the years, we’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in some amazing events. And, many of those events have called us back to help them year after year. While every event we help with is very important and we give them our all, there are a few events that are special to me since going out on my own and becoming a business owner.
Our first-ever event was the Saturday in the Park Festival in Sioux City. It took place over July 4th in 2012 and we’ve been lucky enough to have been asked back every year since! This makes it the longest-running event we do every year to help celebrate America’s independence. Our crew calls this the treehouse display because we tuck it into the trees to give it the feel of being in the park.
Another event that we’ve been able to help with for many years is the Snocross Tour with ISOC. This is our second longest client and the event continues to grow every year. It’s always great to witness the growth of our clients year over year and feel a little bit of pride since we were able to be a part of it.
Other unique events we’ve helped with over our 10-year history include Notre Dame’s graduation on the field, The Carrier Classic college basketball games literally on a carrier ship and Hockey Day Minnesota on the military airfield base in St. Paul. Each of these events allowed us to show our versatility with different display configurations as well as different locations to meet the specific needs of each event.
It's been a great first 10 years in business with many more ups than downs. I’m grateful to all of our customers and the friendships we’ve built over the years. But most importantly, I look forward to continuing to serve these awesome customers and new customers in the future. We’ve laid a solid foundation here in Brookings and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Thanks again!
- Nick