Company co-owner, Warren Freidin, shares the story of how start-up company AV and Beyond has, in just five years, managed to stand out from the crowd and achieve outstanding success.

AV and Beyond, a leading technical events solutions provider in South Africa, is creating a reputation in the industry for doing things differently. Established in 2013, the company has quickly evolved from a start-up full of potential to a key player in the eventing industry in the region.

Warren Freidin and Katlego Pitse make up the dynamic leadership team behind AV and Beyond. The two have successfully established the country’s leading next-generation technical services company in a surprisingly short five-year span, and have recently purchased a state-of-the-art L-Acoustics Kara professional sound system, as well as a dozen Esprites, making them the first to take delivery of Robe’s newly-launched LED automated luminaires in the country.

ETECH Magazine chatted with co-owner Warren Freidin about the company’s origins, impressive growth and vision for the future.

When was AV and Beyond first established?

I started my career heading up an events company and, having studied audio engineering and event lighting after school, I naturally gravitated towards the more technical side of the company’s offerings. My current business partners, Katlego Pitse, Hennie Roussow and I started working together at BEYONDred Events and, over the years, we became a really tight team. In 2013, we decided to branch out and establish AV and Beyond as a separate technical services company, enabling us to continue to provide technical services for BEYONDred Events shows when required, but also broaden our client-base independently. 

When we first started the company in 2013, it was proper grassroots startup. We had a team of three operating from a house in Greenside, Johannesburg, and we kept our gear in the garage. It’s actually quite mind-blowing to reflect back on those early days and realise just how far we have come over the past five years.

What was your first big break?

We started off doing a lot of smaller events and quickly established a reputation for quality and reliability as a technical service provider. Our first big contractual client was Nedbank – and we are still their preferred service provider to this day. The relationship was established when we provided technical services for the Port Elisabeth leg of the 2013 edition of the Nedbank Top Achiever Awards, with Harry Sideropoulos and the Tailormade Group on creative and entertainment. The client was exceptionally happy with the event and recommended AV and Beyond for Nedbank’s main Top Achiever Awards evening later that year. Following that, we pitched for the Nedbank CEO Roadshow and we were awarded the contract in 2014.

We have since worked with a lot of the big financial houses in South Africa and have built very good working relationships with clients in the financial world.

What do you think sets AV and Beyond apart as a service provider?

There are a lot of dry hire and technical services companies in the country that are very skilled at delivering the gear and technical expertise needed to pull off an event. While this is a very important service, the AV and Beyond team is unique in that we understand that clients often need a lot more than a technical solution. While we specialise in technical services, we are also able to contribute towards the creative and production sides of events.

We have an extensive referral network within the eventing industry and, as a result, we are able to tailor our services to exactly match our client’s needs. If they already have a production company working on their event, we are more than willing to provide technical services alone. However, if they need a concept, design, sets and staging, entertainment, catering services, decor, or just about any other event-related service, we draw on our network of service providers to deliver on every aspect of an event imaginable.

The other factor that sets us apart is our company culture, and how it translates to our clients. We are deeply passionate about innovation and we enjoy pushing the boundaries on conventions. Many of our clients share this future-focused approach, which creates fertile ground for developing meaningful and personal relationships with the people that we serve.

We also understand that in today’s experience-based economy, clients not only want an excellent product at the end of the day, they want an enriching experience in the lead up to their event – which, traditionally, can be a very stressful and unpleasant time. Our client-centric work ethic ensures that the client is integrated in every stage of the planning and execution process, from stage design to 3D renders and floor plans, our goal is to bring the client’s vision to life, while complying with the highest possible safety and technical standards. We pride ourselves on being responsive, agile and adaptable in our approach and we place the client at the centre of everything that we do, which gives us a competitive edge.

What do you see as your greatest achievements to date?

We are incredibly proud of the way that AV and Beyond has grown over the past five years. The team and I started the company with a client-centred approach in mind, and we have allowed it to grow organically in response to market demand and our client’s needs. We have achieved a more that 96% client retention rate, which is all the evidence that need to be sure we are doing something right.  

We are also very proud to have reached a point in the company’s growth path where are able to invest in more of our own gear to ensure that we are in the best position possible to deliver on projects moving forward. As we take on larger and more technically challenging contracts, we have dramatically increased our inhouse inventory, almost doubling the amount of gear that own an annual basis over the course of the company’s lifespan. While we do not believe in purchasing the latest unnessasary gear for the sake of it, we are very proud that we have been awarded contracts that place us in the position were it makes sense to invest in lighting and audio equipment that is of the highest international standards.

Finally, we are extremely pleased with the team that we have managed to put together and the talent that we are able to attract in terms of freelancers. We understand that our people are our greatest assets, and we invest in our people to ensure that they are able and invested in delivering for our clients.

Where do you see AV and Beyond going in the future?

In our experience, allowing the company to grow in direct response to market demand has been a key component to our success. This is an approach that we will continue to pursue, and therefore its not really a case of where we see the company going, and far more about where our clients want us to go. The future is therefor full of possibilities, and we are very excited to find out where it will lead us.