Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Tipton.
Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started working in the live entertainment industry in college. Theater was not my major, but one of many part-time jobs I held during my time at Florida State University while I worked on my undergrad and Master’s degrees in Modern Languages (German and Russian). After I finished my Master’s I worked as a Technical Director for Summer Stock Theater in Snow Camp, North Carolina, but coudn’t find a full-time Theater job.
I took a full-time position at Pensacola HIgh School in their IB program teching German in 2000. This paid terribly, so I also I started working for the Pensacola Opera part time. It just so happened that the Pensacola Opera was made up of member of the LSU School of Music, which led to my first full-time Theater Technical Director position at LSU. I never went back to teaching after that.
Over the years I’ve had many wonderful opportunities across the country. I’ve worked in Louisiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Georgia. Along the way I’ve opened 3 new Performing Arts Centers – one in Arizona as the Techincal Director and two in Florida as the General Manager. I am very excited to be back in Florida to finish out my career at the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Orlando Amphitheater.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle for me was probably the Covid-19 pandemic. The entire events industry had to adapt to thinigs like social distancing and how to produce virtual events. I was working in Texas at the time, where they took a slightly different approach than most states, but it still impacted how we did business.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I would say I specialize in opening new facilities and in turning around under-performing ones. These two areas are very similar in that you have to come in and start from scratch in a lot of ways. You have to build or rebuild trust with the community, team dynamics at work and of course build or repair your reputation.
I’m most proud of rebuilding that reputation and trust with the community and City of Orlando. We are currently enjoying a wonderful working relationship with the City and our District 5 Commissioner, Shan Rose. We haven’t always had this close partnership and it makes all of our jobs easier and much more pleasant.
What does success mean to you?
Success is an ongoing process of improvement. Learning from past mistakes, listening to feedback and making things better going forward. Some examples of successes here are that we are now more profitable and able to make improvements on the property, but there are also daily successes like listening to our clients and improving our processes to make events for enjoyable for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.centralfloridafair.com/ and https://orlandoamphitheater.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orlandoamphitheater/#
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orlandoamphitheater
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/central-florida-fairgrounds-and-expo-center/
Image Credits
Alex Petrenko
