In this panel we’ll look at the disconnect that occurs when labor involves a computer. Digital professions often suffer from being elevated for their complexity and simultaneously devalued for their lack of manual effort. This impacts our ability to properly account for our time and our team sizes. We are constantly under pressure to reduce costs as if we were discounting gear and computer cycles, not billing for human hours at a screen.

This pressure quickly finds its way into production culture in the creative video community. We celebrate long, late hours because we love what we do. We resist restrictions because the we are passionate about our discovery process that leaves us chewing on a problem for hours and hours. However, this feeds the stress we work under and is not sustainable long term. How do we make room for wellness and late night inspiration?

Our work pressures have the compounding effect of limiting our ability to solve larger community issues around education and diversity. How do we give our team members the breathing space in their work day to mentor new members? How can we consciously foster inclusion when we need quick access to the existing range of skilled professionals?

As a community we need to thoughtfully define and face these challenges and make our clients our partners in the process. Please join Zack Alexander, Rachel Nicholson, David Sheldon-Hicks, Pembe Tokluhan as we discuss labor issues in our industry. This panel, led by Laura Frank, will look at their take on labor issues and pathways forward to a more inclusive and healthy professional community.