Each year, the Cornhuskin’ main event in the amphitheater is decorated with impressive lighting and sound effects. While Co-Chairs are responsible for deciding what kinds of effects they would like to use throughout their class’s performances, these effects would not be made possible without the help of Meredith’s events employees. This year, Eric Leary and Chris Droessler operated lighting and sound for the event.
Eric Leary is the Assistant Director of Events at Meredith, and his job for Cornhuskin’ 2022 was to play the audio cues for each class’s skits, dances and other performances. However, this isn’t the only task Leary has been assigned to for this event in the past. In his seven years of assisting with tech for Cornhuskin’, Leary said that he has “fulfilled every production role we provide for Corn on one year or another.” These roles have included audio engineer, lighting director, video streaming engineer and unassigned floating assistant. “One year, I ran a camera, managed the video streams and ran sound all at the same time,” Leary stated.
With forty-five years of experience as an artisan technologist under his belt, Leary is responsible for the quality of all of the operations of Meredith’s events department. “That includes our data systems (notably the GUSTO reservation system), our financial performance and our execution as artisan technologists managing the event spaces on campus,” Leary stated. “In order to fulfill this quality control, I try to stay actively engaged with all of our processes–data entry and reporting, lighting, sound and video production–and communication with the campus at large to stay in alignment with the mission and the culture.”
Chris Droessler, Meredith’s Production Supervisor, was in charge of lighting effects for Cornhuskin’ 2022. Though Droessler has been working in this field since 1975, this year’s Cornhuskin’ event was his first experience with this Meredith College tradition. Droessler’s job at Meredith consists of providing technical support for school events, but he stated that his favorite part of the job is “sharing [his] knowledge by teaching students how to run sound systems and stage lighting, as well as the design and production of events.”
By Caroline O’Daniel, Copy Editor