Reim El Houni 00:00

I think if you’re going to enter the TV industry, you have to understand that you need to be willing to do anything and everything. You have to be willing to start from the bottom and work your way up.

Evan Le Clus 00:11

Hello, you are listening to The Dare to Scale show with me, Evan.

Warsha Joshi  00:15

And me Warsha. This show is about all things scaling, scaling your business, your journey. And you.

Evan Le Clus  00:24

You are here because you dare to dream, dared to dream big. So, sit back and enjoy the conversation, or perhaps even join in.

Warsha Joshi  00:37

Hello, and welcome back to part 2 of this conversation about Studio Expo with our Studio Expo’s, executive producer Reim El Houni. Reim has been sharing amazing stories on what it takes to make the greatest show on Earth, live on TV, and make it a success and effortless success. And if you haven’t listened to Episode 44, we highly recommend you start with that. Listen to that, and then come back and continue listening because these stories if anything will leave you thinking Wow and we think when we go through and there’s something that Reim did say in in the previous episode about when we go through our daily life we think there’s a sense of urgency. And yet when you listen to these stories, you think what, because the whole 24 hours, we can change the world and those 24 hours because that’s the kind of stories that we’ve been listening to. So welcome back to part two. Rem thank you for continuing to be with us and sharing your story over to you again. Welcome back. Yeah, and you now have Episode One prerecorded. And that’s where we stop the last episode. Over to you madam What happened after that?

Reim El Houni 01:52

Well, that’s a great place to start, because you would think I had Episode One prerecorded and ready to go. Except what happened then was on our very first day, first of October, where just explain to everyone, I hope your first episode, our episodes were 90 minutes long. And in order for us to be able to play out a 90-minute episode, it needs to be ingested into the system in real time. So, it requires 90 minutes to actually feed it into the system. And then it gets played out. So given that our show airs at 9am. In the morning, I was right there at five in the morning on the first of October with my episode, ready to feed it in. Except no one else was. So, I was there. What is known as their master control room, saying, Guys, I’ve got the episode I need to give it to you. And there’s no one there. And I’m searching and I’m scouring and I’m ringing phones and eventually I had someone answer around seven in the morning. And this panic started to kind of arise because I realized that I am now starting to run out of time in terms of feeding the episode into the system in order for it to play out at 9am. So, in order for that to happen, the latest that it could happen was 7.30. And I had a technician respond. And he said, oh, we start our shift at eight. And I was saying well, that’s too late. I’ve gone through this whole effort and this whole experience to pre-record an episode. And I’m now hearing that purely because there isn’t a technician available at this time, my episode isn’t gonna get fed into the system. And he said, look, we’re going to be there at eight we’ll do when we get there at eight. And I begged and pleaded and he’s a local trying come earlier. But it really dawned on me very quickly that my backup episode was no longer a backup. And it was becoming very evident that we were going to have to go live. And we’re going to have to use the gallery for the very first time and put up with whatever challenges came up on the spot. So that realization and that penny dropping was interesting. We had to rally the troops and just get energized to try and pull this off as efficiently as we could live. And yeah, that’s a whole other story which I’ll jump into.

Evan Le Clus 04:13

Oh, wow. Something so simple. I’m just no no, we only started eight o’clock. Really? Oh, that’s incredible. So how did that end up? happening?

Reim El Houni 04:24

Frighteningly so what had happened was, you know, for our first episode, I’ve made the decision that we would have all four of our studio presenters in the studio so we didn’t have any guests. We didn’t have any outside guests which felt like the safer option given it was day one and a great way to introduce us in the team. But what was meant to happen was you know; we have a script the script is in the autocue. You know, each presenter reads their part on autocue they may have chats in between, and throughout the episode we play different reports so on each report varies between two to four minutes. in duration, and they usually caught up to kind of anchor points for the presenters to, you know, have a chat about the report that has just been played. And I think in that first episode, we had around 15 reports, because it was a 90 minute show. And the opening ceremony had just happened the night before. So, there was a lot of content for the team to talk about, what became very apparent is that the system known as an ABS system, where all the reports are fed into was not operating the way we needed it to. What that meant is that the reports were not in the system. And we had to manually feed them into the system leading up to us being on air. So, we got to 9am. And we’re counting down and the show is about to go live. And at that moment in time, I still didn’t know how many of those 15 reports were in the system, and which ones were in the system, which also means that you can no longer follow your autocue plan or your script plan because you just don’t know. And I have to be honest, and thank presenters that day, because of their level of experience doing live TV, you know, they were able to have a lot of banter and natural chat, whilst we were figuring out the mechanics in the background. So what would happen is, you know, I think a lot of people know, Tom Carter was one of our presenters, and, you know, I’d be speaking in his ear, and he’d be talking about, you know, it’d be having a casual chat with the CO hosts, and in the meantime, be frantically shouting, going, what report do we have? What report do we have, and someone else would be running to check the report, and someone else would be like checking if it’s in the system, and we’ve got one on workers, we’ve got one on workers like, Tom, we’ve got one on workers, and then hit suddenly go? Well, let’s take a look at the workers that have just made this possible. And we’d play the workers report, you know, that would give us a whole four minutes to figure out what we were going to do next. So in that four minutes, we will literally tear up the next report, what else do we have? What else do we have? And it was just this constant? No, it’s not in the system, run to the Edit, run together. And it was literal mahem, of just running around trying to ensure that we had enough content to fill the 90 minutes. And what the frustration is we had it is that it wasn’t that we weren’t prepared. You know, we had everything ready. It was a technical error. And unfortunately, due to the fact that it was the first time we were using the system, you know, which you would never have imagined would happen on the world’s greatest show, you know, so, but again, you know, we had a great team, everyone really just persevered and did their best to get everything moving in that hour and a half. But what was even more interesting is that this was the first show that aired on Expo TV. So, you know, everyone in their building and their mother, it felt like was showing up in our studio to either wish us well or tell us what a great job we were doing. And at one point, I was sort of sitting there, you know, just quite tense, just trying to focus and figure out like what our next step was. And I remember sort of the head of broadcast came and just kind of shrugged my shoulders and Oh, good job. And I was kind of looked up at him thinking like this really the time for that is what I was thinking. And you know, I turn around and see another Senior Expo person at the door. And they literally all, you know, passed through and I kept thinking, what could they be thinking at this moment in time, because, you know, this is our first official outing. It’s our first episode. And it was mayhem. And literally imagine our entire 90 minutes where the presenters didn’t know what was coming up next, and we didn’t know what was ready and how to maneuver it, let alone other challenges, because it was new equipment as well. So audio, you know, communication that would fail, you know, one person’s earpiece wouldn’t work, and then the next one wouldn’t work. And, you know, so we were dealing with a lot of internal challenges. And I remember finishing that 90 minute, and just thinking, oh my god, it’s a miracle. I have no idea how we’ve pulled it off. But we’ve pulled off a full 90 minute episode. And it was almost flawless. Like they were technically and for a viewer at home. It was it was very, they would have no clue what was happening with us in the background. And I left the gallery and it was like a huge sigh of relief. And as I bumped into different people in that building. They all were congratulating me. And it was like Burj Khalifa all over again, you know, and I just like I walked into one room and like this actually this guy who has been particularly grumpy with us for the whole month, and it was in the broadcast team, and he just gave me a big hug. And he said, Oh, you did an amazing job well done. And it just that alone felt, you know, was eye opening and that realization like we’ve done it, but we’ve now got 181 more days to go.

Reim El Houni 09:45

It was also eye opening. But yeah, it was definitely an experience.

Warsha Joshi  09:51

But this is exactly why those senior officials and everybody involved we’re dropping in to congratulate you because today have us it was amazing. It was when did we know? It really was a duck swimming gracefully or whatever the metaphor is and paddling mad, furiously underwater. And yet, it looks so seamless. So beautiful.

Reim El Houni 10:18

Wait, tell me about day two. That was it. I mean, day two just went in a completely different direction.

Evan Le Clus 10:24

Reim, this one thing that I’m at least taking away here, at least you didn’t have to do the opening ceremony of x. But can you imagine?

Reim El Houni 10:33

You know what, in a lot of ways that would have been easier. Because you know, when you do an event like that, it’s kind of all out of your hands. It’s like there’s an event company that’s planned the event and you’re covering the event, you know, whereas when you were responsible for creating content, and having presenters and guests and reports, and there’s a very different level of production required for that. But yeah, I’m sure they had a world of challenges on the opening, too. We just don’t know about them.

Evan Le Clus  11:00

Turn right turn, right. Oh,

Warsha Joshi 11:03

Well, yes, we’re coming today to and just a quick note, for our listeners, this event ran for six months. And we’re only talking about day two. But also remember, there were quite a few special days that came about in the calendar. So, we had the UAE National Day, we had New Year’s Eve, and we had so many special concerts, and there was so much happening, and during the six months, and then of course not to mention the closing ceremony and that marathon that happened during the closing ceremony. So, there is a whole lot more to come Reim over to you for day two. Now, how did they two feels so far? We’ve had a prerecorded episode 100 Day one, which was recorded all over again, and technical issues notwithstanding, how did day two turn out for you?

Reim El Houni 11:57

Well, I wish I could say that we’ve learned from what went wrong on day one. But there was a whole new set of challenges on day two. Because for those who are familiar with Expo, a different country was celebrated every day, they had a national day Expo National Day celebration. And part of our mandate on the show was to highlight the National Day and actually, in our early days used to throw to the ceremony, which meant we had to be aware of the details of that ceremony, specifically when it was going to start. And on day two, it was Uganda’s National Day. And what I remember clearly is that we now had guests, it was our first experience bringing guests into the studio. And I had bought and a guest who ran a few businesses in Uganda. Unfortunately, he was someone I knew I was trying to be safe with our first few guests. And he was in the studio who’s being interviewed, I believe it was about five to 10. And 10am is when we were informed that the dignitaries from Uganda were arriving, and they would wrap up the interview and throw to the National Day. And please remember that I’m in the middle of producing a live show. So as in my focus is on the presenters and the guests and the content and the report that’s coming up and the names strapping and the audio and the commercial breaks. And there are hundreds of things you’re juggling at that moment in time. And as we’re getting ready for the Ugandan dignitaries to arrive my phone rings. And I’m not someone who ever pays attention to my phone during a live show. But I had it on the counter in front of me and I could see it with someone Senior Expo. And given it was our second episode I thought I should answer so I answered the phone. And I was told, just want to let you know the Ugandan National Day has been postponed by 45 minutes. Can you handle it? Can you handle it? 45 minutes, and 45 minutes? Yep. Okay, no problem. I’ll handle it. I went to a commercial break. And I went into this to physically walked into the studio and I spoke to the guest. And I said, How long can you talk about Uganda? And I said, Can you talk about it? He’s like, Yeah, I can talk about this. Okay. And I briefed the presenter. They said, Okay, well, I know that he runs a tourism business. I know he runs a hotel business. You know, let’s focus on the tourism, the hotel part first and then let’s do that for five minutes. Let’s move on to the tourism that you know, I literally our commercials are all two and a half minutes. So then I walked out got back on comms and just as we started that segment again, I got another phone call. There was another different senior executive Expo and I looked at my phone, I thought okay, and I picked it up. And they said no, we’re back on schedule. There’ll be out shortly. So, I thought okay, and then at that moment, I briefed the presenters alert, change your plan, we’re back on schedule, you can say goodbye to the guests let him out. And they thanked him and they let him out. And within about a minute of us doing that. I had my third phone call. And at that point, I was like, what is going on? And I picked it up and I said no, no 15-minute delay. 15 minutes late Okay, guys. is you’re gonna have to ad lib about Uganda, I’ll find some content I can throw on. But what do you know about Uganda? Let’s start talking about it. And of course, they’ve lost their guests now, because we’ve just waved him goodbye, his left. So, they’re sitting there talking about Uganda. Another minute went by and phone call number four happened. And at that point, it was so so sorry, but it looks like it’s not going to be 15 minutes more like half an hour. Okay. And then at that point, I just said, right, what other reports do we have? Because there’s no way in this planet, they’re going to be able to talk about Uganda for half an hour. So, what else do we have that we can fill air. And then the fifth call came in, all these phone calls happened within I would say, it must have been a five minute window. So they were quite quick. And by the fifth call, I was annoyed by the fifth call, I just said, Who am I supposed to listen to? Who’s actually got the accurate information of when this is going to start. And just as I got off that phone call, the Ugandan dignitaries arrived. So, we got Ugandan dignity. But it was one of those situations where I just thought, I can’t do this every day, you know, on a daily basis, not know, you know, when they’re coming, how they’re coming, what we’re going to throw to, it felt like you were kind of just pulling straws out on a daily basis. And, you know, I did have a few conversations about the clarity of communication at that point. And where could we be getting the accurate direction. And so yes, obviously, within a few days, the process got much smoother. And that was obviously only day two. But it was definitely had a lot of it was not a smooth process, because what we began to realize is different countries treated this in different ways. And as you’d imagine, very, very stereotypically, you know, countries like Switzerland were bang on time, and countries like Egypt to about half an hour late. So, it’s you had to be flexible, and you had to, and that’s part of live TV, as well as like the flexibility of being able to have enough content on standby to fill airtime, when it happens to have the presenters ready with as much you know, information and facts and general knowledge to feel if they need to. And that’s when fortunately, we were able to start putting in a live reporter as well. So, then we had a reporter who we can throw to who was you know, on standby, who can tell us, you know, what the crowd was feeling. And so that these are all kinds of tricks you played to help, you know, manage a live situation. And I would say we got very, very good at managing it very quickly because we had to.

Evan Le Clus 17:31

Yeah, wow. I mean, towards the end of Expo, there was like a wrap up, sort of do that you’d put on I remember, we came to see you there. And we met a couple of the script writers who obviously had been there through all of Expo, they were saying that, like I say some different pavilions did different things than occasionally it was like, well, hang on, you’re a guest on the show. Where are you? Oh, I’m off to the sustainability pavilion. Dude, you’re supposed to be here. No, no, no, no, I’ll be half an hour or something. No, I don’t know. My hat’s off to you for managing that. Absolutely amazing.

Reim El Houni 18:03

It was quite interesting to see how different countries treated it differently. You know, so there were some countries that took the commitment very seriously, and took the opportunity very seriously as well, you know, so they were constantly feeding us with great talent, great guests, and really understood the value in working with us because it could showcase who they are. And, and then there were other countries that didn’t, you know, at all, and would either show up incredibly late and just expect you to still maneuver your whole schedule to fit them on the show, or just not show up and you know, expect you to fit them in the next day. And didn’t understand that for us. That’s I still have a viewing audience at home to consider and also you want to create a good show, you want to do your best to create content that people will want to watch and kind of seamlessly flows together and doesn’t feel like a patchwork quilt, which was difficult at times given, you know, 192 countries. But yeah, it was definitely interesting working with over 192 cultures as well, because they just all behave very differently and treated it very differently.

Evan Le Clus 19:10

And they look I must say, like spectator, if you will, or a guest of Expo, when we went it was very well organized, incredibly well organized, particularly from the COVID standpoint, and the will just the general security and everything was absolutely amazing. I have actually been to an expo before eons ago, the one that was in Brisbane in 1988. If you don’t mind, I remember even then, it was a big deal. And the scale and the scope of it was something to really behold and the one in Dubai was incredibly powerful and just so well put together. And then something is in a way simple if he was one of the cogs in the entire wheel of the TV show. And to so many people doing their thing and not doing their thing and stuff and not managing your piece of it as total respect indeed.

Warsha Joshi  20:01

ring, how big was your team during this whole time?

Reim El Houni 20:04

So we had a technical crew, and we had our production team. So in total, we were around 60. But that includes kind of a rotating technical crew as well. But yeah, you get to know each other very quickly and find work as smoothly as possible.

Warsha Joshi  20:24

So, Reim earlier was talking about the special days that you had to put a show out for how was that different from your daily live show?

Reim El Houni 20:33

Very different. So, the first special day was National Day, and it was extra special because it also was the UAE is 50th birthday. So it was very important that you know, this was showcased well, and as a result, Expo had actually planned a lot of very interesting events that day. But what was different for us is I think we had around last about 40 hours’ notice we were given 40 hours notice, you know, the requirements to produce a special day. And what does that mean? It meant that instead of our usual 90 minute, our show was 90 minutes, occasionally it hit two hours when there was a national day event. But instead of our usual we will now be going to be producing seven hours. So, forty eight hours notice, wow, yeah, with 48 hours notice the suggestion was put on the table of whether we could be on air for seven hours. And anyone who knows me will know that I love a challenge. And I just looked at it. And I just went, Yeah, we can do it. And it sounded crazy. And but I knew we could I knew that if all of us all hands-on deck could pull this off. And we did for so for 48 hours, we reached out to all the guests we had started like producing additional content, got more reporters on board. And sure, enough that day, we were on air for seven hours. And what I think probably stands out for me the most is that I’m pretty sure it was an error free seven hours. So something about the energy of that day, we managed to have 25 guests, which is quite a high number 25 guests that day, and out of 25, only one canceled. And we were able to replace that one, which again, considering we were just talking about people’s commitment and people, for him to have 25 appear on that day was great. And it stands probably as one of my best memories of the whole six months as being able to have achieved that show in that timeline. But also, to have produced what I think was a great show that that kept people watching full day.

Warsha Joshi 22:42

And what a milestone, this is the 50th year of formation of the country, and it was already a huge deal. And then to coincide with Expo and putting that together to match the occasion that that was brilliant. And what a memory to take away.

Reim El Houni 22:58

Absolutely. I think it’s one that I’m really, really proud of us doing as a team. You know, we all had to work, you know, very hard in that 48 hour time period to get it done. And I think it shows and I think everyone, I think that was actually probably the turning point. In terms of our well both are two things, our relationship with Expo because I think we were able to pull off something that they weren’t expecting us to pull off. So, post that they were very open to any new ideas we had or a support, we needed to get to the show in a different place. But also, in terms of viewers, and in terms of the pavilions, and people wanting to be part of the show. It was one of those days that made people realize, oh, we’re here, there’s a show worth watching. So, I’m very proud of it.

Warsha Joshi  23:41

Of course,Reim earlier Evan was talking about us as visitors, we saw that Expo with COVID protocols with security protocols, and just general flow of traffic, making sure everything is as a customer experience, it was smooth and seamless for us. And I’m now particularly going to talk about COVID protocols. And I know that you had to deal with that quite a bit within your team. as you went along in those six months protocol or otherwise, the fact is, you will all working together. And it was bound to happen, I suppose that somebody got and, you know, had to take a break because of that,

Reim El Houni 24:27

As if producing a live daily show wasn’t enough of a challenge, but like needing to do it, you know, in a pandemic, and, and honestly, you know, the expo team were very careful and they put a lot of precautions in place. And one of those precautions was the need for us to have 48 hour tests and show a negative PCR to enter our building. Which you know, a lot of people kind of were a bit put out by that but it was ultimately in the interest of everybody’s safety to do that. Yeah, but obviously it brought the topic to the forefront on a daily basis because on a daily basis, we were having our you know, trips to get our PCR tests done. And, you know, everyone’s like, on eggshells waiting for the negative, you know, SMSs to appear. And sure enough, unfortunately, it did hit our team. I remember it. So clearly, it was probably the first episode was the first most stressful day. And this was the second most stressful day. And it was when one of our reporters, I woke up at six in the morning to a message from her mentioning that, you know, she had just received her positive SMS. And so obviously, we went into this whole process of who had been in touch with and I, you know, rang the team who had and requested they not come in and request they go get tested. And but what ultimately transpired is that, you know, she had been in touch with most of the team. You know, that day, when I walked in, you know, it led to a bit of a delay and a bit of a kerfuffle, in terms of that day’s episode. And what was really fascinating is that my guest, one of my main guests that day was the head of media broadcast. And she had messaged me the day before. And she said, Oh, do you mind if I bring my niece to the studio? Because she wants to, like, have a look at behind the scenes. I said, No, no problem at all. And so there I am standing in a studio, where half my team are getting their PCR tests done. And it was by 815. And we were, you know, due to go live at nine, I didn’t have my presenters, I didn’t have my reporters, I’m still trying to figure out how I’m gonna pull off an episode and I turn around, and there’s the head of media broadcast with her niece and her, you know, her relatives there. And for about five minutes, I thought, What am I going to do? So I just gave her a tour of the studio. So, for five minutes, I just did the whole Well, this is an autocue, and this is, you know, would you like to take a seat and you know, we’ll take a photo of you. And, you know, as I was kind of processing in my head, you know what I was going to do about that day’s episode. And meanwhile, I was very proactive and ringing all the other presenters, you know, and just to see, like, who else can make it here on time to pull this episode off. And gradually, it was becoming more apparent that I was not going to be able to have someone there for 9am. Fortunately, two of the presenters were responsive, and they do live radio in the morning. So I guess that’s the benefit of working with radio presenters, they usually up. But they could only make it in my around 10. So that’s when I had to turn around the head of media and just say, we’re not going live today. And I explained the situation, I said my team are all getting tested. So she obviously understood because that safety first, because so on that particular day, you repeated an episode, which was a hard pill to swallow. And but fortunately, you know, we had other presenters come in, shortly afterwards. So we pre recorded what was then the next day’s episode. And for a two week period, I just made a decision to move to pre recorded in the afternoon, because I just didn’t want to risk having more days like that, where I would wake up in the morning to those kinds of messages. And sure enough, it ended up being the right decision. Because every day from that day on one, if not two members of our team went down with COVID. So it was literally and it reached a point where it was just myself, the director and one of our production coordinators, who were almost in this bubble in the studio. And we didn’t want anyone else coming in because we clearly seem to have been the survivors in this. And unfortunately, just as we were hitting day 10 of the first person going into quarantine, I started to feel unwell. And you know, I went down as well. But in a strange way. I feel very lucky that it happened the way it did. Like I feel at least it kind of hit us all in one go. And also I was the last man standing which meant I was able to carry through, you know, the show whilst everyone else was unwell. And by the time I got sick, they were all kind of returning. And yeah, and that’s how we survived COVID

Warsha Joshi  29:04

Producing live TV for the greatest show on earth with a global reach in the middle of the pandemic. Really, the layers keep adding up and to thing you produced what you did. This is amazing, phenomenal, total Rockstar that you are and then came the closing show because you were on air for seven hours again, were’nt you

Reim El Houni 29:29

We were on for six, but actually something else that I did, which a lot of people at the time thought I was a bit crazy, but I’m actually glad I did. You know now that we obviously had the trust of the Expo team and they were happy with how the show was going around December. They said you know what changes do you want to make? So, Oh there are loads of changes I want to make because I proposed a lot of things in the early days but obviously before we’d started everyone was was being very safe and you know they weren’t ready to kind of Let us try a lot of the suggestions. But now, it was a case of like, what do you want to do? I said, well, well, you know, I want to move to the afternoon. So I want to move it from a morning show to an afternoon show because expos open. So, we’ll be able to see more of it. And it’s more live than when we’re doing things at 9am in the morning, and you know, want more reporters, and I want a second studio and I want to have live performance, and I want to have a competition. And I think our graphics should change, I made a whole list of new requirements or new suggestions. And they were very supportive. And they basically said, go for it. If you think all of these things will, you know, improve the show or take it to a new level? Then go for it. So effectively, what had happened, these decisions were made ended December, beginning, Jan, and by early Feb, we launched what was Studio Expo 2.0. And it was like starting from scratch, you know, which a lot of people was, why would you do that? Why would you do that? It’s a six-month project. You’ve been you know, you’re pretty much on autopilot. By month three, we got the hang of all of our technical challenges. And to be honest, I became known for I used to write a daily report. So, I became known for my daily reports, because every day I’d write a report of this, this this this this needs fixing, you know, and I was on people’s cases every day and it was working, you know, so we’ve got to a point where things were running quite well. So why would I go and just try and reinvent things? And it’s one of the best decisions I think I made because it would have been so easy for me to sit there and say, No, we’re fine. We’re happy in the morning. Everything’s going well. But I think because we added so many new elements, it kind of revived the show, and it gave everybody like new energy for that last two months. And we ended on a bang. You know, we ended on a high I would definitely say our last two months were our strongest. And it felt like it was an upward we were moving upwards as opposed to plateauing, which I started to feel around late December, I started to feel like oh, you know, this is getting a bit too samey. So this was a great way for us to kind of revive everyone’s interest in the show. But again, it came with its own new challenges. We now had two studios. So now we had a second studio, which had its own gallery, which had its own technical problems. There were days that felt like we were back on week one, you know, because we were again, not hearing people and things not working. And but I wouldn’t take it back. Because I think, again, for the viewers at home, it was a much, much richer show in that second wave. And we added new presenters as well and just gave it a bit more diversity.

Warsha Joshi  32:33

But you said earlier that people may feel that that was a crazy thing to do. And yet, this is where experience shines. Look what you did it crazy as it may have sounded at that time, what you did literally was a revival halfway through a much needed revival. And you recognize that and you point boldly put forward your suggestions, and you pulled it off.

Reim El Houni 32:55

I think a lot of people don’t underestimate like 182 episodes. Yeah, that’s a lot. You know. So, keeping in mind, we were live during weekend as well. So, by December, we’d already done 90, you know, we’d crossed the 90 mark. Yeah, there are shows on air that never get to that that number. So yeah, I think it was, although for many they sat there thinking was, why would you do this in three months for me is like, I’m going to do this after 100 episodes, it needs a shift at that point. And also, I’m always a big believer of you never know, unless you try. So I didn’t want to get to the end of Expo and feel like oh, we really should have tried doing it differently. Or we should have tried to push for the afternoon. We could have got a second studio; we could have done this performance. And I used to have this conversation with our director Sofia quite often because she thought I was crazy. And she would which is quite rare for anyone who knows her knows that that’s unusual. She was definitely the crazy one between us. But anyway, but she thought I was crazy because she’d say, Look, you know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You know? So, if everyone’s happy with the current show, why would you do this and you risk so much more. And I just kept thinking, I just don’t want to reach the end and feel like we could have done something differently and done something better? Because we’ll never know otherwise is there isn’t a second go at this. You know, there’s one take so yeah, so there’s something else I’m very happy we will I pushed for.

Warsha Joshi  34:18

Oh very nice indeed. So, tell us about those seven hours closing ceremony.

Reim El Houni 34:24

Yeah, it was it was actually ended up being six but yeah, that I think at that point, I knew we’d done it already. We’ve done it for National Day. And that still stood out as one of my fondest memories. And so, I knew we could do it. And it felt like we should it felt like we’re going to end I don’t want to end with 90 minutes you know with it by this point. We’ve like we’ve been on air every day and we’re just going to end with 90 minutes. And I think there was such a big buzz around Expo especially that last month where I think the general public or really want to finally head down and experience are they find me understood that it wasn’t going to be there. And they had to, like get everything in so. So in terms of just the atmosphere, and that last few days was electric, it was heaving, you know. So I wanted us to create a show, which brought that to viewers. And so as a result, I wanted all of our present all of our presenters and reporters were in it. And we had multiple kinds of cameras all over the site. So we had the most alive episode that we’ve had so far in terms of being able to jump from one place on the site to another, which we hadn’t been able to do as much previously. So yeah, I was definitely up for making it stand out and giving Expo the kind of the farewell that that it needed. And although what I should add is we then ended up doing an episode on the first as well. So right, so the day after it was over there the day after it was over. And again, a lot of people say, Well, how are you going to make that different? If you just had your big six hour bang on the you know, what are you going to do on the first I said, Well, on the first that’s when we’re going to look back at everything, that’s what we’re going to celebrate everything. And that’s when we’re going to get some key guests. And I think what definitely helped our last couple of days is you know, I’ve been asking pretty much throughout the six months to try and get Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy on the show. And it was always a standard response of, you know, obviously she’s got hundreds of things on her over her list of things to do. But we finally got a yes. So, she was on our show on the 31st. And that was amazing. That was amazing. What a win. Yeah, to end our whole studio Expo journey with her are one of our key guests. We also had Ahmed Al Khatib, who’s responsible for delivering the expo project. And he was on our last day. And even though as he walked out the gallery he stood, someone fortunately recorded it on their phone. He stood and thanked us all, because he said, you know, the expo site was his baby. And he felt that he was thanking us for bringing that to viewers to the show, and how he felt we’ve done a great job at delivering that, you know, those moments, which kind of feel like people did appreciate the effort and energy that went into producing them.

Warsha Joshi  37:14

What a massive pat on the back. That is it’s very well done.

Reim El Houni 37:18

Yeah, I mean, I want to also thank, you know, the expo media team, because we work very closely with Mandy Keegan, who is head of broadcast, and Schinade Gain from the VP of Communications and like they brought in, they were guests on our last show as well, they brought in a massive cake, which was customized, like Al Wasl Plaza, and you know, he just kind of it was lit up as well. So, it was bizarre, just kind of these moments of those last couple of days, which I think will will stick

Warsha Joshi  37:47

will be I’m going to scour your social media to find a photo of that cake because I’m curious.

Reim El Houni 37:52

I Yeah. I’ll send it to you. I haven’t seen anything like it. And we had a whole discussion about how we were going to carry it into the studio. And does it need a trolley? And does it need electricity to light it up? And all these other conversations? But yeah, it was very impressive.

Warsha Joshi  38:07

How brilliant Evan, you had something to say.

Evan Le Clus  38:11

That reminds me, if anybody doesn’t know that is that’s the big dome in the center of Expo. We loved coming to Expo early in the morning, sort of as soon as we could get in like nine o’clock kind of thing, because that dome had a very special sort of place a beautiful sound system. It was almost a great place to meditate even. It was so tranquil and just magic. But I do remember the last probably two weeks, it became very inaccessible because a lot of events started taking place. And you know, everyone’s big shooed away kind of thing. But Al Wasl Plaza was incredible.

Warsha Joshi  38:48

And the booths over there. You’re right. It was stunning.

Evan Le Clus  38:51

To have a cake that looked like that. Yum, yum.

Warsha Joshi  38:56

So you’ve produced live TV 482 days for the greatest show on earth. You don’t come away from a high energy event like this. It’s almost like going to the war and returning to normal life, whatever normal life is, and it’s bound to have some effect emotionally even to say, Well, I’ve woken up, I’m not going to Expo.

Reim El Houni 39:24

I keep telling people I have PTSD, because that’s what it feels like because like whenever I hear someone say Expo kind of jump up and I flinched. And I just, but yeah, there’s definitely a level of withdrawal. Because that both for the event which I think a lot of us are going through, because, you know, it was a great experience and for a lot of people was just something they did on the weekend or something that you know, became part of their routine, but when you’re there every single day, you know, it really becomes part of your life. And so for the event very, very different. So yeah, trying to adjust back to normalcy is not easy, and I Guess it’s a case of, you know, looking for the next adventure. Of course, who knows, maybe Expo 2025.

Warsha Joshi  40:07

There you go, I was just going for that because experience like this is so niche. Because what you’ve produced is not something a lot of people can boast about in this world, because, and that was going to be my next question. So what’s the level of progression? Because, and just for the benefit of our listeners, I want to talk a little bit about you Reim because you really are that global level industry leader in what you do. And a couple of now with an experience like this, the world really is your oyster, you personally as well. So why did you mention 2025? Tell me,

Reim El Houni 40:47

I think, you know, as I mentioned, live TV has that energy, I really did enjoy the expo experience. And that kind of feels like a fitting next adventure. I mean, I haven’t been to Japan, I’d be up for that. But yeah, it’s interesting, because I love the media space. I love learning. I love TV. I love video. So that’s the world that I want to continue to live in. But it’s about I guess, finding the projects that also feel like they’re always cutting edge or that the next step. And yeah, maybe it is Expo 2025. But maybe it’s something else. So it’s just about really opening up and being open by opening up open, but you get the idea of being open to whatever those possibilities may be.

Warsha Joshi  41:28

And then along with that, and you mentioned something earlier, technology is playing a very big part in innovation and technology plays a big partner on where your industry is going. So can you tell us a little bit about where is this industry as a whole headed, and I think NF people talk about NF T’s it’s almost like we went left NFT in the past. It’s yesterday’s news, almost while it’s still there. But it’s there’s so much more happening every day is a new day. So, what’s it like for you who actually heads the industry?

Reim El Houni 42:01

Honestly, I feel like there’s so much change in the industry at the moment. And I don’t think everyone understands it, I’m not going to claim to understand it. And every second day I’m hearing about NFT is more and I’m hearing about the metaverse and how we need to be ready to you know, have our digital selves and avatars ready and all of that. But I often kind of still drill it all the way back and want to go back to basics and look at what are we doing just to create content and be visible. And I’m still very passionate about that message. So it’s one thing to run with technology. But the technology is going to keep evolving, and there’s going to be new things that come out. And you know, if you’re not today, well, you know, don’t worry, because tomorrow will be completely different. But the one thing that is in your control is your message and how visible you are and owning your space and embracing your niche and being visible with your content, which is what I’m trying to do more of. So I definitely think that, at least in the short term, for business owners out there or you know, thought leaders out there, just focus on getting your presence out and being more visible. And then don’t worry about the technology, because that’s going to evolve and change. So just start with the basics first.

Evan Le Clus  43:13

And besides which if they do need help with the technology, they have you too, to go to TI 22 can certainly help you with that, too. Yes. What I love about this entire story room is what looks like an overnight success, in fact, has taken many, many years and experience and hard work and grit and courage and forethought and all sorts of things and being flexible to produce something so magical as the greatest show on earth, or at least the the TV show that went with the greatest show on earth. And that experience will totally hold you in good stead and any entrepreneurs out there. You know, you have an absolute expert here who knows exactly what to be doing.

Reim El Houni 43:52

Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you,

Warsha Joshi  43:54

for budding TV producers, what are the top two things you would say to watch out for or just embody?

Reim El Houni 44:04

I think if you’re going to enter the TV industry, you have to understand that you need to be willing to do anything and everything, you have to be willing to start from the bottom and work your way up. I see a lot of people who just swoop in and think that they can instantly produce a direct. And I see that a lot in this region actually. But you know, in the Western world, you’ve got more of that, you know, working your way up from being a runner into being an assistant and just learning. So, I would say do as much as you can to get on the ground experience. This is not an industry where you’re going to learn anything from a book, you know, it’s fine, you might get some theories, but quite honestly, you need to be in the thick of it. You need to get that work experience and that’s what I tell everybody is just get into a studio, even if you don’t, you know you’re there on work experience. So you’re there because that’s what you’ll learn just by being around experienced producers, and also different producers work differently. So you will pick up different things from different producers. So it’s definitely the hands on experience is going to put you in the right place for where you want to go more than anything that you can learn online.

Warsha Joshi  45:11

Oh, totally. And also develop that ability to think on your feet. Because if there’s an essence of your story, that’s what it is,

Reim El Houni 45:21

I think, absolutely, you need the flexibility, the sort of flexibility to change to change whatever your plan is literally with a moment’s notice. And you can’t allow that to get to you. And I noticed actually, even with some of the other producers on the team, because I’ve had so many experiences of things not going the way I’d planned, I could see how upset they were getting when things didn’t go to plan. And, you know, my instant response was always like, nobody at home knows, you know, so don’t get upset. Like, at the end of the day, nobody knows what you’d plan. Just remember, it’s perception is reality. It’s the viewers experience that matters. So, but it was interesting to me because I’d seen at least where how far I’d come. You know, when I think back to my Burj Khalifa experience and how upset I was, you know, I was literally, I mean, that was now 11 years ago, but how upset I was thinking, oh, my God had produced the worst show ever, to now being able to look at it objectively, and you know, with some of the other producers on the team, and realize, you know, how I understand that emotion. I knew how they were feeling. But knowing that, no, you actually done a great job. So yeah, it’s being flexible.

Evan Le Clus  46:34

Actually Great tips.

Warsha Joshi  46:35

Reim, what can I say with a huge thank you. These are stories that must go out to the world. Because like Evan was saying, these are stories of grit, determination, debt, immense resourcefulness, and being able to rely and draw from your experience. And these are stories that must come out. So thank you so much for so generously sharing your six months with us. Well, actually 12 years with us because that’s when Burj Khalifa opened 2010 January, this has been immense, we loved every single minute of it. And as most of our listeners know, we usually record with a video on and if you were to ever, ever, ever watch this video, you will find Evan and me on mute, but giggling away to some of the those experiences that were being shared anything. You can’t make this thing up. Because this actually just happened. And we were in absolute disbelief. But it was so amazing to listen to completely,

Evan Le Clus 47:33

completely mesmerized. Yeah, we were. And look, we’ve all been in this part of the world for long enough. There’s lots of things that each of us have done different times. And Burj Khalifa was a big one, obviously, at one point, there was a ship that came in into the country. And that was a big deal in a different way as well. And things sort of just happened, but you’re removing part of something that’s absolutely huge. But wonderful stories. Thank you for sharing.

Reim El Houni 47:58

Well, thank you both for giving me the opportunity to share, I appreciate it. And thank you to all the listeners as well. So hope there was something interesting in there for everyone.

Warsha Joshi  48:07

Absolutely. Now, we’re not letting you go just yet, because after listening to this, they’re gonna want to actually go and watch some of those episodes. This is still available on YouTube, isn’t it?

Reim El Houni 48:19

It is. But actually, the show aired on Dubai one as well. So if you go on the Dubai one website, I believe on their VOD platform. And 182 episodes are uploaded, right there.

Warsha Joshi  48:33

We’re gonna be putting a link in the show notes for everybody to actually go and watch and go and watch these specific days that Reim was talking about and see what it looked like for you as a viewer. There is no way we would have ever imagined this was happening in the background. So we’re going to be posting the link to all those episodes, and also a link to your LinkedIn account or your LinkedIn profile. Is that okay with you Reim? Because I know people are gonna want to connect.

Reim El Houni 49:01

Yes, absolutely. Always happy to connect with people always happy to support wherever possible. So yeah, I look forward to hearing from you.

Warsha Joshi  49:08

Thank you very much. We look forward to having you again, as a guest. At some point whenever your busy schedule allows you, we would love to have another conversation on the brand-new project that you may be taking on at some point in the future because I know someone like you needs to keep moving and will always keep moving. Thank you.

Reim El Houni 49:30

Thank you both so much. And hope to see you soon.

Warsha Joshi  49:35

Thank you for joining us and for listening all the way through to get the show notes, the transcription and of course to subscribe, visit dare to scale.fm

Evan Le Clus 49:47

The success of the show is thanks to you. So please keep the five star reviews coming. Remember to share this with your network and keep the community expanding. We’ll catch you at our next episode and in the meantime, keep daring and keep growing.