Feature Friday #029 - Tom Hillmeyer

Hiking enthusiast, digital ninja, and designer extraordinaire, Tom Hillmeyer has traveled both terrain and industry. His career as a technical director demands maximum adaptability, a challenge he's built for. Today's chat covers his all-encompassing role, B-52 Bombers, and why Dwayne Wade is persona non grata 'round these parts.
Browse his site to discover more of his work and enjoy 20% off all of his on-demand items through Sunday, October 12 with coupon code featurefriday20 at checkout.
Thanks for chatting Tom. We're always eager to hear our designers' thoughts on the current state of the industry but first I have to ask, is designer too limited of a term for you? You're a videographer, filmmaker, trivia host, and apparently a water-curtain engineer (which is one of the coolest things I've ever seen).
Can you give us a little insight into your career and how do you define your skillset?
Designer is probably too limited of a term for me! My design skills have come about like most things have in my career, which all seem to be the result or byproducts of something else. I was always pretty nerdy as a kid, which led me into learning how cameras work. In starting to make videos, I naturally began designing graphics, titles, thumbnails, etc. Those skills led me into broadcasting in high school and college, and then in creating my online trivia show with one of my best friends. All along the way my eye for design has gradually evolved, and has served me less as a primary focus by itself and more as an enhancement in my other projects. Design has always been the thing I stress over and take the extra time to make better in whatever I'm doing.
I can't take credit for engineering the water-curtain, but I will take some credit for figuring out how to make it fit in a ballroom! My day job is as a live event technical director, where I design and execute the AV for corporate meetings and conferences. I've ended up in this career in part because it's a wonderful combination of all of the skills I have in broadcast, video, and design. Most days I'm designing room layouts and stages, getting as creative as I can within the limitations of LED screens, lights, and rigging. (and budgets, of course).

Oh wow, that sounds like an awesome work environment. It also feels like the perfect intersection of your abilities. But seriously, a water curtain has to be the wildest thing you've worked on, right?
Any other conferences or projects that specifically stick out as being incredible experiences?
Of course the water curtain is near the top of the most unique projects I've been a part of. The group of people I get to work with mean the world to me, so the projects that usually stick out are the ones where we pulled off a complicated show or solved an especially difficult problem. We also get to travel around the world together and have done events in some historic places, so certain events definitely stick out when I've called a famous venue my "office" for a few days!
Without a doubt the craziest place I've had the delight of working is a couple hundred yards from an active runway during AirVenture Oshkosh, the world's largest airshow. I'm lucky enough to be part of the team that produces the live streams for EAA during AirVenture, and it never gets old opening the door of our control room to see a B-52 or a Lockheed Constellation sitting right there. Also, that show is definitely the one where my graphic design shines the most these days, as I put together our on-screen graphics package every year.
That sounds so cool! Most designers we chat with are in a more concentrated field or are very selective about the type of projects they take on. What's it like working on big productions where you have to integrate design assets with event planners, engineers, film production, and other departments? Is having too many voices in the room ever part of navigating those especially difficult problems?
It can be difficult for sure, but having dipped my toes in several roles I'm able to understand a little bit of where each of those departments are coming from and what they're trying to specifically accomplish. Every show is a tightly choreographed dance of what the video, audio, and lighting departments need on top of the look and feel the client is after. It is a game of compromises and prioritizing certain aspects, while of course keeping event planners, venue staff, and the laws of physics happy.
Having too many voices in the room can just make a problem more difficult, however it is also incredibly useful to present a difficult problem to a larger group and get everyone's thoughts. It becomes more of a problem of controlling the chaos, but there may be a good solution that only one person on your team thinks of.

Balancing voices in a field like yours might differ from obstacles that independent artists deal with. Is that a reason for your side projects? Between Fast Facts Live, a podcast, and other design work it seems like you can flex your creative muscles and follow your vision 100%.
That's exactly the reason for my side projects: they're both an opportunity to flex my creative muscles and as a way to still do the type of work I want to do that doesn't necessarily align with my full-time work. That being said, I am constantly taking something I learned doing Fast Facts and applying it to my live event work, and vice versa.
Coming out of college I was so worried about being locked into one type of work and missing out on doing the other things I was passionate about. My career has definitely proven to be more wide-ranging than I anticipated, but regardless, having these side projects does exactly what you said: they give me an opportunity to make a vision or idea come to life.

Call it predictable, but my favorite side hustle has to be your photography. We're big nature geeks at CB and you've been to a ton of really cool locations.
Any favorites to photograph or just visit in general? Have your travels influenced your technical director job at all? I could see your experiences aligning well with featured projects at shows or some of your other endeavors.
When I'm deciding where to travel personally, I'm heavily influenced by photography. In almost every case the pin goes in my bucket list Google Map in response to a cool photo I've seen from that location. In fact, the very first trip I planned myself back in college was completely centered around getting that iconic shot of Horseshoe Bend in northern Arizona. Building that trip around that single photo led me to discover Valley of Fire in Nevada and Zion National Park on the way, still two of my favorite places. Plus we ended up in Antelope Canyon, the site of one of the most expensive photos ever sold. It kind of taught me that you can build a really great trip around a single photo, and I've used that method ever since.
The photos with locations that end up on my bucket list are almost always tied to nature, and most of those are places that I don't know if we as humans could've even dreamed up. I look at places like the Grand Canyon, Banff, and even lesser known places close to home like the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin and wonder what had to happen to make these places as beautiful as they are.
What's really rewarding about traveling for work is I'm not deciding where we're going, so I end up in locations around the world I probably never would've picked otherwise. Sometimes I'm taking my camera around these places, but most of the time I get to enjoy the place as-is without any expectation of needing to get to an iconic spot. In terms of influencing my job, having photography as a side hustle really helps from a sales perspective as I'm usually the one taking cool photos of our stage setups to sell to future clients. I'll often come back from a show with an SD card full of photos of the stage and our lighting setup right next to photos from the hike I took right behind the hotel.

Now you're speaking my language. Zion is my absolute favorite park followed closely by Banff.
Diving into your comment about building a great trip around a single photo… it strikes me as oddly contrary to your professional and personal outlook. Do you find it more rewarding to get one amazing picture or would you rather have a series of really good ones?
Clearly you juggle a lot of skills, which provides a certain security. But does a broad approach prohibit you from really honing and maximizing your potential in one particular craft?
Of the thousands of photos I've taken on trips, there are usually only 2-3 per trip that stand above the rest. I do find it more rewarding to get one amazing picture, but it's often not the picture I went to get! I got that picture of Horseshoe Bend, but it's actually a picture from nearby Antelope Canyon that's framed on my wall. I have a picture of Angel's Landing in Zion I planned a trip around, but it's a photo of The Watchman in Zion that went on my wall first. The inspiration photo for a place is almost a consolation prize, but it puts me in a place for inspiration and I oftentimes walk away with something unique.
With that question you've hit on the thing that I ask myself all the time. The honing of a craft comes in phases for me. I have never been someone to stick to a single particular thing for very long, however I always tend to build up a muscle in that area. For example, after learning broadcast television in high school and college I never moved on to working full time at a TV station where I could really maximize those skills. However, I had built up that muscle enough that when I started working in live events, those skills were invaluable and put me a step above those who had never had that experience.
The roles I've found myself in and the things I'm passionate about are all things that require a patchwork of skills. There are definitely jobs out there where you can focus on one thing, become very good at it, and that's how you move forward in that career. The career I've built for myself requires me to be just strong enough in key areas to fill my specific role. I'm not the best designer, programmer, engineer, or photographer in the world but I'm strong enough in each of those areas to successfully be a live event technical director. It's a niche role that you can't just learn by itself.

You've set yourself up quite nicely in a very cool, important industry. And it sounds like the route you took to get there was the only way to make to work.
So you're in an accomplished position. Business is good. Now it's time to look down the road. Do you anticipate ever narrowing your scope or specializing in one area? Is it all just adding tools to the toolbox from here? It's interesting to consider what your career and hobbies look like 10 years from now.
I have resisted narrowing my scope, and I've done that to avoid losing the skills I've gained. I don't do a ton of video editing nowadays, for example, but I haven't completely gone away from it. Every so often I find myself in a position where I need to get back into editing for a single specific project, and because I've kept up with it I'm able to re-teach myself quickly and accomplish that task. I wouldn't be surprised if I settle into something specific, but having a little bit of experience in a lot of fields has really benefited me. I don't anticipate that changing, and I'm excited what my toolbox looks like 10 years from now!

If it ain't broke, right? But just to drive this question home, I have to try from one last angle.
Any chance you drill down to one or two teams? I mean, you have Marquette, Kansas City, Milwaukee, all the St. Louis squads, and plenty of other designs in your CB catalog. We'll let your KC and Bucks support slide, but D-Wade is a non-starter for us diehard Pitt fans.
I'm a recovering St. Louis Rams fan, and when I became a free agent I chose the green and gold rather than the red and gold (Good thing the Packers and Steelers are in two different conferences!) It'll always be the Cardinals and Blues for me...
…and #3 speaks for himself. Ring Out Ahoya.
Alright I think we have to wrap it up on that note. This was fun!