Conversation with Jeff Meyer

Jeff Meyer’s office is clean and clutter-free with black furniture, except for a red inflatable ball he sometimes uses as a chair. The setting is a perfect match for Meyer’s professional role within a company known for creating fun.

Meyer has worked for 28 years for Feld Entertainment, famed for its productions of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, Monster Jam, Marvel Universe LIVE! and Disney on Ice. 

He started with the company as regional marketing director in 1987 and now serves as senior vice president of event marketing and sales for North America.

“It’s been a great run,” Meyer said. “It was the second job I had out of college.”

Meyer and his family moved to Lakewood Ranch from Virginia in 2013, when Feld moved its 600,000-square-foot global headquarters to Palmetto. 

“For us, it’s been a fantastic transition,” he says. 

We have a saying in the industry that they have a little sawdust in their veins. You’ll know whether it’s a good fit fairly quickly. It’s a grind. It’s a lot of work, but we have a lot of fun. You’ll find here that a lot of the senior managers have been around a long time. Of the direct reports I have, I have folks who have been here 15 years to 40 years. You can attribute that to the culture the Feld family created. 

My favorite show is always the next one, but I have a big fondness of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. In my early days, I cut my teeth with Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus. OK, wait. My favorite show of all time was Disney on Ice presents “Beauty and the Beast.” My wife played the role of Belle in the early '90s. That’s how I met her.

The end result that happens in this building is the production people see in the arenas, stadiums and theaters all around the world. We get to see it created in this building from start to finish. 

We are the largest owner of portable ice floors in the world. They can go in and hook the panels together, almost like a jigsaw puzzle. There’s fluid pumped through the pipes, and it cools the panels. You spray water on it, and it freezes layer by layer. That’s how we build the ice floor. 

There’s always a number of things in the works. We will be producing another Marvel Universe Live, and it will be coming out in 2017. We’ve got a brand new production of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus that in May 2016 will begin the rehearsal process and launch in July.

The Feld family is very involved in all the creation of the shows. They assemble a team of creative folks in conjunction with all our in-house folks, and they are always looking for new ideas, trying to stay on the cutting edge of how to make a live show bigger, better and different than anyone has ever seen before. 

Technology plays a big role (in our shows). For example, we now use a follow-spot tracking system. It’s a technology that allows the performer to be followed automatically by the lighting system. It’s embedded in the costume. Our hope over time is that with every production we have to be able to do that. Right now, Disney on Ice Frozen and Marvel Universe Live were the first shows we put out with that technology.

Every day is a challenge to promote shows because you want every seat full. We have a lot of latitude of what we can do to promote the shows, creative ways to sell tickets. For instance, at the end of this month, there will be a national McDonald’s Happy Meal promotion tied in with the Monster Jam brand. 

We tend to do everything hyperlocally. It may be partnering with a Chick-fil-A in the Atlanta area, or we team up with a charity for fundraising efforts, like Tampa General Hospital here. This will be our 25th year with Tampa General benefiting our opening night. My team is comprised of six regions in the country. Each of those regions has 15 to 20 individuals who are promoting Feld events when they come through that region. They operate as a Feld annual business. 

We play in MBA or NHL facilities around the country and are the first- or second-largest tenant, and it’s because we do as many performances as they do games, in many cases. In non-MBA or NHL facilities, we often are the largest tenant. It makes it easier for us to look at the local market as an annual business.

I love this room we call our white model. Every show we produce, we built it first in a 1-inch square model. If you picture this room — filled with 150 to 200 people, directors, choreographers, promoters — they go through the show right here on a 3-D model of the production. It’s simulated. They go through the transitions to see if anything is off base. 

The key to creating a good environment is open and honest communication and having fun and believing in what you are doing. When you think about coming to work every day to a place that puts smiles on people’s faces, it's amazing. 

I have ridden in a Monster truck. It’s an adrenaline rush. When they fire that thing up, it actually shakes you to the core. It’s that strong and loud.