Dan Dignan

Founder of AX

My Name is Dan Dignan, I have been in the region for 8 years now and have been blessed to regularly work on some of the Middle East's largest events with the world's best talent, using the best equipment in the industry. I have been fortunate to garner a great reputation for what I do and continue to work with the majority of the finest companies and venues in the region doing some of the world's best events.

I was approached by Pedro about 4 years ago on a site of mine, I was doing the opening ceremony for the Dubai Canal at the time. He was a very young man then but was ever so keen to understand what it was I was done. I remember thinking it was great that a man at such a young age had such a grasp on what he wanted to do with his life. I didn't want to spoil the thought at the time and didn't tell him that its only about 5% of the time that you are actually behind the console with a large crowd jumping around you. The rest of the time you are

pushing boxes and coiling cables and lifting... After that day, I thought I would never see Pedro again... Pedro had different ideas.

Over the past 4 years, he has hounded me to get on every event possible and has regularly borrowed equipment from companies I have worked for to do his own little events. He has met many of my friends in the industry and everyone has had the same impression, a young man with such drive has the potential to go very far". Over the years he has worked alongside me and has helped friends of mine and other companies. I think his biggest event to date was when he begged me to get on the red fest gig at Media City Amphitheatre. It wasn't my event, but I trusted he would work hard and do me proud. I put the call into Shaam, the MD at Media Pro, and he immediately agreed to the extra help. Pedro worked on stage and saw how a festival runs from behind the scenes, helping with patches and changeovers. I got great feedback from the lads on site.

I think the funniest time I came across Pedro was his Graduation Prom. I had managed to convince my MD at the time that it was a nice idea to sponsor the school's event, again after Pedro had pestered me to do so... We set him up with a DJ booth that was suitable for the best producers on the Planet and also gave him all control of fairly over the top LX rig and a full Meyer sound Rig, he was in his own spaceship in front of his classmates. He looked like a legend.

I have nothing but kind words for Pedro, he is young, and he still does have a lot to learn, but anyone that invests their time in him will get their investment back 10-fold.