A Conversation with the Founder of Cybis - A Live Event Production Company

Jeff: I'm always trying to explain to people, what does Cybis do? I try to explain it to friends and family all the time. What do we do? And I say a lot of words—light, sound, cameras. And they don't really get it. They kind of think maybe we're doing a pep rally or something. And then they watch the show, and better if they come out in person to see the show, and they are blown away. This is an experience. You feel the energy in the room, and you can feel the energy from everybody who's there participating in the audience. It's night and day, and you really have to see it and experience it in person to understand it.

I've explained for years to certain people, including my own daughter, trying to explain what I do. And then it was exciting to bring her to her first Cybis production show. And then she's like, wow, that was cool.

Anastasia: Does she want to also go into productions after that?

Jeff: No, she's young, but I'm hoping she's getting more interest. And now she's looking for, how can I make some money? What can I do to work with Cybis? So I'm thinking, well, let's start with some graphic design. Get in. And she's been on site wrapping cables, and she's been helpful before. We'll see.

Anastasia: You got started pretty young, too. 30 years ago.

Jeff: It's 2025 now. So in 1995, I attended my first Future Business Leaders of America conference in Florida, and I was blown away. I love telling this story because it's exactly how Cybis really got started in the whole industry, and it's how we started with the education groups. I attended this conference with about 2,500 people. And I'll never forget walking in the room and feeling that energy. I didn't know what to expect, and I was so excited.

I will never forget standing probably toward the back of the room. I was new. I was a freshman in high school, and I thought to myself, I want to produce this. And it still gives me chills right now to know that it was seven years later that I produced that exact same show. And we've been producing that show for 23 years for Florida FBLA.

But I'll never forget standing in the room experiencing this as just a freshman in high school and thinking, I want to produce this. I am overwhelmed. And the coolest thing was, I saw how much this was inspiring other students, other people. It wasn't just strictly entertainment. It wasn't just a pep rally in your college or your high school auditorium or gymnasium. This was an experience with a purpose to inspire people. And it really worked. And I was so captured by the energy and the same thing that we deliver now is what I was inspired by before.

Now, I like to say we deliver on a much higher level than what I saw 30 years ago. But what I was inspired by before, it got me interested in the industry. And Cybis was sort of born that year. I was still learning how to edit videos and Photoshop and dabbling in After Effects. So we were nowhere near actually producing that quality, that type of show back in 1995, but it was the very beginning of Cybis.

Anastasia: That's pretty amazing that you've held on to that passion and that spark throughout all of these years and you still want to create even a better show the following year.

Jeff: Every year's gotta be better. And the cool thing that I really sleep well at night knowing is that we're not just putting gear out in a ballroom. Cybis does the full show production—we're developing scripts and we're coaching the leaders on stage and we're crafting soundtracks and creating inspirational videos. We are fulfilling a mission to inspire people, whether that's their school success or their career success, whatever it is that they're pursuing. We're inspiring them to achieve at a higher level. And to do that through the power of creative media and live event productions is super fulfilling for me. It's just awesome. Can't beat it.

Anastasia: What makes a live production like that different than even what you said, a pep rally or just someone going onto stage without all of the other production aspects?

Jeff: It's the feeling that when you walk in the room, you're part of something big. Something that's highly organized, high quality, the same you'd see on TV. And you realize that you're part of something big that makes you want to be on stage, you want to win an award because you want to be a part of this and you want to go back the next year. It's just such a different level than most people get to experience.

You experience that in person. You can feel it. You can feel the bass, you can see the lights, and you can hear a message. And you put that all together with people that you appreciate and respect—you have that shared experience as well. I think that's a big part of it that takes you somewhere that you want to be a part of it again. You want to experience that again and again. You want to reach higher in your own professional goals.

I can't tell you why exactly it works that way. I just know it does. It works for me and I know it does because that's the feedback we get. That's why we were brought out to do what we do for our organizations and companies that we serve. I wish I knew the science behind it, but I know it works and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Anastasia: I mean, I could put up a light, I could play some music. What does that actually look like? Is it one camera, two cameras? Does it move across? Like, what does that even look like? Can you paint me a picture as if I was never there and might not be able to go there?

Jeff: I will never be able to paint that picture. You have to go there. The fact that we create moments that are synchronized with the message, whatever is being spoken on stage—it could be a tribute to somebody who's done some great accomplishments. And we're matching that, the tempo and the mood with the lighting and the soundtrack. It could be celebrating a new up-and-comer. And that may be a different, high energy level. But the fact that we're matching the lighting, the sound, even the camera movement with the message—that's what's really cool, I think, about Cybis.

We're not an AV company that's coming in and putting a bunch of people behind consoles and cameras. We all work together multiple times throughout the year and for many years, and we are writing the script and we're coaching on stage. So we all have a similar common mission that's so distinct from other production companies because we're all focused on what's that experience going to be for the audience. And everybody who's in a technical position is there to match the presentation on stage. And that, I think, really sets us apart.

You could come from other AV production companies, other events, the event world, and you could have a very full resume. But you might not get it. You might not get what sets Cybis apart. Because we're not just looking for a camera operator. We want a camera operator who's going to be there and be like, "I have an idea. When they're talking about XYZ, let's make this move with the jib and then pan over to the graphic that's over there and then cut to that."

We're having those conversations and sometimes it seems so silly, like, why are we spending this time talking about a four-second moment? But then you see it played out during the show and you get goosebumps. That worked. And it's because of the passionate team of Cybis that we can create those moments. Some of it's improvised on site.

I'm so happy that we didn't just have a camera operator. We had somebody on our team who gets the mission and has their own personal goals. I keep talking about Cybis's goal and how we started it, about inspiring people to succeed. But I would say that pretty much everybody on our team shares that goal. They want to have an impact on their audience and not just be somebody who's pushing buttons. They want to know that they have impact.

I wish I had more time to pass the feedback on to everybody on the team. Last week we had the keynote speaker, an internationally renowned keynote speaker, who said to somebody backstage after her presentation, "I want to shake Jeff's hand." And I knew of her, I watched her. She had a phenomenal presentation, very moving. And I thought, okay, that's cool, I'll go backstage and shake her hand. And she was saying, this was the most professional and high quality production team. She could see herself on the screen. The camera movement was fantastic, she sounded great, the lights matched. If she had a high energy moment, we're doing things with lighting. She's like, "I just want to shake your hand."

And I said, I've just been sitting there watching and I literally said, I'm going to shake your hand on behalf of my team because the team is what made it possible. And that gave me chills to do it because I'm very proud of the team that I have, the team that I have formed. And that's, I guess, the piece I can take credit for—that I have brought this team together to do phenomenal things.

I'm not a team person. I'm a very independent person. And I thought, the greatest challenge would be to pursue something that I could not do by myself. And when you think about what it takes to produce a Cybis event, we have creative and graphics, we have audio engineers who are doing the engineering for the sound, we have video engineers, we have coaches who have all those personal skills. And I could go on for so long, not to mention the technical, the drafters, diagrams, and so many different disciplines that came together for last week's show.

That's cool, because it could never have been done by any single person. And I thought that was the greatest challenge 25 years ago—what can I do that will really challenge me? And it is working as a team, and I think we're crushing it.

Anastasia: Just any production, I think—I come from the cinematic world, and I feel like live productions are even more difficult because you need to hit those cues.

Jeff: We get one chance to do it right, and thank goodness, because I only want one chance. I love live events. One thing I love about live events is that we rehearse endlessly, and then we get one chance. We do it right, and then we're done. That's cool.

I used to be, 30 years ago, doing websites. They're never done. Got out of that world. Live events? One chance. And we rehearse. And sometimes we have to twist arms like, "No, if you're speaking on stage, if you're walking, we need you to come out for rehearsal." And sometimes we get some pushback on that. "Well, I mean, I speak all the time." That's cool. But we want to know how you're going to transition from who's introducing you. We want to know that when you finish your spiel that you're not walking right when somebody's coming to shake your hand from the left.

Those little details—the audience isn't going to say after the show, "That was really tightly choreographed. They all knew where they're going to go," but when things are wrong, they notice that. And you got to rehearse multiple times to get those moments right.

Anastasia: Absolutely. What other events do you do, other than student events? Because you mentioned galas—what else is there?

Jeff: We're doing leadership conferences for corporations. We have served government groups, including the White House, over the years. Corporate meetings, motivational shows and awards galas, award ceremonies, summits, leadership summits, and any kind of programming that merits—and I think most programming merits—the addition of high production value with all the synergy that we bring.

So all indoors. We like our air conditioning. But, I shouldn't say that. We've done one outdoor event—super, super cool on the lawn of the Washington Monument—and it was our only outdoor event, and I would do that again.

But any kind of programming—we're very focused on events that have a mission. So we're not really in the concert business. We're very focused on a group that is trying to, maybe at the corporate level, bring their employees together for their annual motivational program or educational sessions. Maybe it's a group that's celebrating the accomplishments of the year and just has to have that awards gala. Fundraising events. We've definitely supported fundraising events.

Anastasia: What is DIFFA?

Jeff: DIFFA is an organization in Dallas that's raising funds for AIDS support and awareness. And they have a really beautiful soiree every year that's definitely entertaining, and it brings people together with the goal of raising funds for the nonprofit. But they see the connection between entertaining, providing a value to their guests and raising those funds.

So we deliver a super unique show, especially in the Cybis portfolio, that incorporates just extravagant set design and projection mapping and lasers. And then there are these extraordinary outfits—this fashion world, which I can't speak to. It's really fun to partner with a group that has this other expertise. So they bring the best expertise in creative direction and fashion design, and then we match that with the production value. And then together we get something that people want to go back to.

We've served DIFFA in their House of DIFFA event now for a second year. Last year, they said they thought it was the best ever. This year they thought it was the best ever. So we're talking about 2026 and how do we top it?

Anastasia: Awesome. And I know DIFFA. So they brought their own concepts partially, right? They had their own concepts and you helped and you met them. Now Visit Orlando has several events a year, not just one event a year. So how do you make it different each time? Is that really important or is it really just about how can we make this the best production instead of different?

Jeff: I don't want to become stale. And I definitely don't want any of our clients to say, "You know what, we wanted to try something different. We just need a change." So we try to stay ahead of that by gauging and delivering something on our own. I think the fun thing about the clients, all of our clients who trust us to deliver our shows, is that we're not trying to deliver the minimum that they'll accept. We're here for the long term. So we want to impress the audience, inspire the audience and catch them off guard and do something different every year so that they never say, "Oh, it's time to try something different than Cybis." But we beat them to it. We're going to deliver something different.

Anastasia: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, if people go to the event two or three times, they're like, "Ah, I've already been there, I'm not going to go again. I already know it all."

Jeff: And we can beat them on that because we're delivering a different set design, different scripting, different novelty moments that will still have them on the edge of their seat and they'll want to go back.

Anastasia: How much of a part did you play in creating the idea and the vision? Or did the client come to you with one sentence, "This is what we want to do," or did they come to you with the entire vision and you just executed it?

Jeff: It's important for us to understand the goals of the organization that we're serving. So it was a few months prior to the event that we reached out and said, "What do you know about the industry and what's your mission as an organization?" So we collected feedback from their CEO, from the top. "How do you see the industry? What are the talking points? What are the bullet points? What's the future? And what kind of message are you going to be sharing all year long between conferences?"

And so that was pretty much it. We took that and ran with it, but we needed that—that was huge. It's no fun trying to create something from a vacuum. But we get a few points and then we'll do our research and the developers very fairly autonomously develop something that's going to impact the audience.

So we're also very proud of that—trying to be very low maintenance to our clients. I know that the organizations we serve have so many things that they do for the conferences that have nothing to do with the general session or award ceremony. Whether it's workshops and all the judges and trainers and social outings, all these different activities that keep any organization, any event planners super busy.

So we try to be the most low maintenance part of their conference by having the knowledge, earning their trust and running with it. And so when it comes to a show opener, getting their input for what the messaging is and then being able to deliver something that they like—our goal is always to deliver something that they're going to love on their first draft. And I would say we did that last week.

I'm always very impressed by our clients who organize a 14,000-person conference or a 1,000-person conference. I mean the logistics, the travel, the room, the hotel, the venue, all these things. And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, thank goodness. We only have to worry about what's in this one ballroom." But we take care of it and they don't have to worry about that. The show is going to go on.

We like to make sure that our clients are there, but there are rare occasions—sometimes our clients are so busy managing the rest of the conference that they can't even attend the general session that we're producing for thousands of their attendees. And I ask them what they thought about afterwards. They're like, "Well, I was so busy doing this and planning for tomorrow, I didn't have a chance to go. It was on the webcast in the background. I didn't have a chance to go."

And I was like, "Okay, well that's cool." And I asked them the next day, "Do you get any feedback about the show?" And then they're raving about it like, "Yes." And that's all that matters to them. They're so busy planning the conference, but they do want to make sure that it was a good program for their audience. And so the next day when I check in, they say, "Yes, we heard great feedback from so many people." And I was like, "Okay. Well, I wish you could have seen it in person, but I guess we met our goal."

Anastasia: So their goal is to just bring everybody into the ballroom and then you take care of it all from there.

Jeff: I'd say we can do everything within the walls of the ballroom except two things. We don't do catering and we don't do centerpieces. I've been saying that since the beginning. But when it comes to everything that's production-wise, we've got it all covered. And we'll take the lead when we start working with a new client.

Especially, they're not thinking about details in some ways. What's an example? Sometimes they're not even thinking about egress and the escape routes for emergencies and things like that. But they don't have to worry about that because we're experienced and we're interfacing with the fire marshal and the venue. We're covering all those details. So as long as they bring the food and the centerpieces for a gala, we've got everything else covered.

Anastasia: So a client comes to you and they say, "I want XYZ. I have 10,000 people attending and I need you to produce this event." What are your packages? What's included?

Jeff: Well, we're always trying to find out what they're used to and what did they do in previous years and what do they want different. Because sometimes I find out that they're happy with what they had. And I'm thinking, "You're probably not going to be that excited about Cybis."

So it depends. We count on the event planner, the event organizer to realize that need. They need to raise the standard. So when we come in touch with an event organizer that it's like, "Yeah, we know we can do something better, we know we can do something different. And we think that we've maybe tapped out what our current vendors can deliver for us." That's—now that, now I'm interested. Now I'm thinking, "Okay, let's dive in a little deeper. What are you feeling that we could do better on for the shows?"

And then we don't have a standard package per se. Because our forte is delivering across all the disciplines—the technical, the creative, the scripting, the stage choreography, set design. Our goal is to share the value of us offering all those together so we're customizing for every one of our organizations, every one of our clients and events.

Sometimes we get involved in a production for the very first time, and we are just there to provide AV. And then we're asked afterwards, "What would you do differently?" And I'd say very quickly, "Oh, my gosh. Thank you for that question. I would love to refine the script, tighten up the show. Let's focus on how do we match the graphics to what's being spoken on stage? How do we do it in a way that doesn't feel like a boring PowerPoint? What do we do to bring everything together and pique the interest of the audience?"

We want them, as much as possible, on the edge of their seat. We want them wanting more of it, not looking at their watch and saying, "When is this over?" And when we're able to serve in all the different departments together under one virtual roof, developing the show together and executing as a team together, the results are—it's night and day. The audience feels it, and they'll never be able to tell you why.

The show was great. And that's okay. I mean, I have watched movies and somebody else asked me about the soundtrack, and I say, "I didn't even think about it." Which means it was really, really great in a way. There are people who are in the production industry who can watch our show and be like, "The cameras were on point, the music was on point, the lighting matched everything. The choreography was awesome." And that's cool. When we get that feedback from people who are in the industry, it's great.

But most people in the audience aren't going to be able to name why they enjoyed the show. They just know that they had a feeling that they want to come back. They loved it. And hopefully it moved them. Hopefully they were inspired. They're not going to be inspired by lighting alone. They're not going to be inspired by a song alone. But you bring it all together with the message on stage and it subconsciously works to move people, to motivate them.

Anastasia: What about the stage design tiers? I remember you had mentioned it a while ago. Is that—do you do different tiers per category or with anything creative?

Jeff: We want to know what their theme is, and occasionally we come up with a theme, but normally that's already provided to us. They tell us where we're going, what's the venue, and they tell us the theme. So those are two things that we need to know.

And then with a theme we can create all the visuals, so it can be a brand design, some marketing materials, whether it's printed or online to promote an event. And then we're expanding on that to the motion graphics that we're going to show on the screens at the show. And then the set design. How do we make the set design relevant to a theme is always a big part. So we're customizing it every time.

And when we talk about stage design tiers, generally tier zero is we're doing uplights on drape. Very, very boring. And that's often where people start. But then we start showing, we have an inventory of set design pieces and we have the ability to fabricate new pieces. So we start showing some options and what we can do for sometimes very nominally more.

We know that set design is so important to the production that sometimes we'll just do that at cost. Sometimes I lose a few bucks, really. It's such a distinction between our shows and others. And it's what every photo is after the event. You can't go from a Cybis stage design to—you can't go back necessarily. So it's like buying milk for $2 when Publix just lost 50 cents on that. Sometimes I'll lose money on a set design because I know it's going to keep you around.

When we talk about stage design tiers, it does come down to dollars. How much are we able to add to it? Whether it's LED, whether it's projection, whether it's additional motion lights, custom fabrication or stock pieces, and their vision for the show.

Anastasia: So if a client does want to invest into design tiers, like a higher design tier, what would you tell them in terms of—they're kind of on the fence. They're like, "I'm not really sure if it's worth it."

Jeff: Don't they say that you judge a person by the first seven seconds? I mean, you walk in the room, you're now judging the organization, the company, the experience in the first seven seconds. What's the first thing that happens when you walk in the room? You're gonna look at the stage. You're gonna have that forever.

A lot of people—not to deviate subjects here—a lot of people say they don't remember the three, four or five day conference, but they remember the general sessions. They remember the set, they can have details about what they saw on stage. So I think it's important to step up the stage design when you can, because that visual, that memory—it's always going to relate to their experience at the conference with that organization. So it's always been a valuable investment.

Budgets are tight. And sometimes we look at, this is the gear, this is the team. Where can we cut back? And I get this a lot. "Where can we cut back?" And I say, "Well, the one thing that's sort of a gray area is set design." And I say, "We're on a tier two or three, but we don't have to do these things. We don't have to have projection on stage." We don't have other elements.

And it's so funny getting those conversations because, I hear budgets were tight. But then we start talking about reducing the set design. They're like, "Oh, no, no, we gotta have a great set design." But those are clients who've worked with us for years. They've seen what we do. So it's different maybe with a new client who hasn't seen the difference. But nobody wants to cut back on set design. If anything, they want to add to it.

Anastasia: So how early is Cybis coming into the process? Do you work with clients when they're like, "Oh, something fell through, now I have to find someone else," or do they reach out a year or two ahead? What is it usually? And then how do you work with the different situations and what is preferable?

Jeff: Well, I love that most of the clients we serve have provided us our schedules up until 2027, '28, '29, 2030. Literally that's on the books already. So that's preferable. That's awesome. We are now planning for—we're actually committing our team and resources and starting creative design on shows. I'm looking at the calendar here for shows that are eight months from now. There's not a whole lot we would do unless it were promotional work before eight or nine months in advance of an event. So that's ideal, I would say.

We got a call from the folks producing a White House event—this was a few years back—but they came up with this event concept for the president. And I got the call on Thanksgiving weekend, and the event was two and a half weeks later. We branded it, came up with the creative design, set design, brought out a team, the gear in three weeks. And of course you pull out all the stops when it's the White House and the President was on stage. So we can do it fast, but it's a little trickier. It's not—I don't want to do that every week.

But I would say it's great to be planning a year in advance. So often we realize with a new client, if we're getting the call three or four months in advance, it's like, "That was great. But what could we have done if we started earlier?" Maybe have time to refine some of the creative or the scripting, just a smoother process and everybody can breathe a little bit.

So if we're providing concepts and we need feedback within three days, that's stressful for everybody. So being able to space things out over the course of six, nine months—it's going to deliver a better product and everybody's going to be stress free. Usually, especially with a new project, new client that comes last minute or later than average, we learn from that.

We just finished the event last month and my intention—it's an annual event—we're going to start next month. So 10 months in advance. We're going to start it. Breathing room for everybody. Especially, a lot of these organizations and corporations have teams, they have levels. Everybody needs to provide their feedback on drafts. So to have that breathing room just makes it a positive experience.

We're in the showmanship world, so we want to put on a great show for the audience. But also we want a great experience for our clients working through the process. We want to not stress them out. So if we can help guide them a little bit—there are times that, especially again, I think new clients, they come on and they kind of wing it. And we are more likely to say, "Let's create a calendar from the get-go. This is what we're committing to for providing a first draft. We're going to need your feedback though, within a week or so and then we're going to commit to providing that."

So we're drafting out that calendar that gets us all the way till show day so that we don't have to regret, "Oh, we should have started earlier." It's silly little things like that that make a big difference in event planning and production planning. So having those milestones—we always learned that we can do an event in three weeks. We proved it. Nine months is fantastic.

Anastasia: So what would you say to someone considering Cybis for an event like this in the future? What would you tell them if you just met them?

Jeff: I would first ask if they're in any of the cities where we're producing shows that they can come check out our work. Because again, I believe that you have to see it and feel it to understand the difference. And then of course, I want to know what they're doing currently, what their challenges are.

And I would share—what distinguishes Cybis from other AV companies or other production companies is that we're doing it all together as a team and it's less stress on them. We're creating an easier path to a successful program because they can rely on a one-stop shop for all their show needs. They don't have to think, "Well, the scriptwriter says we now need three wireless mics. So now I got to call another vendor and change the wireless mic specs. And oh, we just found out we need a podium. So I got to call a scenic guy and add a podium." No, we're talking on our side. We're doing those things.

So when I can say to them their life is going to be easier, their ears perk up. And we've proved that in the past. That's why our clients come back to us year after year. In between you and me, a lot of them don't even go out to bid because they just don't want it any other way. They know, they trust us.

I like to share that with maybe a new prospect—hey, our clients sometimes don't even consider there being another option that's comparable to the service that we're delivering. And so I try to share that and convince them in a fair way that, look, there's a reason that we have been serving these organizations for 20+ years and they're not considering anybody else. And I want to say I want to do that for you.

I don't want to serve you this year. When I start talking to a new client, I'm already thinking, "Well, you're doing this show every few months or every year. I don't want a one-off." We're going to figure this out. We're going to make sure that we're delivering the top-notch show and we're going to do it indefinitely. And that's, I think, also of great interest to them. They know that Cybis, myself, our team has a vested interest in their long-term success. We're looking out for their goals both in terms of production value, their audience experience and their budgets. We're looking out for how can we serve them indefinitely.

Anastasia: Thank you very much for this interview.

Jeff: Thank you, Anastasia.

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