From Director to Agent
By Neon Entertainment Agent, David Milberg
I am now starting my 10th year at NEON Entertainment, which is actually my second time around in the booking agent world. In between my first time as an agent for a company in Minneapolis and NEON, I had the opportunity to work for over 20 years at 4 different institutions of Higher Education as a Director of Student Activities/Life. While I always said that I would never return to being a booking agent, I have found that the second time around has been a great experience.
I attribute much of my success this time around to the fact that I have a deep, practical knowledge of what it is like on the “other side” working as an advisor to student groups and within the demands/politics of Student Affairs given my years as a Director. I had the good fortune to be able to work in 4 very different settings, including a small private college, two commuter based campuses, as well as a large residentially focused state institution. The combination of these experiences I am now able to bring to the job at NEON, where I can more effectively work with both student programmers and advisors and understand all the policies, politics and programming plans they have to work with.
While I am certainly not the only one working as an agent who has followed this path, I can say that having the experience within student activities becomes an invaluable resource once students and staff know that you know what they are going through and dealing with on a day to day and semester to semester basis.
I certainly hope that by bringing these experiences to the table, I can help make your experience working with NEON as positive and easy as possible!
