Meet the team: Olivier Monod de Froideville
Commitment, flexibility and teamwork are some of the qualities of our crew. Unlimited Productions offers the creative and technical expertise to make your event memorable and effective. Because you might not know all the faces behind Unlimited Productions, we’d like to introduce the team to you, one by one.
Next up: Olivier Monod de Froideville
Hi! Who are you and what’s your role?
My name is Olivier Monod de Froideville and I am Commercial Director of Unlimited Productions, or CCO, as it is called so nicely in an international company.
How did you end up at Unlimited Productions?
In 2005 I co-founded Livetime Productions together with Jack van Deursen. The company grew and became a serious player in The Netherlands in the field of technical production. In 2018 we merged our 12-man company with the old Unlimited Productions. This step made the new Unlimited Productions the largest technical production company in Europe, with great international projects, a large network and above all a wonderful team of experienced, enthusiastic, talented, motivated and fun colleagues.
Can you tell us a bit about your day?
My days are very different. I have office days on which, I focus primarily on our strategy, our growth ambitions and our internal organization, together with our CEO Willem Loos. On other days, I am on the road a lot and going to appointments, conferences, etcetera. Eventually, I am commercially responsible for ensuring that our agenda is well filled with great projects.
What’s the best part of your job?
Since the merger, I feel like an entrepreneur again. As an entrepreneur, you go through many phases with your company and with the old Livetime Productions I was at a point where I was mostly busy with managing and less with doing business. Now, we are a rock-solid organization with 30 people and there are other people that are managing our team so that I can fully focus on doing business again. It gives me an incredible dose of energy and makes me very happy. That is only possible with the incredible team that we currently have.
What makes working for Unlimited Productions great?
I like the big diversity of Unlimited Productions. The diversity in countries where we work, the variety of projects and the great diversity of people that are working in our team, that we are working with and who we are working for. It makes everyday different.
What makes Unlimited Productions different from other technical production companies?
I think the diversity that I mentioned above makes our company quite unique. In our country, but also in the rest of the world, there are wonderful companies that deal with technical production. However, I do not know a company with such a wide market range as Unlimited Productions. Our projects vary from a very small high-end or even Royal event to large international festivals, to shows in venues such as the Ziggo Dome and Ahoy, public events with a hundred thousand visitors, touring artists and large-scale sporting events. Despite of that, we treat all those different projects with the same passion, eye for quality and creativity, and we always go for a perfect score. In addition, I think it is also special that we as a company have grown extremely the past years in the back end, our phase process, but also the IT developments of our process flow, internal organization and the overall professionalism in that area. Our industry descended from rock & roll or “parties” and has become very mature in the last decade, but in that area I think we are ahead of many companies in the industry. In my view, that gives us a very nice foundation to build on.
What has been your favourite Unlimited Production so far?
I personally love show and spectacle. It is also that passion for technology and show that has kept me busy since I was a child and eventually moved to this branch after my study in business economics in Groningen. Since we deliver a lot of show and spectacle, I find it difficult to choose, but one recent project stands out for me. I have been working for more than a year to get a foothold in the Middle East and also in the Esports market. That I was recently allowed to do the production of PUBG in Saudi Arabia (I hardly ever work on productions myself anymore) was very special to me. It was certainly a show and spectacle with 3 weeks of set-up time, more than 1000 light fixtures, motion, a whole lot of LED (also on the floor) etc, etc. What I particularly liked about the production is that if you have one common goal (this cool event) that all cultures come together in their own way for the same end goal. In this project, we worked with our commissioner Live Legends and (with a large Dutch FOH and show team) for a Korean client with suppliers and crew from Dubai, India, Portugal, South Africa, Germany and of course many locals from Saudi Arabia. This special experience is therefore in many aspects one to remember…. 😉
What advice would you give to anyone who is thinking of organizing an event?
As the person responsible for commercial affairs, I can of course say nothing more than give us a call and it will most certainly be better and more impressive than you had in mind.
What do you do in your free time?
In the occasional scarce free time, I have a family with a superwoman who gives me the space to give Unlimited Productions the full attention it deserves in this beautiful growth phase and together we have 3 very sweet kids who also love to go to the playground and zoo with Dad in the weekends. In addition, I completely unwind on short trips with friends, fulfilling my other hobbies and passions such as Oldtimers (I now also have a few of them myself…) Skiing, Scuba diving, Squash etc.
What inspires you?
I get a lot of inspiration from other entrepreneurs who are taking well-considered risks. Professionally, I try to visit as many cool concerts and events as possible because you absorb all these ideas that we might be able to use as inspiration for other events.
If you did not do your current job, what would you like to do?
At the moment, I simply do not want to think for a second about another job than the one I have already. I have been able to turn my hobby into my job and I live my dream job with a horizon full of potential and a wonderful team around it… I could not think of anything that can replace that.
What is one word that you would use to describe your team?
One word?? Haha, then you don’t know me… The oil of our engine, the water that makes our flowers bloom, the current that turns on the lights, our everything…
What bucket-list event would you like to do the technical production for?
We have already achieved so many amazing things which I thought were never possible. This year we are also involved in some of the biggest international events, so the bucket list is getting shorter every single day… I would really like to do one of those large-scale opening ceremonies with thousands of dancers, video mapping, etc, in a large international stadium with live television, if I still have to think of something.
Please come up with a question for your colleague that will get the interview next.
Which segment of Unlimited Productions (Corporate, Festivals, Public, Artists, Sports or TV, Shows & Concerts) do you like the most and why?