PDA has experience, expertise to deliver live events

Local event production firm prepared for all contingencies in staging anything from presidential addresses to wedding

Then-President George W. Bush was set to take the stage in 15 minutes at an event in Charlotte when a generator failed and all the lights went out. The audience stood in the dark, flummoxed.

Jeff Nickles, founder and owner of North Charleston-based Production Design Associates (PDA), one of the Southeast’s premier event production and staging companies, knew his company would soon make national news — for all the wrong reasons — if he didn’t get the lights back on immediately.

Nickles raced backstage to identify and fix the problem. Running toward the President’s holding area in the dark was perhaps not the best decision, considering the phalanx of suddenly testy Secret Service agents around him. Once he explained his role in providing the power for the event, they stepped aside while he and his crew switched the power feed to the audio generator and rekindled the lights in time for the president’s arrival.

That was a moment of immense stress, but also just a day in the life for PDA, now celebrating 30 years of providing technical support for live events. While there are always unexpected problems with live events, PDA has survived and grown because it always finds a solution, taking the burden off the event planner, wedding planner or company liaison.

There are no do-overs when going live. Everything must get done right the first time, and for that, there is no substitute for a professional event production company — whether it is for a presidential debate, a corporate event or your daughter’s wedding.

PDA is a turnkey, one-stop-shop providing audio, lighting, staging, video, design and special effects for unique and memorable events large and small. PDA lit the 575-foot-tall towers of the Ravenel Bridge at its spectacular opening gala, and Fort Sumter on the sesquicentennial celebration of the end of the Civil War, when, in the dark, an overzealous re-enactor pointing a bayonet at his face demanded Nickles identify himself before passing. It has provided AV and power for the Food and Wine Festival since its inception, which is tantamount to building an electrical grid in Marion Square for a week. 

Most memorably, says Nickles, PDA provided lighting for the TD Center when President Barak Obama sang Amazing Grace at the gut-wrenching Emanuel 9 memorial service. 

“Some things you just don’t forget,” he said.

PDA’s bread and butter is corporate events of every size. With a warehouse full of gear, the professional event production crew can turn any event into an unforgettable experience that brands the company and delivers its message powerfully. Besides the meat-and-potato technical support, PDA can deliver special effects like lasers, streamers, fog machines, fiber optic backdrops and its newest toy — cold spark machines, which safely shoots sparks over ten feet high.

PDA’s humble beginnings belie its 30 years of leadership in the industry. After working for a National AV company, Nickles convinced his best friend, the late Jerry Seay, to help start a lighting business. They rented a 200-square-foot warehouse and began with a rickety van and no  business plan. Their first job entailed providing lighting for a church band. “I got to listen to music, while running some lights, and girls would come up and talk to me. I thought, ‘I like this,’” Nickles admitted.

It didn’t take long for people to recognize that Nickles and Seay could be trusted to deliver what they promised and to produce high-quality shows. Jerry quit his job at Read Brothers Stereo on King Street and they moved to a bigger building. They added sound and brought on their first employee. Investing nearly everything they earned back into the company, jobs kept coming and they brought on more employees with a variety of skills, offering more services and eventually growing into the full-service operation of today. 

Many PDA clients have been with them since the early days. Carolina One Real Estate has employed PDA for events for 27 years. The Charleston Wine and Food Festival has used PDA for every year of the festival, and the Spoleto Festival has used PDA for support for over 25 years. All the while, the company has given back, donating and discounting more than $1 million to charities like the Lowcountry Food Bank, Darkness to Light,  Feed the Need, MUSC Children’s Hospital, Charleston Animal Society, the Ryan White Foundation, American Heart Association, Susan Komen Foundation and more.

The coronavirus pandemic pulled the rug out from under the event industry, but PDA responded by offering streaming video services for organizations that wanted to switch to the virtual space. That new service will still be available to customers long after the virus is done wreaking havoc.

“Little did I know that when Jerry and I started this small business … we could make a difference in so many peoples’ lives,” Nickles reminisced. “We helped presidents of Fortune 500 companies get their message out. We helped charities raise millions of dollars; we got to work with four U.S. presidents; countless musicians, artists, actors and dancers; and we had fun doing it.”