A lifetime of professional growth

Many people struggle to conquer their dreams, develop and make their lives and those around them special. This life policy is applied by the Argentine Diego de Elías, our professional of the month.

by Ana María Restrepo

Diego de Elías, who was born on February 15, 1961, spent much of his childhood in Hurlingham, province of Buenos Aires, which has an extensive history based on the cultures of the British, German, Italian and Spanish colonies, since his mother was part of that community.

He also dedicated himself since childhood to assemble electronic equipment together with his father, and to enjoy the wonders of audio and video. "My father was a scientist and a crazy about electronics. In fact, it was one of the pioneers in the manufacture of simultaneous translation equipment. I was very young and spent hours in the workshop helping him assemble the equipment. Dad made me roll the copper threads of the coils."

This path traveled with his father allowed him to obtain the  title of Systems Analyst and to interfere fully in electronics, and even more in the audiovisual sector.

In 1983, Diego's father dies at a congress and at the age of 22, he, and his brothers Carlos and Esteban, begin to work on their own to help with household expenses and support the family.  "We traveled a very long road, full of sacrifices, hours without sleep. When I look back, I feel the enormous satisfaction of being able to create a company that today is a leader in Argentina and that employs 140 people directly and many others indirectly."

For events...

De Elías and his company are part of a sector of the audiovisual industry that is responsible for putting in images and sound the daily life of the world of events and contests, because at present these are some of the activities that most move cities, their tourism, their industries and their economy. But what if these events weren't well organized logistically and technically? For all the economic sectors that move around it would lose in one way or another.

Therefore, Diego and his collaborators strive in Congress Rental to provide specialized services in projection, sound, conference systems, simultaneous interpretation, lighting, staging, voting system, registrations, streaming, closed circuit video, slides, vidiwall, among others, setting trends within the audiovisual business.

Today the company offers its services in several Argentine provinces such as Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Chubut, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Salta, Tucumán, Rosario, Ushuaia, also in some Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

This company, which was born as a family company, has become an institution that due to the demands of the market, the speed of technological advances, competition and globalization has become increasingly professional and efficient, providing services not only locally, but also regionally and internationally. "At Congress Rental you can breathe a "different air". Young people, enthusiastic, fun with what they do, create a special environment to work and to do good business," says Diego de Elías, general manager of the company.

Day and night, under the sun or shade

The work of Diego, his brothers and collaborators is not limited to a few hours a day, it is a job that demands everything from themselves and their abilities as specialists in the audio and video industry. {mospagebreak}

Diego remembers that at the beginning of the company, he was in charge of the technical part and was  responsible for operating the equipment. In one of the first congresses they worked, which was for 1000 people, they worked from five in the afternoon and all night because they had to install simultaneous translation, lighting and video projection. The next day one of his brothers criticized his work and explained that even if they were exhausted from that hard work they had to do things well, because the client only cares  that his event goes as planned, not if the team was exhausted and if he had worked all night. "It was very hard to hear, but he was and he is right. The client hires us so that we look at all the details and so that we give it the highest quality. He doesn't care how many hours we work to reach the goal. It was a great teaching," he explained.

From this experience Diego learned some things, which he continues to perfect and improve over time. As a Manager, he believes that you must have clear objectives that help the company, customers and employees get ahead. The most important thing is to form a good work team, finding the best to occupy the most critical areas. It also considers that customers should be served and maintained very well, not only those who hire them but also employees, because having a good working environment causes the service to be excellent.

In the same way that a key direction helps a company to get ahead, external influence can improve its market share and that is what has happened in Argentina and in Congress Rental; since the reactivation of the economy of the region produced that many events of international level were held in the country.

Audiovisual evolution

The growth of the industry in the region has made the degree of demand in services greater, and companies of high recognition such as Monsanto, Coca Cola, Microsoft, or International Organizations, have held events for which Diego and his working group have been responsible for logistics and technical equipment under a high degree of demand and quality.

These high demands make the company constantly updated on the latest technologies. "Congress Rental Argentina, is part of a global network of audio and video companies belonging to the Dutch firm Bosch. This network allows us to have access to the latest technologies and to be able to hold events anywhere in the world," says De Elías. But it is also necessary for professionals to be trained, and in this issue, both InfoComm and Congress Rental itself have technical training and updating programs in new technologies. "We have started the PAC, a high quality program, whose objective is to ensure that the training provided is reflected every day in all the events we hold. The PAC is getting extremely positive results," he said.