My Livestreaming Journey

How I found a way to work when chronic pain kept me at home.

I did not plan to become a livestream producer or a show host. At that stage, I was simply trying to work out how I could still be useful after chronic pain had taken away the working life I knew.

When I could no longer work as I had before

My background was in building face-to-face communities in education and technology. I knew how to bring people into a room, start a useful conversation and connect people who needed to know each other. Then chronic pain, Fibromyalgia and limited mobility changed what I could physically manage. I needed more surgery and had to stop working.

Losing the work was only part of it. I was also becoming isolated, and that began to affect my sense of purpose. I still had experience. I was still curious. I still wanted to contribute. What I could no longer depend on was being physically present wherever the work was happening.

Teaching myself to go live

While I was waiting for surgery, I taught myself to livestream. In the beginning, it gave me something to focus on and a bit of structure to my days. Then I realised I could take what I already knew about building communities and do it online.

A livestream felt like a room to me. People could join from different countries, listen to an expert, ask questions and speak to one another while the programme was happening. I could create that room from behind a screen and work around some of the physical limits that had closed other doors.

It was always about the people

I became interested in what happens between people during a live conversation. Of course the technology matters, but it is there to help people connect. When I put a viewer’s comment on screen, that person knows they have been seen. The right follow-up question can take a guest past the answer they had prepared. And good preparation gives the conversation enough structure without making it feel stiff.

That is still how I host today. I want the guest to shine. I want the audience to feel that they are part of the conversation. And I want people to leave with something useful.

One show led to the next

The Cape Town Water Crisis gave my new skill a very real purpose. The broadcasts brought water professionals and residents into the same conversation, and local and international media began paying attention. From behind a screen in Cape Town, I was helping a community speak to the world.

The Water Show started in April 2017 and later became The Water Hour. Writers Corner Live Show followed in July 2018, bringing readers into live conversations with authors from around the world. Then came the Online Safety interviews, The Conversation, Special Needs and Abilities, Get Hired, Beyond the Logo and Books with Bridgetti.

Being on camera was only one small part of the work. I learnt how to research guests, write introductions and questions, prepare the run of show, manage the branding and media, include the live audience, solve technical problems and keep talking when something unexpected happened. I learnt production by producing, one programme at a time.

Becoming an Executive Livestream Producer

The title came after I had already been doing the work. Producing a livestream is not just about pressing buttons. You are responsible for the whole experience: preparing the guest, making the message clear, deciding what the audience sees and managing what happens before, during and after the broadcast.

StreamYard later featured a story I shared about a guest who had spent forty years in traditional media and had 36 Emmy Awards. After our programme, she complimented the run of show and the execution. I remember that because it confirmed something important for me: professional work does not stop being professional because it is produced from a room in Cape Town instead of a television studio.

A Cape Town studio with a global audience

The work reached far beyond Cape Town, although Cape Town remained home. Authors, entrepreneurs, advocates, experts and changemakers could join me from almost anywhere. People could watch and take part on different platforms. Those conversations later became books, podcasts, clips, campaigns and, in many cases, lasting professional relationships.

Livestreaming also gave me a way to work without pretending my disability had disappeared. I could plan around my physical limits, rest when I needed to and still use the experience and skills I had built over many years.

Looking back

Livestreaming did not give me my old life back. It helped me create another one. What started during a period of pain and isolation became a profession, a global network and a way for me to help other people use their voices.

Today I work through B Live Media as an Executive Livestream Producer and show host. I help authors, entrepreneurs, organisations and thought leaders turn what they know and what they have lived through into conversations other people can understand and remember.

I could no longer enter every physical room, but livestreaming gave me a way to create one online.