Sixty Seconds With… Howard Jones, Communications Director, Genelec

Where are you right now? 

Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire, England – my wife and I relocated here 5 years ago and haven’t regretted it for a moment. Beautiful countryside and the pace of life is just a little bit more….relaxed.

What is the last album you listened to? 

Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice. I gave this album a good rinsing when it came out last year and just keep going back to it!

Describe 2022 so far in one sentence. 

The year where I’ve actually hesitated before switching on the news.

Has the pandemic permanently changed the way you work?

Yes definitely. Although I was already working from home pre-COVID, many more of my colleagues now have hybrid working arrangements, and the pandemic has allowed us to develop ways of communicating with our customers that don’t involve always being in the same room as them. We now produce way more webinar and video tutorial content, can do remote consultations where required, and have scaled back international travel. As a company that was already heavily invested in sustainable development, this is a welcome benefit.

What’s the biggest change to the pro audio industry this year? 

Well in contrast to the above, I guess it’s the steady return of face-to-face events after the pandemic hiatus. For us that’s largely meant regional events where our own local teams can meet up with customers again, and remind ourselves of how business used to be done pre-2020!

What live event did you miss most over recent years?

Nothing to do with work, it was actually the annual summer music festivals that I go to in the UK with my friends just to relax and unwind. Over the years I’ve packed up my tent each year and been to many of them – and it was very weird not having that back-to-basics cathartic experience.

What’s the best live event you’ve been to this year and why?

To be honest, the *only* live event I’ve been to in 2022 is the WOMAD festival this summer! I’d not been before and really wasn’t expecting to see that many younger people, but was pleasantly surprised. There’s something very hypnotic and accessible about world music, and the sheer variety of musical styles was just bonkers. The food was cracking too, obviously.

Tell us something you’ve never told anyone else? 

There’s literally nothing. I’m hopeless at keeping secrets.