ALAN BISSON
PRESIDENT & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
alan@firedog.events
1. What is your name? What do people call you while on the job?
Alan Bisson. Alan – but never "Al"...really...please don’t!!! Oh, and I’m also known as an avid Lego collector!
2. Tell us about yourself in 3 sentences.
I am a control freak at the highest level. I am always up for a challenge that won’t cost bail money. I love creating pretty things.
3. What is your role at FireDog Collective?
Some would call me the President / Creative Director while others would call me the man who makes the impossible happen!
4. What did you study in school?
Actually, I left high school in my last semester to work with a ‘video roadshow’, and finished my last couple credits via correspondence. I eventually went to college for Law & Security as I have the highest respect for police, fire and ambulance services. However, the lure of live events always drew me back. I later took Business Administration & Accounting.
5. Which part of your job do you love the most?
The most challenging bits – how to rig 7000 florals or 80000 lights or 150 sails when others might say it cannot be accomplished. And then there’s all the interesting people. I love all the people.
6. What’s the most memorable event you were a part of?
SAIL!!! This event involved 3 different sizes of sails (yes, as in sailboats) arranged as a major architectural focal point during an event. It took so much mental, physical and emotional energy to create that event, I think we all slept for a week after!
7. What’s been the most challenging thing you’ve ever had to do?
Grow a small company with 2 owners to a larger corporation with 16 full-time employees and 140 sub contracts. Rapid growth brings about many challenges.
8. The scariest thing?
Riding that insane Leviathan at Wonderland with my 13 year-old roller coaster enthusiast daughter Alexandra. Now I bribe my employees to ride it with her! Lol!
9. What’s your favourite food?
Straitjacket Club Wrap with Onion Rings and Mayo from the Village Idiot in the 6.
10. What’s the last book you read?
The owner’s manual to a 3D – 4 axis CNC Foam Carving table – Author unknown.
11. Describe the coolest event you can imagine in 3 sentences.
250000 hanging things. Motion controlled lighting. Projection mapping tables.
12. What is your favourite movie and why?
Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 – always wanted a time machine.
13. Coloured lighting or white lighting for a room?
ALWAYS white with a touch of colour.
14. Beer or champagne?
Rum flavoured beer?
15. If you could build anything out of Lego, what would it be?
I would build the city clock set in full size for Back to the Future, then I would let lightning take care of the rest ;)
TAMMY (TY) MCCOURT BISSON
VP, HR & ADMINISTRATION
tammy@firedog.events
hr@firedog.events
1. What is your name? What do people call you while on the job?
Tammy McCourt Bisson. Short form of ‘Ty’ works!
2. Tell us about yourself in 3 sentences.
Mom, wife, daughter, sister, the oft-unseen half of FireDog Collective, artist, designer, seamstress, ardent reader, cat person, coffee addict, dreamer. Like many working moms/women, SuperWoman!
3. What is your role at FireDog Collective?
The Queen of all manner of paperwork and organization – colour coding is an obsession! It is my job to take care of all things Administrative, Accounting and Human Resources and so on. I police, a.k.a ‘nag’, everyone to make sure proper paperwork is filed, invoices are sent and received, policy and procedures are followed and so much more.
4. What did you study in school?
Fine Arts (major: printmaking), Museum Management & Curatorship, Human Resource Management (focus: training and development), seamstress training from age 6!
5. Which part of your job do you love the most?
Meeting people and learning all the fascinating ways their lives have zigged and zagged to bring them to where they are today.
6. What’s the most memorable event you were a part of?
I find all events equally fascinating, especially since I spend most of my time behind a desk. When I am able to go to an event site in progress, I particularly enjoying seeing it from conception through to the very end, witnessing each facet and piece come together to form the whole, and all the incredible hard work that goes into it.
7. What’s the most challenging thing you’ve ever had to do?
Be a MOM! And take time away from my career path to do so.
8. The scariest thing?
And then, years later, rebuild a career! My time away ended up being much longer than planned and I had to find a new purpose for myself.
9. What is your favourite food?
Coffee….and yes, it is a food group in my world!
10. What’s the last book you read?
‘The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo’ by Amy Schumer.
11. Describe the coolest event you can imagine in 3 sentences.
My favourite events are those that create an ‘atmosphere’…such as an enchanted forest, a vintage 1950s era ballroom, a wintery garden wonderland. Many events are beautiful, but creating an atmosphere…well that is pure magic!
12. What is your favourite movie and why?
‘The Breakfast Club’ of course! Regardless of what age we are, I think we still tend to put people into categories such as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal…” and so on.
13. Coloured or white lighting for a room?
Cool white lighting.
14. Beer or champagne?
Champagne!
15. If you could build anything out of Lego, what would it be?
A library with lots of shelfs for all my books!