ABSTRACT
The entertainment lighting industry has many positions, and the majority of them rely on strong organizational skills. Whether a lighting designer, programmer, technician, or salesperson, one must learn to organize documentation, workflow, equipment, and personal business. Within our lighting field, documentation is used not just for archival purposes, but also to convey information, share resources, and equalize communication processes. Lighting designers and their assistants produce the most documentation in the form of light plots, magic sheets, tracking information, cue sheets, and more. Lighting programmers tend to keep their documentation embedded within the console show files instead of creating additional paperwork or files. Sales personnel often document opportunities and contacts, while manufacturing staff have a plethora of documentation involved in the design and manufacture of new products. When using a file sharing system, be sure to label all folders clearly and use a similar structure to that described above. Many services such as Google Docs also allow for online shared documentation.
