Backstage pass: project management at the creative paradise where the stars hang out

Production Park in South Kirkby, a small mining town in West Yorkshire, is Europe’s biggest campus devoted to live performance.

“If Beyoncé has a world tour coming up, and she wants to go and practise with the full stage setup, with the lighting and sound rig, they build the full set and rehearse for weeks and weeks until they are happy. Then lots of lorries and trucks pull up, pack up the stage, and drive off for their tour,” explains Glen Kelly.

Kelly is the Programme Manager at CoSTAR Live Lab, a brand‑new part of the venue. He also received the Judges’ Special Mention in the Emerging Project Professional of the Year category at the APM Project Management Awards 2024.

A technology wonderland

Park doesn’t just offer music rehearsals. With the Live Lab, it’s an all-singing, all‑dancing creative technology wonderland with an astonishing array of offerings.
There’s motion capture (mocap), which is the method of recording the movement of people to turn them into digital avatars.

“We have a high‑resolution mocap here,” says Kelly. There are things called acoustically isolated network performance studios – a way for musicians to perform together, even if they aren’t in the same place. They sit in a booth while being recorded, and the video and audio is transmitted to the main performance.

“We had Jamie Cullum at the CoSTAR launch,” says Kelly. “He was playing piano live on stage. And he had his drummer somewhere else in the country, joining via the network. His bass player too. It’s like a virtual space for musicians to come together. It’s great for teaching and rehearsals.”

A virtual window

One of the most extraordinary things is the virtual production studio. This is an ultra‑high‑definition wall of screens, which function as a background for performers.
“We are partners with the Royal Shakespeare Company,” says Kelly. “With this studio, they can change scenes by switching what is on the screen behind them, rather than moving a physical set. It’s used for things like plays, ballet and music.”

A normal screen wouldn’t cut it. Even at 4K resolution the pixels are visible at that scale. The Production Park screen is superior quality.

“It’s millions of pounds,” says Kelly. “You’d normally be looking at tens of thousands a day to rent. Whereas companies can come here and use the facilities on a fully funded basis.”

Now, here’s the rub. The CoSTAR Live Lab is massively subsidised as part of a £75.6m programme to develop the UK creative industries. In addition to the Live Lab, there’s the National Lab, Foresight Lab, Screen Lab and Realtime Lab, each with a different focus and located in a different part of the UK. Which means the facilities are seriously cheap, or free, to use.

Getting the word out

Kelly's job was to manage the creation of the Live Lab, and now his mission is to help it grow.

“It’s still very new,” he says. “We want everyone in the creative industries, from movies and music to researchers and video‑game makers, to make use of what we have to offer.”

It’s a huge role, overseeing everything the Live Lab does.

“We have a £4.5m budget, which covers builds, salaries, equipment, events, marketing, everything. My team is the glue that keeps everything together.”

Hitting the right project note: Glen Kelly’s three top tips

1. Be a clear communicator. “It is the project professional’s job to make the implicit explicit. There are two ways to deliver clear communication. The first is to make sure the whole team understands what they are trying to achieve. What is the overarching mission? Do they see the bigger picture? That’s something to address in your first meeting together. Then break that down into two or three objectives, and add deadlines so we all know what we are trying to achieve by a certain date. The second thing is to make sure everyone knows their individual responsibilities. Each person must grasp their unique role. Then we can all work together towards our shared goal.”

2. Be results driven. “In project management, process is important, but it is too easy to get bogged down in menial tasks. I call them vampire tasks, as they suck time away from you without really moving the needle on what you are trying to achieve. Being results driven means zooming out from the individual day‑to‑day activities you busy yourself with to make sure every activity is really helping you make progress. Typical vampire tasks are obsessive Gantt chart and spreadsheet tweaking. Project professionals get buried in their charts, rather than focusing on the actual work in hand. Focus on the results, not merely the ways you track progress.”

3. Embrace AI. “In the past year, the power of AI has exploded. There’s a narrative in the project management community that AI will replace project managers. I don’t see it that way. AI is about amplifying the role. It helps with decision‑making, allocating resources, giving insights and keeping track of project statuses. My advice is to challenge yourself to adopt AI where you can. See it as an opportunity, not a threat. Tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Planner are really good. ChatGPT can be fed with data and run analysis on the information for insights. It can save a huge amount of time.”