Start with a real question. Finish with the best evidence we can find.
Every page on eventstaffing.com begins with something a crew member, a planner or an agency owner actually asked. Here is how we get from that question to an answer you can rely on, and how you can check our work.
From question to published page
Every guide, pay page and news story goes through the same seven steps. None of them is skipped because a page is short or a deadline is close.
- Start with a real questionWe pick topics from what people search for, what readers email us, and what crews ask each other on shift. If nobody is asking, we don’t write it.
- Read what already existsWe read the pages people already find, and the sources those pages cite. We note where they agree, where they disagree and where they leave the reader guessing.
- Go to the sourceWe go past the summary to the original: the state rule, the licensing board, the study, the dataset. If we can’t find where a figure started, it doesn’t go in.
- Ask the people who do the workBartenders, ushers, stage crew, leads, planners and agency owners tell us what the rulebook leaves out. We name them wherever they agree to it.
- Write it plainlyThe answer goes first, in a sentence or two. Then the detail, in short sentences, with every term explained the first time it appears.
- Check it twiceA second person checks every figure against its source, and someone who has done the job reads the guide before it goes live.
- Keep it currentEvery page carries the date it was last checked. Pay pages are re-checked every quarter, and pages on rules and licensing whenever the rule changes.
Two kinds of evidence
Where we have the data ourselves, we publish it. Where someone else has done better work, we find it, check it and credit it.
- Our own research
Shift listings, surveys and the Pulse
Shift listings and pay posted on the site, surveys of crews and agencies, and the quarterly Pulse report. We publish sample sizes and date ranges with every figure.
- Research we find
Official data and studies with a method
Government labor data, state licensing boards, peer-reviewed studies, trade associations and industry reports that publish how they got their numbers.
Unsourced listicles, vendor claims with no data behind them, and AI-written summaries. If a figure can’t be traced back to where it started, we leave it out.
When sources disagree
- Primary dataNumbers we collected ourselves, or official records from government agencies and licensing boards.
- Peer-reviewed and official researchAcademic studies and reports from public bodies, with methods you can check.
- Industry research with a stated methodTrade association and analyst reports that publish sample sizes and how they got their numbers.
- Reputable trade pressReporting from outlets with named reporters and a corrections policy.
- People who do the workInterviews with crews, leads, planners and agency owners, named wherever they agree to it.
Questions about our research
We use software to help research, draft and check pages. A named editor is responsible for every page, every figure is checked against its source by a person, and nothing is published unread.
Yes. Every figure links to its source, and the Pulse report publishes its full dataset each quarter. For anything else, write to press@eventstaffing.com.
Please do. Most of our best pages started as a reader’s question. Send it to news@eventstaffing.com and tell us what you were trying to find out.
Tell us what you wish someone had told you before your first shift.
Questions from readers decide what we research next. We read every one.