When the pandemic first struck, we were all forced to rethink every kind of space we inhabited and perhaps took for granted. For creators, nothing was more important than our entertainment spaces and what COVID-19 meant for their future.

During Eventbrite’s RECONVENE Sessions event Innovation: How COVID Made Us Rethink Space, three San Francisco–based creators and business leaders shared their stories about how they adjusted for our “new normal” and the lessons they learned while trying to survive — literally — as well as financially and emotionally. 

Ben Bleiman, President of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, 20-year veteran of nightlight and hospitality in San Francisco and a member of the Tonic Nightlife Group, founder of the SF Bar Owner Alliance

When COVID-19 hit and everything shut down, Ben Bleiman immediately tried to figure out how nightlife and entertainment could actually advance from the tragedy. “The biggest thing we saw was that the public and leadership stopped taking entertainment, nightlife, performance, and art for granted. Once it was gone, people realized just how important it was. And we were able to seize on that.” 

San Francisco has something that most cities don’t, Bleiman explains: The San Francisco Entertainment Commission, a public governmental body that supports a thriving entertainment and nightlife culture while balancing the needs of that community, its audiences, and its neighbors. This type of commission is actually unique to San Francisco, he says. “You’d think this would be more common, but we are the gold standard in perhaps the world for this.” In most cities on earth, police are the ones who regulate nightlife, but in San Francisco, this group takes on that responsibility while also promoting the city’s nightlife and ensuring it remains vibrant. 

And Bleiman’s position on that commission, plus his extensive experience in the nightlife industry, put him in the perfect position to not only advocate for that culture but to make lasting change. Up first: the Small Business Recovery Act, which drastically changed how entertainment is treated in San Francisco and dismantled out-of-date rules. “The entertainment laws, especially around zoning, were archaic. They were from a former time when the city treated entertainment like it was a nuisance that needed to be managed.”

Next, and Bleiman’s proudest accomplishment, was the Shared Spaces Program. “We were able to get these outdoor spaces and to create the Just Add Music (JAM) permit.” That temporary permit allowed venues to have music outdoors fairly easily for the first time in San Francisco history, and now they’re looking to make it permanent. This will create 1,000 or 2,000 tiny little venues where musicians and artists can perform. 

“I think we are poised to have a renaissance for entertainment and performance in San Francisco,” Bleiman says. “And I don’t say that flippantly.” It helps that the city has become slightly more affordable. But also, that leadership better understands how important that culture is. “We’re not a weed that needs to be managed; we’re a bonsai tree that needs to be cherished, nourished, and given the right ecosystem to grow.”

Want to get involved? Sign up for email notifications at the San Francisco Small Business website, and “We will let you know when it’s time to advocate,” Bleiman says. 

Marc Capelle, Musical Director for Porchlight, a San Francisco–storytelling series

Marc Capelle is a San Francisco native and a lifelong musician and producer who was introduced to scrappy and innovative production values growing up near the Panhandle in the Haight-Ashbury in the late ’60s. “Music was always around,” he says. “And it wasn’t always around in conventional ways.” (Cut to: A black-and-white photo of the Grateful Dead playing on a flatbed truck.)

Innovating is something Capelle has been doing for years. After September 11, 2001, he wanted to “make people feel good again about being in a place where they’re scared,” and got in touch with the San Francisco Airport (SFO) to help create a program called You Are Hear, which produced pop-up musical performances all over SFO for nine years. 

“We created new venues and, in doing that, we provided new opportunities to musicians and also tens of thousands of people were impacted by this music.” Capelle was able to provide a note of humanity to a place that isn’t always known for it, which he says is not much different than what we’re seeing now with parklets and performance spaces in San Francisco. 

Capelle believes that now more than ever is a time for creators to find new and unusual spaces for events. Not sure where to start? Just ask, “Where can I do this? Can I do it indoors? If I am going to do it indoors, how can I do it differently? How can I partner, augment, and adapt with the places that I’m working?”

This is important to Cappelle. “I take this seriously. What we’re doing is heroic. This is production medicine. We are healers.”

Patricia Gums, Director of Restaurant Operations and Event Sales at live music venue The Chapel and their sister restaurant Curio SF

“We’re just going to do it.” That’s what Patricia Gums told herself when the pandemic hit, and she was left with the question: What are we going to do now? “All of the restaurants were looking at the other restaurants. Capacity was slashed in half. We had to be outside. People were considered a biohazard. And everybody was scared. And we were like, ‘Well, everyone is scared, but someone has to do it. It might as well be us. [Because] we’re not biohazards. We’re people who love each other. We need to be together. Everybody is terrified, but you’ve got to start somewhere.’”

Gums’ goal was to take advantage of every resource available. The Shared Spaces Program was key, but she took it a step further, transforming the back employee parking lot into a space for eating and drinking, investing in string lights, umbrellas, furniture, and a projector, decorating the fence with posters from shows, putting a couch out for Instagram vignettes. “It was kind of like creating a Burning Man camp,” she laughs. 

It also allowed Curio, which had struggled to find its own identity separate from The Chapel, to flourish. Suddenly, Curio was full of customers who had never even heard of The Chapel, much less been there for a show. “It became a party place.” (Safely, of course.)

Gums was consistently pioneering the way for these new spaces, but it wasn’t because she wanted to be first. She just wanted to find a way to help people escape their depression and isolation. And so she read every health directive as soon as it came out and made changes and additions as they were allowed. “It was one of the best times of my life because it felt so good. People were going on first dates. And putting a bra on for the first time. People were crying when they were reuniting. It was amazing.”

Her advice on how to keep going when faced with the unexpected? “Have no fear. Don’t wait. Embrace the change. Stay flexible. Fight the fear. Treat every day like an event. Invest.” 

Check out recordings and recaps from our prior RECONVENE events, and stay tuned for more events next year!