“In January, we really needed something to bring us together and we really needed some things that were just something that everybody could watch and be a part of,” said CEO and founder of event production company Synergetic Jason Weldon (he/him), KLN ’03.

On January 20, 2021, Parade Across America played on the screens of millions of Americans tuning in to watch the first-ever virtual Inauguration Day parade. A little over an hour into the event, the parade featured a performance of one of the Biden family’s favorite songs, “You Get What You Give” by The New Radicals, filmed in Synergetic’s warehouse-turned-stage.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Weldon saw an idea on social media to turn a warehouse space into a stage so clients could still hold events to be live-streamed to their audiences. “We were constantly looking for ways to help our customers unite people and celebrate as they usually did – together,” Account Manager at Synergetic Sara Beth Bristol (she/her) wrote.

Just five days before the recording of the performance that would be included in the parade, Scott Mirkin of ESM Productions called Weldon to see if The New Radicals could use Synergetic’s warehouse space to perform. Mirkin had seen other events that used the company’s warehouse stage, and saw an opportunity for a great show.

This, Weldon says, is a silver-lining to the pandemic. Even though he had to entirely rethink the way his company functioned, if it weren’t for his and his team’s creativity with the warehouse, he would not have had the opportunity to be a part of the inaugural parade.

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Weldon started Synergetic as an entertainment company his freshman year of college. “I believed in myself as the best person to work for me,” he said. 

After dropping out and then going back to school part time, Weldon graduated from Temple University in 2003. Around this time, as his company became more popular, clients began asking for additional services such as sound, lighting, staging and video. One day, his team decided they could expand, and Synergetic began focusing less energy on DJing and more on audio and visual services.

Bristol has been with Synergetic for about a year and a half. She heard about an opening at the company through a tech she often worked with, and even though she would be facing at least a two-hour commute every day, she accepted the job after really connecting with Weldon and his team during her interview process.

“Even though the commute would be long, I really admired the amazing work Synergetic did and heard from numerous people how great it was to work there,” she wrote. “Jason has created an environment that I am excited to come to every day. That I don’t dread driving to on a Monday morning. That I actually miss when I take a vacation.” 

Another project Weldon and Synergetic recently completed was the Spring 2021 Commencement at Temple University. Senior Vice Provost for Strategic Communications Betsy Leebron Tutelman (she/her) taught Weldon as a student, and later had the pleasure of working with him on the ceremony.

“As he likes to remind me, he probably wasn’t the most outgoing student in the class,” Tutelman said. However, she noted that Weldon’s team made the venues “spectacular and nothing short of miracles” that thousands of people were able to enjoy because of their hard work.

“Lew Klein always said it’s the four T’s that will catapult your career: timing, tenacity, talent, and Temple, and I think Jason probably embodies all of those,” she said.