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NEW YORK CITY — Bucking the trend of past shows, the 135th convention of the Audio Engineering Society, held from October 17 to 20, 2013 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, was an overwhelming success on every level. After a disappointing turnout at last year’s show — that unfortunately coincided with Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of the East Coast and played havoc with air travelers throughout much of the country — AES rebounded this time with its highest attendance in five years, drawing some 18,453 registrants.

They make up 49.7 percent of the earth’s population. Among U.S. doctors, their ratio is 31 percent. They even account for 19 percent of the elected officials in Congress. But the percentage of live sound engineers who are women is closer to the 5 percent mark.

Two members of this rarified group, Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, were panelists for the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” seminar at AES 2012 in San Francisco, hosted by the recording industry group, Women’s Audio Mission (WAM, womensaudiomission.org). The panel was moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston and also included Claudia Engelhart, Deanne Franklin and Jeri Palumbo.

George Travis knows who the real boss is.

“You end up being part of this little touring group that can be a tight, dysfunctional family that shares one goal: putting on a good show,” he says. “We have to remember that when the music starts, we have 8,000 to 80,000 bosses who are the audience. The biggest excitement in this business is when the concert starts. Then you have your immediate reward… or you can also have your immediate judgment!”

This year’s lot of regional winners is a good mix of those companies across North America that are serving their communities and beyond. It’s one thing to be a guy with some gear that fits in a pickup and is stored in a garage, and it’s another to be a huge national company with loads of resources at your fingertips — that’s how we imagine it, anyway! But it’s those in the “middle” who can (and have the nerve to) invest in the gear to keep their company relevant and also surround themselves with an exceptionally talented crew.Anybody in this category is a hero in our book. The people and companies that follow got an extra nod of approval from FRONT of HOUSE readers — including many of their peers.