Meet Beth Dewhirst, ftrack’s Global Training Manager

We’re excited to welcome Beth Dewhirst to team ftrack! Beth is working as part of our Customer Success team to develop ftrack’s educational and training resources and ensure our customers get the most from the ftrack platform. Read on to learn about Beth and her role as Global Training Manager.

Can you please tell us a little about your career journey?

Being a childhood cartoon-o-holic, I naturally started my career as a character animator and texture artist. I worked on snowboarders, hedgehogs, bugs, monsters, and sharks before I jumped over into production coordination in video games and then over to production management in stereo conversion for film.

After working on a good few blockbusters, I made my way over to visual effects, where I discovered the power of production management software. My passion developed for creating workflows that empowered supervisors, kept coordinators from pulling their hair out, and focused artists on their tasks. I became the resident “one to ask,” and I realized that helping others make their work lives easier was my favorite part of the job.

Following that discovery, I moved towards studio-wide direction, education, and support for ShotGrid, eventually working as a solutions architect for a wide range of creative clients.

Now, in my new role as Global Training Manager at ftrack, I’m thrilled to focus my passion towards positively shaping our clients’ experience with the products. From early adoption through to implementing more complex concepts, I help our customers gain the foundation and knowledge they need to create studio success with every ftrack project.

What will your role as Global Training Manager at ftrack involve?

As Global Training Manager, I will work with ftrack’s Customer Success team to ensure our customers have the knowledge they need to gain the most from our products.

I’m responsible for directing our customers’ learning experiences, developing easy-to-understand educational materials, and offering a spectrum of learning opportunities for all roles (artist, supervisor, production, developer) at all skill levels. In addition, I will work with our support, product, marketing, and documentation teams to ensure that our educational content reaches our customers and that it is always consistent, up to date, and relevant.

I also create internal training and learning pathways so that all ftrack employees have the up-to-date product knowledge required to support our customers’ ftrack experience.

What did you learn in previous roles that you will bring to your position at ftrack?

Having run the gamut of studio roles from artist to production, tracking/review software admin, and solutions architect, I possess a unique, well-rounded, and production-honed knowledge base to help guide our users through our products. I understand how minds work in production and how to communicate concepts effectively and clearly because I’ve either been that mind or worked with that mind.

Working at ShotGrid over the years introduced me to a diverse array of workflow challenges and problems. The experience taught me the solutions, workarounds, and essential guides that can help eradicate those problems. I’ll certainly be bringing that knowledge to the fore at ftrack.

What are you excited about achieving at ftrack in the next 12 months?

I’m eager to learn everything I can from everyone at ftrack so I can dig right into creating a comprehensive and streamlined training outline for our products. I can then build the foundations out from there! Before long, we’ll have a best-in-class training platform that will help all ftrack customers, new and old, get the most out of our products.

What excites you about the future of the creative industries?

The digital content world is growing in leaps and bounds; the creativity out there astounds me! I love seeing the positive and beautiful things that humans can create. With more and more creative projects under development, I’d like to see ftrack become one of the most reliable and trusted choices for project management and the go-to solution for studios who want to make all the production admin disappear behind creativity.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I love to get outside in nature, soak it all up, and take long walks to observe all the big and little details, often taking pictures of what I see. I’ve also recently taken up dirt biking which has been an adventure. I love the ocean and being out on the water by boat or paddleboard amongst the islands on the coast of BC. I still get creative and enjoy working with paper sculpture, watercolor, and modern crafting. (Less hokey, but still handmade!)

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