Five Minutes With a Crafty Vet

For almost a decade now, there is a week, or combination of two weeks, where the FILO office and warehouse is hectic -- beyond hectic, even. Borderline frantic and chaotic. That week (or weeks) always takes place at the end of January or the beginning of February in preparation for our biggest event of the year: NBA All-Star Jam Session.

There is no difference this year, as the first three trucks will be loaded by the finest gents in all of Minnesota, starting Thursday, January 31. Lucky for us, however, we have a crafty veteran who flew into town from New York for the special occasion. His name: James Buron. We call him Jim or Jimbo, for short. Jim was one of the original FILO’s back in the day, but moved out east to New York, years ago. He is brother of current FILO Director, Brian Buron. The Buron family lives here in Saint Paul, and the FILO team considers it a treat to have not 1, but 2 Buron’s at the FILO HQ (And if you think that’s special, just wait until we get down to Houston, when we will have 3 Buron’s under one roof, but I digress…).

Jimbo’s one of the hardest working and intelligent minds in the event industry—no biased, really. The young, crafty vet took five minutes out of his busy schedule in the warehouse to shed some light on what it’s like during Jam Session truck-loading week. His exquisite insight is detailed below.


How many NBA All-Star Jam Session’s is this for you, now?   6 or 7? Denver was my first, but I've missed a few since then.

How was the flight in? Are you excited to be back in Minnesota?   Delayed and bumpy. Love Minnesota, though. God's country.

What’s it like this week around the FILO warehouse?   All work, no play. Nah, actually we’re having some fun. Good crew here.

What’s your favorite thing about working in the warehouse?   Noodle's deejay skills (Shaun Donovan, also known as Noodle to some, is one of FILO’s hardest working warehouse managers—He’s also a talented musician. Kid really can spin).

Favorite warehouse item to load?   Bleachers and columns. It's a guarantee that you'll wake up the next morning with sore muscles, and you don't even need to take a trip to the gym. Free workout.

What’s the fastest you think you will load a truck in this week?   If I'm driving the forklift, we will most certainly be breaking all previous truck loading times. 8-10 minutes a truck.

What if your brother, Brian, is driving the forklift?   Oh, well in that case…We’ll be lucky if we are out of here in time for All-Star. Probably be closer to 4-6 hours a truck.

In five words or less, what’s the feeling when that 16th truck is loaded?   Shirtless snow angel!

Written by:
Andrew Westphal