Get to know us! At Carousel, we’re more than 1,300 #CarouselCrew members strong, spanning 27 locations across the country. Each month, we’re excited to share a glimpse of our talented team members.

This week, meet Kelly Shatzer, AutoCAD drafter for nearly two years. He primarily works from his home office in the tiny town of Alvord, about halfway between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls, Texas. Here, Kelly shares some of his favorite technology and top life moments.

Reach out to Carousel today to see how our talent, partner affiliations, and thousands of certifications can help you achieve your IT goals.

What do you consider the best technology?

Mainly A/V as it is revolutionizing how many companies do business. I used to have to commute an hour and a half one way every day to Dallas and back, and now I can work from home. With today’s technology, I can video conference with anyone and everyone on my team, share files, etc. In fact, our entire team works from home! And what A/V is allowing companies, educational facilities, hospitals, and more to do is amazing. Anything from hi-tech video conference rooms, huge auditoriums, and giant classrooms, to small huddle and meeting rooms, all are able to benefit from the addition of A/V systems, allowing employees to collaborate, have virtual meetings, make company-wide presentations, and much more.

What is most exciting about being a #CarouselCrew member?

Working with a great team of people who are all doing their best to give the client the best product possiblefrom the engineers who design the A/V systems and work with the clients, to the CAD people that create the construction documents, to the amazing install guys that actually have to install the systems, and make sure they are working to the customer’s satisfaction. Being able to work from home is wonderful, too! Working for a company that cares about their employees, and wants to take care of them is great, and not that common anymore. So I appreciate being a Carousel Industries employee every day.

What are your top 3 life highlights?

  • Brenna, my late Border Collie. Raising a wonderful dog from a puppy to be 15+ years old. She always got compliments on what a great, well-behaved, and awesome dog she was. She passed away a number of years ago now, and I have just not been able to get another one.
  • I got to perform in a couple of talent shows at Texas A&M in front of around 2,500 people, with a couple of different groups a couple years apart. One was my first band, a comedy band called Dr. Love and the Erogenous Zones, and the second was an acoustic duo with the singer of my next band, Covenant. The comedy band show was easier, as we were dressed in crazy costumes, and slinking all over the stage to a parody of Madonna’s “Justify My Love,” called “Just to Fix My Car.” Watching the reactions of the parents and older folks in the first few rows was priceless! The acoustic duo was terrifying, as it was me on acoustic guitar, and the singer just singing. The curtain went up, and I knew if I made the slightest mistake, everyone would hear it. Somehow, I managed not to, even while the singer forgot some of the words and had to make some up on the spot!
  • I bought a MINI Cooper-S and I am LOVING that car!
  • Hopefully many more highlights still to come!

What was the most memorable gift you’ve received and why?

My girlfriend took me skydiving for my 40th birthday. That was awesome!

What are you currently reading/listening to (book, blog, audio, show, etc.)?

I can’t stop listening to the new album, “To the Bone” by Steven Wilson.

I am reading the autobiography of Bruce Campbell, B Movie superstar!

We love watching Adam Ruins Everything, The Daily Show, Rick and Morty, and The Orville is a great new show by Seth MacFairlane. We also love watching movies with a Rifftrax.com soundtrack playing along (the same guys of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame!).

What have you created that you are most proud of?

I think some of the bands I have been in created some good music. My first band, Dr. Love and the Erogenous Zones, got our song “Stamp Collecting” on the Dr. Demento Comedy Radio show a couple of times. It was great hearing it play, knowing it was being broadcast all over the country!

My last band won a TouchTunes Jukebox contest a few years ago. They picked our song (along with a few others) out of around a thousand other entries, which was really cool. You can go to a TouchTunes Juke Box pretty much anywhere in the country and play our song “Shake Box” by Waiting For One! Also, getting airplay on a number of internet radio shows, and getting to know other band members and fans (via chat rooms) from all over the world was really cool, too. One of our biggest fans lived in Finland!

I used to teach beginning guitar classes for an extra-curricular activities organization at Texas A&M University. I had one student who was pretty shy, quiet, and unassuming, but a hard worker. I ran into him years later, and he thanked me, saying I was the best teacher he had ever had! He said he was now playing guitar in a band, performing live, getting dates, and having a great time! He seemed much more self-confident. That made me very happy and proud!