Unlocking Event Success: Proven Strategies by Deanna Griffith House

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All of us in events are working on a million things at once and sometimes

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it's hard to pull back and look at the big picture. Well,

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today we're going to spend a little bit of time on event strategy and how

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we can tighten up your event portfolio.

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Welcome to the Event Pro show, your ultimate guide to the world of corporate

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events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing

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pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional

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events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights.

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Expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading

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professionals.

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Well, hello, I'm Seth Mackey and welcome to the Event Pro Show. I'm really

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excited about our guest today and

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Deanna, if it's okay, I'm going to actually read your whole bio right

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now. We're going to talk about some really cool issues

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around planning and events, but let me read this bio

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because it's probably one of my favorite bios. So. With an

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illustrious career spanning over two decades, Deanna Griffith House stands as a

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beacon of excellence in the realm of global trade shows and meeting

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strategy and planning. Renowned for exceptional leadership and visionary

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strategies, Deanna has garnered accolades and awards

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as a strategic leader in the mice that's meetings,

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incentives, conferences and exhibitions industry. For those of us that

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are following along at home. I got that right. You got it right. It was

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perfect. Deanna brings to the table a rich background in complex project

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management honed through years of orchestrating high profile events on a global

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scale. Her expertise extends beyond mere logistics

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encompassing event portfolio strategy and implementation

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which I really I want to ask you about. That was. That's a bonus question.

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Question later. With a meticulous eye for detail. Throughout her career,

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Deanna has been a driving force in cross functional leadership, seamlessly

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integrating teams from diverse backgrounds to achieve shared

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objectives. Her proficiency and high tech marketing adds a

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dynamic edge to her approach, ensuring events are not only

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flawlessly executed but also strategically aligned with organizational

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goals. You're a master of process optimization and that's

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speaking a love language for me. Deanna has proven track

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record for streamlighting operations and maximizing resources to deliver

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unparalleled outcomes. Her strategic acumen is matched only with her

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ability to conceptualize innovative event experiences that

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captivate audiences and leave a lasting impression.

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Please welcome to the show Deanna Griffith House. Thank you. I'm

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exhausted, so I'm going to go take a nap now. From that

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wonderful. Exactly. From that wonderful introduction. Thank you. And thank you for having me.

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Absolutely. But there's so much to your background

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that people could Learn from. And there's a lot of hot button

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issues here for me. So not just the mice thing that I outlined. Let's

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dig in. Project management, logistics. You've got

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portfolio strategy and implementation consultation, which

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is really cool. Marketing, which you mentioned earlier when

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we were talking process optimization, operations and then even

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experiential. So so much to pull from so many cool

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things. But before we dive in, I wanted to ask

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you just kind of an opening question that I really am

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interesting interested to ask. Everybody

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that we talk to is thinking back in your life,

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what is like the first memory of

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attending an event? You know, maybe like being a kid or you know, the first

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event that made an impression on you. This takes me back.

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So it's county fair. County fair.

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I was a 4H'er. My entire family were 4H'ers. My

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mother was a 42 year 4H advisor.

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I was camp counselor on the junior fair board, the whole thing. And so

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you prepared every year to go to the fair. And I did everything from

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cooking demonstrations to showing ducks, geese and

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rabbits. Wow, don't have any of those anymore.

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To canning vegetables and sewing CL

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clothing that you then modeled. So a county fair was really my. Is really

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my first memory of an event. And it was multi day. And

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then of course, if you excelled at the county level, I grew up in the

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state of Ohio. You then could be elevated to go

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take whatever the 4H project was to the state fair

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and repeated that presentation or demonstration, et cetera,

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at the state fair. And it was months and months of preparation for that event.

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And I was just a participant. I wasn't the event planner. That's

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awesome. Yeah. I get the feeling that in a post apocalyptic

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world you would be one of the few people that could survive. I think so.

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Because I could figure out how to do. Fill in the blank. Right. Canned vegetables.

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So et cetera. Do you think you pull from that

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memory even now like doing. Absolutely. And as I'm

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sitting here, I'm in my mind going through the 4H pledge.

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You know, the 4H's which is what it stands for. My pledge, my.

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Can you. Can you say them? I pledge my head to clear thinking, my heart

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to greater loyalty, my hands to better service and my health, to better living

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for my club, my community, my country and my world. That's the

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four Hs. That's the four Hs. I didn't know that. Yeah, obviously,

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obviously. Would not survive in the post apocalyptic world. Well, you

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know, when you, you grew up in a family of 4H, even my

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grandmother was a 4H advisor. It's just

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droned in on you time after time. And I loved it. My family still goes

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to the county fair where I grew up in Marysville, Ohio. That's very cool.

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That's very cool. What's the closest big town to Marysville?

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Columbus. Columbus. About 30 miles northwest of Columbus. Okay, cool,

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cool. Love Ohio. Oh, Oh,

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I don't. I. Oh, am I supposed to be. Is this like a. The Buckeye

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thing? Oh, sorry. Okay, so full disclosure, I'm

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not a Buckeye fan. I could tell. I like the state.

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A big fan of Bob Evans. Yes, yes, yes.

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When I have a few questions, preliminary questions here. But. But

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from that experience, when was the first time that you

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can remember wanting to be involved in events as like a career? Like when it

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clicked in your mind that, hey, this is what I want to do, or did

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it come to you a different way? Like people come at it from different

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directions? I don't know that I ever actually

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actively said I want to be an event planner. I started my

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career in marketing, a degree in pr.

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So, you know companies at the time and you know, you

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know, five minutes ago companies, if you

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were in marketing, you did whatever was needed to be done for marketing. So

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I had a kind of a penchant for detail and making

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things happen. So when the company I worked for at the

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time, which no longer exists, was folded in four and five times over,

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decided to do a sales meeting because I was in marketing and I

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could pay attention to detail, they said, hey, Deanna, you hear, you plan it. And

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away I went. And I learned over time that, hey,

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this is actually enjoyable and I'm really good at it.

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And so I then made a conscious decision to stay involved in the events

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industry. Took a left turn in project management for a while, but

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even my team managed events along with technology

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integrations and strategy, those kinds of things. So that's how I kind of

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broadened beyond the traditional meeting planning or

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event planning. I think meeting planning is such a small title for what the.

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Those people do in the industry. It's too

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small, but use it because it's a common term. And

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so that allowed me to do other things but still

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train true to my core. Event planning. Meeting planning

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is. Is really what I love to do. Yeah. Yeah. So you

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found something that you loved. Yes. And it clicked. Absolutely.

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So what, what then were some of your first jobs in the

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events industry? I worked for

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a long distance telecom company when long distance was a

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thing. Dating myself. Now I remember I wasn't allowed

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to make long distance calls? No, exactly. I

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barely remember the party lines when you picked up the phone and there was. Oh,

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really? Yeah, yeah, barely. Like that was, you know, when I was very, very young.

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But I did everything from

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in person customer events to sponsorships. We

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talked a little bit earlier about my involvement in the IndyCar and racing

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world. We sponsored a car in both IndyCar and

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NASCAR. So I managed those programs, went on site quite a bit with those,

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and those were to host and

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entertain and endear, if you will, big customers.

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Like the state of Ohio was a customer of the long

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distance telecom company. So we hosted the

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telecom manager at the state of Ohio, those kinds of things.

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So it just kind of continued to parlay into incentives, into

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trade shows, et cetera. And once you understand the core

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elements or tenants of event planning, it can take you

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wherever you want to go. Really broaden it from there. Right.

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And now from those first jobs, fast forward

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you right now, what are you passionate

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about and what are you working on in

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2025? Yeah, like, what are you wanting to work on? So

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I, as I mentioned, I took a left turn into project management. And about a

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year and a half ago, I kind of like most of us did post pandemic

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said, this is not what I want to do full time anymore. I still

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enjoy project management, but it's not my passion. So I

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took the bold leap of leaving my job after 12

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years with a big support of my husband, and

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decided to kind of throw lack of a term caution to the

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wind and started my own independent planning business where

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I'll still do independent planning. Like hire me, I can pull

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something together, you know, make it sing, et cetera. But

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really what I enjoy doing is getting into the nuts and bolts as to why

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you're doing an event and what your event portfolio looks like using

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your data. So it's, you know, you provide me with

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your client Personas, your customer data, your sales goals, your

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company goals, and I work, you know,

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to put together a Persona based on the events that you're doing and that data

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and say you really should stop doing these types of things or going to

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this trade show because no one you want as a client is in that trade

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show anymore. Participating, attending, continue doing these. But

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instead of, you know, taking an incentive trip to a

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large city every year, perhaps switch it up and

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take it, you know, go to New Zealand or go to an

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island. And when I talk about incentives, it's not just employees and it's just client

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incentives too, because there's a big mix of it. And People misunderstand that there is

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a difference between those two and then continue doing X.

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And again it's based on data. And what I'm seeing more and more as I

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work with clients is people want to get back to in person events and

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gatherings. So you know I worked for a software company for a long

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time and we did a lot of in person events where we

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hosted the IT leaders and talked about the updates

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that we were pushing out through the software. Well they're missing those. And not,

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not that they can't get the updates electronically because we all do it every

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day, but it's the interactions with other people who are

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going through the same trials and tribulations they are. That's what people are

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wanting to get back to. And we're seeing it more and more in all the

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data the meetings industry has. What I think is interesting about what you're

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doing is just as a human, as a member

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of human beings I reach a point

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where I can't read any more emails. Like I literally

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there's like a point in time where my mind is done but.

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But if I can step away and for important things

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getting face to face and working through issues huge. It's

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just the way that we're wired. I think most people are wired. And I think

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you touch on a really important point there. And tying back

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to what I find really interesting is I'm a big

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believer in time management. Yes. I'm as I get

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older I find that you know we definitely have this

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finite time and so breaking up your day

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in what is a high value use of my time

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versus low value. And you cut

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like anything that's not, you know, the top 20% of your time usually is doing

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the biggest impact. Yes. And if you can get rid of most of the other

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stuff through various methods you become more effective. And I think

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in a portfolio of events it's interesting that you're doing that

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for people to say hey if you have 100 events a year

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actually the top 20 are getting you like 80% of your impact.

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Absolutely, absolutely. And you can focus and do better on those.

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That's interesting to me. That's an interesting concept. Not necessarily

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automatically cut the other ones out. Let's look at those

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from a value add to your customers.

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And most of what I'm talking about is business to business. I don't really I

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have done consumer work. It's not my ballywick right most

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of its business business. But let's evaluate those from a

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pure play. What's it adding to your customers

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first and then to you as a business second. You know one of my

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favorite sayings I ever heard, and this has been years, I heard it. Well, I

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have 24 hours in the day, same 24 hours. How are you going to spend

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it? And getting back to your email comment, you know, I was in my former

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role, I was at the point where I was getting over 375 emails a day

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for projects I was managing. There's no way you can be effective

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anything. Yeah, you could. All you're doing is reading emails and

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responding. Oh, I'm going to look at this later. And so to your point,

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the more that you can accomplish in a shorter

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amount of time is better. And so in person, meetings are perfect for that

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because you can check off and I hate to use

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those terms, check off. Hey, We've engaged with 15 customers. We've

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got. Do you always get additional sales out? Which is always a bonus, but

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you've endeared your clients to you more and more and are more readily to be

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part of like a customer reaction group or a customer

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feedback loop, et cetera, because you've connected with them one on one. And that's the

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piece that the pandemic took away from all of us personally and

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professionally. And that the people that are, that are in the

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industry now working, not meetings industry, but like the

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30 year olds, the 40 year olds are missing that because they just a lot

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of never had it or forgot it was what it was like before the pandemic.

238
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Yes. Yeah. And that time together is

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actually higher quality time as opposed to like a zoom

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interaction or an email because I'm constantly distracted

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by my phone, you know. Or whatever, my dog barking in the.

242
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Doorbell, kids just came home from school, whatever. But when you're in

243
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person, you've got that like you're looking eye to eye and there's no

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distraction if you do it right. You know, you're really. The time you spend together

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is just super high value. We can get a lot done and I really believe

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in that. I think we both are big believers in that. And that's really the

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industry that we're in is like we're in the industry of people.

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And so people, relationships, people. And it's most

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effective face to face. Absolutely, absolutely. So I'm assuming

250
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when you, when you know, when you call yourself an event strategy

251
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expert, this is what's like at the heart of what you're talking about.

252
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And using the term expert to me just means I have

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experience in what I'm talking about. I think that you're you're okay with using the

254
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word? Well, I mean, people can overuse the word

255
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expert. It's. I've been there, I've been through the trenches. I've stuffed the name

256
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tags, I've printed schedules off, you know,

257
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15 times. I've been the person at registration desk checking people and figuring out why

258
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they didn't pay, etc. Like, I have the experience, been there, done that,

259
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would do it again in a heartbeat. But I think what, because of that

260
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experience, I can look at a portfolio or even just

261
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a single event and say, these are the great things you're doing, these are

262
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the things we can improve upon, and these are the things we really should not

263
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be doing as part of this event or you're part of your portfolio. Right. For

264
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various reasons. And a lot of it has to do with data. Now, data is

265
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black and white. It is what it is. There's a lot of gray in between

266
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the black and white pieces. And that's the piece that really, when I

267
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talk and work with clients, comes into play about, well, is there a

268
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reason that we do this event and it's really getting us nowhere? Well, it could

269
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be the owner of the company loves it and we're going to continue to do,

270
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okay, well, let's improve upon it instead of cutting it out. So that's where the

271
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gray pieces come in. When you deal with data, that's where. You

272
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need somebody that's been in the industry from the ground up that understands it, can.

273
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They can interpret the data. It's not just like cold

274
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like the numbers say this. So we have to do that. Like,

275
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you've got to have experience. Yes, yes, absolutely.

276
00:17:09,990 --> 00:17:12,300
Okay, so in your,

277
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as much as you'd like to talk about it, what are some examples of events

278
00:17:17,808 --> 00:17:21,376
you've observed that lack strategy versus those that were very strategic?

279
00:17:21,488 --> 00:17:25,136
I guess you could be just general on that. So give an example of maybe

280
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an event that it's. It's lacking strategy. Just this is

281
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generic Expo

282
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2025 that we've all been to before, that

283
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,802
lacked, versus one that's super high impact that you love the

284
00:17:37,826 --> 00:17:41,466
concept. So it. I'll give an example of something

285
00:17:41,538 --> 00:17:45,130
that I worked but didn't lead, if that makes

286
00:17:45,170 --> 00:17:49,018
sense. So I do a lot of. I should say a lot. I do

287
00:17:49,074 --> 00:17:52,826
some where people contact me, say, hey, I need staffing for a booth.

288
00:17:52,938 --> 00:17:55,594
I think you can do it, et cetera. And I'll help them out, part in

289
00:17:55,602 --> 00:17:58,858
part, because it helps me evaluate the trade show overall for future

290
00:17:58,914 --> 00:18:02,218
clients. And as a matter of Fact, this past summer, I worked with

291
00:18:02,274 --> 00:18:05,992
a healthcare technology company at a

292
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healthcare tech show. And they had a small

293
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:11,860
booth. Fine. The booth was

294
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,696
standard measure. It wasn't anything special. And that was part of the problem. Nothing unique

295
00:18:16,728 --> 00:18:20,488
about it. But the two people they had staffing the booth from the company

296
00:18:20,544 --> 00:18:23,992
and then me were constantly on their phone or not in the

297
00:18:24,016 --> 00:18:27,720
booth. And so you had somebody. Myself who, you

298
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:31,466
know, read 101 the day before I showed up. It was asked to answer

299
00:18:31,498 --> 00:18:34,970
all these questions. Well, right there, bad booth staffing.

300
00:18:35,130 --> 00:18:38,842
Horrible, horrible issue. Because they had people that were interested in what they

301
00:18:38,866 --> 00:18:42,362
were offering but didn't have the right people in the booth

302
00:18:42,506 --> 00:18:45,910
to provide the answers. And then the.

303
00:18:46,770 --> 00:18:50,458
Taking materials to a trade show booth in this day and age is

304
00:18:50,514 --> 00:18:54,010
ludicrous because it ends up in the trash can. So it should either be

305
00:18:54,130 --> 00:18:57,402
scan this, we'll send it to you, or here's a flash drive, something like

306
00:18:57,426 --> 00:19:01,032
that. This group had nothing but paper all over the

307
00:19:01,056 --> 00:19:04,808
booth. So there's a lot of things like, you know, we all value

308
00:19:04,864 --> 00:19:07,912
paper. Paper. When you want to sit and look at something like, I'm a reader

309
00:19:07,976 --> 00:19:10,904
and I love books. I don't want an E reader. I want to physically get

310
00:19:10,912 --> 00:19:13,352
a book from the library and sit and read with it. That's. You like the

311
00:19:13,376 --> 00:19:17,144
experience? Yeah, My husband loves the E reader. We're totally different, but none of

312
00:19:17,152 --> 00:19:20,580
us wants to lug all that paper home. So I think. I think there was.

313
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:24,152
It's really looking at how you're presenting yourself to the

314
00:19:24,176 --> 00:19:27,932
world, or in this case, to the healthcare technology sector,

315
00:19:28,036 --> 00:19:31,628
and figuring out, okay, we're missing the mark. And part of that also is

316
00:19:31,684 --> 00:19:35,292
walking around to see the other vendors or companies

317
00:19:35,396 --> 00:19:39,212
in the trade show of how they're presenting and follow the crowds.

318
00:19:39,276 --> 00:19:42,520
Like, why are the crowds there? Is there a tchotchke given away

319
00:19:43,220 --> 00:19:46,844
which is not always the answer, don't get me wrong. Or is there a presentation

320
00:19:46,892 --> 00:19:50,604
they're doing that's really hitting the mark? You know, do your research. That's part of

321
00:19:50,612 --> 00:19:54,362
it. And then on the flip side, from a. Like an

322
00:19:54,386 --> 00:19:58,202
internal event, I think you need to make

323
00:19:58,226 --> 00:20:01,962
sure that you have the right people presenting on the right topics for the

324
00:20:01,986 --> 00:20:05,626
audience. Always match the audience with people. I think it sounds very simple, but there's

325
00:20:05,658 --> 00:20:09,402
so many companies that miss the mark on matching the content to

326
00:20:09,426 --> 00:20:13,226
the audience, especially senior management. And I'm talking from history

327
00:20:13,298 --> 00:20:15,670
here. They have a tendency to talk.

328
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,624
I used to work for a telecom company, and our CFO always talked about EB

329
00:20:20,672 --> 00:20:24,496
DA the average Person doesn't know what that is or even how to pronounce

330
00:20:24,528 --> 00:20:28,000
it or how to spell it. And so I actually encouraged him at one point

331
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,552
to explain that to the employees because we did it every quarter, but

332
00:20:31,576 --> 00:20:34,848
nobody knew what it was. And as soon as that happened, he then started

333
00:20:34,904 --> 00:20:38,688
getting conversation questions from the audience

334
00:20:38,784 --> 00:20:42,480
and email follow up saying, hey, help me understand this a little bit more. So

335
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:46,070
stop. You know, make sure you match the messaging to the audience. That's key in

336
00:20:46,110 --> 00:20:49,910
everything you do. Yeah, I think that's powerful right there. I.

337
00:20:49,950 --> 00:20:53,702
I think with anything, the more you can simplify it

338
00:20:53,726 --> 00:20:57,334
means, the more you're to use the word expert of something, a subject

339
00:20:57,382 --> 00:21:00,966
matter expert should be able to explain in a simple

340
00:21:00,998 --> 00:21:04,822
way. And even in what you're talking about in your booth or how

341
00:21:04,846 --> 00:21:08,550
you're representing your company, it should be in a easy,

342
00:21:08,630 --> 00:21:12,242
easy to understand, digest way. In a way that is now,

343
00:21:12,366 --> 00:21:16,202
like not, you know, when I was listening to you talk.

344
00:21:16,386 --> 00:21:20,042
It sounds like so many people work in

345
00:21:20,066 --> 00:21:23,562
a way of like, I'm checking off how we've always done it. Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

346
00:21:23,626 --> 00:21:27,354
Instead of that curious, almost like entrepreneurial, like,

347
00:21:27,442 --> 00:21:29,946
how can we do this better? How can we make this better? And you don't

348
00:21:29,978 --> 00:21:33,578
have to launch a company to be an entrepreneur. No, you can have that

349
00:21:33,634 --> 00:21:37,226
same curiosity. And approach to your day job.

350
00:21:37,298 --> 00:21:41,060
Exactly. And it's actually can keep it more exciting and

351
00:21:41,100 --> 00:21:44,340
interesting. Like, how are they doing it? What are they doing over

352
00:21:44,380 --> 00:21:48,228
there? That's literally the story of some of the biggest business

353
00:21:48,284 --> 00:21:51,508
people in the world. You know, I think Sam Walton doing

354
00:21:51,564 --> 00:21:55,332
Walmart, he was original in a lot of what he did, but a

355
00:21:55,356 --> 00:21:58,996
lot wasn't. He would literally go to other stores all the time,

356
00:21:59,068 --> 00:22:02,852
other competitors, and make notes openly, like they, they would know

357
00:22:02,876 --> 00:22:06,404
he's walking in. Those people still do that today. Yes. You know, this is a

358
00:22:06,412 --> 00:22:10,100
concept that was kind of. He, he was a pioneer in that idea.

359
00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:13,822
But do that. Why not? Why not? We all borrow

360
00:22:13,886 --> 00:22:17,582
from each other, you know, no one owns all of creativity, you

361
00:22:17,606 --> 00:22:21,278
know, and we other people have done it. So. So that's an example of how

362
00:22:21,334 --> 00:22:25,150
you could create a really boring experience for people. Yeah, absolutely. And

363
00:22:25,190 --> 00:22:29,022
give me an example of. You've seen something where people are just, this is the

364
00:22:29,046 --> 00:22:32,782
way that it should be done, how it should be approached. So

365
00:22:32,806 --> 00:22:36,622
I'll use a recent example. I was at ibtm, which

366
00:22:36,646 --> 00:22:40,146
is a global conference in trade show in

367
00:22:40,218 --> 00:22:44,002
Barcelona. First time I'd been there. And of course, one of the things that always

368
00:22:44,026 --> 00:22:47,762
attracts attention when you're at A trade show is the lines at a trade

369
00:22:47,786 --> 00:22:51,522
show booth. Sure. What are people saying in line for, et cetera? And I think

370
00:22:51,706 --> 00:22:55,490
especially for those of us who are not exposed

371
00:22:55,570 --> 00:22:59,282
to cultures beyond our own all the

372
00:22:59,306 --> 00:23:02,910
time, we're fortunate in the meetings industry that we get that opportunity. But

373
00:23:03,290 --> 00:23:07,138
IBCM has a lot of Asian booths, et cetera,

374
00:23:07,154 --> 00:23:10,588
which is phenomenal. One of the longest lines was

375
00:23:10,644 --> 00:23:14,476
actually a fan. You know, call me off fan.

376
00:23:14,508 --> 00:23:18,300
Yeah. Where they wrote whatever you wanted them to in Chinese

377
00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:22,060
on that fan. And it was just something unique. You couldn't, you

378
00:23:22,100 --> 00:23:25,804
know, bring back yourself unless you went and paid for it, whatever. And the

379
00:23:25,812 --> 00:23:29,372
line was horrendous. It was simple as that. Yeah. But

380
00:23:29,396 --> 00:23:33,164
yet every time I look at that fan, I think about that booth and, you

381
00:23:33,172 --> 00:23:36,834
know, that country, etc. And I'm like, this was perfect. That's a great way to

382
00:23:36,842 --> 00:23:40,226
do it. And they had people talking to people in the line as they stood

383
00:23:40,258 --> 00:23:43,618
in that long line. And that also makes a difference. I think there's a miss

384
00:23:43,674 --> 00:23:47,282
for people, whatever the line is, whether it's registration for a

385
00:23:47,306 --> 00:23:51,154
conference or registration for a trade show. And there's always people

386
00:23:51,322 --> 00:23:52,430
standing in line.

387
00:23:54,970 --> 00:23:58,722
Always people standing in line. I think you should work that line. And whether

388
00:23:58,746 --> 00:24:01,470
that's just somebody that's really nice and

389
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,992
talkative, et cetera. Your best customer service rep, have them talk to people, not even

390
00:24:06,016 --> 00:24:09,656
about business, like the weather or what's your favorite flower, your favorite flavor of ice

391
00:24:09,688 --> 00:24:12,264
cream. Where do you get your peppermint shakes this time of year? That kind of

392
00:24:12,272 --> 00:24:16,040
stuff. And that endears people to your company

393
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,112
and to the people that work for your company. And so it's, as you said,

394
00:24:19,136 --> 00:24:22,776
it's. It's very simple stuff. And I think we've gotten so entangled with

395
00:24:22,848 --> 00:24:26,536
technology and doing the biggest and brightest thing that we've lost track

396
00:24:26,608 --> 00:24:29,880
of grassroots and basic marketing sense.

397
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,490
Yes. Sometimes I do feel like your tech stack gets so

398
00:24:33,530 --> 00:24:37,314
deep, and it's like we're missing the point. Yes. We're trying to make

399
00:24:37,402 --> 00:24:41,170
people walk away with the information that we want them to walk away with.

400
00:24:41,290 --> 00:24:44,946
It doesn't have to be complicated. I mean, we literally can grab a Sharpie,

401
00:24:45,058 --> 00:24:48,658
get a bunch of fans, and do something unique to our culture so people,

402
00:24:48,714 --> 00:24:52,562
like, have a tie to it. It's very organic. Yes. That's so

403
00:24:52,586 --> 00:24:54,830
cool. You're spot on. Absolutely spot on.

404
00:24:56,260 --> 00:24:59,692
Okay, so how can event pros be more

405
00:24:59,716 --> 00:25:03,000
strategic throughout the planning and execution of an event?

406
00:25:04,500 --> 00:25:08,236
For me, I think if we

407
00:25:08,308 --> 00:25:11,740
look bigger picture and then drill down to the Smaller

408
00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:15,596
details. It's better, I think. And I'm talking generals

409
00:25:15,628 --> 00:25:19,228
here. Event planners have a habit of doing, okay, we got to get the site

410
00:25:19,284 --> 00:25:23,132
first and now we got to talk about transportation and then we

411
00:25:23,156 --> 00:25:26,642
got to talk about reservation dates, that kind of stuff. Well, step back and have

412
00:25:26,666 --> 00:25:30,482
a planning session, bigger picture so that you understand not

413
00:25:30,506 --> 00:25:33,874
only the timing of what needs to happen where, but you know, as we were

414
00:25:33,882 --> 00:25:37,346
talking earlier, involve the, the elements of your

415
00:25:37,418 --> 00:25:40,994
program early in the process and not just when. Oh yeah, it's an

416
00:25:41,002 --> 00:25:44,562
afterthought. And you know, one of the things that we, that always, to

417
00:25:44,586 --> 00:25:47,510
me, when I was doing full time event planning,

418
00:25:48,330 --> 00:25:51,772
event at the beginning was AV and

419
00:25:51,796 --> 00:25:55,452
busing. Transportation was always like, I'll get to when I get to it. It should

420
00:25:55,476 --> 00:25:59,244
be part of the entire process because you're working with people who are very

421
00:25:59,332 --> 00:26:03,100
knowledgeable in definitely the city that you're working in, but

422
00:26:03,140 --> 00:26:06,572
also in events in general. Use their expertise, lean on their

423
00:26:06,596 --> 00:26:10,092
expertise to help it make your program more

424
00:26:10,116 --> 00:26:13,852
successful and make better sense. You know, why would you, you

425
00:26:13,876 --> 00:26:17,418
know, just using transportation, we have a habit of doing that the very last minute.

426
00:26:17,524 --> 00:26:21,166
Well, work with a transportation company who knows the area and say, okay, well instead

427
00:26:21,198 --> 00:26:24,750
of taking people here first and then here first, why don't we

428
00:26:24,790 --> 00:26:28,302
offer a loop or go this way first and come back around kind of

429
00:26:28,326 --> 00:26:31,770
thing. And it makes it much simpler in a better experience for the

430
00:26:32,310 --> 00:26:35,566
attendees and easier for you and your team. Yes,

431
00:26:35,758 --> 00:26:39,422
I am a big fan of that idea that, you know,

432
00:26:39,526 --> 00:26:43,086
it's hard at first, you know, you don't have any relationships. But over

433
00:26:43,158 --> 00:26:46,936
time, building core relationships of suppliers

434
00:26:46,968 --> 00:26:50,792
and partners that it's no longer like, I have to

435
00:26:50,816 --> 00:26:54,440
write this RFP and I don't know what, I'm not an expert in these

436
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,312
things. Why don't you just bring your partners into the planning table

437
00:26:58,456 --> 00:27:01,928
to where there's. A trust of like, which helps write the RFP itself.

438
00:27:02,024 --> 00:27:05,832
Exactly. And it's no longer about like, I feel like I'm at a

439
00:27:05,856 --> 00:27:09,592
car lot and people are trying to upsell me. It's more like these are

440
00:27:09,616 --> 00:27:13,094
partners, they're in it for the long term

441
00:27:13,272 --> 00:27:17,002
and that's their goal. So I don't think they're gonna try to rip me off

442
00:27:17,026 --> 00:27:20,522
on this thing. They're gonna actually try have what you were saying, like, you know,

443
00:27:20,546 --> 00:27:23,082
when we've been there before, you could do this. But if that's what you're trying

444
00:27:23,106 --> 00:27:26,282
to do. This venue, we were able to do this. Oh, well, that helped me

445
00:27:26,306 --> 00:27:30,042
make my venue decision but it came from the logistics company, you

446
00:27:30,066 --> 00:27:33,178
know, that was like, this is why we do that, because we can get here.

447
00:27:33,314 --> 00:27:36,970
So just bringing that group in and you're, you're. So that's a

448
00:27:37,010 --> 00:27:40,516
wise point of like your flow farming, all this talent, you're, you're

449
00:27:40,548 --> 00:27:43,640
outsourcing it, you know, and utilizing other people's

450
00:27:44,140 --> 00:27:47,780
experiences. And I think, just real quick, I think that

451
00:27:47,820 --> 00:27:50,880
perspective I learned through my project management

452
00:27:52,460 --> 00:27:56,036
days in managing programs overall. Because, you know,

453
00:27:56,108 --> 00:27:59,812
if you're not familiar with project management, project is the, the

454
00:27:59,836 --> 00:28:03,332
smallest level or the most singular level and it goes to program and then

455
00:28:03,356 --> 00:28:06,932
portfolio. So it builds up. So as you, you know, I became a

456
00:28:06,956 --> 00:28:10,296
program manager, so I was overseeing a program

457
00:28:10,368 --> 00:28:14,136
about zebras, certainly making it up. And you know, the projects

458
00:28:14,168 --> 00:28:17,720
below were things like the feeding and the where, their house,

459
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:21,272
etc. And it all built up to the program and that fed into the portfolio.

460
00:28:21,336 --> 00:28:24,968
So if you look at it from the ground up, to bring

461
00:28:25,024 --> 00:28:28,360
things together as you're looking at it from the top down is

462
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,104
very, it's a different way to look at things, but you understand, oh, this is

463
00:28:32,112 --> 00:28:35,570
how they all fit together and they need to come together. Mm.

464
00:28:36,390 --> 00:28:40,030
And I think that that directly ties back to what you're doing now,

465
00:28:40,150 --> 00:28:43,918
where you're looking at your whole annual portfolio. You know, that top

466
00:28:43,974 --> 00:28:47,662
down view. I think when we, we work in this business

467
00:28:47,766 --> 00:28:51,470
of day to day trying to survive your 375 emails, if

468
00:28:51,510 --> 00:28:55,310
that's your world, you never can pull back and look at

469
00:28:55,350 --> 00:28:58,894
like, what's a smarter way to do the year? You're like, what's a smarter way

470
00:28:58,902 --> 00:29:01,800
to do the next minute. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

471
00:29:01,910 --> 00:29:05,332
Reevaluating how you're utilizing your time, you know, and your

472
00:29:05,356 --> 00:29:08,640
resources. And I think, you know, I was, I'm mentoring someone

473
00:29:08,940 --> 00:29:12,772
as part of the Site Southeast program right now and we've been talking with

474
00:29:12,796 --> 00:29:16,212
the last couple of months and she and I were just talking the other day

475
00:29:16,236 --> 00:29:19,524
about this time of year. People had go, oh, I'm going to take a breath.

476
00:29:19,572 --> 00:29:23,108
I'm still working but I'm, you know, going to just not do as much, et

477
00:29:23,124 --> 00:29:26,740
cetera. Well, now's the time to do the annual look ahead or even the

478
00:29:26,780 --> 00:29:30,612
annual look back. So you understand, okay, I could have done this better and

479
00:29:30,636 --> 00:29:33,492
how could I have done it better? Yeah, we're all exhausted. But I think if

480
00:29:33,516 --> 00:29:36,948
you put the time in at the end of the year or even the very

481
00:29:37,004 --> 00:29:40,676
beginning of the year when there's no one else around and it's quiet, it's

482
00:29:40,708 --> 00:29:44,308
the better for you because then you'll understand, oh, I could have done this different

483
00:29:44,364 --> 00:29:47,572
or my team could have done this better. And how can we make it a

484
00:29:47,596 --> 00:29:51,200
change for next year? Yes. Yeah. And so

485
00:29:51,740 --> 00:29:55,438
I don't know when you'll be listening to this, but we're recording this over the

486
00:29:55,494 --> 00:29:59,166
Christmas break or holiday break. And I totally

487
00:29:59,198 --> 00:30:02,462
agree with that. Having, I

488
00:30:02,486 --> 00:30:06,110
think overwork is such a killer of creativity.

489
00:30:06,190 --> 00:30:09,822
And as we really are in planner, you know, in

490
00:30:09,846 --> 00:30:13,150
meetings, it is a creative industry. You have to give yourself

491
00:30:13,230 --> 00:30:16,942
room to be creative. And so downtimes are the

492
00:30:16,966 --> 00:30:20,430
perfect time to be kind of like, how can I be more strategic next

493
00:30:20,470 --> 00:30:24,200
year? Get out of, you know, every year, every six months, every

494
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,384
three months. What can I get rid of? What's the white noise I can get

495
00:30:27,392 --> 00:30:31,192
rid of in my life so I can focus on the main thing, not the

496
00:30:31,216 --> 00:30:34,984
little details. Because it's just so you can get addicted to the details.

497
00:30:35,032 --> 00:30:38,568
Absolutely, Absolutely. And for me, when I was working in a

498
00:30:38,624 --> 00:30:42,392
corporation, every day, I'm not an early morning person, but

499
00:30:42,416 --> 00:30:46,216
I became an early morning person. I went into the office. My normal

500
00:30:46,248 --> 00:30:49,096
work hours were 8 to 5. Whenever the last time any of us worked those

501
00:30:49,168 --> 00:30:52,687
straight hours is whatever. But I would be in the office 7,

502
00:30:52,788 --> 00:30:56,534
27, 15. And the time before anybody else came into the office

503
00:30:56,622 --> 00:30:59,782
was when I did exactly that. Let me look ahead to my day. What could

504
00:30:59,806 --> 00:31:03,494
I have done differently? Yesterday or a week ago, et cetera. I've got to get

505
00:31:03,502 --> 00:31:06,370
these things accomplished. So then I was at least organized for

506
00:31:07,070 --> 00:31:10,822
at least the next minute before all the meetings started. And I, like, I

507
00:31:10,846 --> 00:31:14,550
had my head wrapped around what the day needed to look

508
00:31:14,590 --> 00:31:18,402
like and what I needed to accomplish today before I moved on. And

509
00:31:18,426 --> 00:31:21,938
that was huge for me. The most important part of the day for sure,

510
00:31:22,074 --> 00:31:24,514
because the rest of the. Day and then you need to know when to stop

511
00:31:24,682 --> 00:31:28,306
at the end of. The day, like walk away because it always keeps going.

512
00:31:28,458 --> 00:31:32,290
And that means stop looking at your emails on your phone, etc. Which is

513
00:31:32,330 --> 00:31:36,082
hard to do. I need to take some of your advice here. I

514
00:31:36,106 --> 00:31:39,550
don't always follow my own advice. Well,

515
00:31:40,410 --> 00:31:43,634
I'll ask you a few, few remaining questions. It's been such a great conversation. I

516
00:31:43,642 --> 00:31:46,310
feel like we could talk for probably hours about events,

517
00:31:46,950 --> 00:31:50,718
but in your experience, you've been in events for a little bit.

518
00:31:50,774 --> 00:31:54,410
A minute. Yeah. More than a minute. Yeah, a couple minutes. And

519
00:31:55,270 --> 00:31:59,070
you know, when you look out, like, technology is changing so

520
00:31:59,110 --> 00:32:02,750
fast, but we are also dealing with a constant called

521
00:32:02,790 --> 00:32:06,430
human nature. What do events look like in

522
00:32:06,470 --> 00:32:09,710
10 years, you know what, what does that experience look like in 10

523
00:32:09,750 --> 00:32:13,240
years? If you had asked me that this question

524
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,616
two years ago, I would have said virtual

525
00:32:16,808 --> 00:32:20,456
100%. Right. But I think as we were talking

526
00:32:20,488 --> 00:32:24,140
earlier, people are human nature is to engage

527
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:28,680
physically and you face to face with other people, other

528
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,472
humans. I think the pandemic taught us that in the

529
00:32:32,496 --> 00:32:36,008
last couple of years taught us that in spades. And so I think, I don't

530
00:32:36,024 --> 00:32:39,592
think we'll ever get rid of the need to be face to

531
00:32:39,616 --> 00:32:43,432
face. I think it will shift. I think there'll be different reasons why we

532
00:32:43,456 --> 00:32:47,076
meet face to face, but we'll always meet face to face. I feel

533
00:32:47,148 --> 00:32:50,836
like the trade show industry needs to change quite

534
00:32:50,868 --> 00:32:54,692
a bit because the information that you gain at a trade show can

535
00:32:54,716 --> 00:32:58,564
now be found online. So there needs to be a more compelling reason for

536
00:32:58,652 --> 00:33:02,260
companies, people to attend trade shows, but also people

537
00:33:02,300 --> 00:33:05,940
to companies to exhibit at trade shows. I think you'll see more and more

538
00:33:05,980 --> 00:33:09,732
of incentives or incentive type events where

539
00:33:09,756 --> 00:33:13,060
they label incentives or not because that's a whole tax thing for

540
00:33:13,100 --> 00:33:16,130
both consumers and business clients.

541
00:33:17,350 --> 00:33:21,166
You know, we all get those emails, fill out the survey and win $100Amazon

542
00:33:21,198 --> 00:33:24,942
gift card. I think we'll parlay that more into some experiences because

543
00:33:24,966 --> 00:33:28,302
that's what we're all hungry for. So I think, I don't think we'll see

544
00:33:28,326 --> 00:33:31,822
it. I think we're going to see it continue to build. I think we're going

545
00:33:31,846 --> 00:33:35,502
to run out of availability before we run out of need, in my

546
00:33:35,526 --> 00:33:39,102
opinion. But then that just makes it all better for the suppliers

547
00:33:39,166 --> 00:33:42,880
industry, harder for the planners. It's a trade off one way or the other.

548
00:33:43,340 --> 00:33:46,960
There's always a trade off. Yeah, it is. Yep. Okay, last question for you.

549
00:33:47,820 --> 00:33:51,652
Okay, I'm ready. What is your favorite event that you've ever been

550
00:33:51,676 --> 00:33:55,396
involved with? And maybe you can't answer

551
00:33:55,428 --> 00:33:58,800
this on a microphone, I don't know. No, I can't. I absolutely can.

552
00:33:59,180 --> 00:34:02,320
So we were talking earlier. I worked in the

553
00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:06,756
CART or IndyCar series, CART at the time.

554
00:34:06,908 --> 00:34:10,420
And our last year, race of the year was always in

555
00:34:10,460 --> 00:34:14,112
Fontana, California, the, you know, mecca of the

556
00:34:14,136 --> 00:34:17,824
world. And I got involved

557
00:34:17,872 --> 00:34:19,820
in an organization called,

558
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,568
I forget what it's called now, but it was the auxiliary for the CART series.

559
00:34:25,624 --> 00:34:29,184
So the wives and of the owners and the drivers and those kinds of

560
00:34:29,192 --> 00:34:32,976
things got involved in that and we held a fundraiser every year

561
00:34:33,048 --> 00:34:36,432
at the last race and in this particular year I was the chair of the

562
00:34:36,456 --> 00:34:39,935
event, partnered with one of the driver's wives. I'M sorry,

563
00:34:39,967 --> 00:34:43,791
owner's wives. And the event was held on a Runway in

564
00:34:43,815 --> 00:34:47,551
a hangar at the Fontana airport. And we had the

565
00:34:47,575 --> 00:34:51,183
best event. We had Smash mouth as the band because they were friends with one

566
00:34:51,191 --> 00:34:54,671
of the drivers. Didn't cost us a dime for them to play. And it was

567
00:34:54,695 --> 00:34:58,431
just a phenomenal event. Like, we had almost 1200 people to attend that

568
00:34:58,455 --> 00:35:01,999
event. Raised so much money for Card Auxiliary. That's what it was called.

569
00:35:02,119 --> 00:35:05,353
It was just like every perfect thing came together.

570
00:35:05,551 --> 00:35:08,790
Um, we didn't have any squabbles amongst the people. So many

571
00:35:08,830 --> 00:35:12,598
personalities. No squabbles, no issues, no anything. Even Paul Newman showed up. Because Paul

572
00:35:12,614 --> 00:35:16,022
Newman, at one time, for several years, was an owner in the

573
00:35:16,046 --> 00:35:19,782
series. Yeah. And so he came, which was

574
00:35:19,806 --> 00:35:22,822
a big draw. Big, you know, splash for the

575
00:35:22,846 --> 00:35:26,374
organization was my favorite time, in part because there was no drama.

576
00:35:26,502 --> 00:35:30,262
Right. There's always drama. I mean, I'm a. I

577
00:35:30,286 --> 00:35:34,068
love airplanes, so I'm a sucker for anything in a hangar. Yeah. But no

578
00:35:34,124 --> 00:35:37,764
drama. I'm. That's more interested in that. That's

579
00:35:37,812 --> 00:35:41,640
an amazing sounding event. Well, if you're interested

580
00:35:42,460 --> 00:35:45,760
in the type of things we talked about,

581
00:35:46,220 --> 00:35:49,412
and I'm not. I'm not planning on doing a plug on every single

582
00:35:49,556 --> 00:35:53,200
podcast, but I would say reach out to Deanna about

583
00:35:53,580 --> 00:35:57,380
your. Your portfolio of businesses, you

584
00:35:57,420 --> 00:36:01,022
know, and maybe you can work out some room in your life to

585
00:36:01,046 --> 00:36:04,798
focus more on what's important. And we'll tag you in everything that we post

586
00:36:04,854 --> 00:36:07,678
so you'll be able to get a hold of Deanna in this. But thank you

587
00:36:07,734 --> 00:36:11,182
so much for being a guest on the Event Pro show. It's been an

588
00:36:11,206 --> 00:36:14,958
enjoyable conversation. I've enjoyed it too. Yeah, I'd love to. This has been

589
00:36:15,014 --> 00:36:18,542
fantastic. It's helped me relive some things I didn't realize I still knew the

590
00:36:18,566 --> 00:36:22,414
4H pledge. Right. That was pretty cool. Now I'm gonna go, you know, on my

591
00:36:22,422 --> 00:36:25,174
way home, call one of my siblings, make them repeat it to me because we

592
00:36:25,182 --> 00:36:27,814
all did it right. And see if they remember as well. But this has been

593
00:36:27,822 --> 00:36:31,654
fabulous. I really appreciate the opportunity and the discussion. It was great. Awesome.

594
00:36:31,702 --> 00:36:35,410
Thank you so much and thank you for joining us on the Event Pro show.

595
00:36:35,710 --> 00:36:39,542
Keep joining our episodes and we will keep putting out tips and

596
00:36:39,566 --> 00:36:43,142
tricks on how to make your life easier in the events industry.

597
00:36:43,246 --> 00:36:45,250
Thank you so much and see you next time.

598
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,440
The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG

599
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:58,328
video by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by

600
00:36:58,384 --> 00:37:02,168
Prince Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG

601
00:37:02,344 --> 00:37:02,560
Live.