July 7, 2025
The Future of Events and Technology: Reflections from WEC 2025
Welcome back! In this conversation, host Seth Macchi, CEO of LEMG, shares key takeaways from WEC 2025, the World Education Conference hosted by Meeting Professionals International in St. Louis. He reflects on the importance of staying curious in the events industry, building strong partnerships instead of going it alone, and prioritizing wellness for those working behind the scenes. Seth also highlights the fresh energy brought by emerging talent, the value of mentorship, and why there's still plenty of reason to feel optimistic about where the industry is headed. Expect useful guidance, fresh perspective, and a look at what’s next for event pros.
The Event Pro Show is a production of LEMG.
LEMG is a leading event production company known for delivering exceptional experiences. From site planning and event design to technical production, staging, lighting, sound, and more—we do it all. As a second-generation company, we’re proud of our rich history and commitment to innovation. Whether it’s a corporate meeting, conference, convention, or live event, we’re the team our clients trust to execute their vision flawlessly.
https://lemg.live/
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I just returned from WEC 2025 and
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00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,280
I have some things to share with you. Let's get into it
3
00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,280
welcome to the. Event Pro show, your ultimate guide to the world of corporate
4
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,880
events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing
5
00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,600
pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional
6
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,120
events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,
7
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,800
expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading professionals.
8
00:00:28,540 --> 00:00:28,940
Foreign
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welcome to the Event Pro Show. I am your host Seth Macchi. I'm the CEO
10
00:00:37,820 --> 00:00:41,380
of lemg. We're an event production company based in Charlotte, North
11
00:00:41,380 --> 00:00:45,020
Carolina and we travel all over the country producing almost
12
00:00:45,020 --> 00:00:48,860
exclusively corporate events. And I just got
13
00:00:48,860 --> 00:00:52,660
back from WEC 2025. If you're not
14
00:00:52,660 --> 00:00:56,150
familiar with that conference, it it is the Global Conference
15
00:00:56,150 --> 00:00:59,830
of Meeting Professionals International MPI
16
00:01:00,150 --> 00:01:03,750
and they have something called the World Education Conference WEC
17
00:01:03,750 --> 00:01:07,590
every year and they do it in a different city every year, kind of
18
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move it around the country. This year it was in the great city of St.
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Louis in Missouri, which was wonderful. They rolled
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out the red carpet for us and we had a really great
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experience in that city. But I did walk away
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with several thoughts. I do enjoy going to networking
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events and this one was, you know, maybe a four day
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networking event with a lot of people that do similar things
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than I do. So that's always fun to be around a bunch of people like
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that. There were about 2,000 attendees there and
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there were some wonderful things. Freeman did the general session and
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a lot of the production all over the facility. So that was fun to watch.
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It's fun to watch other people do a project and
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you not have have to worry about your your own
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company or your own team doing the project. But they did a great job. But
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that really was a great experience. But there were some takeaway
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things that I kept thinking about in the week or so that it's been
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since I've been back. So I thought I would share that. The
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first thing that I noticed right away is
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there's so much to learn. There's so much to learn in our industry,
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in events, in planning or in
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production. There's so much to learn. There were probably 100
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or more education sessions over the week and
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each one was completely unique. There were the popular
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things like AI. People talked a bit about AI. You
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kind of find that everywhere you go right now, but even
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deeper into event technology, in
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00:02:43,540 --> 00:02:46,580
learning how to plan better, learning how to
45
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create meetings that are safer, just
46
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any topic you can think of. I wish that I
47
00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,840
could go to every single one of them, my friend
48
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Ricardo Hicks and I, who Ricardo has been on this show before,
49
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we were able to do two education sessions where we talked about
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how event planners and AV providers can
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work better together. And that was a really well attended
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session. We had a lot of good interaction with planners and
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people that run AV companies. That was fun.
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But ours was just a tiny percentage of the education going on.
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So there's just so much to learn. I feel like until the day
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that I retire, I'm going to be learning stuff and curious.
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So I encourage you to stay curious, stay interested in what's happening in
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our industry. So much is changing rapidly, so now's the time
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to just jump in and keep learning. The next thing I saw
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was there's so much more value in partnerships and
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sharing than in silos and solo solutions.
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And so if you're feeling like all the pressure is on you to
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solve whatever event challenge you have right now, know that there
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are plenty of people that feel the same way, that,
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hey, I want to partner with people or I just want to share what I
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know. So many generous people, people that are generous with
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their knowledge and their time and they really don't
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want anything back from it. There's just so many kind people in our
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industry. And that was really reinforced that you don't have to
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do this alone, that you don't have to be there even if you
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have a solo operation. Build out that team. You know, I talk a
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lot about your team, who is your go to team, Find those people,
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be able to text them or call them or email them and you do the
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same. Share what you know and was just such a
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generous industry. So there's a ton of value
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in sharing, you know, and it was just exemplified everywhere I went at
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this session is that there are people
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everywhere sharing what they know, enjoying sharing
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what they know and helping each other out. Such a cool part of our industry.
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One thing I noticed though, on that note is so many of us are tired.
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So ever since COVID for those of us that have been in this industry
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pre Covid, worked through, picked up again
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after Covid and I don't know if it's really stopped. You
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know, so many of us have just put our head down and worked so hard
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for years now post Covid that
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it's something to really take note of that you need to make sure that
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you're taking care of yourself, you're taking care of spending a
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little time by yourself or with those that you love
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periodically so that you can remember why we're all doing
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this, you know who this is all for and to recharge
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your batteries. I think that, you know, you can get used to that
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feeling that your batteries are on about like
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3% and really you need to
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be taking time and, and the intervals are up to you, whatever
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that means to you. But make sure you're taking care of yourself. You know, you
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can see some people that are doing really well with that
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and others that are really struggling with that. It's very apparent when you get
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a bunch of event people together that we all kind of
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struggle with similar things and being tired, just being
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exhausted is one of them. We're all being required to more
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with less. I feel like there's a lot of
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the, the idea that I just pulled off one of the best experiences
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for my client in my career and they high five
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me and said let's do it again next year for the same
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budget or you know, well, everything else is going up. How am
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I going to do that? How am I going to support that, that mandate?
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Well, first of all, you've got to take care of yourself. You got to take
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care of yourself. Another thing that I'm noticing is there's so
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many young people entering the industry or mid career switches coming
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back into the industry. It's something to look out for, look
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for opportunities to teach others. There are people that
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are wanting to know what you know. And if
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you thought when I said that, you know, I haven't done this long enough, I've
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only been doing this for a few years. Well, there's a lot of people a
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few years behind you that would love to know what you know now
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seek out those opportunities, seek out those people that are willing because
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there's a lot of great talent that are looking
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for people to share their experiences. And as I noticed
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noted before, this industry is full of people
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that love to partner, love to share. And so it's a, it's
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a great environment for young people to walk into or people that are
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mid career switching into our industry.
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An opportunity for you to share what you know and bring those
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people in. We need them, we need to replace those that
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walked away. Even Covid post Covid because of the
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things I'm talking about because of burnout. So let's take care of those young people,
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let's get them in the industry, get them excited about the industry.
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And the last thing is there is a lot of excitement
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for the future of events right now. Now I say that in an economic
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environment where we're not sure there's a bit of
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unease about what's going to happen just in the
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economy. But you know, our industry has faced that before.
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We've had ups and downs and you know, I think I have
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four distinct periods of time. I've been in this industry for
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decades. Four distinct down periods that
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our industry gets through. We march on through and
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we keep, we keep rolling. But in spite of that, there's a lot of
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excitement for the future of events. A lot of cool technology
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coming out, but not just technology, the
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old fashioned ideas of, you know, you, you plug that technology with all the
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hard work that we always bring to projects and we can do some really
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cool things. And so that I, I sensed a lot of
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excitement for where we're going as an industry
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and where we're going to be in, you know, five, 10, 15 years.
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What will that look like? I think a lot of people are very excited about
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that. So that's encouraging to see. I'm a vis person, I like to
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think about things farther out and I feel like as a whole
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there is a lot of optimism of where we're going as
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an industry. So that was really cool to see. So those are my thoughts from
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WEC 2025 in St. Louis.
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I hope that you heard something in there that was encouraging to you.
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If you want to hear more episodes of the Event Pro show, go to the
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eventproshow.com if you need an AV
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provider, go to LEMG Live. We'd love to talk with you
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about your corporate event AV needs,
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but until then, we will see you on the next one. Thanks so much.
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The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG video
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by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by Prince
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Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG
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Live.
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,120
I just returned from WEC 2025 and
2
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,280
I have some things to share with you. Let's get into it
3
00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,280
welcome to the. Event Pro show, your ultimate guide to the world of corporate
4
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,880
events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing
5
00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,600
pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional
6
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,120
events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,
7
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,800
expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading professionals.
8
00:00:28,540 --> 00:00:28,940
Foreign
9
00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:37,820
welcome to the Event Pro Show. I am your host Seth Macchi. I'm the CEO
10
00:00:37,820 --> 00:00:41,380
of lemg. We're an event production company based in Charlotte, North
11
00:00:41,380 --> 00:00:45,020
Carolina and we travel all over the country producing almost
12
00:00:45,020 --> 00:00:48,860
exclusively corporate events. And I just got
13
00:00:48,860 --> 00:00:52,660
back from WEC 2025. If you're not
14
00:00:52,660 --> 00:00:56,150
familiar with that conference, it it is the Global Conference
15
00:00:56,150 --> 00:00:59,830
of Meeting Professionals International MPI
16
00:01:00,150 --> 00:01:03,750
and they have something called the World Education Conference WEC
17
00:01:03,750 --> 00:01:07,590
every year and they do it in a different city every year, kind of
18
00:01:07,590 --> 00:01:11,430
move it around the country. This year it was in the great city of St.
19
00:01:11,430 --> 00:01:15,150
Louis in Missouri, which was wonderful. They rolled
20
00:01:15,150 --> 00:01:18,710
out the red carpet for us and we had a really great
21
00:01:18,710 --> 00:01:21,830
experience in that city. But I did walk away
22
00:01:22,450 --> 00:01:26,010
with several thoughts. I do enjoy going to networking
23
00:01:26,010 --> 00:01:29,170
events and this one was, you know, maybe a four day
24
00:01:29,330 --> 00:01:33,170
networking event with a lot of people that do similar things
25
00:01:33,330 --> 00:01:36,890
than I do. So that's always fun to be around a bunch of people like
26
00:01:36,890 --> 00:01:40,370
that. There were about 2,000 attendees there and
27
00:01:40,770 --> 00:01:44,530
there were some wonderful things. Freeman did the general session and
28
00:01:44,530 --> 00:01:47,530
a lot of the production all over the facility. So that was fun to watch.
29
00:01:47,530 --> 00:01:51,250
It's fun to watch other people do a project and
30
00:01:51,250 --> 00:01:54,830
you not have have to worry about your your own
31
00:01:54,830 --> 00:01:58,270
company or your own team doing the project. But they did a great job. But
32
00:01:58,270 --> 00:02:01,950
that really was a great experience. But there were some takeaway
33
00:02:01,950 --> 00:02:05,630
things that I kept thinking about in the week or so that it's been
34
00:02:05,630 --> 00:02:09,310
since I've been back. So I thought I would share that. The
35
00:02:09,310 --> 00:02:12,670
first thing that I noticed right away is
36
00:02:12,670 --> 00:02:16,430
there's so much to learn. There's so much to learn in our industry,
37
00:02:16,990 --> 00:02:20,660
in events, in planning or in
38
00:02:20,660 --> 00:02:24,500
production. There's so much to learn. There were probably 100
39
00:02:24,580 --> 00:02:28,380
or more education sessions over the week and
40
00:02:28,380 --> 00:02:32,180
each one was completely unique. There were the popular
41
00:02:32,180 --> 00:02:35,900
things like AI. People talked a bit about AI. You
42
00:02:35,900 --> 00:02:39,220
kind of find that everywhere you go right now, but even
43
00:02:39,300 --> 00:02:43,060
deeper into event technology, in
44
00:02:43,540 --> 00:02:46,580
learning how to plan better, learning how to
45
00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:50,660
create meetings that are safer, just
46
00:02:50,820 --> 00:02:54,520
any topic you can think of. I wish that I
47
00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,840
could go to every single one of them, my friend
48
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,960
Ricardo Hicks and I, who Ricardo has been on this show before,
49
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:05,040
we were able to do two education sessions where we talked about
50
00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,920
how event planners and AV providers can
51
00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:12,440
work better together. And that was a really well attended
52
00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,240
session. We had a lot of good interaction with planners and
53
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,040
people that run AV companies. That was fun.
54
00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,880
But ours was just a tiny percentage of the education going on.
55
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,800
So there's just so much to learn. I feel like until the day
56
00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,640
that I retire, I'm going to be learning stuff and curious.
57
00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:35,520
So I encourage you to stay curious, stay interested in what's happening in
58
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,360
our industry. So much is changing rapidly, so now's the time
59
00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,880
to just jump in and keep learning. The next thing I saw
60
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,480
was there's so much more value in partnerships and
61
00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:50,260
sharing than in silos and solo solutions.
62
00:03:51,060 --> 00:03:54,420
And so if you're feeling like all the pressure is on you to
63
00:03:54,740 --> 00:03:58,460
solve whatever event challenge you have right now, know that there
64
00:03:58,460 --> 00:04:02,180
are plenty of people that feel the same way, that,
65
00:04:02,260 --> 00:04:06,100
hey, I want to partner with people or I just want to share what I
66
00:04:06,100 --> 00:04:09,940
know. So many generous people, people that are generous with
67
00:04:09,940 --> 00:04:13,620
their knowledge and their time and they really don't
68
00:04:13,620 --> 00:04:17,240
want anything back from it. There's just so many kind people in our
69
00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,960
industry. And that was really reinforced that you don't have to
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do this alone, that you don't have to be there even if you
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have a solo operation. Build out that team. You know, I talk a
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lot about your team, who is your go to team, Find those people,
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be able to text them or call them or email them and you do the
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same. Share what you know and was just such a
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generous industry. So there's a ton of value
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in sharing, you know, and it was just exemplified everywhere I went at
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this session is that there are people
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everywhere sharing what they know, enjoying sharing
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what they know and helping each other out. Such a cool part of our industry.
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One thing I noticed though, on that note is so many of us are tired.
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So ever since COVID for those of us that have been in this industry
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pre Covid, worked through, picked up again
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after Covid and I don't know if it's really stopped. You
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know, so many of us have just put our head down and worked so hard
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for years now post Covid that
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it's something to really take note of that you need to make sure that
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you're taking care of yourself, you're taking care of spending a
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little time by yourself or with those that you love
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periodically so that you can remember why we're all doing
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this, you know who this is all for and to recharge
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your batteries. I think that, you know, you can get used to that
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feeling that your batteries are on about like
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3% and really you need to
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be taking time and, and the intervals are up to you, whatever
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that means to you. But make sure you're taking care of yourself. You know, you
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can see some people that are doing really well with that
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and others that are really struggling with that. It's very apparent when you get
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a bunch of event people together that we all kind of
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struggle with similar things and being tired, just being
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exhausted is one of them. We're all being required to more
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with less. I feel like there's a lot of
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the, the idea that I just pulled off one of the best experiences
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for my client in my career and they high five
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me and said let's do it again next year for the same
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budget or you know, well, everything else is going up. How am
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I going to do that? How am I going to support that, that mandate?
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Well, first of all, you've got to take care of yourself. You got to take
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care of yourself. Another thing that I'm noticing is there's so
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many young people entering the industry or mid career switches coming
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back into the industry. It's something to look out for, look
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for opportunities to teach others. There are people that
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are wanting to know what you know. And if
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you thought when I said that, you know, I haven't done this long enough, I've
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only been doing this for a few years. Well, there's a lot of people a
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few years behind you that would love to know what you know now
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seek out those opportunities, seek out those people that are willing because
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there's a lot of great talent that are looking
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for people to share their experiences. And as I noticed
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noted before, this industry is full of people
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that love to partner, love to share. And so it's a, it's
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a great environment for young people to walk into or people that are
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mid career switching into our industry.
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An opportunity for you to share what you know and bring those
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people in. We need them, we need to replace those that
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walked away. Even Covid post Covid because of the
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things I'm talking about because of burnout. So let's take care of those young people,
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let's get them in the industry, get them excited about the industry.
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And the last thing is there is a lot of excitement
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for the future of events right now. Now I say that in an economic
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environment where we're not sure there's a bit of
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unease about what's going to happen just in the
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economy. But you know, our industry has faced that before.
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We've had ups and downs and you know, I think I have
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four distinct periods of time. I've been in this industry for
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decades. Four distinct down periods that
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our industry gets through. We march on through and
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we keep, we keep rolling. But in spite of that, there's a lot of
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excitement for the future of events. A lot of cool technology
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coming out, but not just technology, the
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old fashioned ideas of, you know, you, you plug that technology with all the
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hard work that we always bring to projects and we can do some really
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cool things. And so that I, I sensed a lot of
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excitement for where we're going as an industry
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and where we're going to be in, you know, five, 10, 15 years.
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What will that look like? I think a lot of people are very excited about
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that. So that's encouraging to see. I'm a vis person, I like to
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think about things farther out and I feel like as a whole
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there is a lot of optimism of where we're going as
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an industry. So that was really cool to see. So those are my thoughts from
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WEC 2025 in St. Louis.
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I hope that you heard something in there that was encouraging to you.
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If you want to hear more episodes of the Event Pro show, go to the
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eventproshow.com if you need an AV
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provider, go to LEMG Live. We'd love to talk with you
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about your corporate event AV needs,
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but until then, we will see you on the next one. Thanks so much.
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The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG video
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by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by Prince
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Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG
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Live.