Transforming Blank Spaces: Christa Hovis Talks Event Process, Creativity, and Client Wins

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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 professionals.

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Well, thank you for joining us on another episode of the Event Pro Show.

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I am here with a fantastic, fantastic events professional

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and we're kind of on a run right now with talking to highly

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creative people. And it. I've said this before, but it is

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so funny to me that in corporate events, that's the world that

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I kind of play in. I run an event production

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company, kind of play in that world. And so many

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people are creative. They were former

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writers or, or actors or singers or

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musicians, and it's just so many creative people in our space. And I have another

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wonderful creative person today. Chris, I'm going to read your bio. Really, it's fine.

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Y. Okay. So our guest today is a seasoned event

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professional with a wealth of experience in planning, design and producing

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high profile corporate and social events. Over her extensive

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career, she's held leadership roles managing large teams and departments across

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industries, specializing in large scale events program

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management and process engineering. In 2002,

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Krista transitioned from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, founding

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Kristohova Special Events, and has become a trusted consultant for

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luxury events, galas and corporate clients

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worldwide. A passionate educator,

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she's developed an event planning and

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certification program at Greenville Technical College

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and among other things too, in helping inspire planners and

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entrepreneurs navigating the event industry. All

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right, I got through it, but welcome to the show, Krista Hobos. Thank you.

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Thank you. Glad to be here. Yeah. You've been on the list for a while.

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I told you before. You didn't know it. No, you were on the list for

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a while. You're a person that I, I knew we needed to talk to in

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the show. So thank you for being here. Yeah, thank you for having me again.

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It's great. So speaking of creativity,

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you. You are a creative person. Do you think that

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is one of the reasons why the corporate event space

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or events in general kind of spoke to you because

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of the creativity in you? Like, you saw that, that was an. Outlet for

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that, right? Absolutely. You mentioned process

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engineering and my background, my foundation is actually in industrial

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engineering and process engineering. And so in those worlds where

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you're trying to determine things, processes that need to be automated or to be

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manual, you have to be creative. You have to think, to use the terminology outside

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the bo and so that creativity in a

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very mundane way just overflowed when I had the opportunity to

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begin getting into events. So walking into a convention center

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where somebody would say, oh, I see. All I see is cement and,

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you know, poles that distract or columns that distract, you know, where I see

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a blank canvas. Right. You know, and so just meshing

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that together to be able to understand the logistics and the process and the creative

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side all just kind of happened for me as I started

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getting more and more into working on events. It's the creative

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part that I usually always start with and then, you know,

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roll it all up with the whole planning and production and logistical part of it.

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Right. I love that. I love that you start from that place because

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that's really, from an attendee standpoint, that's kind of what they walk away with.

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Right. They feel that creative energy that you put into it

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at the beginning. And I think a lot of times we jump ahead to like,

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okay, what's the. The budget? Yeah, let's go down all the lines. Exactly. And we

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can't do this, we can't do that. Everything's a checkbox. Right. That kind of kills

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the creativity in it. Exactly. And that's why I'm not always, I'll be honest, it's

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not like I want to do every event that's out there because there's plenty for

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us. But that's why sometimes I'm not a fit for everyone because some are

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just down the road, you know, how much is it, you know, what's it going

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to, you know, what's it going to take? Whatever. Versus truly exploring the possibilities

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of what the event can be. Right. And starting creatively and then

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scale as you need to, to get to that budget. So. So, you know, but

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that happens, you know, fewer times than often. But just sometimes there's just not.

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There may not be a fit. Right. For that opportunity project. Okay,

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well, I'm going to back up. I'm going to go way back. Okay. I'm going

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to ask you a question I like to ask everybody, but what is the first

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event that you can remember attending way back? It could be like as a

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child. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, that's the way back time machine

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for me. And I guess it's not so much an event, but an experience

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for me that really, I guess probably resonated. And it may

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sound corny now, but back then was actually going to Walt

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Disney World for the first time. And it was with the debut of the

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Tomorrowland and the whole futuristic of things that

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you Just hadn't even thought of and seeing it and the whole production and the

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lighting and the theming of the whole park. I think that stayed with me from.

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From a child and kind of came back as I got older and started

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getting involved in adults and. And branding and creativity and

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lighting and all that. Yeah. I grew up in Orlando,

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and so, like, no kid that I grew up with

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ever paid for tickets. It was back in the day when you had. You. If

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you knew someone, you could get walked in. Right, right. But heavy

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creative and execution. Yes. Over time, like,

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every day was executed perfectly. And so a lot of those people,

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as we grew up, ended up working, you know, at Walt Disney or becoming an

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imagineer or something like that. Right. Incredible place for creativity, for

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sure. Right. Hate I ruined that with knowing that or not knowing that you were

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in Orlando, but it. It was at the time. Yeah. I mean, again, they think

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of everything from the time you get there to the time you end, which is

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the life cycle of a, you know, of an event. It's the perfect event.

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Yes. Every day. Yes. From the time that you drive onto the property, like,

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and. And leave. It's. It's amazing. It is an amazing experience. So that.

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That was pretty impactful, huh? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yes. So from that. What was the

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first time that you. You went to something and you were like, I

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want to do this. This is what I want to do is a. Because there

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was. You had your pre. You had a career before this, and there

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was a transition that happened. Yeah. So I was very fortunate. We're

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recording today in Charlotte, North Carolina. And so if for

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people whether. Where you're listening, but we have a team called the Carolina Panthers

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here. Well, that. That dream for the Carolina Panthers started with Jerry Richardson. And

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Jerry Richardson was, I guess you could say, my first professional boss.

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My first job out of college was working with his company at the time,

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which had been Spartan Foods, then became TW Services,

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and then became Flagstar, which people may not know was based in

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Spartanburg, South Carolina, and was the headquarters for five global

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divisions. Hardee's one of the big buildings, the only big building.

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Hardee's, Denny's, Quincy's, El Pollo Loco Canteen and Volume Services,

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all those divisions. So you say, well, what does that have to do with anything?

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Well, for the first time, that one little town

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was the center point for all these huge general sessions, all

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these huge breakout meetings, all these huge product launches

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with Coca Cola. And so you were dealing with, like, infrastructure

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issues and stuff like, where am I going to put everybody where are. We going

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to do this? Well, but they were doing them and then. And if we didn't

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happen to Spartanburg, it would happen some other location. But this is when a,

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when an organization had their own internal travel department with buses,

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fleets, they had their own photography team, they had their own in house AV

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team. Here I am coming in, like, what is all this? And seeing these

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huge productions, not knowing at the time, and

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from everything from, you know, stockholder meetings to

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multi day corporate retreats with all these different divisions,

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that's what I got a taste of, that's what I got to experience. And then

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when it came time for me to go on my own

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down this path of entrepreneurship, what do I want to do? I want to do

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what I was a part of in that organization. And seeing all that

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and doing things like that. You caught the bug. Yeah. You caught the bug. Yes.

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And you have to love it. We have to love that bug for sure. Yeah.

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Yeah, you do. And I think there is this like

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this point in time that this story is a little similar to

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other people I've talked to where they're at a large org

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and they're having to figure out what hasn't been done before.

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They have to walk through that fire. And at the other end

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people either quit or they're like, I think I like this. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

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And it's just a personality type I think is what it comes down to. Yeah,

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yeah. You seem to be really passionate about education,

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the next generation people coming up in the industry, which is

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interesting to me because you had to kind

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of teach yourself a lot of these skills or do it do like a

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translation from skills you had. Yeah. To. To this industry,

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but now you're the one that can actually formalize some of that. So

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as an educator, what have you learned as you've taught the next

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generation of event professionals? What type of lessons have you learned? Oh, lessons,

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good. Well, I mean, I would say, you know, one of the biggest

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lessons I try to convey is, you know, you've got to always

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stay ahead of the game and keep yourself knowledgeable about what's going

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on within the industry that you want to work in. So knowing things such as

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back in the day when you said I had to learn things on my own,

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that's back when, you know, organizations such as iah, International

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Live Events Associations was just starting, MPI Carolinas

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or MPI was not that long, you know, in its duration. So we didn't

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have a lot of that foundation to go on. So we had to use what

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was there for that. And so it's always, you know,

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always be communicating or networking with those

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that do things either better than you do or

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do things in a way that you want to surround yourself and make

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them part of your. Your team, but also do the research.

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Often finds a lot of my students in the past, or even those that I

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mentor today, may not have done a lot of the necessary research in terms

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of what it takes to. To be in the business either on your own

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or just working as a. An event planner. You know, there's a lot

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of serious side to this. We're talking about, you know,

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emergency security, risk, risk

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management, and all those types of things. It's not just, you know, having

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people over to your house, but you still have to think about those things too.

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But it's just, you know, always making yourself,

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educating yourself, taking the time to do that for what it is, your passion or

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your professional job. Right. Y. So that's part of.

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In when you teach people, just showing that side of it too.

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Like, it's not just the fun side you can see, but there's another part of

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taking. You're. You're a steward of these attendees for the hours

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that they're there. It's up to you to make sure they're safe. Yeah. Yeah,

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that is a good point. I think that's something that you wouldn't naturally think about.

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No, absolutely. So it's kind of like you start seeing that.

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Yeah, one. One good emergency, and then you're like, oh, yeah, what

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is that? What's that plan? You're also very creative,

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though. So you and I were on a panel last year, and I remember.

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I don't remember the exact question. I wish I did, but I remember looking down

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going, oh, that was really creative. Like, your answer was like, really good. So

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that might have been the first time. Like, okay, she goes on the list. I

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want to. Want to talk to her a little bit more. But when you begin

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with. With designing an event for a client, maybe a new client,

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where do you start? Like, what are the questions that you're asking? Well,

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so a lot of times, again, there's.

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In this industry, there's a lot of a type personalities, which I'm one of those.

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So I have to really challenge myself to sit and listen to the client. But

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I really make it a per. Make it very purposeful to listen.

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And so I don't really have to ask a lot of questions. It's usually open

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to new questions about. You think about this event that you're wanting.

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Myself or My team and all of my vendor partners to help with.

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What do you see? How do you envision that, that running? How do you envision

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that working? And usually from there I'm picking up on,

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you know, what is their baseline of their expectations for,

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you know, decor, what their expectations are for, you know, the type of

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food, you know, I'm just listening to them, listen to them and I'm taking

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notes and usually that helps me know, like, you know, how much they

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know about the planning process, how much they know about maybe how

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things cost or don't cost, you know, which, you know, there's a level setting that

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I have to do there, but it's really trying to just

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listen and pick up on those cues that lets me know which

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direction I need to go to next in my questioning to help make

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sure that I have identified the key requirements to

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making that event successful for that client. Does that make sense?

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Yep. What

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if there was an example in your past of an event that you

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just, you feel like it checked all the boxes for

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you from creativity, where you, you did this with a client, you heard

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them and then you got, you were able to execute something and they were ecstatic

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about it. The guests loved it. It's just one of your favorite experiences.

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Oh, I thought you were going to trip me up and ask me when it

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didn't work. Well, that'll be next. Yeah. Well,

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I can give you a two for one then, because I'm going to come off

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a recent ex. I had the opportunity to work on several

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multiple projects here a couple months ago, and

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the output of the project was

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extraordinary. It was like, this is the first. I mean, these were the

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recurring themes. This is the first time we've ever had an event like this

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that was this great. This is the first time we've ever had, you know, this

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is the first. This is the best of all time we've been doing, you know,

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so you love hearing that. However, to get to that end point,

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it was a hard start at the beginning in terms of

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understanding requirements and understanding the

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gap. In terms of the internal team and teams that I was

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working with, there was different levels of understanding of what

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the event planning process is, how what your lead time needs to

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be in order to have a quality program, and then the

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impact of not having timely decisions and how that impacts your

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timeline from pricing, from planning, from staffing.

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So that part was I had to really, really

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take myself to a very new

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beginning or new level. Like, I hadn't been this, you know,

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I didn't realize how far of a gap in their understanding of the process for

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some of the team members was I had to really, you know, I was ready

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to jump in and just go versus not realizing I was gonna have to crank

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it down and stop and pause and really have to level set and educate of

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the impacts of. Of the project line. So it was a kind of bumpy start.

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So. But the outcome was tremendous and tremendous

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home runs on multiple levels that we did. So hopefully that was a

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two for one. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like that was uncomfortable.

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Yes. Yes. But there is a certain tolerance

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between the way that we want a client to

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be and the way that the reality it actually is. And I

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think the trick sometimes is figuring out when it's a true red flag.

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Exactly. Or it's just a new client relationship that you're trying to work through

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and how they work. Right. Because I don't know if they're. It's not always like

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this is right or wrong. Yes. You're just feeling how that's.

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That relationship is going to work. And so that can be challenging. Yes. And

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it's, it is hard to know when it's like when you put your foot down

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and say, like, hey, we can't. I can't. I can't do it. Now this is

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the line. Yeah. So that's a tough one. I'm glad that. Yes, it did. It

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did, it did. But that was the first time really. And the real. I pointed

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out as a. Because at first I was, I was questioning what am I doing

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wrong? Why, what. What am I. How am I impacting? And not that

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I wasn't, but what I did do wrong is,

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you know, realize that there was, there was a gap in understanding and I wasn't

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communicating that because I thought that the, the level set understanding

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of the team was, you know, up to the. I don't want to say up

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to the level in terms of where I was, but understood the.

264
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All the what happens next part. And I

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hadn't stopped. I hadn't stopped to explain that. And so

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again, so it was just much as my part as it was on the, on

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the team's, you know, side of. But we overcame. And again, like

268
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I said, multiple, multiple hits, multiple home runs on that.

269
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That's really interesting. I, I feel

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like a lot of times stopping and

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realizing that all, all service providers, I think in

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events especially a lot of service providers are consultants. You know,

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you're not. We're not used car sales people here. We're not trying to

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upsell you. Nope. We're Trying to be a consultant and having to

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pull people through a process, you're educating them along the way.

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Right. And so it's a constant, like, we need to do it, but

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I also need to be your guide in this, you know, and that's, that's. Yeah.

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And that's, that's the title. When my counter asks what my title is

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as chief Event Consultant, I work with a lot of companies, either

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don't have an existing event base or they need

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more tenured expert and experience. So, yeah, I've been

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a consultant my entire career before events, and now I just

283
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continued on that pathway. Because you're. You're exactly right. We're providing counsel

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and consult on what, what the best practices are for the event.

285
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Okay. I'm going to ask you. Okay. Because I've seen this happen over and over.

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So as a client, if somebody's listening right now, they're like, look,

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we have our first event, we're bringing in 200 people from

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wherever, and we're going to go to Phoenix and my

289
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assistant is just going to plan the whole thing. They don't

290
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ever do events, but they're pretty organized. They're going to do a great job.

291
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What would you say to that person? How would you counsel them?

292
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So my counsel would be when your assistant

293
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is booking that flight to go, well, first of all, is she doing a site

294
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visit? And if she is, if you're wanting to contract me to

295
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do that, I'll. I'll pay for my own ticket to go with her on that

296
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site visit to make sure that we have everything

297
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that we need to. That there's eyes and ears on the ground when you're citing

298
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that location to make sure that it's going to work for. From an AV

299
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perspective, from an F and B perspective,

300
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that would be my initial response because I, I want to be able to be

301
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in there to see it from the beginning to the end before they contract as

302
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well. If that's not the opportunity, then I would say, well, my counsel

303
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would be for something as important as this event for you in a destination

304
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where it's not here in your, in your city where you're based, I

305
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would recommend you probably would want to bring somebody in that has the

306
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knowledge level that you need to match the investment level that you're going to

307
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invest for an event to this caliber. Right. And so.

308
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And the reason why you say that is, is talk about what you've seen where

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people have decided not to hire a consultant like yourself

310
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and they have just used an employee that's day job is something totally different.

311
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And they're already over taxed out the gate. You know that that's number one. But

312
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how have you seen that kind of that. That train go down the tracks?

313
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Yeah. So unfortunately it still happens so much

314
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:19,040
right now today. I've had many recent projects that I've

315
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worked on where that is exactly the case. And

316
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so again, being the consultant that I am and obviously being

317
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the professional and, and what you guys do, you always tend to give a little

318
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bit more to that you work on even though you may not charge them because

319
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you know in the end it's about the end product and the relationship that you

320
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build with that client. So something that I recently did because it was

321
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that very scenario where there were multiple people that were not

322
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responsible for events, that had to plan events.

323
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It was not their forte at all. They didn't know they hadn't.

324
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They, you know, they don't know about vetting vendors, they don't know who

325
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are the best to reach out to, but they're doing what they're supposed to do

326
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just to check it off the list. So those events went ahead and were executed

327
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and they were fine. But at the end of my project that I was working

328
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on, when I didn't get to get those other events, I just wrote

329
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up kind of like as a nice thank you. Here's a kind of overview

330
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from what I saw of how, whether it's me helping

331
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you in the future or your own team, of how you need to best streamline

332
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and think about these events that you're assigning to people that are not experts

333
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and how they. Here are some best practices and here are some cheat sheets

334
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that you can share with the team on how they can.

335
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If they're going to have to do these events and you're not going to bring

336
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in somebody else to do them that knows how to do them, then here are

337
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some things that they need to be aware of so that you guys aren't leaving

338
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anything on the table as far as money and you also aren't bringing in

339
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folks that may jeopardize or impact your business

340
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in a negative way. So, so that's how I handled

341
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it when I didn't get the project. But fortunately in this case I was working

342
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another one. But. And even the times when I, when

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I don't have a project that I'm working on, I still try to provide some

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feedback to say, hey, if they're going to do it, here's some things they need

345
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to keep in mind. And then now I have had situations where they say, okay,

346
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bye Krista, we're going to get, you know, Sally or Joe to start working on

347
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this. And then about six weeks later, I get a phone call or a text

348
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and they say, you know, Krista, could we have you come back

349
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in? You know, so I've had that situation too, you know, so. But my thing

350
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is, you know, if I see a train wreck happening in the midst as

351
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it's being described, I try to put offer, you know, consulting

352
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advice to help their organization. Right. I just have seen it so

353
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often and I'm like, I really wish you would just hire

354
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someone like Krista. Yeah. Because this would be so much smoother and the

355
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apparent savings that you're doing, actually they will probably save you

356
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money. In the long run. I will tell you one thing that I am seeing

357
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more and more and I don't know about in Charlotte. I do travel a lot,

358
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but I am seeing in other cities is where particularly venues. And you

359
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may see this for the venues that y' all do. More and more are providing

360
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that you have a professional planner in the mix before they will book your

361
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event. So I've been glad to see that, that part of

362
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,920
it. So I'm seeing that more and more when I go to other cities. Right.

363
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Because they're tired of having events that. Aren'T exactly and

364
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,120
don't know what they're doing. So that, that's a good trend to have.

365
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:20,040
All right, I'm going to switch gears here. I'm gonna

366
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ask you a few random questions here. Are there any

367
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,280
emerging technologies in the event space that you're excited about and that could be on.

368
00:22:28,850 --> 00:22:32,490
Not just, you know, I think of AV all the time. There's other technologies as

369
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far as registration, ticket managing people through the space

370
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data, all sorts of stuff. So is there anything that you're seeing right now that

371
00:22:39,730 --> 00:22:43,250
is interesting to you? Yeah, I mean, so,

372
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you know, everybody's talking about AI and in some cases

373
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people are tired of it. I'm, you know, I get kind

374
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of nauseated. Listen, not, not hearing about it, but it's

375
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sometimes when it's the only thing. But it is a good tool. I, I,

376
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I use it for my event design. I actually was using it yesterday, an

377
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event design concept that I'm going to be presenting tomorrow.

378
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So for, so for some of the chat, GTP or some of the

379
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other where you have to have a subscription to purchase.

380
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So I don't see that going away. I had another. Someone

381
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asked me the other day and said, well, do you see the event industry Being

382
00:23:22,060 --> 00:23:25,860
impacted by AI, I said, if anything, I only see the

383
00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:29,560
technology helping all of us, you know, from a vetting

384
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,440
contracts, I use it to help either improve contracts when I'm

385
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,520
sourcing locations and venues or F and B.

386
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So I see it helping. I haven't seen it hindering that much unless it gets

387
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into the back, back of the house and the, the catering side where

388
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,960
it's, you know, maybe taking jobs that way. Right. So I only see it being

389
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,800
positive. So to answer your question, I

390
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,440
see that for the, the distance technology

391
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,880
has made as it relates to events in the last, say 10 years

392
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:02,400
to now with customization with

393
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:06,240
applications, with, you know, AI, I only see

394
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,600
that magnifying, amplifying and just

395
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,960
growing so fast, but in a much smaller time.

396
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:17,320
So what you see today are applications, you know, that used to be just

397
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:21,160
for registration, but now the registrations are getting to where you can do so

398
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,960
much more customization with them. Different platforms for booking

399
00:24:25,180 --> 00:24:28,900
flights. I don't book flights for my clients, but I have to, I try

400
00:24:28,900 --> 00:24:31,780
to stay in the mix of platforms that are out there when they don't have

401
00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:35,260
their own travel department to book their flights. So the

402
00:24:35,420 --> 00:24:38,860
ease, easiness of some of these platforms that are out there,

403
00:24:39,020 --> 00:24:42,860
I'll introduce them to the, to the, to the product

404
00:24:42,860 --> 00:24:46,420
and then, you know, create conversations with the

405
00:24:46,420 --> 00:24:50,020
vendor and supplier to help because that only helps them, but it

406
00:24:50,020 --> 00:24:53,820
helps me to help streamline the rest of the production for the event. Right.

407
00:24:53,900 --> 00:24:57,720
So everything is getting better. And, and the good news is, is

408
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,400
like I won't name any names, but there's some big platforms out there

409
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,160
that used to be the only one out there and now they're not the only

410
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:07,920
one out there because. And so what that's forced the big players to do

411
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,560
is to then create their own little subcategory products that.

412
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,520
Now you may not want to spend all this money, but we may have a,

413
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,440
an event in a day box type product that we can give you for

414
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:22,240
things. So it's making things a little bit more affordable for clients that don't

415
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,800
want to purchase a whole license to have this platform of this

416
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,580
application. Does that make sense? You know, for there and only getting better

417
00:25:29,580 --> 00:25:32,660
is what I see it, I see happening from that. It's a little bit of

418
00:25:32,660 --> 00:25:36,020
a wild west right now, especially in the software space, AI space.

419
00:25:36,500 --> 00:25:40,300
But I agree, I think that especially referring to AI, it comes up

420
00:25:40,300 --> 00:25:44,020
a lot, but really it's just being integrated in a lot of creative ways

421
00:25:44,020 --> 00:25:47,620
people are finding how to actually take the novelty of it and have

422
00:25:47,620 --> 00:25:51,380
useful applications. And where I've seen it lately be really

423
00:25:51,380 --> 00:25:54,900
cool is you already like your creative person. You have maybe a

424
00:25:54,900 --> 00:25:58,640
structure and then you can use AI to kind of flesh it out. So

425
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,320
it's not like, you know, you're do

426
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:06,160
my job like that, it's that it, it just kind of takes

427
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,880
what you're doing and fleshes it out. Exactly. And that's really cool to me because

428
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:13,440
it speeds things up. It is an original concept, but

429
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,160
it's helping you do your job faster. Yeah. Well, and also technology as it

430
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,640
relates to and I'm sure you could talk for volumes on how it's impacted, you

431
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,680
know, the products that you can offer from an AV perspective. I mean what used

432
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:27,470
to be, you know, this big in, you know, you know,

433
00:26:27,470 --> 00:26:30,270
footprint that it takes up is, you know, smaller and you get way more out

434
00:26:30,270 --> 00:26:33,870
of it. You know, those types of things have just been incredible and only see

435
00:26:33,870 --> 00:26:37,470
that just getting faster and bigger and better as well.

436
00:26:37,470 --> 00:26:41,150
That's right. Yeah. More efficient. You can do more with less.

437
00:26:41,150 --> 00:26:44,990
Yes. Which is great for everybody. I believe it's great for everybody because I

438
00:26:44,990 --> 00:26:48,670
think in the, in the world that is so social media

439
00:26:48,670 --> 00:26:52,250
connected, there's still the reason why we do what we do. People still

440
00:26:52,410 --> 00:26:56,170
need to get together. Yeah. Like that's why we do this. Yes. But

441
00:26:56,170 --> 00:26:58,890
I think things are becoming niches where

442
00:26:59,690 --> 00:27:03,450
like you can talk to everyone in the world at the

443
00:27:03,450 --> 00:27:06,969
same time. Yes. But that's. Nobody will listen. But you can create

444
00:27:06,969 --> 00:27:10,570
events for smaller and smaller specialties and kind of find your

445
00:27:10,570 --> 00:27:14,410
community, find your people and because of that you need to do it really efficiently

446
00:27:14,410 --> 00:27:17,050
as a planner and you can do it with these tools. I mean you could

447
00:27:17,050 --> 00:27:20,650
be a one person shop and you could put together a whole beautiful event. That's

448
00:27:20,650 --> 00:27:22,890
cool. That's really cool for everybody. Everybody.

449
00:27:24,470 --> 00:27:28,230
So as far as creative event ideas, you know, you would be the person

450
00:27:28,230 --> 00:27:32,030
I call, you'd be the person I text, whatever. Hey, I need some

451
00:27:32,030 --> 00:27:35,670
creative ideas like what are some cool things you've seen lately or you've done

452
00:27:35,670 --> 00:27:39,030
that are like, that you're excited about in your events.

453
00:27:40,630 --> 00:27:44,390
Creative. That's a good question. I hate to be specific,

454
00:27:44,390 --> 00:27:48,230
but my mind creatively is in a, in a. Where I'm focused

455
00:27:48,230 --> 00:27:51,990
on one project I'm about to present tomorrow and I don't. Want

456
00:27:51,990 --> 00:27:55,610
to take any secrets. No, no, it's not secrets, but it's like it may not

457
00:27:55,610 --> 00:27:59,250
be applicable to, to others. But what I'm trying to do in this particular

458
00:27:59,410 --> 00:28:02,970
scenario, again I do stay rather out in

459
00:28:02,970 --> 00:28:06,690
the, in the industry networking and keeping myself abreast

460
00:28:06,690 --> 00:28:10,490
of what other companies and organizations are doing for their conventions and

461
00:28:10,490 --> 00:28:14,330
their conferences. So I'm actually working with.

462
00:28:14,330 --> 00:28:17,970
So what I'm excited about because that's the thing as a creative, you have to

463
00:28:17,970 --> 00:28:21,490
get excited. And if you're excited when you deliver those creative ideas,

464
00:28:22,210 --> 00:28:25,820
the end client that picks up on that and they get excited. You know, they

465
00:28:25,820 --> 00:28:29,460
see the vision. So right now I have a client that you were

466
00:28:29,460 --> 00:28:32,540
talking about. You know, since COVID

467
00:28:33,500 --> 00:28:37,300
you were talking about live events and in

468
00:28:37,300 --> 00:28:39,100
person events. Well, since COVID

469
00:28:40,700 --> 00:28:44,500
probably all of my events now are all live. I don't even, I

470
00:28:44,500 --> 00:28:48,140
have maybe rarely any that are hybrid anymore. All of them are in person.

471
00:28:48,700 --> 00:28:52,260
And so each client like the one I'm getting ready to present to some creative

472
00:28:52,260 --> 00:28:55,720
ideas on this is their first time really doing a

473
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,080
larger scale conference. And so I'm like,

474
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,160
I'm trying to introduce. Just because you've always done a conference this way,

475
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:07,240
there's new and newer things and new concepts for you to

476
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,600
do when you start thinking about bringing in 500 people for five days or four

477
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,880
days. So I'm excited about introducing them to.

478
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,800
Nothing against general sessions. I love a general sessions

479
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,210
as much as you do. But for me it's,

480
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,800
it's those creating those smaller micro sessions

481
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,880
that they've never done in a creative and branded way

482
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,960
to think about their delivery that's short and concise because their

483
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,720
attendees are at a different age, attendees want different

484
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,400
things. And so creating those different concepts

485
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:44,840
as well as unique experiences that they've never done. So for

486
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:48,560
example, this is something that I'm proposing

487
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,840
for them is that when their attendees land, they're mostly all female.

488
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,220
They will be picked up and they'll be greeted. Ah, not so, not so different.

489
00:29:56,540 --> 00:30:00,180
But when they get on the bus, the bus will be branded.

490
00:30:00,180 --> 00:30:03,940
They'll have their little welcome branded snack so that

491
00:30:03,940 --> 00:30:07,740
they. Because if they've just gotten off where they can includes their wipe

492
00:30:07,740 --> 00:30:10,460
and their, you know, everything that they can do. But then when they land at

493
00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:13,820
the hotel, they're going to go into a. They'll check, they don't have to go

494
00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:17,660
to the front desk. They'll go straight to a gifting lounge where there'll be

495
00:30:17,660 --> 00:30:20,860
someone that will offer a massage chair. Massage

496
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,800
fresh, you know, champagne popped for them and they'll get to pick out the gift

497
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,840
that they want to be able to take back with them. And then once they

498
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:31,680
get up to the room, there'll be flowers beside their bed. Those

499
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,480
don't sound like new, new things, but it's new things that those clients have never

500
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:39,320
done before that, that you can then take and expand upon. So those

501
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,920
are just some touches. But then there's other ideas that I love it I can

502
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,120
add on to that as well. But those are just from a conference perspective. My

503
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,670
brain is there at the moment. Moment. So you got to follow me on my

504
00:30:48,670 --> 00:30:52,510
little logic here. So when I've always thought that like, okay, so if you

505
00:30:52,510 --> 00:30:55,350
hear a song, if it's a well written song,

506
00:30:56,310 --> 00:31:00,150
no people connect with it. No one's thinking of what that,

507
00:31:00,230 --> 00:31:03,950
what microphone they used or what technology they use to record it

508
00:31:03,950 --> 00:31:07,430
with. It's just a good song. And with your idea,

509
00:31:07,510 --> 00:31:10,990
like you can talk about high tech and low tech ideas. I think

510
00:31:10,990 --> 00:31:14,700
conversation right now is a lot of like we were just talking about AI

511
00:31:14,860 --> 00:31:18,700
software, latest gear, blah, blah, blah. But

512
00:31:18,700 --> 00:31:22,380
using a low tech. And what I mean by that is this is just using

513
00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:26,140
creativity and delivering something with the same tools in a different

514
00:31:26,140 --> 00:31:29,620
way. Right. It's the same thing as like a good song is a good song,

515
00:31:29,620 --> 00:31:33,460
a good idea is a good idea. It's not about the tech every time. So

516
00:31:33,460 --> 00:31:36,700
there's still such a need when you're planning an event

517
00:31:37,100 --> 00:31:40,530
or doing events to just use creativity.

518
00:31:40,530 --> 00:31:44,210
Exactly. And then take the risk, you know, take the risk and do it, put

519
00:31:44,210 --> 00:31:47,810
it out there. I think people connect with. There's something magical when people just get

520
00:31:47,810 --> 00:31:51,370
in a room and you can just have like a new way of formatting. And

521
00:31:51,370 --> 00:31:55,130
I like your idea of the micro session. Such a cool idea. Again,

522
00:31:55,530 --> 00:31:58,810
it's just creativity. Yeah. There's no, there's nothing different.

523
00:31:59,050 --> 00:32:02,610
Like technology didn't just come out where you're like, we can do micro events.

524
00:32:02,610 --> 00:32:06,130
Yes. We could have done that a long time ago. You're just reformatting it in

525
00:32:06,130 --> 00:32:09,830
a creative way. And I love that. I think that's, that that's part of like

526
00:32:09,910 --> 00:32:13,630
the magic of what you do. Right. Technology is a tool. Yeah. But

527
00:32:13,630 --> 00:32:17,310
it's not everything. Well, and I'll just finish by saying the second phase of that

528
00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:20,750
is their theme is yesterday, today and

529
00:32:20,750 --> 00:32:24,430
tomorrow. But the other second theme that I'm having to work off

530
00:32:24,430 --> 00:32:28,150
of is today is tomorrow. So their opening night event

531
00:32:28,150 --> 00:32:31,070
is all going to be about the future. They're going to experience the future with

532
00:32:31,070 --> 00:32:34,550
all different types of futuristic experiences, activations.

533
00:32:35,270 --> 00:32:38,790
Their next day it's going to be about yesterday where we're going to take them

534
00:32:38,790 --> 00:32:42,470
back to an old event off premise that's all

535
00:32:42,470 --> 00:32:46,110
about old, where it was maybe done in the 1800s and did things certain

536
00:32:46,110 --> 00:32:49,830
ways and then they come back and then it's about today and

537
00:32:49,830 --> 00:32:53,670
we'll be doing an event that's all around the current times. But you know,

538
00:32:53,670 --> 00:32:56,990
so we're tying all that in together, back to their brand, telling their story

539
00:32:57,230 --> 00:33:00,870
and then doing all these little nuances with AV and, and

540
00:33:00,870 --> 00:33:04,630
entertainment and food and beverage to tie all those events together. Right?

541
00:33:04,630 --> 00:33:08,240
Yeah. Love it. So very high level. Well,

542
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,600
I'd buy it, I'd buy it. I'd buy the plan.

543
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,240
Well, real quick, you, you talked a little bit at the beginning about

544
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:19,760
risk mitigation. So if you were explaining to someone

545
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,360
or teaching, mentoring someone, what would be the first steps to developing a great

546
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,520
risk mitigation plan for an event? Right.

547
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:31,000
So again, I think we talked off, off camera

548
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,790
and off radio about my certifications and

549
00:33:34,790 --> 00:33:38,510
so as project management, certified project management, you know, you need to know how to

550
00:33:38,510 --> 00:33:42,310
make a project plan. There's a lot of I, I try

551
00:33:42,310 --> 00:33:46,070
to tell people that I am mentoring or former

552
00:33:46,070 --> 00:33:49,830
students that if you can go and you know, take become a

553
00:33:49,830 --> 00:33:53,190
csep, they have a whole section on risk mitigation. You know, what are the best

554
00:33:53,190 --> 00:33:56,830
practices that you should, you should do. In my old days, we did it

555
00:33:56,830 --> 00:34:00,430
in quality assurance and process control and

556
00:34:00,430 --> 00:34:04,110
how to mitigate. So I merged all those together. So

557
00:34:04,110 --> 00:34:06,550
for me, you know, I try to explain, you have to start from the very

558
00:34:06,550 --> 00:34:10,350
beginning. Whatever type of event it is, you have to start. The

559
00:34:10,350 --> 00:34:14,150
fun stuff's there, the pretty stuff's there. But seriously, you have to always be

560
00:34:14,150 --> 00:34:17,830
thinking about the safe safety and risk that can happen with your

561
00:34:17,830 --> 00:34:21,630
event. Yeah. So for me, I just came off of doing an incentive that was

562
00:34:21,630 --> 00:34:25,270
in another country. So from the very beginning, before I started that project,

563
00:34:25,270 --> 00:34:28,510
I'm already having to work with the state departments to see if there are any

564
00:34:28,510 --> 00:34:32,150
travel alerts for that destination before we select that destination.

565
00:34:32,150 --> 00:34:35,800
And then once we're getting close to that, how soon are there

566
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,520
anything impacting that we need to make our travelers aware of once they get there?

567
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,120
And then coming back to an on site event, you know, general sessions, if I'm

568
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,720
looking at that convention center, you know, I'm part of my, my pre

569
00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:50,440
meetings, my site meetings that I'm meeting at the convention center, I'm meeting with

570
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,080
the, the head of security, I'm meeting with the head that works

571
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:57,880
interacts with the city to understand if there's anything that's going on or anything that

572
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,520
we need to be aware of from our programs, anything that we need to

573
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:05,160
mitigate in terms of setup, you know, how many making

574
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,620
sure that we have for any impaired or

575
00:35:08,780 --> 00:35:12,620
physically challenged folks with, you know, when we're setting up things. So

576
00:35:12,620 --> 00:35:16,380
those are just some very tiny, tiny examples. But

577
00:35:16,380 --> 00:35:20,020
the point is you have to always be thinking about it in the background

578
00:35:20,020 --> 00:35:23,860
as well as incorporating the what if scenarios as part

579
00:35:23,860 --> 00:35:27,500
of your project plan. Once you're on site, from your production schedule to your

580
00:35:27,580 --> 00:35:31,100
run of shows of what you would do, who are you going to contact?

581
00:35:31,500 --> 00:35:34,140
Who's your first point of contact when you need to

582
00:35:34,690 --> 00:35:38,290
communicate, whatever that may be. And is this,

583
00:35:38,610 --> 00:35:42,290
once you develop that, do you deliver it to the client? It's like an actual

584
00:35:42,290 --> 00:35:45,850
deliverable. You say this is, this is the strategy for risk

585
00:35:45,850 --> 00:35:49,570
mitigation or how do you make it known to the team? Yeah, so.

586
00:35:49,570 --> 00:35:52,850
Well, so that's two things there. Sometimes the client does not ask for it and

587
00:35:52,850 --> 00:35:56,330
usually they don't. They're assuming that if they're contracting you and your vendors and your

588
00:35:56,330 --> 00:35:59,570
suppliers that, you know, you've been vetted and you know how to

589
00:35:59,810 --> 00:36:03,510
operate that. So if it's on site at a convention, you know, you're working

590
00:36:03,510 --> 00:36:07,310
that infrastructure as it goes from the procedure internally between

591
00:36:07,310 --> 00:36:10,550
your team and them. If you're at a hotel, same thing. You're working

592
00:36:10,950 --> 00:36:14,790
with operations and security and things like that. So you know what the level

593
00:36:14,870 --> 00:36:18,510
is. You communicate it and then you communicate it with your team prior to and

594
00:36:18,510 --> 00:36:22,270
on site. So in case of emergency, you know, we've contact this person

595
00:36:22,270 --> 00:36:26,110
or whatever that it is on site, the client. I've only had

596
00:36:26,110 --> 00:36:29,710
a few probably in the pharma industry, it depends maybe on industry, where

597
00:36:29,710 --> 00:36:32,790
or where it is that we're doing something where they actually may want to see

598
00:36:32,950 --> 00:36:36,690
an actual security alert process that, that I would work with the

599
00:36:36,690 --> 00:36:40,530
vendor on to present that to them. But, but you have to always

600
00:36:40,610 --> 00:36:44,050
account for it and, and plan for it. And then as far as

601
00:36:44,050 --> 00:36:47,530
communicating again with the team, usually on site at your

602
00:36:47,530 --> 00:36:51,090
convention centers where you're further apart. I mean, everything from apps to,

603
00:36:51,170 --> 00:36:54,130
you know, cell phones or, you know, we're on the headset and we've got a

604
00:36:54,130 --> 00:36:57,850
different channel that, you know, channel three is for emergency only. And it goes

605
00:36:57,850 --> 00:37:01,250
straight to security, it goes straight to this person or this person.

606
00:37:01,490 --> 00:37:05,170
And usually we've communicated that before the event and then if

607
00:37:05,170 --> 00:37:08,710
there's anything we need to be aware of as we're getting ready to

608
00:37:08,710 --> 00:37:12,430
execute for the day. So that's such a big,

609
00:37:12,430 --> 00:37:16,230
that's such a big topic, even on a, I

610
00:37:16,230 --> 00:37:19,910
mean Even on a social note, I'll just elaborate for those that are

611
00:37:19,910 --> 00:37:23,590
maybe listening that maybe just plan social events, you

612
00:37:23,590 --> 00:37:27,430
know, to tell you it's real. Some of my colleagues

613
00:37:27,430 --> 00:37:30,670
know this, but unfortunately never want it happened to anybody else. But I had a

614
00:37:30,670 --> 00:37:34,500
very large high profile wedding that I had

615
00:37:34,500 --> 00:37:37,940
planned, was planning and producing for 600 people destination

616
00:37:38,580 --> 00:37:42,260
and literally less than 24 hours before

617
00:37:42,260 --> 00:37:45,780
the actual wedding event was to take place on this property,

618
00:37:47,140 --> 00:37:50,860
a large portion of the wedding party were killed in a car

619
00:37:50,860 --> 00:37:54,700
rash car crash less than 100 yards from the event location. As we were

620
00:37:54,700 --> 00:37:58,380
doing the sound check with AV and the sound check with the van and had

621
00:37:58,380 --> 00:38:01,980
turned down, done a final check with the lighting, we were informed and so

622
00:38:01,980 --> 00:38:05,750
literally our event site site turned into a triage and a collection

623
00:38:05,750 --> 00:38:09,310
site for items from the crash. So you talk about having a plan

624
00:38:09,630 --> 00:38:13,350
and communicating and having to communicate to 600 people that were showing up that didn't

625
00:38:13,350 --> 00:38:16,710
know that this had happened when they're showing up for the wedding. So again, it's

626
00:38:16,710 --> 00:38:20,470
not just corporate events, it's not just conventions. Things can happen and you have

627
00:38:20,470 --> 00:38:24,310
to have that. What do you do in case of always in the

628
00:38:24,310 --> 00:38:27,990
back of your mind as well as some type of documented plan that you can

629
00:38:27,990 --> 00:38:31,220
share with your team before you do an event event. Anytime you have a large

630
00:38:31,220 --> 00:38:34,140
group of people together. Exactly. Right. Yeah.

631
00:38:35,100 --> 00:38:38,740
Well, that's awful. I know. And then things happen. But you were prepared. Yeah,

632
00:38:38,740 --> 00:38:41,980
yeah. And, and a lot of that came into play with the project planning and,

633
00:38:41,980 --> 00:38:45,779
and com head and then having the right vendors that you can

634
00:38:45,779 --> 00:38:49,500
communicate and talk to that have been part of your, your team and coming

635
00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:52,340
up with a plan and working with, you know, of course in that case was

636
00:38:52,340 --> 00:38:55,980
the officials and the, you know, highway patrol and everything like that for the

637
00:38:55,980 --> 00:38:59,650
event. So they ended up being a long time client of mine that I've

638
00:38:59,650 --> 00:39:03,370
been in touch with since then. So. So, but yeah, so. But again,

639
00:39:03,530 --> 00:39:07,370
social, corporate or whatever, large crowds or even small crowds,

640
00:39:07,370 --> 00:39:09,610
you have to be prepared and have that in the back of your mind. Very.

641
00:39:09,850 --> 00:39:13,450
So that's the downer part. But it's, it's the important part. Right?

642
00:39:14,170 --> 00:39:18,010
It's the downer part. Accepting that that kind of stuff happens. If you don't

643
00:39:18,010 --> 00:39:21,130
have a plan. That would be the real downer part. Yes. Yeah.

644
00:39:22,090 --> 00:39:25,850
And I'm sure that's why you have a long term client there. So

645
00:39:25,850 --> 00:39:29,440
a question that comes up often or you know, there. There are some

646
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,000
challenging venues in the country geographically.

647
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,800
There's some places that are kind of known as like challenging places to

648
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:40,600
be. But how do you create win wins in

649
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:44,440
venues with challenging rules? So like for example in house AV or food and

650
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,080
beverage minimums or load in time restrictions or union expectations,

651
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,520
you know, these types of things. So how do you, how do you manage that

652
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,160
and how do you create win wins instead of just telling your client

653
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,900
we're avoiding it. So now Seth, remember you're

654
00:39:58,900 --> 00:40:02,500
talking to a creative person. So having limitations is really hard for a creative

655
00:40:02,500 --> 00:40:06,020
person to have to deal with. So, so I say that in

656
00:40:06,020 --> 00:40:09,820
Jess, but at the same time oftentimes that's why when

657
00:40:09,820 --> 00:40:13,620
I propose event, full service event production, not

658
00:40:13,620 --> 00:40:17,340
in the sense of av, but from soup to nuts, I always try to

659
00:40:17,660 --> 00:40:20,940
request that I'm the one selecting the location for the client

660
00:40:22,620 --> 00:40:26,460
because I want to go cite that to see

661
00:40:26,940 --> 00:40:30,300
what are those things that may make us make the decision that we're not going

662
00:40:30,300 --> 00:40:33,980
to go there. So that's first and foremost. So if, if I'm identifying those

663
00:40:33,980 --> 00:40:37,779
things because we know what union can impact budget, you know, and we

664
00:40:37,779 --> 00:40:41,620
know when there's minimums that are, you know, beyond budget. So as

665
00:40:41,620 --> 00:40:44,460
soon as you can notify that then that's going to help take that off the

666
00:40:44,460 --> 00:40:48,100
list. So sight unseen is not a best practice and I discourage that

667
00:40:48,100 --> 00:40:50,900
from, from clients. So being able to get into that and take that one off

668
00:40:50,900 --> 00:40:54,680
the list, that's easy. But when you're hand and you have that,

669
00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:00,360
if the contract hasn't been negotiated yet on all those different elements

670
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,720
because you know, like for a convention it's you're dealing with not usually most cases,

671
00:41:03,720 --> 00:41:07,320
not just one, you're dealing with multiple including AV and

672
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:11,160
everybody else security, there's a contract. So for the fmb, when they're

673
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,840
not, when their minimums are higher, you know,

674
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,280
that's where, if there's still room for negotiations where you can,

675
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,410
you know, know, cut this, minimize that, you know, before you go to

676
00:41:22,410 --> 00:41:25,850
contract, you know, that's, that's one way to create a win win where they're still

677
00:41:25,850 --> 00:41:29,090
making money and you're still trying to, to please the the client.

678
00:41:30,290 --> 00:41:34,010
You know, when there's load in restrictions, you know, you're trying

679
00:41:34,010 --> 00:41:37,130
to work with all of your vendors that have the box trucks that need the

680
00:41:37,130 --> 00:41:40,810
same slots to get in and working with the dock manager and working with them

681
00:41:40,810 --> 00:41:44,290
with what those solutions are. So maybe they're like, well, you know, again and that's

682
00:41:44,290 --> 00:41:47,130
where you got to treat people equal and make them your friend because they're are

683
00:41:47,130 --> 00:41:50,550
part, all a part of your event. When you're working event. So, so that

684
00:41:50,550 --> 00:41:54,390
Dockmaster who's there every day, he may say, hey Krista, I can't

685
00:41:54,390 --> 00:41:57,790
get all of your, your slots in at 6 o', clock, but I can

686
00:41:57,950 --> 00:42:01,350
stage them over there and they can cart over, you know, start carting over the

687
00:42:01,350 --> 00:42:04,470
smaller stuff, you know, so try to make it a win win to where it's

688
00:42:04,470 --> 00:42:08,070
still meeting my timeline and it's still helping to meet the vendors

689
00:42:08,070 --> 00:42:10,110
timeline when those things come up.

690
00:42:11,710 --> 00:42:15,510
So, and then the decorations and things like that. So that's where

691
00:42:15,510 --> 00:42:18,590
you know, when you're limited and they have like, you can't, you can't do the

692
00:42:18,590 --> 00:42:22,410
confetti cannons, you know, and the client really wanted the confetti cannons last

693
00:42:22,410 --> 00:42:25,450
cue when they announce, you know, well, what are the other, you know, what are

694
00:42:25,450 --> 00:42:28,610
the other alternatives that they'll go with? And so normally that's where I get with

695
00:42:28,610 --> 00:42:32,210
my AV partners and say, okay, we can't do the confetti, but what can you

696
00:42:32,210 --> 00:42:35,690
do? And lo and behold, they're going to come up with a wonderful solution to,

697
00:42:35,690 --> 00:42:39,490
you know, project something on the screens or do something there. So that's

698
00:42:39,490 --> 00:42:42,770
where you can make it a win win for, you know, in those, in those

699
00:42:42,770 --> 00:42:46,570
scenarios. But otherwise just try to avoid those and identify those things

700
00:42:46,570 --> 00:42:50,210
in the site. So exciting process. So if you can't do

701
00:42:50,210 --> 00:42:54,010
that, you're, you're getting in there trying to work on the. Yes. Contract. You're treating

702
00:42:54,010 --> 00:42:57,570
people like people. Yes. Shocking. I know.

703
00:42:57,650 --> 00:43:01,170
And you have good partners. Yeah. And hopefully maybe long term

704
00:43:01,170 --> 00:43:04,450
partners that you just have relationships, you help each other long term. That's the key

705
00:43:04,450 --> 00:43:08,130
in treating everybody as part of the team. I, I agree, I agree. That's

706
00:43:08,130 --> 00:43:11,650
the, that's the key to all of this. And I, I think that

707
00:43:11,890 --> 00:43:15,690
every success, the more successful events I see, the, the better the

708
00:43:15,690 --> 00:43:19,380
relationships. You know, you, it is a relationship business business. I don't

709
00:43:19,380 --> 00:43:23,140
think that's just unique to North Carolina. I agree. I think that's

710
00:43:23,140 --> 00:43:26,220
just how humans work. They buy things from people that they like and

711
00:43:26,860 --> 00:43:30,180
that help. And so that goes back to you said, you know, a lot of

712
00:43:30,180 --> 00:43:33,980
us will give even more even if a client's not gonna. That, that comes from

713
00:43:33,980 --> 00:43:37,620
like this intuitive thing of like, you know, sometimes it comes back to you,

714
00:43:37,620 --> 00:43:41,180
but either way you just kind of wish people success, you know, and,

715
00:43:41,420 --> 00:43:44,810
and you're not out to get as much as you can. You, you give, you

716
00:43:44,810 --> 00:43:48,650
give too. So. Yeah. I have really enjoyed our conversation. Same here. Yeah,

717
00:43:48,650 --> 00:43:51,890
thank you so much. If people want to learn more about you. What should they

718
00:43:51,890 --> 00:43:55,490
do? Where should they go? Yeah. So obviously from a professional. Well, they're all

719
00:43:55,490 --> 00:43:59,090
professional elements, but platform at Christo Hovis on LinkedIn,

720
00:43:59,570 --> 00:44:02,850
@Christa Hovis on Insta and then

721
00:44:03,570 --> 00:44:07,090
Facebook. If you want to see the things that I post for my 9094 year

722
00:44:07,090 --> 00:44:10,890
old grandmother at Krista Hovis Harris is where you can

723
00:44:10,890 --> 00:44:14,260
find me. Okay. Well, thank you for being a guest. It's been a great conversation.

724
00:44:14,260 --> 00:44:18,060
Absolutely. And thank you for joining us. I've been Seth Mackey. I

725
00:44:18,060 --> 00:44:21,860
am your host of the Event Pro show and you can find our

726
00:44:21,860 --> 00:44:25,620
episodes just about once a week on your preferred podcast

727
00:44:25,780 --> 00:44:29,620
platform. Thank you for joining us today and we'll see you on the next one.

728
00:44:33,540 --> 00:44:37,390
The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG video

729
00:44:37,390 --> 00:44:41,150
by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by Prince

730
00:44:41,150 --> 00:44:44,270
Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG

731
00:44:44,750 --> 00:44:45,150
Live.