Uniting an Industry: Wendy Porter on Event Codes, Lobbying, and Long-Term Success

1
00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:04,296
Welcome to the Event Pro show, your ultimate guide to the world of corporate

2
00:00:04,328 --> 00:00:07,912
events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing

3
00:00:07,976 --> 00:00:11,544
pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional

4
00:00:11,592 --> 00:00:15,128
events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,

5
00:00:15,224 --> 00:00:18,024
expert tips, and inspiring stories from the industry's leading

6
00:00:18,072 --> 00:00:21,672
professionals. Well, thank you for joining us on the

7
00:00:21,696 --> 00:00:25,432
Event Pro show. We have a great show today and I want to

8
00:00:25,456 --> 00:00:28,630
get into it. Uh, but before that,

9
00:00:29,730 --> 00:00:33,530
I have Wendy Porter with me. Wendy, what is the temperature

10
00:00:33,610 --> 00:00:36,874
in Minneapolis right now? We are at one degree.

11
00:00:37,002 --> 00:00:40,394
Okay. Mine feels like mine is 13. Oh my

12
00:00:40,402 --> 00:00:43,962
goodness. Okay. I'm in the Carolinas. It's in the 40s and

13
00:00:43,986 --> 00:00:47,738
50s. People are freaking out. There's big jackets, everybody's pulled out. You know, people aren't

14
00:00:47,794 --> 00:00:51,258
running around in. Shorts and sandals and that temperature. Right? Yeah, yeah.

15
00:00:51,434 --> 00:00:55,192
So we do not live in similar places for sure, but let

16
00:00:55,216 --> 00:00:58,792
me do your intro, Wendy. You know, today we're joined by

17
00:00:58,816 --> 00:01:02,488
Wendy Porter. She's the founder and chief event strategist at Wendy

18
00:01:02,504 --> 00:01:06,232
Porter Events and like we mentioned, a Minneapolis based agency known

19
00:01:06,256 --> 00:01:10,072
for crafting high impact corporate events that foster brand engagement and deliver

20
00:01:10,176 --> 00:01:14,024
measurable ROI. With over 23 years of experience in

21
00:01:14,032 --> 00:01:17,864
the event industry, Wendy spent 13 years as the head of events at a

22
00:01:17,872 --> 00:01:21,500
Fortune 25 company. I bet you needed a nap after that. Yep.

23
00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,060
Leading large scale conferences, strategic sponsorships, and

24
00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:28,660
recognized for her leadership. She was named one of the 100 most

25
00:01:28,700 --> 00:01:31,956
influential people in the US events industry in 24.

26
00:01:32,028 --> 00:01:35,860
Congratulations. And also congratulations for receiving the Smart Woman and

27
00:01:35,900 --> 00:01:39,684
Meetings Visionary award. And Wendy is also passionate,

28
00:01:39,732 --> 00:01:43,268
a passionate advocate for the industry, having played a pivotal role

29
00:01:43,324 --> 00:01:46,420
in lobbying for the live events sector during the

30
00:01:46,460 --> 00:01:50,212
pandemic. And thank you for that. And her insights have been

31
00:01:50,236 --> 00:01:53,808
featured in major outlets like the Wall Street Journal, CNB and

32
00:01:53,864 --> 00:01:57,472
local media. Wendy's strategic vision and advocacy continue to

33
00:01:57,496 --> 00:02:01,296
shape the future of corporate events. And we're excited to dive into

34
00:02:01,368 --> 00:02:05,120
our expertise today. So please welcome to the show, Wendy Porter.

35
00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,656
Thank you so much, Seth. It's wonderful to be here. Yes.

36
00:02:08,768 --> 00:02:12,400
And truth be told, we met on LinkedIn as

37
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:16,288
all good business relationships begin. And we just started

38
00:02:16,344 --> 00:02:20,190
talking and you have like a really compelling story about what you

39
00:02:20,230 --> 00:02:23,966
do and I needed to hear more about it. So thank you for

40
00:02:24,038 --> 00:02:27,854
being a guinea pig on the Event Pro Show. I love this kind of

41
00:02:27,862 --> 00:02:31,710
stuff. So. Well, let me ask you like an opening question. So what's the

42
00:02:31,750 --> 00:02:35,422
first event that you can remember attending? So this is kind of an

43
00:02:35,446 --> 00:02:39,134
interesting one. I had to think back. We. We lived in Hawaii when I was

44
00:02:39,142 --> 00:02:42,910
a kid. So let's talk about fundamental shift from Minnesota

45
00:02:42,990 --> 00:02:46,286
to Hawaii. Wow. My dad was stationed there as an army

46
00:02:46,318 --> 00:02:49,886
guy. And one of the things they have in Hawaii is something called King

47
00:02:49,918 --> 00:02:53,386
Kamehameha. You ever heard of that? No, I have not. It's

48
00:02:53,418 --> 00:02:56,922
celebrating, basically, the king who, you

49
00:02:56,946 --> 00:03:00,682
know, founded Hawaii. Okay. And so parades and, you

50
00:03:00,706 --> 00:03:04,058
know, all the floats and the flowers and just, you know, really

51
00:03:04,194 --> 00:03:08,010
festive kind of experience. And I. We lived in Hawaii when I was about

52
00:03:08,050 --> 00:03:11,722
1 until I was 5. So some of my earliest memories are of

53
00:03:11,746 --> 00:03:15,402
Hawaii. And I remember going to the King Kamehameha Day parade

54
00:03:15,466 --> 00:03:18,564
in Hawaii. Made a big impression on you. Yeah,

55
00:03:18,612 --> 00:03:22,452
totally. Those are some of my favorite memories are when

56
00:03:22,476 --> 00:03:26,212
I'm about that age, because they were more. They're just more impressions, you

57
00:03:26,236 --> 00:03:30,020
know? And so you. You remember colors and smells and sounds and things that

58
00:03:30,060 --> 00:03:33,812
were inspiring. But you're a kid and you just didn't really understand it, but you

59
00:03:33,836 --> 00:03:37,556
knew you loved it, you know? So that's

60
00:03:37,588 --> 00:03:41,412
kind of like how I remember a lot of things back in that

61
00:03:41,436 --> 00:03:45,212
time frame. But fast forward then. So professionally, what

62
00:03:45,236 --> 00:03:48,280
was the first time that you went to an event? You're like, oh, I think,

63
00:03:48,660 --> 00:03:52,252
like, I think I want to do this as a job. You know, that's not

64
00:03:52,276 --> 00:03:56,012
really how my career progression happened. Like, a lot of

65
00:03:56,036 --> 00:03:59,804
people in my age, honestly,

66
00:03:59,932 --> 00:04:02,280
there wasn't an event

67
00:04:03,140 --> 00:04:06,540
curriculum when I was in college, Right. So I went to school actually for

68
00:04:06,580 --> 00:04:10,412
mathematics and German, believe it or not. And my plan was to go

69
00:04:10,436 --> 00:04:14,202
into international business. That was my thinking. Okay. So

70
00:04:14,226 --> 00:04:18,010
I started my career doing marketing, which was great, and ended up doing some

71
00:04:18,050 --> 00:04:21,882
international marketing work, which was. I loved it. And

72
00:04:21,906 --> 00:04:25,738
I planned some events as part of that, but it was more sort of client,

73
00:04:25,834 --> 00:04:29,354
client events and people coming into the office and planning, you know, full day kind

74
00:04:29,362 --> 00:04:32,154
of events for them. I didn't really think of that as an event. I thought

75
00:04:32,162 --> 00:04:35,562
of it as a meeting. Right. And it wasn't until I got

76
00:04:35,666 --> 00:04:39,492
to United Healthcare, where I came

77
00:04:39,516 --> 00:04:43,332
in as an acquisition marketing manager. And my very first year there, our

78
00:04:43,356 --> 00:04:47,188
VP of events came over, or VP of marketing came over and handed

79
00:04:47,204 --> 00:04:50,564
me a folder and said, hey, we're gonna sponsor this event. You're gonna do it.

80
00:04:50,732 --> 00:04:54,052
I was like, okay. Never done that before in my life, but I'll figure it

81
00:04:54,076 --> 00:04:57,732
out, right? So that's how I fell into it. And so as I got into

82
00:04:57,756 --> 00:05:00,724
it, it turns out I was actually really good at it. And I, you know,

83
00:05:00,732 --> 00:05:04,532
I always liked sort of planning gatherings and I did a lot of that in

84
00:05:04,556 --> 00:05:08,372
my neighborhood. I planned our first progressive Christmas party for

85
00:05:08,396 --> 00:05:12,144
the neighborhood, which 31 years later. Right. You

86
00:05:12,152 --> 00:05:14,832
know, I used to, when I was a kid, I did the lemonade stand and

87
00:05:14,856 --> 00:05:17,152
I, you know, I did all that kind of stuff, so. And I gathered my

88
00:05:17,176 --> 00:05:20,128
friends for plays and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I was sort

89
00:05:20,144 --> 00:05:23,792
of a natural gatherer as it was. And so it turns out I was really

90
00:05:23,816 --> 00:05:27,440
good at it professionally. And so that's, that's really how I fell into it. So.

91
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,832
Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that because there's, it's so

92
00:05:30,856 --> 00:05:34,208
entrepreneurial. There's so many people that are in events that are

93
00:05:34,264 --> 00:05:37,952
entrepreneurial and everything that you were just saying was very much like that. You had

94
00:05:37,976 --> 00:05:41,790
eliminate stand. You're a gatherer, you can. Meaning how I take that

95
00:05:41,830 --> 00:05:45,582
is that you, you figure stuff out. Like you, you have a skill, a knack

96
00:05:45,646 --> 00:05:49,326
for figuring stuff out. And then the other similarity that I heard

97
00:05:49,358 --> 00:05:53,090
you say just now is I think so many people were handed

98
00:05:53,510 --> 00:05:57,006
a notebook of like, okay, you're doing this event. Exactly. And

99
00:05:57,078 --> 00:06:00,750
either you love it or you don't.

100
00:06:00,830 --> 00:06:04,462
Right. I mean, it's like people shake out pretty quick. Right. And then. But

101
00:06:04,486 --> 00:06:07,934
there's people that stick and they're like, I think I really like this. You know,

102
00:06:07,942 --> 00:06:10,528
I like the environment that's like that

103
00:06:10,654 --> 00:06:14,428
adrenaline, do or die kind of, you know, it's

104
00:06:14,444 --> 00:06:18,060
harder than people think to do and not everybody can do it.

105
00:06:18,180 --> 00:06:21,900
That's exactly right. Yeah. So, yeah, the plan when I first got it was

106
00:06:21,940 --> 00:06:25,628
that I was going to have that program for two years. Right.

107
00:06:25,684 --> 00:06:28,988
And I would have an assistant and the assistant would be helping me in learning

108
00:06:29,004 --> 00:06:31,420
the ropes. And then after two years, I would hand it off to the next

109
00:06:31,460 --> 00:06:34,492
person and that person would do it with an assistant. So it's never going to

110
00:06:34,516 --> 00:06:38,364
be anybody's real job. Right, right. Because again, leadership

111
00:06:38,412 --> 00:06:41,532
didn't really understand A, the value of events and B, how much it takes to

112
00:06:41,556 --> 00:06:45,212
do them and that you actually need people who know what they're doing. Right. So

113
00:06:45,236 --> 00:06:49,084
we tried that two year stint because I still had a real, you

114
00:06:49,092 --> 00:06:52,380
know, the rest of my job. So we tried that for two years. I went

115
00:06:52,420 --> 00:06:56,140
to roll it off to my assistant and it started

116
00:06:56,180 --> 00:06:59,468
to go sideways really quick. And so they pulled it back and said, no, we're

117
00:06:59,484 --> 00:07:02,156
gonna, we're gonna give this to you now and we're actually gonna create a position

118
00:07:02,228 --> 00:07:05,180
around this now. Right. So we're going to let that other part of your job

119
00:07:05,220 --> 00:07:08,460
go. You're going to now have a position. They actually made it as a director

120
00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:12,140
of marketing for events. And then they said, oh, and we've got these other things

121
00:07:12,180 --> 00:07:14,428
we need you to do now. So you're going to take on our sales meetings

122
00:07:14,444 --> 00:07:18,172
and you're going to take on our CEO leadership conferences. And, you

123
00:07:18,196 --> 00:07:21,400
know, as my team developed, you know, all of a sudden we were doing

124
00:07:22,020 --> 00:07:25,452
350 town hall meetings a year. I worked in the

125
00:07:25,476 --> 00:07:28,716
Medicare division of UnitedHealthcare, so we were B2C.

126
00:07:28,788 --> 00:07:32,492
Right. So we were out meeting with customers and explaining their benefits from

127
00:07:32,516 --> 00:07:36,104
year to year. So we had 350 of those. We had to. In eight weeks

128
00:07:36,272 --> 00:07:39,912
every fall, just on. Top of the pile of the other. Events,

129
00:07:40,056 --> 00:07:43,848
we stood up our CSR programming and just. And oh, by the way, none

130
00:07:43,864 --> 00:07:46,744
of them can mess up. Don't mess up on any of them. No, by the

131
00:07:46,752 --> 00:07:50,472
way, don't mess up. Yeah. Why do you think there tends

132
00:07:50,536 --> 00:07:53,860
to be, I mean, this story of a disconnect between

133
00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,740
the C suite or top leadership

134
00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,944
and what events actually do, how hard they are, what impact

135
00:08:02,032 --> 00:08:05,640
they have. I know you have thoughts on total spend,

136
00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,316
that marketing spend, and the ROI on it, but

137
00:08:09,388 --> 00:08:13,140
even more than that, why do you think there has been

138
00:08:13,180 --> 00:08:16,980
historically this big disconnect between leadership and what events, how hard

139
00:08:17,020 --> 00:08:20,612
they are to do? Yeah, I think honestly, it's sort of. We sort of

140
00:08:20,636 --> 00:08:24,372
created our own problem. It's a little bit by design because we want it to

141
00:08:24,396 --> 00:08:27,764
look effortless. Right. That's why we're all dressed in

142
00:08:27,772 --> 00:08:31,332
black. We're behind the scenes. We're supposed to be invisible. You're not supposed to know

143
00:08:31,356 --> 00:08:34,609
there's 30 people behind the curtain scurrying around doing production.

144
00:08:34,699 --> 00:08:38,501
Right. It's supposed to look effortless and magical and people just show up

145
00:08:38,525 --> 00:08:42,037
and it's just done. And, yeah, so because of that,

146
00:08:42,173 --> 00:08:45,589
in a way, we created our own problem because they don't know what goes into

147
00:08:45,629 --> 00:08:49,093
it. So I've always said, I've written some posts about this, that every

148
00:08:49,181 --> 00:08:52,901
leader should have to be at the table, in the trenches with the

149
00:08:52,925 --> 00:08:56,533
team on at least one event. Like, get in the

150
00:08:56,541 --> 00:08:59,749
trenches, behind the scenes and see what really goes into it. Otherwise you're never really

151
00:08:59,789 --> 00:09:03,442
going to get it. I. I love that I run

152
00:09:03,466 --> 00:09:07,106
an AV company, and I firmly believe that everyone

153
00:09:07,178 --> 00:09:10,590
in the company should go to at least one event a year.

154
00:09:10,890 --> 00:09:14,642
And it's. The same concept that you're speaking of is like you

155
00:09:14,666 --> 00:09:17,970
can get detached from the reality of what it

156
00:09:18,010 --> 00:09:21,682
takes to do an event if everything is Just a, just a

157
00:09:21,706 --> 00:09:25,490
spreadsheet, you know, and it's not a reality. Right. And my,

158
00:09:25,530 --> 00:09:29,334
the first trade show that I did, my parents actually came to it because it

159
00:09:29,342 --> 00:09:33,094
was a, it was an aarp, big AARP thing. And so it was a

160
00:09:33,102 --> 00:09:36,134
business to consumer show. And so my. I, it was in Chicago. And so I

161
00:09:36,142 --> 00:09:38,342
had my mom and dad come and I said to my mom, I said, just

162
00:09:38,366 --> 00:09:42,102
imagine when I showed up, this was a concrete floor. There was nothing

163
00:09:42,166 --> 00:09:45,782
here. Yeah. You're literally building a house, if you

164
00:09:45,806 --> 00:09:49,462
will. Yes. In three days or whatever we had, you know, our booth was, at

165
00:09:49,486 --> 00:09:53,270
Its height was 13,000 square feet. So if you can wrap your head around

166
00:09:53,310 --> 00:09:56,166
how big that is with an 80 foot semi trailer in it that looked tiny

167
00:09:56,198 --> 00:09:59,846
and you know, but when you show up, there's nothing there. It's a concrete

168
00:09:59,878 --> 00:10:02,970
floor and you're literally building the house. Yep.

169
00:10:04,270 --> 00:10:07,750
You talked about being behind the

170
00:10:07,790 --> 00:10:11,010
scenes. I, I see this as well too. So again,

171
00:10:11,790 --> 00:10:15,270
we, we work, we work the same events from

172
00:10:15,310 --> 00:10:19,078
maybe different sides of the room sometimes. But the goal for

173
00:10:19,134 --> 00:10:22,982
everybody is to have this experience, this totally seamless, you know, and

174
00:10:23,006 --> 00:10:26,530
an attendee comes in and they just. What you just said, like, they wouldn't know

175
00:10:27,070 --> 00:10:30,760
that. You know, this was like nothing here. Like,

176
00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,648
there wasn't even carpet here. Guys like you don't. There was nothing, nothing here.

177
00:10:34,784 --> 00:10:37,940
And, and we do. So we did so good of a job

178
00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,544
that. Tell me if you think this is accurate. Over

179
00:10:41,632 --> 00:10:45,352
Covid. Our industry got overlooked because nobody realized how

180
00:10:45,376 --> 00:10:49,192
many people were involved in this industry. And we really hadn't done

181
00:10:49,216 --> 00:10:52,872
a good job of making noise about the impact that we have and what it

182
00:10:52,896 --> 00:10:56,632
takes and the energy and the jobs involved. Yeah. So. So you lobbied a lot

183
00:10:56,656 --> 00:11:00,470
during that time. So tell me about that. Yeah, so that's exactly right.

184
00:11:00,590 --> 00:11:04,342
So March 13th of 2020, I

185
00:11:04,366 --> 00:11:07,974
was in San Francisco when everything shut down. Yeah.

186
00:11:08,102 --> 00:11:10,534
So I had to scramble home. It was. I wasn't even sure I was going

187
00:11:10,542 --> 00:11:14,246
to get home. I thought, well, if, if my flights start getting canceled, I'll just.

188
00:11:14,318 --> 00:11:17,702
I was in California, I thought, I'll just grab a car and I'll drive to

189
00:11:17,726 --> 00:11:19,974
Phoenix and fly from there. Because there was all this worry they were going to

190
00:11:19,982 --> 00:11:23,782
shut flights down in. Right. California specifically. Yep.

191
00:11:23,846 --> 00:11:27,158
So anyway, I get home and within days after

192
00:11:27,214 --> 00:11:30,410
that, it became very apparent that this was not going to be a

193
00:11:30,590 --> 00:11:33,826
thing and that our industry was,

194
00:11:33,978 --> 00:11:37,746
was not known about. So there was a guy

195
00:11:37,778 --> 00:11:41,586
by the name of Isaac Rothwell who put out a

196
00:11:41,658 --> 00:11:45,042
survey or it was actually, you know, one of those change.org

197
00:11:45,106 --> 00:11:48,882
petitions. Yeah, he put that out, pretty much, you know,

198
00:11:48,906 --> 00:11:52,562
throwing the flag saying, okay, this is my industry. We're in trouble,

199
00:11:52,706 --> 00:11:55,874
you know, and people started signing, and overnight, I think. I can't remember what the

200
00:11:55,882 --> 00:11:59,660
number was, but it was several hundred thousand signatures he had on this petition.

201
00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,752
And so that gave him the aha moment that, hey, I think we need

202
00:12:03,776 --> 00:12:07,480
to organize around this. We need to develop something. Because we didn't really

203
00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,320
have anybody that was fighting for the industry as a whole. And to your point,

204
00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:15,176
it's because it's very disparate. It's all. It's AV companies, it's

205
00:12:15,208 --> 00:12:18,904
planners, it's caterers, it's, you know, it's decor

206
00:12:18,952 --> 00:12:22,552
people. It's, you know, all these different kind of companies. And they

207
00:12:22,576 --> 00:12:26,152
weren't all rolling up together for everybody to see the magnitude of who we were.

208
00:12:26,256 --> 00:12:29,768
So we started doing research around that. Stood up the Live Events

209
00:12:29,784 --> 00:12:33,556
Coalition that spring, I stood up the Minnesota

210
00:12:33,588 --> 00:12:36,692
chapter of it, and then I ended up joining the board of directors for the

211
00:12:36,716 --> 00:12:40,356
national coalition out of D.C. and then got involved in

212
00:12:40,508 --> 00:12:44,212
our government affairs team. So we were actually lobbying Congress. We met

213
00:12:44,236 --> 00:12:47,812
with over 100 members of Congress. I was

214
00:12:47,836 --> 00:12:51,652
fortunate being in Minnesota. Two of our House reps were on the

215
00:12:51,676 --> 00:12:55,492
Small Business Committee, so Dean Phillips and Angie Craig. And so I was able

216
00:12:55,516 --> 00:12:59,092
to get their attention here in Minnesota. And they really took the bull by the

217
00:12:59,116 --> 00:13:02,592
horns and ran with it. And Dean, his team and our wrote the

218
00:13:02,616 --> 00:13:06,400
legislation. We actually got a bill through the House to get

219
00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:09,792
relief in place, but then it died. Narrowly died in the

220
00:13:09,816 --> 00:13:13,360
Senate. So we did not get it through. But what we

221
00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:17,088
learned by doing all that work is that we are 12

222
00:13:17,144 --> 00:13:20,992
million people. It's a $1 trillion industry. And I think

223
00:13:21,016 --> 00:13:24,448
that's. I think that's light. That's what we. I do, too. That's what we could

224
00:13:24,584 --> 00:13:28,432
substantiate, you know, in our reporting that we could

225
00:13:28,456 --> 00:13:32,208
pull together. And over a million small businesses. I think it was 1.2

226
00:13:32,264 --> 00:13:35,940
million small businesses that nobody was talking about.

227
00:13:36,060 --> 00:13:39,396
Like, we were twice the size of the US Auto industry and nobody was talking

228
00:13:39,428 --> 00:13:42,772
about it. And they were going to be the first to be shut down and

229
00:13:42,796 --> 00:13:46,436
the. Last and the last open, and we couldn't do curbside. You know, you're

230
00:13:46,468 --> 00:13:49,828
right. You know, and the National Restaurant association was getting

231
00:13:49,884 --> 00:13:53,540
attention because they've been around for over 100

232
00:13:53,580 --> 00:13:57,092
years. They had a lobbyist, they had. They had, you know, relationships already built, and

233
00:13:57,116 --> 00:14:00,420
they could leverage that and pull the levers, and we had nothing. And

234
00:14:00,460 --> 00:14:04,144
so, so we, we built that and, and we did hire a

235
00:14:04,152 --> 00:14:07,872
lobbyist out of DCE that really helped us and they told us that

236
00:14:07,896 --> 00:14:11,696
what we got done in two years was never, pretty much doesn't

237
00:14:11,728 --> 00:14:15,280
happen, you know, that we were able to get a bill through the House in

238
00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,928
less than two years starting from scratch. So

239
00:14:19,064 --> 00:14:22,672
yeah, and we're still, we're still working on stuff today. People may think that we,

240
00:14:22,776 --> 00:14:25,552
we disappeared. All of us did end up going back to work and so we

241
00:14:25,576 --> 00:14:29,144
had to sort of, you know, lighten our, our work towards the volunteer

242
00:14:29,192 --> 00:14:32,696
efforts. But we are currently, we actually just put a proposal

243
00:14:32,728 --> 00:14:36,424
in last week about modifying the NACE code system,

244
00:14:36,592 --> 00:14:39,832
which is the North American industry classification

245
00:14:39,896 --> 00:14:43,624
system. So. Okay, I'm not the only one that spends a

246
00:14:43,632 --> 00:14:47,352
lot of time trying to figure out what code I actually am. Is it. Could

247
00:14:47,376 --> 00:14:51,144
it be that one doesn't exist? Is this what you're telling me? That's exactly what

248
00:14:51,152 --> 00:14:54,842
I'm telling you. One doesn't exist. Which is, yes. What complicated us

249
00:14:54,866 --> 00:14:58,570
pulling the research. We didn't have any way to pull the documentation of

250
00:14:58,610 --> 00:15:02,074
how big we were because we got codes all over the place, over 30 that

251
00:15:02,082 --> 00:15:05,722
we identified. And so we put in a proposal to

252
00:15:05,746 --> 00:15:09,322
modify the system to create a code. Actually it's

253
00:15:09,386 --> 00:15:12,870
modifying code 70, which currently right now is

254
00:15:15,490 --> 00:15:19,066
Hospitality Leisure. And then we want them to add events to

255
00:15:19,138 --> 00:15:22,410
the 70 code. And then underneath that we would have subcodes,

256
00:15:22,490 --> 00:15:26,058
encapsulate all the sub industries, the

257
00:15:26,114 --> 00:15:29,750
hierarchy. The top sector code of 70 is what we're asking for.

258
00:15:30,130 --> 00:15:33,882
And then along with that putting in job descriptions because that

259
00:15:33,906 --> 00:15:37,642
doesn't exist. So right now there's grants come

260
00:15:37,666 --> 00:15:41,290
out for helping to educate, for education and funding and different things based on job

261
00:15:41,330 --> 00:15:45,178
descriptions. And if you're not in that system, you don't ever get the funding

262
00:15:45,194 --> 00:15:48,938
for that. So we're working towards kind of getting all those systems in place

263
00:15:48,994 --> 00:15:52,794
so that we can start working towards the educational components that are needed. We've got

264
00:15:52,802 --> 00:15:56,362
what we're calling the Silver resignation coming up. The average

265
00:15:56,426 --> 00:15:59,910
age of people in the live events industry right now is 54 years old

266
00:16:00,610 --> 00:16:03,914
and over 30 years of experience, typically. And so those people are going to be

267
00:16:03,922 --> 00:16:07,034
aging out here in the next 10 years. And so we need to make sure

268
00:16:07,202 --> 00:16:10,730
that we've got a feeder system, right? And so we're working

269
00:16:10,770 --> 00:16:14,490
on some programming for training literally all the way down to like the high

270
00:16:14,530 --> 00:16:18,346
school level where we could maybe be identifying students that have an aptitude

271
00:16:18,378 --> 00:16:22,218
for tech, for example, and getting them on that pathway

272
00:16:22,394 --> 00:16:25,482
to get the training and get into community colleges and things that will train them

273
00:16:25,506 --> 00:16:29,290
on the production side so that we have feeder systems into the industry. How

274
00:16:29,330 --> 00:16:33,130
can event pros tap into these resources or follow along as

275
00:16:33,170 --> 00:16:36,618
this story is unfolding? When you're working on this live events

276
00:16:36,634 --> 00:16:40,346
coalition on LinkedIn, definitely follow us there. We post.

277
00:16:40,418 --> 00:16:43,642
I post a lot about this. In fact, I need to put something out about

278
00:16:43,666 --> 00:16:47,050
the NACE code situation because we just filed it on Friday. That just

279
00:16:47,090 --> 00:16:50,814
happened. Amazing. And then there's some

280
00:16:50,822 --> 00:16:53,262
others. I'll put that. I can put that on my post of other people to

281
00:16:53,286 --> 00:16:56,670
watch. There's. It's a. It's a. A number of us that are working together

282
00:16:56,790 --> 00:17:00,638
on, on this whole effort. So thank you for all your work on that. It's

283
00:17:00,654 --> 00:17:04,350
a big deal. And, and you don't know until. Until you do, you know,

284
00:17:04,390 --> 00:17:07,934
when you're in it, you finally realize, oh, this is a big problem. And Covid

285
00:17:08,022 --> 00:17:11,490
really highlighted something, but thank you for the work of getting that moving.

286
00:17:11,830 --> 00:17:14,974
And even down to codes, you know, what. What codes are we in? That. That's.

287
00:17:15,022 --> 00:17:18,792
That's been a problem my entire career. Career, quite frankly. And the other thing is,

288
00:17:18,816 --> 00:17:22,312
is those codes are only modified every five years, so if we don't get it

289
00:17:22,336 --> 00:17:26,152
in now, we're. We gotta wait another. Another five years. Yeah. So.

290
00:17:26,256 --> 00:17:29,928
Yeah. All right, so there's an urgency. There's an urgency here. All right,

291
00:17:29,984 --> 00:17:33,560
all right. We want to support this. We're behind it. I. I know on

292
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:37,064
LinkedIn, you've posted things. We were talking about entrepreneurship,

293
00:17:37,112 --> 00:17:40,824
and you posted something about what you were calling the burnt toast

294
00:17:40,872 --> 00:17:43,976
theory. Oh, yeah. Can you, can you share a little bit about what the burnt.

295
00:17:44,008 --> 00:17:47,180
The burnt toast theory is? Yeah. So

296
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,744
it's about perspective. Right. So, you know, you get up in the

297
00:17:51,752 --> 00:17:55,392
morning, you make your piece of toast, and you ignored your toaster and shoot, you

298
00:17:55,416 --> 00:17:59,072
burned it. Right. You can either get upset about that, or you can

299
00:17:59,096 --> 00:18:02,864
view it as the universe in action and you burn that piece of

300
00:18:02,872 --> 00:18:06,496
toast for a reason. So maybe it, you know, now you got to stick

301
00:18:06,528 --> 00:18:09,728
the next piece of toast in, and it takes you too long, two minutes longer

302
00:18:09,744 --> 00:18:13,344
to get out of the house. Right. So maybe you didn't. You weren't in the

303
00:18:13,352 --> 00:18:16,932
intersection when the guy was blowing the stop sign, so you didn't have a car

304
00:18:17,016 --> 00:18:20,284
accident or it delayed you those two minutes. So now you met somebody in the

305
00:18:20,292 --> 00:18:24,044
coffee line that you wouldn't have otherwise been standing there. Right. It's that whole kind

306
00:18:24,052 --> 00:18:27,040
of sliding doors theory, you know? Yeah.

307
00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:31,516
That two minutes, you could change your TRA trajectory. And so it's

308
00:18:31,548 --> 00:18:35,372
just viewing it as instead of an annoyance

309
00:18:35,516 --> 00:18:39,148
and a bad day, that maybe it's setting you up, it's protecting you, it's setting

310
00:18:39,164 --> 00:18:42,972
you up for something else. So I love that. I love that. And. And

311
00:18:42,996 --> 00:18:46,844
it. What a. There's a resilience to that that I think you have to

312
00:18:46,852 --> 00:18:50,348
have when you're entrepreneurial like yourself. Which

313
00:18:50,404 --> 00:18:54,252
leads me to my next question. Obviously, you have this skill

314
00:18:54,316 --> 00:18:57,980
set and you started a company probably, what, 10 years ago? 10

315
00:18:58,020 --> 00:19:01,452
years, yep. And your experience has been

316
00:19:01,556 --> 00:19:05,244
what probably most small business owners experience. There's

317
00:19:05,292 --> 00:19:09,052
ups and downs. And how has that ride been? Why did you

318
00:19:09,076 --> 00:19:12,604
start it? And what, you know, what. What need were you trying to fill

319
00:19:12,732 --> 00:19:16,242
and how has that journey been? Well, I started it because,

320
00:19:16,346 --> 00:19:20,066
like most people in corporate, I was downsized, Right.

321
00:19:20,138 --> 00:19:23,922
So a familiar story. Don't think I know anybody who has worked in

322
00:19:23,946 --> 00:19:27,750
corporate now that hasn't been downsized at some point in their career.

323
00:19:28,570 --> 00:19:32,114
And so that happened to me, and I

324
00:19:32,202 --> 00:19:34,962
had been thinking about it. It had been in the back of my mind that

325
00:19:34,986 --> 00:19:38,674
someday I wanted to start a business. I actually had started a business prior to

326
00:19:38,682 --> 00:19:41,390
that. In 1997, I started a small business

327
00:19:42,450 --> 00:19:45,590
making florals, like wreaths and

328
00:19:46,050 --> 00:19:49,258
floral arrangements. And I would grow the flowers and dry the flowers and then create

329
00:19:49,314 --> 00:19:52,410
stuff, and I put them in gift stores. And I did, you know, I went

330
00:19:52,450 --> 00:19:56,138
out to art shows and, you know, put my stuff up. And I did boutiques

331
00:19:56,154 --> 00:19:59,914
at my house. And so, I mean, I did those kind of events. So

332
00:19:59,922 --> 00:20:03,642
I always had kind of that entrepreneurial spirit. And

333
00:20:03,666 --> 00:20:05,834
it always kind of had been in the back of my mind. I had done

334
00:20:05,842 --> 00:20:09,646
an event once, and I posted about this too. It's

335
00:20:09,678 --> 00:20:12,650
at the Grammy Museum in la. And

336
00:20:13,270 --> 00:20:17,038
it was a really, really cool event. We were on the top, top

337
00:20:17,174 --> 00:20:20,894
terrace of the Grammy Museum, which is just a blank canvas, Right. So we

338
00:20:20,982 --> 00:20:24,446
set that all up for decor and brought in wonderful food

339
00:20:24,518 --> 00:20:28,222
from Wolfgang Puck. And we were partnering with the Grammy foundation on

340
00:20:28,246 --> 00:20:32,062
it. And so we had students from the Grammy camp that were

341
00:20:32,086 --> 00:20:35,838
playing music and, you know, and then we had Ken Erlich, who was a producer

342
00:20:35,854 --> 00:20:39,474
for the Grammys for 30 plus years, come in and

343
00:20:39,562 --> 00:20:43,394
speak to our group. And we were about 50 people, and it

344
00:20:43,402 --> 00:20:47,042
was just us, very intimate in the Clive Davis Theater. And he ran a

345
00:20:47,066 --> 00:20:49,938
sizzle reel. And then we just got to ask him questions for, like two hours.

346
00:20:49,994 --> 00:20:53,474
We just asked him questions like, what was it like working with,

347
00:20:53,642 --> 00:20:57,426
you know, Michael Jackson and, you know, Whatever the combinations,

348
00:20:57,458 --> 00:20:59,906
you know, that he would put together. Like, how'd you think about putting Lady Gaga

349
00:20:59,938 --> 00:21:03,762
with so and so, you know, whatever. Right, right. And we were on the

350
00:21:03,786 --> 00:21:07,516
elevator headed down to the theater and one of the guests

351
00:21:07,548 --> 00:21:11,132
from the events turned to me and she said, oh, I would never miss a

352
00:21:11,156 --> 00:21:14,812
Wendy Porter event. You do the best events. You should start a

353
00:21:14,836 --> 00:21:18,172
company. Wendy Porter events. Right. So she says this to me, and this is like

354
00:21:18,196 --> 00:21:21,724
five years before I got laid off. So that's plant. That seed is planted in

355
00:21:21,732 --> 00:21:25,052
the back of my head. Right. And so then I do get laid off. And

356
00:21:25,076 --> 00:21:28,732
the first thing I thought of is, okay, it's time. I should start

357
00:21:28,756 --> 00:21:32,172
Wendy Porter events. I have everything I need. I've learned so much in

358
00:21:32,196 --> 00:21:36,012
corporate about marketing and events and, you know, management of

359
00:21:36,036 --> 00:21:39,432
C. SU and communications and just all the things that I

360
00:21:39,456 --> 00:21:43,128
needed to do it myself. And so that was, I

361
00:21:43,184 --> 00:21:46,632
knew instantly that's what I was going to do. I love it. I love it.

362
00:21:46,656 --> 00:21:49,740
And the rest is history. Yeah.

363
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,304
And here we are ten years later. Here we are. Here we are. We survived

364
00:21:53,352 --> 00:21:57,192
a pandemic. So amazing. Congratulations. You made it. You

365
00:21:57,216 --> 00:22:00,920
made it to the other side. One of the things that

366
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,700
caught my eye when we were initially talking is,

367
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:08,560
you know, the, the idea of you're a fractional head of events.

368
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,096
That's one of the services that you offer. Right. And fractional

369
00:22:12,208 --> 00:22:15,936
is a rebranding of a. Something that's

370
00:22:15,968 --> 00:22:19,760
been happening a lot for years in business. You know, when you have someone

371
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,632
on retainer or contract. But it can, it can be an

372
00:22:23,656 --> 00:22:27,392
incredible way of adding to your team without

373
00:22:27,496 --> 00:22:31,178
the HR headache that bringing on full time staff and

374
00:22:31,234 --> 00:22:34,858
commitment that, you know, full time staff brings with it.

375
00:22:34,994 --> 00:22:38,762
And so I think, you know, at our company we have

376
00:22:38,786 --> 00:22:42,426
a fractional CFO and you know, we're a small

377
00:22:42,498 --> 00:22:45,690
business, we have financial needs, but there are

378
00:22:45,730 --> 00:22:49,110
strategic things that we need, visionary things

379
00:22:49,650 --> 00:22:53,386
that I, you know, quite frankly, we probably couldn't afford

380
00:22:53,418 --> 00:22:57,226
to bring someone in full time, but you can rent their time

381
00:22:57,298 --> 00:23:01,126
for a little bit a week, you know, and you get that strategic stuff, stuff

382
00:23:01,158 --> 00:23:04,950
that you need without all the overhead. And that works really

383
00:23:04,990 --> 00:23:08,838
great. Well, I, I, you know, thinking of corporations like there are

384
00:23:08,894 --> 00:23:12,726
so many that need someone that knows what the heck

385
00:23:12,758 --> 00:23:16,470
they're doing with their events. And why would, you know, this is a very

386
00:23:16,510 --> 00:23:19,862
compelling argument. Just the title alone. So

387
00:23:20,046 --> 00:23:23,590
what made you start thinking about pitching it that

388
00:23:23,630 --> 00:23:27,254
way, for lack of a better term? Well, to your point, fractional is a

389
00:23:27,262 --> 00:23:30,822
thing right now. Right? It's, it's becoming, I think bigger and bigger over the last

390
00:23:30,846 --> 00:23:34,162
couple years anyway, from what I've. And I thought, well, you've got

391
00:23:34,186 --> 00:23:37,602
fractional CMOs, fractional CFOs, fractional

392
00:23:37,666 --> 00:23:41,426
COOs. Why not a fractional head of events? Yeah, why not?

393
00:23:41,498 --> 00:23:44,914
Right. And we're seeing companies that are hiring

394
00:23:45,042 --> 00:23:48,690
still not really getting the value of events and why you need to invest in

395
00:23:48,730 --> 00:23:52,514
this properly and with the right people that disconnect. The disconnect we're talking, it's still

396
00:23:52,522 --> 00:23:56,354
a disconnect. And they think, well, anybody can do it. Just have the admin do

397
00:23:56,362 --> 00:24:00,018
it or hire the kid right out of college. They can do the event.

398
00:24:00,074 --> 00:24:03,586
Right. They don't really, still don't really get what goes into it. And so they're

399
00:24:03,618 --> 00:24:07,086
hiring young people because that's what they can afford. Right.

400
00:24:07,238 --> 00:24:10,814
And that's all fine. Those, you know, those

401
00:24:10,982 --> 00:24:14,766
young people are going to learn, right. But they really need some guidance. And you,

402
00:24:14,838 --> 00:24:18,462
you don't want to be wasting 27% of your

403
00:24:18,486 --> 00:24:21,934
marketing budget, which is what we're seeing right now. 27%

404
00:24:22,022 --> 00:24:25,342
budget allocated for events. Now, you don't want to waste that

405
00:24:25,366 --> 00:24:29,022
27%. That's a lot of money, right? So why not bring in a

406
00:24:29,046 --> 00:24:32,590
fractional head of events to help guide that team, help

407
00:24:32,630 --> 00:24:36,434
teach those young people that you're bringing in and really

408
00:24:36,502 --> 00:24:40,346
making sure that you're being smart with your marketing dollars. Right? So that's

409
00:24:40,378 --> 00:24:44,106
why I stood it up. I stood it up about a year ago and

410
00:24:44,178 --> 00:24:47,882
you know, still really pushing it. It's, it's not taking off

411
00:24:47,906 --> 00:24:51,162
as fast as I hoped it would, but I still think it's the right thing

412
00:24:51,186 --> 00:24:54,970
to be doing. I think it's brilliant and I wish I could share

413
00:24:55,010 --> 00:24:58,554
it every time we deal with a client that is doing what you're

414
00:24:58,602 --> 00:25:02,298
saying. Because I have,

415
00:25:02,354 --> 00:25:05,370
I have some thoughts I want to share with you a couple thoughts here. This

416
00:25:05,410 --> 00:25:09,170
whole idea in any industry of bring in

417
00:25:09,710 --> 00:25:13,462
young and inexpensive so they fit the bill as far as budget, which was

418
00:25:13,486 --> 00:25:17,062
already unreasonable just from the start. And you put them in a

419
00:25:17,086 --> 00:25:20,790
situation where they're not learning from anybody. And so yes, you're right,

420
00:25:20,830 --> 00:25:24,390
they, they will eventually learn, but it's such a miserable

421
00:25:24,470 --> 00:25:28,102
experience they might learn themselves right out of the industry and go become a

422
00:25:28,126 --> 00:25:31,862
realtor or something. Right. As opposed to what

423
00:25:31,886 --> 00:25:35,526
you're proposing. You could also mentor some of the young

424
00:25:35,598 --> 00:25:39,334
people into being better at their job too, which I think

425
00:25:39,342 --> 00:25:42,990
is a way more long term investment type of approach.

426
00:25:43,690 --> 00:25:47,282
A lot better ROI on that, on that, on that money

427
00:25:47,386 --> 00:25:51,042
So I just feel like sometimes, you

428
00:25:51,066 --> 00:25:54,594
know, like in a production company sense because I, I see a lot of

429
00:25:54,602 --> 00:25:58,450
production companies. You'll hire somebody that's 19 years old

430
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:01,922
and go say okay, go, go mic up the whatever

431
00:26:01,986 --> 00:26:05,730
city orchestra, good luck. Here's a bunch of microphones and some

432
00:26:05,770 --> 00:26:09,222
stuff. Don't screw it up, up. And oh yeah, it's, you got to work for

433
00:26:09,246 --> 00:26:12,502
20 hours and we're not paying you overtime. See ya. You know like, and you

434
00:26:12,526 --> 00:26:15,062
know you can do that for a year or two. Sure. And then they get

435
00:26:15,086 --> 00:26:18,790
burned out and then they leave. Well, that's really short sighted. Right. And

436
00:26:18,830 --> 00:26:22,422
so I, I love this idea that you could come in and, and provide that

437
00:26:22,446 --> 00:26:26,262
guidance and, and potentially could be an asset for their long term growth

438
00:26:26,286 --> 00:26:29,990
of a department. So. For sure. Yep. What

439
00:26:30,030 --> 00:26:33,510
do you think makes a really

440
00:26:33,550 --> 00:26:37,010
successful corporate event like a truly successful corporate event?

441
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,232
Well, so for me I have a, something I like

442
00:26:41,256 --> 00:26:44,704
to talk about that I call the cranberry thread. And cranberry is one of my

443
00:26:44,712 --> 00:26:47,840
colors. If you look at my logo, I've got this E woven through the wp

444
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,632
that's cranberry. And so I call it the cranberry thread. And so

445
00:26:51,656 --> 00:26:55,376
it's really, it's being very intentional about how you're

446
00:26:55,408 --> 00:26:59,008
planning. So it's thinking through from the very

447
00:26:59,064 --> 00:27:01,872
first touch point that's going to go out to somebody that might be attending your

448
00:27:01,896 --> 00:27:05,722
event to make sure that the feeling and the look,

449
00:27:05,826 --> 00:27:09,482
everything that that person is experiencing in that first touch point is going to carry

450
00:27:09,546 --> 00:27:13,306
all the way through everything that they're experiencing during the event on site

451
00:27:13,378 --> 00:27:16,842
as well as the post event follow up. Right. So there's a

452
00:27:16,866 --> 00:27:20,602
thread, thread that runs through the whole thing. I think

453
00:27:20,626 --> 00:27:24,042
that's what makes a great event is when you are being very intentional about your

454
00:27:24,066 --> 00:27:27,722
planning throughout the whole experience. I think that's a

455
00:27:27,746 --> 00:27:30,830
professional, professionally planned event. Yeah.

456
00:27:31,250 --> 00:27:34,870
You reverse engineer where are we trying to. And then you

457
00:27:34,910 --> 00:27:38,502
reverse engineer back to the beginning and you can follow that thread through to where

458
00:27:38,526 --> 00:27:42,022
you guide them to the end point and hopefully they retain it. I love

459
00:27:42,046 --> 00:27:45,810
it. I love that idea that there is a thread about it.

460
00:27:46,510 --> 00:27:50,070
There's something that keeps coming up. And another question I've been wanting to ask you

461
00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:53,718
because I saw a quote, you had a quote in meetings today about

462
00:27:53,854 --> 00:27:57,046
venues that use labor unions.

463
00:27:57,158 --> 00:28:00,546
And so I'll be on panels or ask

464
00:28:00,718 --> 00:28:04,138
questions about this in different environments about the cost

465
00:28:04,194 --> 00:28:08,042
of, in house or unions, those types of things. And, and your

466
00:28:08,066 --> 00:28:11,018
advice about that was a little

467
00:28:11,154 --> 00:28:13,910
counterintuitive and I thought it was a fresh take

468
00:28:15,410 --> 00:28:19,066
is how you can work with the reality of certain venue

469
00:28:19,098 --> 00:28:22,362
costs as opposed to just avoiding using venues or

470
00:28:22,466 --> 00:28:26,250
geographical regions. I thought that was a fresh take

471
00:28:26,290 --> 00:28:28,714
because I think a lot of times people are like, well, how are we going

472
00:28:28,722 --> 00:28:32,366
to get out of this? And then what venues are we just gonna avoid?

473
00:28:32,478 --> 00:28:36,190
And it's like, I don't know if that's the road to take. So.

474
00:28:36,230 --> 00:28:38,654
So what are your. What were your thoughts when you. Yeah, well, and sometimes you

475
00:28:38,662 --> 00:28:42,126
can't avoid it right there. If you've got a really big event, you're pretty limited

476
00:28:42,158 --> 00:28:44,734
on the cities you can go to. Yeah. You know, you're gonna. You're gonna be

477
00:28:44,742 --> 00:28:48,190
going to a union city, so you need to figure out how to work with

478
00:28:48,230 --> 00:28:51,998
it, not against it, necessarily. Right. So it's just being smart about

479
00:28:52,054 --> 00:28:55,630
how you partner on that. I always work with

480
00:28:55,670 --> 00:28:59,382
production teams that I know and trust and can help me kind

481
00:28:59,406 --> 00:29:03,014
of leverage that and make sure that, you know, as we're planning our day, that

482
00:29:03,022 --> 00:29:05,862
we're really thinking about the hours that are going in for the team and when

483
00:29:05,886 --> 00:29:09,494
am I going to hit that overtime? You know, if we're loading in, making sure

484
00:29:09,502 --> 00:29:13,174
that when we're building the contract, we're not trying to load in on a Sunday

485
00:29:13,262 --> 00:29:17,094
because I'm going to get hit with overtime. Right. So just being smart on the

486
00:29:17,102 --> 00:29:20,454
front end about how you're setting up your logistics so that you don't

487
00:29:20,582 --> 00:29:24,022
inadvertently run into overtime situations that you don't even realize you're going to be

488
00:29:24,046 --> 00:29:27,784
doing. Right. So that is just making sure you're partnering with the

489
00:29:27,792 --> 00:29:31,288
right professionals who understand the rules and how to

490
00:29:31,344 --> 00:29:34,300
engage properly with the union teams,

491
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,344
you know, and I find it can be a really good partnership. Right. We have

492
00:29:38,352 --> 00:29:41,112
to work together. Let's figure out how to make the most of it and, you

493
00:29:41,136 --> 00:29:44,100
know, come up with a great event. And so,

494
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,720
yeah, I love that. So if I'm hearing you

495
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,528
correctly, you're saying, you know, you don't have to avoid it. You.

496
00:29:51,584 --> 00:29:55,280
You just. Just do your homework and. And create relationships, make sure you're working.

497
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:59,008
With partners that get it, that know how the unions operate.

498
00:29:59,104 --> 00:30:02,832
Yeah. So we don't need to be afraid. We don't. Typically, I

499
00:30:02,856 --> 00:30:05,904
don't. I don't. I. I'm not a union person. I don't. I'm not in a

500
00:30:05,912 --> 00:30:09,584
union. I don't interface with unions. I don't really, you know, I don't know the

501
00:30:09,592 --> 00:30:12,288
ins and outs of that. And so I need to work with professionals. That do.

502
00:30:12,424 --> 00:30:16,192
Right. That understand that situation. Do you have any

503
00:30:16,216 --> 00:30:18,820
other thoughts on controlling costs at events?

504
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:23,272
You got, you got. You got us going down this road. So, like, I bet

505
00:30:23,296 --> 00:30:27,128
you have some interesting takes on. Yeah, I mean, things have gotten pretty.

506
00:30:27,224 --> 00:30:29,340
Pretty kind of out of control, honestly.

507
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,416
Yeah, I mean, it's things like instead of having bottled

508
00:30:35,448 --> 00:30:38,520
water, you know, can you have pitchers of water with ice on the tables instead,

509
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:42,100
you know, right there. That can save you money, Tons of money.

510
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,312
You know, it's just. It's working with all the different teams to get creative on

511
00:30:46,336 --> 00:30:49,682
how you're putting things together to try to save the

512
00:30:49,706 --> 00:30:53,122
money. I'm hearing a lot of you need to talk with your

513
00:30:53,146 --> 00:30:56,882
partners. You need to use the knowledge and. Engage in people who are

514
00:30:56,906 --> 00:31:00,322
experts on it. Right. So I've got experts on my team that are food and

515
00:31:00,346 --> 00:31:04,146
beverage experts. That's who I'm going to leverage to figure that stuff out.

516
00:31:04,218 --> 00:31:07,970
Right. Yeah. Like, I leverage my production partners, help me figure that out.

517
00:31:08,010 --> 00:31:11,842
I can't be everything to everybody. Right. I can't know

518
00:31:11,866 --> 00:31:15,170
everything. So I just make sure I have a really great team around me that

519
00:31:15,210 --> 00:31:18,774
does know their subject matters, and that's who I tap for. Different.

520
00:31:18,862 --> 00:31:22,582
Different elements. And I see that you're very networked. You're a

521
00:31:22,606 --> 00:31:26,214
part of different networks and groups. And I think that's

522
00:31:26,262 --> 00:31:29,782
such a skill, like learning. You know, in this day and age, you still need

523
00:31:29,806 --> 00:31:33,254
to connect with people and get their insights and get their take and realize that

524
00:31:33,262 --> 00:31:35,990
you're not. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You actually

525
00:31:36,030 --> 00:31:39,702
just have to be good at utilizing the resources around you. Exactly. Exactly. Which

526
00:31:39,726 --> 00:31:43,542
is another way to save money would be, you know, I've got thousands of

527
00:31:43,566 --> 00:31:46,454
planners now in my network, so if I've got a client and they want to

528
00:31:46,462 --> 00:31:50,050
do an event in Seattle or something. Well, obviously I'm not in seatt, you know,

529
00:31:50,090 --> 00:31:53,042
so, like. Well, we don't want to pay to send you to Seattle. I get

530
00:31:53,066 --> 00:31:56,738
that. Well, I've got people boots on the ground in Seattle that I know,

531
00:31:56,794 --> 00:31:59,762
and I trust that I would bring in to be part of my team to

532
00:31:59,786 --> 00:32:03,522
execute that event for me in Seattle. Right. So

533
00:32:03,706 --> 00:32:07,522
to your point, being networked is really important because you can. You can

534
00:32:07,706 --> 00:32:11,346
tap into people as you need to, wherever they are, and you. End up

535
00:32:11,418 --> 00:32:15,106
saving people money for hiring you because they're. They're

536
00:32:15,138 --> 00:32:18,830
renting that network for a time and that, you know, you can.

537
00:32:18,870 --> 00:32:22,510
You have resources all over where if they had to reinvent the wheel, it could

538
00:32:22,550 --> 00:32:26,238
Cost twice as much. Exactly, exactly. Or just like

539
00:32:26,294 --> 00:32:30,078
another example is, I had a client. They didn't. They didn't

540
00:32:30,094 --> 00:32:33,182
bring us into the fold until after they had already signed the contract with a

541
00:32:33,206 --> 00:32:36,958
convention center. Okay. So they did the site visit themselves. They signed

542
00:32:36,974 --> 00:32:40,606
the contract. We had absolutely. No. That's rough input on that. So we inherit

543
00:32:40,638 --> 00:32:44,302
this contract. So we get into planning, and we're working on

544
00:32:44,326 --> 00:32:46,988
WI fi. And I come back, I said, well, here's the quote for WI Fi.

545
00:32:47,004 --> 00:32:50,812
And she's. And it was 30 grand, right? And she's like, well, but they

546
00:32:50,836 --> 00:32:54,240
told me they had WI fi. I said, yeah,

547
00:32:55,140 --> 00:32:58,316
they do. Not at the speed you need, you know,

548
00:32:58,468 --> 00:33:02,076
so. Because they just didn't know what to ask. Right?

549
00:33:02,148 --> 00:33:05,964
And. And it's not. Wasn't her fault. She just didn't know. And they learned a

550
00:33:05,972 --> 00:33:09,532
hard lesson that they had to pay $30,000. It wasn't planned in their budget for

551
00:33:09,556 --> 00:33:12,792
Wi Fi because they know to get the speed that they needed and to get

552
00:33:12,816 --> 00:33:16,520
the network they needed. And so, man, if I could. If I could

553
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:20,136
make T shirts. Please hire an experienced

554
00:33:20,168 --> 00:33:23,464
professional when you're planning an event. That's probably a really dumb T shirt.

555
00:33:23,512 --> 00:33:27,064
But I. I have seen experienced

556
00:33:27,112 --> 00:33:30,520
planners save so much money because they know the

557
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,976
questions to ask. Because school of hard knocks,

558
00:33:34,008 --> 00:33:37,768
sometimes, you know, or you take the time to read the contract, or

559
00:33:37,824 --> 00:33:41,642
you have friends that have done it before. You have people that are lending you

560
00:33:41,666 --> 00:33:45,402
their experience, and it really does. That's just another example of why

561
00:33:45,426 --> 00:33:48,794
I love this fractional head of events. If you hire

562
00:33:48,842 --> 00:33:52,682
Wendy, I'm telling you, you will save money. It's, you

563
00:33:52,706 --> 00:33:56,458
know, yes, you will be paying her for all of that expertise, but you will

564
00:33:56,514 --> 00:34:00,314
save money. Right. And your team will learn something in the process. Right,

565
00:34:00,402 --> 00:34:04,122
Right. Free education. Not free, but an education that they

566
00:34:04,146 --> 00:34:07,842
can then deploy. And I love it. It's just a good, good, you

567
00:34:07,866 --> 00:34:11,506
know, you're talking about that. What did you call it? The Silver Retirement.

568
00:34:11,618 --> 00:34:15,458
Silver Resignation. Silver Resignation, Yeah. I almost

569
00:34:15,514 --> 00:34:18,990
had it. It's both, right? It's retirement and resignation, people.

570
00:34:19,610 --> 00:34:23,426
This is helping to mitigate that in institutional

571
00:34:23,458 --> 00:34:27,250
knowledge that will be lost over the next decade by having people

572
00:34:27,290 --> 00:34:31,070
that know what they're doing around. So, okay, your company,

573
00:34:32,410 --> 00:34:35,682
what are you excited right about right now? Like, what are the things that get

574
00:34:35,706 --> 00:34:39,213
you excited? And like, I. I love this. And this is what to be

575
00:34:39,221 --> 00:34:41,209
doing. Yeah. Well,

576
00:34:42,789 --> 00:34:46,621
I love that we're seeing events evolving into more. We're calling it kind

577
00:34:46,645 --> 00:34:49,609
of moment planning. Right.

578
00:34:50,789 --> 00:34:54,605
Those little elements of surprise that you Plan into events

579
00:34:54,637 --> 00:34:58,461
and also people finally recognizing that you need some white space in your day.

580
00:34:58,645 --> 00:35:02,445
It's. The breaks are necessary from a brain standpoint. There's.

581
00:35:02,477 --> 00:35:05,701
I posted about this a couple weeks ago about the brain science of

582
00:35:05,845 --> 00:35:09,654
taking, taking the proper breaks and letting your brain sort of catch up to

583
00:35:09,662 --> 00:35:13,286
what you just heard. You know, there are reasons why TED talks are only

584
00:35:13,438 --> 00:35:16,694
what, 10 to 18 minutes long because that's how long you can focus and then

585
00:35:16,702 --> 00:35:20,262
you need to take a break, right? Yes. So people are getting smarter about how

586
00:35:20,286 --> 00:35:23,622
we're planning agendas and doing more of this moment planning, which I think is really

587
00:35:23,646 --> 00:35:27,430
cool because it's, it's really creating the experiences that are going to create

588
00:35:27,470 --> 00:35:30,930
the memories and help people retain the information.

589
00:35:31,230 --> 00:35:34,846
I think AI is pretty amazing. I have,

590
00:35:35,038 --> 00:35:38,142
you know, gotten on board with that in the last year. And I'm telling you,

591
00:35:38,166 --> 00:35:41,950
I use it every day, several times a day. And

592
00:35:41,990 --> 00:35:45,290
it's, you know, I think it's a game changer as far as helping us

593
00:35:45,670 --> 00:35:49,342
just speed up our processes and for writing and things like

594
00:35:49,366 --> 00:35:52,210
that. So I think that's pretty exciting.

595
00:35:52,950 --> 00:35:56,590
I think, you know, we're going to see more personalization coming in with

596
00:35:56,630 --> 00:36:00,270
technology happening. There's some pretty cool technology out there now

597
00:36:00,310 --> 00:36:04,126
where, you know, the geofencing things that we can do

598
00:36:04,198 --> 00:36:07,278
to get messaging to people when they're at an event. So it's custom to them.

599
00:36:07,334 --> 00:36:10,174
You know, I think some of that is really exciting. So like I said, I

600
00:36:10,182 --> 00:36:13,934
think it's this moment planning in a very personalized way so

601
00:36:13,942 --> 00:36:17,342
that people really are getting, going to get what they really want out of

602
00:36:17,366 --> 00:36:21,070
events. Moment planning, I love that. And it, and it

603
00:36:21,190 --> 00:36:24,878
falls in line with your, what Cranberry thread it does

604
00:36:24,934 --> 00:36:28,772
through you can, you can place these moments that are all strategic, all part.

605
00:36:28,796 --> 00:36:31,732
Of that and making it relevant for each person. You got to figure it. You

606
00:36:31,756 --> 00:36:35,060
got to, you know, with data we can figure out what, what resonates with me

607
00:36:35,100 --> 00:36:38,788
versus what resonates with you. You know, what are the, what are the sessions? We're

608
00:36:38,804 --> 00:36:41,428
going to be able to get to a point where we can even help people.

609
00:36:41,484 --> 00:36:45,204
Like if you're at a conference and let's say there's five tracks of content, educational

610
00:36:45,252 --> 00:36:48,228
content, you know, we're going to be able to get to a place where it's

611
00:36:48,244 --> 00:36:51,092
going to be able to recommend and say, Wendy, based on your interest, you should

612
00:36:51,116 --> 00:36:54,878
go to these five sessions. Right. And then we're going to be able to track

613
00:36:54,934 --> 00:36:57,822
that better to see, you know, how did it go when she was in that

614
00:36:57,846 --> 00:37:01,182
session, you know, what did she engage with? And just better

615
00:37:01,206 --> 00:37:05,038
engagement, a better custom experience for each attendee.

616
00:37:05,214 --> 00:37:08,878
I love it. And speaking of resonating, if if

617
00:37:08,934 --> 00:37:12,650
what someone's listening to resonates with them, how would someone

618
00:37:12,950 --> 00:37:16,638
learn more about Wendy Porter events? Sure. So several

619
00:37:16,694 --> 00:37:20,524
ways you can find me. So I'm on all the social channels. LinkedIn is the

620
00:37:20,532 --> 00:37:23,916
best one I'm on there multiple times a day and respond to messages fairly quickly

621
00:37:23,948 --> 00:37:26,380
there. You can email me which is just

622
00:37:26,420 --> 00:37:29,900
Wendyendyporterevents.com or go to our

623
00:37:29,940 --> 00:37:33,724
webpage Wendyporterevents.com at the very bottom. If you

624
00:37:33,812 --> 00:37:37,240
slide down on the homepage, there's a form you can fill out to find

625
00:37:37,700 --> 00:37:40,732
open times in my calendar for a free 30 minute

626
00:37:40,796 --> 00:37:44,428
conversation. Love it. I love it. Well

627
00:37:44,484 --> 00:37:48,208
Wendy, this has been been a blast. It was everything I hoped

628
00:37:48,224 --> 00:37:51,904
it would be and a little more I learned something. So

629
00:37:51,992 --> 00:37:55,632
I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for for being here on the

630
00:37:55,656 --> 00:37:59,140
show. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It was a great conversation.

631
00:37:59,720 --> 00:38:02,976
And thank you for joining us on the Event Pro Show. Be sure to join

632
00:38:03,008 --> 00:38:06,256
us every other Thursday where we'll be releasing

633
00:38:06,368 --> 00:38:10,192
episodes from Event Pros in every corner

634
00:38:10,256 --> 00:38:14,020
of events. The idea ideas to just give you content that help you grow

635
00:38:14,060 --> 00:38:16,880
as an event professional. Have a great day.

636
00:38:22,460 --> 00:38:25,732
The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG

637
00:38:25,876 --> 00:38:29,700
video by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by

638
00:38:29,740 --> 00:38:33,508
Prince Thompson. You can learn more about us at LEMG

639
00:38:33,684 --> 00:38:33,900
Live.