Event Industry News Podcast

James C Morris joined full-service event and experiential marketing agency Impact XM, where he is now VP client service, at the beginning of 2018 – bringing nearly 12 years of industry experience at Atlantic Exhibits with him. In this episode, Morris and host James Dickson look at the realities post-the UFI’s Global Recovery Insights 2021 report. Have things bounced back as predicted and what the driving factors are if so. Morris goes on to consider the parameters of ‘experiential’, how virtual is no replacement for face-to-face in event world, the increase in the want for global reach through Covid and out this side and how travel can heighten anticipation and productivity. Much more too, of course.   To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

Chief strategy officer Stephen Pickett joined Live Group in March 2022, from equally self-explanatory Canadian business CleanRiver Recycling Solutions. In this episode Pickett explains what ‘quiet quitting’ is, the causes behind the concept, the impact on employers and, crucially, what they can do about it. Steered by host James Dickson, Pickett discusses motivating a team and the individuals within it. Keeping people engaged and how crucial that is in the events industry. He unwraps ‘how do I need to deliver my message’ and talks post-pandemic mania – balancing the in-person, hybrid, virtual equation.  Pickett goes on to talk ticking the boxes – how many advantages the employees have and the potential benefits, on both sides, of allowing teams to work flexibly. Much more too of course. Surveys show, incidentally, that disengagement at work costs some $70bn in lost productivity. And that 74 per cent of employees are actively looking for jobs within six months of taking on a new role.    To keep up to date wi

Caroline McGuckian founder/CEO at Meshh, a company focused on the ‘metrics of movement’, and Jack Jacob, MD and founder of PNE (Partnership Network Events), join host James Dickson to take a look at the Metaverse.   On the premise that Metaverse is a work in progress, and everyone, everywhere, has a different perspective, this episode is part wish list, part comparison.   All three participants are resolute supporters of in-person events and hope this next iteration of the virtual world can, to an extent at least, be dictated by consumers.   Unconstrained by traditional parameters, the conversation covers everything from the funding question and sating the five senses to gaming, Metaverse gigs and the Queen’s funeral, underscored by the perennial ‘what it could be good for’.

With multiple cross-industry specialties in his locker New York-based Matt Frank is director of technology evangelism & product marketing at Blackthorn – ‘easy event management for Salesforce’. Across some 40 minutes, this episode’s focus is the largest CRM system in the world and how Blackthorn’s apps, which are native to Salesforce, make processing payments and managing events easy. With host James Dickson containing the conversation, Matt Frank talks Blackthorn’s capacity to help customers get the best from Salesforce – understanding its extraordinary reach and capacity - how having data in one place allows you to create the bespoke experience stakeholders have come to expect. Matt discusses creating an event platform, the Salesforce tools, how Blackthorn tech is designed to be absolutely straightforward to operate and much more.

With more than 20 years software development, product management and business development in her back pocket, Wei Li is head of Zoom Events and Webinar.   In this episode, Wei talks host James Dickson through the launch of Zoom Events in July of 2021, discussing pandemic impact., mitigation, and highlighting the system’s extraordinary updates and innovations impetus. Referencing the hybrid user and partner conference Zoomtopia 2022, which takes place later this month, Wei discusses Zoom Webinar’s ‘green room’, called ‘backstage’, where remote presenters can hang out between sessions – talk to each other and watch what’s going on ‘front of house’. Detailing the Zoom roadmap, she highlights Zoom Events’ networking features, the Q&A function, hosting with the proper production tools, engagement, interactivity, the ‘webinar reaction’ feature, which embraces feedback from virtual and physical attendees, getting beyond tech stacks and much, much more.

Introduced by host Adam Parry the second chapter of chats he had during a visit to Cvent CONNECT Europe, at Intercontinental Hotel – The O2, is with Jamie Vaughan, the company’s VP of European sales.   Following Jamie’s potted perspective on some of CONNECT 2022’s content, and the show’s primary takeaways, this short episode focuses on the Cvent culture and what the greater industry can learn from it.   Jamie Vaughan takes another tack on the virtual/hybrid evolution that Patrick Smith discussed in part one, going on to define Cvent as it stands, beyond the ‘software company’ label, and how the team there is developing a structure for anything that comes next.

Adam Parry caught up Cvent senior vice president and chief marketing officer Patrick Smith at the physical element of hybrid Cvent CONNECT Europe, held at Intercontinental Hotel – The O2. A special episode – Event Tech Talks and Walks – this is a focus on marketing; adapting to the new event model post-pandemic. Host Adam Parry introduces the discussion and Patrick Smith talks quickly, covering a lot of ground in these 25 minutes. Having done just one, experimental, virtual event prior to 2020, like so many other companies Cvent has dug deep into hybrid delivery since. Patrick details the benefits to a show like CONNECT Europe, where weight of numbers, physical or virtual, adds to the storytelling, the thought leadership, the best practice and the value in choosing the right event option for you. He goes on to discuss adjusting budgets, the total event programme, how one size won’t fit all, the difference between and a webinar and a virtual event and more.

Jamie Leonard and his wife Lois Holland Leonard founded Recruitment Events determined to do better in an industry Jamie describes as ‘notorious for very bad events’.   They went out to market with a series of small buyer/seller speed meeting shows in 2011 creating the brand and launched RecFest three years later – a festival-style event in a conference room, AstroTurf on the floor, attended by some 100 people.   In this episode, Jamie takes host James Dickson through the subsequent evolution of RecFest – how the founders and their small team turned the idea into an event that saw 4,000 recruiters at this year’s edition.   Held at Knebworth House, RecFest 2022 was the iconic location’s follow-up show to Liam Gallagher.   Jamie Leonard explains how, with its 10 stages of themed content and more than 100 speakers, RecFest combines the key elements of a conference with a trade show – buyers and sellers going there to connect, to seek clients and find out about new tech – wrapped up in a festival feel.   And, cruc

Robin Kemp is head of creative development at Culture Liverpool. In this episode, Robin talks through the city’s celebrated River of Light installation – the event’s seventh edition runs from 21 October to 6 November across Liverpool Waterfront in a 2km loop. Robin details the background – how November 5th fireworks held in parks out of town spawned the inaugural River of Light in 2016, winding its way back into the city and helping to address, to mitigate, the hospitality industry’s traditional autumn challenges – 150,000 people enjoyed the event in 2021. He goes on to discuss the River of Light’s evolution and its geography. How the show has moved from 50/60 smaller works, which didn’t flow for the target audience which wants scale, and the subsequent move to a fraction of that number, altogether bigger and more spectacular.  Robin Kemp tells podcast host James Dickson about working with topical themes, Rhythm of Light last year inspired by Liverpool’s links with music and Unexpected Twist for 2022, in step

The events sector lost huge numbers of fantastic, talented people to other industries as a product of the lockdowns.   In this episode Mike Frost, co-founder of recruitment consultancy Expocast, and Alex Hewitt, CEO and head of strategy at AOK Events, a company that saw its staff numbers cut by 70 per cent across the pandemic pinch point, join host James Dixon to discuss the state of things.   A good balance between want and supply, the podcast looks at whether this is a recruitment crisis – considering the weight of opportunity at the delivery end, where the bulk of the redundancies were, while senior vacancies are outstripped by candidates.   It highlights the importance of culture and environment in a company’s recruitment allure, going on to consider the likes of creative marketing and attracting talent from outside events – how experience doesn’t have to be everything if the training model is good.

Lawrence Coburn, is co-founder & CEO of Twine, an employee connection programme launched in 2020 that operates out of San Francisco.  In this episode, Coburn talks through selling DoubleDutch, another business he launched - an early leader in the mobile event app space, to focus Twine on the networking element or “software that brings people together”. Lawrence Coburn goes on to discuss developing the business, riding the Covid-19 wave and the cost of competing, building a web version and partnering with proven event tech platforms. How working with Zoom – a hard to get alliance launched just two months ago - put the accelerator down for product-led growth. The subsequent trajectory of usage/ the user experience, watching the dashboards, cultivating a viral loop and more besides. A fascinating, fast-paced half an hour.  

Josh Katz is founder and CEO of YellowHeart, which he describes as a made-in-NYC, blockchain live event ticketing platform powered by distributed ledger technology.   A fanatical music fan since childhood, Katz moved from promoting shows to record label world in the mid-1990s. He went on to start his own ‘non-traditional’ label, selling it in 2016 to fund a deep dive into crypto, blockchain and, ultimately, YellowHeart.   In this episode, Katz talks host James Dickson through Web 3, NFTs, cutting out the middlemen to working directly with artists, touts, transparency, security, fragmentation, enhancing the fan experience through recognition/rewards and more besides.

Jenny Morgan founded Pact Three inspired by the 2020 wild fires, which were in her North West America back yard. Pact three partners with teams seeking to be more conscious towards the community, planet, and their employees, working with organisations, assessing their social and environmental impact. In this episode, which, as the title suggests, is about the positives, Jenny digs into the motivations behind her business discussing what it does and how it helps. Passionate and motivated, Jenny goes on to discuss the value for events clients in Pact Three working outside the sector too, understanding sustainability, staffing and the recruitment process, the younger generation and their better grasp of environmentalism and the flaws in pursuing perfection. With host James Dickson putting the questions – ‘do’ the regular prefix – Jenny Morgan goes on to talk measurables, certifications, doing things differently and much, much more. 

With eight years in the sector, Tinique Hay conceived Hay Events, a solution for entrepreneurs and small business management, in 2018. The company launched in lockdown, providing Hay with an opportunity to hone her virtual and hybrid event skills. In this episode, Tinique Hay talks host James Dickson through her background, her inspirations for the new business and why she singled out the entrepreneur niche. Hay highlights the trials of taking a company from theory to practice through the eye of the Covid-19 crisis and finding its physical event form in January this year. She goes on to discuss using social media, building her portfolio via recommendations and word of mouth, budgets, strategy, planning and evolution, sponsorship and much more.   To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

A key part of the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) since January 2009, Dawn Lauder has been head of international conferences at the venue for nearly six years. In this episode, Dawn digs into her learnings from COP26, which was at the SEC in late 2021 making equally sought-after and stellar steps - not least $130tn towards net zero and climate risk disclosure for companies. Dawn talks host James Dickson through the ‘corona-coaster’, the prestige of hosting COP26 despite the tension wrought by Covid-19 in the run-up, the sense of team it fostered, the “off the charts” media coverage, maintaining that sense of purpose, why it’s worth reading the subsequent Sustainability Report, how hosting the summit has influenced Dawn Lauder’s manifesto for change and much more. To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

Yaw Owusu, executive manager at Playmaker Group (PMG), has curated the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) since 2013.   Typically focused in Sefton Park, Covid 19’s impact on the city’s celebrated portfolio for live music has seen a telling switch in LIMF’s structure for 2022. This episode is the story of a festival working for its surrounds, for its community – fans, artists and promoters.   Recorded two weeks ahead of the event, Yaw discusses how, coming off the pandemic, with Liverpool venues suffering, LIMF model 2022 is moving indoors - delivering a cultural tour of the city and making sure venues “get the fair end of the stick”.   In a fascinating 40 minutes Yaw talks inclusivity, logos and theming the event around Liverpool’s huge appetite for music.   This year the theme, and the formula for his longlist of potential players, is Power To The People & Purpose – a mission Yaw fully explained to performers so they can play a full part in its delivery.   To keep up to date with all the new

Working out of Boston on the US east coast, Devin Cleary is VP Global Events for Bizzabo, the event experience operating system, and a regular on the podcast.   In this episode, the focus is back on event tech - in the particular context of 2022, the uptick in optimism, getting back to live events and analysing the changes post-pandemic.   Devin Cleary highlights the new air of confidence, going on to compare tighter commercial purse strings with consumer spending and balancing the cost/sustainability equation in light of the big virtual/hybrid steps taken through the last two years plus.   Cleary goes on to talk, at some pace, about on demand, getting creative and the happiness hangover, the podcasts model, the greater post-event follow-up, a host of invaluable show floor tips, be it in-person, hybrid or virtual, delivering takeaways and much more.   To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.  

Formerly senior logistics manager for Jack Morton Worldwide, Adam Goodman founded full-service creative agency ACA Live in 2008. In this episode, Adam talks host James Dickson through his 20 years plus in events world, from studying hospitality business management in Leeds via a conference and banqueting role at the Langham through to setting up ACA. With drinks brands a core component in the company’s impressive list of clients, then and now, that’s the focus as Adam discusses their presence, their value, at green field sites, adding to the audience experience, the post-pandemic appetite for the festival model, its pain point, using technology, social media, and much more.  To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

Rick Stainton, the man behind creative agency Smyle, founded One Industry One Voice (OIOV) in the eye of the pandemic as a ‘coalition of associations and businesses created to champion the entire events industry’.   In this episode, Rick explains why OIOV has recently been rebranded The Power of Events (TPOE) – a partnership with, but not limited to, Greenwich, Westminster, Surrey, Leeds Beckett, Bournemouth, UWS, Edinburgh Napier, Ulster, Swansea and Cardiff Met.   A persuasive speaker with a whole lot to say, Rick talks about the Covid-19 impact and his ‘diplomatic crusade’ which brought OIOV together two long years ago, getting commitment from myriad trade associations and businesses.    Rick goes on to mention the opportunities and the recovery process, the potential for newcomers, as well as the lack of respect from the media and government, and how that fits with a ‘completely party agnostic, non-lobbying’ TPOE.  

Jelmer van Ast, founder and CEO at Conference Compass, a company – based in the Hague – which is behind customisable event engagement platforms, comes back to the podcast some 12 months after last time. In this episode, Jelmer talks event adaptability with host James Dickson, the science of technology and increasing engagement. He goes on to discuss investing in product development and, crucially, why organisers have to build in an ongoing level of malleability post-pandemic. Despite the inherent fear of dramatic change, it’s ‘adapt or die’! To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.