event professionals

Whether you’re building your own creative business or positioning yourself as the creative go-to in someone else’s company, you’ll want to hear from William Warren. As the Founder of the visual communications firm The Sketch Effect and author of “The Conquering Creative: 9 Shifts to Build an Unstoppable Creative Business,” William knows a lot about earning a living as a creative.

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on productivity, delegation, strategy, goal setting, sweet spots, and self-care for creatives with William and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Why the f*ck are we going back and not forward with our events? Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on what we can do differently with our organizations and clients with Brianna Elenes of Freeman and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Communities are all the rage. When done well, event organizers benefit from keeping their attendees happy and engaged between events. Attendees profit from learning and networking with their peers. Bad community management results in a ghost town, but good community management is difficult and time-consuming.

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on the benefits and rewards of 365 communities with the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Corporate marketers are data-driven but has the event data they’re after changed? SXSW, the annual “festival” for film, media, music and tech, is a great place to find the answer to that question.

In this show, Cindy Lo of Austin-based RED VELVET shares what was on the minds of brand marketers, the event data they’re looking for, and what, if anything, caught her eye at SX. The viewers of the weekly webcast also chime in.

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Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Research shows that the human attention span has decreased significantly in the past two decades. As a result, conference sessions are shorter and post-event videos are being served up in snackable portions.

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on this long-simmering trend and what’s next with the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Teamwork makes the dream work if you do it right. Whether you’re the coach, player, or cheerleader, join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on how to work together, maintain momentum, keep the creative juices flowing, be inclusive, and deal with the naysayers to produce unquestionably epic events with Monique Ruff-Bell of TED and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

In his new book, "Harnessing Serendipity—Collaboration Artists, Conveners and Connectors: The Art of Collaboration for Visionary Leaders," David Adler believes that “collaboration is a skill we can all better learn, develop, and share” and “serendipity isn’t totally serendipitous.”

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on how to make magic when humans come together with David and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

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Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 firm or a solopreneur, Ramon Ray believes you can grow your business and live the life you want.

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on personal branding, community-building and getting the attention you deserve with Ramon Ray of CelebrityCEO.com and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

Connect with Us:

Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

There’s no doubt that in-person events have made a comeback. But what have they come back from, and what are they moving to? Not too long ago, according to Skift, festivalization was the word the industry used to describe “the ‘cross-pollination’ or intermingling of business or tech and creative industries.” Has that idea come and gone?

Join the hosts as they cut the sh*t on how events can stand out with Robert Dunsmore, freelance creative director and experience strategist, and the viewers of their weekly webcast.

Connect with Us:

Submit Your Ideas Here

Liz Caruso King on LinkedIn

Michelle Bruno on LinkedIn

Dahlia El Gazzar on LinkedIn 

In this episode, I connect with Shanondoah Nicholson about many subjects, mainly event planning and how you can embellish your career as an event professional. Shanondoah shares her story of how she came into the event industry and gives some suggestions and advice for aspiring event professionals.

Episode Highlights:

• Shanondoan shares the most important part of where you are in your career. 
• How a great team can help you see your ideas differently for the best perspective.
• Getting her CMP impacted Shanondoah's career, learn how important she thinks that the designation is.
• How to rest and recharge during the off-season and how it is important for you to maintain your sense of well-being thus decreasing stress and overwhelm.
• Importance of letting your network know when you are in a season of higher stress can help you put a boundary around what is currently important.
• The importance of saying no, and saying yes respectfully.
• How doing the unexpected can light up the worlds of our customers. 
• Shanondoah shares the reason for her starting her very own podcast, and how she loves to talk about corporate events and how they have made an impact on her career.
• How keeping track of your commendations and accomplishments in your role can help you as you advance your career.
• Also learn about Shanondoah's go-to travel accessories, favorite self-help book, and what she loves to do in her free time. 

Links and Resources
Beyond the BEO - Instagram
Shanondoah Nicholson - Linkedin

Your event could be a total success from start to finish: Your first impressions wowed your guests, your program was flawless, and you might have raised more money than ever. But there’s one thing that could make or break the overall impression of your event: Checkout. If people are waiting in a long line to pick up their auction items or pay their pledged donations at the end of the night, you could send them home feeling frustrated. Have a detailed plan for your checkout process, from start to finish, so you can keep things running smoothly until the last guest leaves. Don’t let a long or disorganized checkout dampen all your hard work and the success of the evening.

We’re describing some best practices for your event checkout process, so you can have less stress and get your guests out the door with all their purchased items and a smile on their faces.

Handbid's software will make your checkout a breeze. Tap here to find out how!

Show Notes for this episode 

Your nonprofit board is crucial to your event's success and to advancing your organization’s mission. Board members are the ones who provide you with guidance and advice and who bring money, connections, and other resources to the table. But managing that board and finding the right board members can be tricky.

We brought in special guest Mike Papi, founder of the OneGoat Foundation, to talk with the Handbid team about figuring out what types of people may be suitable for your Board and how they can help to make your event successful. The group talks about the strengths and woes of board members and offers a little advice if you’re already on a nonprofit Board.

Let Handbid help you raise more money, dazzle your guests, and pull off a fantastic event with mobile bidding software that makes every event a smash. Tap here to learn more.

To connect with the OneGoat Foundation, visit onegoat.org

The last few years have brought plenty of change, and trade shows have especially had challenges!

Our guest on this episode has a ton of experience around helping exhibitors and show organizers alike tackle ways to make their trade shows better experiences.

"Relationships are the currency of business" is one of the many quotes Jeffferson gave from many sage business people.

Relationships ARE at the center of everything we do, and we should keep that as the focus as we build commerce and community around our trade shows.

Our guest

Jefferson Davis - President of Competitive Edge
Jefferson has been serving the exposition industry since 1991 as a consultant, trainer, and author. Jefferson brings a unique and in-depth experience and perspective on working with exposition producers and companies who exhibit at expos.

His focus with event producers is about helping them get, keep, and grow relationships and revenue. With exhibitors, he helps them convert their exhibiting program from expensive appearances to productive, profitable investments. His client base reads like a “who is who” in the events industry, having worked with over 250 Association and for-profit show producers – many for 10, 15, & even more than 20 years. With exhibiting companies he's worked with, he’s been able to trace over $800 million in results from their exhibiting investments.

If there's one thing people will tell you about Jefferson is that he is extremely passionate about exhibit and event marketing, and he's results-focused and process-based.

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The "Trade Show Talk" podcast is publishing two episodes per month, tackling the most important issues the meetings and events industry is facing. If you'd like to be a sponsor or a guest or you have a topic to suggest we cover, please let us know by emailing podcast@tsnn.com. And we'd love it if you'd SHARE, rate, and review episode 24, & the show!

Event marketing and marketing an event are different things… and they are inter-connected. On this episode our guests share the state of the industry as they are seeing it through working with a variety of corporate clients over the years.

Several strategic themes resonate throughout this show… be authentic, be purposeful, be critical, be agile, and always show value. 

It's important to look at your event portfolio holistically. Determining the events to hold and attend, to sponsor, and to speak at – looking at all of these things with a critical eye is something that should be done annually. Having an "outsider" help you do this is also a way to help take the emotion out of these decisions.

Particularly poignant in this episode is the talk about measuring everything you’re doing to PROVE the value of events (and to promote change).

These two event profs have a ton to teach us!

Our guests

Gordon Stake - Managing Partner, 
Event Marketing Partners

For more than 25 years, Gordon has led teams that help clients achieve their business goals & marketing objectives through face-to-face marketing.

He is active in the industry, including sitting on the Board of Directors for the Corporate Event Marketing Association (CEMA), the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition (EMMC), and founding the Technology Event Marketing Strategy Council (TEMSC), and was on the leadership team of industry tradeshows & conferences such as PC, Unix, and Networks Expos.

Angela Krzysko - Vice President of Marketing,
Event Marketing Partners 

With a career split between client and agency sides, Angela brings a keen sense of accountability to business goals, along with proven experience at crafting marketing strategies designed to drive demand, extend relationships, and build brands. 

A talented strategist, her focus is helping organizations achieve their business objectives through event marketing and integrated communication strategies. Smart strategy and exceptional execution are at the heart of every plan that Angela helps to craft.  

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The "Trade Show Talk" podcast is publishing two episodes per month, focusing on a different theme each month. If you'd like to be a sponsor or a guest or you have a topic to suggest we cover, please let us know by emailing podcast@tsnn.com. And we'd love it if you'd rate and review episode 18 and the show also!

The human element will never be automated. Creativity will never be automated.

And Event Technology is the workhorse behind the human efforts to make change and creativity in the meetings and events industry.

When we design events – or an experience – we are behind them as humans and event technology is a force we can use to help us put the ingredients together.

These are just a few of the gems from our guests on episode ten.

Event technology has taken on many forms over the last ten years, and Michelle and Nick have been there each step of the way.

We have all been through a lot over the past couple of years and now is the time to get a better understanding of tech in our industry.

Michelle Bruno, MPC, CEM, CMP  

Strategic Consultant with Dahlia+ Agency and President of Bruno Group Signature Services

As a former supplier and conference planner/trade show manager, Michelle sees the technology and evolution of the live-event industry through a unique lens. She chronicles change through articles in event-industry publications, event-tech company blogs and at EventTechBrief.com. At her firm, Bruno Group Signature Services, she helps create content and strategies for companies interested in attracting more customers through digital-marketing channels.

As a technology writer, she supports marketing agencies and consultancies that require outside resources to meet the content demands of their technology-industry clients. She has managed content strategies and produced white papers, product profiles, messaging frameworks, email copy, website copy, blogs, and executive level thought leadership materials for leading firms, such as Intel, Cisco, Verizon, SAIC, TE, ExxonMobil, RSM, McCann Erickson, Salt 5 Marketing, and AMR International.

Nick Borelli, Marketing Director, Meetaverse™ by Allseated, podcaster, and board member of SEARCH Foundation, among other things!

With over two decades in digital marketing and live events, Nick Borelli’s mission is to bring the world together through intentionally designed experiences.

As the Director of Marketing Growth for AllSeated and exVo, Nick engages with event professionals in order to continuously provide the next level tools that help organizations reach their goals.

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The "Trade Show Talk" podcast is publishing two episodes per month, focusing on a different theme each month. If you'd like to be a sponsor or a guest or you have a topic to suggest we cover, please let us know by emailing podcast@tsnn.com.

There is so much more to managing food and beverage than meets the eye. It’s no longer about just learning who needs a vegetarian meal. We have to account for allergies and we need to understand it is also about inclusivity and accessibility. There are things you might not be thinking about.

By educating the industry from hotel chefs, to planners and CSMs, to food servers, Tracy has made it her mission to not only shine a light on what needs to be done, but also how we can get creative while keeping everyone safe!

We have all sat next to people at an event who sat for way too long before being served. Or next to the person who was served a plate of vegetables. Not only can we do better, it is our obligation… AND we can save time and money while doing the right thing.

Tracy has a fantastic podcast called Eating at a Meeting, in addition to a Facebook group of the same name where she records her podcast live–check them out also.

She knows her stuff!

Tracy Stuckrath

Dietary Needs Expert. Meetings Industry Changemaker. Certified Special Events Professional. Tracy Stuckrath works with organizations and meeting planners worldwide to create safe, sustainable, and inclusive F&B events that deliver experiences where everyone feels valued. Every guest matters. Every meal matters.

Founder of thrive! meetings & events, and the Eating at a Meeting podcast, Tracy has had a 30+year career as an event professional. After being diagnosed with a food allergy, she changed the trajectory of her career in 2009 to help clients establish best practices, mitigate risk, improve experiences, and increase profit with the food and beverage they serve.

She has produced 120+ podcast episodes, co-authored two books, published over 100 articles and is recognized as a meetings and event industry leader, including Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry and a Top 500 Event Professionals in North America.