The Event Producer Podcast

If you're considering the purchase of a mobile stage for your business, your municipality, your church, or just because you like big toys, todays guest is going to provide the advice you need to make the right purchase decision. Today's episode was recorded live at the Mobile Stage Conference in Fort Lauderdale Florida. This biennial conference is produced by our friend Mike Laino with the Mobile Stage Network. Give Mike a call if you need to find a stage rental anywhere in the U.S. Today's guest is the Executive Sales Manager for Apex stages based in Kansas. Home of the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs. Jeff Hess is our guest today, on the Event Producer Podcast.

Todays guest is a serial entrepreneur and an influencer in the world of event production. In this episode of the podcast he will share some creative event ideas and we'll discuss the power of creating a mini conference in your niche. Mike Laino of the Mobile Stage Network is our guest today on the Event Producer Podcast.

I recently drove over an hour each way and paid to attend a luncheon on a subject matter I was really interested in. Only to find speakers with poor presentations. It was obvious that the promoters of the event did not work with the presenters to tailor their talk to the specific needs of the audience. It was also clear that they did not review the presenters slides prior to the luncheon. We've talked on this show about not doing boring presentations and incorporating gamification or hackathons into your events. If you haven't listened to these episodes I encourage you to go back and give them a listen. Today's guest is our first repeat guest. He is the Founder and Producer of Podfest Multimedia Expo, a rapidly growing niche conference held in Orlando Florida every March. He's also the author of the book Start Ugly-A Timeless Tale about Innovation and Change. He is a professional speaker, and the host of the Live Event Profits channel on YouTube. Chris Krimitsos is our guest, again, on the event producer podcast.

Take an empty space and transform it into an experiential restaurant with a professional, custom-built, open kitchen that serves a 100-course tasting menu to up to 100 people two times a day. Sound crazy? It's just the logistical and culinary challenge that today's guest craves. After all, this is the guy that once served an elegant meal on a NYC Subway. Michael Cirino, Founder and Creative Director of A Razor/A Shiny Knife is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Todays guest likes to think differently about experiential marketing and her white paper titled "The 10 new Rules of Experiential" Is a must read. Today we're going to discuss rule #6 titled Death to the Panel, or more appropriately, Don't Do Boring Shit. She ran the experiential division of Conde' Naste, she was the Global Head of Marketing at Fast Company. She has written two books (on politics and sports), and optioned a TV show about the summer she and her dad ushered for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Erica Boeke, Founder and CEO of Liberty and Company is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Have you done this? You're working on an event with a small staff so you decide that once things get started you'll be able to snap a few photos for social media. Then you find yourself in "event mode" and you're so busy that you don't have time and you grab a few wide shots of the stage and the audience, or forget altogether? I'm not saying that I've done this personally, I just heard about it from someone. That looks a lot like me. Well, this is where UGC, or User Generated Content comes in. Your guests have the best view of your event and the images you gather from them are helpful beyond just filling out your instagram. Our guest today is an expert at connecting businesses with their ideal customer via social media, she is the host of the TraDigital podcast, and she likes to run marathons. Stefanie LaHart, Founder of BoomTown Marketing, is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Todays guest may very well be the hardest working man in the event Business. He is an active industry influencer with a few podcasts, and a youtube channel, he's a speaker and most importantly he's the founder of a nationwide AV company. So let's dig in to content creation and changes happening in the AV industry that will directly affect Event Planners. Our guest today is Will Curran, Founder and Chief Event Einstein at Endless Events.

In this episode of the podcast we're going to pass on some valuable tips about lighting your event that every Planner should find useful. And we'll discuss how lighting is one area of your event where you can go green. Jacob Towe, Lighting Designer and DJ is our guest today, on The Event Producer Podcast.

We're going super niche with today's show by focusing on sports marketing. This is one for all of you in charge of marketing local sports venues to event planners. The Author of the book Winning is not a Strategy, Mr. Zac Logsdon is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast. 

Hackathons are traditionally intense events where programmers, interface designers, and others gather to create a usable software or hardware solution in a short amount of time. In todays episode of the podcast, we'll learn how a hackathon can also be used to solve non-technical challenges for your organization or conference. Jamie Murdock, VP of Sales at Experient, is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Our guest today is the co-founder and editor of Event Industry News, he is a Technology Evangelist, and he organizes Event Tech Live, Europes only show dedicated to event technology. In today's episode we talk about a number of new technologies from AI translation to Virtual reality and wayfinding. This is a fun episode and we get to geek out on some cool tech. Adam Parry of Event Industry News is our guest today, on the Event Producer Podcast.  

How do you get your attendees and sponsors clamoring to be a part of your event? If you don't listen to all of today's episode of the podcast your event may be relegated to just being ho-hum. Sponsors may pass on that gold level opportunity to have theirs be the biggest logo on the banner. Attendees may decide to skip it altogether. You will miss out on the strategies required to make your event a huge success. I know what you're thinking. You're afraid. what valuable insights will you miss if you don't spend the next 30 minutes listening to this show? You are wracked with fear. Fear that you will miss out on valuable strategies to build more audience and attract more sponsors. It's called FOMO. Or the fear of missing out. And in today's episode. We're going to teach you how to design experiences that induce FOMO. Our guest today has been in the events and hospitality industries since he was just 14 years old. He is a consultant, strategist, speaker and writer focused on bringing people together to accomplish big goals. Nick Borelli is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

You can unlock your phone just by looking at it. Your handprint gets you back into the country. Security cameras in major cities are already scanning your face whether you like it or not. Biometrics like facial recognition are already a part of our everyday lives. As event producers, how can we leverage this technology to improve the customer experience at our event? What are the security concerns? Today's guest is an expert on facial recognition. He has a Ph.D. in computer science. He has a dozen publications in leading journals and conferences along with a book chapter in Face Recognition Across the Imaging Spectrum. And he is the co-founder of a biometrics company specializing in events. Panos Moutafis, CEO of Zenus is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.  

If any part of your event takes place outdoors, this episode of the podcast is worth your time. Our guest today is a professional forecaster with more than a decade of experience providing decision support for clients in the live event industry. Jason Anderson, Lead Forecaster for TruWeather Solutions, is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Today on the podcast our guest will introduce us to the application of game playing to encourage engagement with the content of your presentation or training program. We're talking about gamification and it's going to be a game-changer in your event planning practice. Our guest today has been an organizational development expert for numerous Fortune 500 companies and she is a senior executive with a company that can help you turn your event into an experiential learning environment. Sue Wigston, Chief Operating Officer of Eagles Flight is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Chris Krimitsos is a master facilitator and conference producer. He has produced thousands of events under the umbrella of the Tampa Bay business owners and in 2015 he launched pod Fest Multimedia Expo. Pod Fest is a national conference for content creators that takes place in Orlando, Florida and has grown to over 1000 attendees in just a few years. He is a speaker, a business leader, and event producer, a podcaster, and a filmmaker. Notes: When it comes to marketing via social media you need to figure out who your audience is, where they're at. So if you have very B2B audience, you're going to be using LinkedIn for the most part. If you're a millennial audience, almost exclusively, you can be using Facebook, Instagram. It's not about posting a lot. It's about curating the image of your event. You need to paint the picture of what it will be like if someone were to attend this event.  Photography and cinematography should be a line item in your budget.  If you are promoting and event, paid ads on social media platforms is a must.  Always do live promotions in real time.  Another source of social media influence is the people speaking at your event.  In addition to building a list via digital marketing, Chris speaks as a number of other events and passes around a sheet for people to sign up to receive more info.  You could do a podcast throughout the year featuring your speakers as a way to tease the audience for what they'll get out of attending your conference.  Podcasts can be used to gain access to people that would not otherwise take your calls.  There are a number of ways to leverage your content.

In this episode of The Event Producer Podcast,  we are going to help you to identify the best A/V provider for your event and answer that nagging question, “Must I use the in-house A/V company?” Today's guest was once a Senior VP at PSAV, the largest of the in-house AV companies, but today, he is the CEO of a boutique A/V firm, the southern California based Clarity Experiences. Clarity handles everything from designing custom stage sets and scenic environments to content creation and production of your live event. Brian Lagestee, CEO of Clarity Experiences is our guest on this episode of The Event Producer Podcast.