Event Brew

A recently published Freeman report highlights a significant shift in the demographics of B2B event attendees. With this new generation of younger, more diverse, and more educated attendees emerging, the event industry must adapt to meet their evolving needs and expectations.

In this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Xander, Will Curran, Arianna, and Nick dive into this shift; from understanding the motivations behind younger attendees, and rethinking exhibit halls, to embracing new technology, the Brew Crew explores how event professionals can harness this shift in demographics to create events that cater to the next generation of event-goers. Tune in and find out what they have to say!

As event professionals, we’re constantly striving to create meaningful experiences for attendees and stakeholders while working within limited resources and a budget. In-kind sponsorships are relationships where a business sponsors an event by providing free goods or services rather than a financial contribution. So can in-kind sponsorships for events help you meet your event goals? 

In this episode of the Event Brew, Nick, Will, Deanna, and Xander share their reactions to the term “in-kind sponsorship,” tips on navigating them, and what they think is the ideal scenario for this kind of sponsorship. Let’s dive in!

Amid industry-wide event budget cuts, global inflation, and nationwide layoffs, teams across the events industry are forced to decide which things to keep, remove, or reduce in the budget. So in this episode of the Event Brew podcast, the crew shares their thoughts on what they’d keep, cut, and remove. 

But before we dive into budgets, let’s introduce our special co-host, Xander Castro. Our history with Xander started years ago when he worked for Endless as a freelance ghostwriter. Since then, he’s worked as an event planner and is now the Events Director at Tiny Seed. He was also featured on an earlier episode of #EventIcons. There, you’ll be able to hear more about his background. 

Thanks to Xander’s input in today’s episode, the Brew Crew is taking a gamified approach to the heavy topic of budgets. Given the ability to choose the episode topic, he says this: “I dropped in a random idea that just popped into my mind, the PG version of kiss, marry, kill.” The idea is, “If you look at budgets being cut and your clients are looking at stripping away some of the numbers you have for specific budget items, what are the things you need to keep? What are the things that you have an opportunity to cut? And, what are some of the things that you can completely do away with?” So without further ado, let’s see what the Brew Crew would do.  

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic devastated events across the globe. Almost three years later, the United States is finally making a widespread comeback, events included. Still, it’s not enough for President Biden to declare the pandemic over. As the Brew Crew shares today, many event professionals are still battling low attendance, learning about and designing for increased accessibility and figuring out how to implement the lessons they’ve learned throughout the pandemic. 

In this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Arianna, Will, Nick, and Dustin discuss where the events industry started, what the industry needs today, and how to move forward. Let's get right to it! 

As event professionals, we often reflect on our past experiences and wonder what we could have done differently. Hindsight is 20/20, and it's natural to have moments of regret or wish we'd known then what we know now. The Brew Crew isn't immune to this phenomenon.

As experienced professionals, they would have lots of knowledge to share with their younger selves, but because they cannot, Arianna, Deanna, and Will share their advice with you. With the caveat that they speak to their former selves in the third person and the benefit of hindsight, the Brew Crew brings valuable advice for event professionals. Tune in to today's Event Brew episode to find out what they have to share.

In recent years, “cannabis” and “marijuana” have been hot topics of interest for event professionals. And with the increasing legalization of the psychoactive drug, conversations around cannabis for events are at an all-time high. As the industry comes to terms with this new reality, many event professionals aren’t sure what to do next. ‘Bud’ if one thing is clear, cannabis is here to stay. 

From CBD wellness retreats to cannabis at HR conferences, events are experiences that can benefit from intentional design with cannabis in mind. And today, the Brew Crew wonders how long it will be until you can find cannabis at an event near you. In this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Nick, Will, and Deanna make a joint effort to discuss the similarities and differences between cannabis and alcohol, what event professionals should prepare for, and how to make an excellent cannabis introduction at your event.

Event goals are what you aim to achieve before, during, and after your event, and they impact almost everything event professionals do. So what happens when you crush your goals? Well, Ana A. reached out and asked precisely this. She says, “Say an event was successful, reached all goals and objectives, and made the host more money. What would you say the next step for the event is? Would it be making the event bigger year after year?” 

That’s a great question, and in this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Deanna, Arianna, and Will share their thoughts on how to proceed. Tune in to find out what the Brew Crew thinks of event goals, how they handle ongoing progress, and what they think your next steps could be. Let’s dive in!

As an event professional, you likely rely on some degree of creativity and inspiration to design events, drive innovation, and make your mark on the attendee experience. But when the creativity wheels aren’t turning, and the inspiration isn’t flowing, it can feel hard to come up with fun or even new ideas and make meaningful progress at work. That’s why in this episode of the Event Brew, the Brew Crew is talking about event inspiration, creativity, and innovation. 

Together, they’ll share where they draw inspiration from. Spoiler alert, for some, it’s a shoe, and for others, it’s an old idea made new. How exactly do they build up their creativity muscles? Tune in to find out.

Event gamification kind of sucks right now, but it doesn’t have to. Event organizers turn to gamification to try and drive engagement and rally excitement around an event. But more often than not, it’s just a thinly disguised tool to get attendees to do what organizers and sponsors want them to do. That’s why our guest co-host Arianna Black is struggling to find value in event gamification. 

In this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Will and Arianna discuss why gamification in events misses the mark. Spoiler alert–it’s because of misaligned priorities between attendees and organizers. Together, they’ll brainstorm how to implement in-person and virtual event gamification to benefit attendees and organizers authentically. This episode is full of insightful insights and actionable advice.

Event professionals can start their career paths in almost any job or industry. This is something the Brew Crew knows well, as today’s hosts share a combined 82 years of industry experience with a wide range of event jobs that led them to where they are today.

In this episode of the Event Brew podcast, Deanna Nwosu, Will Curran, Nick Borelli, and Arianna Black share their career journeys, the event jobs they’ve held, and advice they wish they’d known when first starting their careers. A big shout out to our listener, Kelsey D. Today’s episode directly responds to her question, “How did you get started in the events industry?”