150. How do you plan an event? (f. Erika Kulovitz)
Dreaming of building an online or offline event? ⚙️ Then you're going to love this Brand Therapy episode. Our hosts Phil and Lauren meet with event producer Erika Kulovitz for insights on crafting the perfect educational experience. Erika shares her wisdom on understanding your attendees, booking speakers, and creating forward-thinking experiences in a post-COVID world. Get ready to be dazzled!
Episode transcription
Phil
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
And this is a podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brands. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. My friends on the line are glad you're here too. Lauren's edit includes another special friend that I'm so happy to have here with us. It's Erika, I'm going to tell you about her in a second. But let me sum it up this way when it comes to events, special events, big events, fancy events, her own wedding, when it comes to events, Erika is my friend that I call. And we just, you know, listen, I don't know when the last time it was that we saw each other in real life, it was a while ago, in Santa Monica. So that means it was years and years ago. You and I have done a great job just keeping on each other's radar over the years. You're so insightful. When it comes to speaking when it comes to events. You're the best producer I know. And we're so so happy to have you here with us on Brand Therapy. Welcome.
Erika
Thanks for having me. That was the sweetest intro ever.
Phil
Oh, you know, it's terrible that I don't even plan my intros on any of our podcast episodes. I don't plan them. I don't script them. I don't bullet point them. I just go from the heart. That's how I do it.
Erika
Which is the best way?
Lauren
Okay, Erika, just to sort of set the scene you had mentioned before we started recording that there's a difference between an event planner and an event producer. So could you clarify that distinction, and then talk about what your role is in all this?
Erika
Yeah, absolutely. So the distinction in our events industry is a planner is standard of someone who's working with a company who's doing all of the planning details, meaning venue procurement, their internal agendas, budgets, communication, they're coming to an event producer, like myself, to then help execute that vision. So they're leading the team internally.
And then we lead the team of external people to create that experience for whatever said, company, nonprofit, corporate, etc. Other planner types also do transportation and food and beverage, etc. So, producers are the team that comes together for executing. So yes, we're the team that comes creatively together to pull at the heartstrings of that experience, and really taking what the internal planner has done logistically with their team. And whether it's a 5000 person Conference, which is the stretch goal in the new era of events, or 40 people at a table, what is that experience that we want them to walk away with? Even if it's just to have some really good conversation, like how are we creating those moments? And that's where our production team comes in.
Lauren
Cool.
Phil
Perfect explanation.
Lauren
So you're strategic and experiential, whereas a planner is a bit more operational?
Erika
Yes. Great.
Phil
Erika, just to kick things off, you and I talked about this by email, but I was like this would make such a good conversation. How do you think what's happened in the world is changing events in person or online, you can talk about both if you want in the future now and moving forward?
Erika
One of the mantras per se that we've had this last year is and I love the new perspective that's come actually out of all of this, is that we're more conscious of meeting people where they're at. So whether that's from a health and safety perspective, or a personality perspective, or being inclusive and diverse, and really understanding what an individual needs for education, or how to recognize as well is so super important. So that's been one thing that's come out of this. And I think regardless of in person or virtual that has really helped from a producer standpoint, it's the bigger picture of how people have interpreted them before.
That said, None of us have a playbook from 100 years ago on how to do this out of a pandemic. And the way that life has evolved in these last 24 months, is we have learned different learning styles specifically that we could be multi learners. We can be listening to a podcast and doing an email. We could be watching a television show and need to just watch it because we're visual learners. So there's been a shift as to how we approach the experiential of the event and what its gonna look like in the future. This is where this conversation where Phil and I started, and that is that my prediction of event trend is that during COVID, how many people sat down and binge watched anything, pick something, Bridgerton, Ted Lasso, like pick anything. And there was so much on social media, etc., so why not create educational content that way to then be able to go and sit with the speaker and have a really in depth discussion in being talked with instead of being talked at, and taking that keynote perspective to be more personalized, because now we understand our audience even more and what they need.
To me, there is no presenter that should ever at this point be presenting with 50 PowerPoint slides. I don't care what industry you're in, even science. We need to break those down more like the visuals that go with it that are like 10,000 words on a page that you can barely read with a graph that's overwhelming to people. So how do we break that down for them? And that's probably the only time we would use multiple slides. But what does that mean?
Phil
It's so insightful. You also gave the example of a movie premiere, that 's like, you've gone, you watched the movie, then you have a chance to talk to the director about your first reaction or about the experience of watching it rather than just watching the film and then it being that kind of like, I don't know, lack of directness had been more of a conversation. I think it's really cool. It's like giving me ideas.
Erika
Right? Like, who wouldn't want to sit and talk to the director, or the writer of the screenplay, right? And say, how did you come up with this? Or what was your inspiration for this character? Or why this storyline? What was important about it? Or what did you get out of it?
Again, those are just so much more intimate and personal conversations for the individuals in the room. And engagement has been a big buzzword in this last 24 months. And the way that we engage also goes back to the way we learn. For me personally, to focus, need to sit and watch very deliberately, in order to capture all of what's happening, and I'm very visual that way. Even visually to the point of like, I can't listen to a book. If it's something educational, I need to physically read it because I need to have that visual representation of it, which means it needs to be very deliberate. Now others are not like that. They could have 10 things happening at once. So how do you capture all of that and then be able to go back and have such a personalized conversation with them?
Lauren
Wait, can I take us off track for a second?
Phil
You can take us off track.
Lauren
Okay. There is a brand whose name I freaking love.
Phil
Say it.
Lauren
Magic Mind. Isn’t that good?
Phil
Magic Mind, the latest biohacking tool. That's what we're calling it. That's what they call it. We've tried it. We're talking about it. Lauren, you have to tell your story about trying this.
Lauren
Yes. So I wasn't totally sure what to expect with the taste and just overall experience of the Magic Mind. It's basically a drink that you can take that helps you focus. It's a productivity drink, it's not an energy drink. And it arrives in these little bottles almost like in Alice in Wonderland, you know how at the Tea Party, she takes those little sips and then you don't know if she's gonna become a giant or shrink down to the size of a teacup. Anyway, so it was like that, and I tried it at first and it definitely has that kind of matcha flavor that bitter matcha flavor. It is sweetened with honey and it does grow on you on time. I'm not a super big matcha flavor person. So it was a little bitter at first, but the taste grows on you with the honey that it has. And after a few days of using it in a row, I found that it really got me into the zone. Like I was really really focused.
Phil
It gets you into the working zone. After 10 to 30 minutes, it increases your mental energy. It's not an energy drink. And it's not a caffeine drink. It is a productive drink. And by the way people drink this differently. You're a bit of a sipper, sometimes people will chug it, if the flavor isn't something they love. I personally love matcha, so I'm also a sipper. Let's talk for a second about the ingredients. Matcha as you mentioned, which is naturally occurring l theanine to help you keep going and keep focused. Nootropics, all the rage right now, which boost blood flow and cognition. And there's a few other things adaptogens, ashwagandha you've said that to me before Lauren.
Lauren
Ashwagandha Yeah. And what's really cool about all of these ingredients together is that it doesn't crack you out like some energy and caffeine drinks might. Because this is not one of those things. It has this really cool combination of ingredients that help you focus mentally, but also keep you calm, like ashwagandha and turmeric, decreases stress, and it decreases inflammation in the body after you exercise. So it's this kind of perfect little melody, of ingredients that help you focus.
Phil
Topped up with honey, natural, sweet taste. I feel like you're doing a great job of selling this, which is a good thing, since they're our sponsor in this episode. But listen, Magic Mind, we've tried it, you have to try it. Best news for you. We've got a discount code and a link, magicmind.co/brand therapy, use code brandtherapy20 for 20% off. That's code brandtherapy b r a n d t h e r a p y 20 all lowercase for 20% off. So you can also try a Magic Mind.
Lauren
Yes, do it.
Phil
Do it.
Lauren
Okay, well, I guess we should probably get back to the lesson.
Phil
Let's get back to that lesson.
Lauren
You know, what I love about your thoughts on this, is that if there was going to be a big conference thrown online, and people could watch the speaker, at their leisure, stop and start the speech, decide what they're listening to and decide when and how it's a good time for them. But then they could come together and really ask questions in a group setting and have an authentic discussion. I feel like that really aligns with where social media is right now as well. People have such high BS radars. And a lot of speakers are scripted. And so I think, at least in my experience, whenever I've gone to conferences, my favorite parts are always the q&a for the final five to 10 minutes at the end, ALWAYS.
Erika
And why do we only give five or 10 minutes, in true TED Talk style, like if you have 18 minutes to give a set presentation in that style. And then it is still 5,10 minutes and sometimes or not q&a. It's just meant to be a short bit of information, right? And yet, if you think about it, again, from the q&a standpoint, why are we limited to that shortness of asking those questions? And I think, again, what's brought out in this last couple years is that engagement, like people submitting it along the way, their questions instead of having to wait and being able to then feed those to the presenter, and then either addressing it within their speech because they see them coming in, or just again, based on presenter style may wait to the end, and then address them all.
It's just created more talking with everybody, then let me stand on stage and present to you and then filter in all of the questions. And I just think it's been a cool cycle to see. And from the perspective of broadcast is not new. For us. It's new in this last era of 18 months, because it really is required to be done from home. It's created an opportunity to have such a global audience who to your point, Lauren, can sit and watch it in their own time. They can come back and still ask a question. They may be on the other side of the world, my timezone may be an issue. But that doesn't mean that they should miss out on the opportunity. I just believe FOMO has gone away. I'm calling it no mo FOMO. Because we've created an opportunity to have an on demand education or an opportunity for them to go back and still ask questions, and submit them. Think about watching any television show now and how much reality television has even shown us how this can be done from voting on the voice and still being responded to even if you watched the episode a week later.
Phil
So interesting.
Lauren
So for our listeners who are interested in organizing their own online event, what are the questions they should ask themselves? What in your experience are the big things that they should figure out before they start making it official? Could you sort of dispel your wisdom?
Erika
Yeah, course. First thing is what is the experience? Doesn't matter if it's in a room, on the television, in zoom, what is the experience that you want someone to walk away with from your event, or gathering. And that experience is important, because you can live stream anything at this point. You can go live on social media, but it's a one way conversation. It's a watch party versus an ongoing conversation. So understanding what you want for your audience and what your audience needs are definitely the steps. From a hybrid standpoint, it's how much your in person experience is different from your virtual experience. And do you want them to be married together? I'll give an example. Because I feel like that's a little bit more helpful, right?
So we actually have an event coming up for a nonprofit in December, and we have an on in person conference happening, it's two and a half days of education and then we go into a big celebration, gala fundraising. And of course, with everything in life, as well as being able to grab more audiences globally, we have created an opportunity for it to be hybrid. This is not new for this client. We have live streamed this event for years. But we've only done a small portion of it. And now we've grown that. You can watch everything your engagement level is you can type your questions in in real time, and we're gathering them to ask the presenter. There's a two way communication versus just a live stream of watching it. They'll get to have opportunity to be engaged on like, we have a band, and they can dance at home, if we want, we're actually doing like a gamification of like, take a picture, even at home, in your logo t shirt and post it with a specific hashtag and you will be given a certain amount of points. At the hotel, we've created opportunities for just the in person where they have a scavenger hunt that they have to go find codes to put into their mobile app.
Each point of that story that we've created, and that experiential elements has been brought down to and thought about as to who the audience is for each of those days. The first day of the event is very science driven pharmaceuticals companies, they're not going to play the scavenger hunt that is not the right audience. But then considering that the next part of our audience is family and friends and creating a different experience for them. So you literally have to think about each experience is each moment, each touchpoint, I should say is a different experience based on who your audiences are and what you're trying to get and accomplish for them. And then this opportunity with having a mobile app, which again, is not new to events, but the difference is that having the mobile app and being connected to those who are online, we're encouraged to have conversations with people who are at home, or literally across the globe. So there's a whole, you know, chat feature and stuff. And the more that they do, of course, the more points they get, and etc. But we've created this round table conversation versus just please chime in to watch it senario.
Lauren
I love it. I love it. It's almost like you're planning multiple events, online and offline and just trying to create a through line to connect them all together.
Erika
Yes. And let me take that example a step further. Because I think a lot of us haven't thought about it in this fashion. How many of us have been watching sports for years, or picking any one particular sport, right, I'm going to use football as an example, if we were all okay with that?. The players go on the field to play the game. Each time, they go to win. They have their strategies. They have their playbook, their goal and their story doesn't change. They still have two different audiences. They have the stadium audience, and they have that home audience. And that home audience can watch it on demand whenever they want. They're still going to respond to the touchdown or the flag that was called and they're still going to possibly yell at the television and throw the popcorn and all the things regardless if they watched it in real time, or if they watched it later. And so when you think about those experiences in person, the player on the field who's actually creating the story isn't doing anything different than they would at any other time right now. I think they all learned in COVID how important having an audience is and having that like energy that's different. That's like that's not what I'm talking about here. Right? But that storyline in that thread doesn't change.
Lauren
It's a really good analogy. Now for our listeners who are trying to get speaking events or trying to get heard I'm curious to know what wisdom you can share about standing out as a speaker and appealing to someone like yourself who's really a gatekeeper for speaking events.
Erika
We look for creativity. And what I mean by that is from topics and how you present yourself. Sometimes we need the very serious speaker to deliver a specific message that's empowering and motivating. Other times we need the very uplifting, high energy, you know, that kind of inspiration? Because I feel like they're all inspirational, but it's about the personality. Second, is what is the delivery? How is it delivered? What kind of content and going back to what we were speaking on in the learning types is as a speaker, what are you presenting, in order to fulfill those different learning types?
So as I was mentioning earlier, like the slides, right now, we're not looking for people to bring us and 50 slides that go with their presentations. But we still need the visual impact because people are visual learners. What can we hand to them to physically go and do for the kinesthetic letter? If they're audible again, how are we clearly delivering the message so that they're, it's sinking into them. The other elements to that too, is that part of experiential design is sensory. So taking those learning styles and now creating sensory in the room, as well as on the screen, and just those elements to us, when a speaker knows those and how to address those and the conversations that we're having with them, or even upfront, when we're reading their bios or other presentations that they've done, the more they know what that is typically, where we see our clients leaning towards, you know. So when we have those, again, going back to what's the experience, how are they motivating, and how are they delivering? And how are they filling into that learning style?
Phil
I feel like you just made us a checklist as speakers like yeah, go through and check. We're doing these things. We're doing these things to stand out. Because I think you're right. A lot of people don't necessarily think that much into how they're doing things differently and how they're doing things in a way that's going to leave the audience learning or feeling something depending on the client's goal.
Erika
And story, like, I don't want you to get up and present a story just because, but how do you take the theme of the conference? And you're the expert in your field on the stage for a reason. And how do you leave in what they're meant to walk away with, as well. And again, going back to those learning styles of just saying the words on stage may not be impactful enough to the person who's visual,
Lauren
So useful. Now, if you were going to be sourcing a speaker for a new event, and you wanted to work with someone you've never worked with before, where would you look? And the reason why I'm asking is because I think the greatest challenge that at least our clients and people who come to us have as aspiring speakers is that they either don't know where to go to get speaking events, or they don't know how to be found for speaking events. So could you sort of reverse engineer that for us and tell us your process?
Erika
Yeah, I would say it's not like a very scientific process by any means. We do have relationships with some speaker bureaus. But mostly our relationships are with entertainment agencies who work with anywhere from aerialist bands and speakers, because they're more of a one stop shop for us. And from a price point standpoint, we don't get like an agency fee on top of oh, by the way, you also have to pay the bureau and then you also have to pay this, we get more direct access to have conversations with the speakers. And that's just through experience, that doesn't mean those in the relationships that we have with those agencies. So there could be changes in that over the years.
But the other is really we scour social media and see who's out there that we don't know about. We don't like to do the same thing twice. In a sense, if we've had a speaker that we know is good one for sure or recommend them again, that doesn't mean that we wouldn't do it, but we know that their speech isn't going to be the same because the audience is different. And so we'll be like, alright, who's up and coming. Why sometimes clients feel like they need to have a big name that comes isn't always the best option. And quite frankly, the more well known names per se have a much higher price tag and like, is there a value to that? And maybe sometimes there is, and it's knocked out of the park. And that's great.
You know, like, there's been some times we brought in NFL players of the past to come in and speak, and they have kind of a hefty price tag, and their time is worth it. And for this particular audience, it made sense. So yes, the value to that makes sense, right. And that's how we go. In that case, that's what we're going to work with their agents. It also just depends on where, how the speaker is set up themselves, maybe they're the direct contact, and we're working with them directly. Sometimes, but most of the time, we're working through an agency. And the helpfulness of that is that they're taking care of all the logistics, and doing all the paperwork, etc, that we don't necessarily have to worry about.
But our job is to hire them, bring them into the client, have the client decide on what is the right fit, and then bring them into the experience and make sure that on site, we have set them up for success. That they know how they fit into the story. They know what time and green rooms and all of those fun factors that go to make them feel comfortable along with getting them on stage properly.
Lauren
Well, I think it just goes to show how very important it is to have a brand that people can understand, have a mission that people can understand or relate to have multiple stories on your social media, on your website, on your reel, that show the versatility of the message that you have. And then proof that you can appeal to audiences online and offline and different learners through the sounds you use, the visuals you use, and just the overall personality that you bring to the table.
Erika
Nailed it.
Lauren
Well, I learned from the best Erika!
Phil
It was really insightful. It was just a different discussion than we've had with other people who have talked about speaking. And those were also great conversations. But I love your difference in perspective. The way you value creativity, the way you look at this differently. I think that's given our listeners a lot of value and a totally different perspective. Thank you for that. Thank you so much for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy. We appreciate you Erika.
Erika
No problem, here for you any time.
Lauren
Amazing. And where can people find you?
Erika
Yeah, please follow us. Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, all the things were under Akire Productions. Fun fact, it's Erika backwards.
Lauren
So cute.
Erika
Yes, akireproductions_ on all the channels.
Lauren
Thanks so much.
