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.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fat Head Events, Inc.
Guest: Jeff Hess, Apex Stages

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.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fat Head Events, Inc.
Guest: Mike Laino, Mobile Stage Network
​

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.

Todays guest is our first repeat guest. He is the Founder and Producer of Podfest 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.​

Host: Glen Sanders, Fat Head Events
​Guest: Michael Cirino, A Razor/A Shiny Knife

This episode is sponsored by The Mobile Stage Conference, Feb 11-13, 2020 at the Bahia Mar in Fort Lauderdale, FL. 

michael@arazorashinyknife.com
www.arazorashinyknife.com
facebook.com/arazorashinyknife
instagram / tumblr @ashinyknife

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 & Co. is our guest today on The Event Producer Podcast.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fat Head Events, Inc.
Guest: Erica Boeke, Liberty & Co. 

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.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fat Head Events, Inc.
Guest: Stefanie LaHart, Boomtown Marketing

​http://www.boomtownmarketing.com
http://www.tradigitalpodcast.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanielahart/
https://www.podchaser.com/creators/stefanie-lahart-107a4YqLM9/appearances

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.

Guest: Will Curran, Endless Events
Host: Glen Sanders

Will Curran
Endless Events
EventIcons Podcast 
Event Tech Podcast 
Event Brew Podcast 
Holly Hughes Barnes, Writer
Podfest Expo

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.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
​Guest: Jacob Towe, Jacob & Co.

Jacob & Co.

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. ​


Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
Guest: Zac Logsdon, Old Hat Creative

oldhatcreative.com
zaclogsdon.com
Winning is not a Strategy

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.


​
Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
Guest: Jamie Murdock, Experient

www.experient-inc.com
Twitter -  https://twitter.com/jamiemurdock74
​Linkedin -  linkedin.com/in/jamiemurdock1
Questions are the answer by hel Gregerson. 
​

• A traditional hackaton is where teams come together to intensely try to solve a challenge.
• A sprint hackaton happens in less time to be incorporated into conferences.
• A hackathon can be applied to a non-tech space.
• Event strategists should be very intentional about their team formation.
• Mentors are subject matter experts about the challenge.
• Having some judges with some skin in the game to the challenge being solved is important.
• You want to get as creative as possible about the environment. Try to find the most unique space possible to foster creativity.
• The experience provides great networking for the teams.
• The goal of a hackathon is the create an atmosphere where your attendees are going to be able to network, meet new poeple, learn new things and get new ideas. If you get an unbelievable idea as a result of it, that's a bonus.
• A hackathon can be used in the association world to help organization increase engagement to help increase membership.
• For a hackathon to be successful there needs to be a level of vulnerability on everyones part.
• It's important that you have somebody that's got some skin in the game to take these ideas an d make sure they take flight or that they get some traction.
• How to define a challenge to hack?
• Spend some time socializing the challenge, getting some feedback, making sure the words are correct.
• If you're not willing to listen to all these ideas and do something about them, the whole experience could backfire.
• Sometimes when you're trying to solve a challenge you just go into solve mode. By only asking questions for a short burst of time, your mind is in the curiosity state and you're going to get rid of bias and push through some of the norms. By just asking questions you put your mind into a flow state of thinking creatively.
• A hackathon is a great sponsorship opportunity because it's a unique place where they can be immersed in the community.
• It's best to put the hackathon at the beginning of the conference because individuals will come in as stranger and leave as friends and now they've got a friend at the conference for the next three days.

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. 
​

Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
Guest: Adam Parry, Event Industry News

Event Industry News
Twitter - @punchtownparry
Instagram - @punchtownparry
LinkedIn - adam.parry

Mentioned in the episode
Open Audience 
Wordly AI
Blendr SaaS Integration
https://teooh.com/
Melody VR
What Three Words 

• A Technology Evangelist is an early adopter who can advise on what tools and technology might be useful for the betterment of events. 
• Some technologies like virtual reality and online gaming are creating a reason for people to come back to physical space and connect with people physically and interact with them on a one to one basis. 
• Conference producers use the digital space to improve engagement at their events by thinking of themselves as content creators. 
• There is some interesting new technology to help bridge the gap of different audiences speaking different languages utilizing AI to offer translation in real time based on a users location. 
• There's a danger with technology is that people assume that because the tech is already in the things we've got that it will work perfetly for their needs. But sometimes i takes people who understand the tech or what that person is trying to achieve to get the best out of it. 
• One of the biggest things that we're going to see transform the space in the next 12 to 18 months is better connected technology, even from competing orsganizations so you can choose the best in class rather than being forced to use a suite of tech just because it talks to eachother on one platform. 
• VR didn't get off to a good start but is poised for growth as devices like Oculus Rift become more available to end users. 
• What3Words was created a solution to getting things to where they needed to be at greenfield sites. It saves a ton of time on logistics. It has applications not only in event planning but for business and first responders. 
• Our mobile devices will grow the use of AR (augmented reality), guidance, and info distribution at events. The rollout of 5G bandwidth and the continuing evolution of battery life and memory will make more technology available. 
• The ubiquity of biometrics in our everyday life via our devices, acceptance will grow in more commercial applications like events. 

​How do you get your attendees and sponsors clamoring to be a part of your event? Well let me tell you, 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. 

Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
Guest: Nick Borelli, Borelli Strategies

SXSW.com
dreamforce 
hootsuite.com
keyhole.com
bizbash.com
eventmarketer.com
xlive.com
Virtue signalling 

• The new version of "Keeping up with the Jones'" is the status of access at events and VIP experiences.
• Attendees are telling THEIR stories and they're not telling your story.
• Sponsors logos on banners aren't moving the needle anymore.
• People who are integrating sponsors into the experience are doing it right.
• You will make more money with the extra time spent being thoughtful on sponsorship.
• It's easier for smaller events to create FOMO.
• FOMO traffics well on celebrity appearances at smaller events.
• Event producers need to practice the art of social listening.
• Learn about the sponsors intention/audience by reviewing their social media.
• How do you get them to tell their story that brings along the message of your sponsor in an authentic way.
• Virtue Signaling
• Everyone is the press now.
• All of your event should be designed to tell stories.
• Listen to your audience and similar events for what your audience wants.
• Expirations or ticking clocks at your event create more FOMO pressure.
• Exclusive access or qualified access is a great tool for FOMO.
  
• Build unscripted big moments that generate sharing and ticket sales for next year.
  
• For this year consider micro events prior to the larger event
• Make the pressure as organic as possible.
• The commoditization of events is coming but you can get out of the race to the bottom by being different.

​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.

Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks
Guest: Panos Moutafis, Zenus.

Links:
Website: https://zenus-biometrics.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zenus-inc.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zenusinc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zenusinc

I once had a client tell me “But that tornado is a mile and a half away.” Little did they know that my crew was already breaking down the equipment and rendering it safe. However, the fact remained that over a thousand  people were caught in a dangerous weather event, with a 20 minute walk to the closest subway station only after they were able to exit the venue all at the same time. Fortunately, nobody was injured.

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. 

Guest: Jason Anderson, TruWeather Solutions
Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks

Links:
Website: https://truweathersolutions.com/

Show Notes: 

• What is a High Wind Action Plan? What is the threshold the structures at your event can withstand?
• Small tents can start flying around in 10mph winds.
• Situational awareness is knowing what is going on around you.
• An overall weather action plan for your event will include how easy it is to get people in an out of your event.
• When you're planning your event you need to be thinking about your weather preparedness plan (WPP); How long do I need to take what actions? How do I communicate to not just the crowd but the vendors, the staff, the local municipality?
• Communication is key to your WPP.
• A watch means that the weather service has a high confidence that this threat will occur in this region. Winds in a watch are typically 30-40mph gusts.
• A warning means that this weather is occurring right now. Warnings are 60 or more gusts
• A thunderstorm can pass outside of your site but the winds can extend outside the storm and affect your site.
• If you're an event producer your vendor should be communicating with you the thresholds of the equipment in the planning stage.
• Weather apps and TV stations are giving you a regional view of 100 miles or more.
• A 60% chance of rain means a 40% chance it will be dry.
• A forecast of 60% chance of rain means there's a 60% chance it will rain somewhere in the region. Not necessarily your exact location.
• Weather is an art form, not an exact science. Weather modeling makes assumptions about what will occur in the future.
• Free weather services are giving you a best guess and not accounting for local affects of temperature, moisture, wind, etc. that can affect your exact location.
• Your local weather forecaster is trying to talk to millions of people, not your event where a Meteorologist from TruWeather will focus on your event.
• Truweather can help you build a weather action plan, create a forecast for your specific site, and provide real time alerting.
• The National Weather Service has a Storm Ready program that validates the weather plan for your location.
• Most of the apps are getting their data from the same National Weather Service. For the best free weather service, NWS.gov.

Sue Wigston, Chief Operating Officer of Eagle's Flight


Today on the podcast Sue 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. Sue has been an organizational development expert for numerous Fortune 500 companies and she is the COO of Eagle's Flight, a company that can help you turn your event into an experiential learning environment. 

​
Guest: Sue Wigston, Eagle's Flight
Host: Glen Sanders, Fresh Air Flicks

Links:
Website: https://www.eaglesflight.com/corporate-events/programs
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EaglesFlightTraining/
Twitter: twitter.com/eagles__flight
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/44225/admin/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/eaglesflightevents/?hl=en

Show Notes: 

• Gamification involves competition and recognition that brings together the information or the principles of the content of your event to life.
  
  
• Game design stars with principles and what you want to achieve.
  
  
• Through the gamification, you can create a safe opportunity to fail and to learn from your own decisions so that you can make different decisions back in the workplace
  
  
• Gamification can be used for day-long training experiences.
  
  
• Are you trying to fill a day that is engaging? Are you trying to reinforce a specific message? What is it that you are trying to do? Gamification can be used either in a condensed period of time or built around an entire day.
  
  
• If communication is only one way, you're making an assumption that the people that are listening are listening and that they hear you and interpret your words and they understand.
   
• There's a lot of different things that you can use as a single presenter that just add a different element that doesn't make it a one-way presentation. It makes it a conversation.
  
  
• One of the critical success factors you're looking for when you're planning an event is; Are people engaged? Are they going to say ‘That was a great use of my time’?

  

• When people are more engaged they're much more loyal to their organization. People typically remember five to ten percent of what a speaker says. So if you do a presentation and you realize they're only going to walk away with ten percent, Gamification takes things beyond remembering and creates understanding.

 

• One of the biggest reasons why it fails is that gamification is put in as another thing versus added as the thing that is ultimately going to tie your entire conference or event together.

​Chris Krimitsos, Founder/CEO of Podfest Multimedia Expo


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 PodFest Multimedia Expo. PodFest 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.



Links:

• ChrisKrimitsos.com
• Facebook
• Podfest Multimedia Expo

Show 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. 

Brian Lagestee, CEO of Clarity Experiences

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. 

Guest: Brian Legestee, CEO of Clarity Experiences
Host: Glen Sanders, CEO of  Fresh Air Flicks
Links:

• Clarity Experiences
• Clarity Linkedin
• Clarity Instagram

Show Notes:

• The challenge over the years with the in-house model is that the hotels have continued to take a higher and higher portion of the commissions.
• The challenge that the meeting planners face is do they really know what the truth is in the negotiation. Oftentimes the hotels really care more about the food and beverage revenue and the sleeping room revenue than they do the audiovisual revenue. 
• Bring in a partner or an expert to help make sure that you're asking for the right things during that initial contract negotiation. Don't sign the contract until you've negotiated how the AV is going to be handled by the venue.
• If a prospective AV provider is talking about an equipment model or a specific type of a product, they're not really understanding what you're trying to accomplish at your event. 
• ​Interview more than you run an RFP process. 
• Everybody is going to give you their best references. Look for the ones that they claim are our customers, but don't give you a contact.