Meetings Matter Chatter
Industry trends and topics pertaining to the travel and meetings industry
Meetings Matter Chatter
Collaborating for Success: How Partnerships Boost Creative and Innovative Output
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Creativity is defined as the ability to think about a task or problem in a new or different way, or the ability to use the imagination to generate new ideas. But how does that differ from being innovative? We dive into this topic with Aaron Price, Vice President of Creative at Access DMC. Listen in to learn more about this fascinating topic.
Welcome to the latest issue of um or episode of Meetings Matter Chatter. I'm your host, Nikki McLean, and today I have with me one of our preferred partners, Erin Price from Access DMC. How are you, Aaron? Welcome.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Nikki. Thank you so much. I'm doing well. How about you?
SPEAKER_02I'm doing well too. I'm so glad you're here today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, me too, actually. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, let's tell our listeners. I always like to kind of start with a little bit about your background so they can kind of understand your education, kind of how you came to be where you are today with access. So let's start there and tell them a little bit about Aaron.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So it actually all started with me uh attending a conference in Orlando and staying at the Gaylord Palms there. And I remember honestly thinking, wow, this place is absolutely amazing. Um, and I'm gonna work for a place like this someday. I was just completely in awe. And, you know, fast forward a few months and I moved from my small town in Indiana, uh, left my family, and went to Orlando and started working at that resort about, let's say about a month later. Um, and I held various roles throughout the property and actually ended up moving to Washington, DC to assist with that hotel opening uh in 2008. Um, believe it or not, I was actually on the accounting team back. Oh funny. Crazy um to think about that. But I remember um one day the director of convention services uh she came to me and was like, you are totally in a wrong role. Um and we need you, we need you from um from behind that desk and in front of our customers. And that's when I got pulled into um onto that convention side. And from there, I managed all the site visits with the sales team, the fam trips, which we all know um can be a little stressful, but a lot of fun. And then all their various internal meetings, which were quite a bit for a property of that size. And um I actually I really loved creating those high-touch experiences for those potential customers siting the hotel. And I remember doing all kinds of just crazy stuffs because we wanted to stand out um from the competition and and win that that business. So we would do everything from helicopter rides to show the customers, you know, around the area um and what was close to uh dance mobs. Do you remember those?
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, yes. Where people would you would just walk up and people would start dancing. Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I loved it. It was we did probably three or four of those randomly for some site visits, and we would rewrite the lyrics to some hit songs, um, just make it stand out even more. Um, and in that role, I was just totally immersed in all things theme decor and entertainment. Um, and then that's when I was kind of I was introduced to what a DMC um does. Uh, and then that was I was immediately hooked and and have been on the creative side of the business really ever since.
SPEAKER_02That's so funny. I mean, you went, I mean, Gaylord is a huge, huge hotel. So you went from not just a small hotel, but probably one of the biggest hotels in the world, right? And then you were in accounting, and then you went to obviously a very creative side of the business. So that that's really fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. So it sounds like you I can tell just by listening to you that you're really excited and passionate about it. So, what do you do now in your role at Access DMC? And what can you tell the listeners that you love about it?
SPEAKER_00Let me, I'll start with kind of what I love. And it's honestly, it's truly everything. There's not one day that's the same, it's always completely different. Um, wherever I'm at, and I'm always kind of traveling to our various destinations and and working alongside our team. But um, you know, as vice president at Access for the Creative Team, I really guide our creative team in developing those innovative and immersive experiences for our clients. And that really involves brainstorming concepts, ideation, um, and ensuring, you know, those designs really push the boundaries of truly what's possible. And so we align those creative efforts with broader business strategies. And it's all about creating, you know, those wow moments, like we all all heard and hear. And that makes our clients' events really unforgettable. Um, I also act as like a bridge between the creative team and those clients. Um, and we spend a lot of time understanding what their needs are and translating those visions into tangible experiences. Um, so we're ensuring that we want to exceed, always exceed their expectations. And it's a collaborative process that requires a lot of communication and a great deal of understanding of both our clients' goals and their unique characteristics, um, the characteristics of each destination we work in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you've mentioned this a lot. And this is for the listeners, this is kind of the topic that we're here to talk about today. I I read a lot of things, I listen to a lot of things, and as you and I were prepping for this episode, I too learned that that you read and listen to a lot of things as well. And what we're gonna talk about today is this idea about creativity versus innovation. And that's why I wanted to have you on the podcast is, you know, what can you tell me about it? Like it's two different words, it's two different concepts, but like what do those words mean to you? What do those concepts mean to you? And how do those kind of weave into what you do at Access and how you help clients with meetings and events?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So creativity and innovation, they're they're really they're they're related, but they're two totally distinct uh concepts. And creativity, it really refers to the ability to generate new and creative ideas. Uh, it's really about that thinking freely and producing the unique concepts and envisioning possibilities. And that's that's never been considered before. And creativity is actually the spark of inspiration. That's what leads to like and the original approaches, designs, and then the solutions that kind of come from that. Um and really with access, we're constantly we're pushing the boundaries of of what we're doing and and trying to be innovative, but also that creative side as well. So coming up with those new ideas and concepts or reimagining something is truly what we what we're doing there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And then what about innovation?
SPEAKER_00Innovation, on the other hand, is that's the process of taking creative ideas and turning them into practical, actionable solutions that they need to add value, right? And so innovation involves implementing these ideas in a way that improves processes, products, or services. Um, but it's all about bringing the creative concepts to life and ensuring they are feasible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So if you are, or I guess if you are innovative, does that mean you're creative or vice versa? Can you be both? Are you one or the other? I guess it's kind of a weird question.
SPEAKER_00Right. And yeah, absolutely. And that's a definitely a loaded, loaded question. But in short, yes, absolutely. So you can be creative without being innovative. Um, so like creativity really involves that generating of an original idea and thinking freely, but it doesn't, it doesn't really necessarily involve implementing those ideas, right? So like for an example, an artist might produce a plethora of unique and imaginative artworks. Um, and that's demonstrating high creativity. But if those artworks remain personal projects, never see the light of day outside of that, um they're turned into they're not turned into products or solutions that they're not going to impact um others on the street, right? So the process stops just right there at creativity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um so then you can also be innovative with without being creative. And so innovation often involves that improving or adapting of an existing idea or that process rather than producing an entirely new one. Um, and so like let's say, like, take Spanx for, for instance. Sarah Blakely, who founded Spanx, she didn't really invent a new concept by any means. She simply just modernized it, repackaged what you would call a girdle, right? A classic girdle. And she called it shapeware.
SPEAKER_02So given it, and then everybody bought it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. She just made she made the girdle fancy and nice, and what now there's ones for you know, men and women. So, and you can also be both creative and innovative. So, ideally, being both means you not only generate original ideas, but you also have those skills to implement these those ideas, right? And so, in ways that bring tangible benefits for like, for example, um someone who produces like a groundbreaking product, like idea, we'd say that's creativity, and then leads that development or leads the development in the production and market introduction of that product. So that's that's the process of innovation right there, and that embodies both traits. So an example for that would be uh like Steve Jobs and and the iPhone. They're a perfect example of that. Taking that original idea and taking it to market. Um, that's exactly what doing both really was.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Um, so how would you describe yourself, Erin? Do you consider yourself a creative person? Are you an innovator? Are you both?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh so I would say I'm a solid mix of both of them. So, like as creatives, we you know, we get bored easily. We're always looking for ways to stretch our creativity. And I tend to do that with a lot of collaboration. So collaborating with others on my team or our suppliers, and by engaging others, I'm able to take maybe like one or two good ideas and bring that and take it to one amazing idea. Um, and that's where the innovation kind of starts. And and especially with collaborating with our with our suppliers, for instance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I would say I probably am I'm creative, but I think a lot of my ideas sometimes get stopped before they're innovated, right? So sometimes I don't get to bring them all to fruition. So maybe I'm I'm not necessarily an innovator, but you never know. But I guess I created this podcast and I brought it to life. So maybe that's my one innovation, but we'll go, we'll go with that.
SPEAKER_01There you go. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What are some examples that you could share with the listeners about how a company, you know, maybe your own or just a company that you admire or follow as being innovative? I know you just mentioned Apple and in kind of, you know, the iPhone, but what else? What other um examples could you share?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I'm I'm obsessed with Apple. Everybody knows, like I've had every every first generation of every product probably they've ever had. It's it's kind of bad, to be honest. But um, like another example would be just like the the Ford Motor Company, right? Um, I love this iconic quote that that Henry Ford said back in the day. And it was it was something along the lines of if I would have asked people what they wanted, they just would have said faster horses. Um so right there, like Ford looked far past what what people thought and and what they wanted, and gave us what we now call a necessity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a car, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, right, exactly. So a vehicle, yeah. Yeah, right, everything, right? An automobile. And so another example and one that everybody should learn from is Blockbuster video. Remember them? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So Blockbuster, I mean, it it ruled my childhood. And I remember, you know, going, picking out a new release on Friday night and going home and watching it with the family or or friends out of sleepover. Um, and blockbuster, they kind of got in their own way. They, you know, in the summer of 2000, Blockbuster actually had the opportunity, I'm not sure if you know this, but had the opportunity to purchase Netflix for $50 million. Just $50 million. Um and the CEO of Blockbuster thought, you know, what a joke, and just laughed them off. Like it was came to them a few times, you know, to buy them and said, no, no, hard pass. And now look at Netflix. I I think they're worth maybe 200 billion. I be it's just uh it's crazy. And Blockbuster, unfortunately, you know, as we know, went bankrupt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and is no longer around. Yeah. You know, it's interesting, kind of along those lines. Do you remember, and and this wasn't that long ago, where I think it was McDonald's and then it expanded to some like Walgreens or maybe CVS, that red box concept where you could still go and rent like a DVD or a Blu-ray from the Red Box and you could bring it home and watch it with you. And I think maybe it was like, I'm guessing we're similar in age, maybe it was our generation that was excited about it and we were like, oh, we can go rent a movie again, like cool. And I remember getting my kids to go with me and they're like, oh my God, this is so weird. Why are we going to McDonald's and like renting a movie? And I'm like, this is what we used to do. Like we used to go to Blackbuster and walk the aisles and like pick out a movie. And if you were lucky, your parents let you got too. And then if I was really lucky, I got to pick out Candy at the end of the night, you know, and if I was a good girl that week and then go home and watch them. And then now it's like we just stream all day long on Netflix, you know, anything I want, it come out, the newest movie. I know my kids are excited about something that I think comes out this Friday for Memorial Day weekend. And I'm sure I still have to pay for it because we just have a basic, basic subscription to Netflix. But, you know, it's the same thing. It's like everything evolves over time. But I did not know about the Blockbuster opportunity so that I learned something new today. So thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02A missed opportunity for sure. But um, all right, if we take it back to event planning, so who who would you say is really responsible for being creative or innovative?
SPEAKER_00Honestly, in my opinion, it's it takes all of us. Um, just because I'm on the the creative team and in that department, and maybe like say you're in sales, it doesn't mean um I have to be the the idea guy all the time. It should not rely on just that one person. Um, everything we do in our daily lives, it can be tied back to creativity and innovation, just the simplest thing. So, you know, sales can get creative with maybe how they might price something or present to a client or gift a client. Um, events, you know, on our team, they get creative with their diagrams. And to be quite honest with you, probably their schedules. Yeah. Um, like real talk, I don't even know how they do it sometimes. Like, I don't know if they sleep, if they're robots, you know, it's kind of crazy. Um, so you know, in my role, we get creative with not only the themes, but also the way that we, you know, we lay out our designs to we want to tell that story from start to finish. Um we collaborate a lot with our partners, um, always and bringing the innovation. So, you know, being able to take a product that maybe exists um and working alongside you know our suppliers to reimagine um that product to serve a different purpose. Like I would say, you know, you know, registration desks, for instance, they're mainly they're usually bars in their in their concepts. But we're able to reimagine that, and that's a very basic example, but um and use that as a registration desk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, totally. What are some of the best practices that you use at Access to kind of encourage innovation and creativity? You mentioned this a little bit earlier that obviously you have a team and you guys brainstorm and stuff, but like what are some other things that you guys do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, so we really truly um at Access, we we're we're encouraging calculated risk taking, you know. So by creating an environment where you know our our teams, they they feel safe to take risks and spe experiment a little bit without fear of failure. You know, we regularly we're staying up to date on, you know, and ahead of market trends, uh emerging technologies, AI, for instance, um, and just industry shifts in design and trends, um, you know, through continuous learning. So, and we're not just attending just regular industry events, maybe like ILEA or NACE or MPI, um, but we're also taking our teams um out, you know, kind of out of the box, you know, as we might say, and they're attending South by Southwest in Austin or even Coachella. You know, there's a lot of great activations that that are emerging out of those those those two those two places. And you know, you use that customer feedback and the market research to really identify the the gaps and opportunities for innovation. And you know, we were establishing that feedback loop too, to because we're always wanting to learn and do better. So we're continuously gathering that and analyzing that data um from you know with our products and our how we do our processes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I like that calculated risk taking because you never know if the risk is gonna pay off, it's gonna fail, you know, that kind of thing. But I I think it's good that you're offering that environment to be able to experiment without that risk of failure, like you said. So that's great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um what's your what would you say is your favorite way to brainstorm? Like, do you need to be in a dark room? Do you need to be outside? Is it a certain time of day? What works what what works best for you? And then what would you say works best for your team?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm I'm honestly I'm my best in the morning. I can crank out some of the best work, in my opinion, um, between, you know, like the hours of 7 a.m. and and around one, 1 p.m. But you know, there's others on my team that they're their best self um late at night after 9 p.m., you know, when I'm kind of getting ready to go to bed or yeah, uh doing doing some last minute, last minute shopping online. But you know, it's it's really understanding and um what works best for for each individual because we're all so different.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, that's true. I think everyone operates a little bit differently. I too, I did not used to think that I was a morning person, but I've sort of been kind of forced into that. And I I too, I usually around like that like 8 to 10 a.m. time frame is when I do my best work. Talk to me in the afternoon, and it's like, no way. I'm and and definitely not on a Friday. I'm practically brain dead on Friday.
SPEAKER_01So understanding.
SPEAKER_02But yeah. Um what are some recent examples? And I know it's it's hard to do this on an audio podcast, but if you had to kind of like really describe it, what are some recent examples that you've done at Access where you've seen your team really shine with creativity that you could describe to us?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, so recently we were collaborating with one of our local offices, the the national team and in the local, um, on a large partnership proposal with a with a hotel. And so we knew the the competition was coin to it was gonna be tough. Uh everybody wanted the in-house partnership here, and you only get one shot at it. Yeah. So we started, you know, yeah, you get the one shot. And after that, it's that's it, right? So we started planning months, months before the RP came out. We knew, we knew the gist of it, when it was, you know, when a date time was gonna come around, but we wanted to get ahead of it as best as we possibly could. And so down to the details of of what we wanted to showcase, our how we wanted to showcase our company, um, and how we would be the best partner, you know, aligning our values with theirs and whatnot. And so we wanted to stand out from from the rest, and we provided um like a custom surfboard. And oh cool. That surfboard like um wasn't functional as a surfboard, obviously, but you know, we we were able to take that and it featured um their branding along with ours. But I wanted to make sure our branding was very subtle. Um, and the reason for that was that I wanted that for them to actually really use the surfboard as you know, something that could stand out. So the board was designed to um it had like an iPad um attached to it, which had our it outlined our proposal, the video content, along with some really great custom designs, specifically really just built around that property and and how they how they were designed. And so we wanted to make that surfboard something you know that they could use, like I said. And so um, we didn't want to just be thrown in a closet and take the iPad and throw it in a drawer, but we wanted to to for them to use and so for it to sit in their lobby and you know, greet their customers, um, and they could put some custom messaging on the iPad and whatnot. And you know, now we're crossing that green, checking off the green initiative too, like no more, no more paper. Um and so, and that's exactly what they're using it for. I loved when I was able to, you know, we walked in there and there it was with you know, presented right there in their their lobby to greet, greet their, I think their site visit that day.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00It was really great. I I was just like, oh, finally, you know, it worked. And so for their custom designs, we also, you know, we were collaborating with um at Access, we have our in-house rendering team. Um, so they came in to help us design those brand new decor elements. So, you know, things that just didn't exist yet in that market or honestly anywhere that I've seen. So, you know, from we created these uh oversized anchors uh for that kind of floated and they would be able to hold food and beverage um, you know, down to almost like a custom boat. sale that would um it could anchor like a local bar or act as a great stage backdrop so we pulled the best of the best to to really create and collaborate um and we couldn't we just couldn't use just off the shelf off the shelf elements um to stand out yeah no that's awesome that sounds like it was really creative and it sounds like you won that bid then so that that's great news and great absolutely yes yay um all right well it sounds like you're sort of maybe answering my next question but it sounds like has your team ever been challenged by a client to be super creative or innovative and how have they stood up to that test?
SPEAKER_02What did they learn and how did they grow? So I mean obviously you just showed you kind of shared that success story but anything else you could share with us about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah absolutely this is um you know this is every client's expectation now you you can't just send out a box um a basic proposal in a box without any personalization or any wow moments in it. It's um everyone wants that you know that out of the box idea and we've heard it so many times but you really have to first understand how big is that client's box. You know, because what is new and innovative to me may not be may not be for that planner. You know so who only you know they may do a handful of programs a year. And our team does an excellent job of of diving deep into our clients why we're always asking well what's your why so that we can really deliver exactly what they want the first time. As creatives we're always learning we're always growing and we're always asking what's next. And so you have to be curious. We're always asking questions and we want to grow and the people we have at access are exactly that.
SPEAKER_02No I think that's a great point. And I think you know if I had to sound up in in one word you're basically talking about perspective because that person's perspective might be completely different than yours because you work on so many different events all across the country with so many different clients and they might only work on one or two events in their company that are very specific to their niche market. Right. So I think that's that's great that you guys are diving into that and really digging in to ask those questions because you know you don't know what you don't know. Right. And we we say that all the time too like it's so important to do that discovery or intake conversation and find out what is the client looking for what are their goals and objectives like you know specifically with my team sometimes we're just sourcing the venue and we don't even get to help with anything beyond that. And then you're like wait what are they why are they going there? What are they doing? What is what is the goal of the meeting we want to ask a thousand questions and sometimes they're like oh we don't want to talk about it and you're like what like you just need you you need to know why they're doing it because to me that's just it doesn't make sense to not have that understanding otherwise it's like what are you doing? You know so exactly exactly anyway okay so if you had to pick and I know this is probably hard because you you just said you do so many things, but if you had to pick the most innovative idea that you've done maybe in the past year, I'll narrow it down a little bit for you, what would it be and why?
SPEAKER_00It's definitely a a tough question. And um but you know we had a client who um tended to always book uh like a Miami nightclub. Uh their attendees love that that energy um and the problem we faced is this client wasn't in Miami this time. So they were not gonna go there this time yeah right exactly so it they and then what they they chose was a ranch out in the country um in Texas. And so they wanted us to take this ranch very rustic um and turn it into a nightclub like you're gonna imagine my base. I was like you know what you booked right yeah and really threw me for a loop not you know not only were we able to actually like transform that ranch into a nightclub but we were also able to really like fuse those rustic elements that that you have um in that ranch with some modern LED lighting and some pop decor um to create something completely a completely unique theme. Okay. It's almost like how I would how I would describe it to a client um it's like it's almost like if uh John Wayne and Andy Warhol wanted to throw a party this this was that party.
SPEAKER_02So you can kind of picture it right I'm picturing it yes.
SPEAKER_00So and like the innovative part for that was the theming and combining two distinctly different genres into a cohesive vibe that is by far probably one of my favorite themes now.
SPEAKER_02That is really interesting. I would love and I know this is again not a visual podcast but I would love to see pictures of that because I'm sort of picturing like cowboy chic but with this like pop art like modern flair. So yeah I would love to see that. And the client I'm assuming was really happy and everyone enjoyed themselves and they still got that like club vibe that they were looking for but in Texas, right?
SPEAKER_00Right. Yep they got exactly what they wanted and you know it was a win-win for for everybody you know for the client she was happy for us we were ecstatic now we have this really kind of crazy new theme um and it all worked out for for all of us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah do they take this is another this is me asking questions but is this another event that they take like on the road every year like will this be in a new destination next year or are they going back to Miami?
SPEAKER_00Yeah so they're traveling all throughout the all all of our cities so I think maybe they may be in Orlando or San Diego coming up.
SPEAKER_02Okay got it and they still want this clubby vibe in every city that they go to for some reason they just it that's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00So you know that's their attendees like demographic vibe that they like okay yeah it's definitely like the I would say the the attendees you know very nice mix of of men and women and you know they're probably 30s 40s okay they like to party it works out for them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah well whatever works if it if it works then and they're happy then I guess that's what you keep doing. So exactly yeah with different little themes. I love it. All right well I always like to ask this kind of as we're wrapping up here but um so kind of final question is if if you weren't doing what you're doing today and it obviously sounds like you love what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00So I'm not trying to take you away from your job at Access, but if you were not doing what you're doing today, what would you be doing and why oh um you know I would I would probably still you know no I would definitely still be in the the hospital hospitality arena um but I would probably be a cruise director. I mean right they get to they get to see the world the the guests change every five or three to ten days you know depending um and they get to put on mini micro events throughout the ship all over the place. Like high energy they're always running around um and not to mention I mean those discounts like that's it's gonna be some crazy crazy good discounts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah no that sounds fun you know it's so funny I have a friend who loves to cruise and I I'm probably the last person to talk about this because I have not been on a cruise ship Don't Laugh since 1998 when my school went on like a show choir experience and we sang on the boat and it was really fun but I have not been on one for a really long time but I keep hearing about how people have amazing experiences on cruises. So I feel like I need to go sometime in 2025. So uh you keep me posted if you become this cruise director but um any any thoughts on brands or ones I should try or what?
SPEAKER_00Honestly um yes uh so my husband and I we did uh a trip with some friends there's about maybe 10 of us I want to say and um we did virgin okay highly definitely highly recommend it um they're they are really reimagining what what cruises are like uh I'll say um and we were we were hooked they the from the entertainment the decor even down to the food um completely completely different like they you know typical cruise ships probably have like the huge buffet um you know with the ice cream machine where Virgin actually is doing it almost like a food haul um and it's similar concept just trendier uh yeah so they're really going over or going after a different demographic which is which is really great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah that's awesome I'll have to check it out. Well thank you so much um listeners I hope that you enjoyed this episode about you know creativity and innovation and Aaron thank you for being an amazing guest um I really enjoyed listening to what you had to say today and I hope that the listeners learned something as well and that you too will be releasing your own creativity and innovation soon. So again thank you for listening and signing off on this latest episode of Meetings Matter Chatter. Thank you