Meetings Matter Chatter
Industry trends and topics pertaining to the travel and meetings industry
Meetings Matter Chatter
Designing a Comprehensive Stakeholder Experience: Unlocking the Power of Three
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On this episode we discuss a recent client event BCD Meetings & Events hosted, titled 'The Invitation,' in the stunning city of Victoria, British Columbia. The event brought together three areas: Program Strategy, Event Design and Production & Content. We're joined by the architects of the event: NeKeta Argrow, Strategic Solution Advisor, Mindy Hanzlik, Senior Director of Experience & Engagement, and Taylor Smith, VP and Executive Creative Director. Together they'll explain how their seamless approach can elevate a meetings program.
Hi there. Welcome to Meetings Matter Chatter. My name is Jenna Baker, and I'm the Vice President of Account Management at BCD Meetings and Events, and I am your host. Today I'm joined by three of my esteemed colleagues, Nikita Argro, Mindy Hanslick, and Taylor Smith, to talk about a recent client event they co-facilitated in Victoria, British Columbia called The Invitation. Nikita, let's start with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at BCD.
SPEAKER_03Sure. So my uh title is Strategic Solution Advisor. So essentially I'm a strategy consultant that's focused on the business of meetings and events. In terms of, I guess, the reader's digest version of my history is I had my first dabble in meetings and events when I was in college. I was actually an operations manager for a major concessions company. So that was advantageous because I got to see concerts for free and all the entertainment stuff I got to see for free, but was running operations at the time. And over the past 20 years, uh 20 plus years actually, I've had the opportunity to broaden my experience in all aspects that touch M ⁇ E. So, you know, operation, strategy, marketing, communications, design, all of the things. So now I'm here at BCD, sort of giving back in a way, with uh the culmination of my experiences over the past many years in a position of an advisor.
SPEAKER_00Very cool, Nikita. And obviously that's why we engaged you to work on this client event. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Uh, what types of clients did you engage? What were the goals of the event?
SPEAKER_03So there was a diversity of clients representing various industries. So retail, there was um quite a few science-driven companies, life sciences technology. But the commonality between all of these uh clients that were there was that meetings and events was looked at as a critical driver of advancing corporate level goals and objectives. So our goal was to drive informative discussions and brainstorm on solutions that really enable these program owners, um, and they represented different parts of the program, by the way. So there were some that actually oversaw the entire meetings and events program in terms of strategy and uh delivery, but there was also representation from procurement as well. I think, again, the the commonality is that uh the companies that they represented really looked at meetings and events as a business driver. And so we were wanting to drive the necessary discussions and provide information that can help the attendees really amplify their overall business impact with regard to their enterprise strategy and the functional areas of event delivery, which we really emphasized around creative and experience. It's kind of what I like to refer to as the power of three.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's a good segue to you, Mindy, when we talk about experience. Why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners? Tell us uh what you do at BCD.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so my title is Senior Director of Experience and Engagement, which means that I steer the pre-sale teams and the design piece of the collective, which is the kind of bespoke, high-touch, high service, experiential piece of BCD ME's event services. I come to this through a very winding road. I was an English and art history major. I worked retail. I uh was a temp. I happened into the events industry through that and worked with a sports media company planning events at different uh sporting events around the world, and then got into the agency industry and started working as a first an event manager and then as a salesperson, and then I moved to the UK and helped with an integration for that company's acquisition in the in England, and then did an MBA, focused on change management, left the industry, did change management consulting, which is a soul-sucking, horrible career. Don't ever pursue it. No one likes you the day you arrive. Everybody loves you the day you leave, and you go right back to someplace where everyone hates you. Um, so I abandoned that, became a yoga teacher and a yoga therapist. I still own a yoga studio here in Chicago, and that will not pay your bills. So I said, I need to go get a job again. Where am I going? And I found BCD, came here and built this experience and engagement strategy for the collective, which basically refocuses on the attendee, refocuses on the experiences that they have on site and using those experiences a way to engage and drive behavior change and really make attendees feel part of what you're asking them to do with face-to-face events, what you're trying to accomplish in the world and to build brand loyalty and those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00I'm always impressed, Mindy, that you have the time in your day to be creative and think through the experiences for your customers. But now that you've shared that you own a yoga studio on the side, it's kind of making sense. You obviously know how to really focus and think things through. Specific to the invitation, talk to us about what went into the design of that program.
SPEAKER_02So BCD does, we have our different lines of business that deliver different kinds of value within the event space, but we work together really closely. We complement each other. Our business is built intentionally so that customers get what they need from BCD in the event meetings and event space. And we have often done customer events more segmented to those lines of business. And so our goal with invitation was to bring it all together, bring our meetings management customers and our collective customers and our production and content customers together because they're all facing similar challenges and they're all looking at an industry that's rapidly changing and trying to navigate that change. So we decided rather than the individual events, this year everybody's coming together and we're going to find a way to help these customers learn from each other. So when we started designing this program, we're looking for a destination that gave us a chance to highlight some of the things we think about. A lot of times you choose destinations based on logistics. How do you get there? What's trending? You're looking at destinations from a practical standpoint. We approached it from our message is around change, our message is around honoring tradition and innovating at the same time. We are focusing on sustainability conversations. Where can we find a destination that is sustainable, that shows different approaches to sustainability? And we landed on Victoria, British Columbia, because it is a place that is tied to its roots, tied to its First Nations heritage, tied to its colonial heritage, and is also innovating as we look around. Who knew? I did not until I started researching it. But Victoria is a technology innovation hub in Canada. It honors the ecology of its local space. It honors the need for sustainable practices as part of its culture. We want to talk about sustainability. This is a great place to do it. And it has the Fairmont Empress. And the Empress focuses on sustainability. They're a hundred-year-old hotel that's moving towards net zero carbon footprint. That's incredible. That's insane because it's a building that they had to refit the windows to just like everything had to be redone to be eco-friendly in our modern standards. So the destination helps tell what we do, what we want to do, the stories we want to tell. So it's easy. We can point. We don't have to just tell the story. We can point. So here, here's the example in person live. So as we developed this process, we looked at picking the destination, building an agenda that gave people time for their emails, gave people time for the meetings and conversations they needed to have, so that when they got into the space with us, they could focus. So we started with an arrival. Some came through a float plane, some came by regular plane, but we had a cocktail reception and an off-site function that was focused solely on getting to know each other, which by the time we then came to meetings the next morning, people had built relationships. They had conversations that they had already gotten to know people. So it was a little easier to share their ideas. We used three MCs, not just one, Nikita, Taylor, and I led the conversation and facilitated it and played off each other to get ideas out of the customers. We established a playful tone. We made some jokes. We made sure people understood this is serious business, but it's there's nothing wrong with having a laugh while we're doing this. So for example, we were going with challenges people are facing. And people were coming up with, well, inflation and they're coming up with AI, how to handle it, and things that are very serious. And I'm like, well, then you have to figure out how to deal with the double spaces versus the TikTokers when you're communicating. And everybody laughs because generationally, those sorts of things are really the challenges we're facing when we're like, well, how do you make people excited about your event? How do you convey things in advance? Making things personal, building that kind of conversation gave us a benchmark that built the rest of the week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that was that was the goal. Let's talk with you, Taylor. You are the third MC at the invitation event. Will you tell us a little bit about what you do at BCD?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Uh so I am vice president and executive creative director, and I help oversee our content and production team. So we are a team of about 55 full-time producers, creators, writers, artists, and uh designers who all come together to help design, deliver, and execute um meetings. So, you know, Mindy, what her team does, and in a lot of the attendee experience at a high level from kind of start to finish, we really zoom in and focus on the experience in the room, you know, sitting in your seat, lights come down, screen comes on, that's where we come to play. And so we we produce all elements of uh that live event experience.
SPEAKER_00Tell me a little bit about your history, Taylor. It sounds like Mindy and Nikita both had very winding roads to find themselves at BCD in their career. What about yourself?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, if you had asked me 25 years ago if I wanted to work at BCD, I probably would have not known who BCD was and upon further investigation, was probably not have been interested at the time. Um so I dropped out of high school and started a software company. And uh, we started building software for photographers and creative professionals and started in a living room. And seven years later, we had built up the company to uh 65 employees, and we had offices in two countries. And really, that uh gave me a love and a passion for creative production, which then led me into the advertising industry for 10 years or so, and I was producing large global ad campaigns, Super Bowl spots, experiential out-of-home activations, all types of really fun, big budget creative work. And then ultimately uh started really honing in more on kind of the experience and event side of things. And I spent a year and a half at Apple producing phone launches and new store openings. And then most recently, over the past seven years, I was uh really focused on the corporate event side of things. So I started at a smaller agency based out of the UK, um, really focusing again on corporate event production. And that's what led me here. I I joined about five, four and a half years ago now. And I think for me, coming up how I did in the world that I did, I saw a lot of opportunities that were ripe for the picking and taking my experience with some of that really highly creative and really involved work and bringing it to maybe what would be seen as a typically stuffy and traditional corporate meeting space. And and I think I've found a really nice place for myself here in being able to help push the boundaries with creative as uh as it relates to yeah, corporate events and and meetings.
SPEAKER_00Wow, Taylor, that is really cool. I did not know all that stuff about you. So at the invitation, what was your approach towards the production?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think one of our intentions was to be um minimally visible and impactful by design. And it wasn't to say that, you know, we didn't want to make it a cool experience, but to Mindy's point earlier, we really wanted to lean into the space and make our production elements feel like a seamless extension of the property and the experience overall. So it felt like a smooth transition as you walk through the space, you come in and you sit down, and we wanted to get out of the ballroom. We wanted to get out of kind of that traditional corporate learning space and really have it be unique, have it be interactive, have it be immersive and engaging, and and really look to our customers to participate in this process. And so, you know, everything from the seating to the carpet on the floor to you know minimal amounts of AV, and but really focusing on on really cool lighting and and creating a warm and safe and comfortable space. I think for us that was the goal. And I feel like we really achieved that. And then focusing, I think, on an area of events that, if you ask me, is is sometimes overlooked to the detriment of a program, is is really the content around it. So what kind of stories are we telling through the event content? And that's not just, you know, slides, uh death by PowerPoint. It's really like using content in film as an opportunity to tell stories. And so one thing that I think we did that was really unique about this is we were at the Fairmont a couple months uh a couple weeks before the program, and we filmed three really unique, beautiful, longer form stories around the property. So one of them was around the history, 150 years of the Fairmont Empress and inspiring and uh exceptional history. The other one was around some of their sustainability efforts. And so, you know, as Mindy will talk about, I'm sure they have a lot of really great things they're doing at that property. And then the third was around some of their like the food and the serving and tea time and all of that. And I think that was a great way for us to not only acknowledge the property that we were at, but also tell compelling and meaningful stories through a strong narrative throughout the event, using content as that vehicle. And so our team really brought to life the content and that kind of minimally impactful, but again, intentionally event production experience.
SPEAKER_00So it sounds like you're kind of harnessing the three areas that each of you cover. So Nikita for you, that program strategy, that foundation, Mindy for you, that event experience, and Taylor for you, it's uh that production as well as content design to really show customers how all three areas can work together for their program. Nikita, what would you say to customers who say, I don't need all that? I don't have that complex of a program, I don't need content help, I don't need experience design, et cetera.
SPEAKER_03Well, I think that first is understanding, you know, how your actual program contributes to advancing the corporate level strategies and the goal. Um, I think that you have to really figure out your own journey, your own strategy, and determine why, you know, you don't need all the elements. Um, I think that it's important to really sit down and determine where you want to go, how you're gonna get there, and then most importantly, how do you determine that you've arrived? And then from there, you'll be able to assess the components that you need to build or refine that'll empower your program success. And if you're lost in the sauce of all of that, we can definitely help support you in building the recipe for success. So, you know, you maybe you don't need all the things, but you kind of need to understand, you know, why, you know, the answer the why. Um, and that should be based upon a solid strategy. You may not need all these components coming out of the gate. A lot of the times, clients need help with just formulating that strategy. And then they can move on to the other elements, but it really goes back to developing that foundation and being able to answer those questions as to why you don't need this or that at this time and building a solid, you know, blueprint in order to uh drive the success that you want.
SPEAKER_00Because you had a variety of customers at this event. It wasn't just strategic meetings management customers or just event customers, right?
SPEAKER_03Right. And that was purposeful because any client, you know, whether you know they're focused from a enterprise meetings, strategic meetings management level, you know, or if they're purely focused on the experiential and uh creative aspects of event, understand the totality of how all of these elements work together to drive success is critical. So it doesn't really matter, you know, where you represent, understanding how your contribution into the whole creates corporate level success is definitely important. I think there's a lot of cross-functional learnings that happened at invitation this year. Uh, it was great to see the peer-to-peer or the unlikely uh peer-to-peer connections. And I say unlikely because you know, we go into invitation and we kind of think of, okay, these clients will pair up with this client or what have you. And it really wasn't like that. And we really try to foster an inclusive environment. At the end of the day, the clients are experiencing similar challenges and also similar successes, right? Um, and so to have an intimate environment where they can discuss and brainstorm and solution together, I think really helps to drive the kind of community that we we would like to have with our clients here at uh BCD. And I think that was sort of the undercurrent as well as walking away with a sense of uh total community, regardless of what industry you represent. We're kind of all in this together, suppliers and us included.
SPEAKER_00Ah, yes, we are all in this together. Actually, one of the areas we are all in together is AI, artificial intelligence. That seems to be a really hot topic that everybody's talking about. And Taylor, you actually facilitated a session on that. Will you tell us a little bit about the session itself?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing that we did was help clarify. I think there's just AI seems to be a catch-all, like, you know, Prius or Kleenex or whatever. And there's a lot of, I think, misconceptions and misunderstanding and false information out there on what it really is. And so the first thing that we did is kind of set the table a little bit on the different versions of AI. I mean, there's there's machine learning, there's artificial intelligence, there's robotic automation, there's generative AI. And I think what everybody thinks about when the word AI comes up is gen AI, is chat GPT, is you know, what we're using to create menus or make fake images. I mean, I think that's the common conception of AI, but there are so many other versions of it and kind of going in and sharing with our customers some of the exciting things that we're seeing both on the operation side and the creative side as it pertains to AI. And I think there are companies out there who are do in industries as a whole who are doing far better than we are in terms of, I mean, Google spending $30 billion, Facebook $22 billion, Amazon $10 billion. And I think what we'll find, as with most technologies, is that you know, there's this bell curve that happens where it comes out, it's this immediate hype, and everybody's, you know, buying into it and everybody wants to use it. And and then soon enough, that kind of drops off, and we in there's consolidation, there's acquisitions that happen, there's there's companies who are really spending the time and the money, and then there's other companies asking, are we spending our money in the right place? And where does this tool really need to sit within our day-to-day processes and functions? And I think we're kind of coming to the end of that bell curve. And there was just a recent Gartner report that said uh at least 30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of next year. And that's due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs, unclear business values, you name it. So I think it was for me and for us was really demystifying some of that and in talking about some of the fear of adoption and maybe like what's the right way to do it, to do it intentionally, and if you're going to do it, to be willing to risk a time, an investment, a failure and learning from that. And and I think again, just taking a bit of a step away of the generative AI piece of things and looking at things like machine learning to identify uh business intelligent out of intelligence out of large sets of data as it relates to events. So if you think about event surveys, you know, you go out to 2,000 people and you're asking questions, and you have some poor intern who's going through a really large spreadsheet to try to identify. What if you could take all of that data over five years and feed it into an AI tool that can generate intelligence out of those and tell you how to improve based on attendee feedback year over year? And, or as you look at the content side of things, you know, there are ways to feed in insights and metrics from content to help identify like what is working and what isn't. And coming from my you know ad background, I mean, this was table stakes for us 10 years ago. You know, we had strategy and data and insights teams who would tell us how successful a campaign was and how we need to feed that strategy into our creative to grow and change the work so it becomes more appealing to the, you know, the viewer. And I think some of those learnings we're really starting to see little bits of come into the event world. But I think for us it was interesting first to hear how our customers currently use it. And and of course, now that we're at the end of that bell curve, you're seeing lockdowns on what tools you can and can't use, what information you can and can't put into it, you know, how you can use it in your workflow. And and I think um certain Fortune 100 companies are setting the tone for that. And we're now seeing other people adopt that. It's no longer the wild west of, you know, anybody can use any tool and put any information into it. And so it's understanding how our clients are using it and then kind of like positing a what is an ideal future state? What could the perfect AI tool do for you? And we had some really interesting conversations around that. And then I think just ending on the note that like again, going back to the fear of like this isn't gonna take over what we do, like it's not supposed to do that. And and I think it's pretty clear now, based on where things are starting to net out, that it's not going to take things over. You know, it's gonna be a tool, and like any other tool, it's only as good as the person who's wielding it. And that's up to us to define how we want to use it. And I think there are gonna be some interesting things that it can help. And then there's gonna be some glaring areas where we're like, no, this is the power of human creative interaction and engagement, and this is where we shine as meetings and events professionals to show up and curate that experience in the absence of a tool that's gonna do a terrible job.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that that's it's positive that both on the client side, and I would even say internally at BCD that we are understanding a lot more about AI because you're correct. It's all these bells and whistles and thinking, oh, it's gonna solve everything. And it's nice to know, uh, at least have an understanding of what it actually can and cannot do, and that our customers are coming along that journey with us because ultimately we want to provide service excellence. We're not gonna do that through a tool, but we can be more efficient and do things you know more quickly on the back end with a tool. So there's certainly uses for it, but not, it's not a uh miracle product that's going to take everything over for us. Nikita, you also facilitated a session. You did one using something called a PESTEL model. Can you tell us what that is and how that session went?
SPEAKER_03Sure. PESTEL stands for uh political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects that do impact your business. PESTEL is one of many strategy analysis tools, and you can actually use it in combination with other tools like SWAT. Everyone sort of is familiar with SWAT. But PESTOL actually allows you to pause and think about the outside forces that impact your meetings and events program. We decided to utilize this as a way to jumpstart the conversation and have the audience understand that they have common themes amongst them, but also to share in a diversity of thought on ideas and solutions that can drive progression in those areas too, with regard to the challenges, which they can, you know, in turn utilize sort of those points to drive, you know, their own peer-to-peer discussions throughout the day. And we we saw that a lot of the outcomes from the PESTEL analysis uh really connected with the agenda that we formulated for uh invitation. We actually use some of the outcomes of PESTL to formulate some key topics to keep the conversation going, you know, after invitational as well. Some more to come on that. Uh, but I feel that at the end of the day, it really helped to set that tone of community.
SPEAKER_00Nikita, what would you say were maybe your top three challenges that came out of the PESTL activity that your customers identified?
SPEAKER_03One particular theme was centered around generational gaps. And, you know, as the workforce evolves, you know, trying to bridge those generational gaps in terms of expectations, communications is one of uh, you know, the key factors that came around that. The other was sustainability, but it wasn't sustainability in terms of tactical execution, right? You know, we talk a lot about you know different things that we can do to drive sustainability uh objectives and goals, but the conversation was centered around, okay, so we know the list of things that we can do, but but how are we able to implement this in a way that is cost effective, that truly aligns to what our company wants to see uh in terms of our brand that's centered around or our brand that's actually attached to, you know, sustainability practices, the messaging around that as well. So, with regard to sustainability, it's just kind of an elevated conversation that I think we have uh many of us have been involved in as of late, in terms of this, the general application and the strategy behind it to ensure that you were meeting the return and objective, but doing it in a way that were fiscally responsible, uh, which also leads into the do less with more. I think that this is a common theme, um, not only within the group that attended invitational, but just industry-wide. You know, we're we're uh you know faced with flat budgets, but more, you know, we we need to strive for more impact uh that aligns with uh you know brand strategies and so forth. So how are we able to do that? How can we consolidate the spend effort? You know, what are you know other methods or ways that we can you know drive down costs with within certain areas of the of the event experience, whether that is, you know, sourcing certain venues and working with you know hotel and other suppliers to you know, really how do we deliver an impactful event from a creative and experiential perspective, uh, but do that and be uh fiscally responsible as well. I think as you know the economy, the global economy evolves, access to materials and things like that are continuously in flux. This is going to become more of a topic that really needs uh sort of those peer-to-peer connections, really, to really come up with uh good solutions that are good now and can sustain into the future.
SPEAKER_00So let's pick up a little bit more on that sustainability topic that you mentioned was a challenge that the clients raised at the event. Mindy, let's talk with you. You partnered with the hotel in Victoria. Can you talk about your approach towards sustainability overall at this event?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So, as referenced earlier, part of it is coming at the sourcing level. This hotel is a perfect hotel for hosting an event. It has great space, it has great service. It is also biosphere certified. It is a green key certified hotel, which are gold standard certifications in the hospitality industry. You know by using this hotel that your carbon footprint is fundamentally lower. They have gone through all sorts of initiatives internally with no single-use plastics and things like that that just make their business practices fundamentally sustainable. And then they have added tools with things like their Orbis system, which monitors food waste and gives you insight into what you're eating and how you might change your menus going forward, how they can change their menus and what they actually put on the menu, and how you as an organization can change what you order at future events to minimize the amount of food that's going to waste, because that is a huge source of waste and lack of sustainability in the events world. We uh we view this like cornucopia of feasting, and we want to make sure everybody feels like, oh my God, this is an amazing banquet. But then you throw a bunch of stuff away, and that doesn't, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of being having a sustainable program. Um, we also talked a lot about uh the impact of sustainable agriculture and the how vegan diets and plant-based diets are fundamentally better for the environment. And their hotel had they they have beekeeping on site, they have uh gardens where they raise produce, they have partnerships with all sorts of local producers. And we thought this would be a fun way to hit two things by doing a plant-based menu for one of the lunch, one of the lunches. And our approach to this is number one, from an inclusivity perspective, it helps you deal with dietary restrictions, it helps you deal with dietary preferences, uh, especially as you look at generations, younger generations, there are more and more vegans and vegetarians in the groups that are coming up in your organization, your Zs and your younger millennials versus your boomers and your Xers. So it's a great way to address that and cultural differences in diets, but it's also sustainable. So we worked with their chef to create a completely plant-based meal. And everybody, we told them we're gonna do this. We walked through the why, and the everybody who was attending were like, eh, I don't know about this, except for the two people who are vegetarian, and they're like, Thank God it's not a cauliflower steak. So we had this amazing buffet, and everyone was absolutely dumbfounded that they didn't miss the meat. Everything was delicious, it was sustained, it was like it was sustenance, it was, it was hearty and it was delicious, and it had a variety of texture and a variety of flavor, and it was so popular. There was a lentil soup that was kind of the way the buffet was laid out, it was people missed it their first go around. And one person had it and was like, oh my God, this is the best lentil soup I've ever had. The next thing you know, everybody's over there taking the lentil soup as one of our follow-up communications. We got the recipe for them because it was spectacular and we're entering soup season, so it made sense. But it was just little things like that. Well, it's went back to the principles of design. This this plant-based menu allowed us to highlight the hotel and what they're doing and what their chef's culinary team can do, but it also showed people hands-on experience. So the so the concept is not just conversation. It they they had the experience that you can do this, you can do this well, and it can be as fulfilling as any other menu you might find.
SPEAKER_00And I think that the fact that you were talking to them about and you were talking about sustainability, it made them obviously very aware of all the sustainable practices at the hotel. But for other events, it's really important. Would you agree to highlight that to the attendees because they expect it, but they don't necessarily know all the things that a hotel might be doing behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_02I agree wholeheartedly. I think having socializing what the the issues, good and bad, of what you're doing is an important piece of it. We have a customer who, uh, when they talk about their sustainability policy in their events, the opening sentence is events are fundamentally not sustainable. Because when you're getting on a plane, your carbon footprint goes up. But so getting that conversation and being honest about the impact of what your events do, but then finding tangible ways to minimize that impact, that's how you actually make a difference. You're honestly addressing the situation because if you're not willing to acknowledge the potential downside, you can't possibly mitigate it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was at an event in Houston, and the general manager came out and he was explaining to us how their laundry worked and how they recycled their water and things like that, something that nobody would ever know about. And it made us so proud to have chosen that hotel when he ultimately told us. So I do think that there's lots of opportunity for us to weave this messaging in because it's just um otherwise, people just don't know about it.
SPEAKER_02They don't. And it's part of their values. And when we talk about building people-centric events and finding ways to make your content and your event resonate, letting people know we understand your values and we're trying to align what we're doing to you, it's it's a good faith effort that builds um goodwill with your attendees as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, Nikita, when you look at this event holistically, what would you say were some of the key outcomes that you took away from this?
SPEAKER_03From my perspective, I would say that the core was really creating an environment where peer-to-peer connections could be established. You know, as uh the attendees left the event, they are still wanting to maintain that connection and trying to figure out ways that they can continue the conversation together outside of invitation. The other was just being exposed, or and that and that's inclusive of everyone that was there, not just the clients, but supplier as well. Uh, just being exposed to new ideas and approaches to common challenges. It really helped to re-inter re-energize the group and to help them refocus on what can be instead of what's stopping me. Uh, so I think that those are, you know, also critical aspects of creating in a thriving community, which is what we want to do to keep those conversations going after invitation has taken place. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So, Mindy, what would you say to a client that is interested in design, event experience, but they don't know where to start or how to do it? What would you say to them?
SPEAKER_02I deal with this all the time. And I say, for starters, stop, pause, take a step back, and just begin again. So don't go straight to your logistics. Take time to think through what is your messaging? What are your goals? What do you want people to do after the event? And who are the people that are coming? What do they want? Worry less about your stakeholders and more about the people because that's how you get your stakeholders happy by getting your people happy and engaged. And then you move into conversations around, so what's your business climate? Like, what are you actually dealing with in the world? What do you have to factor into the planning that you do? And what's your culture? Because your event should be a reflection of the best pieces of your company culture, whether it's an employee event or whether it's a customer event. Your event is a chance to show people who you are and what you value. And when you understand all of those things, then you start the planning. And that informs how you build an agenda. It informs where you go and what you do. And it gives you an opportunity to rethink assumptions. It gives you an opportunity to maybe step outside of the box and try something new. But you're doing it with an informed perspective. You're not just throwing things at the wall, you're not just trying something new and trendy because you read about it in a magazine. You're doing it because you know your audience and you know yourself and you know that it has a chance of success.
SPEAKER_00Well, it sounds like the three of you did do it for this event, the invitation. It sounds like it was hugely successful. So, Nikita, where do we go from here? Because we we've all had this experience where you go to an amazing event and you're all energized, and then everyone flies home and then forgets about it. So, how do you keep the momentum going with this group?
SPEAKER_03So I would say um don't stop learning, don't stop testing and challenging the current state. Um, I tell my team, I tell my client, empower yourself to be in a cycle of continuous optimization. Um, you know, that's how we drive innovation and uh, you know, collective innovation of thought. Uh, if you're a current BCD meetings and events client, you're listening to this right now, uh, definitely engage your account manager so they can pull our teams into the discussion. Uh, whatever your starting point is or whatever your specific need, know that we're here to support you in your journey. The invitation in particular is one of many touch points that make up our thought leadership programming. So there's more to come, but just know that that's a function of doing business with us, is that you know, we have curated experiences where we can dig deeper and drive those necessary conversations and peer-to-peer connections that are vital uh to our business at its meetings and events. Um if you're not a BCD ME client and you're listening to this, reach out to us on our website. Let's have a conversation to see how we can best support your program needs.
SPEAKER_00Excellent sales pitch, Nikita. Thank you for doing that. Well, Nikita, Mindy, Taylor, thank you all so much. It sounds like a fantastic event. I'm so glad that you took some time to share with our listeners how that event unfolded, the value that it brought to our customers, and what they can think about and look forward to in the future. So thank you all so much for your time today. And I hope we'll have you on again. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Haller.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. That's all the time we have for today. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe or leave a review. Next time, we will talk about storytelling with data. I'm Jenna Baker. Thanks for listening to Meetings Matter Chatter.