Event Industry News Podcast

Andrew Perrott is managing director of Chorus, a London-based brand experience agency with a worldwide client base. This episode sees Andrew discussing a recent project for luxury Diageo brand Johnnie Walker Blue Label in Singapore and the Chorus capacity for bringing theatrical elements into the immersive experience. He goes on to talk host James Dickson through the agency’s pandemic learnings, h...

Joining host James Dickson from the Hague, Jelmer van Ast, founder and CEO at event engagement platform producer Conference Compass, talks through his thoughts on the contemporary industry model, starting with the focus of the company’s January 2022 blog – flexibility and adaptability. A regular on the podcast, Jelmer van Ast goes on to discuss ‘back to normal’, the benefits of on demand, the subs...

‘The world’s only communications cloud for events, public relations, and investor relations’, Notified, released its annual Benchmark Report in September. Customer data highlighting trends in the virtual events market, the document revealed an upsurge in attendance for webinars and virtual events alongside increased engagement before and after thanks to the hooks – the downloads, live chats et al....

CEO John Martinez, a quantum physicist, founded Shocklogic in 1997. One of the earliest exponents of event technology as we know it today, Shocklogic was developing/providing platforms for virtual events far in advance of the pandemic shift in thinking/delivery.   Thick with life experiences, from interviewee and from interviewer/host James Dickson, this episode delivers a deep examination of the...

Richard Belcher is director of streaming/production company First Sight Media, a key partner in delivering Event Tech Live (ETL) across its in-person, hybrid and virtual incarnations.   Richard starts this episode explaining what First Sight Media does at ETL, front of house and behind the scenes, going on to detail changing audience perspectives post-pandemic, the dividends from community buildin...

James C Morris joined full-service event and experiential marketing agency Impact XM, where he is now VP client service, at the beginning of 2018 – bringing nearly 12 years of industry experience at Atlantic Exhibits with him. In this episode, Morris and host James Dickson look at the realities post-the UFI’s Global Recovery Insights 2021 report. Have things bounced back as predicted and what the...

Chief strategy officer Stephen Pickett joined Live Group in March 2022, from equally self-explanatory Canadian business CleanRiver Recycling Solutions. In this episode Pickett explains what ‘quiet quitting’ is, the causes behind the concept, the impact on employers and, crucially, what they can do about it. Steered by host James Dickson, Pickett discusses motivating a team and the individuals with...

Caroline McGuckian founder/CEO at Meshh, a company focused on the ‘metrics of movement’, and Jack Jacob, MD and founder of PNE (Partnership Network Events), join host James Dickson to take a look at the Metaverse.   On the premise that Metaverse is a work in progress, and everyone, everywhere, has a different perspective, this episode is part wish list, part comparison.   All three participants ar...

With multiple cross-industry specialties in his locker New York-based Matt Frank is director of technology evangelism & product marketing at Blackthorn – ‘easy event management for Salesforce’. Across some 40 minutes, this episode’s focus is the largest CRM system in the world and how Blackthorn’s apps, which are native to Salesforce, make processing payments and managing events easy. With host Ja...

With more than 20 years software development, product management and business development in her back pocket, Wei Li is head of Zoom Events and Webinar.   In this episode, Wei talks host James Dickson through the launch of Zoom Events in July of 2021, discussing pandemic impact., mitigation, and highlighting the system’s extraordinary updates and innovations impetus. Referencing the hybrid user an...

Introduced by host Adam Parry the second chapter of chats he had during a visit to Cvent CONNECT Europe, at Intercontinental Hotel – The O2, is with Jamie Vaughan, the company’s VP of European sales.   Following Jamie’s potted perspective on some of CONNECT 2022’s content, and the show’s primary takeaways, this short episode focuses on the Cvent culture and what the greater industry can learn from...

Adam Parry caught up Cvent senior vice president and chief marketing officer Patrick Smith at the physical element of hybrid Cvent CONNECT Europe, held at Intercontinental Hotel – The O2. A special episode – Event Tech Talks and Walks – this is a focus on marketing; adapting to the new event model post-pandemic. Host Adam Parry introduces the discussion and Patrick Smith talks quickly, covering a...

Jamie Leonard and his wife Lois Holland Leonard founded Recruitment Events determined to do better in an industry Jamie describes as ‘notorious for very bad events’.   They went out to market with a series of small buyer/seller speed meeting shows in 2011 creating the brand and launched RecFest three years later – a festival-style event in a conference room, AstroTurf on the floor, attended by som...

Robin Kemp is head of creative development at Culture Liverpool. In this episode, Robin talks through the city’s celebrated River of Light installation – the event’s seventh edition runs from 21 October to 6 November across Liverpool Waterfront in a 2km loop. Robin details the background – how November 5th fireworks held in parks out of town spawned the inaugural River of Light in 2016, winding it...

The events sector lost huge numbers of fantastic, talented people to other industries as a product of the lockdowns.   In this episode Mike Frost, co-founder of recruitment consultancy Expocast, and Alex Hewitt, CEO and head of strategy at AOK Events, a company that saw its staff numbers cut by 70 per cent across the pandemic pinch point, join host James Dixon to discuss the state of things.   A g...

Lawrence Coburn, is co-founder & CEO of Twine, an employee connection programme launched in 2020 that operates out of San Francisco.  In this episode, Coburn talks through selling DoubleDutch, another business he launched - an early leader in the mobile event app space, to focus Twine on the networking element or “software that brings people together”. Lawrence Coburn goes on to discuss developing...

Josh Katz is founder and CEO of YellowHeart, which he describes as a made-in-NYC, blockchain live event ticketing platform powered by distributed ledger technology.   A fanatical music fan since childhood, Katz moved from promoting shows to record label world in the mid-1990s. He went on to start his own ‘non-traditional’ label, selling it in 2016 to fund a deep dive into crypto, blockchain and, u...

Jenny Morgan founded Pact Three inspired by the 2020 wild fires, which were in her North West America back yard. Pact three partners with teams seeking to be more conscious towards the community, planet, and their employees, working with organisations, assessing their social and environmental impact. In this episode, which, as the title suggests, is about the positives, Jenny digs into the motivat...

With eight years in the sector, Tinique Hay conceived Hay Events, a solution for entrepreneurs and small business management, in 2018. The company launched in lockdown, providing Hay with an opportunity to hone her virtual and hybrid event skills. In this episode, Tinique Hay talks host James Dickson through her background, her inspirations for the new business and why she singled out the entrepre...

A key part of the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) since January 2009, Dawn Lauder has been head of international conferences at the venue for nearly six years. In this episode, Dawn digs into her learnings from COP26, which was at the SEC in late 2021 making equally sought-after and stellar steps - not least $130tn towards net zero and climate risk disclosure for companies. Dawn talks host James Dicks...

Yaw Owusu, executive manager at Playmaker Group (PMG), has curated the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) since 2013.   Typically focused in Sefton Park, Covid 19’s impact on the city’s celebrated portfolio for live music has seen a telling switch in LIMF’s structure for 2022. This episode is the story of a festival working for its surrounds, for its community – fans, artists and promot...

Working out of Boston on the US east coast, Devin Cleary is VP Global Events for Bizzabo, the event experience operating system, and a regular on the podcast.   In this episode, the focus is back on event tech - in the particular context of 2022, the uptick in optimism, getting back to live events and analysing the changes post-pandemic.   Devin Cleary highlights the new air of confidence, going o...

Formerly senior logistics manager for Jack Morton Worldwide, Adam Goodman founded full-service creative agency ACA Live in 2008. In this episode, Adam talks host James Dickson through his 20 years plus in events world, from studying hospitality business management in Leeds via a conference and banqueting role at the Langham through to setting up ACA. With drinks brands a core component in the comp...

Rick Stainton, the man behind creative agency Smyle, founded One Industry One Voice (OIOV) in the eye of the pandemic as a ‘coalition of associations and businesses created to champion the entire events industry’.   In this episode, Rick explains why OIOV has recently been rebranded The Power of Events (TPOE) – a partnership with, but not limited to, Greenwich, Westminster, Surrey, Leeds Beckett,...

Jelmer van Ast, founder and CEO at Conference Compass, a company – based in the Hague – which is behind customisable event engagement platforms, comes back to the podcast some 12 months after last time. In this episode, Jelmer talks event adaptability with host James Dickson, the science of technology and increasing engagement. He goes on to discuss investing in product development and, crucially,...