Event Industry News Podcast

A self-confessed ‘tech nerd’ at heart, Anthony Vade worked in AV and event production Down Under before moving to Canada in 2010, initially for more of the same. Over the last few years though Vade has stepped across to the design field, joining Swiss-based Event Design Collective in its Toronto office as director for North America 12 months ago. In this episode, Anthony Vade digs into his backgro...

Manchester Central, formerly GMEX, has been home to, among many other things, festivals, standalone concerts, consumer shows, trade shows and conferences, not least those by the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Tellingly, CEO Shaun Hinds, who is also director/vice chair of the Association of Event Venues, featured on the EIN podcast pre-pandemic, in October 2019. This episode, in a wholly...

Sophie Bannister, head of creative development at communications agency M&C Saatchi Talk, is responsible for delivery of all campaign implementation, including social, content and experiential activations. In this episode, Sophie Bannister gives host James Dickson her take on everything from lockdown media days via Zoom, and other platforms, understanding the consumer journey, and rethinking conte...

Josh Hotsenpiller launched ‘hybrid events and 365 engagement software’ business JUNO Live in March 2020, at the top of the Covid-19 storm, responding to demand from clients of his other businesses, CrowdHub and Wisdom Capture. In this episode, Josh Hotsenpiller discusses, among other things, the thinking behind JUNO publication ‘All events are hybrid: a planning workbook’. Rife with sporting analo...

Jack Shannon is CEO and co-founder at California-based experiential growth marketing platform Recess. Launched in 2010, Recess is tech designed to marry brands with perfect match live events and venues efficiently – without all the searching/emailing and calling. Crucially, there are 100s of brands and agencies signed up, so Recess is a balanced equation. Jack Shannon explains the switch he and hi...

Pedro Góes is CEO at InEvent, an integrated end-to-end events platform which has customers in 67 countries and the likes of Facebook, Coca Cola, KPMG, Bosch, Santander among its users. The July 2021 launch of subsidiary platform EventMarket is at the core of this episode, Góes detailing its capacity to hook clients up with proven local agencies around the world, giving InEvent a new level of globa...

Dodge Woodall and Craig Mathie, owner/founder and managing director respectively, design and deliver Bournemouth 7s, a sport and music festival that’s established itself as a sell-out fixture attracting 30,000 fans over a May weekend, typically, and 400 teams playing a variety of competitive/social sports. In this episode, Woodall and Mathie discuss the impact of the government’s stop, start, stop...

Mike Seaman, CEO at Raccoon Events and chair of the AEO UK Organiser Group, wrote a passionate response to the Prime Minister extending restrictions through to July 19. Published on www.raccoonevents.com – under the News tab – Seaman asks ‘Why are exhibitions being discriminated against?’ In this episode, referencing his post, Mike Seamon talks about the value of the sector, coping with moving sho...

Christopher Bo Shields, co-founder of Totem, started out in theatre, as a lighting and sound technician, before going on to launch Lock On Productions at the turn of the century. Lock On slowly became more of a media comms agency, ultimately developing tech solutions and Bo Shields co-founded Totem Hybrid in June 2020. In this episode, Christopher Bo Shields talks about the past, his thoughts on t...

Mike Wroe, the new non exec chairman at JL Lighting (JLL), was CFO at Just Eat from 2008 to 2016, a period which saw the business move from “a couple of million” in turnover to nearly half a billion. Mike steered Just Eat into the FTSE 250 where it was the fastest growing company for a good while, leaving the business to seek new adventure in 2016 after that huge growth phase. In this episode, Mik...

Working out of Denver, Colorado, Tim Woodring is chief solutions officer at event management, production and creative agency, Unbridled. Launched at the turn of the century, initially focused on event logistics, Unbridled acquired a travel agency in 2002, going on to add registration to the mix in 2004, creative services in 2007 and production 2008, since when the company has enjoyed a “wild ride”...

Launched in March, the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition (EMMC) is out to standardise core metrics and assessment methodologies and promote them, alongside aggregating and sharing anonymous benchmarks. In this episode, EMMC founders Dax Callner, strategy director at Smyle, Katie Streten, head of experiential strategy for VMLY&R Commerce and Matt Sincaglia, VP of strategy & analytics at...

David Ball is founder & CEO of Brandfuel, a creative agency specialising in the sustainable design, planning and delivery of virtual events. In this episode, David Ball discusses the race and pace of change over the last 12 months and the resulting new efficiency. How to balance the live and virtual equation, the impact of talent leaving the live events world and helping freelancers to get ‘match...

Conceived as an event management and production agency nearly 40 years ago, around the automotive sector, TRO joined Omnicom in 2008 focused on designing and delivering live experiences for clients including Adidas, Volvo, Nike, Molson Coors and Under Armour.    In this episode, Michael Wyrley-Birch, the company’s chief executive, and client partner Lucy Knill discuss TRO’s ‘How to thrive in a pos...

Guy Horner is CEO at brand experience specialist TBA Group, which operates three divisions: Sports, Brands, Entertainment, and provides for a stellar set of clients including Red Bull Racing, Diageo, Dr Martens, Carlsberg, World Rugby, The FA, F1 and Formula 1. In this episode, Guy Horner discusses the changing landscape for brand experiences, virtual launches, unpacking the power of the pivot, pl...

Damian Clarke founded brand experience agency Undercurrent in 1991, providing for an illustrious set of clients including Google, Samsung, Live Nation, TK Maxx across 30 years and counting.   Set for a bumper time 12 months ago, with huge B2B and B2C plans in place, 90 per cent of them live, Clarke’s commitment to a digital edge on everything meant Undercurrent was able to pivot quickly and effect...

Ally Wolf is manager, producer and programmer at “variety club” the Clapham Grand. He’s also co-founder/festival director of Mighty Hoopla.   In this episode, Ally Wolf looks back at the Grand’s origins and history, going on to talk about, hosting successful test events post-lockdown 1, working with the Music Venues Trust and with DCMS, representing the venue model and the greater industry, reduce...

Dan Schofield studied event management in Leeds. He went on to work for Salford City Council before moving to the Middle East with QMDI. Dan came back to the UK for a job as advance project manager with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic torch relays. Then, chronologically, he was head of event delivery and finishes manager at the Tour de France 2014, head of ops with Manchester City and head...

With more than 23 years in the industry, Nick Morgan is CEO of large-scale event/festival production company We Are The Fair and We Are Placemaking. Nick sits on the NOEA Council, is a vice chair of the AIF and BVEP, a member of the NTIA and has recently joined the Festival DCMS/Public Health England workforce In this episode Nick Morgan discusses lockdown and using it to develop solutions across...

Liz Taylor, CEO of the Taylor Lynn Corporation (TLC), designs, produces and delivers events for the corporate and private sectors and has done for more than 30 years.  Alongside a number of high-net-worth individuals, her clients include Manchester Utd and Coronation Street.  In light of Boris Johnson’s lifting lockdown announcement, this episode focuses on restarting the event industry safely, Li...

Richard Twamley joined Top Banana as creative director in October 2019 from a similar position at RP Group, A creative comms agency with a weight of global clients, Top Banana was in a practised position for the streaming revolution, which started in March last year. In this episode, Richard Twamley talks to host James Dickson about the changing landscape in terms of culture and people, event time...

Event Industry News’ podcast episode 223 is a welcome back for host James Dickson, interviewed by founder Adam Parry who managed the series in his absence. James, who has put the questions across some 200 EIN podcast editions, and counting, contracted Covid-19 ahead of the pandemic’s first peak, in March 2020. Taken to hospital by ambulance, James was put on a ventilator for two weeks before start...

Harlan Davis is vice president of Product and Innovation at US-based GDS Group. In business for nearly 30 years, GDS started as a publisher, producing B2B journals for select markets including retail and healthcare, before moving across to events in 2005. Running between 50 and 100 executive summits every year pre-pandemic, for clients as illustrious as IBM and Dell, the GDS model already incorpor...

Steve Gottlieb, founder of TVT Records, the independent label that gave a big leg-up to the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Pitbull, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and KMFDM, launched online events platform Shindig in 2010. With a focus on attendee/delegate interaction, Shindig replicates the ‘mingling’ aspect of live events, so people can come across others with similar interests...

Launched last year, Spelfie is an out of this world marketing opportunity for live events. Hand in hand with Airbus’ technology, bookable weeks, months, even years ahead, the app synchronises with a satellite in position. An event-goer takes a selfie from an outside location which is married to the shot from space, a digital mark highlighting the individual’s position and their environment.   With...