The pandemic put a strain on everyone in the events industry, and it’s pushed some of our longest-serving professionals into other careers or even retirement, leaving a vacuum for other professionals to fill. It’s this need for experienced and knowledgeable event professionals, along with the revitalization of events, that led today’s guest, Bradley Cocks, to transition from doing to educating.  Bradley is an experienced event professional with an impressive 20 years of history in the industry. He’s also founded and sold his own events agency and has launched a successful online Mastercl ..read more

Throughout 2022, we discussed how event professionals could talk business and engage with the C-suite. We also talked about trends we witnessed and expected to see in 2023. That’s why we’ve brought Jim Kelley on today’s episode of the #EventIcons. Jim is an experienced leader in the events industry. Currently the Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations at Fern Expo, he has a long history of working in events, tradeshows, and conferences. Jim describes himself as a continuous learner, trusted advisor, innovator, educator, and ukulelist in training. Today, he’ll share h ..read more

Attendee arrival has changed in recent years. Before the pandemic, attendees would have booked hotels and made transportation arrangements in the days or weeks leading up to the event. With online events, they’ve cut that time down to a few minutes, and no one understands this better than today’s #EventIcons guest, Arianna Black. Arianna has a long-standing relationship with events. Recently, that relationship has grown to focus on meaningful connections in virtual events. She says, “My current obsession is building spaces for authentic connections into large-scale digital-first engagements ..read more

The #EventIcons podcast is back with a very special guest: Hubilo's CEO Vaibhav Jain. Hubilo is the leading global virtual and hybrid event technology company. Under Vaibhav's leadership, Hubilo has raised over 150 million in less than a year from leading hedge fund and venture capital firms globally. And it still continues to grow exponentially internationally.    Vaibhav's vision is to create a solution that works for every possible industry where content and community come together beyond the business world. He and Karmen will talk about how Hubilo got started, what challenge ..read more

After a month-long break, the #EventIcons podcast is back in all its glory! This week's iconic guest is the knowledgeable Gianna Gaudini, an event marketing strategist who understands events inside and out. She worked as Marketing Events Lead at Google for nine years and Head of Events at AWS for nearly two years. Even more importantly, she has founded her own company in 2018. Check out Gianna's website: she's established herself as an industry leader as well as an author and course creator. Since she's got such a wide range of knowledge, Karmen thought it would be a great idea to pick her bra ..read more

We’re back today with a very special episode of the #EventIcons podcast. Will’s guest is Isaac Holt, the Master of Technimagic at Endless Events. This week, he put on the shoes of the podcast’s host and did quite an amazing job. Will and the live audience had a lot of questions for our new host. To make him feel welcomed and at ease, they mostly talked about technical production, but also touched on the future of virtual events and hybrid events – the works. So, press play, and please welcome Isaac Holt ..read more

New week, new guest, new host! #EventIcons is back with a very special episode! Recorded at Event Tech Live, Will had a great conversation about the evolution of SXSW with none other than their former Chief Innovation Officer, Scott Wilcox. Today, Scott has a new consulting venture, Here and Tomorrow. We’ve talked about SXSW (South by Southwest) before in this podcast’s history. We’ve watched them do their first-ever 4K live stream, and included them on the list of our favorite events in 2018. Today, we’ll explore how they went from being a company without emails to th ..read more

There is only one thing that seems to be certain in these trying times in the events industry: virtual events are here to stay, no matter the state of the pandemic and our personal preferences. And that’s why it’s time to talk about virtual event production -again. The #EventIcons podcast strives to talk to the very best in the events world. And wow, did we deliver this week! Today, we don’t introduce you to one, but two #EventIcons guests: Kara Gladish and Sheehan Hubbard from Socio. For those who might not know: Socio is an event technology company tha ..read more

Planning a safe event is by no means something that is new in the world of event planners, but it has definitely gained new meaning in the last 18 months. When we think of staying safe and sound at events these days, our minds first go to COVID-compliance officers, screening procedures, and hand sanitizers. And since the #EventIcons podcast is all about talking about the hottest topics in the events industry, we brought on a special guest who specializes in all things event safety and security. With over 25 years of experience in meeting planning as well as public safety, Alan Kleinf ..read more

When we talk about movement at events, our minds might go to walking around the venue at in-person events or walking to the fridge if we’re attending a virtual experience. But what if we told you that a little movement goes a long way even before or during speaker presentations? Taking care of the health of the attendees is a growing trend in the events industry – and we’re not just talking about COVID-19 compliance at events. PCMA EduCon 2021, for example, hosted a gamified health challenge and encouraged attendees to move their bodies. So, we brought on an iconic guest to explain t ..read more