Building Community and Connections: Johnice Veals on Fostering Employee Engagement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Nov 2

Featuring Johnice Veals, Associate Director of Events and Employee Engagement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Johnice Veals, HMCC, is passionate about creating experiences that inspire authentic connections and build community. As Associate Director of Events and Employee Engagement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Johnice designs events that enhance culture and develops programs and initiatives that enrich the employee experience. Prior to Vertex, Johnice was the Events Producer at Life is Good Playmakers. There she crafted fundraising and brand visibility events fueled by Life is Good’s optimistic message. Johnice is an MPI50 Up and Comer and a member of the MPI New England Board of Directors

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

The challenges of gauging employee satisfaction in a rapidly growing company with global offices
Strategies for finding a balance between global events and meetings, taking into consideration time zones and cultural differences
The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in creating a supportive and inclusive work environment.
The value of networking and connecting with industry organizations like MPI and PCMA for gaining insights and different perspectives on managing events
An understanding of the role of internal communications in keeping employees connected and engaged, particularly during challenging times like the pandemic

In this episode…

In today's episode, Paige Buck had the pleasure of chatting with Johnice Veals, the Associate Director of Events and Employee Engagement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Johnice takes her into the world of pharmaceutical events, sharing her insights and experiences in creating meaningful and impactful experiences for employees globally. From navigating time zones and cultural differences to fostering diversity and inclusion, Johnice discusses the challenges and successes in her role. They also delve into her previous work at Life is Good and how she brings elements of fun and music into the pharmaceutical industry.

As a seasoned professional in the events industry, Johnice Veals brings a wealth of expertise and firsthand knowledge to the table. Throughout the interview, she candidly shares her insights on gauging employee satisfaction, managing global events, and fostering diversity and inclusion. Johnice's valuable advice centers around the importance of authentic connections, utilizing data-driven insights, and aligning events with company strategy. Her experience in bridging the gap between different industries, from apparel to pharmaceuticals, showcases her innovative and adaptive approach. Johnice imparts her wisdom on successfully orchestrating impactful events and creating a sense of community within organizations.

DOWNLOAD THE TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS PODCAST EPISODE FOR FREE

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Johnice Veals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Life is Good Playmakers
MPI
“Feedback is Power: How Interactive Sales Materials Transform Enterprise Sales Processes” with Justin Dorfman of AssetMule
“The Evolution of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Corporate World” with Sophia Piliouras of MCCA
“Creating a Win-Win Situation: How to Provide Value to Sponsors and Organizations” with Meg Fasy of fazeFWD.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events.

Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs—from in-person to hybrid and virtual events.

To learn more about our services, visit our website at www.kennedyevents.com and schedule a consultation today to find out how we can guide you in making your event successful.

Transcript

Paige Buck [00:00:04]:

Hello and welcome to the Solution Seekers podcast. I'm your host, Paige Buck. Recent guests have included Justin Dorfman of AssetMule, Sophia Piliouras of MCCA, and Meg Fasy of fazeFWD. And today I am delighted to be speaking with Johnice Veals. Did I say that name right? HMCC. Who is passionate about creating experiences that inspire authentic connections and build community.

Paige Buck [00:00:48]:

As Associate Director of Events and Employee Engagement at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Johnice designs events that enhance culture and develops programs and initiatives that enrich the employee experience. Prior to Vertex, Johnice was the events producer at Life is Good Playmakers. There, she crafted fundraising and brand visibility events fueled by Life is Good's optimistic message. Johnice is an MPI 150 up-and-comer and a member of the MPI New England Board of Directors.

And before we dive in with her, today's episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events. Kennedy Events creates stress free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs, from in person to hybrid and virtual.

You can learn more about us at kennedyevents.com.

And with all that out of the way, Johnice, thanks so much for being with me today.

Johnice Veals [00:01:41]:

Thank you for having me. I'm glad we finally got to do this.

Paige Buck [00:01:44]:

I know, me too. It's been great getting to know you a little bit, and I'm super curious as we get going to know who your events serve and what you help them solve.

Johnice Veals [00:01:59]:

Sure. So, my events serve Vertex employees so globally. So that is anyone from an executive in the C suite all the way to a person who is a coordinator on any team within the organization. So we serve across the board, across the globe in many locations, and we solve for a couple of things. We were talking before, but we solve for a few things. I put them into three buckets. We solve for education, celebration, and connection or community. And so we seek to educate our employees on different topics to celebrate, because who doesn't want to sometimes just have a party? And then also to build community. And that is between Vertex employees and then also sometimes with our communities that surround us.

Paige Buck [00:02:51]:

Nice. And I feel like employee engagement is becoming like a catch word or a phrase that's really hot. But why do you think it's important and how do you think it's fueling Vertex?

Johnice Veals [00:03:02]:

Yeah, I think it's important. I mean, people who work for any organization, and specifically Vertex, we move this company forward. We have a mission, we have values, but the people who embody those and embrace those and bring those to life are our employees. And we spend so much time at work with other folks in this environment. So I think making sure our employees feel valued and welcome and connected. Just, I really think it makes their experience better and makes them want to stay. It's a retention thing, but it's also just a personal thing too. You want to be able to spend time with your coworkers in this space and enjoy it just because it's work, but it should still be fun.

Paige Buck [00:03:48]:

Yeah, I think it's funny for those of us who readily buy into that, it seems like a totally no duh thing, right? Of course I want to enjoy the place I work and the people I'm with. And then some entrepreneurs and leaders, it's like, just get to work.

Johnice Veals [00:04:03]:

Just check those boxes.

Paige Buck [00:04:07]:

What do we need fun for? Okay, fine, you can have some hors d'oeuvres You shared that you, among two teams at Vertex that focus on events, yours is in internal comms. And I'm curious if there was a moment or more than one where it really hit home the value of the seat that you have within the broader organization, why it makes sense for you to sit where you do.

Johnice Veals [00:04:32]:

Yeah, I think the biggest thing, just like everybody during the pandemic, a lot of things came to light for a lot of us, and I felt that during that time, everybody was transitioning. And pivoting, which is the word I really hate to use nowadays.

Paige Buck [00:04:50]:

I’m with you, oh my God. It's a four letter word, it's not a five.

Johnice Veals [00:04:53]:

Right. But when we were moving into what are we going to do? A lot of that conversation was how we keep our employees connected. How do we make sure and maintain that they're generally okay outside of the benefits and all the other things that HR and the executive team were working on. It really was about how do we keep people connected? And this is how we're communicating about COVID to everyone. This is how we're thinking about moving through this year and what we're doing for our patients. We are a very patient centric organization. It fuels everything that we do. And sitting in those meetings, I was able to craft things that not only went with the strategy that we were putting together, also I got to sit from an employee standpoint and be like, okay, well, you're communicating about that way. How do we bring that to life in an experience? And also, what kind of experiences do we want to build? Like, oh, we want to make sure that people are taking breaks during the day. Well, let's build some sort of experience around that.

Johnice Veals [00:05:55]:

So being a part of those conversations, I was like, oh, this is why I'm in internal comms. This is why this seat is really, truly important. And I think I was telling you, we transitioned the CEO in the middle of COVID as well.

Paige Buck [00:06:08]:

Very early days of COVID.

Johnice Veals [00:06:10]:

Very early days of COVID. March 30, we were on that, and it really in that moment as well, was like, okay, well, we need to do this. This is a big moment for our company. Our previous CEO was moving to be the executive of our board. And so it was like this beautiful– we had this, before COVID, we had this wonderful event planned with gifts and all the things that you would think that you would put into an event like that. And we had to be like, okay, wait, he's not in the same room with her. And how do we give him this gift that's very large and we don't know how to package it and send it, and we want it to be a surprise, and how do we maintain that and really being a part of, again, part of those conversations. If it was just the comms team who are great and just the executives in the room who are also great, I think the experience would have been slightly different. But with me in the room and having the experience I have, I could be like, no, how about we just send him a box and tell him not to open it?

Paige Buck [00:07:13]:

The Oscars thing, I think it was Oscars where they're like people in hazmat.

Suits showing up with

Johnice Veals

I wish we'd have thought of that because it would have been really funny. But no. So it was just, I think those two moments epitomized why I sit here and why I sit in this internal team and where I can provide value.

Paige Buck [00:07:35]:

And when you're talking about I feel like everybody can and maybe not. Maybe something different comes to mind when we say celebration. But when you talk about connection and community, what are some creative solutions you've come up with for events that foster that? I think people can get into the trap of thinking like team building equals icebreaker activities and trust falls.

Johnice Veals [00:08:03]:

We try to stay away from those. Yeah, we do small things. So we are doing events globally and we're doing them for sometimes in Boston. We have somewhere north of 3000 employees in the city alone. And so we try to do two things. In the communications we send out about whatever we're doing, whatever event we're doing, we want to make people be like, I want to go to this, but also, what am I going to get out of it? Right? And then we try to build something. We do things as simple as a couple of weeks ago when it was still warm in Boston because it's definitely sweater weather. We brought in food trucks.

Johnice Veals [00:08:43]:

We worked with an ice cream food truck and we brought them in all over the city. We have an office in Providence, too. We went there and we brought them out. And in the communications we sent out, we're like, you deserve a break. Because we knew our entire organization had been working nonstop on something very specific. And so we were just like, you deserve a break. We want you to come out in either if it's five minutes or two minutes. Grab your cookie, grab your ice cream cone, do whatever you want to do and either take that minute to go out and go back in or take a walk with a colleague.

Johnice Veals [00:09:18]:

Sit outside. We gave people like, you can sit outside in the green space, you can sit outside somewhere else, but take the time. And how we communicated that to people was what we're doing. We want you to connect with each other. This is the purpose of it. And we talk a lot about in the industry about what the purpose is. I think as we communicate, we try to instill purpose in our employees. We want you to do this like, breaks create breakthroughs.

Johnice Veals [00:09:43]:

Get out of the lab. I know you want to stay at the bench and you want to do your job, but get out of the lab. Come and walk and talk to people and build connection with people. And we saw that. We saw our chief scientific officer out taking pictures of the crowd because there was a lot of people out. There was folks having conversations and laughing in line. Some folks took a walk around the block. They really took the intention so that community can be built in a multitude of ways.

It doesn't need to be trust falls. Sometimes it's just getting out of the office and having a conversation that's not about whatever you're working on.

Paige Buck [00:10:18]:

I love that phrase. Breaks create breakthroughs. We're a tiny team, but we had a team retreat this spring and brought a facilitator with us who was trying to impress on us. And I'm going to forget the scientific phrase for it, but there's something that happens with our minds when we are in those in between moments. We are folding the laundry and not listening to any not listening to a podcast. Like, I'm always doing two things right, folding the laundry or you're walking the dog and you're truly just walking the dog where your brain resets and it creates space and ideas come in or problems get solved. You make connections just in your own brain that you wouldn't. And when you can do that with other people as well, that's where the AHA happen.

Johnice Veals [00:11:06]:

Yeah, it's where the AHAs happens. It's also where you might have wanted to have a conversation with someone like, oh, I'm going to send them an email. I don't have to do that now. I can actually have a conversation and a more in depth conversation about whatever it might have been. So yeah, we try to just create points of connection sometimes, but be really intentional in how we do it.

Paige Buck [00:11:29]:

You mentioned hybrid. I imagine with lab work, folks are almost essentially physically in labs in person, but for other roles within your organization. Do you have people who are hybrid and still working part time from home?

Johnice Veals [00:11:44]:

We do, yeah. So we have three categories. So we have our onsite folks, which are lab people, operations, things like that. We have a hybrid category, and then we do have a subsection of our employees who are fully remote. So we're working as everybody else is. We're trying to operate and figure out how to make these fully remote people who may never step into a Vertex office. How do they feel connected to us, and how do they feel connected to their other colleagues, especially on their team, but also outside of their team? Because we are very much so, we're a cross functionally organization, and so we want to make sure that they're connected to more folks than just that.

Paige Buck [00:12:22]:

Yeah. And imagine our team is fully virtual, and when we come together in person, it's a delight. And it's often happening around an event, right. We're having a team dinner the night before or the night after an event where somebody's in town for a site visit and we can all get together. But while I imagine, like me, some people wouldn't choose full time in office, there are trade offs where you do feel less connected. There are fewer of those. Oh, I happen to meet you in the hallway and we can talk about this thing instead of me shooting you an email or a slack.

Johnice Veals [00:13:01]:

Yeah, absolutely.

Paige Buck [00:13:04]:

Have you come up with any creative ways to help foster that engagement?

Johnice Veals [00:13:12]:

We're struggling with it, and so I think we had to step back. We try to do virtual things. We are still struggling with how to make authentic connections virtually, because a lot of our hybrid employees, we are on Zoom. We have to be, it's a thing, but a lot of people are doing in person meetings now. And how do we be a little bit more intentional about that? It's a little bit of a struggle for us. I think we stepped back recently and was like, okay, we're going to have to step back, take a look at this, and see how do we reach these people. And we're going to actually, towards the end of the year, we're going to do some focus groups with those folks just to figure out we are doing some virtual things on Zoom that you guys can participate in next week. We have like, mindfulness meditation that anybody can participate in.

Johnice Veals [00:14:01]:

But really, what do you need? Sometimes you just have to ask the question. And we realized we hadn't actually asked the question of the people who are experiencing it. So we're going to ask them, and we're going to figure it out. And I think it's going to be a continuous process for us and also for those people who are remote. And I think we are in partnership with them on that. It's not just us, because my team's hybrid, so I don't know what it's like outside of COVID to be fully remote in this world. So, yeah, I think it's more for us right now. It's about that conversation, having that dialogue with them.

Johnice Veals [00:14:36]:

And asking, what do you need? Do you just want to Zoom?

Paige Buck [00:14:40]:

Are you actually content?

Johnice Veals [00:14:42]:

Yeah. Are you content? Is this okay? Is this going to be too much for you? It's another Zoom activity that you absolutely don't want to do. How do we foster connection within. If there's four remote people in your city, would you want to get together for coffee with them just to have a further connection with them? Is this something that you want to do or not? Or do you just want to sit in your office, do your job, and that's okay too!

Paige Buck [00:15:09]:

I'm thinking back to my last full-time, larger office job, and there were definitely people who were like, just leave me alone and let me do my work.

Johnice Veals [00:15:18]:

Exactly.

Paige Buck [00:15:19]:

I'll sign the birthday card.

Johnice Veals [00:15:22]:

I will not eat the birthday cake, but I will sign the birthday card.

Paige Buck [00:15:26]:

Yes. Or like, I'll come get a slice in the break room, but I'm not going to hang out for the whole chitchat. To each their own, but what a novelty. I wonder what it took to arrive at, let's just ask them. Because in all of this conversation about back to work and we need to drive people back into the office at least this much, we need to foster this. I don't hear a lot of let's ask them what they want and need.

Johnice Veals [00:15:54]:

Yeah, I think it was a lot of conversation about like, okay, well, how are they feeling? Are they okay? Internally, just like everybody else does, because we have flex work, we do all the pulse surveys and all of that, and you can only hear so much from a multiple choice answer with a comment after. And somebody in our team was just like, let's just try it, see what it looks like. Start with a small group of people, and we'll benchmark it. Do it now, then do it later, and maybe at the end of 2024 and see if we've changed anything or if anything has changed. And we're growing rapidly. We're hiring thousands of people a year right now, and so it's going to change at the end of the year because there's going to be different and more people in the organization.

Paige Buck [00:16:39]:

Is it challenging, too, that you have thousands of folks in the greater Boston area and Providence, and then you have offices in other places. I was just, it's funny, I was just stage managing a ballroom for a conference about the very nature of this within an organization. So I can't betray things that I heard in that room, but they were interviewing two women who had expanded companies like yours globally and were talking about the challenges of even just, I mean, hey, time zones, you can't get around them. They're real. And if you have, like, an America centric, you just gotta show up to this meeting. It's 10:00 p.m. your time in Paris. Too bad for you.

Paige Buck [00:17:26]:

That can have some cultural effects as well. I'm wondering how, what I loved about what these two women said, and they were very impressive, was we're just figuring it out, too, we're going to get it wrong. We get it right sometimes, then we'll try to listen and adapt. But I'm wondering if you are dealing with similar challenges and what you've seen.

Johnice Veals [00:17:49]:

We are definitely dealing with a time zone challenge. We try to do global events, that's my main job. And we found this sweet spot that is not great for everyone and so everybody has to give a little, and I think. it's still not great. We're still trying to figure it out. Do we do just North American things? Do we do just things with our UK and European and Australian offices? We've sort of found this sweet spot of eleven to twelve because our international headquarters is in London, we have an office in San Diego. It's a little early for the people and we understand that, but we give them grace and it's like if it's not important to you or you don't want to come, you're not going to be in trouble for that. And when we can, we do things that are at a 2:30 time frame, things that are like very US specific topics for example, then we will do them later in the day, and the international team, we record everything. So whether it's a speaker or anything like that, we clearly get permission from folks, we put it on our intranet and they can watch it at a later time. If it is a topic you're kind of interested in, pull it up, watch it in the background, watch it if you want to.

Johnice Veals [00:19:05]:

But that time zone, it's hard. Our Australia office, we just, I feel so terrible for them. Yeah, it's just know we're going to put this out and you can just watch it together, which they do sometimes. But it is definitely a challenge, and we haven't cracked the code on it either. I will take anybody's advice on it. We'll try anything once if it makes sense for us, but right now it's like that 11 to 12, that's what we're sticking with. But rightly, so we get complaints at 05:00 in London. Some people don't want to stay in the office that late and watching a town hall.

Paige Buck [00:19:52]:

Right? I heard them sharing that they've tried monthly all hands or town halls where, say one out of three will be recorded in a time zone where the bulk of the USHQ folks have to show up early, or they're the ones watching it recorded. But then the trade off is the bulk of the people or the folks who most need the message aren't necessarily getting it in as deep a way. So just trade offs to every type of way you can try to solve for this.

I want to shift gears a little bit and ask you about your education events and how you are tackling whether it's diversity, equity and inclusion or accessibility. I'm hearing a lot of people add that a now and what you're sort of being called upon to do in this moment, how important is that to Vertex and what does that look like?

Johnice Veals [00:20:56]:

Yeah, it's actually pretty timely for us. We for the last seven years have always done what we now started as Diversity Inclusion Week and now what we call Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Week. We've been doing it for the past seven years. So we are continuing to do that and continuing to sort of try to build content that meets the moment. Right, so content around what's happening in the world, what's happening in the workplace. We do that in partnership with our HR colleagues because as most organizations do, we have a diversity and inclusion team that helps us do that. We do that yearly for a week, but then we also have our employee resource networks or groups for some organizations. But we have those as well and they're a key part of our events. We do events for them that they curate and they build the speakers.

Johnice Veals [00:21:54]:

They build these experiences for people whether they fit into an affinity month or whether they don't. Sometimes it's just like we want to bring in a speaker, and we want to bring in on this topic. Let's talk about what that is and why it's important. But we try to make sure that it's in everything that we do. We make sure that we have speakers all year. We want to make sure that it's a diverse slate and list of speakers. Those are the small things that we can do as an organization, but largely as a Vertex organization, all of us. It's really, really important. It's in what we call our big four. But it's in there.

Johnice Veals [00:22:32]:

It's in everything and every part of what we do from supplier to diversity to really making sure that folks belong here, which is somewhat part of my job as well but also fits into every person within Vertex is responsible for that as well, which frequently comes from our leadership.

Paige Buck [00:22:53]:

I love that. And you said it's like threaded into everything that you do. Phenomenal. And that's how you know that it actually matters to the organization and will last. Yeah, I mentioned in my intro that Sophie Piliouras was another podcast guest, and she shared that the keynote at their summit last year talked about having anything that you care about that's part of the values of your organization being baked in instead of bolted on was the phrase he used. And he's like, if it's bolted on, it's going to fall off. As soon as the person who spearheaded it takes another job. As soon as there's budget cuts, as soon as there's a shiny object that pulls people's attention in another direction, you've got it baked in..

Johnice Veals [00:23:36]:

It's baked in. And we're always having the conversation. It doesn't stop. That was a part of what attracted me to Vertex before I got here was one of the things is you're going to be responsible for inclusion, diversity and equity week. Well, what does that mean? What is that? I've never heard of an organization dedicating a full week to it and being intentional about it and not, it not stopping. We've had multiple conversations. Should it be a month now instead of a week? But then what comes back in the conversation?

Paige Buck [00:24:09]:

February, let's put the shortest month.

Johnice Veals [00:24:13]:

Let's not. But also it comes in, and the conversation we recently had when we were saying should it be a month. The response was it should be embedded in everything we do. So we can keep the week, but let's think about how we are going to put it in everything else we're doing. All the other speaker series, the event series that we're doing. How does it fit in there and how are we intentional?

Paige Buck [00:24:36]:

That's wonderful.

Johnice Veals [00:24:37]:

It's a constant conversation.

Paige Buck [00:24:38]:

That's really wonderful. How does that compare or just in general, have the work that you do here compare and contrast with what you were doing when you were at Life Is Good? Very different organization, different brands?

Johnice Veals [00:24:50]:

That's a good question. It is vastly different. Yeah. Just because Life is Good is an apparel company. Actually, they would not say that. They're a lifestyle brand. I've been there a long time. So any, Life Is Good listeners, I'm sorry, you are a lifestyle brand, but it's a lifestyle brand. So I went from talking about T-shirts and music series to talking about disease areas and patients and drug discovery.

Johnice Veals [00:25:20]:

It was very different. But skill sets are the same. Right? When I was at Life Is Good, I worked with their nonprofit organization, their foundation, and I was providing at the beginning basically conference development and coordination. Then I moved into more brand visibility and fundraising, which was just fun because the sky was the limit. Music is a deep part of Life is Good's brand. I got to build this music series. Art is also a huge part. Of course, the gentlemen who make and design those T-shirts are brilliant artists, and we built an art show that raised money for the foundation that they still do today. And I think they do it online.

Johnice Veals [00:26:05]:

They did it online during COVID. But yeah, it was very different, but also very fun. I try to pull, sometimes pull those experiences from Life As Good into Vertex. So we do probably a little bit more music than most pharma companies. But that's just because us.

Paige Buck [00:26:22]:

You’re like, because I care and because I'm going to make it happen.

Johnice Veals [00:26:24]:

Yeah. And who doesn't want to band every once in a while?

Paige Buck [00:26:27]:

No, absolutely. What was it like for you to walk away from the baked in fun and into pharmaceutical and disease areas?

Johnice Veals [00:26:37]:

Yeah, I thought it was going to be a harder transition than it was. I'd never worked for a corporation before. Previously I was a state employee. State employee. And I thought the transition was going to be hard. But I have to say again, a part of being in internal communication, learning about Vertex in a deep way and what we were committed to really kind of lent itself to some of the work I was doing because I was working for the nonprofit side of Life Is Good that was really dealing with kids who have traumatic experiences. And how do people who are in their lives really help them and meet them where they are so that they can learn and grow together? Learn and grow in their lives? It just took a small shift into really more about patients, and how do we take people with serious diseases and help them in their lives? How do our scientists, because I am not a scientist by any means, how do they do drug discovery and change people's lives? And it's sort of to me, after hearing our story and hearing what we wanted to do, I kind of made those two connections of it's all about helping people. And then we have fun here. I think people think that pharmaceutical companies are boring, but we have a good time.

Johnice Veals [00:28:00]:

It's hard work, and we focus on patients on a consistent basis and all day, and it's what we do, and it's how we're all grounded and why we're all here. But we do have fun. We have social hours, and we talk to each other, and we bring in bands, and some of our employees are actually musicians. And we did a whole unplugged series during COVID where people recorded themselves playing their favorite songs. We have classically trained pianists here.

Paige Buck [00:28:31]:

You're suggesting that people in life sciences are like boring nerds, but people in life sciences are like I mean, my closest comparison is a couple of life sciences and Biotech and UCSF as a research institution, as a client of ours. They're some of the funnest people I know. Yeah. And they're incredible.

Johnice Veals [00:28:53]:

They're incredible. I was having today, I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers in the cafeteria and he randomly he works in data science, randomly dropped he went to culinary school. Just it was like, oh, wow, I didn't expect that.

Paige Buck [00:29:07]:

But they find a lot of time for education and all sorts of things that exhaust me to think about. That's exciting. That's really cool. So I also know that you're deeply engaged with and have a leadership role within MPI New England. How did you first get engaged and how does that fuel you and your professional growth?

Johnice Veals [00:29:29]:

Yeah, I think like many people, when I joined the industry, I fell into events, honestly, it wasn't intentional. It was just something that I found out I really liked. And I was searching for a community and I got introduced to ILEA, which is another association. And I got introduced to MPI. I think over my career I have been involved in both. I'm currently in MPI just because of the educational portion of it that I get from it. You know it's mostly corporate planners who are in that, not exclusively, but mostly. And I needed some of that advice and that connection of like, okay, I'm in a corporation now. How do I do this? Again to your point previously, how do I go from these fun things that I was just building and we were just trying out to more structure. And how do I answer to executives?

Paige Buck [00:30:22]:

I was going to ask, do you talk to your MPI peers about managing and dealing with internal stakeholders?

Johnice Veals [00:30:31]:

Yes, a lot. It's a frequent conversation that I'm always having because I do do executive events, I do our senior leadership meeting. And so how do you sell strategy to them, the frequent conversation? Because I do work in biotech and there are a lot of sciences and literal data people. How do I explain to them that this is just as important as whatever else we're doing, and how does my team fit into our strategy, our global strategy? So that's a frequent conversation that I'm always reaching out to folks who are a part of MPI. How did you do this? What did you say? What data are you collecting to convince them? We are very data driven here. So it's frequently like, how do I get this data, what do I track, how do I get this. All kinds of conversations.

Paige Buck [00:31:22]:

I can really see the value of having peers that you can tap with those questions. That's great.

Johnice Veals [00:31:28]:

Yeah, it's awesome.

Paige Buck [00:31:30]:

And you're also engaged with PCMA?

Johnice Veals [00:31:32]:

I am not. The organizations know PCMA, ILEA, and MPI are all in New England or Boston particular. And I think we're all trying to be a little bit more connected, sort of back to that community piece and asking folks, having a network where you can ask questions. I think we're really trying to, over time, connect us all in a bigger way. But I haven't really spoken to folks in PCMA recently.

Paige Buck [00:32:03]:

No, but it's helpful. I'm always kind of asking, as we grow, as we expand, where we should be giving our attention. We look at ASAE as well, the Society of Association Execs who have their own internal and external challenges. We sort of draw on all of that. And then how I help our producers go connect to those challenges and relate to those challenges so that we can be better partners with our clients. It’s always, it's good to get an internal perspective. So my second to last question will be the one that I warned you about at the top. If there's somebody in your industry or your work that you really admire.

Johnice Veals [00:32:47]:

Yeah, I'm having a hard time narrowing it down to one, but I feel like this person, I've seen them a lot, they're an MPI member, so there's technically two, so I'm just going to say two. So one of them is Devin Lewis. She is a member of MPI and we had an opportunity to connect. MPI does this event that they call the Thought Leadership Summit where they get folks together to tackle problems in the industry. And I was honored enough to be chosen to attend last year. Years meld together after COVID, so I'm going to say it's last year.

Paige Buck

It was a decade ago.

Johnice Veals

You know, it’s fine. So Devin and I had had some time to speak and we're still connected on LinkedIn and other places. And I like the way that she moves through the industry and where she chooses to spend her time and take her time. And then the other person, which a lot of MPI people will know is Steven Foster. He has actually been our facilitator for our board retreats a couple of times, but also I've used him as a sounding board for some things as well.

Johnice Veals [00:33:53]:

So he's just like a wealth of knowledge. He's been in the industry for a really long time and also has been a part of MPI for a very long time. And it's just nice to really connect with him. And I admire again how he rolls, he moves through the world. What I love about Steven is he's always connecting with people, not even just with intentionality, but with intention to help and make it better or make whatever you're doing. So it’s really nice.

Paige Buck [00:34:20]:

Wow. Those are great ones to share. And I like how you framed why and I admire the way, as you put it, like when you moved into this job, how you sought community. I feel like that's something I learned later in life and now I'm like reverse engineering it. So it's lovely to see somebody do it directly.

Johnice Veals [00:34:44]:

Yeah. If you ever need anything, give me a call, questions, whatever you got.

Paige Buck [00:34:49]:

Yeah, I mean, it's ditto. I think that I found my way to being like a connector, a person who loves to say, oh, my God, you need to meet this person. Or I know someone who could help you with that thing you just mentioned. But I didn't intentionally seek, like, I need to make connections, I need to foster this. It just sort of was accidental. So I love that. I love that. That's really great advice for our listeners. So Johnice, it has been delightful talking to you.

Paige Buck [00:35:16]:

Where can people find out more? These are very obvious questions. Where can people find out more about you and Vertex and the work you do?

Johnice Veals [00:35:22]:

Yes. So you can find out more about me. You can feel free to connect me with me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on there for Vertex about anything, who we are, what we do, what disease areas and patient communities we serve. You can go to Vrtx.com. And what was the last question? Sorry?

Paige Buck [00:35:42]:

Oh, no, I think you said it where we can find you where we can find them. Great. And we'll share your LinkedIn in the show notes. Thank you so much.

Johnice Veals [00:35:48]:

Fantastic.

Paige Buck [00:35:49]:

It's been lovely speaking with you.

Johnice Veals [00:35:51]:

It's so much fun. Thank you so much.

Paige Buck [00:35:53]:

Thank you.

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PAIGE BUCK

Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.

About Kennedy Events

Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.