Partnerships, Learning, and Growth: Insights From Paige Buck and Maggie Kennedy

Plan Better EventsSmart Event TipsLeadership InsightsPodcast

Sep 8

With Guest Maggie Kennedy of Kennedy Events

Paige Buck is the Co-owner and Chief Strategy Officer at Kennedy Events, which produces high-level corporate events for leading tech and media companies. She started at Kennedy Events as an event planner, working to build a strategic and talented team before taking on a leadership role. She initially worked in the nonprofit and tech space, leading fundraisers for companies such as the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, SF Works, and Craigslist Foundation.

Maggie Kennedy is the Founder and CEO of Kennedy Events, where she helps create informative and interactive events for a range of reputable nonprofits and businesses, including Adobe, the American Red Cross, and Google. With over 20 years of creative event strategy experience, she manages the company’s logistics, marketing, sales, and team growth. Maggie is also an industry leader in virtual and hybrid events and is a board member of the Entrepreneurs Organization.

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

Maggie Kennedy and Paige Buck share how they began working together
How Kennedy Events experienced organic growth
The importance of partnerships in event planning
Paige and Maggies’ strategies for overcoming event challenges
Leveraging expertise and talents to maximize performance
What is Kennedy Events’ ideal conference?

In this episode…

Are you trying to grow your business and reach more clients? Organic business growth requires developing a wide range of knowledge and skill sets. This can be easier said than done, often taking plenty of time and resources. So what initiatives can you take to streamline the process?

Event planners and entrepreneurial experts Paige Buck and Maggie Kennedy formed a strategic partnership to get their event management company — Kennedy Events — off the ground. Forging an alliance gave them the opportunity to share key insights and expertise to solve organizational challenges. With a wealth of additional knowledge, Paige and Maggie discovered innovative ways to develop compelling events for their clients.

In this episode, John Corcoran of Rise25 interviews Paige Buck and Maggie Kennedy about building a business relationship for organic growth. Together, they share the importance of partnerships in event planning, their strategies for overcoming event challenges, and how they leverage expertise and talents to maximize their business performance.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

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 their services, visit their website at www.kennedyevents.com and schedule a consultation today to find out how they can guide you in making your event successful.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to The Kennedy Events Podcast where we feature top marketing, communications and future of work leaders and share their biggest takeaways and insights. We love these conversations and hope you will too. Let's get started.

Paige Buck 0:21

Hi, Paige Buck here, I am the host of The Kennedy Events Podcast where I sit down with inspiring event leaders and corporate brand leaders. Today, I'm joined by my partner, Maggie Kennedy. Welcome, Maggie.

Maggie Kennedy 0:34

Hi, I'm so excited to do this with you.

Paige Buck 0:37

And we're also here with John Corcoran, of Rise25, who has done 1000s of interviews with successful entrepreneurs, investors and CEOs. We have flipped the script and he will be interviewing us today.

John Corcoran 0:50

All right, Paige. Maggie, thanks so much for having me here. I'm excited to go through this. So this episode, we're gonna talk about a bit of the backstory, the origin story of Kennedy Events, how it got started, how you and Paige ended up pairing up both the first time and the second time. And some of the milestones along the way. I'm excited to go through it. But first, before we get into that this episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events, Kennedy Events creates stress free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all of your corporate event needs from in person to hybrid and virtual. You can learn more at Kennedyevents.com. Alright, so there's this great origin story, which I know because I've known you guys for a number of years now. But flashback 2001. Okay, it's a very different era back then. Maggie, you had started the company and we're in business for about two years. At that point, you were focused more on nonprofits. And you needed some extra help. Do you put an app out where everyone put ads back then, which was Craigslist, got hundreds of responses. And somehow, Paige rose up from all those different people. So tell me about that. You know, how you ended up, you know, meeting Paige and what your memory is of

Maggie Kennedy 2:02

that? I think it's just a pure luck. I mean, how do you get I think it was like over 400 inquiries on Craigslist, which was the only option at the time and find a page. It was magical. And I remember people replying that had like, been CEOs and had all this experience. What I did, I saw on Paige's resume, she had a lot more experience than I did at the time. And as a cache, you can hire somebody who's smarter than you. This is great. So we interviewed, and it was immediate fit. But I did have an impending important event coming up. But I said you have to be available this date, anybody who did this job has to be available to state and she said, I'm getting married on the east coast on that weekend. I'm like, Alright, then I will make an exception because you're still so awesome. So that went out the window. She was able to get married to lots of beautiful photos and, and yes, so that that's how we first met is through Craigslist. And the ad was basically like you're working from my home, I lived on the corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Fran, in San Francisco, you know, we shared like the kitchen table with our two laptops and the landline phone. And that was our glamorous stop, start to this partnership. And really, we were working from

Paige Buck 3:11

home before work from home was cool.

John Corcoran 3:14

That's early days of work. And what is your memory of applying for the job and first meeting Maggie?

Paige Buck 3:21

Well, in that vein of like work from home before work from home was cool. We didn't want any of our clients to know we were in a living room. Or that like our first job interview was in a cafe. Or that, you know, like, I picked up Maggie's home mail from her mailbox in the front of the apartment, they could walk it upstairs in the morning. And now that's just how everybody's life is right. That's just how we all roll. Um, I also, yeah, just oh, what I remember and Maggie just touched on it was that we complement each other so much overlap in our experience and our skill set. And then there are these ways. I don't think I would have known what an amazing leadership skill it is. And Maggie to have that humility and wisdom to say, Oh, I'll hire someone who's got more experience than me. If, if the roles were reversed, I would be stuck in that like only i and people have to think the way I do that was and that was my and still is my Achilles heel.

Maggie Kennedy 4:21

But it has everything to do with last child versus first child. It has to do what's going on because she's forging the way and I'm the youngest of four. So I'm like, can it somebody else teach me what's going on here? So yeah, it's a very good balance.

John Corcoran 4:34

It's an interesting, you know, observation to to notice that that way that that is a way that you are complementary to one another. So you do an initial project and you know, Paige actually ended up about 18 months later, she ended up leaving and doing some different projects for a number of years. And then what happened around 2011 Maggie, maybe your kids are a little bit older at that point. Was there a change in the business? Why did you decide at that point? One, I want to really double down on this business, I've been running it for 10 years, I want to grow it faster and further, and I need to get Paige Buck call who I haven't talked to in a number of years.

Maggie Kennedy 5:12

So Paige and I remain friends. So it wasn't, you know, we were still seeing each other and, and, you know, she was always right on the brain of my peripheral vision. And life had changed. You know, I had had kids and they were, I thought they were like, launched so much. You know, at that point, I had like a five and a three year old, it was still they were still very young. But I thought like, Yeah, let's take this. For me being an event planner, I think it was just getting more work than I can handle. And Paige was such a natural partner, and each of them working in businesses with regular paychecks. And for me to be like, Come join me as my equal partner, and you eat what you kill was a very different approach than people who have been employees forever. So it's a big risk for her to take that it was a lot too for her to contemplate. But it's funny when I brought Paige on, I thought, and it will just be the two of us, and we will be event planners forever. And maybe we'll have a part time assistant, never having the foresight that this would grow into a real robust business, where I am no longer an event planner, I am now a business owner and manager. And so I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I reached out to her that it would just like, expand the horizons beyond anything I've imagined. And

Paige Buck 6:22

it's not like I did that we did that. Expanding it gotta get away from us.

John Corcoran 6:31

In Paige, what was your memory of that? You know, you had you saw Maggie around, but you were working for other companies, you were doing other projects. And then, you know, Maggie, I guess seemingly out of the blue approaches you about coming on as partner,

Paige Buck 6:46

I'll own the fear of that, again, maybe it's that first child, like, you know, accelerated, like, I'm gonna get a job, I'm gonna get an education, I'm gonna get a house, I'm gonna get a spouse. And I've got a 401 K and four weeks of vacation. And it's real nice that you want me to be your partner and all but you've got no money, like, hourly would be like 20 bucks an hour, maybe. And you don't necessarily even have enough work for me to take on. So it's just like, Yeah, you'd come on, and you'd get clients and we'd, we'd go, and I'm like, oh, and I don't do sales. So a ton of fear, just a ton of fear. I was fortunate, because I had the opportunity to wind down with a nonprofit, I worked for Craigslist Foundation. And the team that worked there could see the writing on the wall, Craigslist wanted to shift from having an operating foundation where they produced a bunch of events and built out tech for nonprofits to just be in grant making. They wanted to wind down the operational piece. So we ended up with three months of foresight, and then three months of a very gentle landing where I was still going to have the insurance in the sick pay. And, you know, Cobra was going to be paid for 12 months. And a spouse who, you know, we could like figure this out together. But I had a ton of fear and a ton of fear.

John Corcoran 8:13

Yeah, so the timing ended up working out because because of those two things happening at the same time. It also another fortuitous thing that happened was you said Maggie didn't seem to have enough clients. But you before you even formalized the partnership. Another client came in.

Paige Buck 8:31

Yes, yes. So the fall is always a crazy event season. You know, Maggie and we as a nascent, we had more than we could handle and I still had a full time job, even if it was winding down. And yeah, slow money came to Maggie and said, Could you possibly do this event in the next six weeks? We need to hand it off to somebody someone's had a death in the family. And I don't know what in the world we were thinking saying yes, other than just want to get going together. We wanted to make something happen. And it was a multi day conference at Fort Mason center with a ginormous build out and

John Corcoran 9:09

so what you're saying is six weeks is generally not enough time for a multi day conference. Really

Paige Buck 9:14

not enough time. A good idea? Not a good idea. I recommend it now

John Corcoran 9:18

why not just jump into the deep end together right

Paige Buck 9:21

there because we're

Maggie Kennedy 9:24

event planners are mascus and we're yes people and I mean honestly we get so excited about the content and event that was like that sounds fascinating. You seem like a great client how can we say no even though we don't have enough people working here so yeah, I think we're tend to be as people based on the boozy Azzam

Paige Buck 9:43

I remember is that is also how organic growth how we have like proof of concept for organic growth because we immediately brought somebody else on as a freelancer brought on another trusted person we knew to come in and project manage that for us. And then kept him around and kept him engaged. And then that would just happen. As we grew over and over again, go find another really smart person we know and trust, grow them, build them, empower them, then suddenly, we're like, Where'd all these people come from?

Maggie Kennedy 10:17

Keep them as a crucial part,

John Corcoran 10:19

Paige funny, since I know you, it's funny to hear you say, I don't do sales, I don't do this. I know you as an entrepreneur, I've always known you as an entrepreneur, I don't see you limited in any of these ways in which you saw yourself limited back then. So talk to me a little bit about the ways in which, since you joined back with Maggie again, in 2011, the ways in which you've had to grow, you've had to evolve as now a partner in this business?

Paige Buck 10:49

Oh, so many ways. I mean, gosh, I feel like I'm a completely. I mean, I almost feel like I've gone through like two or three iterations of Paige in the 10 or 11 years that we've been working together again. But the thing that most stands out to me about that sales sphere, is that that client that came to us with that six week turnaround, we took a meeting with them at the Ferry Building, talked for 90 minutes, and realized that we hadn't asked, we'd ask them a ton of questions. They hadn't dug in on our expertise. And he was like, I want to hire you. We were like, you haven't asked us any questions. He's like, No, I know, you have the expertise. For us, based on the smart questions you've asked me. And I was like, if that's what sales is, maybe I can do that, after all. Ask smart questions. Cool.

Maggie Kennedy 11:39

Yeah. Like we want to dig into your event. And that's, that's, that's our sales call is just like, Tell me more? And how would you solve this, and we've done it like that. Yeah.

John Corcoran 11:49

And so over the years, so that the team grew, you hired more people, by early 2012. So you've been there for a little while you broke into software, user and client development conferences, and you kind of realize the conferences was a specialty. So talk a little bit about that specialty of doing conferences over the years how that has evolved.

Paige Buck 12:10

I think both Maggie and I had done those done conferences in some fashion for more than a decade. But we hadn't identified what a specialty it is to understand that we can take all of the logistics for that. Give our client a framework for structuring their content, and then be an advisor for the content but free up the client, especially if especially a software company is where it's so specialized to understand what is going to read what content you need to curate, to make a compelling conference happen. They're the best in the world at that they should do that they should do audience development, we should do every, all of the infrastructure, all of the, you know, scaffolding that goes around that, that makes the event feel like a wonderful experience and run seamlessly. And Maggie, talk to me about

John Corcoran 13:05

what it was like for you, after you brought on Paige to suddenly go from, you know, you and maybe some freelancers to all of a sudden you've got a partner, and you've got much greater capabilities you can take on these much larger projects.

Maggie Kennedy 13:20

Well, it's interesting, because at first, and for many years, Paige had her portfolio of clients and I my portfolio, so we were collaborating, and exchanging and helping each others but we really Oh, and we were our own project managers, and it wasn't, and then we would collaborate on the business stuff, you know, like, kind of sit in the same seat with that leadership stuff. But it was still it was really nice. So having a thought partner, because before, you know, unless I go to somebody else's conference and see what it looks like, like I'm just doing it my way. And I'm creating the systems my way and having Paige come in with her as a thought partner was was great. It was invaluable.

John Corcoran 13:57

And so did you find when you teamed up together on projects that was there ever any friction around? Well, this is the way I usually do it. And this is a way that you usually do it. And because you kind of sounds like you had two different ways of doing something.

Maggie Kennedy 14:10

Yeah, if we don't, I don't really need to dig into my experience before starting my company. But it's safe to say that about a year under my belt. So anybody teaching me anyway to do this was great. I am maybe it's the youngest child again, like I am so open to somebody telling me how to hacks and the ways to do it. I mean, I'd like to be the boss too. And I have my my strong opinions, but I am so open to learning from other people. Just just just the smart ways that from people I trust. So yeah, it was it was great to have somebody be like, how about this way, but that way,

John Corcoran 14:43

and I have to ask you, okay, having done all these different conferences over the years, what's the craziest, you know, most bizarre type of conference, I mean, with Bay Area's known for some crazy conferences. So tell me about one of the craziest or strangest or weirdest ones. Requests you've had

Maggie Kennedy 14:59

since Great question. I can't think of the craziest. But the things that come up will be like what like, hey, let's do a you know, 800 person tented gala on Treasure Island on a lawn. So no water, no electricity, no power. And then you find out that tents that size need like architectural wind tests, put them on them. And so you've become an expert in some really strange things like wattage and electricity and fire marshals, and how far seeds need to be apart. And I find it all fascinating. But so even if the event doesn't seem too crazy, there is always something that you're like, wow, I didn't see that coming. Or there's my there's my something to learn this time.

Paige Buck 15:37

Yes, yes. Well, and sometimes what's great is we've, I think, developed, had the great fortune, and, and some intention around having multi year engagements with clients, our clients come back to us again and again and again. So what's great about that is like you're one, you're learning that at this particular outdoor venue, you need a plan for picking up goose poop. And if you pick it up too far out, then you'll have a new problem the next morning. So when you I mean, our, our, our process is structured enough that we end with a debrief. And when we do that event, again, we pick up with that debrief, like what were the lessons are memories are short, our lives are long, and you know, oh, right, Goose poop. What's the better way to do that this time around.

John Corcoran 16:29

And I know a lot of your clients or companies or corporations or large companies, you also have taken on some entrepreneurial clients where they are kind of like visionaries. And you know, they might have a wide range vision between like, oh, I want 500 people there, or I want 2000 people there, or, you know, they kind of need some guidance in planning, what is feasible, what's achievable. So talk a little bit about what that what how that's evolved for you as a company.

Paige Buck 17:02

Sure. So I can think of like, there's, there's a profile of person who is either a CEO or a CMO of a early to mid range startup with funding that says, We need to go have a conference, that's going to be that's going to be a core pillar in our marketing strategy, it's going to be the long tail of customer engagement year over year, we're gonna do year one, or we've done it once, and it was a couple 100 people in a ballroom now, we're gonna blow it out of the water Dreamforce, we're coming for you, which is both classic and ridiculous, like, yeah, you're not going to be Dreamforce the likelihood that your product is as ubiquitous as Salesforce is incredibly small. And so some of it is that realistic, like level setting with a client. And what happens in that often is like, and we're gonna have 2000 people, and then next year, we're going to 10 exit. And we have to talk about what that actually looks like, for building internal and external resources and infrastructure. And sometimes we have to have, it's taught us how to have tough conversations about decision making with clients, because you can't be four weeks out from the event and be undecided, for your budget, and your floor plan, and your catering orders. Whether you're having 2000 people there or 1000 people there, you're gonna have backup plans, but you have to have a core plan. And so we've learned how to have those tough conversations. And now it's much easier. And we find people are coming to us again and again, to help navigate those conversations with their team with their bosses.

John Corcoran 18:43

And Maggie, I know one of the things you've had to do is you've had to build out expertise within your team, with people who are experts in electrical and experts and empower and plumbing and seating formations and goose poop pickup and all those different things. Let's talk a little bit about that.

Maggie Kennedy 19:03

Well, I think that the expertise I don't know, I'm not sure if we have a plumber thrown on staff just yet. But the expertise comes from experience. So the first time you do picnic in a park that's just covered in goose poop. You realize, you know, is there a vendor who will clean this up so I don't have to like our team doesn't have to and then you're an expert in that and so there are these levels were really we learned by doing and then we started hiring people came in with catering expertise, and decor expertise and that's been next level for us is that people come in who have already learned this stuff, have their best practices, have a natural talent heard or passion, you know, we have like professional, we trained chefs who are picking out our menus now and and, and so then we know when we land a client, let's get speaker management, this person who's just a wizard it and decor at this one and, and so we're able to divide up the labor depending on their expertise, and the team gets to do what they love. We're always prostrating Always an I don't think anybody wants to live with like complex signage execution, you know, like signs over like hotels and tents and everything. They don't think so everybody learns all the different, all the different parts of events, but some people just have these amazing expertise and natural talents that we tap it

John Corcoran 20:18

Yeah. And then final question Paige we run out of time here. You guys cover a range of different types of events. But what is what's in your wheelhouse now, what's what's an ideal type of event for Kennedy?

Paige Buck 20:32

Well, it dovetails perfectly with conferences, and it is something we've started doing more and more of over the years. And now that lots of companies are, you know, future of work and back to work does not look like 1000s of people in one building over many floors. All Hands are all hands writ large, or something companies are struggling with craving, trying to grapple with what how, what's the right thing that doesn't feel like a boondoggle and feels very purposeful. We love those because we have zero interest in planning events that don't have a purpose, that don't have outcomes or don't create community and connection. So all hands, gathering your entire team somewhere for meaningful conversation and camaraderie and getting aligned on goals and objectives for the next quarter, year, whatever, are both our favorite and we're perfectly positioned to help you with them.

Maggie Kennedy 21:34

Just to jump in, I think because of Kennedy Events, Paige and I are so keen on keeping our culture, a place we wouldn't want to work that when we have the opportunity to help a company do that for their people. We just love it. That's the most that's the most rewarding work we do.

John Corcoran 21:49

That's great. Paige, where can people go to learn more about you? Can events connect with you guys?

Paige Buck 21:55

It's easy Kennedyevents.com.

John Corcoran 21:58

Excellent. All right. Thanks, guys.

Outro 22:00

Thank you, John. Thanks for listening to The Kennedy Events Podcast. Come back next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.

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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.