Creating a Win-Win Situation: How to Provide Value to Sponsors and Organizations
Featuring Meg Fasy, Founder of eventsGIG and FazeFWD
Meg Fasy is the Founder of eventsGIG, the talent marketplace for the events industry, and FazeFWD, a premier sponsorship management company that works with clients to reveal opportunities and develop forward-thinking solutions to their sponsorship marketing. In addition to her two businesses, which she’s owned for seven years and two years respectively, Meg has 30 years of experience in the meeting industry. She’s also a competitive dragon boat racer.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
How she got started with competitive dragon boat racing
Her extensive background in the entire events industry including CVBS, hotels, Industry Associations, and event technology
Why she chose to pursue sponsorship as a niche when starting her first business
Her comprehensive business model
The importance of the “fewer, better” concept when creating a prospectus
Her passion for mentoring other young women in the industry
Creating marketing that connects
Sponsorship trends in the events industry
In this episode…
Events are amazing opportunities to get your brand in front of potential customers. Finding and securing the right events to sponsor can make the difference between strategic marketing success and failure. With the right approach, it can offer more value than just a booth or a pen. Sponsors are looking for engagement, thought leadership, and data. The need for one-on-one engagement opportunities is stronger than ever. Sponsors no longer want to be confined to booths but want to create an environment where they can have conversations with their customers. They want to connect with their customers and learn about the latest trends. That's why it's crucial to create a prospectus that matches the needs of both sponsors and organizations.
In this episode of The Kennedy Events Podcast, Paige Buck hosts Meg Fasy, Founder of eventsGIG and FazeFWD. Meg shares her extensive expertise on how she and her team elevate sponsorships into impactful marketing opportunities for organizations. She dives into the effective content opportunities that connect sponsors with their customers, how she helps organizations create a prospectus of value, and the unlocked data potential that will set winning organizations apart from the rest.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Christine Duffy, the CEO of Carnival
Christy Hicks, the Head of Sales for Hyatt Hotels
“Cultivating Your Markeitng Approach for Customer Trust” with Julie Liu of Avepoint
“Navigating The New Normal Of Workplace Culture And Experience” With Kim Alpert Of Udemy
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 00:03
Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast. I'm your host Paige back. past guests include Pam Perez of the chase center, Julie Liu of AvePoint, and Kim Albert of Udemy. And today I am delighted to be speaking with Meg Fasy, founder of events gi the talent marketplace for the events industry, and face forward a premier sponsorship management company that works with clients to reveal opportunities and develop forward-thinking solutions to their sponsorship marketing. She has 30 years under her belt and the meeting industry and in addition to her two businesses, which she's owned seven years and one for two years, respectively. She is a competitive dragon boat racer. Amazing. Before I dive in with Meg, 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 Kennedy events.com. All right. Well, we have to start with Dragon Boat Racing Mag. How did you come by that? And what's that like?
Meg Fasy 01:10
So I'm always happy to talk about Dragon Boat Racing and I will get off on tangents. So you know, stop me because I love it so much.
Paige Buck 01:16
Really back in?
01:17
Yeah, you know, so it came up. It started because I'm a three-time breast cancer survivor. And it is, believe it or not, it is it was a doctor in Canada who studied great exercises for survivors. And they he deemed Dragonboat is like one of the best exercises. So it's big in the dragon. It's big in the breast cancer world of dragon boating, and Philadelphia where I'm from just happens to have the first-ever in US dragon boat team called Help Afloat. And I just come out of a bunch of chemo and surgeries and things like that. I just wasn't sure what my body could do. And so I joined this breast cancer team and you know, pretty figuring it would be you know, comforting. And within a year I realized I'm way more competitive than I thought I was. And they were super supportive women and great. And they got me healthy, and they got me strong. But it was time for me to go to a nonbreast cancer team and I tried out for the women's competitive team and Philadelphia got on and I've been on for 11 years. And we have traveled all over the world. We've been to Hungary and Romania and Prague and Paris and you name it. And it is great. It got me out of the house. At the end of the day. It got me out in nature, it got me strong. I have a team of women supporting me, I support them. It's really It's I just love everything about
Paige Buck 02:43
oh my gosh, well, I love I mean, that was a momentary deep dive into something I really only know, on a surface level hadn't appreciated how massive it must be in the world. I think I take for granted being here in the Bay Area. We have such a deep and broad sense of Asian culture here that it was that it was much smaller and only big here and in key cities. But no, yeah,
03:12
I'll tell you, we probably have 1000 paddlers on the river in Philadelphia. We have teams Yes, we probably told teams and Philadelphia's River is the longest straightest rolling River in the country. So it's, you know, yeah.
Paige Buck 03:28
Okay, so another timeline,
03:31
we, how we how's the high school and the college we're growing regardless every year. And so, you know, it's a natural progression for us to have kayakers and paddle boarders and Dragon voters and outrigger canoes and all of it on the rollers and all those crazy
Paige Buck 03:48
people, right? Yeah, right, right. I'm half a mile from a place where there's sculling frequently in the morning, and the dragon voters are in our Marina, which is a spitting distance from my house. And when I'm at the marina working on my sailboat, sometimes the kids sometimes go by, because they're really just the basics. And it's really fun, really fun to watch.
04:10
It is fun. And you know, I'm Mom, I'm an all-women's team. And it's just very, it's very supportive. And we have all agents, our youngest is like 30 tour, we have a group of older women who are in their mid 70s, who are just the strong role models that are crazy women, you know, that you just have to love and adore. So it's great.
Paige Buck 04:32
And you need that in your life. That's that, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna shift us back to the world of events. But like I
04:40
told you, I could talk for a while.
Paige Buck 04:43
Find some magical moments where we were that relates, I swear it does. So how did you you have a long career in the events industry at large? How did you get started and how did you move from the type of work you were? Doing into sponsorship management and now staffing and resourcing
05:06
so I've been in the industry for over 30 years, I have always been in sales and marketing that was the continuity through all my jobs. But I was very interested in the entire events industry, not just one segment. So I've worked for CVBS, hotels, Industry Association event technology. When I was with hotels, I worked convention suburban Resort Casino, so I really wanted to, you know, learn the entire market and event marketing was a big part of, of kind of where I landed. And then I sponsorship was something that when I was looking to start my own business just made sense to me, for two reasons. First, from a customer standpoint, I thought there was a niche there that I could create a strong company, because for two reasons, one, it needed to be elevated the sponsorship world needed to be elevated past. Do you want to buy a pen? Do you want to buy a booth it needed to have the conversation last fall? Yeah, exactly. Right. Right, I sell very little tchotchke stuff. But it needed to be elevated to, you know, not a not Allah carte items, but marketing opportunities. These, you know, events are like the number one marketing opportunity a company has. So let's leave sponsorship is part of that. And so it is a business reason that it needed to be I felt a thought it needed to be elevated. So and with my background on customer service, and you know, in hotels, a supplier and convention centers and all that I thought that I could combine the two and create an opportunity where sponsorship really meant something with an organization.
Paige Buck 07:00
So your business model includes not just like we will sell your sponsorships. But struck, but structuring that package and also consulting the client on?
07:13
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I Yeah, in fact, I don't like to just sell, because I don't know what I'm selling, you know, is it going to sell? You know, is it worth it? Does it have value. So I work with the organization and to create a prospectus that, in my words, kind of has meat on the bone. So it's it's not 85 different items, it may only be 20 items, but they are items of value to those sponsors. So I find out who the sponsors are, what their needs are, and what the organization needs are, and we create a prospectus that matches both. And so when it comes time to sell, it's an easy sell, because I'm offering them value. And not just a lot of stuff. You know, it's easy to say, well, we can sell this so we can sell that we could sell that. But really, where's the value? What are they want to buy? There's two
Paige Buck 08:05
things that leap to mind when you say that. And the first is I'm thinking of that reality restaurant show called Hell's Kitchen where Gordon Ramsay is like, coming in and doing triage on family businesses. And they always go from one of those like multi-page laminated menus to a single piece of cardstock. With like, less is more drill down. And what you do best second is really have to understand, and I'm sure anybody listening would as well, how some examples of like, something you would discard from that multi page laminated menu. Like, yeah, what makes for something that has meat on the bones?
08:48
Yeah, so I think the first thing that organizations organizations like to do is throw logos everywhere. And I think once you start to put, you know, 50 logos, that logos on a on a conference bag, it dilutes the whole sponsorship. Right? So I would have one sponsor, you know, I do that kind of thing I would get rid of, I don't want to say too much, because some of my friends own promotional product companies, but I'm not a big promotional product person, unless it's driving value. Unless it's connected to something that the sponsors already marketing. I'll give you an example. They I worked with a sponsor this morning, that they're interested in buying a coffee cart for their booth. And the reason they're interested in it is because part of their advertising has has to do with coffee. And it's not that they're selling coffee, but they kind of set up their their product as a coffee bar and become, you know, immediate. So to me, that makes sense. Right? So it's the marketing has to connect. Also pens all day long. If they make sense. Yeah, if they are connected somehow with the with the sponsors, marketing goals.
Paige Buck 09:58
Mm hmm. And so I imagine And then that like, more is more, let's just like throw anything at the wall, see what sticks. But if you can drill down to its essentials, it's going to hook people more. What else do you what else do you think your clients when you when they first engage with you need education or alignment on but
10:19
there's actually quite a bit because, yeah, there's quite a bit because I think organizations are used to, you know, we had a lot of really good years and and everyone was going to events and everyone's sponsoring and buying this and buying that. And now they have to look at it a little bit more strategically, not that they didn't before, but even more so now. Because sponsors are very picky now who they're who, where they're putting their money and how much money they're putting in. So it's really about what I work with organizations, they're hiring me because they need help pricing. They need help creating, you know, a prospectus of value. And they want someone who knows how to speak to a sponsor, and have those marketing conversations. So I never asked what is your budget? Or do you want to buy it is what are your goals and objectives? And you know, how do we help match them? You know, and so those are the conversations that we have.
Paige Buck 11:17
You can tell him fighting tickle. First time this has happened during recording. Pardon me? I'm wondering if you hang on, we can always pause or cut? Yeah. Kind of spare you to I used to be really sensitive for this. And it's been years. Hmm, all right. I'm wondering what, whether a sponsor has ever come to you to evaluate other programs to help you identify where their money can best be spent.
12:04
So they do but I have to be careful with that, because I've worked with a lot of the organization. So I try not to get into deep with that. So I may work with three different companies that are cybersecurity companies. So I may do work be working with three different banks. I may be you know, so I'm very careful on not getting too deep into comparison of events.
Paige Buck 12:27
Good point. That's important. Yeah, I think you also mentioned when we first met, that some of your clients need to need an education on who should be doing the selling.
12:40
Yeah, so it's interesting. A lot of times, I will come into VS to speak with an event organizer, and I find out that the partners have been selling to their to partner managers have been selling to their partners. And it works in a lot of organizations. But I will say that, in my experience, it doesn't work well, in most organizations. And I'll tell you why. If I'm selling million dollar programs, you know, million dollar packages million that making million dollar deals with company ABC, for me to go to them and say, Do you want to sponsor and 40,000 at 25,000 50,000? Whatever it is? And they say, well, we'll do it. But you know, we want a discount, of course, I'm gonna say yes, I'll give you a discount, you're just spent $5 million with me, or, you know, you may, a company ABC may want to be a platinum sponsor, but really, their, their business really isn't worth that. How does a partner manager, you know, you don't want to put your partner managers in those situations where they have to have that conversation with their partners, let me have that conversation. Let me deliver it in a way, you know, where I can say I'm sorry, we don't have any platinum is available, you know, but we do have this and I can I can guide them into different packages without causing any challenges. So it is
Paige Buck 14:46
And they're so lucky to have you because some companies can't or won't come to you for services or are too small for the sort of services that you're offering. And then that relationship gets really funky be
15:00
right, because I just had it yesterday where I had a company who wants to buy platinum. And so they weren't on my original partner list. I checked with the organization. They said, yes, they can sponsor. I went to them and said to organizations and went back to him and said they want to platinum. And they said, No, they're not platinum worthy. So I have to go back and tell them, you know, we I'm sorry, we just sold the last platinum or whatever, I'm going to tell them I'm not it. I don't need to lie to them. But at the same time, it's, I don't want to be the one to say you're not worthy. It's not my place. Yeah. So just to kind of let them down and put them in the right tier, and put them in the get them in the right package.
Paige Buck 15:43
You were talking before about, you know, this economic moment where companies are being more choosy than once they were, what else do you have you seen change? And what trends do you see might be coming down the pike?
15:58
You know, it's interesting, because during the pandemic, it was such a roller coaster, you know, with what was trending and what was happening in sponsorship, I mean, everybody was immediately they were buying happy hours, and everybody get online at happy hour. And then a couple months later, couldn't sell a happy hour. And then the happy hours came back when we thought the pandemic wasn't going away. And then they went away again. And you know, there's all kinds of craziness now. I'm seeing what I'm seeing is trending. And what I'm seeing as such a need right now, really kind of three things. Sponsors want engagement, thought leadership, and data, and data probably being new, not new, but the up-and-coming most important aspect. Organizers really need to kind of loosen that fold they have on the attendee list. And I'm not saying name and contact, but I am saying company and title, a lot of organizations don't even want to give that out. And the challenge is, is that organs, you know, the sponsors are spent spending a lot of money and they're saying I can't market to anybody. And so that is a big hot button right now and getting the data I work with an organization. I actually work with two organizations, one on the front end that helps bring attendees in and sponsors and utilizing their sponsor. And then on the back end, I work with an organization that provides sponsorship data that can include everything from as simple as session scans for that sponsor, and who went in their booth to as advanced as Mary Jo is, is sponsor A's client, and sponsor a has been trying to sell widget a to Mary Jo, and I can now I can see every session that Mary Jo went to and none of them had to do with widget an I need to change my sales tactic and now sell her which if they because that's what I know, she's interested based on her behavior at the conference. We have all that data potential. Yes. And yeah, and it's, it's amazing. And so I think that organization, so there's so much competition right now, because the dollars for sponsorship is you know, not it is flat, it's at best, mostly they've lost a lot of money. So they have to really the sponsors really have to pick what organization they go to, and, and what their spend is, they're going to go to the ones that give them the attendee information. And again, I just mean company and title and the data of you know, who's been there and, and, and who's been in their booth, and who's gone to their session and all that information. I think those are organizations that are going to win at the end.
Paige Buck 18:50
I also think, to your other points about engagement, engagement, and then I'll ask you about that leadership, there is so much that event organizers can do to facilitate engagement and make the show floor something that is not either that is but is inviting and centered. Without it be feeling like you're just there for you're just there to exchange business cards or leads. Right? So often they're either like shunted off to a corner, or you're forced through them in some sort of rat maze or in ways that people like I think the attendee sees straightaway, this is what you're doing to me, I don't like it. And when you can find a way to make it more organic, and you know, lively and a place you want to be, this is where the food is served. This is where all of the social activity has happened. Right.
19:51
You know, it's interesting when I worked for encore, it was PSAP when I worked for them. Yeah, they hire Janet Spur who has her degree in neuroscience of events, I believe it is, or neuroscience of leadership. And she did a white paper on trade show behavior, all based on neuroscience. And so what happens in the brain when you walk into a tradeshow, and it's people coming out of your booths coming at you, and what happens in your brain? It's really fascinating. And I think that organizations need to look at, you know, how are they setting up the trade show. Is there what is an opportunity to engage in a lot of what we're doing? What I'm doing is I'm creating like other opportunities to engage like, one-on-one meetups, roundtable setups, meetings, like providing meeting rooms for the first, you know, a top two levels of sponsorship today. Yeah, so they can set up one, they could have one on one engagement. A lot of my organizations don't want to do booths for the top level, they want to do lounges, because that's, you know, a lot of I worked with a lot of the Fortune 100 groups, as sponsors, and they want lounges, they want to be able to engage, they don't want a booth, you know, they want to create an environment where they can have conversations with their customers. Yeah,
Paige Buck 21:13
those are all really powerful examples of opportunities that can make things compelling. And then for us, I'm very protective of I think this is sort of shifting into the thought leadership prong of your point, where you have an opportunity, many different ways in which we can craft an opportunity to be part of program content, that doesn't feel like the audience is being sold to the last thing I want, as a sponsor like to be pitching you no one, no one is, is winning when that's happening. Right. But then to be really cautious about the actual time that the time used. But I'm curious, in terms of the opportunity for thought leadership in other ways, whether it's white papers, or
22:00
Yeah, it is. Yeah, and I will say, I have to protect my sponsors a little bit and fight for them and tell you that, I don't think that that sponsor wants to give a sales pitch either.
Paige Buck 22:14
No, no, they don't know what they want to do if they do, they don't know what they're doing. And that's a red flag. Yeah.
22:20
Right. They want to get up there with a customer. They want to be seen with a customer, you know, and so, oh, this great customer is with me. And I'm, you know, I'm sitting, you know, and watching potential their customers in the audience. They want to be with me, too. So I think that that's the first thing. But I think there are other opportunities as you said, white papers, there's, you know, the theater, the, the theater on the expo floor, there's so much more you can be doing with that than we're doing. Right? Yes, putting their sessions on the agenda. Because right now, many times you walk the only time you know what's happening in that, like spotlight theater is when you walk by it, and there's a sign ABC Company speaking on whatever in 10 minutes, like, just happened, and you missed it. Right, like, let's get those on the agenda. I mean, it offers everyone value. So there's just so much more you could be doing from a content standpoint,
Paige Buck 23:19
there's also that when you have that opportunity to be to showcase a customer case study, or even do a lightning round of pitches. Some people are truly there to discover and explore new opportunities. And that's a really, really beautiful opportunity for the Yes, I do want to show up and hear what that company is gonna say. It will let me know whether I want to spend any time at their booth or not.
23:42
Yeah, there's a there's an Event Marketing Association that I use sold all the sponsorship to and we had something called the tech shootout. And it was a technology company that had six minutes to get up and do a demo. That was in the keynote. And it was packed every year. And we've done it every year for like 20 years. And every year it's packed. Yeah, yeah. So people want to learn what's out there. what's trending, what's new?
Paige Buck 24:08
Yeah, they do. They really do. So I'm curious before you started your company, and in all the years that you've been in this industry, who mentored you? How did you learn? Where did you go when you were hungry for information? Yeah,
24:25
you know, I think in the very big, very, very beginning when I was really like, in my late 20s, or mid-20s, I think I learned from really bad mentors. I think I learned from you know, okay, I don't want to do that. I don't want to behave like that. When I lead people. I want to do this, and I learned that way. Yeah. And then I had some really great mentors and they were men. They were women. They were younger, they were older. They were not in the industry. A lot of them were not in the industry, but I really tried to learn from everyone like me, I was on the board of an association. We had a keynote speaker from Microsoft. And afterward, we all sat down for lunch, the whole group and he was sitting next to me. And I just said to him, do you ever take on mentors and mentees? And he said, Yeah, I said, I would love to learn from you. He has been one of my biggest supporters, my biggest advocates, the one of the people that I bounce, a lot of my business questions off of has been amazing. And then there are two women in the industry that I would guess, myself and every other woman in the events and hotel convention, business would tell you were mentors as well, just by watching their behavior and watching them move up the corporate ladder was Christine Duffy, who is now the CEO of Carnival, and Christy Hicks, who was head of sales for Hyatt Hotels. They were two women who really forged ahead, and I knew I met them, and I got to know them a little bit. And just by watching them, I thought, wow, I have a chance. Wow, there's you know, there's a strong woman who is caring, and they have families and they you know, all the things you want to be in leaders
Paige Buck 26:22
that to like they have families, they have lives, they have not just price themselves at the altar of an industry for No, you know, with no right. And I worked
Meg Fasy 26:32
with a lot of those women as well. And that was not what I wanted to do. And it was I'm sure it worked out great for them. But I knew I wanted to see leaders that were that had a little bit more well-rounded, because I like to do a lot of different activities, and I wanted more. So it was really good for me to see them. And i i believe i and this is something I believe so strongly that we as women in the industry need to mentor other young women in the industry, and really help them learn and grow. And at any given time, I'm mentoring three to seven women.
Paige Buck 27:13
Wow. You were telling somebody who was like that? Wow. I mean, yes, I would love to have a mentor, but I don't. What does that even look like? And where would I start? And how would I ask what would you share with them?
Meg Fasy 27:27
Well, I think the I think one, I don't think there's like a prescription in it. So if I'm young if I'm telling talking to a young woman who says to Me, Meg, I want to find a mentor, I would say keep your eyes and ears open. And just watched, like, I found this gentleman, he was a speaker at our, at our session, you know, I and then I've mentored, like I said that, you know, I just one of them was my food and beverage director, he was amazing. And I just really, I liked his style. And when you see someone that you like and you want to emulate, you want to learn from them, then you raise your hand and say, Hey, would you mentor me? And this is what I think I need. But I'm happy to have that conversation with you. And so once I got after I got into it. I mean, I've been mentoring for a couple of years now. But in the beginning, it was just like, Okay, what do we want to talk about today, and now it's a little bit more organized. I'm, I'm more structured with them. And the only thing I ask in return is that when it's their time they pay it forward. And that is really important to me.
Paige Buck 28:32
And What I'm taking away from this and reflecting on my own means when I've been a mentee or a mentor is it's one of the opportunities if you're really relatively young or inexperienced in the industry to practice managing up, like a boat, owning the responsibility for the relationship. It doesn't be scary, just like come with questions.
Meg Fasy 28:55
Right? You know, what do you need help with now? Yeah, yeah, no. And so there's like, there's one woman who said, you know, I don't really want a structured Mentor Program. I just want to be able to talk to someone about whatever's happening at the moment. And I said, Great, we can do that. So we have a call, and we meet monthly, and I say, so what's happening? What's that's all I say? Yeah. And then she starts talking. And then, you know, I offer my guidance or recommendation and we talk through that and it's just, it's just someone for her to bounce ideas off of see if her behavior is appropriate, because she's young, and she doesn't know. And when I say young, I don't mean age. I mean experience. She doesn't know if what her boss is doing is right, in how she's being treated. Or how she should have responded to something. You know, did I respond to that? Okay, I said this, you know, he got mad she got mad at me for saying that. Shouldn't she have gotten mad at me just All of those types of things to be able to talk over,
Paige Buck 30:03
I think you just described such a lovely way to be either like a sounding board or age with. Like, it's a low barrier to entry. It's low stakes. It's not like you need to go study this formula before you can write, become a mentor, or ask someone to be your mentor. Right? Didn't think that you might ask somebody and have them say, oh, my gosh, wow, I'm so flattered.
Meg Fasy 30:29
I don't know that I've ever done that before. How could I support you? And you just gave them a ready formula? Like, could I? Could we just talk once a month, and I just tell you what is going on? Or what right what I'm struggling with? Or sometimes like this? This gentleman, I keep referring to that from Microsoft. I just called him one day. He just said, Yes, they'll mentor me. And then that was kind of it. And you know, the conversation went on. I followed up with an email saying thank you so much. If you don't mind, I would love to be able to just contact you and ask your opinion about things when I have business questions in a row right back. And you said make I'm available when you need help. So the first thing that came up when I needed help, I emailed them and said, you know, can I get on your schedule? 30 minutes on your schedule, sometime in the next week or two? I have a business question for you. We set up a meeting, I had a conversation with him, and he gave me some great advice. And that was probably 1015 years ago,
Paige Buck 31:28
he helped me with some of the questions I had about building my own business now, you know, I mean, he's, you know, so you just kind of build that relationship and what is needed? Yeah. And by the way, if you ask someone to mentor you, and they're not the right person, you can find another person. Yes. I was not the right mentor for everybody. I'm not, yeah, yeah, you can find another person, you will find another person. Right. And you can thank them for the engagement. And right away. Yeah, we've been talking mostly, before we were talking about mentorship, we were talking mostly about your path to face forward. And sponsorship. Tell me a little bit about events GI and what you're doing with a talent for our industry. Yeah. So
Meg Fasy 32:12
it came out of the pandemic. And the first year of the pandemic, all my friends were calling me telling me that they got laid off, they got furloughed. It was every day it felt like I'm sure you've experienced the same thing. And then the next year, it was all the service organization friends saying I don't know how we're going to ramp up. We don't have the people. We don't have anyone left. I don't know how we're going to do this, all the agencies, all the production companies, all that. And I just thought there's got to be a way, you know, there's got to be a way to get people back to work. And so we came up with events gig, and it is an online platform to connect freelancers, with organizations looking to hire freelancers. And I launched it at SEMA, the Corporate Event Marketing Association. And I will say I felt like the prettiest girl evolved. Because it would be Oh, it was such there was such a need for it, there is such a need for it. I have over 500 freelancers in my site. Most of them are between, you know, three to seven years of experience. They're all that most of them live in the event marketing world. These aren't the hourly, like brand ambassador level, this is what we specify what we specialize in are the three to seven-year event marketer, project manager, project lead digital strategist, that type of level,
Paige Buck 33:37
Well, and you I would be one of those people fawning over you at the ball. Because it's such a no-brainer. And it's something we've been doing like we're really resourceful. And you would think to succeed in this business, you have to be really resourceful. And we've gotten by on like, word of mouth and who do you know, or, wow, we just had that PA for this project in New York. And it turns out, he's got a ton of experience. Let's make sure we tap him next time we need him. And now it's like, we are just graduating to a bigger scale at the same time that programs like events gang are coming online to save us from ourselves. Right? Project in Milwaukee, who do you know, in Milwaukee,
Meg Fasy 34:26
right? Well, I'll tell you, here's the challenge organizations there, their event budgets, the brands, their event budgets are flat, so they are not getting the go-ahead to hire anyone. And so but they're being asked for, you know, just as great if not greater events that they put on the past and they don't have the staff and now it's digital too. So now you're talking about events, and so they need help, so they're pushing that help down and asking the agencies to fill in. So now the agencies need to be thought, you know, there Are there people that they can hire? And so it's just, you know, and we'll know what happened. I mean, you know, people love the business people, retired people, you know. So yeah, there's definitely a need. And we're putting a lot of people back to work, which is really great.
Paige Buck 35:16
That's awesome. So rewarding. Yeah, I think you are speaking to what seems to me like at least the 2023 theme is do more with less for our clients. And right now, fewer staff, fewer dollars more event than has ever been asked of you before.
Meg Fasy 35:37
Yeah, I'll tell you, I think you know, and this is coming from a supplier, I think it has never been harder to be an event planner, event marketer meeting planner, I just don't I think that, you know, they're dealing with staffing talent issues, right. Not having the right people now that there's digital in the in the mix, maybe they don't have the right staff, they don't have enough staff that you know, all of that. And then add that to the fact that attendees aren't signing up for conferences until, you know, very short term, what is it like three or four weeks in advance? So now they're trying to build these conferences over a couple months, not knowing what their budget is going to end up being because attendees aren't signing up. And it's just craziness. It is
Paige Buck 36:23
that that like, continuously deferred buyer decision that happens and I mean, I am I buy it, like I just finally purchased my ticket to conference I've been planning to attend, you know, that's in less than a month. I am that person. And I, we all are. And or still learning how to go back out in the world. Like, you know, strengthening that muscle that got so weakened or atrophied from Yeah. And COVID. It is intensely challenging. And I'll add one more, at least in the tech industry. Here in the Bay Area, we're so concentrated that it's where, you know, we see a lot of what is challenging C suite behavior on about the level of scrutiny and unrealistic expectations. If blue engine like the first two or three years of growth, there's a mistake in understanding by the by the executive team, like, Oh, we're this is going to be I was like, like a hockey stick. Like, right? If we had 200 people this year, we're gonna have 400 people next year. And then then 10,000. Yeah, yes, not software. Right. Software, it doesn't work like that.
Meg Fasy 37:36
It's very different. Yeah. And I will tell you, sponsors are now starting to sign up very late in the game. Yes. So where are we where it was six to nine months? Now? It's three months. Mm hmm.
Paige Buck 37:48
And what do you think there? What do you think has made that cycle so tight? Besides limited resources? This is about deciding to replace them? How do you think that's,
Meg Fasy 37:59
yeah, I think it is limited resources and trying to figure out where they're gonna put their money. But I also think it's the same thing with attendance. You know, that that fear that there's, there's just in the back of our mind, that little bit of fear that we're going to end up, you know, not not going not having the event, whatever it is. There's
Paige Buck 38:17
the I mean, I forgot how to I mean, it's funny, because this is what I do for a living but truly felt like I forgot how to plan how to plan a vacation that happens more than eight weeks from now. Right? How to think like, Oh, am I going home this holiday season? Am I going home to my family or my in laws? Family? Right? Same limited challenge thinking? Yeah, yeah. And
Meg Fasy 38:42
I think it's so just I just think it's so hard for event planners right now. Because what happens is they're they're planning this event, the attendees are not, you know, they're coming in slow dribs and drabs. So now they're pulling back from their agencies, the production or pulling back, you know, the all the niceties that happened at the conference, they're pulling back on, you know, branding, and signage and all of this, and then all of a sudden, they get hit, and the attendance at the end of the day is showing up. But they're not showing up until you know, a month or two months in advance. So now the event planners are saying to the production, bring this all back, we need more, we want this more we want the signers with branding and the agencies are saying I don't have the people now to manage this. Right, or supply chain issue I can't get
Paige Buck 39:29
I cannot get this fancy or name badges and lanyards for you. It turns out, I used to be able to do it in three days. And now it's three months if you want. Yeah, right. I never ever it's
Meg Fasy 39:39
going to cost you an arm and a leg to get an expedited. So I mean, it's just endless, and I will say it and I'm gonna say it on air. The CMOs are not understanding. No, no, they're just not. They're not listening. They're not paying attention or they don't care. I don't know, but they're not listening.
Paige Buck 39:56
Or they're dealing with so many other challenges that we don't see every day. A that they? Yeah, limited, limited empathy to go round. really challenging. Yeah, these are all real things. And then the knock on effect is burnout. And, and then again, fewer people that come back into the workforce and service this industry.
Meg Fasy 40:16
Well, and that's the other thing. So a lot of the senior level planners and event marketers have left the industry. And so a lot of younger and I don't mean age, I mean experience. People have taken those positions, and they don't know, they don't they don't know how to build a larger event. And so that's part of the challenge as well. So we don't know, don't know how to build a budget don't know how to do a lot of that, that those details. Mm hmm. Um, yeah, so it's very challenging right now out there.
Paige Buck 40:49
Yeah, it really is. And I'm gonna Well, I think there's that there are opportunities inside all of these challenges, and you're tapping some of them. And it remains one of those. Like, for us, it's constantly like practice self-care, because…
Meg Fasy 41:03
right, this is what it looks like. Now, Dragon voter right here that
Paige Buck 41:08
we've taken to asking our team, it's part of our like, stages, how we define success in an event, we asked our team after a project, what did you do afterward to take care of yourself? What did the client do to take care of herself? Like, did you ask her? What have you heard back? Okay, let's call that success. Like, that's, yeah, I think that's essential. We want to impart that to them.
Meg Fasy 41:30
We were, I was just on-site in Vegas at an MGM property. And in you know, we all have the War Room, right? And the War Room, we were sitting there one day, and all of a sudden, this beautiful tray was wielding of hot chocolate and make your own hot chocolate with 10 different toppings and all that, that the hotel just brought in for us. As you know, that's just like a nice thing, you know, to say thank you for the business or whatever. And just those little moments mean so much now. You know,
Paige Buck 42:02
you really do. Yes, they really do. And, you know, for them,
Meg Fasy 42:07
it probably cost the hotel less than $100. Right, right. Right. But it meant so much to there were probably 50 of us there.
Paige Buck 42:15
And you've seen every attempt at winning you ever in hospitality that there is and that was memorable to Umag. So that's, that's, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's been a pleasure talking with you. And I get a chance to say, where folks can find your two enterprises,
Meg Fasy 42:34
or find you. Yes, thank you. You can find me at Meg at fazeforward.com and it's fazeFWD or at eventsgig.com.
Paige Buck 42:49
And you can therefore also figure out her URLs for those Yeah. And LinkedIn. Right, great. Well, thank you so much for your time today, man. This has been great.
Meg Fasy 42:58
Thank you, Paige. I appreciate the time. I'm gonna go from
Paige Buck 43:05
past guests include right here, so Okay. past guests include Pam Perez of the chase center, Julie Liu of AvePoint, and Kim Alpert of Udemy today I am delighted to be speaking with Meg Faizi, founder of events gig vo talent marketplace for the events industry and face forward a premier sponsorship management company that works with clients to reveal opportunities and develop forward-thinking solutions to their sponsorship marketing. She has 30 years under her belt in the meeting industry in addition to her two businesses, which she's owned for seven years and two years respectively. She's a competitive dragon boat racer.
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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.
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