Innovations, Adaptations, and Pivoting in the events industry: Year in Review With Paige Buck

Plan Better EventsSmart Event TipsLeadership InsightsPodcast

Jan 5

featuring Kennedy events podcast host and Chief strategy officer, Paige buck

Paige Buck is the Partner 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. Paige 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.

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

Paige Buck shares her experience as the host of Solution Seekers.
Highlights and insights from top episodes of Solution Seekers.
The difference between for-profit and nonprofit events.
Paige’s future plans for the podcast.

In this episode…

As businesses began opening up again in 2022, event companies had to pivot and adjust to new work environments. So what strategies have leading organizations employed to recover from past challenges?

Companies like Cápita Works have embraced nearshoring Mexico-based talent in US and UK companies for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work culture. After two years of remote work, Udemy enhanced its office spaces to accommodate COVID restrictions and provide a welcoming environment for employees. Fundraising and events companies such as MKN Consulting Group and Glavin Jacobson have cultivated purposeful relationships with key stakeholders to facilitate success.

In today’s episode, Chad Franzen of Rise25 sits down with Paige Buck of Kennedy Events to share insights from her most notable interviews. Paige also details her experience as the host of Solution Seekers, the difference between for-profit and nonprofit events, and her future plans for the podcast.

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 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

Below is an AI-generated transcript, full of all sorts of amusing foibles and mistranslations. Take it with a grain of salt!

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 0:23

Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast. I'm your host, Paige Buck. This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events. We create stress free conferences and events providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs. From in person to hybrid and virtual events. You can learn more about us at Kennedyevents.com. I have Chad Franzen here, Rise25 today who has done 1000s of interviews. And today we've flipped the script and he will be interviewing me Chad, welcome to the show.

Chad Franzen 0:55

Hey, thanks so much, Paige. Great to be here. How are you?

Paige Buck 0:57

I'm good. How are you?

Chad Franzen 0:59

Good. Thank you. Hey, today, this is a kind of a special edition of your podcast. It is your year in review episode where we kind of look back on some of your favorite episodes over the course of the past year. Tell me how the podcast went for you over the past year.

Paige Buck 1:14

Yeah, it's been incredible. I think. First of all, I get a ton of energy from talking to people in our industry. And and like across many industries. I learned a ton It is fun to sort of turn on the curiosity. You know, part of me and I like getting a chance to bring that to these discussions.

Chad Franzen 1:37

Right. Awesome. So it's the Kennedy Events Podcast as all your listeners know. And the first episode that we'll talk about is called The Future of Work trends, challenges and opportunities. Your guest was Erika Pichardo-Ley the head of Client Relations at Capita Works. What can you tell me about that conversation in that episode?

Paige Buck 1:56

Yeah, well, what I loved about talking with Erika was learning first how their company, which is, has headquarters here in San Diego, but specializes in like what's called like, instead of instead of offshoring, it's like nearshoring is one tour term for it. Placing Mexico based staff in US and UK companies and beyonds. And they really aren't as to the opportunity during COVID When folks fully embraced having virtual workers. And she talked about building a business that started from scratch with an EOS model, which is an entrepreneur organization system, which I envy and how their core values serve them. And I just love. I loved hearing all of that. And I also love little tidbits she shared about, you know, being a woman, a woman who has like grown up in Mexico and the US went to school in the US, we talked a little bit about cultural differences, and understanding how to get the best out of your team when you have you know, people from different cultures and backgrounds. So that was a lot of fun.

Chad Franzen 3:12

How much do you think people underestimate the difference in culture when you're working with, you know, people from different countries?

Paige Buck 3:18

Well, I think that we, you know, Western cultures tend to take for granted that everybody, like is somehow aspiring to be more like us and act more like us when that doesn't mean we've got it. We've got it all. We've got it all figured out. I think yeah, we hugely underestimate that even if you are cultivating, you know, a team of like, that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion you can't possibly perceive of all of the all of the differences.

Chad Franzen 3:50

Yeah, I don't doubt it. The next episode that we'll discuss, is called navigating the new normal of workplace culture and experience with Kim Alpert of Udemy. She is the Senior Director at Udemy. What do you remember about that episode?

Paige Buck 4:07

So this was an incredible discussion, because we know Kim as a client, and a good friend, she's a close friend of my business partners, and then she and I haven't seen each other since my business partners daughter's Bat Mitzvah. But Kim has an incredible job in and had really not been I don't think she'd been on her team, maybe a year when COVID started. And hearing that tale of what it was like to be in a job that seemed like it was essential to in person work, real estate and like the physical nature of everybody's office experiences around the world for this incredible San Francisco based company and how they had to shift what her team can do and what we talked about. out, this was a parallel for our team here at Kennedy Events was how they had to be incredibly nimble and resourceful. But as a result, what they have are like, metaphorically, a team with like, much stronger muscles and muscles that they never would have had to develop, you know, otherwise, a whole like, you know, massive toolbox of skills that they're cross-trained in, that they had to figure out on the fly. They went from being folks who are primarily not primarily concerned, but like with, you know, the physical look and feel of the office and like, does the coffee machine rather than just is security at the front desk when they need to be to? How are we going to implement like, multiple new levels of technology to do things like, let only the people who have already given their proof of vaccine in the doors? or notify somebody, you know, have a mechanism for notifying teams of COVID exposure? Yeah, so for being like, yeah, people who are concerned with real estate and physical design of spaces to technol, you know, to real tech experts, as well.

Chad Franzen 6:11

Would you say Kennedy Events had to make similar pivots, you know, readjustments as well?

Paige Buck 6:17

Oh, my gosh, yes. I mean, that. That's why that was such a fun conversation. Because as most folks who survived in our industry, you know, you could only bury your head in the sand for a few weeks there before you had to figure out how are we going to continue to bring people together? What will we have to learn? What will we have to master? And how will we persuade people that this, you know, that sitting here and meeting over video can be compelling in the right, you know, in the right circumstances, and she had a similar, she had a similar challenge, on the other end of like, bringing people back to work. And the use of the space is entirely different. They have like shifted up the layout of the space, how they activate the space, how they encourage people to make the most of it, while still honoring people working remotely. So yeah, parallel challenge is really nice to have some, like, sneak peek into her world.

Chad Franzen 7:16

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people who run their own business can come would be able to relate to this episode. The next one we'll talk about is cultivating relationships in partner marketing with Maeve Naughton, president and owner of MKN Consulting Group. What can you tell me about this one?

Paige Buck 7:33

Well, so Maeve is incredible, because she does something very niche in our industry, which is she develops event sponsorship programs. And that can either sound really easy or really daunting, depending on your orientation to the work, but it is, it's the revenue engine for major events. It you know, besides selling tickets, selling sponsorships is something that a lot of our clients hope to be able to do with a large user conference or Summit. You know, but that doesn't mean they have the first idea how often they're going and just looking. I mean, as we all do, start from what you know, you know, what is, you know, what is it like copying somebody's like the highest form of flattery, you go look at other industry events, you go, how are they doing it? How are they pricing it? What are they offering? Okay, let's build something like that. But what Maeve knows is how to build a sponsorship offering price it right offer the right sort of experiences during the event, and how to nurture those relationships like dirt, both in the run up to the event at the event itself. And then how to make sure that the sponsors take what they get, which is ultimately opportunities to meet their clients and make the most of them afterwards. So that the it becomes like, you know, an ongoing virtuous cycle, they want to spend money, getting input of your customers, and then they love what they get out of it. And they know how to how to leverage that into new business for themselves.

Chad Franzen 9:16

Okay, wow. Sounds like a good one. The next one is called cultivating your marketing approach for customer trust with Julie Liu of AvePoint. She is the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at AvePoint.

Paige Buck 9:31

Yeah, Julie is a powerhouse. What I love about talking to her is I have a lot of admiration for many of our clients. And I only, you know, get to see a sliver of what their day to day looks like because while they might be working with us on producing, you know, a massive conference or Summit. They that's a small portion of their overall responsibilities. So I got to talk casually about her bigger job, where she goes to get Marketing Industry Insights. And she is just a very, like, data driven mind. So, you know, she's reading Gartner Group reports, and studying trend lines and, you know, really has her ear to the ground of what's taking place in her industry. And then like, in the broader, you know, marketplace of where her clients lay us, it's fun to learn, you know, what a daunting and impressive like job she has and how she wraps her arms around it.

Chad Franzen 10:37

Having talked to her, Would you say it's valuable to have a data driven mind or at least to have somebody with a data driven mind?

Paige Buck 10:44

Yeah, well, 100%. And I was like, wow, when would you find time to read those Gartner reports? And then you have to read them reflect on them, you know, like, synthesize that into? What? What do you need to change about your approach? And she's doing that constantly.

Chad Franzen 11:03

Okay, the final one we'll talk about is the fundraising courtship, strong, loyal, strong and relationships and engaging events as the bedrock of any nonprofit with Susan Jacobson, president of Glavin Jacobson, what can you tell me about that episode,

Paige Buck 11:18

Susan, and her team are folks I really admire here in the Bay Area. And they I know, this is sort of a pivot from what we've been talking about so far, which have been for profit corporations, bringing like user conferences to life, or, you know, dealing with the trials and tribulations of expanding their offerings during COVID. Susan's company, our fundraising experts, for nonprofits, and I'd say 25% of our business are fundraisers or fundraising related events for the nonprofit community, we get a lot of our energy, I think it's what like fuel some of our teams like continue to drive getting to feel like we're giving back and contributing to the success of these organizations. And Susan, that's what she does all day, every day. And what I loved for her was her, she impressed me, she impressed upon me that like, the type of businesses whose relationships we share, when they build the expertise in house to hold a fundraiser, even if year one, it doesn't make any money in that room. And year two, and year three, and year four and year five, it takes so much effort to make that happen, to get the board to bring their friends to get as the board gets smarter to like, actually raise money and go out to the right people, you're building an engine. And like once you've built it, you need to keep the engine running like it is bigger than just what happens in that room. And that's often something that I try to express to our clients that the that an event whether for profit or nonprofit, the event is way bigger than the experience in the room itself. But she did a really great job of expressing how in the nonprofit and then the fundraising world, the relationships that are being built, the impression that you're making in the community about your your relative clout, or the importance of your work, are all pieces that come out of that event and contribute to why it's essential that you hold it.

Chad Franzen 13:33

When you're working with nonprofits. Is there a difference in the way you hold the event for a nonprofit compared to a for profit? Or is it you know, an event is an event?

Paige Buck 13:43

Well, the logistics of the principles that kind of under lay how we do what we do remains the same. But the events have very different flavors. And well as do corporate events can come in all flavors. And what's nice is I think for us that the we can bring the like the spark of of a real like strong marketing message focused, for instance, coming out of our corporate experience to the nonprofit community and we can bring the like nonprofit like passion and connection, connecting to the heart and being really working really hard on the storytelling that you do. That helps people feel connected and like passionate about being in the room. We can bring some of that that our nonprofit clients tend to do naturally and know they need to harness we can take that and bring it back to our corporate clients.

Chad Franzen 14:46

Okay, sounds good. Hey, are these sound like five great episodes that we've talked about today? What are you looking forward to with the podcast in the near future?

Paige Buck 14:56

I'm well, I'm excited and exhausted just thinking of At recording six episodes between now and next Wednesday when I get on a plane to go see my family. But I'm excited to talk to a bunch of new people in our broader industry who are producing, you know, it sounds like I made it, I'm going to get to meet some people on these podcasts, who have a whole slate of events and that they're responsible for within their companies. And I'm excited to just learn from them, what's changing how they make themselves invaluable to their like, to their C suite so that events don't get taken for granted but are seen again as like a real like marketing opportunity, or often also an HR opportunity to prove your value and, you know, create a real sense of cohesion with your team.

Chad Franzen 15:53

Okay, hey, well, we'll look forward to checking those episodes out. Hey, Paige has been great to talk to you today. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. So long, everybody.

Outro 16:03

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.