An Account Director's Perspective on Building Better Event Partnerships

0:00 My friend Reece, thank you for taking the time to talk with me for a couple minutes.

0:05 So you play a very important role here at Steelhead as an account director.

0:11 Your role is to help match those who are looking for exhibit design and production services with Steelhead and to ensure that it's a mutually beneficial match up.

0:23 How long have you been with us?

0:24 At this point, I'm going on my third year, which is a fancy way of saying I've been here for two years.

0:30 Well, I appreciate that because I love you and you bring such an awesome dynamic to the team.

0:35 I wish we worked out of the same office more frequently because, yeah, you always bring such good energy to the home base whenever you're here.

0:42 OK, I have 5 questions for you and we're going to just kind of whip through them and kind of shed some light on some of the nuances associated with our industry, the trade show and event industry from your perspective.

0:58 OK, sure, definitely.

1:00 Cool.

1:00 All right, so question #1 so from a business development perspective, what's the single way?

1:07 Like a marketing leader can de-risk a massive event investment before they ever hit the trade show floor?

1:14 And maybe it's not a single way, but maybe it's a couple ways that they can de-risk before they're they're on the trade show floor.

1:21 Sure.

1:21 I mean, yeah, I don't know there's a single way.

1:24 But, you know, a big starting stepping stone would be, you know, strategy.

1:30 It's really honing in on, you know, who's going to be there?

1:34 Why am I going to be there?

1:36 How do I believe that I'm going to be a benefit to those people?

1:40 You know, all of those types of of questions really can help guide you, and if you can answer them in the best way possible, then that right then there should help guide you.

1:51 Yeah, absolutely.

1:53 You know, that's interesting because it really starts way in advance of even thinking about like the booth or your physical environment.

2:02 It's the questions before that so that the environment turns out to be the highest and best, so that the results are the highest and best.

2:10 Yeah, that's exactly right.

2:11 You know, it's being able to answer those questions then can guide you into, OK, well, I know I have this much floor plan to work with.

2:20 How can I make sure that the strategy meets exactly what you know, needs to be shown to all the people walking into the show?

2:28 Yeah, absolutely.

2:29 You know, another practical way that I've seen you in the business development and account executive space really support our clients in particular, but is with a pre-stage and helping ensure that everything's good in a pre-stage.

2:49 Can you kind of speak to how that helps de-risk as well?

2:52 Absolutely.

2:53 I mean, it's it's massively important.

2:55 So whether you know it or you don't, you've been through it or not, But you know, making changes on the show floor one day before the show opens can literally cost tens of thousands of dollars depending on what those changes are.

3:07 So, you know, the strategy part goes in again into just planning and us knowing exactly where, you know, this electric outlet needs to be because of whatever reason that we chose.

3:19 But if that needs to move 3 feet to the right, you need to make that decision a week or two before, which goes to your point of the pre-stage.

3:26 You know, we will build your entire booth, you know, in our show floor before the show.

3:31 And that way you can literally see it all come to life.

3:34 It's no longer just renderings.

3:35 It's not you know, like, Oh my gosh, I didn't expect I was going to get that.

3:39 And you have the opportunity to to make changes even if that is the thing you didn't expect.

3:44 We can make those changes and it costs just very little compared to on the show floor.

3:48 Yeah.

3:48 And I can imagine like putting myself well, and I've also been an exhibitor like representing Steelhead, but having that pre-stage giving you also the peace of mind, like, OK, I've seen it in it's real representation.

4:07 I can exhale because I know that this is going to like fit together.

4:10 I know it works and I've been inside of it.

4:12 And now I can like rest a bit because now just the next step is taking this thing that's already good and taking it to the show floor.

4:19 And to that point, it's also resting on the show floor.

4:23 I mean, we have customers that, especially if it's their first time working with us, the day or two before the show starts and they're usually up until 1:00 in the morning making sure X, Y, Z is done.

4:33 Like they've literally been asking me like, what What do I do now?

4:37 Should I go to dinner at a reasonable hour?

4:40 I don't know.

4:40 OK, thank you.

4:42 Eat dinner that that that that feels good to know that, you know, we and that, you know, other service providers that offer similar services to us really can, if worked correctly, can provide that peace of mind.

4:56 OK, cool.

4:57 Let's move to the next question, shall we?

5:00 OK.

5:00 So in your experience building partnerships, what's a common mistake that brands make when they're trying to engage a modern and overwhelmed marketing executive?

5:11 So for on our side, the supplier side, you know, we know that event planners are busy and so how do we not add value when we're engaging with customers or what do people need to be aware of when reaching out to someone who's like, being asked to do 50 things at once?

5:30 Yeah, I mean, being cognizant of, of how busy people are or just stressed over all, whether it's professional or personal, like there's all of these things come into play.

5:40 You know, some of it is, is being able to listen and and hear what that person is saying.

5:47 You know, if they say my problem is communication doesn't mean you just start talking about how great your communication skills are.

5:53 It means, you know, let them talk, let them exhale the information of of like, well, what about communication is struggling for you or whatever it is.

6:03 And it also goes to just like on the show floor to sometimes you just want to tell everybody like this is what we do.

6:09 This is what we do.

6:10 And it might make people recluse and go the other way.

6:12 So you just have to, you know, invite them in and then listen to them and and see what are the struggles.

6:19 Yeah, yeah.

6:20 That's so interesting because listening is such an underrated or under talked about.

6:26 But when those around you can listen, well, it sure does feel good.

6:32 I agree.

6:33 Yeah.

6:33 And I think it just helps build a relationship as well.

6:36 You know, there's a bunch of people all vying for everyone's attention, you know, So if you can really make a connection and listen to the person and hear what their issues are and you believe you can help solve them, I mean, that can go a very long way.

6:47 Yeah, absolutely.

6:48 And, you know, it's interesting because as you're talking, I'm thinking that's such great advice, even for the exhibitors who are hosting prospects inside their environment.

6:59 I know when we're at a show, it's so easy to go into.

7:04 Let me tell you all the ways we're awesome.

7:07 As opposed to listening to what they're looking for and seeing if there's a good opportunity for collaboration, correct?

7:15 Yeah.

7:15 And you just never know.

7:16 Like sometimes we're just not a fit or human to human.

7:20 We're not a match.

7:21 Like, I can't connect with you, and I wish we could, but you know, it's time for us to go our separate ways.

7:25 So it goes both ways.

7:26 Yeah, totally.

7:27 Yeah.

7:28 OK, cool.

7:28 Let's move on to question #3 So let's see what is your go to framework or way of getting multiple stakeholders to agree on a unified strategy without like watering anything down?

7:44 Because in my experience and in observation of what you do, a lot of our customers and prospects, they have many people who influence what happens on the trade show floor.

7:56 So how do we navigate that nuance?

7:59 It is a nuance to navigate that is, you know, it's a part of it again, comes down to strategy and then it just moves forward from there.

8:08 So you know, what's ideal, of course, if there's multiple stakeholders is to get everyone in the room, you know, if we can all be in the room, lock the door to anyone out until we all agree like that's that's a great way to do it.

8:19 But also just having a process really helps.

8:22 You know, if you can say, all right, we're going to start here and the end game is here and here's the path we believe to getting there.

8:31 And if you can get at least most people to buy into that, I think that's what really helps.

8:37 I mean, we have our own process here that just kind of lets everybody know this is how we get from A to B and we are happy to, you know, pivot here or there and be accommodating.

8:49 But the end goal should be the same.

8:51 And if we can follow this process might be the best way.

8:54 No.

8:55 Yeah.

8:55 It's like kind of getting everybody rowing in the same direction, you know, And without a process, I could imagine that it would be like herding cats just trying to wrangle a bunch of, you know, strong opinion people who are likely vying for the best interest of the event or the the end game, whatever that is.

9:18 But without a process, I can imagine it's hard.

9:20 Yeah.

9:21 No, it is.

9:22 And, you know, it's also dependent on who the person.

9:25 Like sometimes you have the account manager who's responsible for just the herding, but then there's the designer or the creative team that's there and they're going to have their own ideas and not have any idea what anything costs.

9:37 And so, and then there's the CFO who's only going to care about what it costs and not about what it looks like.

9:42 So it is, it is a tough thing to navigate.

9:44 That's something that we're proud of though.

9:46 You know, we, we really designed to budget and budget to the design as best we can.

9:51 So and that's that's a great thing about like the rental process is, you know, you can you can rent something and it costs a lot more this one show and then you're not beholden to using that again.

10:02 So if you change your mind or you want to do something different the next show, you know, we can pivot that way easily and you don't have to worry because you don't own it.

10:08 Yeah, no, totally.

10:10 Yeah.

10:11 OK, so two more questions.

10:12 All right.

10:13 So how can marketing leaders audit their current vendor relationships?

10:20 Yeah.

10:20 And I think it's like we have found that sometimes people get intimidated by this switching of vendors.

10:28 But if there's a way to audit that just helps provide perspective.

10:33 So how do you suggest that prospects or, you know, those who might be wanting something different, what's a good way or an approach for them to think about this auditing of their suppliers?

10:44 It's a it's a loaded question.

10:46 You know, it's, it's not an easy thing to take a look at even yourself and say like where am I struggling and where am I succeeding?

10:54 You know, it's not easy to do that.

10:56 So it's also similar with with your exhibit program.

10:59 You know, you just have to start asking yourself, I think, you know, are people coming to my booth the same they were two, three years ago?

11:07 You know, are they interacting with us the same way?

11:10 If they aren't interacting with us the same way, Like, what is that reason?

11:13 Is it because our information is stale?

11:16 Is it because the, you know, the person that we want to talk to has evolved and we aren't changing with the times?

11:21 You know, it's, it's not like one question to answer.

11:25 Yes, no.

11:25 And like, OK, great.

11:26 We're moving forward.

11:27 It's yeah, you know, just are we stale?

11:30 Are we not?

11:31 Are, you know, has they evolved and we haven't?

11:33 Have we evolved and they haven't?

11:35 You know, there's, there's all sorts of different ways to look at it.

11:37 And we have our own, you know, questionnaire that we can try to go through and, and talk to people about if they ever, you know, wanted to really, like try to hone in on it.

11:46 But it's not just one-size-fits-all.

11:48 It's it's a whole task.

11:50 I don't know.

11:50 Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, I can imagine a lot of it boils down to how does this feel?

11:58 Does it feel like it's working?

12:00 Does it feel abundant?

12:02 Does it feel successful?

12:03 Does it feel stale?

12:05 And then it's like from that place of like it doesn't feel progressive or it doesn't feel supportive, you know, on the supplier side and just lean into the feeling.

12:15 And then it's like, OK, well, that's a really good indicator.

12:17 Because if you walk away from a show and you're like nailed it, that felt awesome.

12:22 That feels really successful.

12:24 It's likely that, you know, auditing a program might not need to occur, but if there are any of those other feelings of, you know, the stress or the stale like you were referring to, that might just be a clue, right, that something needs to give.

12:38 Yeah, no, that's true.

12:39 And that's actually one of one of my leading questions when it's with a prospective or possible client is you know what, what is success?

12:49 Like we're popping some champagne at the end of the show.

12:52 Why are we popping that champagne?

12:54 You know, and so that goes to the exhibit program, but it also goes show to show because every show is different.

13:00 So you might be popping champagne for one reason or red wine, red wine for a different reason, just because, you know, it's a different show, different audience, different ROI.

13:09 Yeah, totally.

13:11 I love that.

13:12 OK, so last question.

13:13 And then we will have made it through the run of five.

13:16 All right.

13:17 When a marketing leader realizes their current strategy or campaign is failing to hit the mark and they are midway through the year, what is the framework for executing a smart and graceful pivot without, like, burning out their team or like wasting?

13:35 Yeah, yeah, it's a good question.

13:37 It's it's, again, not a one-size-fits-all naturally, but you know, sometimes it is forcing yourself to take a step back and realizing, OK, my team is burnt out.

13:48 What is the reason for that, you know, and if the pivot is necessary, then you can talk to, you know, either your current vendor or if you feel like maybe it's the vendor that's causing these issues, then you can start reaching out to others and just start asking questions.

14:05 You know, this is the way things are working now.

14:08 Could it be better?

14:09 Should it be better or how could we do it differently to to stop the burnout or stop the the money bleed or whatever it may or may not be that's causing some?

14:18 Yeah.

14:18 You know, it's interesting because I was talking to Sean, our CEO, and we have acknowledged change is hard.

14:28 You know, change, there's really no ideal time.

14:31 Maybe there are times in the year and a mid year pivot maybe like ripping off a Band-Aid.

14:37 But if you work with the right team, whether that's internally or like you said or externally, and you decide that it's important and you just do it, sometimes that's easier than sitting with something that's just going to agonize on and cause more damage in the long run than switching it up and changing the plan.

14:58 You know?

14:58 No, that's true.

14:59 I mean, there's a little bit of fool me once, fool me twice type of situation where, you know, if you just keep getting fooled, then you know, it is on you at that point.

15:08 So, you know, it is change is hard.

15:11 Of course it is.

15:12 But also changes is fun too.

15:15 You know, it can be fun to exercise your your creativity again and and see what's what's possible.

15:21 Yeah, I know that's a really good spin.

15:22 Well, on that note, my friend, thank you again for taking the time.

15:26 Thank you, Reece.

15:28 Thank you.

15:29 All right, bye.