Advertise on podcast: Mic Drop Events

Listening, Learning, and Leading. This week's episode features Ken Sobaski, CEO of America's Thrift Stores, who breaks down some of his powerful leadership strategies. Ken does a great job of connecting with his team and making each individual employee feel celebrated. In this conversation, he breaks down some of the leadership principles he lives and leads by, as well as some of the event lessons he has learned over the years.  If you're looking for some great leadership insights and how they translate into the event space, don't miss this episode!

Engaging your audience is crucial to not only keeping a group of people's attention but also for creating lasting impact.  On this episode, we break down the three parts of events that must coexist for optimal engagement: Energy, Community, and Connection.  This episode comes from a Clubhouse conversation facilitated by Billy and Sean and gives personal anecdotes and valuable ideas that you can implement right away for your own events.  For more event tips and tricks, check out our YouTube channel. 

Let's face it, planning an event can be stressful. There's a lot of pressure to get all of the details right leading up to the event itself. On this week's episode, Sean breaks down ten things you can do in the planning process to create less stress and more confidence in executing the event.  Get a team of talented people together Meet regularly Create a minute by minute plan Rehearse Test the technology Watch the videos before the event Gather the materials Rehearse again if needed Give yourself margin Be clear We hope this episode leaves you feeling more equipped to create an amazing event!

It's never too early to start planning a holiday party! This week's episode comes from a recent livestream event we hosted on our YouTube channel about holiday party ideas for 2021.  One of the main questions you should ask yourself when thinking through this type of event is: How do you want your team/customers/audience to feel as they are attending. In this episode, we break down the five emotions you can think through when planning a holiday party:  Inspired: Give a longterm vision of the company and restate your goals and values.  Connected: Give your team or your clients the chance to connect with one another through activities and intentional moments.  Appreciated: Give them a gift or some sort of recognition.  Celebrated: Give away awards centered around your company's values. Motivated: Give back to your community or rally your team together in order to motivate them at the end of the year.  We break down these ideas and even share some personal examples of games and types of gatherings that would be perfect for your team to implement this year.  Now is the time to start planning for this year's holiday parties. Whether you're planning a live, online, or hybrid event, this podcast episode is for you! For more episodes like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel!

This week, Nina Butler joins the podcast to talk all things event creation. Nina is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the event and hospitality industry and start ups and serves as Director of Events and Experiences at Alyce.  Nina's team specializes in creating "unexpected" events or as she calls them "Pattern Disruptors" that surprises an audience and captures their attention.  She breaks down some of the ways their team thinks through events for Alyce and the three types of events that make up their marketing strategy: Meet Alyce - Introducing customers to the brand Experience Alyce - Show customers more about the brand Get to know Alyce - Go deeper with an audience  This episode is great for anyone looking to market their business to new clients through events.  Check out Alyce online!

Kim Walsh Phillips joins us this week to talk about her experience with planning and executing events. After working for a short time in the event industry, Kim transitioned to more of a marketing and consulting role but used her event experience to stand out in marketing her business and converting more sales... so much so that she recently generated over a million dollars in revenue from virtual events in less than a year! By using virtual events as a step in the conversion process for sales, Kim has found a valuable way to connect with her clientele and to make more money at the same time.  Whether you find yourself in the event industry or are simply looking for a creative way to market to your audience, our conversation with Kim is sure to give you some valuable ideas to pull from. If you have ever planned an event, you know that understanding your audience is key as is knowing what will and will not resonate with them.  Kim’s analytical insights provide a detailed look into her own strategies for using events as a marketing tool, and we're so excited to share this conversation with you! For more on Kim, you can view her website here.  And be sure to check out her business, Powerful Professionals. 

This week, Cord Sachs and Josh Swing of Wildsparq join Billy to talk about leadership, connection, and the power of events. This episode covers a variety of topics from Wildsparq's mission to some valuable event insights from their team and ours.  One of our favorite takeaways from this episode was the idea of aligning purpose, passion, and production for optimal impact. When your purpose and passion line up, production is exponential.  Want to learn more about Wildsparq? Check them out online here. And be sure to listen to their podcast, The Secret Sauce Podcast.

Many companies are looking to host engaging events with their team but aren't sure how to make it happen. Field day events are a great way to engage your team with games and intentional conversations around particular topics. From establishing the basics to building on the theme, this episode breaks down the principles you should live by in planning a field day.  Most field days revolve around a certain amount of fun and a certain amount of conversation. How much of each is up to those planning the event. For our recent event it was about 90% fun and 10% conversation but changes significantly based on the client or organization.  Some things we asked ourselves in preparation for the event: Large or small group? Indoors or outdoors? Power or no power? Winner or no winner? Long event or short event? Always remember to start with the end emotion in mind. What emotion are you trying to evoke from your audience?

As we round out our Clubhouse conversation with Crystal Garcia, we talk about considerations for groups planning hybrid events, including pricing and moments of engagement. When it comes to hosting a hybrid event, reinvesting money that is not spent on travel or hotel expenses is a great way to draw in the virtual audience. This can be done by sending them something beforehand to make them feel like they're a part of the experience without actually physically being in attendance.  In some of our more recent events we have been using Mentimeter, a collaborative word cloud software that allows groups to share a word or phrase. Interactive elements like this are great for engaging the group in the room as well as those tuning in online. Crystal also shares about some interactive games she has used at her own virtual events to allow everyone in attendance to participate.  Crystal ends the discussion with a mic drop phrase: “If you can’t do great things, do small things great," reminding us of the ripple effect that occurs when we are intentional about even the smallest things.  Crystal is a Digital Strategist, Virtual Events Producer, Online Business Manager, AND the founder of Propelcon. Check out her company online and on Instagram!

In the first part of our conversation with Crystal Garcia, we discuss the difference between livestream and hybrid events, along with some examples and ideas for each. This discussion touches on the importance of including both audiences and the way that breaking up into smaller groups allows moments of engagement for everyone involved.  Crystal is a Digital Strategist, Virtual Events Producer, Online Business Manager, AND the founder of Propelcon. Don't forget to check out her company online and on Instagram! And be sure to tune in next week as we round out the conversation with a discussion on pricing these types of events and engaging everyone in attendance. 

With Covid numbers once again on the rise, many businesses are questioning their Fall plans and unsure of how these circumstances might affect scheduled events. On this week's episode of Mic Drop Events, we discuss the ways a company can transition their event from in person to virtual. We break it down into four steps: Cut the Fluff - Save time and keep the presentation engaging Shorten the Total Time - You don't have people's attention for as long as you normally would Add Virtual Interaction Elements - Make the event as engaging as possible Know the Technology - Find someone who knows the applications and hardware involved in pulling off a remarkable online event While there are many things to consider when making such a big change to your event, these steps are the best way to ensure you keep everything your audience needs and get rid of anything that might be unnecessary. For more tips on planning virtual, hybrid, and in-person events, check out our YouTube channel.  Still overwhelmed with the planning process? We can help! Contact us through our website. 

This week, Sean and Ricky are in the studio talking about something our team has found incredibly helpful in the event planning process: clarity meetings. These meetings are essential to a team looking to stay on the same page when it comes to planning an event.  Some questions we like to ask during a clarity meeting include: What is the organization and what is the event for? Who are the main contacts and what are their main responsibilities for the event? What did we promise them (number of people, equipment, games, etc.)? What should our team wear? What is the frequency of touchpoints needed for this event? Is a site visit needed? What are the next steps? These meetings should be anywhere from 5 - 30 minutes long, and if done right, can save your team tons of time. We've found that they are also a great way to spark some creative ideas when team members talk through the process together.