ie volume 33 issue 3

the business of international events

Join Us In McAllen, TX for the 65th Annual Can a “Return to IFEA Convention, Normal” Happen in 2021?

Expo & Retreat Most Important Post-Covid Sponsorship Strategies for Rightsholders Simple Tips for Operating Safe Events Don’t Be Afraid of Gen Z

the business of international events

Join Us In McAllen, TX for the 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat Most Important Post-Covid Sponsorship Strategies for Rightsholders Simple Tips for Operating Safe Events Don’t Be Afraid of Gen Z

Get paid.

Sell more.

Run your event better.

Get more customers by accepting more payment types Securely and reliably accept more payment types and appeal to more customers – credit, debit, check, gift cards, mobile pay and more.

With a First Data payment processing account, you get: • Special IFEA processing rates and hardware pricing while using partners like Saffire, Etix, Magic Money and Showorks • One-click enterprise and audit reporting solution for fairs and vendors with Apex Ceph reporting • Real-time sales data and employee management capabilities • Seasonal rental opportunities • Register functionality for retail sales, ticketing, parking, concessions and much more • Analytics to help you identify how far your patrons are traveling and their spending habits • Flexible connectivity and built-in AT&T LTE cellular, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or offline functionality

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© 2020 First Data Corporation, a subsidiary of Fiserv, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The First Data name and logo are trademarks owned by First Data Corporation and registered or used in the U.S. and many foreign countries. All trademarks, service marks and trade names referenced in this material are the property of their respective owners. The Clover marks are trademarks owned by Clover Network, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Data Corporation, and registered or used in the U.S. and many foreign countries. 647915 2020-4

IFEA VISION A globally united industry that touches

Publisher & Editor Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE, President & CEO

lives in a positive

Assistant Editor Nia Hovde, CFEE, Vice President

way through

Director of Marketing & Communications Advertising

celebration.

Kaye Campbell, CFEE, Director of Partnerships & Programs Art Director Craig Sarton, Creative Director Contributing Writers Gail Lowney Alofsin, Lisa Apolinski, CMC, Jane Cavalier, Robert Baird, Alison Baringer, CFEE, Annie Frisoli, Marnie Lapierre, Florence May, Julie Myers, S. David Ramirez, Susan Robertson, Kim Skildum-Reid, Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. Photography Ramul Davila on Unsplash, Milan De Clercq on Unsplash

For association or publication information: IFEA World Headquarters 10400 Overland Rd. #356 Boise, ID 83709, U.S.A. +1.208.433.0950 Fax +1.208.433.9812

With respect to interactions with members/customers or those applying to be members/customers, the IFEA will not cause or allow conditions, procedures, or decisions which are unsafe, undignified, unnecessarily intrusive, or which fail to provide appropriate confidentiality or privacy. If you believe that you have not been accorded a reasonable interpretation of your rights under this policy, please contact the IFEA office at +1-208-433-0950 ext. 8180.

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http://www.ifea.com

Good Times Need Quality Insurance.

Festivals are always a fun time, but they do come with their own set of inherent risks. Be proactive and protect your event with Haas & Wilkerson Insurance.

Entertain the idea of insurance solutions for your festival including food, music and cultural heritage, art, agriculture, and more. Get traditional property and casualty insurance customized to your unique industry needs.

With more than 80 years of experience and access to exceptional markets, we’re able to provide quality solutions that are cost-effective and event-specific.

For a comprehensive review of your coverage and exposure, call 913 . 432 . 4400 or visit hwins.com/GoodTimes Independent agent representing Westchester, a Chubb Company, Programs Division. Insurance provided by Ace American Insurance Company and its U.S. based Chubb underwriting company affiliates. Chubb is the marketing name used to refer to subsidiaries of Chubb Limited providing insurance and related services. All products may not be available in all states.

For a list of these subsidiaries, please visit www.chubb.com.

F E AT U R E S On the Cover: McAllen, Texas is a place that weaves its cultural roots into every celebration to create new traditions and transform seasonal events into unforgettable experiences.

38

McAllen’s continued innovation and community involvement have made it an international event destination hosting over 800 events a year.

DEPARTMENTS

48

10 IFEA President’s Letter 12 IFEA World Board 14 IFEA Foundation Board

Most Important Post-COVID Sponsorship Strategies for Rightsholders

By Kim Skildum-Reid 6 Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Branding To Better Manage the Human Side of Business

By Jane Cavalier

17 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo and Retreat Brochure

56

Don’t Be Afraid of Gen Z

By S. David Ramirez

42 The Intentional Leader

64

Leading People Made Easy

By Julie Myers

74

Simple Tips for Operating Safe Events in 2022

By Marnie Lapierre

50 Festivals Without Borders 58 Leadership at All Levels 68 Prune & Bloom 78 The Un-Comfort Zone

98 Marketplace

Forget B2B Or B2C Why Digital Engagement Is Actually P2P

By Lisa Apolinski, CMC

Fall 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3 “ie” is published quarterly by the International Festivals & Events Association, 10400 Overland Rd. #356, Boise, ID 83706, USA. Permission to quote from material herein is granted provided proper credit is given to IFEA.

Is Online or In-Person More Creative?

By Susan Robertson

84 Everyone’s Invited 90 May I Help You

82 88

IFEA PRESIDENT’S LETTER

BY STEVEN WOOD SCHMADER, CFEE

THIS IS

OUR MOMENT

1. A change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.

2. A change into something new, e.g., when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

In the last two-plus years, the festivals and events industry…our events; our organizations; our teams; our sponsors; our vendors and suppliers; our host communities; and each of us, as industry leaders…have gone through an unprecedented metamorphosis, not of our choosing. A metamorphosis that, while stressful (as metamorphosis can be in all of its forms) has arguably left us stronger; more creative; more resilient; more aware; more connected; and more important to our cities, states, provinces, countries and world, than ever before.

And now, this is our post-metamorphosis moment. In just a few weeks, many of us will gather together, in-person, for the IFEA’s 65th Annual Convention, Expo & Retreat, in McAllen, Texas. It will be our first in-person gathering since our 2019 pre-pandemic convention in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is a moment that we have waited for and looked forward to and I hope that we will see you there.

As we reflect upon what we have been through, and the uncertainties that continue in many spaces, we will have a unique opportunity to continue our metamorphosis – proactively vs. reactively – on our terms – with the friends and professional peers who can help us to re-energize; to reimagine our events; reconnect with our communities; and expand our reach and influence. To become the best version of ourselves, as we move into the future, together.

After a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, we are excited to invite each of you, and your professional peers, to the 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat, Presented by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance. A family reunion. A celebration. A leadership summit. An educational conference. And a united new reset for our global industry.

A metamorphosis and moment that will change us all for the better.

Stay safe and healthy and we will see you soon!

Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE President & CEO 10

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September 19 & 20, 2022

McAllen Convention Center McAllen Texas • U.S.A. Connect with buyers in person and keep your company’s name top of mind when it comes time for them to spend.

Don’t miss the highly anticipated return of the IFEA’s live Annual Convention & Expo!

Reserve Your Space & Find More At www.ifea.com

IFEA WORLD BOARD

BY DIANA MAYHEW, CFEE

HELPFUL TIPS FOR A

T

SUCCESSFUL CONVENTION

he 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat, presented by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance is less than two months away and we are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible there! With an incredibly dynamic line-up of speakers from the Opening Keynote to the Closing Keynote, be sure to download the newly released Convention Brochure for a glance at the diverse range of topics and excellent programing. And if you haven’t already registered yet, the 2nd Early Bird registration deadline is quickly approaching on August 15.

After that, the registration price increases so be sure to register today and save!

After a two-year hiatus, this year’s Convention will be a fantastic opportunity to sharpen our tools, be inspired and reconnect with one another. Through these connections, comes amazing conversations and exchanges on important topics, challenges and opportunities resulting in renewed energy, new ideas, inspiration, creativity and an incredible network that continues to support year-round.

We encourage you to bring as many of your staff members as possible. To maximize the value of your investment in attending the Convention, take the time to plan and prepare with your team ahead of time. The power of IFEA educational and networking opportunities is like no other in this industry. Take advantage of as many opportunities to meet new colleagues and connect with old friends…whether it is for a cup of coffee at Connections Cafe, enjoying one of the planned social events such as the IFEA Foundation Night, grabbing a beverage at the IFEA/DFEST® Hospitality Suite, engaging in educational sessions or volunteering at the Convention in some capacity.

As it’s been a few years since we’ve all been together…I thought I’d share a few helpful tips for a more successful Convention: Before the Convention: Set goals; what do you and your team want to accomplish?

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• What can you share?

• What do you want to learn?

• Who do you want to learn from?

Reach out to those you want to talk with, to make a plan to connect. Plan your time; read through Convention materials for an understanding of the overall offerings and schedule. Review the sessions; get an idea ahead of time what you plan to attend and what others on your team will attend.

During the Convention: Be present; yes, this is difficult but we should all challenge ourselves with this one.…but put the phone away as much as you can. Take the time to down key takeaways each day. There will be a lot of great ideas and valuable information flowing.

After the Convention: Keep the conversation going throughout the year. Share key takeaways with hose team members who were not able to attend. Stay in touch with IFEA colleagues. Take advantage of the opportunities provided by IFEA such as attending monthly Affinity Group discussions; educational session; reading “i.e.” Magazine and updates provided

by IFEA. We look forward to seeing you all as we continue to work towards the future transforming and evolving our events and those that we serve. I am proud to be a part of this unique industry that continues to connect communities and bring so much joy to millions of people each year.

See you in McAllen!

Diana Mayhew, CFEE IFEA World Board Chair President National Cherry Blossom Festival Washington, DC

2 2 0 2 r u o Meet Y

IFEA World Board of Directors

CHAIR DIANA MAYHEW, CFEE National Cherry Blossom Festival Washington, D.C. dmayhew@ncbfdc.org

CHAIR-ELECT KAREN CHURCHARD, CFEE City of Scottsdale Scottsdale, AZ kchurchard@scottsdaleaz.gov

SECRETARY JAZELLE JONES City of Philadelphia Office of Special Events Philadelphia, PA Jazelle.Jones@phila.gov

IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR TED BAROODY, CFEE Norfolk Festevents Norfolk, VA BaroodyT@festevents.org

ALISON BARINGER, CFEE IFEA Foundation Board Chair North Carolina Azalea Festival Wilmington, NC alison@ncazaleafestival.org

BOB BRYANT 500 Festival Indianapolis, IN bbryant@500festival.com

DAVID EADS Pasadena Tournament of Roses Pasadena, CA deads@tournamentofroses.com

WARWICK HALL, CFEE Safety Set Consulting Section 646 Taupo, New Zealand contact@s646.com

STEPHEN KING, CFEE Des Moines Arts Festival Des Moines, IA sking@desmoinesartsfestival.org

SAM LEMHENEY, CFEE Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Pennsylvania, PA slemheney@pennhort.org

CINDY LERICK, CFEE Art of Events, LLC. Fort Myers, FL cindy@artofeventsllc.com

JOHAN MOERMAN Rotterdam, The Netherlands johan@johanmoerman.eu

STEVEN WOOD SCHMADER, CFEE IFEA World Boise, ID schmader@ifea.com

VANESSA VAN DE PUTTE DFEST ® San Antonio, TX vanessa@dixieflag.com

JOE VERA, CFEE City of McAllen McAllen, TX jvera@mcallen.net

KELI O’NEILL WENZEL, CFEE O’Neill Marketing and Event Management Kansas City, MO keli@oneillevents.com

The IFEA World Board of Directors is an elected, non-compensated body of industry professionals responsible for overseeing the successful operations of the IFEA. In addition to approving policy and direction, Board members serve as an active and involved industry leadership advisory source to the President & CEO. Members proactively support IFEA programs and visions through their input, use of their professional networks on behalf of the association, and personal participation in association programs and activities.

IFEA FOUNDATION BOARD

BY ALISON BARINGER, CFEE

ARE YOU A

E

GET IT DONE PERSON?

vent people are “get it done” types. We take pride jumping into action at a tent’s collapse or a microphone’s interference. I remember in the beginning of the pandemic a meme circulating: Give event planners some duct tape, a golf cart, and a walkie talkie and Covid would be done. We’re not afraid to get our hands dirty, handle a situation, and make things better.

It’s almost time for all of us “get it done” people to gather again at the coveted IFEA Annual Convention. In just a couple short months we’ll be able to commiserate on the past few years and raise a toast to our triumphs. We’ll have so much to discuss, the most important perhaps being that we did, in fact, survive the worst thing to ever happen to the events industry.

By attending the IFEA Convention in the great big state of Texas, we’ll be talking about our metamorphosis as an industry.

How we changed. How we transformed. It is important for all of us to take this time together to reflect on how our events have handled this metamorphosis.

As a leader of the IFEA Foundation Board, I, personally, have also been reflecting on how the IFEA itself, as an organization, has handled this metamorphosis. As event professionals we are lucky to have a dedicated and committed group of IFEA staff members to lead us through the transformation initiated by the pandemic.

The IFEA Covid Task Forces were a huge asset at the onset of our shutdowns; industry leaders brainstorming together through the worst of it to keep our events surviving and often, even thriving. The Affinity Groups, webinars, and IFEA Days were other important platforms for us to gather, brainstorm, and transform.

Now, as we gather again in McAllen, Texas for Convention, I ask you to help us continue to transform this all-important organization we cherish. And you get to have fun while doing it!

On September 6th, the Foundation Silent Auction goes live online. You’ll be able to bid on items donated by IFEA Foundation Board members and friends of IFEA. We have items in all prices, ranging from jewelry to children’s books, dog toys to candles, and firepits to Apple Airpods. Please bid early and bid often.

Share the Auction website on your social media, and with your team members and board members. Encourage others to buy to support you, and your industry. Think early holiday gifts, birthday celebrations, or staff appreciation. See something you need for your office or event? Purchase it through the auction site instead of the store; support IFEA while getting what you need.

If you are ready to start traveling again, please consider purchasing an Ultimate Experience Raffle ticket and bidding on a few of our Experiences that are housed in the Silent Auction.

We have VIP experiences across the country: from beach to mountain rentals, flowers to fireworks, and horses to tall ships.

YOU deserve a vacation for making it through the past few years, 14

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why not visit the most special of places and support your industry at the same time? The coolest thing about this is you get an experienced travel guide for FREE; the donors of these Ultimate Experiences are event planners and surely would be more than happy to plan a specialized VIP experience just for you!

Do you know people who love to travel and want insider VIP treatment money can’t buy? Share the Ultimate Experience Raffle with them. Promote on your social media, share in your circles, and encourage your board members or staff to purchase tickets.

The Ultimate Experience Raffle and Silent Auction will close on Tuesday, September 20th at the IFEA Foundation Party. This event is a celebration of US. Free food, drinks, entertainment, and fellowship await you. There will be a 50/50 raffle that night, for those gambling types who want to take home cash money. In years past the winner has walked away with over $1,000; at our last Convention in 2019 it was over $2,000! During this party we also have a Live Auction taking place, where you can bid on a handful of exclusive VIP Ultimate Experiences.

The IFEA Foundation has a mission of ensuring that the IFEA has the resources to fulfill its own educational mission. Funds raised support educational opportunities for all IFEA members. I ask you today, as Foundation Chair, and as a fellow “get it done” person, to please help us continue to make the IFEA better. The IFEA, just like our events, is coming off a 2+ year transformation.

We need your support more than ever to continue to provide all the benefits of membership we rely so much on.

We are all “get it done” people with big hearts and minds eager for knowledge and growth. The best and easiest way you can support your IFEA organization this year is to: 1. Bid early and bid often on Silent Auction items starting September 6, 2. Purchase one (or two!) Ultimate Experience Raffle tickets 3. Show up at Convention 4. Party it up at the IFEA Foundation Party by bidding during the Live Auction and investing some cash in the 50/50. Encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Let’s support IFEA by getting our fundraising done this year.

And if you help in any of these ways, see me at the dfest Hospitality Suite. First drink is on IFEA Foundation Past Chair Kevin Grothe.

Alison Baringer, CFEE IFEA Foundation Board Chair Executive Director North Carolina Azalea Festival Wilmington, NC

2 2 0 2 r u o Meet Y

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS & EVENTS ASSOCIATION

IFEA Foundation Board of Directors

CHAIR ALISON BARINGER, CFEE North Carolina Azalea Festival at Wilmington, Inc. Wilmington, NC alison@ncazaleafestival.org

CHAIR-ELECT CASSIE DISPENZA Saffire Austin, TX cassie@saffire.com

SECRETARY KAT PAYE, CFEE National Cherry Festival Traverse City, MI kat@cherryfestival.org

IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR KEVIN GROTHE Memphis in May International Festival Memphis, TN kgrothe@memphisinmay.org

DAVE BULLARD The Great New York State Fair Syracuse, NY dave.bullard@agriculture.ny.gov

LUANN CHAPMAN The Gatts Group Grapevine, TX luchap@aol.com

ERIN FORTUNE, CFEE Music for All Indianapolis, IN erin.f@musicforall.org

ANNIE FRISOLI, CFEE Creating Community, LLC Goodyear, AZ anniefrisoli@gmail.com

JESSICA KAMINSKAS The Parade Company Detroit, MI jkaminskas@theparade.org

DAVID KNUTSON City Of Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, CA dknutson@santa-clarita.com

CURT MOSEL ArtsQuest Bethlehem, PA cmosel@artsquest.org

COLEEN MURPHY Des Moines Arts Festival Des Moines, IA cmurphy@desmoinesartsfestival.org

DAVID RAMIREZ TINT San Antonio, TX david.ramirez@tintup.com

IRA ROSEN, CFEE Temple University Philadelphia, PA irosen@temple.edu

BRUCE SMILEY KALIFF, CFEE Kaliff Insurance San Antonio, TX bas@kaliff.com

STEVEN WOOD SCHMADER, CFEE IFEA World Boise, ID schmader@ifea.com

DIANA MAYHEW, CFEE Chair - IFEA World Board Of Directors National Cherry Blossom Festival Washington, D.C. dmayhew@ncbfdc.org

The IFEA Foundation Board of Directors is an elected, non-compensated body of industry professionals responsible for overseeing the successful operations of the IFEA Foundation. Members proactively work to raise and secure important funding that helps to support and protect the educational mission of IFEA World.

Stay Connected When You Can’t Connect in Person Through IFEA’s Virtual Affinity Groups!

F

eaturing participant discussion between some of the top professionals in our industry today, IFEA’s Virtual Affinity Groups provide an online platform on ZOOM* to keep the connections, brainstorming and networking going.

Join us to participate-in these valuable discussion groups and network with your peers. Be sure to come with questions and professional experiences to these valuable open-topic dialogue sessions taking place each month as we’ll be discussing current trends, issues, challenges and opportunities.

FIRST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH

IFEA SPONSORSHIP VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Patrick Merna Vice President of Strategic Partnerships 500 Festival, Indianapolis, IN

THIRD TUESDAY OF THE MONTH

IFEA VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Alex McNulty Manager, Member Services Pasadena Tournament of Roses

Moderated by: Josh Reichart Senior Manager, Partner Activation 500 Festival, Indianapolis, IN

Moderated by: Erin Jackson Marketing & Events Specialist Gravina, Smith, Matte and Arnold Marketing & PR Firm

IFEA ART EVENTS VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Cindy Lerick, CFEE IFEA World Board Member President at The ART of Events, LLC

IFEA Parades Virtual Affinity Group Meets at 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Ed Bautista, CFEE Chief Creative and Strategic Officer Bautista Event Specialists Team

SECOND TUESDAY OF THE MONTH

IFEA CITIES, CVB’S & TOURISM VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: David Knutson IFEA Foundation Board Member Arts & Events Administrator for the City of Santa Clarita Moderated by: Mandy Watson Special Events Manager Dept of Parks, Recreation & Tourism City of Greenville IFEA MARKETING & PR VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUPS Meets at 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Dave Bullard IFEA Foundation Board Member Public Relations and Marketing Manager The Great New York State Fair

IFEA’s Virtual Affinity Groups are available to current IFEA Members as one of the many valuable benefits for being a member of the IFEA. If you’re interested in networking and brainstorming with your peers in the virtual networking Affinity Groups, we encourage you to join the IFEA to participate, in addition to receiving many more great benefits.

LEARN MORE | REGISTER HERE www.ifea.com/p/resources/ifea-affinity-groups

FOURTH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH

IFEA DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION (DEI) VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. MT Moderated by: Steve Schmader, CFEE President / CEO International Festivals & Events Association IFEA OPERATIONS VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Becky Genoways, CFEE President Genoways Event Management Moderated by: Ira Rosen, CFEE IFEA Foundation Board Member Associate Professor / Director of the Event Leadership Executive Certificate Program Temple University IFEA CEO VIRTUAL AFFINITY GROUP Meets at 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. MT Moderated by: Jazelle Jones IFEA World Board Member Deputy Managing Director / Director of Operation City of Philadelphia Office of Special Events

met·a·mor· pho·sis 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat September 19, 20, 21, 2022 McAllen Convention Center McAllen • Texas • U.S.A. CFEE Classes September 16, 17, 18, 2022

Presented by

met·a·mor· pho·sis

65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat

1. A change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one.

2. A change into something new, e.g., when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

Presented by

Metamorphosis.

To Change.

To Transform.

In the last two-plus years, the festivals and events industry… our events; our organizations; our teams; our sponsors; our vendors and suppliers; our host communities; and each of us, as industry leaders…have gone through an unprecedented metamorphosis, not of our choosing. A metamorphosis that, while stressful (as metamorphosis can be in all of its forms) has arguably left us stronger; more creative; more resilient; more aware; more connected; and more important to our cities, states, provinces, countries and world, than ever before.

As we reflect upon what we have been through, and the uncertainties that continue in many spaces, we have a unique opportunity to continue that metamorphosis – proactively vs. reactively – on our terms. To reimagine our events. To reconnect with our communities. To expand our reach and influence. To become the best version of ourselves, as we move into the future.

After a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, we are excited to invite each of you, and your professional peers, to the 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat, Presented by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance. A family reunion. A celebration. A leadership summit. An educational conference. And a united new reset for our global industry.

A metamorphosis that will change you for the better. *NOTE: The 65th Annual IFEA Convention footprint will run through 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21st, 2022. Certified Festival & Event Executive (CFEE) Certification education classes will be scheduled in the days leading up to the convention – September 16th, 17th and 18th, 2022. Separate Registration is Required. For more details, Click Here.

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CONVENTION OPENING & CLOSING OPENING KEYNOTE SPEAKER

CLOSING KEYNOTE SPEAKER

METAMORPHOSIS: OFF BALANCE… ON PURPOSE

DON’T RAIN ON MY (OUR) PARADE

DAN THURMON

Executive Director & CEO Pasadena Tournament of Roses

DAVID EADS

Founder and President, Motivation Works Author; Speaker Hall of Fame Inductee; former President of the National Speakers Association; Positive Change and Peak Performance Expert The worst position that an event professional can find themselves in, is one where we do not control the circumstances. The last few years have placed us all in that untenable position, on multiple fronts, and none of our choosing. Off balance on our best days. We have survived by being constantly reactionary, with no history or ‘best practices’ to reference; embracing new learning curves that have often been straight up; and the invaluable support of our global peers as we all try to make sense of the circumstances together. But despite the challenges, which continue to morph into new and still uncertain ones, we have all gone through our own metamorphosis – as individuals and organizations - that has changed us all into stronger, more resilient, more creative versions of ourselves. And we are ready, once again, to be proactive vs. reactive; visionary vs. protectionary; We invite you to join us in welcoming our 65th Annual IFEA Convention Opening Keynote Speaker, Dan Thurmon, as he helps us to set the stage for the days ahead and a future of embracing and reimagining the realities and uncertainties. A future ‘Off Balance…On Purpose’.

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The Covid-19 Pandemic has taken its toll on all of us and our events. The Pasadena Tournament of Roses, producers of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game, America’s New Year Celebration®, were no exception, with the impact being felt across across all of their operations, planning and human resources. From site location to television broadcast; volunteers to float builders; sponsors to city partners; and everything in-between, their world took on a whole new gamebook, without any rules or instructions.

Helping us put a fitting cap on our 65th Annual IFEA Convention, we are very pleased to welcome David Eads, whose remarkable leadership guided their organization through the pandemic years and continues to lead the way as we all deal with the pandemic-related and other new challenges facing our industry.

Despite the challenges, David will remind us all of the importance of what we are still fortunate enough to do every day; our resilience through most any storm; and the impact that our events – of all sizes and niches – leave behind on so many. Far be it from any of us to let anything rain on our parade!

INSPIRE THE INDUSTRY ‘INSPIRE THE INDUSTRY’ SPEAKER

‘INSPIRE THE INDUSTRY’ SESSION

VISUALIZING THE FUTURE: HOW MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATIONS ARE TRANSFORMING CITIES AND EVENTS

‘IE’ LIVE: CRYSTAL BALL… PROACTIVELY PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

CATHERINE TURP Creative Director, Moment Factory Catherine Turp, Creative Director of Moment Factory, a multidisciplinary multimedia studio headquartered in Montreal, Québec, has been working in the new media and entertainment industry for over 20 years, contributing to the creation of multimedia installations that reimagine the possibilities of innovation to transform events and cities into immersive experiences.

As Creative Director, Catherine has been at the helm of some of Moment Factory’s most transformative projects, inspiring teams to excel in their craft and deliver productions that build reputations. Responsible for working directly with the team, clients and major stakeholders, she delivers compelling and cohesive experiences for diverse audiences. Her expertise in new media art, design and management allows her to play a key role in building the creative team and in developing the studio’s singular vision and integral approach. An artist herself, and having worked with countless artists, her breadth of experience allows her to trail-blaze future-forward paths in experience design. Her range of experience includes festivals, events, immersive design, audio visual performance & curation, and television production.

the business of international events

‘ie’ Live: Crystal Ball…

Proactively Preparing for the Future

Our industry, as a whole and globally, is in the midst of a unique metamorphosis. Emerging from a cautionary pandemic state and ready to look forward with new eyes and new energy, we are facing a fresh realization that our challenges (and opportunities) are much broader than just the Covid pandemic…health and safety; the economy; attendance trends; rising costs; supply chain and labor shortages; risk management; human resources and workforce management; changing city partnerships; DEI; and more. Topical challenges for which there are no identified experts, nor ‘best practices,’ yet firmly established.

“If we can’t see it, we cannot change it.”

- Ciela Wynter, The Inner Journey: Discover Your True Self

Believing that to sustain our common successes, across our industry, we must clearly identify our biggest challenges and begin to create new plans for addressing them, we look forward to maximizing our assembled convention brain trust to do just that. Moderated by selected industry leaders, together we will identify, discuss and assemble a strategic priority list and suggested action plan that can serve as a guide for everyone as you return home to your respective organizations, events and communities.

Our conclusions will be shared on-site during the convention, and further expanded upon within a special issue of our IFEA quarterly magazine, ie: the business of international events, to be shared with everyone for the common good.

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Leadership & Management

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

• • • • • • • • • • • •

True METAMORPHOSIS does not come with defined flowcharts or timelines. It is often hard, even painful at times. It is a process that we must work ourselves through, embracing our struggles and opening ourselves up to new possibilities.

“Only those who stick around long enough to see the caterpillar turn into the butterfly actually get to witness the transformation.”

- Kristin Michelle Elizabeth Knowing that you are not alone in that process; that your global, professional peers are there to share, guide and imagine the future with you, can often be the difference in our own success and those that we rely on every day…from staffs to volunteers; sponsors to attendees; and stakeholders at every level.

For 67 years (and 65 conventions) the IFEA has provided the festivals and events industry with the very best in professional education and training; a wealth of creative and diverse perspectives; and a reliable and important resource that continues our own metamorphosis through good times and challenging times. As we come back together again, in-person, for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic, we continue that well-etched tradition, but with a keen awareness of the many new needs that have presented themselves within our industry and the communities that we serve. We have drawn upon the insights and input of active industry leadership and other respected voices, from around the globe, and have worked to ensure that attendees at all levels - first-timers and repeat attendees, new to the industry or seasoned professional - can all find the answers, ideas and motivation that will get us all through the metamorphosis process.

A sampling of this year’s topics, presented/moderated by the top leaders in our global industry, include*, among others: (* subject to change)

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball…Proactively Preparing for the Future The Evolving Leadership Role of Women in the Festivals & Events Industry Revisiting Your Customers/Attendees in an Ever-Changing Environment: Compiling and Using Market Research Protecting Your Human Capital The Important Partnership between Events and Tourism Still Here: Risk & Security Concerns in a Covid Over-Shadowed World Welcome Mat: Creating an ADA Compliant Web Site Communicating in a Crisis: What to Say & What Not to Say When Things Go Wrong Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go What You Can, Can’t and Should Find a Way to Afford When Insuring Your Event Succession Planning for Festivals and Events – The Change of Strong and Longtime Leadership So Now What? Where do we go from here? Leveraging tourism trends.

‘Visualizing the Future: How Multimedia Installations Are Transforming City and Event Experiences Inside the Changing World of Our City Partners Dealing with Current Events/Political Issues and Extremists at Your Event Budgeting for the Future Leadership at All Levels - Influence in Place Inside Perspective: The Changing Realities of Event Insurance Inclusivity for Events: Making Your Event More Welcomin, Not Just Accessible Practical Strategic Plans (How do You Project Anything in the Current (Post)Pandemic World?)

Lessons Learned through an International Career in Festivals & Events Critical Considerations for Safe and Effective Crowd Management Engaging with Future Industry Leaders: Working with Colleges and Universities Don’t Rain On My (Our) Parade

Sponsorship & Revenues • Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose • ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball…Proactively Preparing for the Future • Revisiting Your Customers/Attendees in an Ever-Changing Environment: Compiling and Using Market Research • Revisiting Sponsorship in a Changed & Changing World • Winning the Sponsorship Race Under a Yellow Flag • Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go • Upward Mobility: The Growing Inclusion of Food Trucks and Other Food Vendor Challenges at Events • Merchandising at the Next Level • Shopping for Quality Sponsorships • Revisiting Your Non-Sponsorship Revenue Programs • Don’t Rain On My (Our) Parade

Technology, Creativity and Innovation • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball…Proactively Preparing for the Future Making It Special: Setting the Stage for a Milestone Event ‘Let’s have a Parade!’: A Look Inside the Success of the McAllen Holiday Parade (with an Offsite Parade Warehouse Tour) Cyber Security: Protecting Your Event and Attendees Against Cyber Risk Welcome Mat: Creating an ADA Compliant Web Site Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go The Next Frontier for Parades Merchandising at the Next Level ‘Visualizing the Future: How Multimedia Installations Are Transforming City and Event Experiences ‘New Normal’: Reimagining Parades in a Changing, Creative, Diverse, Expensive and Sometimes Scary World The Changing and Growing Role of Social Media: Maximizing Returns with Limited Resources Don’t Rain On My (Our) Parade

Operations & Risk Management • Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose • ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball…Proactively Preparing for the Future • Working with Outside Agents in a Changing Entertainment Landscape • ‘Let’s have a Parade!’: A Look Inside the Success of the McAllen Holiday Parade (with an Offsite Parade Warehouse Tour) • Cyber Security: Protecting Your Event and Attendees Against Cyber Risk • Still Here: Risk & Security Concerns in a Covid Over-Shadowed World • Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go • What You Can, Can’t and Should Find a Way to Afford When Insuring Your Event • Upward Mobility: The Growing Inclusion of Food Trucks and Other Food Vendor Challenges at Events • Navigating New Realities - Keeping Volunteers Safe, Smiling, Engaged & Returning • Merchandising at the Next Level • The Next Frontier for Parades • Dealing with Current Events/Political Issues and Extremists at Your Event • ‘New Normal’: Reimagining Parades in a Changing, Creative, Diverse, Expensive and Sometimes Scary World • Inside Perspective: The Changing Realities of Event Insurance • Inclusivity for Events: Making Your Event More Welcoming, Not Just Accessible • Emergency and Disaster Preparedness for those with Disabilities • Critical Considerations for Safe and Effective Crowd Management • Don’t Rain On My (Our) Parade

Marketing, Branding and Media Relations • Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose • ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball…Proactively Preparing for the Future • Revisiting Your Customers/Attendees in an Ever-Changing Environment: Compiling and Using Market Research • The Important Partnership between Events and Tourism • Welcome Mat: Creating an ADA Compliant Web Site • Communicating in a Crisis: What to Say & What Not to Say When Things Go Wrong • Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go • Strategic Communications Planning – How to Craft a Scalable Campaign that Works for Your Organization/Event’s Needs • Merchandising at the Next Level • So Now What? Where do we go from here? Leveraging tourism trends.

• The Changing and Growing Role of Social Media: Maximizing Returns with Limited Resources • Inclusivity for Events: Making Your Event More Welcoming, Not Just Accessible • Don’t Rain On My (Our) Parade

Host City Partnerships • Metamorphosis: Off Balance...On Purpose • ‘IE Live: Crystal Ball… Proactively Preparing for the Future • ‘Let’s have a Parade!’: A Look Inside the Success of the McAllen Holiday Parade (with an Offsite Parade Warehouse Tour) • The Important Partnership between Events and Tourism • Still Here: Risk & Security Concerns in a Covid Over-Shadowed World • Understanding DEI: Where to Begin and Where We Hope to Go • So Now What? Where do we go from here? Leveraging tourism trends.

• ‘Visualizing the Future: How Multimedia Installations Are Transforming City and Event Experiences • Inside the Changing World of Our City Partners • Dealing with Current Events/Political Issues and Extremists at Your Event • Inclusivity for Events: Making Your Event More Welcoming, Not Just Accessible • Lessons Learned through an International Career in Festivals & Events • Critical Considerations for Safe and Effective Crowd Management • Don’t Rain On My (Our) Paradew

SPEAKERS AND NETWORKING LEADERS AT THIS YEAR’S CONVENTION include many of the top professionals (past, present and future) and internationally recognized industry organizations in the world, including*, among others: (*subject to change) • Motivation Works • Moment Factory • ArtsQuest / Bethlehem Music Festival • Kentucky Derby Festival • O’Neill Marketing & Event Management • The Great New York State Fair • Safety Set Consulting, New Zealand • Event Network • The ART of Events, LLC • Pasadena Tournament of Roses • Memphis in May International Festival • City of McAllen, Texas • Merry Wonderer • Sunfest • H-E-B Grocery Company • City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Gravina, Smith, Matte and Arnold Marketing & PR Firm • Saffire • Event Project Management Systems (EPMS.NET), Australia • Special Olympics USA Games • Carolina Caro Consulting • Des Moines Arts Festival • The Parade Company • City of Santa Clarita, California • National Cherry Blossom Festival • King William Fair • Bautista Event Specialist Team • City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • DFEST® • Temple University

• • • • •

(Indianapolis) 500 Festival Newport Harbor Corporation Genoways Events Haas & Wilkerson Insurance City of Greenville, South Carolina • Rotterdam Festivals, The Netherlands • FEMA Office of Disability Integration and Coordination • Beale Street Music Festival • City of Scottsdale, Arizona • North Carolina Azalea Festival • Kaliff Insurance • Norfolk Festevents • U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) • Creating Community • Skills Village 2030, South Africa • Fredericksburg, Texas, Chamber of Commerce • Tourism Skills Group • National Independent Concessionaries Association (NICA) • Degy Entertainment • McAllen Holiday Parade • Caravel Marketing • Sponsorship Mastery • Pennsylvania Horticultural Society • TINT • High Point University • World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest • Portland Rose Festival Foundation • IFEA World Festival & Event Cities • IFEA Global Affiliates …and Many More

“INSPIRE THE INDUSTRY” GENERAL SESSIONS

SPECIAL FOCUS OPPORTUNITIES “There is no better connection to our industry’s global professional network, and the experience, wisdom and support that lies within, than the IFEA.” – Guy Laflamme General Manager Europe and Middle East Moment Factory

Our “Inspire the Industry” general sessions, beginning each day, are built around the goal of providing targeted presentations and discussions, led by selected industry professionals, with a focus on topical trends, issues or creative inspiration that we can all take home and put to use in our own careers, events and communities.

From leadership and creativity, to global trends and city partnerships, and everything in-between, our “Inspire the Industry” presentations are sure to do just that. (Tuesday, September 20th, 8:30-9:30 a.m. and Wednesday, September 21st, 9:00-10:00 a.m.)

“AFFINITY GROUP” SESSIONS

IFEA Convention attendees have a unique opportunity to share “common ground” conversations, in person, with professional peers, discussing current trends, issues, challenges and opportunities, during our popular “Affinity Group” Sessions (Monday, September 19th, 2:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.), including those for: • CEO’s • DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) • Sponsorship • Cities, CVB’s & Tourism • Arts Events • Parades • Event Education • Volunteer Programs • Operations & Risk Management • Marketing & PR Held virtually, on-line, for the past two years, join us in person for our newly expanded format to allow increased networking and exchanges. Bring your questions and professional experience to these valuable open-topic dialogue sessions, scheduled early in the convention program to allow the opportunity to expand your conversations beyond the sessions. (*All sessions are subject to change.)

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

IFEA educational sessions are selected to ensure that we cover a wide range of important topical areas. For those who are interested in following a specific track/focus of sessions, those will be broken out for you in our official convention program to make scheduling your time easier.

Tracks will include: • Leadership & Management • Sponsorship & Revenues • Operations & Risk Management • Marketing, Branding and Media Relations • Technology, Creativity and Innovation • Host City Partnerships (*All sessions are subject to change.)

INDUSTRY ANCESTRY: COME MEET THE IFEA FAMILY

Before you hit the ground running, and because we haven’t been together in person for three years, stop by to meet some old friends and new on Sunday evening, September 18th, from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., at our “Industry Ancestry” session. Designed to give our first-time convention attendees, as well as our our long-time IFEA ‘family’ attendees, an opportunity to meet some valuable new friends, share some insider tips and advice on how to maximize the days ahead, and get your convention experience off to a fun start. Then, join us for Happy Hour in the DFEST® Hospitality Suite at the Cambria Hotel & Suites, to meet more new friends, find some dinner partners, and let the networking conversations begin!

“The fire and ability to change our events, our cities and our world…to touch lives… lies within each one of us, but it must be lit. The IFEA global network provides the inspiration, motivation and support to ignite so many possibilities.”

- Janet Landey, CFEE, CSEP Founder, Skills Village 2030 Johannesburg, South Africa

A Special Thank You to Our City of McAllen Partners:

SUCCESS AND ACHIEVEMENT

2022 2022

2022 Celebrating and recognizing the outstanding achievements of friends and peers, whose confidence and careers have expanded our creative and professional horizons for more than six decades, is a big part of what makes the IFEA Annual Convention both valuable and memorable. As we celebrate our own 65th Annual Edition of the IFEA Convention & Expo we are confident that these exemplary individuals, organizations and cities will continue to inspire and guide us all for decades to come.

IFEA AWARDS LUNCHEON There are few things that mean more than being recognized by your professional peers. Don’t miss the 2022 IFEA Awards Luncheon (Wednesday, September 21st, 12:00 – 1:45 p.m.), as we pause to pay tribute to the people who have made/make our industry great and continue to light the way through their commitment and creativity.

Join your global peers as we:

• Recognize our 2020-2022 CFEE (Certified Festival & Event Executive) Graduates, who continue to raise the bar for everyone in our industry (the CFEE Professional Certification Program is sponsored by IFEA Association Endorsed Partner Kaliff Insurance); • Award the 2022 IFEA Volunteer of the Year Award, recognizing the contribution of all volunteers to the success of our global events; • Recognize the Recipients of our 2022 IFEA World Festival & Event City Award, recognizing outstanding city/event partnerships around the world; and • Pay tribute to our 2022 IFEA Hall of Fame Inductee(s), the highest honor bestowed in our field, in acknowledgment of their tremendous dedication to and impact on the festivals and events industry.

(For more information about all of the above awards go to www.ifea.com.)

“There is no greater honor than to be recognized by those who understand what you do.”

- Mike Berry, CFEE President & CEO Kentucky Derby Festival 2008 IFEA Hall of Fame Inductee

IFEA / HAAS & WILKERSON INSURANCE PINNACLE AWARDS Join us as we put a memorable cap on the first day of the convention (Monday, September 19th, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.) with the most anticipated event of the year. The IFEA / Haas & Wilkerson Insurance Pinnacle Awards pay tribute to both creativity and excellence in multiple categories, from marketing to merchandise; operations to sponsorship; even Covid response programs; all leading up to the presentation of the coveted Grand Pinnacle Awards. This is the Academy Awards Ceremony for the festivals and events industry. The IFEA / Haas & Wilkerson Insurance Pinnacle Awards, recognizing festival and event excellence for 26 years, are proudly sponsored by Haas & Wilkerson Insurance. Don’t miss this unopposed special event as we all wait to hear…“And the Pinnacle Award goes to…”

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“The ready access to the best in our business, not only in sessions, but in every hallway, reception, and hospitality suite, is unprecedented. Our staff looks forward to the IFEA Convention each year and consider the IFEA as part of the team that helps ensure our success.”

– Diana Mayhew President National Cherry Blossom Festival

“CONNECTIONS CAFÉ”

INFORMAL GATHERINGS One of the best parts of any professional convention – especially after a long absence - is the chance to spend some dedicated time with friends and peers - reconnecting, looking ahead, planning that next great idea, sharing a laugh, a challenge, or a special memory. The 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat provides plenty of opportunities for those special informal and memorable gatherings and conversations.

“Connections Café,” sponsored

by Eventeny, is the center of I FEA daytime gatherings and convers ations. Located near the heart of the convention sessions and activities, “Connections Café” is open every day throughout the convention, providing coffee and a relaxing atmosphere conducive to doing business one-on-one or simply catching up with friends. Promoting human connections – while cyber ones are accessible too - this popular venue is always a favorite hang-out, providing the perfect setting for strengthening those personal connections that are so important to everyone’s success.

DFEST® HOSPITALITY SUITE

The DFEST® Hospitality Suite, co-sponsored by long-time IFEA supporter DFEST®, is as much a part of the IFEA Convention as our breakout sessions, and we look forward to extending a historically warm Texas welcome to everyone! Located in the Cambria Hotel & Suites, on the McAllen Convention Center Campus, the hospitality suite will be open on Sunday night, September 18th (beginning at 6:00 p.m.) to meet up with old friends and new, before dinner; Monday night, September 19th (beginning at 9:00 p.m.) and Tuesday night, September 20th (beginning at 10:30 p.m.), the DFEST® Hospitality Suite provides convention attendees with a time and a place to unwind, relax and connect outside of scheduled sessions and functions. For more than three decades the DFEST® Hospitality Suite has been recognized as the hub of the IFEA’s convention networking system.

A FREE EVENING OF DINING AND NETWORKING IN McALLEN

Sunday evening, September 18th, offers the perfect opportunity to join up with your IFEA friends and professional peers to explore some of the many and varied restaurant options surrounding the McAllen Convention Center campus, all located within easy walking distance. Your hotel staff and local Visit McAllen staff (who will be on-site at the IFEA Convention Registration area) can help with suggestions and directions.

DINNER GROUPS

For those looking to join-up with a group of peers you may not otherwise connect with, we invite you to sign-up for one of our IFEA Networking Dinner Groups (Sunday evening, September 18th, 7:00 p.m.). Hosted (*cost of dinner is the responsibility of each participating individual) by local friends and IFEA Board members, you’re sure to enjoy a memorable and valuable evening of fun and professional networking! Sign-up sheets will be available at the IFEA Convention Registration Desk.

ONE ON ONE OPPORTUNITIES

The 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat offers all attendees the unique opportunity, in one place and at one time, to be exposed to global industry leaders from festivals and events, large and small; host cities and municipalities; tourism organizations; corporate and media representatives; academic institutions and more.

WHO WILL YOU MEET AT THE IFEA CONVENTION? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Seasoned Festival & Event Professionals Those New to the Festivals & Events Industry Festival & Event Board Members Host City Leadership Key Volunteers Festival & Event Sponsors/Sponsorship Agencies Suppliers to the Festivals & Events Industry Industry Consultants The Creative Sparks Behind IFEA Award-Winning Events & Cities Tourism Organizations, CVBs, and Chambers of Commerce Parks & Recreation Staff Educational Institutions/Faculty/Students Media Representatives Representatives from Allied Industry Associations Professional ‘Experience Management’ Peers from Around the World All those with an Interest/Stake in the Festivals & Events Field

Start building and adding to your professional network today.

Especially as we reimagine our events from every angle, the most successful festivals and events in our industry share an important commonality; an understanding that the suppliers and vendors who support our industry are a critical part of keeping our events innovative, fresh, and dynamic. They are among our most committed stakeholders. They share their experience and skills with us, help us to meet new challenges with cost-effective solutions, and partner with us to turn our creative ideas and visions into successful realities. They help us to elevate the event experience for our attendees and our communities and provide us with new perspectives and support that make them an irreplaceable part of our success, and we, theirs.

IFEA EXPO: THE GATEWAY TO CREATIVE NEW PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN EVENTS AND INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS “Personal relationships are the most important key to good business. You can buy mailing lists; you can’t buy friendships. And the most valuable personal relationships are best built face-to-face.

For 65 years the IFEA has been bringing our industry together face-to-face.”

– Vanessa Van de Putte President & COO, DFEST®

“What limits us most in life is the picture in our head of how it is supposed to be vs. what could it be. Metamorphosis requires evolution to what we can be.”

– Keli O’Neill Wenzel, CFEE President & CEO O’Neill Marketing & Event Management The IFEA Expo is one of the most important components of our convention. Geared specifically to festival and event innovators and decision-makers, the IFEA Expo features creative and leading-edge ideas, products and services for all things imaginable, including: merchandise; insurance; giant parade inflatables; parade floats; children’s performers; food and beverage products; cash/cashless management & ticketing services; marketing and web support; fencing and barricades; sponsor gifts; decorations; safety and security support; fireworks/lasers/drones; professional education and support resources; portable restrooms; bleachers; entertainment and attractions; generators; tents/venues; awards; event management and sponsorship software and services; volunteer management programs; photography; publications; costumed mascots; staging, lights and sound; and much, much, more; often times at special convention pricing! Bring your list, your creativity, and your challenges and you will find many of the answers you are looking for (and often not expecting) at the IFEA Expo!

As part of our new IFEA Convention footprint, the IFEA Expo will be open on Monday, September 19th, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Tuesday, September 20th, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and is unopposed by any other sessions or activities, ensuring that you have the quality time you need to explore that next great idea and negotiate your best deals! *Lunch will be served and available in the Expo on both days. *Connections Café’ coffee service will be available within the Expo while the trade show is open.

SPECIAL INCENTIVE: Get $100 off your 2023 IFEA Convention Registration when you spend $100 or more in NEW business with an IFEA exhibitor! Maximum discount credit of $500 per organization. Offer is good through 10/31/22.

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METAMORPHOSIS BEGINS WITH YOU “Never stop raising the bar. The future belongs to those who continue to grow their knowledge base, expand their professional network, and stretch new boundaries of creativity.”

– Jim Holt, CFEE President & CEO Memphis in May International Festival / Beale Street Music Festival/ World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest / Great American River Run

CFEE FastTrack© PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION CLASSES

Sponsored by IFEA Association Endorsed Partner Kaliff Insurance, the IFEA’s Certified Festival & Event Executive (CFEE) FastTrack© program allows festival and event industry professionals to complete their professional certification and all required program components in one year and at special pricing that represents a substantial savings over class-by-class scheduling.

CFEE classes, a required component toward the achievement of professional certification, are taught by leading professionals in our field and are open to all who desire to attend. Three of the six required core curriculum classes are offered each year leading into the convention on a rotating basis. New 2022 CFEE participants can potentially complete all of their required classes, electives, and written/speaking obligations in time to receive their CFEE Professional Certification at the 2023 Convention! And those who started in 2019 or after (through our virtual CFEE training) may be receiving theirs in McAllen! (Note: Those completing only the six CFEE core curriculum classes will receive a CFEA (Certified Festival & Event Associate) Certificate, recognizing your educational accomplishment, but will not be recognized at the convention CFEE graduation.

THE 2022 FULL-DAY CFEE SEMINARS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: Project Management Friday, September 16th, 2022 • 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Project management is the management of the project to deliver the event. It concerns integrating all the areas of management such as marketing, design and operations so they efficiently use the event resources and satisfy the objectives of the event stakeholders.

It produces an accountable system used to report to the event stakeholders, delegate tasks to the event team and establish a control timeline. In particular it employs the tools of project management to manage the phases of the event from the concept through the planning and preparation to the event close down. Learn More Presented by: Becky Genoways, CFEE, President Genoways Events, Rockford, IL, USA

Operations & Risk Management Saturday, September 17th, 2022 • 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

The most basic element of the industry is operations/risk management for one simple reason – any festival or event is a large gathering of people. The top priority of any organizer is to ensure that gathering is conducted in the safest possible manner.

This area of instruction is designed to look at the basic elements of event/festival operations and risk management from both

the philosophical and practical approaches, providing a sound foundation of knowledge in the subject area. Learn More Presented by: Ira Rosen, CFEE, Associate Professor & Director of the Event Leadership Executive Certificate Program Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, US

Maximizing Non-Sponsorship Revenue Programs Sunday, September 18th, 2022 • 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

While many areas of professional education deal with sponsorship, the major portion of revenue generated by many event organizations comes from more traditional sources – items such as tickets, food and beverage, and merchandise. This area of instruction is designed to look at such items and other components of non-sponsorship revenue sources. Learn More Presented by: Becky Genoways, CFEE, President Genoways Events, Rockford, IL, USA

Sponsored by

IFEA Association Endorsed Partner

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

We are so confident you will return home from the 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat with at least one idea, approach, relationship, or renewed energy and enthusiasm, that is worth at least the value of attending (and you actually did attend), that we are willing to guarantee a return on your investment. If not, you can write to us (with a “cc” to your board) explaining how you did not receive a return on your investment and we will refund your full registration fee.

“The City of Philadelphia’s popularity in the event world continues to grow in leaps and bounds. We have been very fortunate to have our work recognized around the world and our office and team have benefited tremendously from being a part of the IFEA. As a very forward-thinking city, who believes in positive collaborations, we are happy to be an active participant in the IFEA’s global vision.”

– Jazelle Jones Deputy Managing Director and Director of Operations City of Philadelphia Office of Special Events

Especially in today’s world, the IFEA understands that Return-On-Investment (ROI) is and should be a primary consideration of every leader – events, sponsors, municipalities, tourism organizations and others. With that at the forefront of our minds and conversations, we have designed the 65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat to provide the highest level of return possible, from every perspective – time, resources, information, creativity and access to the strongest network of professionals in our global industry.

Whether you are a first-time or a long-time IFEA Convention & Expo attendee, it won’t be difficult to recognize the virtually limitless opportunities provided through professional conversations and networking; our all-inclusive registration, with no separately-ticketed events; our welcoming McAllen, Texas location; amazing hotel values at four participating convention center ‘campus’ properties; convenient access to professional certification courses prior to the official start of the convention (as your schedule may allow); and much more, including a professional plethora of educational sessions; daily keynote and general sessions; discussion and direct participation groups; and ready access to IFEA Expo vendors and suppliers, convention speakers and other global industry leaders who, together, are the foundation of the IFEA experience and the core of our global industry conversation.

CONVENTION SCHOLARSHIPS

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS & EVENTS ASSOCIATION

Since its’ founding in 1993 the IFEA Foundation has provided scholarship assistance to over 300 students, new professionals and financially challenged events, allowing them to attend the annual IFEA Convention, CFEE programs, and other special programs.

Scholarship recipients are able to return home with new ideas, information and motivation to take their own events and careers to the next level. Twelve IFEA Foundation Legacy Scholarship recipients will be joining us for this year’s IFEA Convention. If you are interested in how you might apply for or provide support for future IFEA Foundation scholarships, more information is available in the Foundation section of the IFEA home page at www.ifea.com.

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INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS & EVENTS ASSOCIATION

Our primary, annual fundraising event, is an all-important source of support that allows us to confidently provide convention scholarships to many young professionals who will become the next generation of industry leadership and to those deserving organizations working to build a solid and successful foundation for their festivals, events and communities. The funds raised also support our capabilities to provide and host top-quality industry presenters, speakers and programming, helping us to raise the bar for everyone in our global industry.

IFEA FOUNDATION

Fiesta:

Una Noche Magica SILENT AUCTION This year’s IFEA Foundation ‘Silent Auction’ will kick off online September 6th and come to a close September 20th, prior to the start of the Foundation Night Party. While all item photos, details and bidding will be available online, many items will also be on display the first two days of the convention (September 19th & 20th), in the Palm Lobby of the McAllen Convention Center.

Whether you’re looking for a fun and relaxing getaway, gifts for yourself, family and friends, or a must-have product or service that helps your festival/event, the auction will have a wide variety of unique and useful items to choose from. All funds enable the IFEA Foundation to continue their critical support of IFEA’s many programs and services, so bid high and bid often!

IFEA FOUNDATION FIESTA DINNER & LIVE AUCTION On Tuesday night, September 20th, join us for una noche magica (a magical evening), offsite, at Quinta Mazatlan, a treasured McAllen landmark, set in a beautiful and tranquil natural setting, perfect for a special night, to benefit a special cause. Complete with music, photo ops, drinks, dinner, opportunities to bid on unpurchasable

‘Ultimate Experience’ packages and lots of fun memories! (Note: Transportation will be provided by the City of McAllen, leaving from/returning to the McAllen Convention Center.)

Plan now to join your friends and professional peers from around the globe for our ‘Opening Reception’ and cocktails in the intimate courtyard from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., before moving to the adjacent and forest-backed North Lawn, for dinner. This special evening will be interspersed with live bidding on a selected menu of once-in-a-lifetime experience packages, helping us to reach our annual goal of exceeding the previous year’s success.

Best of all, the IFEA Foundation Fiesta: Una Noche Magica is included at no extra charge as part of your convention registration!

So, mark your calendar now and plan to be there for a special and magical evening!

Note: The IFEA Foundation encourages you and/or your event/organization to donate a special item, experience package, travel opportunity, or product / service / dining package to be included in the IFEA Foundation Auctions. Help support the IFEA’s educational mission and the future of our industry along with your professional peers from around the world. For more information call or email Kaye Campbell at +1-208433-0950 ext. 8150 / kaye@ifea.com or go to the Foundation section of the IFEA home page at www.ifea.com.

65 th Annual I FEA Convention, Expo & Retreat - Schedule At-A-Glance TIME

7:00 a.m.

7:30 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

Fri., Sept. 16

Sat., Sept. 17

Sun., Sept. 18

Breakfast at Hotels and Walk to Convention Center

Breakfast at Hotels and Walk to Convention Center

Breakfast at Hotels and Walk to Convention Center

8:30 a.m.

Mon., Sept. 19

Silent Auction 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

9:00 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

10:30 a.m.

CFEE FastTrack© Class

CFEE FastTrack© Class

CFEE FastTrack© Class

Convention Opening & Keynote Speaker

Tue., Sept. 20

Silent Auction 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

‘Inspire the Industry’ General Session Educational Sessions 9:45 am - 10:45 am

11:00 a.m.

11:30 a.m.

12:00 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

Lunch on Own

Lunch on Own

Lunch on Own

CFEE FastTrack© Class

CFEE FastTrack© Class

CFEE FastTrack© Class

IFEA Expo and Lunch

Wed., Sept. 21

‘Inspire the Industry’ General Session

Educational Sessions 10:15 am - 11:45 am

IFEA Expo and Lunch IFEA Awards Luncheon 12:00 pm - 1:45 pm

1:00 p.m.

1:30 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

Educational Affinity Group Educational Sessions Sessions Sessions 2:15 pm - 4:45 pm 1:00 pm - 5:45 pm 2:00 pm - 4:15 pm

4:00 p.m.

4:30 p.m.

Industry Ancestry: Come Meet the IFEA Family

5:00 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

Closing Session and Speaker

IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Insurance Pinnacle Awards

6:30 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

Attendee Free Evening

Attendee Free Evening

7:30 p.m.

DFEST® Hospitality Suite Happy Hour Welcome

8:00 p.m.

Attendee Free Evening of Dining and Networking

8:30 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

9:30 p.m.

Attendee Free Evening

10:00 p.m.

DFEST® Hospitality Suite

10:30 p.m.

EDUCATION

NETWORKING/SOCIAL

CONTINUING EDUCATION

FREE TIME

IFEA ‘Foundation Party & Live Auction Busses Leave at 6:30 pm Party Starts at 7:00 pm

Departure or Free Time

DFEST® Hospitality Suite AWARDS PROGRAMS

EXPO

* Connections Cafe is open all day during most convention hours for coffee breaks and networking.

Expo Load In: Sunday, September 18, 2022 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. and Monday, September 19, 2022, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. | Expo Load Out: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

IFEA M EM BER CONVENTION REGISTRATION FORM

Presented by

65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat

Return To: Mail: IFEA 10400 Overland Rd. #356, Boise, ID 83709, U.S.A. Fax: +1-208-433-9812 • Phone: +1-208-433-0950

September 19, 20, 21, 2022 McAllen Convention Center McAllen • Texas • U.S.A.

Payment Form: Please complete this form for all those attending the Convention from the same organization. Please use page 1 to add organization information and page 2 to add all individuals from that organization. Be sure to complete sections 1, 2, 3, (4 & 5 optional) and 6.)

CFEE Classes September 16, 17, 18, 2022

1. ORGANIZATION INFORMATION (Please add complete details for each attendee being registered on the 2nd page. Duplicate page as necessary.)

Organization: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________________________ 2. ORGANIZATION CATEGORY: Please indicate which category you/your organization falls into from the list below: (Please check only one).

Affiliate Chapter Association Chamber of Commerce Consultant Event Facility Event Management Event Planner Fair Festival Tourism Vendor

Convention & Visitors Bureau Downtown Association Foundation Government Entity Individual

Educational Institution Event Media Parks & Recreation Student

3. CONVENTION REGISTRATION FEES: (Please submit all monies in U.S. Dollars only.)

1ST EARLY BIRD RATE BY: APRIL 15, 2022

2ND EARLY BIRD RATE BETWEEN: APRIL 16 AND AUGUST 15, 2022

FINAL REGISTRATION RATE: AUGUST 16 AND SEPT 19, 2022

MAIN ATTENDEE RATE: 1st Attendee Rate:

$695

$795

$895

$ ____________

2nd, 3rd, 4th Attendee (SAME Organization)

$595

$695

$795

x ____ Qty = $ ____________

5th Attendee or More (SAME Organization)

$495

$595

$695

x ____ Qty = $ ____________

ADDITIONAL REGISTRATION TYPES: Full-Time Student (Current Class Schedule Required)

$345

$445

$545

$ ____________

Qualified Volunteer (Contact IFEA for Definition)

$345

$445

$545

$ ____________

Guest (Social Activities Only. Does NOT Include educational sessions.)

$345

$445

$545

$ ____________

REGISTRATION FEES INCLUDE: All Educational Sessions during the main convention; All Coffee Breaks at Connections Café; Entrance to the dfest ® Hospitality Suite; Entrance to the IFEA Awards Luncheon & Pinnacle Awards Presentation; Entrance to the IFEA Expo in addition to Lunch at the Expo on both days; IFEA Foundation Auction Night Event; IFEA Convention Program Book & Convention Attendee List; Registration does not include CFEE Certification Classes or Expo Exhibitor Registration. Separate registration required for each.

If registering for CFEE Core Classes or an IFEA Expo Booth, please use the separate registration forms found at www.ifea.com.

4. IFEA FOUNDATION DONATION: The IFEA Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, works hand-in-hand with the IFEA as its primary partner in raising funds for scholarships, educational programs and more.

Donations to the IFEA Foundation may be tax deductible and a donation receipt letter will be sent for your records.

• Donation Amount (USD): Amount $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 Other $ __________ Promo Code:____________

TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED: $ __________

5. PAYMENT: All fees are payable in U.S. Funds. Your registration form CANNOT be processed until payment is received. To ensure that you are pre-registered for the 65th IFEA Annual Convention & Expo, return your signed registration form with full payment no later than 25 days prior to the Convention’s start. After that, please call Kaye Campbell, CFEE to make sure your registration has been received at +1-208-433-0950 ext: 8150.

Select method of payment:

VISA

MasterCard

American Express

Discover

Check (make check payable to IFEA)

Print Cardholder Name: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Signature: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Credit Card Number:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Expiration Date: _________________________________________________________ CVN Code: _____________ (MC/Visa-3 digit code back) (AMX-4 digit code front) 6. CANCELLATION POLICY: Full refunds will be provided for cancellations made prior to 30 days from the Convention’s start. A 50% refund will be provided for cancellations made 15-29 days before the Convention’s start. After 15 days prior to the Convention’s start, there will be no refunds for cancellations. Please contact Kaye Campbell for questions or cancellations (kaye@ifea.com or call +1-208-433-0950, Ext. 8150).

As a not-for-profit 501(C)6 organization, the IFEA reserves the right to refuse or cancel the registration of any individual or organizational attendee, who, at its sole discretion, may represent/display unprofessional, unlawful, unethical, unsafe, or other actions/positions deemed contrary to the best interests of the IFEA and our global industry. Additionally, the IFEA does not discriminate on any basis including race, sex, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability. For the complete Code of Ethics, visit www.ifea.com.

By registering for and attending the IFEA Convention & Expo, you provide the IFEA express permission to use your name, photo and/or likenesses in any and all promotional and/or advertising materials in any medium, including the internet. Additionally, by registering, providing complete contact information and attending the IFEA Convention, consent is provided from all registrants for the IFEA to send emails to the email address listed on this form for each registrant, in addition to listing the complete name and all contact information for each registrant on this form, on the IFEA Convention Attendee List.

36

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Presented by

65th Annual IFEA Convention, Expo & Retreat

I N D IVI D UAL

A T T E N D E E I N FO RMATI O N FRO M SAM E O RGAN IZATI O N

September 19, 20, 21, 2022 McAllen Convention Center McAllen • Texas • U.S.A. CFEE Classes September 16, 17, 18, 2022

ORGANIZATION: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Student Volunteer Guest Convention Attendee Name: _______________________________________________________________ Name for Badge: ____________________________________________

1st ATTENDEE

Position Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________

First IFEA Convention

Yes

No

Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy): _____________________________________________ Year Started Employment in Festivals & Events Industry: __________________ Ice Breaker: What is one unique fact that people wouldn't know about you? _________________________________________________________________ Special Dietary Needs:

Vegetarian

Gluten Free

Address: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City, State/ Province, Zip Code: ________________________________________________________________________ Country: __________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________________________ Student Volunteer Guest Convention Attendee Name: _______________________________________________________________ Name for Badge: ____________________________________________

2nd ATTENDEE

Position Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________

First IFEA Convention

Yes

No

Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy): _____________________________________________ Year Started Employment in Festivals & Events Industry: __________________ Ice Breaker: What is one unique fact that people wouldn't know about you? _________________________________________________________________ Special Dietary Needs:

Vegetarian

Gluten Free

Address: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City, State/ Province, Zip Code: ________________________________________________________________________ Country: __________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________________________ Student Volunteer Guest Convention Attendee Name: _______________________________________________________________ Name for Badge: ____________________________________________

3 ATTENDEE rd

Position Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________

First IFEA Convention

Yes

No

Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy): _____________________________________________ Year Started Employment in Festivals & Events Industry: __________________ Ice Breaker: What is one unique fact that people wouldn't know about you? _________________________________________________________________ Special Dietary Needs:

Vegetarian

Gluten Free

Address: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City, State/ Province, Zip Code: ________________________________________________________________________ Country: __________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________________________ Student Volunteer Guest Convention Attendee Name: _______________________________________________________________ Name for Badge: ____________________________________________

4th ATTENDEE

Position Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________

First IFEA Convention

Yes

No

Date of Birth (mm/dd/yyyy): _____________________________________________ Year Started Employment in Festivals & Events Industry: __________________ Ice Breaker: What is one unique fact that people wouldn't know about you? _________________________________________________________________ Special Dietary Needs:

Vegetarian

Gluten Free

Address: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City, State/ Province, Zip Code: ________________________________________________________________________ Country: __________________________ Phone: __________________________________________________________ Cell Phone: _____________________________________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________________________ Fax: +1-208-433-9812 • Mail: IFEA 10400 Overland Rd. #356, Boise, ID 83709, U.S.A. • Phone: +1-208-433-0950 If adding more attendees, please duplicate this page.

MOST IMPORTANT POST-COVID

SPONSORSHIP

STRATEGIES FOR RIGHTSHOLDERS

By Kim Skildum-Reid 38

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

The pandemic has been devastating to rightsholders around the world, and what was already a challenging job got a whole lot more difficult. Part of this was the direct impact of fewer live events going ahead, but a lot of these difficulties are because sponsors are now tending to run leaner, make shrewder decisions, and expect more from rightsholders.

So, as we move toward a new normal, these are the strategies that rightsholders should be using to…

• Proactively meet sponsors’ higher expectations and needs • Mitigate the sponsorship impacts from COVID, future variants, and other force majeure situations • Position yourself to maximise revenues in a buyers’ market Accept That You Can’t Go Back Sponsorship sophistication has risen a lot in the last ten or so years, with sponsors outpacing most rightsholders, resulting in a growing sophistication gap.

The pandemic forced sponsors to be even more resourceful and creative, while many rightsholders have just white-knuckled it, waiting for things to improve.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. The pandemic has fundamentally changed how sponsorship is done. There is no time machine that is going to make the skills you used to sell sponsorship ten years ago work in a post-COVID world.

Without an overhaul of your approach, bringing it into line with current sponsor expectations, sponsorship sales is just going to keep getting harder.

So, you need to make a choice. Or, more to the point, your organisation needs to make a choice. You can do the work and make the changes, so your sponsorship program thrives; or you can redouble your efforts around the old approach, and watch your revenues wither.

merchandise buyers, paying streamers, etc. – and people you’re trying to get to spend money on your property.

These are the people you market to, and fair enough.

But if these are the people you reference when you sell sponsorship, you’re undercutting a lot of your value.

Sponsor target markets will include…

• Some or all of your in-person audience • Some or all of your remote fans – people who care about the property, but may never buy a ticket or merch or whatever • Customers and potential customers (B2C, B2B, B2G) • Staff and/or communities • Fans of the broader themes. Think about the personality of your property, the values, the soul. You may run an environmental charity, but the number of people that care about climate issues and sustainability would far outstrip your target markets.

Every one of these target markets is leverageable, for a sponsor. Every single one. And if a market is leverageable, that delivers marketing returns. Being able to talk about your relevance to this whole range of sponsor target markets – not just the in-person fans and some proportion of the remote fans that you market to – dramatically increases your value.

I’ve done an illustration of these markets below, but do keep in mind that different sponsors have different priorities. Some sponsorships are primarily driven by staff retention and corporate culture, for instance. Some will be aimed primarily at customers.

Focus on the Sponsors’ Markets, Not Your Own One of the biggest ways the pandemic changed the game for sponsors is that they had to get really good at leveraging to remote fans and other markets, because there were hardly any in-person audiences.

Great sponsors have been doing this for years, multiplying their results, but we’re seeing a lot more of it.

The big question is, are you ready to reframe your pitch to capitalise on that larger target market base?

The target markets for your property are usually people who are directly tied to revenue – ticket buyers, members, donors,

Feed Sponsors Leverage Ideas for Each of Those Markets Post-pandemic sponsorship isn’t just about being able to talk about this range of target markets. You have to be able to demonstrate how your property can be leveraged to each of them. How can they leverage to staff? How can they leverage to customers and potential customers?

How can they leverage to the fans of the larger themes?

By feeding those ideas to sponsors and potential sponsors, you…

• Make it much easier to sell the sponsorship internally • Make it much easier to say “yes” Fall 2022

• Increase your value • Create a point of difference with other rightsholders • Make implementation easier, as you’ve thought through most of the leverage for them • Reduced the risk around postponements and cancellations If you think about the last point in terms of the pandemic, the difference in approach is stark. If your sponsorship deal is anchored on your in-person and social audience, what happens if you end up having to cancel or postpone? Because much of what you’ve promised is suddenly gone. If, on the other hand, you’ve worked with the sponsor to create a multi-faceted, robust sponsorship leverage program, targeting all of the other markets that mean something to them, it builds some resilience into the system.

Sell Meaning, Passion, and Authenticity… Not Benefits Sponsors don’t buy a benefits package.

They buy the privilege of connecting with people through something they genuinely care about. It’s meaning and passion that drives sponsorship results – not the signage, not the tickets, not the hospitality.

The two most important parts of a good sponsorship proposal are…

• Why people care – What are the main reasons people love your property?

How does that drive their engagement?

What does the property mean to them?

• How the sponsor can harness that meaning and passion to drive alignment, advocacy, and other marketing objectives. Again, we’re talking about leverage, and how you need to feed them those ideas.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

39

Looking at this through the lens of the pandemic or some other force majeure, if a live event is cancelled, most of the benefits are no longer relevant. But the passion and meaning are still there. Those fans are still having a fan experience, even if it may be very different to what they were expecting. The authenticity the sponsor can demonstrate is still there.

Worst case scenario, a sponsor can pivot their activities to mirror the new fan experience.

Bigger picture, most of the benefits you offer are limited in scope. They have limited time frame or geography. Meaning, passion, and authenticity have no limits.

A sponsor can align with people on an emotional level, and add value to their fan experience, wherever they are and any time of year. This makes your property punch way above its weight, in terms of sponsor leveragability and value.

Not sure how to reframe your properties and create the types of offers I’ve outlined? Here are two good resources: • Getting to “Yes” – My comprehensive online sponsorship course for rightsholders • The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit 4th Edition Don’t Identify Assets, Identify Opportunities Following on from the above point, stop identifying “assets”. This is basically code for figuring out what you can commercialise, with the usual approach being to sell sponsorship – primarily in the form of branding – to all of them. The more places sponsors can brand, the more revenue you’ll make.

This thinking makes my head explode.

Identifying assets is about you and your need, and virtually nothing to do with sponsor needs. You have some unbranded real estate, so sell sponsorship! You have a new idea for a promotion, sell sponsorship of the promotion! You have a new kids’ club initiative, sell sponsorship for it! But what you’re selling is rarely comprehensive enough to leverage, leaving only very old school sponsors interested in what equates to a low-value logo slap.

Australia has one major sports league where many of the teams have embraced this approach. Every single thing that can be branded is branded, and with a dizzying array of brands. It’s as if they’ve tried to create a way for every single company owned by a fan to get a piece of the action, and the result is what Australians would call a dogs’ breakfast. The team 40

has sponsors, every player is announced with an individual sponsor, chairs and bottles and trainers and exercise bikes are all branded. It’s cluttered, ridiculous, and overbearing. Those sponsors may be impressed with the first-generation exposure they get, but I guarantee the fans are doing their best to tune it all out.

Sophisticated sponsors don’t want piecemeal assets. They want a robust, customised sponsorship, often flowing across multiple properties and lots of benefits. They want a legitimately leverageable opportunity that will serve as a platform for achieving their marketing ends.

So stop trying to commercialise assets. Commercialise fan passion.

Commercialise meaning. That’s where the real value is.

Minimise Guaranteed Social Mentions I make no bones about it. I’m not a fan of selling guaranteed sponsor mentions. If you feel like you have to offer this benefit, offer the absolute minimum guarantee.

Instead, treat your own social like earned media. Sponsors have to do something that is worth sharing, in which case, share the hell out of it. Tell them that.

This doesn’t mean sponsors need to do one gigantic leverage strategy after another, just to get a run on your socials.

Not at all. Looking back at the worst of the pandemic, smart sponsors were creating all manner of interesting, creative, and scrappy content – content worth sharing, and a steady stream of it. Yeah, sometimes the production values weren’t great, but fans care a lot less about that than having regular, compelling, and exclusive content Do Multi-Year Deals There are many reasons you should want multi-year deals, but the pandemic really hammered home one of the biggest reasons you should be doing multi-year contracts: It insulates your cash flow, if there’s a problem.

Annual contracts are easy to exit if times get tough. They’re easy to exit if a sponsor’s brand strategy changes. They’re easy to exit if there’s a new brand manager, who just wants to change things up.

But if you’ve got a sponsor on a three-year deal, and something happens that impacts sponsor budgets – financial trouble, a merger, recession, etc. – that contract may well be what saves you from any knee-jerk decisions to exit.

That contract will save you from a brand manager making rash decisions. And if

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

their sponsorship strategy does go in a different direction, that contract will allow you to renegotiate benefits to suit the new strategy. Finally, even if they still want to exit at the end of the contract, at least you’ve probably had more notice, so you can be in the market to replace them.

Build Out Your Force Majeure Clauses While you’re shifting to multi-year contracts, you also need to build in robust options around force majeure. Before the pandemic, most contracts just allowed a sponsor to exit the contract if the property wasn’t delivered, as promised. Either the sponsor stayed in, or they exited, with no other options formalised in the contract.

What you need to do is add some alternatives to an exit, and an undertaking to work in good faith to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of both parties. Those options could include: • Extending the contract timeframe at no extra cost, to make up for any non-delivery of a property • Renegotiating benefits, so the sponsor gets benefits that are still valuable and leverageable, even if the property is cancelled or substantially different than promised • Negotiating a discount, commensurate with the proportion of the contract that hasn’t been delivered. (Note, this can be a very contentious way to sort out non-delivery issues, as both sides often have firm ideas on the value of what wasn’t delivered.)

While this clearly protects your interests, it’s also good for the sponsor, as it encourages collaboration and lateral thinking.

Kim Skildum-Reid is one of the sponsorship industry’s most influential thought leaders. She has a blue-chip list of consulting and training clients spanning six continents, is author of global industry bestsellers, The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit and The Corporate Sponsorship Toolkit, and commentates to major business media around the world. She is the brains behind industry hub, PowerSponsorship.com, and offers sponsorship consulting, training, speaking, and coaching. Kim can be reached at: Email: admin@powersponsorship. com | Phone AU: +61 2 9559 6444 | Phone US: +1 612 326 5265 or for more information, go to: http://powersponsorship.com/.

THE INTENTIONAL LEADER

WITH ANNIE FRISOLI, CFEE

THE ADAPTATION OF

SUCCESSFUL LEADERS

I

f it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? That advice might fly in some areas of your work, but only if you’re looking closely for hairline cracks and are ready to adapt at a moment’s notice.

One of the most vital skills a leader can possess is the ability to adapt their leadership to better support their organization.

What makes me so sure? I’ve seen how adapting can save an entire team, and I’ve seen how the inability to adapt has caused heartache and struggles.

A Story of Adaptation I have a friend who thought nothing was broken at her agency.

But when she received the results of the agency survey asking about her team’s loyalty and engagement, the answers showed growing cracks she hadn’t even noticed were there. She would have to adapt her style, and quickly.

Through investigation and one-on-one conversations, my friend found out that her team was happy but didn’t feel connected to their employer. Their loyalties were with the clients they served, not with the agency, In fact, some of them were thinking of leaving the agency to work with the clients directly, where they felt they learned more and had a more stable future.

My friend is a great leader, so she knew she had to make immediate changes. She broke her team meetings into smaller groups and changed the structure so each person got to know their peers.

She told them about exciting things happening at their agency and nominated them for awards. Most importantly, she made sure they were not just being recognized by their clients, but by the agency itself in staff meetings and in the monthly newsletter.

Soon, her team was ready to open up and discuss their needs so the environment could become even more supportive. By adapting as soon as she realized something needed to change, she saved her team and helped them see a new future at her agency.

What it Really Means to Adapt As my friend learned, it’s not enough for leaders to be liked.

They need to be mending hairline cracks, finding ways to improve 42

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

their organization, and strengthening meaningful initiatives before it’s too late.

The ability to adapt doesn’t mean that you’re constantly overhauling the work that you do or the expectations you have in place. What it does mean is that you are monitoring the environment and data closely, continuing to do what works well and shifting areas that need more attention.

Think of it like a game of Jenga. If you get your base and structure solid enough, you can make small changes and even a few bold ones to reach higher goals than ever before.

As you think of ways you can become more adaptable, it’s important to remember that there is already a level of comfort in your schedule, the tools you use, and the status quo. Instead of making extreme, sudden changes, work within your current framework to make small adjustments and make sure you’re getting feedback from your team about what they need in order to do their best work and feel supported.

In today’s unpredictable environment, your ability to adapt and innovate shows others that it’s okay to embrace change and encourages people to think outside the box. The best organizations are full of leaders and teams who are able to adapt to new challenges and opportunities. How will you help your team reach new heights?

Annie Frisoli is Founder & CEO of Creating Community, LLC. She hosts leadership workshops for individuals and organizations, staff retreats to build cohesive teams, and strategic planning sessions for teams and board members. She is a popular speaker and adds energy to any space she arrives.

Annie (CFEE), is also a faculty member at the IFEA/NRPA Event Management School and serves on the IFEA Foundation Board. For more information: www.anniefrisoli.com

50

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

1938 How many employees does your company have?

95 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

We serve events at the local, regional and national levels annually. Our clients include small town events up to 30 day national events.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

Over 500 Festivals and Events around the country. This includes some of the largest events in the IFEA organization.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Haas & Wilkerson Insurance is a family-owned and operated, full service insurance agency that specializes in risk management solutions for individuals and middle market companies. We have decades of experience, which allows us to offer trusted guidance and appropriate, tailored, and cost-effective insurance solutions. For three generations, we have been insuring risks including amusement parks, carnivals, fun centers, water parks, trampoline parks, fairs, festivals, and rodeos.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

In 1929, Albert Haas opened up a general insurance agency. Throughout the years, he realized there was a need for specialized insurance programs and solutions, specifically for the carnival industry. Ralph Wilkerson Jr. joined Al and strengthened the efforts to focus on being 44

a provider for a niche class industry and Haas & Wilkerson Insurance was born.

Today, the business continues to run on the same philosophy and values as was instituted by its founders, being led by a third generation with siblings Ryan and Kimberly Wilkerson at the helm.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

Haas & Wilkerson Insurance is an independently owned insurance brokerage that provides expert, full-service insurance to organizations throughout North America. Known for specialty and niche insurance products in the family entertainment industry, we also offer expertise in standard commercial and personal insurance. Our services include risk management, third-party claims administration, and loss-control.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

When approaching your risk management plan you should always start with an industry professional as your quarterback.

This person can make sure that you and your team get the best coverage available at the best price for your event. We all know that our industry is unique in the exposures each event poses, that is why you need to work with not only an agent that is knowledgeable but also a program that will be there when you need them.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our goal is to be a trusted business partner with each of our clients, delivering specialized, consultative risk-management advice to businesses within our community and areas of expertise. When our clients succeed, we succeed.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Andrew Vandepopulier Producer

Haas & Wilkerson Insurance Fairway, KS 66205 913.432.4400 andrewv@hwins.com www.hwins.com How many years have you been with your company?

12 Years What are your favorite festival foods?

All things food truck. I love the variety based on the location or geography of the festival.

What do you like to do to relax?

Hang with my son and spend time just being dad.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Make Your Bed- Admiral McRaven What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Top Gun

Fall 2022

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

45

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

2015 How many employees does your company have?

7 What areas do you serve with your product/ service?

United States and Canada How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

6 What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Bleacher Rentals provides events with safe, clean, top quality bleacher seating, on time and on budget. We are the leader in event seating in the US and Canada. From rodeos, races, parades, fairs, festivals and sporting events to commencement ceremonies and everything in between, our seats can’t be beat!

Whether you need seating for 10 or 10,000, Bleacher Rentals has the professional seating solution you need.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

We currently host and promote our own yearly rodeo event, so we know the importance of keeping events costs as low as possible, while hiring safe and reliable contractors to help make a successful event. One of our biggest challenges 46

when we began was to find affordable and safe bleachers to rent. As a result, we decided to purchase a few mobile bleachers that we could use and rent out to other local events. If we needed it, others must too.

We started out with only 4 bleacher trailers – the number of seats we needed ourselves. In a very short time, we became the go-to company for bleacher rentals in and around our area. This showed us that there was a huge need in the market for our product.

The overwhelming demand resulted in our expansion from Canada into the US and we now offer mobile bleacher rentals in New York, Florida, and anywhere in between! We are the fastest-growing mobile bleacher rental company in Eastern North America.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

New and improved bucket seat bleachers for more comfort.

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

We provide an exceptional product – it is safe, looks professional, and we can set up in only 15 minutes per unit! This quick setup allows us to be competitive in our pricing. We also have a variety of different sized bleachers to suit the needs of different events. Our bleachers can seat from 20 – 450 people each and our largest units are 15 rows high, which allows for maximum seating in front of your most popular shows.”

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Daniel Cleveland National Project Director

Bleacher Rentals Cibolo, TX 78108 USA 706-498-6400 booking@bleacherrentals.com bleacherrentals.com How many years have you been with your company?

Two Years What are your favorite festival foods?

Philly Cheese Steak What do you like to do to relax?

Beach / Margaritas What is the name of the last business book you read?

How to win Friends and Influence People What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Top Gun

WITH SEAN KING

ASSOCIATION ENDORSED PARTNER

ASSOCIATION ENDORSED PARTNER

The IFEA would like to thank the above partners for their dedicated support of the association.

Association Endorsed Partners have made a commitment to the continued success of our association, our members, and our industry through their umbrella sponsorship support of all IFEA programs and services.

Show your support for these dedicated providers to our industry by getting to know them, and the high quality products and services that they supply, better.

Interested in becoming an Association Endorsed Partner?

Contact Kaye Campbell, Director of Partnerships & Programs (208) 433-0950 ext. 8150 or kaye@ifea.com

S U

COMPL E X

AN D

VO

N, TAI

L

U , N E L C I E T R A

AM B I G U O

6 Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Branding To Better Manage the Human Side of Business

By Jane Cavalier 48

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We live in an upside world where the old rules no longer apply. Many call it a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Mass consumerism has been replaced by a new consumption paradigm as people are driven by new essentialism where things matter less and relationships, experiences and self-being dominate all.

In this new world, workers are restless, customers fickle, investors skittish, and the public has an appetite to cancel. In order to rally everyone together to stand behind a company and its path during all the ups and downs, leaders need to draw upon emotions as rationality will not carry the day. They have one tool at their disposal to do this delicate work – the brand.

Although often associated with marketing, brands are actually cultural icons that symbolically carry meaning. In just a nano second, they evoke common immediate meaning and emotions across all people.

Think BMW, John Deere, Chanel, Apple and American Express. In a world where everything is uncertain, brands can be trusted to stand true. Now, if you don’t have a brand, you can build one. Anyone can. It takes commitment to people, to tell their story and represent their interests with your brand, not your own. If you create a brand that represents the highest common denominator between your people (customers, employees, investors) and your products/services, then you can forge an enduring powerful partnership that will yield surprising dividends for your business. It all begins with understanding the basics of what a brand really means for a business.

1. A Brand Resides in the Mind not in a Logo: Although expressed in a logo and a tagline, a brand is actually a mental construct that gets into the mind and lives in the memory of people.

Branding is the process of creating the brand in the minds of people. It is typically done by creating things and experiences that “express” the brand such as marketing materials and product design. Brands also live in the culture.

Powerful brands like Nike become social concepts and exist in the culture where they continually give people cues and establish the brand as a part of society.

2. Brands Set Meaning: Brands give meaning to products. Is an anti-lock braking system (ABS) a breakthrough in performance (BMW) or safety (Volvo)?

That depends on the brand. The brand

is a mental lens that provides immediate meaning. A Snickers bar is a snack.

Tiffany means luxury, taste and quality.

Apple is about unleashing creativity while IBM is about improving productivity. The brand provides context which tells people why a product is important to them.

3. Brands Carry Emotional Power: Like great art, brands are designed to elicit a response, both emotional and rational. Like art they can enchant and often captivate people which creates desire. Marlboro was the first filter-tipped cigarette and was initially launched as a woman’s cigarette, which failed. The same product was re-branded as the ultimate masculine smoke and with the swagger of the Marlboro man still remains one of the most powerful brands in the world. Powerful brands are mythologies that evoke emotions that swell to desire.

4. Brands are Fiction, Not Fact: Branding is poetry, not journalism.

Messaging matrixes and value propositions belong to marketers and are fact-based. Branding is another world that is concept-based. Branding brings out the big gun – an idea. A powerful, transcendent, mind-tweaking idea designed to engage the mind and heart at another level. The idea is what catalyzes new behavior and thinking.

When Tide gets clothes clean, it means that Mom and Dad are good parents and conveys that message. The Home Depot is a large hardware store, but the brand makes it a Home Center for any current and aspiring do-it-yourselfer.

5. Brands Defy Logic: When you have a powerful brand, you’ll be surprised by what it can do. You will see strong conviction and commitment across employees, customers and investors despite challenges. People tend to defend the brands they love and stay loyal against all odds – better alternatives, cheaper alternatives, easier alternatives. To achieve that kind of priceless cohesion, you have to build and continually maintain the brand campfire - and make it into a bonfire for the whole world to see. At John Deere, they say people bleed green because the brand is so deep.

6. Brands Deliver Business Value Multiple Ways: Because powerful brands are sticky, they have the ability Fall 2022

to build a moat around the business.

Customers remain loyal even in the face of superior performing or lower priced competitors. People forgive and forget product and corporate errors which mitigates losses. People are more willing to try new products, services and experiences from brands they love which accelerates sales. If you have a vision to build an empire, but a brand to amplify the upside and mitigate the downside.

Many corporate executives view the brand as simply a marketing asset. Others like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Elon Musk view it as a corporate asset, part of the business strategy. Once built, a powerful brand can be used to wield influence in many circumstances from the Main Street to Wall Street to Capitol Hill. While products and executives may come and go within a company, the brand can endure forever – as long as it is well maintained.

In a world of fake news where people are becoming increasingly unmoored and where constant shocks and disruptions seem to prevent ‘normal’ from ever being a reality, brands are a reassuring presence that people can depend on.

Powerful brands nurture, the people that come to work, buy products and invest in companies. Business always comes down to connecting with people on a human level. Powerful brands are creative concepts that stimulate the imagination and emotions in ways that most CEOs cannot. With a powerful brand, the CEO has a tool to open minds, raise hearts, command attention, bring everyone together and protect the business again in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Jane Cavalier, CEO and Founder of BrightMark Consulting, is a nationally recognized brand strategist, board member, blogger and author of bestselling business book The Enchanted Brand (Amazon). She helps organizations conquer a changing world with powerful brands and reputations.

Recognized for creating breakout brands like Snapple and Qwest, Jane has worked with over 100 organizations including American Express, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil and the U.S. Navy. For more information, visit www.brightmarkconsulting.com.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

49

FESTIVALS WITHOUT BORDERS

WITH ROBERT BAIRD

ADOPTING AN

ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTITUDE

T

he world has come a long way with the pandemic: from total closures to gradually re-opening, our realities have changed.

Many people have taken the opportunity to adopt new lifestyles and/or new jobs; faced with the consequences of illness and worse, many people are re-evaluating what is important to them.

We know that the performing arts are facing new challenges but, as David Cutler writes in the introduction to his book, The Savvy Musician, “There is no doubt that making a livelihood as a musician is challenging, but is this not the case with any line of work? And while the details of our circumstances may be new, musicians from every era have confronted significant obstacles.”

This is a sentiment that could and should be considered for all aspects of the arts, including organizations large and small, festivals, venues, and more.

And one way to deal with challenges and uncertainty is to adopt an entrepreneurial attitude: creating opportunities, thinking “outside the box,” seeing the “big picture” and not hesitating to question conventional wisdom. Being in the entrepreneurial mindset can influence all of the decisions we make in running our organizations and ensure that inventive approaches will lead to organizational goals even in these trying times.

Here are the elements of an entrepreneurial attitude: Enhancing Financial Gain When traditional methods do not seem to be getting the desired results, an entrepreneur brainstorms additional income streams. What aspects of our work can be monetized? Can we offer additional benefits at different payment levels? Can we provide enhanced experiences added on to basic entrance/ticket prices? Can we market different aspects of our business? Can we distinguish ourselves from the competition for our audience and make ours the number-one choice for attendees?

Making Excellence the Goal One of the most significant publications in business from 1989-2006 was In Search of Excellence and its lessons are still relevant today. Successful businesses exhibit the following characteristics (among others): • A Bias for Action: A preference for taking action over unnecessary analysis • Staying Close to the Customer: Learning customers’ preferences and catering to them • Productivity Through People: Creating in all employees the awareness that their best efforts are essential to ensure the organization’s success 50

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• Sticking to the Knitting: Ensure that everyone understands and reflects the organization’s essential goals Being good at what you do breeds excellent “word-ofmouth” and will provide a good basis for important connections in the industry and in your community.

Having a Plan Be sure that your goals are defined in simple, straightforward language. If you were asked in an elevator to describe what your festival was about, could you define it in 25 words or less?

Be sure to evaluate your plan periodically and assess what is working and what is not. Be sure to aggressively pursue new opportunities to improve or expand your plan to your advantage.

Be flexible about changing your plan when necessary.

Build Your Network The more connections you can make, the more possibilities there are for growth. Since only a small percentage of initiatives pan out, put your eggs in as many baskets as possible. Use research skills to determine which baskets are the most promising: if you have twenty baskets on the go, you have twenty opportunities for success.

Change the World Taking an interest in the social, political, economic, educational and cultural issues, not only in your community, but in your state, country and even the world is the first step to improving your world. Get involved. Bringing your organization to places where its impact isn’t normally felt, going beyond producing high-quality events, can make your organization more relevant and meaningful for people. When imagining your activities, think how these activities might have a broader purpose – solving problems, addressing societal needs or breaking down divisive barriers.

Use the entrepreneurial attitude to make your organization the best it was meant to be.

Robert Baird is President of BAM! Baird Artists Management Consulting in Toronto, Canada and an acknowledged expert in international touring including visas, withholding and taxation.

He offers free advice to artists, agents, managers and venues and has an international clientele. He served for many years on the Executive Board of Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO) and is a former Vice-President of that organization. He can be reached at: P: 1-800-867-3281 E: robert@bairdartists.com or for more information go to: www.bairdartists.com

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EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

2018 How many employees does your company have?

20 & counting!

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

Local, regional, national, & international.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

3,500+ What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Did you know event planning is the 5th most stressful job in the world? We believe in an easier way, and so do 3,500+ events!

Event planning of any size doesn’t have to be stressful or burdensome. Everything is easier with user-friendly tools that help you streamline and manage your artists, vendors, exhibitors, volunteers, sponsors, tickets/ registration, on-site payment collection, interactive maps, schedules, and more!

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Eventeny was originally created for our founder’s sister, who was having a hard time effectively managing her events. At the time, there was no software on the market that could meet her event-specific needs, so Eventeny was built to help her plan easier events. During this build, we realized how many other event organizers were stressed out and struggling to effectively manage their events. Ever since, we’ve been dedicated to the mission of simplifying event planning by developing user-friendly tools for organizers to easily manage all their moving parts in one place. That level of familial support is still embedded into our company’s core as we know our mission to make event organizing easier cannot be fulfilled with just great technology but must be paired with unparalleled support as well!

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What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

We have recently launched the ability to process on-site payments! Currently there are two ways to process your transactions on-site with Eventeny: using terminals, or contactless using our mobile app. Whether you choose to go with or without hardware, Eventeny’s on-site payment solution is an extension of your event management tool and opens the door to new analytics like vendor transaction insights and buyer behavior metrics.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

You can start for free! We have no set up, contract, or consultation fees. In fact, event organizers on Eventeny have saved $30,000 on average, reduced 4 months of administrative work, and generated 20% more revenue per event. The platform is growing daily by adding new features that become instantly available to our customers at no additional cost. Plus, our customer service team is truly outstanding and goes above and beyond to ensure organizers feel supported and prepared for their events.

Just check our Google reviews!

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

If you’re searching for a similar product, make sure they prioritize the highest privacy and security standards, especially network and system security, service reliability and durability, product security, organizational information security, application security, and data privacy and portability.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our goal is to remove event organizers from being the 5th most stressful job in the world by supplying not only great technology, but also unparalleled helpfulness and guidance driven by our Community Engagement Specialist pairing program.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Greg Wright Event Specialist

Eventeny Peachtree Corners, GA, 30010, USA 314-471-6079 greg@eventeny.com www.eventeny.com How many years have you been with your company?

1 What are your favorite festival foods?

Fried bologna sandwich.

What do you like to do to relax?

Listen to music, watch movies, and get some sleep!

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Mike Weinberg’s “New Sales Simplified” What is the name of the last movie you watched?

No movies recently, I’m finishing up the series, “Peaky Blinders.”

Is Your Leadership Proactive or Reactive?

Build a culture that elevates thinking above sexual misconduct.

Give 100% clarity

Protect your team, volunteers, and attendees

Build trust and protect your reputation

“

During Treefort, no fewer than 10 people hugged and thanked me for using WeVow. — Lori Shandro Outen, Founder / Producer of Treefort Music Festival

A WeVow “Group” for your event includes: ■

■

■

License to leverage WeVow at/on/in your website, ticketing, registration, event programming, social media, and all PR and communication

■

■

Custom URL for reporting incidents and finding resources Custom signage designs to display at your event with WeVow messaging + link

■

3 free counseling sessions + resources for anyone who reports an incident as a victim during your event Training guide for key team members regarding best practices for when incidents are reported White glove service

Contact Matt Pipkin at 208.830.3885 or matt@wevow.com for details.

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

1917 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

International How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

750 What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

We insure the serious side of fun!

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

The “Kaliff Edge”. Event and Amusement Coverages are not simply a portion of a myriad of categories in the Kaliff portfolio of lines. It’s our sole business! Our clients have access to our experts 24/7/365 with a century of real world, “Boots on the Ground” industry experience. Every Kaliff client receives unrivaled customer service and response backed by over 100 years of success. We specialize in the specific risks and needs of each individual category of event and amusement insurance focusing on our client’s unique operations and specialized coverage requirements. We are a Coverholder for Lloyd’s of London, the strongest insurance organization in the world with over three centuries of uninterrupted coverage, and have customized relationships with Domestic Carriers.

Our relationships with you are dedicated and long-term. Our mission is to create a faster, simpler, friendlier and cost effective

approach for the protection of your organization and its officers.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Founded by the current Chairman and CEO Mitchell Kallif’s grandfather, Morris H. Kaliff in 1917, Kaliff Insurance has served the risk management and insurance needs of the business and amusement industry for the past 100 years. In the early 1920’s, Morris H. Kaliff built a stellar reputation as a nationally recognized life insurance agent.

Mitchell is now the third-generation leader of Kaliff Insurance and those early experiences shaped the way he conducts business today. He and his team not only have a solid grasp on the one-of-a-kind technical and coverage needs of the amusement industry, they also understand the uniqueness of the people whose livelihood depends on the success of their carnivals, festivals, fairs, and events. It’s why Kaliff has become the most trusted name in the business.

What new or improved product/ service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

Contingency Programs/Event Cancellation/Weather and Acts of Violence What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Coverage, safety and service first without consideration of premium.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Customer Service is the bedrock of our company.

David Olivares Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Kaliff Insurance San Antonio, TX 78213 USA 210-829-7634 david@kaliff.com www.kaliff.com How many years have you been with your company?

10 years What are your favorite festival foods?

Chicken on a Stick, Elote (Mexican Street Corn) What do you like to do to relax?

Take an evening stroll in the neighborhood with the family.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

The Power of Zero – David McKnight What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Minions: The Rise of Gru (with my kids)

Good

Great

CFEE

An Important Step in the Career Track of Industry Leaders As a professional in the Festivals & Events Industry, you know the difference between Good and Great. You’ve dedicated yourself to the “whatever it takes” approach that has become your hallmark. You understand the importance and value of continuing to hone your skills, growing your knowledge base, expanding your professional network, and surrounding yourself with others who have reached the top levels of their careers as well.

CFEE (Certified Festival & Event Executive), the IFEA’s professional certification program, provides the essential difference between good and great among professionals in our industry. It signifies the highest level of achievement. Attainment of your CFEE certification provides recognition of your commitment to excellence, experience, and to your career, placing you in an elite group of the top festival and event professionals in your field. It’s a statement of quality that you bring to the table.

For more information about the IFEA’s professional certification program and our CFEE FastTrack® Program, contact Cindy Lerick at cindy@ifea.com or call +1-314-614-7152.

The CFEE Professional Certification Program is Sponsored by

By S. David Ramirez

Don’t Be Afraid of

GE N 56

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Every event organization is feeling the pinch. The pandemic started a tectonic shakeup of the events industry. There are new technologies to learn. There are highly publicized event failures that have been the subject of speculation, discussion, and streaming documentaries (Fyrefest or Astroworld anyone?). This is exacerbated by an aging workforce with long tenures within their organizations.

But as people retire, re-job, or otherwise leave the industry, backfill is a challenge for everyone from large agencies to nonprofits to municipalities.

The hero of this story is Gen Z. This generation was born with a smartphone in their hand. “Zoomers” enjoy challenges and still see the world as an exciting place. Gen Z also has specific expectations and needs from employers, and won’t hesitate to say it.

The unique attitudes and abilities of Gen Z can make recruitment a daunting task.

Many organizations still struggle to balance peace between the three generations already working alongside each other. Event professionals must act with intention to recruit the vanguard of Gen Z as they graduate from college and enter the workforce.

Gen Z is the key to ensuring the continuity of knowledge, organizations, and events themselves.

Who is Generation Z? Pew Research defines Generation Z as those born between 1997 and the mid-2010s. As with all generational groups, the boundaries are porous and flexible; affected by things like geography and regional culture. There are always crossover populations and the oldest Zoomers share many traits with their predecessor, the millennials.

Gen Z grew up surrounded by smart technology. They likely watched educational content on Youtube and played with their parents’ cell phones until they got their own at an early age. This led them to possess

an inherent understanding of digital media.

This generation aspires to celebrity, but not the reality TV-type of celebrity that was alluring to Gen X and Gen Y. Zoomer celebrity is about being recognized for mastery. It is a form of micro-celebrity where individuals get accolades for a specific skill, trait, or ability. They want to be the best at their chosen vocation and are willing to share their expertise with everyone.

This high degree of digital fluency and self-awareness makes Gen Z set specific expectations about work-life balance.

Zoomers do not define themselves by their job. They feel no loyalty to an organization that is not loyal to them. Gen Z in the workforce will not tolerate hate, negativity, or any of the -isms that turn a workplace toxic. They’ll simply quit.

What Are Gen Z’s Special Skills?

Technology Early exposure to technology gave them a strong foundation in consumer technology. In 2020, they were in school, or just entering the professional workforce. When the pandemic hit, they were required to quickly master a slew of technologies including learning management systems, streaming software, and task managers.

This gives them a unique point of view and makes them invaluable as a resource when sourcing new tech or tools.

Social Media Gen Z’s parents documented every step of their lives on social and Gen Z is well equipped to do the same. Social Media is such an integral part of their lives they have become adept at capturing a moment swiftly so that it doesn’t interfere with them living their lives. This common sense and intuitive approach to social makes digital content created by Zoomers feel more organic and natural.

Any roughness around the edges can be quickly polished with mentorship and learning opportunities.

Digital Literacy Gen Z grew up in a world filled with misinformation. They quickly learned that the internet holds many truths and even more lies. This degree of digital literacy makes them invaluable researchers.

They’re able to find specific information and quickly synthesize it into something useful, fact-checking along the way. Lean on their Google skills for research projects and trust the process.

Diversity Gen Z is the most ethnically diverse generation to date. (Though, Generation Alpha is starting to challenge that.) Gen Z grew up aware of the challenges that face diverse communities, but also while celebrating these differences. Zoomers have little patience for racism or even coded language. They want to know that the places they work have values that reflect their own.

LGBTQ+ Zoomers are unapologetic in their outward representation, and rightfully so. They grew up in a world where it was okay to come out early, play with gender, and experiment to find their true selves.

They care about people’s pronouns and are quick to speak up in the face of oppression.

Lean on these diverse Zoomers to provide perspective on policy, accessibility, and language.

How to Recruit Gen Z? Note: Many of these are good policies for hiring anyone post-2020, but especially related to Gen Z.

Get Rid Of Institutional Obstacles Gen Z has little patience for bureaucracy. If you require a cover letter, ask yourself why. If you require a resume and still make applicants enter all their information into a tracking system, ask yourself why. Do you have antiquated policies about tattoos, colored hair, or piercings? Do you have language that can be seen as red flags for young applicants like “we’re a family” and “work hard, play hard”?

Continued on page 96

Fall 2022

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LEADERSHIP AT ALL LEVELS

WITH GAIL LOWNEY ALOFSIN

HOW PURPLE ARE YOU?

THE POWER OF CONNECTION! “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

O

ur mindset as a child is that we can do anything.

When asked what we are going to be when we grow up, the answer may range from astronaut, major league baseball player, concert pianist to “world famous” sensational someone! Children express their ambitions with bright eyes, exuberant body language, and breathless inflection!

Most people enter the business of events with passion, energy and a “sky is the limit” mindset. Somewhere along the way, call it experience, we start to determine what is not possible.

“We’ve tried that, we’ve always done it this way, we can cut corners here.”

When you are passionate about a project, you start strong.

Inspiration, passion, enthusiasm? It starts with YOU! Remind your colleagues of the big picture. For instance, in the event business, you are not just producing a festival, concert, program - you are bringing people together to experience culture and celebration.

I have had the privilege of teaching at the University of Rhode Island since 1999. One of the books that I recommend to students is Seth Godin’s, Purple Cow. Seth was a Resident Assistant in my dorm at Tufts University. I remember him as brilliant and dynamic as he is now.

The premise of “Purple Cow”? To be remarkable versus predictable or stale. Seth and his family were driving through the countryside; enamored by the cows gracing the green pastures.

They “oohed and ahhed” over the beautiful cows. After twenty minutes, however, they were just cows. If there had been a purple cow, now THAT would have been remarkable!

In the world of festivals and events, we serve a variety of different customers – sponsors, attendees, vendors, suppliers, entertainers, and volunteers. What keeps them coming back?

How do we create a “fan base” of people who believe in our programs? How do we become and remain “purple”?

From Connection to Gratitude, here are four passion points for enhancing “the purple” in your life!

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1) Connection – Who Are You Connecting With?

To the extent you can manage your “external” customers, choose people who will motivate you and are as enthusiastic about your programs as you are.

In most cases you cannot pick your “internal” customers, your co-workers. Do your best to “inspire” rather than “expire” the people you work with. Start by understanding their workload and how your timeliness with a task can make their job more successful.

2) Preparation – Build Relationships Before You Need Them!

My mother counseled us: “To be interesting, be interested.” Be interested in other people. Build your networks before you need them. Passion for others commences when you realize that life is not “all about you.” People want to know they matter to you.

Think about the person you purchase coffee from in the morning - how do you feel when they know your order? How do you feel when your flight is cancelled and the agent does their best to re-route you with empathy? Be kind to people and watch it “boomerang” right back to you.

3) Attitude – YOU Are YOUR company!

Your personal brand is built through every interaction. Personally, you represent “you.” Professionally, you represent your company.

You may be the only person in your company a client meets.

How are you representing your company? Do you have complimentary things to say or are you whining about internal issues?

Have only the finest things to say about the company, while you work there and when you depart.

4) Gratitude – “Opportunity Versus Obligation.”

Be thankful for your blessings: Your job, family, energizing clients, challenging clients, exciting colleagues, for your two legs, hands, and eyes. When you say “thank you” for the little things in life, the fact that you woke up today and know your name, you cannot help but unleash the passion within you.

According to the philosopher, Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do.”

Find the remarkable in your own life versus living vicariously through others.

How “purple” are you? How “purple” can you aspire to be?

The hue does not matter – start today and watch your passion escalate. The sky is the limit. Hold on!

Gail Lowney Alofsin is the Director of Corporate Partnership & Community Relations for the Newport International Boat Show, a division of Newport Restaurant Group. An adjunct professor at the University of RI and Salve Regina University, author, speaker and volunteer, Gail lives in Newport, Rhode Island. Gail can be reached: gail@gailspeaks.com or 401-640-4418. For more information: gailspeaks.com

THE VALUE OF PARTNERSHIPS – Through the generosity of our partners below, we are able to strengthen our support of the festivals and events industry and continue to provide high quality, educational programs, products and services to our members.

Help us thank them for their support, by first turning to those on this list for the opportunity to earn your business, whenever the need arises.

ASSOCIATION ENDORSED PARTNERS

ASSOCIATION SPONSORS

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS & EVENTS ASSOCIATION

CONVENTION SPONSORS

ASSOCIATION SUPPORTERS | BENEFIT PROVIDERS

Interested in sponsoring? Contact Kaye Campbell, Director of Partnerships & Programs at (208) 433-0950 ext. 1 or kaye@ifea.com

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

1958 How many employees does your company have?

32 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

Most of our festival and event business is in the United States however, we do have several happy international customers.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We work with hundreds (500+) festivals, fairs, and special events each year.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

We are a full-service team that brings your ideas from conception to completion while guaranteeing the best quality available.

We design, manufacture, and install breath-taking decorations. Our designers work closely with you to transform your dreams into creative and eye-catching decorations that not only beautify your event, but help tell your story. Through color, design, and movement, your event décor sends a message to your audience, your participants, and your volunteers about who you are and why you’ve gathered to celebrate. Our staff includes experienced and respected event professionals, talented artists, and skilled crafters, all dedicated to you and your festival or event’s success.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

DFEST ® was introduced to the festivals & events industry at the 2007 IFEA Convention in Atlanta. Those who had been doing business with us prior to the addition of DFEST ®, already appreciated Dixie Flag 60

and Banner Company’s lasting reputation for being an intrinsic asset for helping events succeed. With DFEST ®, we are not only reinforcing our commitment to the success of our customers, but we are also committing ourselves to improving the entire festival and events industry.

What new or improved product/ service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

Upon feedback from members of the special events industry, we have added a range of cost effective, free standing signage that is easy to set up, store and transport.

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

At DFEST ®, we design banners, signage, and custom décor so that it has the flexibility to be updated and re-used year-after-year.

Instead of discarding and reprinting your banners each time an element changes, DFEST ® designed products allow variable information, like sponsors and dates, to be removed and added.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

We have a strong belief that decor can directly affect the success of an event.

Whether your event is indoors or outdoors, decorations set the mood, attract attention, create excitement, enhance the event’s theme, and reinforce its uniqueness.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our commitment and dedication to providing great service and quality products has been the foundation for our long-lasting relationships in the events industry. We are not trying to be everything for everyone, just everything you, our customer, needs us to be. We are experts at helping our customers define their needs and then, and only then, executing a plan for success.

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Rudy Martinez Vice President

DFEST® San Antonio, TX 78208 USA 800-356-4085 rudy@dixieflag.com Dfest.net How many years have you been with your company?

21 years What are your favorite festival foods?

There are too many! Baked oysters, chicken-on-a-stick, strawberry shortcake, jalapeno cheese bratwurst, and BEER! What do you like to do to relax?

Kickboxing and fishing, but not at the same time.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

HBR’s 10 Must Reads for New Managers What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Avengers Endgame

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EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Our founders combined a passion for product development and sourcing with a curiosity for unique retail at dynamic events and other cultural offerings. Event Network was born in the summer of 1998 as a single store created for the Titanic Artifact Exhibition in Boston. Our value proposition (turnkey retail) soon thereafter became appealing to cultural attractions, where many of the gift shops were not very compelling.

What year was your company established?

Event Network was established in 1998.

How many employees does your company have?

We have approximately 1,300 employees.

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

Event Network is the industry leader in experiential retail in the United States. We operate stores at cultural attractions and at resorts, including at all their events.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We operate traveling stores for a variety of exhibitions and are proud to be Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s retail partner for the PHS Shops at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Event Network is a turnkey retail operator, delivering unparalleled guest experiences in over 100 unique retail environments in some of the most iconic cultural destinations and resorts throughout the United States. Our core purpose is to extend and elevate the guest experience and achieve our partners’ maximum retail potential.

Our scale, expertise and focus on bespoke retail enables us to offer unique and compelling product assortments in dynamic environments that reflect their brands and experiences. We maintain exemplary guest service. We enable our partners to focus on their core business/ mission, while we work to optimize retail and eliminate the liabilities associated with it (staff, inventory, capital investments).

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What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Try a different approach. Do right by your brand and your experience for your guests.

Presenting your patrons with the right products (to complement your experience) in the right places at the right times and at the right prices/quantities can only happen with a sophisticated operator. Event Network is a sophisticated operator. And everything we do is completely collaborative with our partners.

Jessica Van Dyke VP Partnership Development

Event Network San Diego, CA 92123 USA 858-395-2725 jessica.vandyke@eventnetwork.com eventnetwork.com How many years have you been with your company?

1 directly, 8 years working together

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

We are 24 years proven. What Event Network offers is continuous improvement and a relentless commitment to innovation.

Ultimately, we are brand builders by translating special experiences, content and mission into distinct merchandise offerings that stoke the impulse for guests of such experiences to shop. We are also extremely nimble in our ability to interpret new attractions and experiences into compelling stores.

What are your favorite festival foods?

Funnel cakes and scones What do you like to do to relax?

Go for a long run outside.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Eat That Frog!

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

Retail is the only thing we do and we have built our ever-evolving store support engine to support it. The expertise we have developed as a result of the focus we maintain is a tremendous asset for our partners.

We do not dumb down merchandise assortments or guest experiences. Ever.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our guiding star for our customer service philosophy is our Core Values - GUSTO.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Top Gun

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HEAR FROM A USER

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

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Sanguine

Choleric

Phlegmatic

Melancholy

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Leading People Made Easy

By Julie Myers

As an event professional you deal with a lot of different people. If you want things to go smoothly you have realized that you have to deal with everyone in a variety of different ways. How you deal with sponsors, is different than how you deal with your staff, as well as how you interact with the volunteers. On a good day it can seem overwhelming. Juggling personalities can make you feel like you should join the circus. What if I told you there was a way to easily juggle all those personalities without being P.T. Barnum? What if I told you that you could tell in just a few minutes what a person needed, how to communicate with them, and what type of tasks they are best suited for? Well, that is exactly what I am going to tell you.

So, what is the secret? The first step is to understand that we are all predictable based on our personalities. Know the personalities, know the person. People tell us who they are through their dress, speech, and attitude. Once we know what to look for, we can tell what someone needs, and how to fill those needs.

This also means that you will learn what you need and your own strengths and weaknesses. Then you can capitalize on your own strengths and the strengths of those around us. We can also learn how to minimize our own weaknesses and the weaknesses those around us. What it comes down to is that people fill our

holes. It is their personality strengths that help us with our personality weaknesses.

The more different someone is from us, the more we can learn from them. Smart leaders surround themselves with people who are strong in those things that the leader is weak in. Once you know the personalities this becomes easy.

There are four common personality styles. The approach I know, gets the personality names from the Latin words for the fluids in our bodies. The personality types are Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic and Melancholy. Imagine a box cut into quarters and the top left quarter is Sanguine, the top right quarter is Choleric, the bottom left is Phlegmatic, and the bottom right is Melancholy. Sanguine and Melancholy are opposites and so are Choleric and Phlegmatic.

Sanguine The popular Sanguine is the life of the party and is all about having fun. In the first few minutes you meet a Sanguine, you will be bombarded with too much personal information. They are the most open of the personalities and often wear bright and loud clothing and jewelry. They will crack jokes and tell stories all day if you let them.

A Sanguine seeks attention, acceptance, approval, and affection. They lead through charm and can often get people to do their work for them (because work is not fun).

Fall 2022

This person starts a lot of things, but rarely finishes them. They are an idea person, but lack in follow through.

At work, a Sanguine should be placed in a role where they greet others and answer the phone. They are best at making initial contact with people, creating enthusiasm and excitement, encouraging, and uplifting others, and ensuring that the group has fun. A Sanguine can easily get distracted and be forgetful. They are natural presenters and often gravitate towards the stage. They are energized by contact with people and need to talk things out.

When dealing with a Sanguine make sure to compliment them and give them credit. You will have to work at keeping them on track and focused, but it can be done. Give them roles when they can be up front and speaking. The more people a Sanguine can meet the better, but you will have to find a way to keep them from holding things up because they talk too much. If you are trying to get them to do something, sell it as fun. This will get them on board. A Sanguine is not suited for filing in the corner, unless you want the job done wrong. Partnering them up with a Melancholy is a good way to keep them on task. There are a lot of Sanguine in the Event industry because they love to throw a party and make sure people have fun.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

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Choleric The powerful Choleric is the natural leader of the personalities and desires control. Everything must be done efficiently, and their dress is all about function not fashion. They too are extroverted like the Sanguine but for them it is about telling people what to do, or what they did wrong.

The Choleric thinks that they are always right, because they are often right. A Choleric needs loyalty, a sense of control, appreciation, and credit for work. As natural leaders they have to work at adapting to their followers instead of expecting others to adapt to them. They are great at making decisions in emergency situations and being decisive in general.

Cholerics love to work and are often in a position of power in the workplace. They are masters of plans and productivity; they know how to get things done. They are energized by planning and making decisions. They are easy to anger if people question them and a choleric will often make decisions for other people or answer questions aimed at other people.

This personality style looks down on other people because they “don’t know anything” and need to work on listening and respecting the opinions of others.

They can often come off as intimidating, so listening is a definite skill they need to work at. As you can tell, the event world is filled with Cholerics because they know how to plan, organize, and get things done. Once a Choleric can learn to appreciate others for their differences, then the sky is the limit, they can do anything and lead anyone.

When dealing with a Choleric give them responsibility with clear expectations of their duties and role limitations. This person needs action so give them jobs (plural) to do. They are not the best person upfront because they can be short and curt. Communicating with them is easy, just be short and sweet. Get to the point as quickly as possible. Make sure to give Cholerics credit for accomplishments and work done. Dealing with them can be difficult because they will question you if you want to do something a certain way and they disagree with the plan. Be patient with them, they may just have a better way of doing something.

Melancholy The perfect Melancholy is the detail oriented one who’s basic desire is perfection. You can find them perfectly put together, with matching and utilitarian clothes. They are quiet and contemplative.

They need sensitivity, support, space, 66

and silence. These are the introverts who will spend all day making sure they got something right. They are the Michelangelo of the group; they will spend years laying on their backs, painting a ceiling to perfection. They are uber-organized and neat and can’t function without a schedule. A Melancholy lives up to their name and can get their feelings hurt easily and will often keep this to themselves for a while until they finally blow up.

At work, a Melancholy is the most organized and detail oriented of your staff.

They love to do tedious work and feel a sense of accomplishment when they complete a complicated task perfectly.

They need privacy and can’t work with a lot of noise and confusion. They are great with numbers and finance and function well alone. A Melancholy can easily get caught up in details and making sure things are perfect. They can become too critical of others for not being perfect. Ultimately, they need order and understanding.

These are your prickly personalities and can be hard to deal with. They need all their questions answered and time to process change. So, make sure you are prepared to spend time with them answering all their questions when you give them a task to complete. They will always want a plan “B” so be prepared for this. Make sure you are on time with any meeting you have with a Melancholy and do your best to keep to a schedule. Work to bring them out of their shell and get them to have fun.

Phlegmatic Lastly, the peaceful Phlegmatic is the most mellow of the group and are easy to tell because they will be dressed very casually, borderline sloppy. If you can’t tell what a person’s personality is, then they are Phlegmatic. Their basic desire is for peace, and they need quiet, a feeling of worth, lack of stress, and respect. They are low-key, easy going and adaptable. A Phlegmatic is cooperative and pleasant.

They are the Swiss Army Knife of the personalities and can do anything if there is the proper motivation. Phlegmatic people are resigned to where they are in life and sometimes lack ambition and motivation for something more.

Phlegmatic personalities are great bosses, and everyone likes them because they are just plain good people. They often want to make sure everyone is comfortable and are excellent at helping to find common ground. They can work anywhere and just want to be part of a group. A Phlegmatic will stay calm in the middle of chaos and are known for not overreacting

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

to negative situations. They can often be indecisive, so they make great managers, but not great leaders. Be specific with the tasks you give a Phlegmatic with clear expectations and deadlines. They will need time to process when you communicate with them so take your time.

Everyone is dominant in one personality and secondary in another. Your secondary personality is always next to the dominant one when looking at the personality box. A Sanguine/Choleric is a great leader who is outspoken, optimistic, and extroverted. A Choleric/Melancholy is great at work and a decisive, organized and goal oriented.

A Melancholy /Phlegmatic is a great analyzer and is introverted, pessimistic and soft-spoken. And a Phlegmatic/Sanguine is all about play and are often witty, easygoing, and not very goal oriented.

When you learn the Personalities, you can easily understand the strengths and weaknesses of those around you and of yourself. One of the basic principles is that strengths taken to extremes become weaknesses. The great things that a Sanguine can do is talking, but if they take that to extremes, they can talk too much. They can dominate conversations, de-rail meetings and take attention away from where it needs to be. This is true for all the personalities and their strengths. A Choleric can become bossy, a Melancholy too critical of others and a Phlegmatic too lazy. Knowing your strengths and how to use them and not abuse them will help you to start living in your strengths and not living in your weaknesses.

Now you are going to start paying attention to the people you encounter and figuring out their personality style? You will soon know not just how to communicate with them, but also what tasks are suited to their personality. If you do it right, it will revolutionize your organization because people will be matched up with the duties that suit them. Instead of having people doing things that they are just not wired for. You will not only be able to capitalize on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, but you will also be able to do this for the people you lead.

Julie Myers is currently a Recreation Supervisor in Vallejo California. She has over 15 years of event experience and has spent 8 years teaching Leadership at the high school level. Julie is a current CFEA and looks forward to joining the ranks of CFEE and contributing where she can to IFEA.

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2021

PRUNE & BLOOM

WITH ALISON BARINGER, CFEE

MAKE YOUR MESS

YOUR MESSAGE

I have a new obsession: Betty Ford. It all started when my friend introduced me to Showtime’s The First Lady. It’s a historical drama that follows the lives of three first ladies: Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama. An all-star cast including Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson detail the trials and triumphs each first lady faced. Witnessing the commonalities and themes woven throughout the decades is fascinating…and don’t get me started on the fashion and home décor!

All three of these women are fascinating, but Betty Ford specifically grabbed my heart. Betty Ford was warmth, love, and sass. She also had messes, with the gumption to be real about them.

I want to be careful about the definition of “mess,” as I’m not using it in a negative or derogatory way. Messes are not always something you have control over. Yes, they can be mistakes you’ve made, but they can also be something that happened to you, due to no action of your own. We all have messes. Strained or failed relationships, health issues, anger problems, anxiety or depression…problems with a board chair, a major sponsor fail, volunteer management issues, not hitting budgets… each and every one of us has any myriad of struggles both personally and professionally that we are facing. By definition messes are not pretty, so often we try to hide them away from the world. Tuck them in a deep, dark corner where we hope to control them, and keep them from growing or interrupting our lives too much.

Not Betty.

Time for a quick history lesson. Betty Ford was married to Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States. Gerald Ford is the only U.S. President never to have been elected as Vice President or President. In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s Vice President resigned. Nixon

nominated Ford to fill the vacancy, and Ford was confirmed. In 1974, a little fiasco named Watergate became public, and Richard Nixon resigned. Enter Jerry Ford as the new President and Betty Ford as First Lady.

Betty entered her role as First Lady with some “messes.” She was a divorcee before marrying Ford, at a time when divorce was risqué, especially for women. She also had seen a psychiatrist twice (gasp!), which led to Jerry being questioned about using psychiatric care during his confirmation.

A few weeks after becoming First Lady, Betty was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy, removing her entire breast. Now at the time, speaking about cancer of any kind, especially breast cancer, was taboo. Just a short decade earlier, women who had died of breast cancer were listed in obituaries as dying from “woman’s disease.” The mess of cancer, especially breast cancer, was pushed into a deep, dark corner.

But Betty grabbed that mess and pulled it out into the public. Her cancer was discovered when she accompanied a friend who had scheduled a breast exam (not a common practice at that time-kudos to her friend), and at the friend’s urging, Betty let them examine her too. This exam saved Betty’s life, and she knew it could save others too. Instead of hiding away with an official White House statement of “health issues,” Betty shared with the public her full story, and even allowed the press into the hospital to take photos.

Her candor brought breast cancer out of the shadows, and hundreds of thousands of women scheduled themselves for breast exams. The National Archives state breast cancer diagnoses increased by 15 percent; many women were getting their exams for the first time and able to catch

the cancer in its early stages, increasing their chances for survival. No doubt Betty’s mess saved thousands of lives.

Betty’s health issues did not end after the breast cancer was gone. She suffered from a pinched nerve that was extremely painful and debilitating. Doctors, unaware of the dangers of prescription drugs, gave her everything under the sun so she could keep her rigorous social schedule as First Lady. They also did not recognize the dangers of mixing drugs with alcohol.

Betty became dependent, and towards the end of her time as First Lady, had become quite the expert at mixing drugs and cocktails to make it through the day.

Family and friends became worried, and less than a year after her time as First Lady was over (Ford did not win the next election), her family staged an intervention.

Rehab facilities were not common yet, and even less common for women.

Thankfully as a former First Lady she had resources, and after her time at a rehab facility she began the long road to a lifetime of sobriety. And, in typical Betty fashion, she made her mess her message.

The Fords had a next-door neighbor and best friend, who had a drinking problem too. Betty and Jerry helped the family stage an intervention, and the neighbor went to the same treatment facility as Betty. This neighbor had such a life transformation, a joint friend encouraged him and Betty to start their own facility.

And the Betty Ford Center was born.

The reason I share Betty’s story here is because I know we all have our messes.

Even if you are blessed not to have any major personal messes (and I suspect you are kidding yourself if you think you don’t have any), I know we ALL have messes being in the events industry. A friend who recently accompanied me behind the scenes at various events told Continued on page 96

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IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Remember the Helping Hands that Got You Where You are Today?

The IFEA Foundation “Fund for the Future” provides critical funding to ensure that the IFEA has reserves in place to protect against future economic shifts and realities in a constantly changing world! It allows the organization to keep pace with new and changing

technologies necessary to communicate with and serve our global industry and it supports a continued expansion of our services, resources, programming and outreach around the world. In a nutshell… it enables those who power celebration.

Pay It Forward.

Help Sustain the “Premier Association Supporting and Enabling Festival & Events Worldwide”

Give Today IFEA.com / Foundation / Ways to Give Questions? Contact Kaye Campbell, CFEE, Director of Partnerships & Programs

at kaye@ifea.com or +1-208-433-0950, ext. 8150

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

ACT INC was established in 1987 How many employees does your company have?

24 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

From regional to international, our products are used by clients of all sizes, around the world.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

Hundreds. Between individual clients running one or two events, our largest show management clients can run hundreds of events per year, on their own.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

We are the only true end to end Events Platform, allowing a team to create an event wholly from just a blank drawing into a full-fledged event platform, accessible to general service contractors, exhibitors, and attendees, as well as the show management team. It’s all one data set, allowing for optimized workflows and a massive reduction in errors.

How/why did your company/ product/ service get started?

EXPOCAD™ started when our founders were exhibiting their other services at tradeshows and realized that there must be a better 70

way to manage space sales and space assignments.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

3e, powered by EXPOCAD. It’s a completely revised version of our software, enhancing our existing toolsets, as well as allowing as to expending into new areas of the events world.

ELI, our security, and logistics tool.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

The fact that our software ecosystem is a comprehensive, CAD accurate system.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Look for a company that is going to be willing to sit down with your team, review your particular needs and desired end goals, and work with you to find a solution that is ideal for both parties. And find a company that never overpromises, but one that under-promises, and over-delivers.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our Philosophy is to put people first, both for our clients, and for our own staff. We believe that making sure the person is taken care, will resolve most any other issue that might crop up.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Jason M. Puetz Technical & Operations Business Strategist

EXPOCAD™ by ACT Inc Aurora, IL 60505 USA 630-405-2081 jason@expocad.com www.expocad.com How many years have you been with your company?

I’ve been with the company for a little over five years What are your favorite festival foods?

Anything deep fried What do you like to do to relax?

Kick back with a book What is the name of the last business book you read?

The Phoenix Project What is the name of the last movie you watched?

The Bob’s Burger Movie

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EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

1996 How many employees does your company have?

18 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

United States, Canada and up to 30 different countries, worldwide.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We work on over 2000+ events a year across multiple markets both large and small.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

At Degy Booking we are industry leading talent buyers and agents who provide resources and expertise to help save you time and book the entertainment you want for your events. Whether you are a novice or advanced in your experience with entertainment, we offer operational and logistical support every step of the way. Regardless of size, both small and large, we are client focused and our transparent process will guide you along every step of the way.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Degy Booking International, Inc. (parent company) was started as an Artist management agency in 1996 (Degy Management Services). After several years of successful label signings, publishing deals and licensing agreements, Degy chose to enter the entertainment booking space. In September 2001, Degy Entertainment was launched as a booking arm of our parent company and quickly crew to a client base of nearly 100 music acts. In 2016, Degy created an operational branch of the company that was designed to assist clients with all logistical and operational aspects of their events booked through Degy.

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What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

Along with our talent buying and roster of performers, we offer the World’s Largest Bounce House (10,000 ft2) called Big Bounce America. It can fit 200 people at once and has a live DJ inside while jumping.

Visit www.thebigbounceamerica.com for more details on all the oversized inflatable products available for your events today.

Our Headphone Disco – Silent Disco www. headphonedisco.com continues to be on the scene at many major festivals and with 10’s of thousands of headphones nationwide we can cover any size event.

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

Our commitment to our clients, versatility in the market, and knowledgeable operations staff. We work side by side with our clients to produce events that meet or exceed their expectations. We will guide and advise you every step of the way.

Don’t need the help? No problem, we can offer you as much or as little operational support as you want. It’s your event and we are happy to be a part of it.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Honesty is the best policy. Be open and transparent with what your expectations are because we can’t meet your expectations if we don’t know they exist.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

We know that when it comes to producing high profile events, the stakes are high.

Our goal is to exceed your expectations and build a solid relationship with your event so we can help contribute to its success. You don’t have to be an expert to buy entertainment, we are here to assist you and make sure you have all the tools and resources you need to make the best decision possible for your festival.

IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Evan Schaefer, CSEP, CFEE Chief Operations Officer

Degy Booking International, Inc. Delray Beach, FL 33446 USA 732-818-9600 evan@degy.com degy.com How many years have you been with your company?

6 years What are your favorite festival foods?

Lo Mein Noodle Vendors, Fresh squeezed lemonade with a splash of Titos (for after work hours silly) and I’m a sucker for anything fried on a stick..except twinkies. Too rich.

What do you like to do to relax?

Prior to June 29, I always used to say that I have a hard time sitting down and not being active.

But, now, I enjoy spending time hanging out with my wife and newborn baby Hudson.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Risk Management for Meetings and Events by Julia Rutherford Silver. I used it to study for my CSEP certification.

What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen

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IFEA’s ie: the business of international events

Fall 2022

Operations And Risk Management Pause with Effect 2021 and 2022 have wreaked havoc on events of all sizes. Some events have folded after years of hard work by dedicated staff and volunteers. Others are taking the opportunity that the temporary halting of events has provided to review and regenerate original planning, programming, and vision. It is not the first time the world has had to put party plans on hold due to an international health crisis, but it is the first time for many. What organizers do with the time given before the ticket gates finally fully reopen to allow spectators into the park, stadium, or hall, is extremely important. Many who have dedicated their careers or volunteer hours have elected to upgrade their skills by enrolling in courses to support their path, in preparation for the time when crowds gather once again to be entertained.

Through review and renewal of events, organizers can work towards ensuring safe and enjoyable experiences with the implementation of new methods, policies, regulations and programming.

In this brief article, we will touch on just three points that are already part of every event’s planning process, and how they have changed how organizers move forward with the agenda as set by their event committees. Some of what is presented here may already be in your event’s “tool box” of processes and if so, kudos! If not, thank you for taking into consideration how these tips could help your event along.

Staff & Volunteer Safety Now that you are gathering your army of volunteers together after a long time apart, there are a few items you need to consider: Does your current onboarding program for staff or volunteers currently address health and safety? When did you last update the event’s health and safety protocols & training? Times have changed.

Every region has its form of a regional health unit who issues the health and safety protocols for events. (Please note, this article is being written from a Canadian perspective and certain terms or organizations may be listed in a different format than other countries). Do you have a national safety organization that has a segment dedicated to event safety and have you reached out to them to work on a plan regarding volunteers? Some volunteer roles involve physical activities, dealing with unexpected dangerous

situations, and more. If you have had one in place, now is the time to dust that off and ensure that it follows regional and local laws and responsibilities.

What form of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) do you think is necessary for the respective staff and volunteer roles? When did you inspect them last?

Equipment does have a shelf life and can deteriorate. If you have a storage of fire extinguishers for certain parts of your event, check when they were last inspected. Are the requirements for PPE still the same for each volunteer role?

What has changed since the last time you held your event? Will you need to order updated equipment to replace or begin using during the events? Will the staff and volunteers need to be trained in its use and maintenance?

Do you host safety training sessions AND daily safety reviews of the day before activities with your staff & volunteers?

This is necessary to ensure blind spots not previously thought of are covered.

Meaning a simple obstacle, exposed wire, or even locked access door that shouldn’t be locked is addressed. Walk the site with your volunteers and identify physical risks and how to overcome them. This should be done well before the gates open to take care of issues. If you have an overnight security team, ensure you have their report prior to meeting with the staff and volunteers. This potentially could identify damage to property from vandals, thieves, or even improper installation of exhibits.

If you have the opportunity, take the event safety courses available from a multitude of associations. You will be surprised at the things you may not have considered, even if you have been part of your event for years. There is always something new to learn, to consider and to implement. A membership with an event safety organization will guarantee you with updates regularly on industry standards, articles regarding implementing safe processes, and proper equipment uses. These types of associations hold educational seminars and certifications.

You gain access to experts, and this will be a great support for your health and safety plan.

Venue Whether you are deciding where your event should take place and how it should be set up, or if you are remaining at the site the event has taken place since the beginning, take the opportunity to review and consider capacity and accessibility.

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Has the event outgrown the site it has been hosted at over the years? If your programming plans have enhanced and require expansion, and you must consider health regulations concerning space per person (regardless of pandemic precautions) you need to consider how the current square footage suits your needs. More inflatables, run by generators require more space and security space around the generators to avoid incident.

Just one example. To the other extreme, has the attendance numbers changed, or the programming scaled back so that the large space the event once occupied is no longer needed, and something smaller and more suitable to the footage needed per spectator and exhibit/stage/food truck.

A large site can become a hindrance and more costly to pay for.

Those with mobility issues may find it more cumbersome to travel around as well. Which brings me to another item of accessibility. In Ontario, Canada, it is expected that every event meets with the AODA standards (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities). This includes pathways, bathroom facilities, signage, therapy animals, food options, and more.

The government provides free training and certification for members of organizations who host events for this through the AODA web site.

In continuing with Accessibility items, access and egress needs are critical to the safety success of an event. There are planning tools available across the internet, as well as through various associations. Bottlenecking at a sold-out event can create chaos and risk. Safety plans must include safe egress as well, especially in case of emergency. Exit signs are good, but is the method to exit conducive to a human swell, or panic in case of fire? What kind of obstacles prevent safe entry or exit from the event, from shipping containers, to cars, to uneven ground, this can create dangerous situation if there is a need to vacate the site immediately?

Have you reviewed your past surveys executed at your event? Has there been mention of requirements by those needing assistance? Sometimes those more abled don’t see the smaller issues that make the experience of the event troublesome for those with different difficulties such as mobility, sight, to name a few. If you have the opportunity to meet with a local group who support those with challenges, a good idea would be to have them gather with you at the site in the days before the gates open and review what challenges could be overcome to ensure the event is

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It is recommended to seek out guidance as well from local sources. Your event’s organization may already do this. The venue or site owner will probably provide you with their regulations for use of the property. Don’t hesitate to ask for their health and safety protocols, site map, or to even meet with the individual who oversees it. inclusive. Simple things such as ensuring food truck operators provide service in a dignified manner to those with wheelchairs can make all the difference.

Safety Resources Throughout the article, I have referred to organizations who can help an event committee formulate or update their health and safety plan. A quick internet search can lead you to some very reliable associations, education centres, and consultants who are ready to sit with your group to begin the process. There are fees for this and for good reason. They are the experts. They have experience in dealing with event health and safety issues from the banal and obvious such as “don’t leave the ladder standing in the middle of the hall”, to intense site review for all safety hazards, and more.

It is recommended to seek out guidance as well from local sources. Your event’s organization may already do this. The venue or site owner will probably provide you with their regulations for use of the property. Don’t hesitate to ask for their health and safety protocols, site map, or to even meet with the individual who oversees it. The municipality where the event is held is also a good resource as they can connect you with security contacts, emergency services, and even suppliers who can assist with necessary barricades, signage, or traffic control if needed.

Local health services can also be a great partner. In Ontario there is the public health unit who oversees special event permits pertaining to food being sold at events. The health unit sends out inspec76

tors during the event to ensure protocols for safe food handling is followed and also has the authority to shut down the sale of food. They will also observe if bathroom facilities are kept clean, and dangerous drug paraphernalia is disposed of safely.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is a fantastic partner especially if the event is licenced for alcohol. The American equivalent would be the Alcohol Beverage Control Boards (and if this writer is incorrect, please let me know). A little about the AGCO: The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is an Ontario provincial regulatory agency reporting to the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG). It is a corporation under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act, 2019.

The AGCO is responsible for regulating the alcohol, gaming horse racing and cannabis retail sectors in accordance with the principles of honesty and integrity, and in the public interest. In so doing, the AGCO administers the Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019, the Gaming Control Act, 1992, and the Horse Racing Licence Act, 2015 and the Cannabis Licence Act, 2018. The AGCO also administers the charity lottery licensing Order-in-Council 1413/08. https://www.agco.ca/about-us This organization has been in operation, in various forms since 1947 and regulates everything from alcohol to horse racing in

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the province of Ontario. During licenced events, an agent will appear and take note on the success of the licenced area and has the right to shut down the event should any illegal activities, or ignorance of the rules take place. It is always a good idea to reach out to this organization to inform your committee of new rules or changes that have been implemented.

The onus is on the organizer to ensure compliance is met.

In conclusion you can see there are some very simple tips to think about implementing into the health and safety plan of your event. Ticket sales (if it is a gated event) are wonderful to plan for.

Your audience also wants to know that the organization has taken as much care as went into the promotion of the event as goes into the risk management and safety planning of the site. They want to know from the moment their car is parked, or they have stepped off the bus that every step they take to their seat, or standing position, or path around the park, has been planned for. That every person they meet who is involved with the event has had a form of training that will assist them should a crisis arise. The event attendees want to know that the physical property is accessible to their mobility and other needs. That consideration has been put into the layout, the contracting of services, waste management, and even marketplace or food truck registrations have all covered the legal and necessary protocols to keep everyone safe. There is so much more that we could cover, but time and space in the publication is limited. Make use of the resources available to you as mentioned here. Network within the industry. Seek out and review the webinars and classes, as well as the articles available through International Festivals and Events Association. These are invaluable and you will have access to articles from experts from around the world.

Marnie Lapierre is a Certified Tourism Industry Specialist with 25+ years accumulated experience in delivering excellent customer service, fundraising, grant writing, managing small- and large-scale events. This includes extensive volunteer development experience, department and event budgeting, administration, media relations (including marketing tourism and events regionally, provincially, and nationally). Marnie is also the Owner/Consultant of Northern Events and Tourism Consulting.

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

July, 1987 How many employees does your company have?

Usually between between 5 and 9.

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

With everything we do as Video Ideas and our PointsMap Product we have done work nationally and some international.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

Usually 5 or more.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

The PointsMap app is the best app for your festival, event, city or county or anywhere where mapping and information is beneficial to their experience. Our newest version does not require downloading or installing. Your visitor can scan a QR code or simply type a URL into a browser and the app appears. The PointsMap app puts everything in the palm of your visitors’ hands. Visitors can use the GPS built into the app to find out exactly where they are and search categories and points to determine where they want to go and what they want to see. Every point can contain an unlimited description, multiple photos, links to websites and media, PDF documents, text boxes with information, and more. Vendors and performers also love it because visitors can find out everything they want to know about an act, product or service.

The app is easily and quickly built using our desktop interface. We offer do-it-yourself pricing where you build it yourself with our guidance and help, or a turnkey package where we do everything for you. Changes can be made instantly and are immediately reflected in the app so last-minute changes, even during the event, are easily made. Your PointsMap app can be available year-round for tourism development or multiple uses, or turned off after an event and turned on again the following year, with all the information saved.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

We are a full media development advertising agency and the PointsMap app was developed to offer a cost effective, easy to develop and easy to use solution to help your visitors navigate your festival or event.

What new or improved product/ service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

In the past, the PointsMap app had to be published into the App Store for Google and Apple. This took extra time and cost. The app has been rebuilt and now it does not have to be downloaded or installed on your phone and does not have to be published into the app stores. It’s automatic. You simply post QR codes around your event, visitors scan the code with their phone’s camera, and the app instantly opens in a browser on their phone. Users can save a shortcut from the browser to make it easy to open the app and use it repeatedly.

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

PointsMap is very affordable, easy to develop and instantly changeable without having to rely on a programmer to do the work for you. We teach you within an hour how to completely develop your app, and our software interface is simple and intuitive With PointsMap your information is always up-to-date, and thousands of festival goers and tourists have enjoyed using the app to navigate their way around events over the past 10 years.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Customer Service is our number one most important service we offer. Thousands of customers over 35 years prove that we are successful in providing what they need and what they want at the most cost-effective prices… and our solutions work for them.

We have a history of excellent customer service. View the testimonials from our customers on the PointsMap.com website and on the parent company VideoIdeas. com website. Their words speak louder than our words.

JERRY WADDELL President

VIDEO IDEAS / POINTSMAP Chattanooga, TN 37402 USA 423-894-2677 jerryw@videoideas.com Videoideas.com and PointsMap.com How many years have you been with your company?

11 years What are your favorite festival foods?

Deep fried Oreos, french fries What do you like to do to relax?

I enjoy golf, video games, music and astronomy.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Top Gun: Maverick

THE UN-COMFORT ZONE

WITH ROBERT WILSON

NEVER FEAR

“HOLD MY BEER”

What level of risk puts you in the un-comfort zone?

W

hen I was seven years old, I went into the woods behind my house, built a fire, then fried an egg over it in an old pie tin. When the egg was done, I ate it. I didn’t even like eggs, but because I had cooked it on my own, it was delicious. I was so proud of my achievement that I ran inside and told my father. The look on my Dad’s face was horror, and I immediately expected to be severely scolded, but he didn’t. Instead, he said, “Wow, that’s quite an accomplishment. Why don’t you show me your campfire.”

He followed me into the woods, and saw that I had properly put the fire out. I still recall the look of relief on his face. He then praised me some more, and finished by saying, “That looks like it was a lot of fun; but next time you want to do this, please include me.”

From the look on his face, I got the message loud and clear.

He was concerned about me “playing with fire,” and wanted to chaperone me if I did it again. The point of this story, however, is that he didn’t yell at me. He didn’t tell me how hazardous it was, how I could’ve set the woods on fire, or burned myself. In short, he didn’t plant the seeds of fear that could’ve made me risk averse in the future.

It’s not just overprotective parents who admonish us. There are plenty of other people sowing those seeds. We are inundated daily with warnings not to experiment, investigate, or stretch too far. And, then there are dozens of old proverbs designed to motivate caution, here are just a few: • curiosity killed the cat; • better safe than sorry; • better the devil you know than the devil you don’t; • be careful what you wish for; • don’t sail out farther than you can row back; • buyer beware; • when in doubt, do nothing; • you never know what lies right around the corner; • and my all-time favorite from comedian Steven Wright: “Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.”

Even the phrase “Hold My Beer” is used to disparage risk-taking, or make fun of those who do take risks. Risk-taking, however, is important in many ways, from creating successful businesses, to developing and growing emotionally.

Fear of risk is frequently fear of change, and that can lead to controlling behavior. People and institutions can get set in their ways.

Ways that were profitable in the past, but may not be today. In order to move forward - to innovate - one must be willing to take risks.

The problem of risk-aversion begins as we grow up, attend school, and go through the socialization process. During that time, we are constantly told to conform. When we don’t conform, 78

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we are frequently chastised or shunned by our friends, family, and classmates. Those early days of peer pressure and the associated fear of being taunted, laughed at, or bullied stay with us well into adulthood. And, that fear of what other people think of us, can keep us from taking risks. But, we shouldn’t let that happen, because as American businessman Olin Miller observed, “You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.”

There’s nothing wrong with assessing risk before you act. It helps to understand what can be lost, if the risk you take leads to failure. However, for something to be a risk, there must be something that can be lost. What are you putting at risk? What could you lose? Time? Money? Comfort? Friends? Reputation?

Freedom? Life or limb? Finally, can you afford it? Maybe it’s not as big of a risk, as you first thought. So what if you’re embarrassed, throw away some money, or waste some spare time. Oftentimes, risk is a matter of perspective. Go ahead and visualize the worst that can happen, then prepare yourself for it.

And, keep this advice from Albert Einstein in mind, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Many people, when they get older, regret not having been more bold when they were young. They will say things like, “I should’ve auditioned for the school play;” or “I wish I had tried out for the football team;” or “I could’ve participated in the science fair or math competition, but I didn’t;” or “If only I’d asked out that pretty girl I really liked.”

The trick is getting comfortable with risk. It helps to understand that it will feel uncomfortable at first, and that you will get used to it. The problem is our imagination makes us believe that failure will be worse than it actually is. Failure can be a good thing, if we learn from it. John Dewey understood this when he said, “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”

Risk-takers didn’t get there overnight. They built up a tolerance for it over time. You will become more comfortable with risk, the more often you take one. One success will lead to another, and you’ll feel better each time. A shortcut for this is to hang out with people who are risk-takers. Before you know it, they will have you skydiving, snowboarding, or mountain biking, or maybe just riding that scary-looking roller coaster.

There is an old proverb which says, “No risk no reward.” And, it’s true. The biggest risk is never taking one, because without risk you won’t find opportunity.

You can get more comfortable with risk by taking small inconsequential ones. Here are a few easy ones to get you started: If you drink coffee every day, switch to tea for a week. If you always Continued on page 96

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

We were established in 2018.

How many employees does your company have?

8-10 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

We are based out of the midwest and largely service the midwest, southwest, southeast and rocky mountain region.

versatility to provide immersive roller coaster rides, racing experiences, and flight simulators. These are highly visual attractions that attract crowds.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We work with a variety of different events and festival types, but on average we do around 25-30 events per year.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Derezzed VR is a premier mobile virtual reality service. We offer off-site virtual reality solutions that create an immersive eye-catching attraction at any event. We strive to bring the best in virtual reality entertainment to you and make your event one to remember.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

We provide an immersive and high-level virtual reality product.

With our expertise and experience, we know what it takes to get set up quickly, provide a fluid and flawless customer experience, and provide technical expertise along the way.

You will not find another mobile virtual reality company providing the quality and level of service that we offer.

How/why did your company/product/service get started?

We started by working to bring together premium virtual reality entertainment products and technology together in an environment that would allow us to deliver impactful and memorable experiences to patrons and festival goers.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Do your own research and find a company that is a one-stop solution with years of experience in the industry. Lack of experience can lead to technical failures, consumer dissatisfaction, and on-site errors.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

We are really excited to bring out our full set of virtual reality motion simulators. These have proven to be a hit at every event and allows us the

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Our customer service philosophy is to create an exciting high-energy environment where the customer is educated on the install and that they have an amazing and engaging experience fostering a desire to return again and again at the event.

Colin Snyder Owner / Manager

Derezzed Virtual Reality Noblesville, IN 46060 USA 317-774-5720 info@derezzedvr.com derezzedvr.com How many years have you been with your company?

Since the start of it.

What are your favorite festival foods?

My favorite festival foods are smoked turkey legs and loaded fries.

What do you like to do to relax?

I enjoy going hiking or hanging out with family and friends.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.

What is the name of the last movie you watched?

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do it.

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

Afton Tickets was founded in 2015.

How many employees does your company have?

32 employees What areas do you serve with your product/service?

United States & Canada How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We work with all types of events, including festivals with over 120,000 attendees. We work with over 5,000 events and festivals annually across the U.S. and Canada.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Afton Tickets was built by event organizers, for event organizers. We provide whiteglove client support with a dedicated account manager and top-rated customer service to their attendees. Afton is not just a ticket provider, we are a true growth partner. We provide best-on-market box office and wireless laser scanner systems at $0 rentals with built-in wifi, lower ticket fees, onsite Afton reps at $0 cost for larger events, early ticket fund payouts, and a vast feature set that helps clients drive ticket sales and allow for more branding and customization of their events.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Ryan founded Afton Shows (MyAfton. com) in 2004. Afton Shows produced 12,000+ concerts in 75 cities and built it’s own booking and ticketing platform with 200,000+ musician users. Afton Tickets was built out of this experience.

We saw that there was a better way to

treat clients and event attendees, and that we could build a platform that was more focused towards making event organizers successful.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

Our hands-on client service. Our clients love that they have the same Afton account manager year-round, reachable by phone/ zoom/text/email - and usually onsite during the event. We save clients vast amounts of time and hassle, we consult with them on how to improve their event or make the most out of our features, and we treat their event like it’s our own. Clients that come over from the larger corporate ticket companies like eTix, Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, etc. routinely tell us that Afton’s live human support has been a huge driver in their year after year growth.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Knowing what’s most important to your specific event. If only 20% of your attendees buy online in advance, you need a company that specializes in onsite cash/card box office systems that are reliable, fast, and easy to use so you avoid long lines and long entry wait times.

Many ticket companies can handle the online e-commerce (that’s the easy part).

But it’s the day-of operations and onsite equipment that most companies fail at when it comes to larger events. Happy customers spend more money and come back year after year, so getting them in as fast as possible is key.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

To treat our clients and their attendees like people, not just another ticket sale.

RYAN KINTZ Founder/CEO

AFTON TICKETS Portland, OR 97214 USA 503-559-6183 ryan.k@aftontickets.com aftontickets.com How many years have you been with your company?

I’m the Co-Founder What are your favorite festival foods?

The Vegan food carts What do you like to do to relax?

Spend time with my 2 daughters (4 and 7 years old), write and record music in my home recording studio, attend concerts, golf, snowboard, paddle board, and read.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

E-Myth What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Harry Potter #1 with my oldest daughter

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Fall 2022

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2 BC

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Forget B2B Or B2C

Why Digital Engagement Is Actually P2P

By Lisa Apolinski, CMC The pandemic arrived and brought with it many new and surprising changes in how companies do business. One of the most interesting, and most impactful, changes for organizations has been how consumers engage with brands. There was a recent survey* on this very topic and the results were clear. Consumers are re-thinking how they interact with others and have re-evaluated priorities in life. This includes the types of brands that will get their business in the future. These consumers were much more willing to change brands if they did not feel the brand promise was in alignment with their core values. They also felt that they would spend more money with brands that they felt supported and understood their needs during challenging times.

This can translate to a simple construct: the more human the brand, the more business that brand may get. These consumers looked at factors other than just price and quality; trust and brand reputation factored into their decisions.

This trust encompassed brands taking responsibility to live by their values and be more relevant in today’s world.

No Longer A Nebulous Concept Consumers are looking for companies that represent and reflect their values, their beliefs and their sense of purpose in the world today. Brands of the PPE (Pre-Pandemic Era) could float out in the ether as a nebulous concept with no real shape or form. Those types of companies may still try to exist on that plane, but companies that do are missing out. They fail to capitalize on retaining customers as well as attracting new customers. And those new customers may be willing to pay more for the relevancy brought to the business exchange.

The antiquated constructs of business-to-business or business-to-consumer (B2B or B2C) do not take into account this new shift in consumer beliefs or wishes.

Prospects and customers want a deeper focus on building the relationship, having a brand reflect today’s current values and providing the type of support and alignment that makes the interaction feel more like an investment in a relationship.

Instead of looking at organizations as one end of a transaction, companies that wish to grow in the current paradigm must look at the who in the interaction. The focus must now move to people-to-people or people-to-person (P2P).

How To Translate Digital Engagement Into P2P Digital engagement and communication are set up to be much more humanistic than many organizations allow. The focus on connection and community is readily available for organizations. By allowing the people behind the brand to emerge out of the shadows, companies can move beyond the products and services they sell and provide engagement with the people who create those products and services.

Several recommendations can be quickly applied by any organization to move past B2B and B2C and move into a P2P interaction. Here are three ways to help move in that direction.

Many Voices, One Brand There was a time where one person was sharing content on behalf of the organization. Smart organizations, however, have moved to sharing several different voices and points of view in their digital communications. Not only does this allow different viewpoints from a brand perspective, it also keeps content fresh, as many voices make the brand what it is today. Providing different styles of content engages more than one type of prospect, which sets up potential growth.

Focus On the Individual In Every Interaction It should be obvious that the individual consumer should be a focus. But what about when businesses market to other businesses? There are individuals that each business brings to the table for the engagement, and each one is important in bringing a different viewpoint. When creating content, consider the personality of the key players in the receiving organization.

What are their individual roadblocks?

How does s/he define success? Always consider the individual sending and Fall 2022

the one receiving the communication.

Because either way, a person is on each end of that communication.

Know Where the Power Lies It has been said that consumers are now holding all the cards in the business interaction and have no plans to give them back. When organizations look at who is in control of the communication, the power lies with the consumer, not with the company. Organizations need to understand this fundamental shift in power to the person receiving marketing and communication.

This will help move communication to a person-to-person level and allow the consumer to drive the engagement, which is what the consumer not only wants but demands in today’s digital paradigm.

Taking the opportunity to bring in humanity into any organization’s digital communications can bring accelerated digital growth and engagement. This may feel like a risk to some organizations.

However, the new paradigm has shifted this from novelty to necessity.

By switching the focus from B2B or B2C to P2P, digital communication can be realigned to meet the current demands of audiences. With this ever-changing shift in consumer behavior, thinking about how one person communicates with another has become a cornerstone in digital engagement. This is no longer a passing trend but a new way of being, and the organization who embraces this way of being will reap the rewards.

Lisa Apolinski, CMC, is an international speaker, digital strategist, author and founder of 3 Dog Write. She works with companies to develop and share their message using digital assets. Her latest book, Persuade With A Digital Content Story, was named one of the top content marketing books in the world by Book Authority.

For information on her agency’s digital services visit www.3DogWrite.com. * https://www.accenture.com/us-en/ insights/strategy/reimagined-consumer-expectations?c=acn_glb_lifereimagined

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EVERYONE’S INVITED

WITH LAURA GRUNFELD

INCLUDING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

A FRESH START -

PERFORMING AN ACCESSIBILITY ASSESSMENT FOR YOUR OUTDOOR FESTIVAL

2.

3.

4.

Photo Credit – Laura Grunfeld

5.

The pandemic pause button on festivals has been lifted and festivals are back! This is a great time to reevaluate your Access Program for your patrons with disabilities. You may have completed an access assessment when you first started your Access Program. I’m suggesting that you go back to the beginning and perform a new access assessment using the list and resources below. Every event is different, but these basic steps will go a long way towards determining how accessible your event is and help identify problems that need your attention.

You can perform the assessment in advance of the event as a thought experiment, imagining how it will be laid out, or do it while the event is happening. Ideally, include persons with disabilities, a person who knows the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, and a person who knows the event, on your assessment team. If you don’t have that ideal scenario, do it anyway. You will still get a lot of value from performing the assessment.

I will include some of the specific measurements you need to know but there are too many to include everything in this column.

Please reference the resources listed at the end of the article for more detail.

APPROACHING THE EVENT 1. Approach: How do patrons approach and leave your event?

Walking, biking, rolling on a scooter or wheelchair, driving and parking, getting a ride and being dropped off, taxi or rideshare, 84

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city bus, event shuttle bus, subway, hot air balloon, etc. Look at all the ways people might arrive and from where. Is there accessible transportation from the airport? Check your parking and drop-off for proper lay-out and signage. Walk/roll the routes evaluating for accessibility and thinking about signage as you go.

Signage: Are your signs installed high enough so that a person who is at seated level can see the sign over the heads of patrons who are standing?

Box Office: Either all lines and windows must be accessible or create one accessible approach and window. Look at the placement of your bike rack when you make aisles to approach the box office. The width of your aisles must be at least 36” with pinch points no less than 32” (measure the distance between the feet of your bike rack). The windows that serve people using wheelchairs need to be no higher than 36”.

Venue entrance(s): This may seem obvious, but curbs are a problem with many venue entrances. The entrance must be located where patrons are not required to step up and over a curb! You’ll need a curb cut so that those using wheelchairs and other mobility devices can get into your event.

Scanners and metal detectors: Again, either all are accessible, or one is accessible and has signage to indicate which entrance is accessible. The approach to the portal must be 36” wide minimum with 32” allowed for pinch points.

INSIDE THE VENUE: 1. Accessible Routes: If you want a pathway to be wide enough for two wheelchairs to pass by each other, it needs to be 5’ wide. Check for protruding objects along all routes to make sure you won’t injure a person who is blind and is navigating by sweeping their cane. For instance, if a tree limb is protruding into the pathway space but above the level detectable by a cane, this could cause serious injury.

2. Programming: How will patrons with disabilities be able to experience all that you have to offer? Set up reserved viewing for patrons with various types of disabilities. In addition to a raised platform set back in the audience, have you accounted for a viewing area in front of the stage for those who need to see the sign language interpreters, for those who have low vision, and for those with mobility and other disabilities? Are your VIP programs fully accessible?

3. Activities: This is an often-forgotten part of event accessibility. Did you know that they make accessible Ferris wheels?

In addition to or instead of an inaccessible water slide, how about a big artfully created “splash-pool” with waterfalls to pass under, misting areas, and other features accessible and cooling for all? Consider all your activities for accessibility.

4. Concessions, Vendors, Sponsor Activations: When the booths and tents have flooring, make sure there is a ramp or threshold ramp so that everyone may enter easily, the counters are 36” or lower, or at least a 36” wide section of the counter is no higher than 36”, and the passageways inside the tents are at least 36” wide.

5. Facilities: Bathrooms, showers, water stations, misting tents, and other facilities open to the public need to be accessible.

See my column in the 2019 Summer issue “Accessible Portable Toilets – 10 Tips for Success.” Click here.

OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR PROGRAM 1. Website: If someone is interested in attending your event, what is the first thing they do? Most likely they will look up your website. a. Is the website accessible to persons with disabilities?

Can screen reader software read all the information? Is a person using the tab button or a pointer stick able to navigate through your website? If you use sound on your website, is it captioned so a person who is deaf can have that information as well? It is best to have a professional evaluate your website to determine if it is accessible. b. Is the ticket purchasing platform accessible? c. Have you posted information on your website about your Access Program? Is that information clearly labeled and easy to find? Make sure patrons have a way to ask questions about the Access Program via email and/or phone.

2. Auxiliary Aids & Services: You are required to provide communication access for those who have vision, hearing, or speech disabilities. a. Do you provide braille and Large Print programming materials? (See my column in the 2020 Spring issue for other ways you can accommodate patrons with vision loss, “Yes, People who are Blind Attend Events on Their Own.”) Click Here. b. If you don’t already have a sign language program in place, make sure you have done the research to find interpreters who have the special skill of being able to interpret music.

(See my column in the Spring 2018 issue, “Twelve Tips for a Successful Sign Language Interpreter Set Up.”) Click here. c. In your staff training, include information about various ways of communicating with people who may need another form of communication access. For example, vendors should always keep paper and pen available for those with a speech disability.

3. Review Your Policies and Procedures. a. Look at your policies on what patrons are and are not allowed to bring into the event. You will need to make accommodations for patrons who have disabilities. An example is allowing patrons with disabilities to bring extra water. b. Your emergency training must include procedures for assisting people with various disabilities. c. Provide training about your Access Program for the various teams that work for the festival. d. If you have a “No Pets” policy, you must still allow service animals. Check your state and local laws about emotional support animals, and service animals in training. e. Think about ways you can accommodate various types of disabilities. Many festivals now provide a calm space for patrons who need refuge from sensory overstimulation.

Think through your Access Program in minute detail. Consult with people who have disabilities of various sorts. Congratulations on working to make your event accessible to everyone!

HELPFUL RESOURCES: • New England ADA Center, ADA Checklist for Existing Facilities: https://www.adachecklist.org/checklist.html • ADA Standards for Accessible Design: https://www.ada. gov/2010ADAstandards_index.htm • Write to Laura@EveryonesInvited.com for a copy of my Everyone’s Invited Checklist for Outdoor Festivals.

Everyone’s Invited, LLC, founded by Laura Grunfeld, is winner of the gold level “Best Accessibility Program,” for the 2018 and 2019 IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards.

Laura writes a regular column helping producers make their events accessible to people with disabilities. She has worked many festivals across the nation and readers can learn more about her event accessibility consulting, training, and production company at www.EveryonesInvited.com and www.linkedin.com/in/lauragrunfeld. Suggest topics or ask questions by writing to Laura@EveryonesInvited.com. © Laura Grunfeld, Everyone’s Invited, LLC, July 2022.

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• AFFORDABLE • DOES NOT REQUIRE THE USE OF EXPOCAD

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EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

1998 How many employees does your company have?

40 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

All over the country! But many of our clients are in Texas, Florida and California.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

More than 650 festivals, fairs, rodeos and events.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Saffire empowers hundreds of clients with SaffireTix ticketing that’s completely integrated into our beautiful, unique and engaging websites. SaffireTix includes online, advance and box office sales, all with amazing, real-time reporting. We partner with some of the biggest festivals, fairs, rodeos and concerts across the country, to help put on the best live events!

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Since 1998, we’ve done a lot of big things online. We’ve built ecommerce carts that have sold millions of pairs of shoes in multiple languages globally, designed addictive online advergames for Fortune 500 car companies and even named, branded and sold towns and homes online. But what does marketing shoes, cars and homes have to do with marketing events? It’s all about the challenge of getting people to pull out their wallets while shopping online.

We love turning a marketing website into a money-making machine - where your brand comes to life online, and customers are inspired to take action.

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What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

We have always had a goal to help clients sell more online to reduce cash transactions at the gate, however more recently, Saffire has helped clients take the next step in this initiative by adding ticketing kiosks & BlastPass RFID systems. Cash is often times your most expensive way to collect money –it requires staff, reconciliation & security. By moving more payments to credit card and also reducing the number of cash transactions around the grounds, events can save money and reduce labor.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

Saffire is the industry’s only integrated ticketing and website platform. With Saffire, you have one vendor, one place to log in, one set of integrated data for events you market and sell. For us, the platform is just the mechanism; our value is in helping you actually sell more tickets, especially before your event even starts!

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Managing your website & ticketing in one location can help save your sanity by offering two services through one great provider that you know and trust. Look for versatile technology and equipment that can be adjusted to work in multiple scenarios.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Empowering people to feel smart and successful is our passion at Saffire. You will always have help at your fingertips, and our goal is to answer questions within 15 minutes so clients can call, email or use our online system to get any issues solved.

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Jeremy Emerson Partner, Chief Creative Officer Saffire Milwaukie, OR 97222 USA 512-430-1123 jeremy@saffire.com www.saffire.com How many years have you been with your company?

24 Years What are your favorite festival foods?

Mount Angel Sausage Company bratwurst, Lobster nachos, craft beer (always) and anything on a stick.

What do you like to do to relax?

Relaxing on the beach at the Central Oregon Coast, hitting the golf course, playing ukulele and working in the garden.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Traction by Gino Wickman What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

Nitro Circus was founded in 2003.

How many employees does your company have?

We currently have 50 employees.

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

We currently provide our live show globally, from the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and across Europe.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We currently produce 70+ events on an annual basis.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

Nitro Circus creates exciting and entertaining live events starring the best athletes in action sports. Fueled by a passion to push the limits, these thrill-loving daredevils stun crowds in unique, professionally produced performances night in and night out with an incandescent mix of boundary-breaking tricks, huge stunts and fun shenanigans.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

We have spent years of R&D to create some of the biggest ramps in the action sports industry to perform at the highest quality. Our motto is “Safety through Progression”. Over the years we have searched far and wide for the best athletes in the world and have a roster of over 120 top level stars.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

In 2003, action sports icon Travis Pastrana teamed up with his thrill-seeking friends to found Nitro Circus. Their goal: to bring the biggest and craziest stunts they could

imagine to life and capture them on film.

MTV soon took notice, and the Nitro Circus TV series debuted in 2009. The following year, Pastrana and the Nitro crew took the big air action sports excitement on the road, launching the Nitro Circus Live show.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

For over a decade, Nitro Circus has been defined by the good, the bad and the rad.

These thrill-loving daredevils are back with a rip-roaring new live show: Nitro Circus: Good, Bad & Rad presented by A SHOC Energy. Built from the core, Good, Bad & Rad is driven by unbelievable content and crazy new contraptions that fuel the sketchy, scary and risky dangers of big-air action sports entertainment.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

When touring the biggest production in action sports with the best athletes in freestyle motocross, BMX, skateboarding and more, professionalism and safety are essential. The Nitro Circus touring team has more than a decade of experience in bringing this dynamic live event into a variety of buildings worldwide – from Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, Sydney’s Giants Stadium, London’s O2 arena and New York’s Madison Square Garden - and have worked with our venue partners to create an environment that is safe, fun and secure for fans, athletes and staff alike.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Nitro Circus strives to create new exciting, entertaining and unique live events that are fun for thrill-loving audiences of all ages, and to offer them an opportunity to get closer to the action – as well as their favorite athletes – than ever before with premium fan experiences.

Ricky Melnik

SVP of Athletes and Brand Nitro Circus Costa Mesa Ca 92627 USA ricky@thrillone.com www.nitrocircus.com How many years have you been with your company?

I have been with the company 7 years.

What are your favorite festival foods?

Hot Dog on a Stick for sure and hands down the funnel cake!

What do you like to do to relax?

Drive classic VW’s up the Pacific Coast Hwy or enjoy the beaches of a warm destination.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

“Start with Why” by Simon Sinek What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Top Gun Maverick

IS ONLINE OR IN-PERSON MORE CREATIVE?

By Susan Robertson

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The short answer? BOTH. Or NEITHER. It’s solely dependent on how the meeting is structured and managed.

A recent study found that online interactions result in less creativity than face-to-face. The reason: when online, people mostly stare at the screen, rather than letting their eyes wander around, which sparks more divergent thought.

But the flaw with this study was that the conditions that actually result in creative thinking were not set; not in the online nor the in-person experiments. So, even though the in-person interactions were slightly more creative, neither were very creative at all, in the absolute.

Effective creative thinking requires adherence to specific guidelines. If done casually, without guidelines, it won’t be effective regardless of online or in-person.

4. Encourage the crazy. Something often heard at the beginning of a brainstorming: “Every idea is a good idea.” Followed by a collective eye roll because no one believes it. While it’s not true that every idea is a practical idea, it is true that every idea can offer useful stimulus for additional ideas.

Sometimes ideas thrown in as jokes can be the spark that leads to new direction and a winning idea. So allow, encourage, and use every idea, even if only for creative fodder.

10 Rules for Brainstorming Success – In any environment.

5. It’s a numbers game. The more “at bats” you have, the more likely you are to hit a home-run. Drive for quantity.

Ensure the session is long enough to generate lots. If you only spend 10 minutes, don’t expect great results.

1. Free them from the fear. It’s very difficult for people to share ideas if they’re concerned about negative consequences. A climate that helps people get past the fear is critical.

One key principle is to prohibit any evaluation (even positive evaluation) during the idea generation phase.

All evaluation occurs only after idea generation is complete.

6. Laugh a lot. Humor stimulates creativity, so let it happen. One easy way - have everyone introduce themselves by answering a fun or silly question. Here’s one used in a session in December – “What’s something you DON’T need more of for the holidays?” The resulting answers were hilarious, and some even started sparking real ideas!

2. Use the power of the group. Build, combine, and create new ideas in the moment. Don’t just collect ideas that people have already had. The building and combining is where the magic happens. Break up into pairs or small groups to encourage even more building and combining.

7. Homework is required. Both individual and group efforts are critical for success. Insist on individual preparation. Ensure everyone knows the goal, and ask them to do some homework in advance.

3. Get outside stimulus. Asking the same people to sit in the same place and review the same information won’t result in exciting, new ideas. Talk to your customers, talk to other experts, explore what other industries are doing. Have the in-person meeting in a park or museum. If online, mail everyone some dollar-store toys in advance, or play music or show unusual pictures.

8. It’s not casual. Effective brainstorming requires skillful facilitation, which is a different set of skills from managing other meeting types. There must be a designated facilitator, who is NOT the primary problem owner. The role of the facilitator is to objectively manage the process.

Ideally, the facilitator should be someone who has no stake in the outcome and can remain neutral to all content.

Designate a facilitator far enough in advance that the person has time to fully plan the session, and potentially to study up on how to do it well.

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9. If it looks like a duck, but doesn’t act like a duck, it’s not a duck.

If you can’t, or don’t intend to, follow the guidelines for successful brainstorming, then don’t call it brainstorming. For example, a meeting that just becomes a stage for one person to spout their opinions isn’t useful. And if a brainstorming is not organized and structured appropriately, everyone will feel how ineffective it is, and they’ll be sure to skip your next session. So, either set up for success, or don’t bother.

10. You’re not done until you decide.

Everyone has been in this situation; it’s the end of a brainstorming session, a long list of ideas has been created, and someone volunteers to type up the list. And…. that’s it. There’s no action, or at least none that we’re aware of. It’s demotivating to spend time and energy generating ideas only to feel they went nowhere. Plan time for selecting and prioritizing the ideas during the session. Spend at least an equal amount of time on converging as you do on diverging. Yes, you read that right. If you generate ideas for an hour, also spend at least an hour on selecting, clarifying, and planning. If you leave with a huge list of nebulous, potential ideas, that’s not success. The outcome should be a short list of clear ideas, and a plan for action.

Whether in-person or online, creativity happens when the correct conditions are set. If you’re doing it casually, without guidelines, and without skillful facilitation, it may not be tremendously effective.

However, with appropriate focus on the process and environment, and by following these rules, you can effectively generate creative solutions in any setting.

Susan Robertson empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to more nimbly adapt to change, by transforming thinking from “why we can’t” to “how might we?” She is a creative thinking expert with over 20 years of experience speaking and coaching in Fortune 500 companies.

As an instructor on applied creativity at Harvard, Susan brings a scientific foundation to enhancing human creativity. To learn more, please go to: https://susanrobertson.co/.

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MAY I HELP YOU? | THE VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER

COMPLIANCE CHAOS We want our volunteers to be friendly and helpful during our events. In turn, we should be friendly and helpful during the volunteer registration and vetting process.

Making Sense Out of Compliance Chaos Start with a clear understanding of what compliance is required for your volunteers. Then build your support structure with the understanding that it may change in the lead up to your event.

The following are the key building blocks of a good compliance program: Training Do your volunteers have mandatory training and are they required to read the volunteer handbook? Do your volunteers understand event leadership expectations for their role and behavior? Has the event made training accessible in person and/ or online? Does your event track training participation or have a sign off process for the volunteer handbook?

Photo Credit: Unsplash

In a perfect world, your volunteers go online and complete all the registration questions accurately. They read the instructions carefully; sign up for positions for which they are skill qualified and for shift times that match their availability. Basic steps, right?

Unfortunately, many volunteers (like all of us) don’t read carefully, they scan. Because we are all in a hurry. We are all busy. So, we want the registration process to be easy and quick!

And what if the process isn’t easy? What if there are a lot of requirements, disclaimers, dress codes, waivers, background checks, medical information and personal identification needed?

What if the requirements keep changing due to big things beyond your control?

You might want to grab a caffeinated beverage.

Because this topic is boring? No. It isn’t boring, but some of it can be tedious and irritating when you are trying to get all the other required tasks done by event day.

Strong event leaders must be focused on having activities that are safe for all participants. Thus, all processes and compliance measures are reviewed by staff with volunteer safety in mind.

Tough requirements may come from the host venue, community health department, insurance companies, the board of directors and our event’s attorney.

The hope is that requirements are shared with the volunteers in a consistent and easy to digest manner that doesn’t discourage them from participating or make them angry with the event team. It is a fine line between making certain that physical and health security steps are followed while making the volunteer compliance process accessible.

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Identity Do you know the volunteer is who they claim to be? Do you know if the volunteer has a history of dangerous or illegal behavior? How are you tracking identification and background checks? Do you have sensitive volunteer positions (e.g., handling money, working with children, working in high profile area) that need scrutiny?)

Photo Credit: Ramul Davila on Unsplash

WITH FLORENCE MAY

Waiver Has your organization created a volunteer waiver that clearly communicates risks to the volunteer and appropriately lays out expectations and disclaimers? Do you have a youth waiver that is signed by parents or guardians? How long does your organization keep volunteer physical or online waivers?

(Insert My Way Photo Credit: Ramul Davila on Unsplash) COVID What is your event’s COVID protocols? Are the protocols and goals clearly communicated to the volunteers? Are the staff adhering to the protocols and modeling behavior?

Medical Information If you are collecting medical information on your volunteers, are you properly storing and/or destroying the information?

Are you familiar with the HIPAA laws regarding collecting medical information?

(Insert Dress Code Photo Credit: Milan De Clercq on Unsplash.)

Youth What age range is acceptable to the venue, event managers, insurance company and your attorney? What process is used to identify youth positions and volunteer hours? What waiver process is used to ensure adult consent? What process is used to verify group leaders are responsible and have a background check?

Photo Credit: Milan De Clercq on Unsplash

Weather Related Issues Do you have risks related to storms, winds, ice, floods, fire or other natural disasters? How do you prepare for these risks with

leadership training? What are your evacuation and communication plans? Are these communicated to your volunteers?

Communicating Changes Over the past few years, the TRS staff has witnessed an increasing number of last-minute changes in volunteer management compliance steps.

• The site venue changed their COVID protocols and waiver requirements three times in three months.

• A labor union charged that event volunteer positions are unfairly taking jobs requiring a legal review and an additional volunteer waiver.

• There is a security concern that requires all volunteers be background checked.

• The volunteer manager came down with COVID the week of the event and won’t be onsite. No one was else was trained on the check-in steps.

• No volunteer communication plan during a very dangerous storm.

Be Proactive The training, waivers and the handbooks often require changes just days before the event to take into account the newest challenge. However, if policies were well defined and the process was well designed early in the volunteer engagement, communicating changes will flow naturally.

Be Kind The TRS team often works with volunteer managers who are striving for the greatest administrative efficiency, and we encourage effective technical solutions. However, we also encourage our clients to consider the realities (e.g., Age, Mobility, General Health, Technical Capabilities) of their volunteer force when putting last minute compliance efforts into place.

Always put the volunteer first!

Florence May is the Founder and President of TRS Volunteer Solutions. Her company provides myTRS Software for hundreds of Festivals, Conventions, Non-Profits, corporations and Sports Commissions. Among these support for 26 Final Fours, 5 Super Bowls, 2 Republican National Conventions, 2 Democratic National Conventions, 18 F1 Races, 12 Special Olympic Organizations, Indy 500 Events and so many others.

Flory is a national Speaker, Author and Workshop Leader on Volunteer Management Trends. You may contact Flory with volunteer management questions at fmay@my-trs.com or 317.966.6919. And there is a library of volunteer management resources at www.my-trs.com/articles.

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

Established in 2021 How many employees does your company have?

5 What areas do you serve with your product/service?

National service provider How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

SecurEvent Solutions has consulted with nine clients on large scale events this year.

How/why did your company/product/ service get started?

Recognizing a gap in the industry of full service safety and security event management companies, SecurEvent Solutions has risen to the challenge creating individualized plans for its clients.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

SecurEvent Solutions provides events and facilities professional safety and security consulting services. Building solutions unique to each of our clients, we offer a full range of services, including: Operational Planning, Design & Support, Policy Creation & Review, Event & Security Managers 92

and unapparelled access to event security resources.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Make sure your security consultant shares the same values as your organization/event.

Joshua Field

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

SecurEvent Solutions is able to manage all aspects of your safety and security plan from planning, technology, resource procurement and event day oversight.

How many years have you been with your company?

2 Years

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

SecurEvent Solutions is a one stop solution provider utilizing industry professionals and best practices. At SecurEvent Solutions we believe your event is as unique as you are, carefully blending and merging operations, sales, experience, culture, to curate lasting memories. We call this your Event DNA. Understanding your Event DNA allows SecurEvent Solutions to build security operations that will integrate with all event areas.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

We focus on being partners not contractors.

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Owner

SecurEvent Solutions Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301 USA 763-226-4162 jfield@secureventsolutions.com

What are your favorite festival foods?

Onion rings or fried cheese curds.

What do you like to do to relax?

Spend time with Family and Friends.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Guardians of the Galaxy

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

We were established in 2011.

How many employees does your company have?

We have two employees.

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

We serve festival and event clients across the United States, Canada, and the rest of the World.

How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We provide weather and cancellation insurance to over 500 events, and thousands of event dates, each year.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

We Do Weather Better. That means that our goal is to consult with you, listening to your risk mitigation goals, the details of your unique needs, and put together a plan to help to reduce your risk of dangerous or uncomfortable weather. Our wide array of insurance product offerings combined with access to multiple carriers, provides for a large toolset that benefits our clients.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Our President formed a weather insurance agency in 2008 as a subsidiary to a much larger and foreign organization.

However, after three years of challenges under that regime, he knew that he could provide better service to event organizers by operating as a broker, rather than an agent for a single carrier. With access to multiple carriers and the freedom to innovate and meet client’s needs, Spectrum Weather Insurance has grown to become the largest provider of weather-based insurance in the Nation.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

Our options for our clients go well beyond basic rain insurance. We have developed stepped rain insurance coverage, which pays a greater claim as the rainfall accumulation increases; no longer does it have to be an all-or-nothing coverage. We also have created an excessive heat index coverage, as a vast improvement over plain temperature insurance. Recently, we’ve also introduced the cancellation plus rain combined insurance, which provides the most comprehensive coverage available.

What sets your product/ service apart from your competitors?

We go beyond basic rain insurance, and so should most festival and event organizers. Again, our wide array of insurance product offerings combined with access to multiple carriers, provides for a large toolset that benefits our clients. We work for you so we are also available for you after traditional hours and on weekends.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

Talk with several providers and decide which seems to have the best understanding of your needs, or one that can offer the best advice, and go with that company.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

To us, customer service is always about communication and follow up, and not only during the process of placing the insured, but also when it matters most, during the claims process. We make it a point to reach out to each client after their event to see if a claim is needed, and if so, that we initiate that process right away. We also believe that the most important thing we can do is to say, “thank you”.

Robert Holmes President

Spectrum Weather Insurance Kearney, MO 64060 USA 816-810-2346 rholmes@spectrumweatherinsurance.com spectrumweatherinsurance.com How many years have you been with your company?

Since inception in 2011.

What are your favorite festival foods?

I gotta have a corn dog when I visit an event! Second choice would be whatever the local non-profits are providing.

What do you like to do to relax?

My hobbies include fishing, yard work, anything in the water, visiting a local racetrack, shooting the bull, and, of course, attending a festival or fair.

What is the name of the last business book you read?

Who Moved My Cheese What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Out of the Furnace

EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

What year was your company established?

TicketSpice was established in 2008.

How many employees does your company have?

We currently have 70+ employees.

What areas do you serve with your product/service?

TicketSpice is primarily focused on serving North American markets, but also has customers in South America and the UK. How many festivals and events do you work with on an annual basis?

We work with several hundred festivals in North America, but we have over 60,000 customers in various markets and process over $1 Billion dollars per year in payment volume for our customers.

What is your ‘elevator pitch’ and/or slogan about your product/service?

TicketSpice is a modern online ticketing software that will help you increase revenue, save time, and elevate your customer experience. With robust ticketing pages you can build yourself or alongside your dedicated account manager, you’ll grow revenue with demand pricing, merchandise add ons, and additional sales opportunities throughout your festival.

TicketSpice’s full set of features, worldclass customer service, and account managers mean your unique needs will be implemented and streamlined to get you started and selling tickets quicker than ever.

How/why did your company/ product/service get started?

Our founders came from events backgrounds, hosting large events across the USA. Through the ticketing process they felt frustrated, limited, ripped off, and under appreciated by the solutions on the market.

They decided to build something themselves and created the most robust ticketing 94

solution on the market, with the clearest and most affordable pricing, and no contracts. It resulted in massive growth and the highest ratings for a ticketing company on 3rd party customer review platforms like Captera and G2. 4.8/5 stars across hundreds of reviews.

What new or improved product/service do you have to offer that IFEA audiences need to know about?

In the last few years, we’ve rolled out dozens of new features and services to better serve our customers. Features like event experience upsells, dynamic pricing, merchandise options, and timed ticketing have helped our customers become more profitable than ever. Additionally, through our new Attendee Support service, we save our customers endless hours and overhead expenses.

What sets your product/service apart from your competitors?

Overall I believe that we have one of the most robust platforms to help convert customers, operate your event, and grow your revenue. Every platform is different, and every event is different. While our technology is great, our customers rave about our support teams. They’re excellent at what they do, and they are great people.

What advice would you offer to festivals and events searching for your type of product/service?

We believe in long lasting partnerships.

We’d encourage festivals to look for a partner that fits your unique needs but who you get along with too. Make sure they are forward thinking enough to be continually developing their product to fix pain points.

What is your company’s customer service philosophy?

Ticketing and admissions can’t afford to go wrong. That’s why we offer full service customer support. Our solutions team is staffed to meet demand 7 days a week, offering rapid messaging support, and scheduled calls.

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Shadi Hayek VP Sales

TicketSpice Sacramento, CA 95814 USA 916-400-0737 shadi@webconnex.com www.ticketspice.com How many years have you been with your company?

I started working for TicketSpice 4 ½ years ago.

What are your favorite festival foods?

If there are nachos available, I’m ordering them!

What do you like to do to relax?

There’s nothing like a workout or date night with my wife to get some needed R&R. My wife and I love going to new restaurants, and it’s a really good excuse to not cook. I’ve recently stumbled across a hidden gem called Pickleball…friends, drop what you’re doing right now, and go play this game! It’s a blast, and it’s fairly easy to pick up!

What is the name of the last business book you read? $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi.

He breaks the box of limitations we put on ourselves in this book. It was inspiring.

What is the name of the last movie you watched?

Father Stu with Mark Wahlberg.

Great movie, really heart warming in the end.

TicketSpice is a modern ticketing system to save you time, increase revenue, and elevate your attendee experience.

Let us implement and streamline your unique needs to go live quicker than ever.

Book a call today! www.ticketspice.com

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Gen Z is loath to jump through hoops and will find a different opportunity if the path to entry has too much friction.

Be Transparent Gen Z is not afraid of hard work, but they expect to have transparency in the role. Ensure those job descriptions are fully up to date with expected responsibilities. Gen Z is quick to learn software, so consider if the experience with specific platforms is actually useful.

“All other responsibilities as assigned” can be a poison pill in a job description.

Make Work Meaningful In a world where someone can make $15/hr at a McJob, ask yourself why someone would want to work much harder for similar pay in an events role. The difference is likely the meaningful experiences created by the role. Don’t just share what the role

does, but why the role is important to the success of an organization and event.

Also, share why an event or organization is important for their community. Strive to show that work is meaningful for everyone involved from the intern to the CEO. Workplace Harmony Gen Z needs harmony in the workplace, but maybe not how you expect. Many Gen Z appreciate the flexibility of hybrid work, but many also find allure in office culture. They spent years on Zoom and being able to work in person is appealing. But they still want the option to work remotely, particularly during holidays or slow parts of the year.

Don’t Be Afraid of Gen Z Don’t be afraid of Gen Z. They are the next generation of event organizers, planners, and professionals. This is a prime time to connect with them, build relationships,

and start future-proofing your organization.

Every day, more Gen Z enters the workforce.

Every day, a few more people retire and leave. Embrace the natural flow and let this new generation show you how amazing they can be. You don’t have a choice.

S. David Ramirez is the senior marketing manager for brand and field at TINT, the world’s most trusted UGC platform.

He is a board member of the IFEA Foundation and TFEA. He teaches traditional and digital marketing in the Texas Event Management Institute. He is a business mentor in several accelerators, including HELM Small Business and Break Fast and Launch Culinary. David owns an experiential marketing consultancy, providing resources to brand activations and large-scale events. Mostly, he’s just a nerd. Talk to him about marketing, science fiction, or scary movies.

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me, (and I paraphrase) “From the guest perspective you always think things are running smoothly at all these large events.

But even events that have been around for decades, there is always some level of chaos and craziness happening.” Has a truer statement ever been stated?! Yes, the events industry has our messes.

And often we are afraid to share them.

But it is in the sharing of them that brings the mess out of the dark corners. Where we can examine them, learn from them.

And that light that gets shined on your mess when you bring it out of the dark corner? That light serves as a beacon for the rest of us.

We’ll be gathering as an industry soon, in McAllen Texas for the 65th Annual IFEA Convention. This will be our first time physically together since the Covid

pandemic forced the events industry to shut down. And do we have messes to share! Can you imagine a breakout session titled, “We’re a Mess – Here’s Why!” or “Things We’ll Never Do Again?”

A panel of our peers, detailing what didn’t work for them and how they overcame it.

Making their mess their message. I’d sign up for this session; think of the lessons to be learned and the bonding over humility.

So, as we gather again, whether in-person at the IFEA Convention this September, in our Virtual Affinity Groups, and in your real-life interactions with peers, family, and friends…be transparent and share your struggles. Let’s meet on humble ground and commiserate over battle stories.

What mess can you make your message to share with the world?

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listen to pop music on the radio, switch to country, jazz, hip hop or classical music for a month. Rearrange one piece of furniture in your house. Read a section of the newspaper that you’ve never read before.

Read a magazine on a topic that you know nothing about. Take a continuing education class in a subject not related to your career.

Join a hobby or study group on MeetUp. com. Taste a new food - maybe an ethnic food - that you’ve never tried before.

Don’t let risk aversion keep you from living your life to the fullest. Try something new today.

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Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is an author, humorist/speaker and innovation consultant. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. Robert is the author of ...and Never Coming Back, a psychological thriller-novel about a motion picture director; The Annoying Ghost Kid, a humorous children’s book about dealing with a bully; and the inspirational book: Wisdom in the Weirdest Places. For more information on Robert, please visit www. jumpstartyourmeeting.com.

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Alison Baringer, CFEE is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Azalea Festival. She is a Leadership Wilmington graduate of 2013 and was President of the Junior League of Wilmington in 2014-2015. In 2019, Alison was selected into the inaugural class of the WilmingtonBiz 100, an initiative of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal to recognize the top power players, influencers, innovators, and connectors in the region. The Star News selected Alison as a Top 40 Under 40 business leader in 2020.

Alison currently serves on the International Festival and Events Association (IFEA) Foundation Board as Chair and the UNC-Wilmington Alumni Board on the Executive Committee in the role of Secretary.

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MARKETPLACE SEARCH MORE VENDORS AT EVENTRESOURCEMARKETPLACE.COM ATTRACTIONS

ENTERTAINMENT

ARTIFICIAL ICE EVENTS / FALL FEST EVENTS - Unique Winter and Fall attractions for rent nationwide. Available for short-term or long-term needs.

Synthetic ice rinks to haunted houses! Contact: Michael Lawton | Peabody, MA USA | 800-275-0185 | m.lawton@ppentertainmentgroup.com | www.artificialiceevents.com

DEGY BOOKING INTERNATIONAL – Degy Entertainment is a worldwide talent buying agency specializing in customer service and professionalism. Contact: Evan Schaefer, CSEP, CFEE | Delray Beach, FL 33446 USA | 732-818-9600 | evan@degy.com | www.degy.com EVENT EQUIPMENT

DEREZZED VR – Derezzed VR is a premier mobile virtual reality service. We offer off-site virtual reality solutions that create an immersive eye-catching attraction at any event. Contact: Colin Snyder | Noblesville, IN USA | 317-774-5720 | info@ derezzedvr.com | www.derezzedvr.com

BLEACHER RENTALS – Providing events with safe, clean, top quality bleacher seating, on time and on budget. No matter how big the event, Bleacher Rentals can handle it! All of the Bleacher Rentals dealership teams work together to ensure that our inventory is always where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. Contact: Daniel Cleveland | Cibolo, TX USA | 706-498-6400 | booking@bleacherrentals. com | www.bleacherrentals.com

NITRO CIRCUS - Nitro Circus, a global sports entertainment leader, creates electrifying live events and stunts that at once exhilarates, captivates and inspires thrill-seeking fans worldwide. Co-founded in 2003 by iconic superstar Travis Pastrana, Nitro Circus has since grown into a multiplatform phenomenon creating spectacular live events and stunt shows. Contact: Ricky Melnik | Costa Mesa, CA USA | 310-619-0966 | ricky@thrillone.com | www.nitrocircus.com BANNERS/FLAGS DFEST ® – Designs and manufactures creative decor solutions for festivals and events. We specialize in custom flags, banners, directional signage, entryways, street banners, installation and hardware. Contact: Rudy Martinez | San Antonio, TX USA | (800) 356-4085 | rudy@dixieflag.com | www.dixieflag.com CASH MANAGEMENT FIRST DATA / CLOVER – Cloud-based point of sale and full business solutions for cash or cashless events. Clover is uniquely designed to be customized to fit your business needs. Clover accepts all payment types - EMV/ Chip, Card Swiped, Keyed and Apple Pay/Google Pay. Clover’s product line is available with WIFI, ethernet, or 4G/LTE data connectivity and can be leased, purchased or rented month-to-month. First Data has exclusive pricing for hardware and card processing for the festivals and events industry. Contact: Tina Hollis | Riverview, FL USA | 239-287-8221 | tina.hollis@firstdata.com | www.firstdata.com COSTUMES HISTORICAL EMPORIUM – Historical Emporium specializes in authentic, durable, high quality historical clothing and accessories. Victorian, Edwardian, Old West and Steampunk for men and women. Since 2003. Contact: Noel Matyas | San Jose, CA USA | (800) 997-4311 | amusement@historicalemporium.com | www.historicalemporium.com DÉCOR/DISPLAYS/BACKDROPS ATOMIC – Set construction, backdrops, rental solutions, lighting and design. Packs small, plays BIG! Address: Lititz, PA 17543 USA | Phone: 717-626-8301 | Email: info@atomicdesign.tv | Website: www.atomicdesign.tv 98

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EVENT SOFTWARE / APPS EVENTENY – Eventeny was built to help festival & event organizers manage their vendors, artists, exhibitors, volunteers, and sponsors, all in one platform. You can create team workflows, applications, maps, schedules, surveys and so much more. From small community festivals to managing multi-day sci-fi conventions, to virtual events, we’ve got it all! Contact: Greg Wright | Address: Peachtree Corners, GA 30092-2936 USA | Phone: 314-471-6079 | Email: greg@eventeny.com | Website: www.eventeny.com EXPOCAD - EXPOCAD® professionally manages the map and placement of vendors and exhibitors for festivals and events. Process payments, contracts, sponsorships and promote exhibitors via customized listings on the directory and interactive map available on desktop and mobile devices. Ask us about ELI, an event location interactive tool that will pinpoint locations of incidents for operations or security concerns to stay ahead of growing threats domestic and abroad. Contact: Jason Puetz | Aurora, IL USA | 630-405-2081 | jason@ expocad.com | www.expocad.com POINTSMAP® – PointsMap® has proven to be an effective and useful software for Festivals and Events. Create custom points at their exact location on your PointsMap with photos, descriptions, website links, multi-media, PDF’s and even “inside maps”. Your visitors can “PLAN” before the festival using their desktop computer, and then “NAVIGATE” the festival using their Smartphone. Visit www.PointsMap.com/SLAF and http://www.PointsMap. com/WichitaRiverFest/ to see how PointsMap is being used. It’s easy to use and extremely affordable. Contact: Jerry Waddell | Chattanooga, TN USA | 423-894-2677 | jerryw@videoideas.com | www.pointsmap.com SPONSORCX – Streamline your sponsorship management workflow into one simplified, easy-to-use platform that can be fully customized to fit your festival and event needs and offers end-to-end control of your program. Access substantially discounted rates through your IFEA membership! Contact: Jeff Hicks | American Fork, UT USA | 801-867-5215 | jeff@sponsorcx.com | www.sponsorcx.com

INFLATABLES BIG EVENTS, INC. – Worldwide leader for quality inflatables and parade balloons. Rental and sales for special events and parades. Excellent design and highest quality artwork set the industry standard. Contact: Charles Trimble | Oceanside, CA 92056 USA | 760-477-2655 | charles@bigeventsonline.com | www.bigeventsonline.com

DYNAMIC DISPLAYS / FABULOUS INFLATABLES – Designs, manufacturers, for rent or purchase – costumes, props, floats, helium balloons, event entry ways and décor. Offers complete and flexible service packages for small towns and large international events. 50+ years of parade/event experience. Contact: Steve Thomson | Dearborn, MI USA | 800-411-6200 | steve@fabulousinflatables.com | www.fabulousinflatables.com INSURANCE / RISK MANAGEMENT HAAS & WILKERSON INSURANCE – Celebrating over 80 years in the entertainment industry, providing insurance programs designed to meet the specific needs of your event. Clients throughout the US include festivals, parades, carnivals and more. Contact: Andrew Vandepopulier | Fairway, KS USA | 800-821-7703 | andrew.vandepopulier@hwins.com | www.hwins.com KALIFF INSURANCE – Founded in 1917, Kaliff Insurance provides specialty insurance for festivals, fairs, parades, rodeos, carnivals and more. We insure the serious side of fun! Contact: David Olivares | San Antonio, TX USA | 210-829-7634 | david@kaliff.com | www.kaliff.com K & K INSURANCE – For 60 years, K & K insurance has been recognized as the leading provider of SPORTS-LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT insurance products. Contact: Mark Herberger | Fort Wayne, IN USA | 1-866-554-4636 | mark.herberger@kandkinsurance.com | www.kandkinsurance.com SPECTRUM – Premier provider of event cancellation and event rain insurance.

Contact: Robert Holmes | Liberty, MO USA | 816-810-2346 | rholmes@ spectrumweatherinsurance.com | www.spectrumweatherinsurance.com VORTEX INSURANCE AGENCY - Vortex Insurance provides weather index insurance to help minimize revenue loss due to rain, heat, cold, snow or a combination of weather elements. Contact: Andrew Klaus | Overland Park, KS 66213 USA | 913-253-1215 | aklaus@guaranteedweather.com | www. vortexinsurance.com MERCHANDISING EVENT NETWORK – Event Network is the leading operator of experiential retail in the United States. We design, build, merchandise, staff and operate beautiful gift shops and dynamic webstores on behalf of and in partnership with world-class cultural destinations. Contact: Jessica Van Dyke | San Diego, CA USA | 858-8880211 | jessica.vandyke@eventnetwork.com | www.eventnetwork.com

SAFETY/SECURITY WEVOW – Build a culture that elevates thinking above sexual misconduct. Year-round and seasonal programs available for both staff and volunteers. Contact: Matt Pipkin | Boise, ID 83702 USA | 208-830-3885 | matt@wevow.com | www.wevow.com SECUREVENT SOLUTIONS – At SecurEvent Solutions we believe your event is as unique as you are. Carefully blending and merging operations, sales, experience, culture, to curate lasting memories. We call this your Event DNA. Understanding your Event DNA allows SecurEvent Solutions to build security operations that will integrate with all event areas. Contact: Joshua Field | Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA | 763-226-4162 | jfield@secureventsolutions.com TICKETING AFTON TICKETS – Afton Tickets has set out to change the ticketing industry.

We provide more features and better service to our clients and have simplified the entire ticketing process. We offer low and honest services fees to the customer, provide on-site Afton staff at events, 24/7 client support, state of the art scanners and box office equipment, and thermal ticket printing. Contact: Ryan Kintz | OR 97214 USA | 503-559-6183 | ryan.k@aftontickets.com | www.aftontickets.com SAFFIRE – Saffire empowers clients with beautiful, unique and engaging websites that are easy to manage, with integrated SaffireTix ticketing and unlimited help when you need it.

Contact: Cassie Dispenza | Austin TX USA | 512-430-1123 | sales@saffire.com | www.saffire.com TICKETSPICE – Instantly Increase Ticket Revenues! TicketSpice is different, because you keep 100% of the ticketing fees and only pay 99 cents per ticket! It’s the only online ticketing platform that gives you total control of your ticketing... ticket options, pricing, convenience fees, branding, funding and more. We know what it feels like to be overcharged and under-appreciated. We think you deserve a successful event with a ticketing partner who puts you first. Contact: Shadi Hayek | Sacramento, CA USA | 916-400-0737 | shadi@webconnex.com | www. ticketspice.com TRAVEL PLANNING (by Groups) TRIPInfo.com – Since 1996, first online reference for all segments of group travel planners – website and weekly newsletter and subject-specific digital magazines – including festivals. IFEA Member organizations included online. Contact: Mark Browning | Johns Creek, GA USA | 770-825-0220 | mark@tripinfo.com | www.tripinfo.com WEBSITE DESIGN SAFFIRE – Saffire empowers clients with beautiful, unique and engaging websites that are easy to manage, with integrated SaffireTix ticketing and unlimited help when you need it.

Contact: Cassie Dispenza | Austin TX USA | 512-430-1123 | sales@saffire.com | www.saffire.com Fall 2022

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Partnership with the IFEA The IFEA Foundation provides an all-important source of support that allows the IFEA to confidently provide convention scholarships, host top-quality industry presenters, speakers and programming, and help raise the bar for everyone in our global industry. A very special thanks to all those who have contributed along the way, and we look forward to working with you towards the success of our industry for many years to come.

www.ifea.com/p/foundation