The future of events is hybrid, with Loren Maisels

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Candace Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Celine Williams, hosting for Montereo for Candace Podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: Today, my guest is Lauren Maisles, who is a certified meeting professional and is the founder and president of Loma Marketing Agency.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00: An events experience firm that creates holistic strategies for in-person, virtual, and hybrid events that meet the strategic, creative, and experiential goals of their clients and partners.
[00:26] SPEAKER_00: Lauren, thank you for joining me today.
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Celine.
[00:29] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's completely a pleasure.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: I'm really interested in hearing all about your business and what you got here, but also how things have changed because I know events have been in industry that's been very affected in the past year.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the kind of journey of what, how did you get to where you are at now? What was your journey to get to running this marketing agency?
[00:58] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good question.
[01:01] SPEAKER_01: I studied at Ryerson University, did my Bachelor of Commerce at the major in marketing, and found myself with an internship at an event agency.
[01:12] SPEAKER_01: And it just spoke to everything, you know, a type, my a type personality was, you know, multitasking, organizing all the things I love to do, and got the chance to work with some great clients and learns I was there for about three years, and I just knew I think it chose me.
[01:34] SPEAKER_01: I often say, you know, how did I get into this field, but it chose me and spoke to you.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: So I was fortunate enough to launch my career that way with an agency called Vision Co in Toronto.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: I spent about three years there and then decided I wanted to go in house on the corporate side.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: So I went to work for Accenture, consulting for a couple of years and helped run all of their in house events and learned a lot about, you know, how big large corporation runs day to day.
[02:03] SPEAKER_01: Which taught me a lot.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: And then I found myself at a Toronto start software startup called at the time, it was called I love awards. It's now called the cheapest and when I joined, it was a small marketing team.
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: We were maybe four people and they were looking to use events as a vehicle to drive, you know, sales and growth and brand.
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: And so I joined we were about 35 people and you know helped grow the company which our founder at the time asked a few of us to move out to San Francisco to help grow the company on the west coast in the US.
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: And I was fortunate enough to get to do that.
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: So I spent about five years with the achievers really, you know, partnering with the sales organization, leveraging events as a strategic tactic to help drive pipeline, lead generation brand and had a lot of fun doing it.
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: So a lot of fun spent, you know, five years in San Francisco and after leaving achievers, which was acquired by Black Hawk networks.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: I ended up at a company called Great Place to work, who is, you know, they are all about, you know, culture and human capital consulting and creating great places to work for all.
[03:23] SPEAKER_01: And so I went to work with them and their events to their the global events team for just under two years. And at that time I missed Toronto, missed family.
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: San Francisco was a great place to live, but it wasn't home for me. I wanted to move back. And so I told Great Place to work. I was I was leaving and I had been toying with the idea of what am I going to do when I move home and always thought about starting my own thing.
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: And so I thought well, there's no time like the present and moved home in 2016 and started low my agency, which I was very fortunate after.
[03:59] SPEAKER_01: You know, letting Great Place to work know that I was leaving and to move home. They said, we want to be your first client. So I came home and they put their trust in me and I came home with a client and the rest is history.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: That's I mean, what a great story. And also what a wonderful collaboration to have with a former employer and to have them be that supportive. That is rare. And it really shouldn't be.
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: So I'm that's a really wonderful story and congratulations to you for having that relationship.
[04:34] SPEAKER_01: Thank you. I'm I'm I'm thankful. I say I'm lucky, but I'm also thankful very all the time because achievers is also a client as well. And so I get to work with people.
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: I admire and trust and the respect is reciprocated and that's what makes being a business owner, a lot of fun, getting to choose your clients and partners.
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: This is what makes coming to work every day. Awesome. So I'm grateful to them and we, you know, they they've just helped us grow year over year.
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to ask this question because you mentioned it. How do you how do you go about choosing clients and partners like what does that look like?
[05:18] SPEAKER_00: What are your criteria as a business owner because and I'm going to and I'm going to give you the context where I'm asking this is I think that often entrepreneurs feel like they have to take on any client and they have to do anything that comes their way.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: And that they don't have a choice. And I think what you're saying is really important, which is you do get to and you should be choosing your partners and your clients.
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: So what you know from your experience, what does that look like for you and also have you ever been in a situation where you didn't use that criteria and it did not go as planned.
[05:54] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think when you're starting out as a small business owner, you do want to say yes to everything right because you don't know when the next piece of business is going to come and you are trying to grow and learn. And so I think, you know, I have to say our business is 95% referral based. So that's huge because to me, word of mouth is everything.
[06:22] SPEAKER_01: So that has been enabled us to grow year over year and that means we're doing a great job for our customers if they're passing on our name and you know it's all referral based that says a lot.
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: But in the beginning, I think it's hard because you're not sure of what may come, you know, what may come and when.
[06:44] SPEAKER_01: But I think I along with my team, the reason I started my own agency is I've always had a really high bar for a level of service and experience that I pride myself on and our team does and listen, it's my name, but it's my name in the title of the company.
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there's a lot that goes into that and I we approach every client with if we can't deliver at that level that we've become known for, then I'm not going to do you a service and we may not be a good fit.
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: And so often we explore that conversation in the beginning, you know, goals, a lot of clients want just a great event, just like execute a game and just like make it all happen, which we can do.
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: We love to do that, but for us it's more about just putting on a great event it's the strategy is really what we're passionate about and what keeps our customers coming back because we're aligned with them in making sure that they're driving results, whatever those results are right it's a true partnership so I'm proud that we've been able to maintain that over the past five years and that's just that's our north star that's always top of mind.
[07:59] SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful we've never you to your second question I don't have an example of when it hasn't worked out, which I guess means we've held true to those values and standards and so I'm just I'm proud that we've been able to do that for the past five years.
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: I think that's phenomenal and wonderful that you don't have any of the negative stories because a lot of us a lot of us do right and it does mean that you have had clarity and you've stuck you stuck to not stuck you stuck to what that what matters to you inside of these relationships and that's important.
[08:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I think also this job in particular, if you google like some of the most stressful jobs in the world ironically event planning or event management is like top of the list, which everybody always laughs at, but it is a very high stress career job, you know many people don't often see what happens behind the scenes to make everything appear smooth sailing and so again starting this you know,
[09:08] SPEAKER_01: agency was an opportunity to say okay there's there's priorities and and our job is stressful, but there's also balance is important right having that balance being able to leave a five o'clock and know yeah there's work the next day, but I've done what I needed to do and and have that work life balance.
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: It's not always a balance there are days where work wins and life has to take a backseat and vice versa, but being able to enjoy what we do and and manage that stress level was really important to me because I had spent you know in this career for 15 plus years a lot of stressful times and I wanted to create an environment where we're having fun doing what we do and the stress was manageable.
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: I think that's a rarity having been around event planners, we were speaking a little bit beforehand I've spent a little bit of time around event planners and and it's a rarity there's there is a lot of stress in the industry, so I think it's phenomenal that you've been that intentional about creating something different in what you're doing and I'm sure everyone who works for you is very grateful for that as well.
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: We try right?
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious events is one of the areas that again we were speaking before we hit record, but events is one of the areas that has been hit in a very particular way with the pandemic and we've all heard the stories of events that were canceled last minute I was you know right when we shut down I was flying back from a trip to visit family and friends.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: I was in Europe back to Canada and I had a 36 hour turnaround before I was supposed to go to an event in the States and that event was canceled in that 36 hours and Canada was shut down basically two days later because of this pendant and that was 36 hours and the event was done and this you know a 1500 2000 person event.
[11:09] SPEAKER_00: This is not an atypical story and I want to acknowledge I know that this is not a typical story so with all of the really unpredictable sudden out of nowhere changing and adjusting and adapting that happened I'm wondering how what you saw happening what your experience was on the other side of this because I was just an attendee like most of us were just attendees or you know we're just going to be able to see what's going on.
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: Whatever the version of it was what was your experience on the other side of this and you know a year plus in what has changed.
[11:52] SPEAKER_01: Yeah it was a whirlwind as I think I shared with you is last March we were in San Francisco with the client because we applied to the US and Canada and we were in the middle of a summit and everything with COVID had started to ramp up just before this conference.
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: And it we were moving forward and we you know discussed protocols and procedures and you know people were canceling but they're still about the large percentage of people coming and so we were in the midst of this.
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the storm that was brewing right and so you know the summit went ahead the conference went ahead and we finished that conference and flew back to Toronto and the day that we got back you know that tipping point that's when everything changed and the following week I had
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: a client calling saying need to cancel my contracts need to you know so then we moved into triage mode right because now we're trying to get out of contracts that are not only for last year but you know this year and next year because nobody knows how long this is going to go on.
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: And so we were just trying to help our clients mitigate their you know the damage and so we spent the next kind of couple months trying to do that and then for me it was the most important thing was how can I support my team how can I keep my people right because the service business and my people are everything they are phenomenal and I.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: The top of mind for me was I can't lose them so for me it was like how do I just keep this boat sailing for the next however long you know how do I do that and so you know we talked a lot as a team and and we kind of where you know it wasn't it's not like us to just kind of sit back and wait for things to happen and so we're like all right let's try our hand at a virtual event and start going down that road right and so we kind of created our own we created an event called loma paulosa.
[13:55] SPEAKER_01: It was a one day event it was about you know our tagline was feel good do good from home and the goal was to raise money for food banks Canada and feeding America and we reached out to our partners and friends and we just tried to create this virtual festival where people could pop in and out and we had like a DJ and yoga
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: and we had a cooking brunch session and you know a variety of sessions and it was a great opportunity for us to say okay like this is the virtual world this is a virtual event this is how things work and let's get our hands dirty and from then on things just snowballed and you know our clients started coming to us and saying okay how can you help us transition those in person experiences now to virtual we don't want it to just be a zoom meeting we want it to be special
[14:41] SPEAKER_01: and so we've spent the past year think knock on whatever working on some awesome virtual experiences right making them different and unique whether it's a sales kickoff or cocktail reception or conference really focusing on defranching that experience and making the best of the hand we've all been dealt right and we've learned a ton we've learned a ton we've had a lot of fun
[15:07] SPEAKER_01: and the reality is this is not going away you know the hybrid is the future hybrid events like virtual there will always be a comp a comp of virtual complement and so it's you know it's been a blessing that we've developed a whole new skill set and service offering that we can you know include in our scope of services and and keeps pushing us to be to learn more.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: So it's been it's been a blessing when I say that now COVID has not been a blessing I know it's it's caused a lot of harm for for a lot of people but as a business it's forced us to think outside the box and make be uncomfortable and grow.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: I think it's really heartwarming incredible exciting to hear there's lots of adjectives I want to use that you were able to one adjust to the realities of the world and and thrive inside of that I think that's a really wonderful thing.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: And also that you didn't do what a lot of not only event companies did but businesses did in general which is just say well I'm going to take the thing I did in person meetings events sales kickoffs whatever it is and now just do them virtually and it's going to be the same amount of time and set up the same way and not having participated in too many of those was a terrible plan.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: And I think that the fact that you found ways to make things virtual that worked for virtual as opposed to just trying to adapt from live is really it's really interesting and I'm curious.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: What have you found that has worked really well or not worked really well inside of that space.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean I can speak to something unfortunately that's still a challenge is the idea of trade shows and sponsorships has been challenging this past year for a lot of people to drive value to really create the same it's not the same it won't be the same experience so I think and the evolution of the virtual trade show and the virtual sponsorship is continually changing and it will it'll be interesting to see what happened.
[17:40] SPEAKER_01: It happens in this next year but that's been difficult for people because it you know virtual trade show booths like who's you just while you can measure which is a huge plus you know before the trade show on the floor people are coming past your booths might scan them like they're probably coming by to grab your chachkis and your gifts or whatever.
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: But now there's great analytics behind like who's coming in and how long they were there and did they download a resource of the analytics pieces really robust and that's really exciting to see because then you're putting real measurement behind things but it's the traffic it's not the same kind of traffic it's a challenge and that continues to be a challenge to try to think outside the box how to make those sponsorships those you know trade show aspects unique and different and drive value for your business.
[18:30] SPEAKER_01: And then the other partners is I think something everyone's still trying to work on on the flip side of that there's so many fun things that you know we had a sales kickoff last summer and they were the team it was in Latin America and the US and they were supposed to go to Miami for their sales conference we're going to all go to Miami and have a great time in Miami and you know well.
[18:52] SPEAKER_01: COVID had a different idea yeah so you know we're like let's bring Miami to that right let's bring Miami to them and where they are and it was so much fun you know we did it over two days two three days actually we had you know a performer for Miami come on into a session we had a woman lead a Cuban coffee tasting.
[19:13] SPEAKER_01: Everybody dressed up we sent them all kids beforehand with towels and sunglasses and lugs and we had like a social wall where everyone was like dressing up with their pets and their kids and you know and felt that connectedness and we tried to keep the experience like it wasn't about a full day program because nobody wants to be sitting on.
[19:31] SPEAKER_01: Zoom or whatever technology for like eight hours endlessly so we broke it up into like you know three four hour chunks and tried to make it a little more manageable you know and had fun back like so it really at the end of the day people while they weren't in Miami they had a flavor for Miami and to us that was a huge huge hit because you know we had a playlist of people could play and and that while people are waiting for the meeting to start you know we that that the team contributed.
[20:00] SPEAKER_01: Two so it was kind of a opportunity for everybody to you know take part and so I just think there's a ton of creative ways to make make the virtual event experience come to life in different scenarios so that's just one example I could probably give you others but I don't want to ramble on but you know there's an opportunity to get really creative.
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: And I think it's about the connectedness at the end of the day right like that one thing that I heard inside of what you said was creating that idea creating the feeling not idea creating the feeling of being connected even when you're actually really quite disconnected right and how you translate that and I think that it sounds like you found some really creative ways to do that which is phenomenal especially considering
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: everything is going to be hybrid going forward whether it's events whether it's how we work whether it's it's all going to be a hybrid world.
[20:54] SPEAKER_00: Yeah absolutely always more opportunities inside of that right.
[21:00] SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I think that as you said previously the sort of challenges when you try and create the same experience right it's not the same it can be equal sorry it can't be equal just can't you can't make an impact.
[21:16] SPEAKER_01: It's just impossible but you can try and make them equitable right and look at them through the lens of how can we make their experience somewhat similar in a different way but you can't make them the same it's just not it's not possible.
[21:35] SPEAKER_00: Yeah well and I think that that's a really important thing in general right now it's like people keep talking about going back to going back to the way things were we're not going back to the way things were we can't go back to the way things were that's not that's not what's going to happen.
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: And it is changing the lens on it to be like okay so what is this look like going forward what is it's not going to be the same it's never going to be the same so what could it be what does it look like how could we have not an equal if we're not going to be the same.
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: So what is the experience what an equitable experience what is the new lens on it look like and I think that that's I love that you and your business have like really been able to keep that top of mind in the past year I think that's really exciting.
[22:17] SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I think a lot of people are saying well we used to do this and we used to do that well here's an opportunity for you to wipe the slate clean and start fresh because what you used to do worked for then but we're in a different world now the new normal is this and so how can you take advantage of that here's the chance for you to relaunch refresh change things up look at it differently and there are people who don't want to.
[22:47] SPEAKER_01: And won't and they'll continue to do things the way they've done them for you know many years and then there's a lot of people who are open to that and excited about that and I think that's where the fun is is really you know challenging those those clients and partners to to wipe that say clean and look at things differently.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah so I'm curious and not just in the last year I want to be super clear this is not a pandemic question but in your journey through the world of event planning through being an entrepreneur running a business working for their businesses would have been sort of the key things that you've learned on your journey that you would share with someone who is either starting out or stepping into a journey of their own.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: Good question.
[23:39] SPEAKER_01: Change is inevitable.
[23:43] SPEAKER_01: Be okay with being uncomfortable because if anything this past year has taught me when you think you have it just right things change so being able to adapt and be flexible is important because I think when you get set in your rigid ways that's when you limit your experience.
[24:03] SPEAKER_01: And so I think sitting it can be really uncomfortable you know and scary but you know taking looking at it more as an exciting opportunity to to really being uncomfortable is not always a bad thing it forces you to grow personally professionally it's a good opportunity for your business ours is one example of that.
[24:27] SPEAKER_01: And challenges you so I would say be okay with change and be uncomfortable because it's going to happen.
[24:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah I think it's a really I mean I am yes I say all the time that the only one that's guaranteed is change so let's let's just get used to the fact that nothing is ever going to stay the same.
[24:48] SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah yeah yeah you know and if I was going to add one more thing you know I've been listening Glenn and Doyle I don't know if you're you know I should just started a podcast as well called we can do hard things.
[25:01] SPEAKER_01: And I just feel like that in itself is such a powerful phrase and especially this year past year we can do hard things.
[25:09] SPEAKER_01: Even if we think we can't then we pause and look back and we're like no we can you can do hard things it's not always fun or easy but we can do hard things.
[25:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah I think that's a really great a really great and also very important reminder that we forget very easily.
[25:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah it's easy to forget those things especially when you're dealing with the unknown when you're in the middle of a change when all of that is happening.
[25:40] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's an important reminder.
[25:43] SPEAKER_00: Lauren where can folks find you online where can they learn more about you and what you're up to in the world.
[25:49] SPEAKER_01: Yeah you can go to lomaagency.com that's where you find us so l o m a and the word agency.com connect with me on LinkedIn.
[25:58] SPEAKER_01: And yeah we'd love to love to expand our network and hear from you.
[26:04] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely and all those links will be in the show notes for anyone who's listening or watching to this.
[26:09] SPEAKER_00: So they should be able to find you.
[26:11] SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for being my guest today it was really lovely to chat with you and I really appreciate you being so open and transparent about your experience in the past year because it's it's been unique.
[26:22] SPEAKER_00: It's been a unique year.
[26:23] SPEAKER_01: Thank you. It's going to lovely conversation so thank you for the opportunity.
[26:29] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely it's been my pleasure and for everyone listening thank you for listening to Canada's podcast.
[26:36] SPEAKER_00: Like comment and subscribe to all our channels to get the latest podcast from entrepreneurs across Canada.