Jodie McLean 0:04
Hey, I'm Jodie Event Manager, business owner, educator and podcast host. I'm an introverted homebody want to be wine master. And I truly believe in the power of events to inspire delight and ignite human potential. Every week, I take you backstage into the wonderful world of business events, and give you the insider scoop on how to take your events to the next level. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and listen. Let's get into it. So I met Stuart Frank in a Facebook group for event professionals, and he immediately resonated with me because he was like, whether you do events for 10 people or 10,000 people, there are parallels and it's so true, the fundamentals are the same. So today, I've brought Stuart on the podcast to share his behind the scenes expertise, running massive tech events. We've all seen those huge scale events that tech companies put on. And whilst I may not be in that world, and you might be like, Hey, I'm just over here planning a dinner for 20 board members or a cocktail event for 40 clients. There are absolutely parallels and Stuart's experience is so vast and deep. So I know you're gonna get some nuggets of wisdom out of what he so generously shares today. Stewart brings nearly three decades of expertise as an event production and marketing professional specialising in both b2b and b2c events across the Asia Pacific. He'll share more about his experience and what he's learned along the way, and most importantly, what he would recommend to you, regardless of the size of your events. So let's get into it. Well, Stuart, welcome to the events Insider PodCast.
Stuart Frank 1:46
Thank you very much for having me.
Jodie McLean 1:48
So can you share a little about your career journey for anyone that doesn't know you? What's your journey into events? And what do you currently do now? certainly
Stuart Frank 1:58
can. It's a long one, and I'm probably going to age myself here. But I've been in this game in some way, shape, or form for almost 30 years now. So it all started back in in the 90s. Whilst I was working in admin roles, Monday to Friday, during the week, I used to put on dance parties or raves on the weekends, with a couple of nights and I and I love doing that we had up to 1000s of attendees in warehouses and clubs and venues even outdoor and a scout Park. And it was at one of these events. Early in the morning. We were on stage we had 1000s of people sort of going off in front of us. I might I had a moment where I thought how can I turn this into a real job? Because it was a spare time thing? Yep. So that really set me on a path to try and work out how does that become a nine to five Monday to Friday thing, not that it's really nine to five. But I love creating that experience. So I kind of started that pathway then. And then 1998 was when I started my first full time event role as an event coordinator within Association. Okay, cool. So from there, I went from association to PCO to to event agency to experiential agency and freelance. And then in 2006, I switched from agency side to in house. So in house within tech companies, that was a passion of mine and something one of my former bosses, David Addison, had directed me he's like, if you are passionate about an industry, don't chase it. And for tech, for me tech, that was it. So now, I'm Senior Director strategic experiences Asia Pacific, for Salesforce. We're a global software company headquartered out of the US. And I just celebrated a couple of weeks ago, my ninth anniversary here. Wow.
Jodie McLean 3:58
So you've literally done every type of like, event work that there is?
Stuart Frank 4:07
Yes, from an both sides of the fence, which I think has been a very valuable asset in my career. I get what I put agencies through the agencies no way understand what they do. So that that relationships been fantastic. But yes, I've done really, really limited budget, really small things through to what I do now, which is big. It's regional. And yeah, everything in between emerges through to doing interviews that go online on broadcasts and on podcasts like this.
Jodie McLean 4:44
Yeah. And so that was a really long job title that you said there. But I do think everyone has heard of Salesforce. So talk us through, like what that role actually is and the kinds of events that you do
Stuart Frank 5:00
There's a lot to it. But in essence, I lead our large programmes throughout the Asia Pacific region. So that includes Salesforce World Tour Sydney, which is our marquee event, the biggest programme I run through the year through the region. With 10,000 people, I'll talk probably more about that one, we then have a cut down version of that, we take that on the road, we call that World Tour essentials, deliver that in India, in Singapore, and also in Melbourne. Then we have our on the ground programmes and our large global events. So Dreamforce is our humongous customer conference in San Francisco every year 50,000 people and and I deliver the Asia Pacific programme for everyone who's travelling from this region there. That's the core of my role. But I also get involved in all sorts of other events that we deliver, maybe third party sponsorships, executive programmes, our involvement in the f1, down in Melbourne, which I love. I'm huge f1 fan. But we also have a large contingent of marketing teams in Asia, in India and Australia, New Zealand. And they've lived a lot of events. So I do some cultural consultation on those. But I really focus on those large Salesforce lead programmes. Yeah, awesome.
Jodie McLean 6:18
And I mean, it sounds so glamorous, and I'm sure there are elements of it that are amazing. But we all know that. You know, event work is also, you know, not so glamorous at times. But I think for me, and for anyone listening who's like, wow, that's massive. That's not what I do. You know, we were chatting before that whether an event is for 10 people or 10,000. People, there are so many parallels, and you're essentially doing the same thing, but at a scale. So can you talk us through what you think I guess some of the fundamentals are that don't change.
Stuart Frank 6:50
Definitely now touching on the the glamour side. Yeah, events are 95%, hard work 95%, spreadsheets, and long hours and project management. And then there is the fun there is the end result, that's what I love about events is you have a ramp, you have a pre production period, and you you deliver something you get to see come to life. And it could be 10 or 10,000 people. But it is an end product. Not everyone has that in their careers. That's, that's one of the key things for me. But yeah, with 10, or 10,000, the fundamental for me, is think about your audience. So who are they? Why are they there? What do you want them to do. So if you're not designing for them for who is in the room, and the outcomes you want to achieve, you run the risk of not delivering on either their expectations in turning up to your event, you don't want to fall down on those. And then you have outcomes, you have your business outcomes, whether that is about relationships, whether it is about sales, you have to kind of have that balance in check, keeping an eye on both, and really delivering for them. Ultimately, it's really basic, you need to seek them, you need to feed them, we need to deliver content, whatever form that takes. And in most instances, you need to entertain them in some way. Again, 10 or 10,000, you need to do those things. The other one around that scale of 10 to 10,000. Whatever that scale is, planning is critical. You need to go into it informed plan thinking about the scenarios, and sometimes a roomful of 10 people can be just as powerful as 1000s. So really having that plan in place, knowing what you are doing with them at all times is really, really critical.
Jodie McLean 8:54
100%. And I think the benefit of sometimes small events is that you can be more personalised in what you deliver, which can be, as you say, really powerful, which I love with the kind of events that you do all throughout your career, what do you find the most challenging about either planning or executing an event?
Stuart Frank 9:11
There are challenges every day. And some are big, some are small. But again, it's one of the elements that's kept me in this industry for a long, long time. There are constant challenges and requirements for you to overcome them. I think and I've said this to many people, the day that I walk out of an event saying that was perfect is the day I need to walk away. So for me the biggest challenges and there's a few of them. Number one is innovation. Innovation is really hard. It is talked about constantly, but doing it is difficult. It's all about what's new and different and how do you create those surprise and delight moments? How do you make the event different to the last one But good different, not just different for the sake of being different, you want it to be different for a reason. So innovation takes focus, you need to make the time you need to make the space to innovate. So give yourself time to ideate. And really, really look at things, not always something that's easy to do. In the work that we do, whether that is and I have worked in admin and marketing system roles through to every kind of event role, carving out some time to go on blue sky think not easy to do, it is very, very important. And then when those ideas come get them from all corners, get them from within your organisation from outside and try new things. It's okay, it's okay to fail occasionally. You know, failing, failing, right? And failing, for good reasons, sometimes, is what you need to do to take it to the next level. You want to make sure that that is few and far between, but it is okay. Now, for me, and the the events sector as a whole COVID drove an absolute explosion of innovation. I'm really proud that we led the charge when the you know, the pivot to virtual I have the pivot t shirt I kid you not. But on the 16th of February 2020, we had a call with our headquarters, our legal teams, our health and safety teams. And we made two decisions that day. One was to cancel the physical experience we had planned for World Tour, which was to be on the fourth of March. Wow. The second decision we made that day was we were going to honour the commitment our customers had made to us in registering for the event. And we were going to deliver it virtually on the fourth of March. So that's 10 business days. I told this story a few times. But bear in mind, back in February 2020 Zoom was nothing. All the virtual platforms we've all come to know and love mostly weren't a thing. So 10 business days, we innovated like crazy. We were pushing tools and platforms that weren't necessarily built for what we wanted to do to all levels, and also our suppliers. We took them on a journey, they came on that journey with us in the way that none of us have done before this was broadcast. We went live on the fourth of March, we had 11 studios that ICC Sydney, which is where the event was going to be. And we we pivoted that we broadcasted all day across those channels, and 85,000 people tuned in. Yeah, wow. So that's that was innovation at a very, very rapid pace, then 2020 to 2022. We trialled virtual formats and platforms, habits changed lock downs, you know, people have no choice but to tune in. Once that cells live, they behave differently. Hybrid was a thing for a hot minute, then it was more locked down. So we kept on pivoting and and develop that muscle, then we came back in person, we had to do that differently. So 2022, we brought weld tool back safely. We had rapid testing protocols for every person that came through the doors of our tendency ICC for about a week. So the five and a half 1000 people tested before they could enter that included critical event crew. And we lost a few during that I lost my main vision operator for the keynote the morning of the keynote. But it was another innovation, we ran a safe event in a climate that it was still a risk. So not one I want to repeat. But that was the reality of what we had to do to bring people together safely. So they entrust us with their safety and we take that really seriously. So there's a lot of a lot of kind of challenge there. The next one for me, and a big, big part of my job is stakeholder management. And I know again, there's a lot of a lot of PAs and admins listening who are already doing a lot of stakeholder management. For me, well tour is a programme that has a huge number of stakeholders. Internally, we have people in executive level positions in headquarters in the states around the world, our local teams, our sales teams, externally, a massive supplier family that deliver our programme. They all require different stakeholder techniques. And it's really crucial to be able to juggle those different personalities and working styles for the success of the programme itself. So that's a case of managing up and managing down whichever way you want to look at that, if you're dealing with C level executives and then through to suppliers and crew on site, you moderate your communication style. I also engage heavily with our internal EAA community. A lot. We have visitors coming in from from the states who are here with us for a couple of days. And we need to navigate their calendars and the EAA army we have is a hugely powerful asset. So yeah, stakeholder management is is really, really big.
Jodie McLean 15:33
Yeah, awesome. I love what you're talking about there with all the challenges through COVID. And, you know, not to go back to COVID. But I think, I think the lesson for me there was that when you do try something new, I think there is a bit of grace from people, because they understand that you're trying something new, and they appreciate the innovation. So I think there is a little bit of grace when you are trying something new. But I think like you also said, there's a lot of learning that comes out of it. So what do you think are some of I guess the biggest lessons that you've learned over your career?
Stuart Frank 16:09
Early COVID? Yes, people were forgiving. So World Tour, when when we did it, we had a mash up of tools, there were our own tools. So Salesforce tools. We had IBM as our streaming platform, we have a community, it was like a four tab browser experience on the day, not the unified single platform that you have today. And people were forgiving, they became less forgiving over time, as it all developed. But for me, some core lessons. And this is, as I mentioned, at the top 30 odd years. Now, there's all sorts of event skills. But for me big lessons, be reliable. So do what you say you are going to do. If there's an action, and you have to do something by a deadline, make sure you do it, or call it out as a risk as something that may not happen. Rather than staying quiet and being being scared to speak up. You really need to be be reliable, be consistent in that. Trust yourself. So trust your experience and trust your gut. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. So again, speak up. And if that means speaking up to your executive or your leadership team. Do it. Because going back later on because it wasn't right and your your gut was right is difficult intervention.
Jodie McLean 17:35
I think that extends to suppliers and venues as well. That's something that I really lean into. If I'm dealing with a new supplier or a venue, I think your GM can tell you a lot about you know, if you feel like something's a bit off, then maybe you should be going with someone else. It's
Stuart Frank 17:51
it's very, very true. I think the reality is your suppliers and in in my career, the best supplier relationships are partnerships built on mutual trust. I like to get to a point with a with an agency where they are comfortable to say to me, that's a bad idea. This doesn't feel right. And I'll respect that. So it is it is really, really important that if it really feels a bit funky question, dig deep. And it may be that that's not the supplier or there's something else. But once you start probing, you'll probably find some answers. The next big lesson is check, check again, double check it. In events, I don't think you can be too prepared. However, don't delve into analysis paralysis. So yes, be detailed, cross check everything and, and use others. But if you get hung up on really triple checking, quadruple checking, and you're not getting other things done, then you start to compromise other elements of a programme. And also mentioned before, think of your audience, put yourself in their shoes, try and get to know them. What makes them tick, but really think about designing for who's in the room, not for internal needs or ease of producing an event.
Jodie McLean 19:21
Yeah, I love that. It's always good to reflect on things we've done so that we can always be getting better and the lessons we've learnt I am curious if there's anything that you've done before that you would never do again.
Stuart Frank 19:37
Looking back, so debriefing, critical thing to do, looking back at what you've done and learning from it, and documenting it because if you're working on an annual event, it's easy to forget what you've what you should have learned last time. But is there anything that I've done I wouldn't do again? Not really. I've had some very hairy moments.
Jodie McLean 20:00
Probably outside your control, though, mostly,
Stuart Frank 20:02
everything's worth doing once, as long as you assess the risks. So should you plan an outdoor piano set on the edge of Sydney Harbour in a high likelihood of electrical storms? Evening? Sure. Because that led to a really great plan based scenario where it was even more intimate, and special because we had to move everyone on the cover and the piano and the musician. So yeah, where did they get? Maybe not, but it was cool. I had a conference, this was over 20 years ago, I think was around the year 2000s. We had a conference scheduled in Broome in cyclone season. So we were tracking a cyclone that was approaching the coast. It, it did make landfall, what we had was a mad scramble to contact every single delegate. And again 23 years ago, so mobiles weren't quite as easy. Then as they are now. We had to contact everyone redirect them to change the travel to Sydney, we had to find a venue in Sydney, and ratio to the whole programme to be delivered in Sydney, which we did. And only two people and in Britain, and they wanted to help out the locals anyway. So that was, that was one I wouldn't do again, again. Amazing. Then the last one, obviously, is what we did with World Tour in 2020. We rebranded that as well, to reimagines, 10 business days to pivot from physical to virtual, you wouldn't ever do that again. But it led to some of the proudest moments of my career. So yes, would I do these things again? Maybe? What I never do them again? No, because it is, through hard times that innovation comes to the fore, you pivot, you react, you stay calm, which is a critical skill in any event, lead. But it's worth trying, because sometimes out of, you know, he gets the best results out of difficult situations. I
Jodie McLean 22:12
think sometimes I hear these stories, and I think, Oh, I'm happy with the events I do. To deal with the chaos. I mean, I've definitely had my challenges over the years as well. But yeah, gosh, no, thank you all stick to the events I do. But I'm curious because you know, you run similar events every year, which is, which is can be a good thing and a bad thing. But I think a lot of our listeners are in a similar boat, they run, you know, an annual event. So when it comes to that, I mean, how do you keep it interesting and a bit different? What do you keep the same? versus how much do you change up? I'm curious on your thoughts on that. We
Stuart Frank 22:48
do like to change it up. Okay, now, the challenge we have is the core elements of world tool are largely the same year on year, we have a big keynote, that's 4000 People flat floor in the round. We have an exhibition with our products showcased our partners. So our sponsor ecosystem, we have a breakout sessions. So all those things turn up every year. But every year, we look at it with fresh eyes. So we don't start with last year's expo floor plan, we start a new one. We debrief heavily every year. And we look back at that when we commenced the planning process that is a combination of a deck or a document with items what what we liked what we loved what we longed for, sorry, loved light long for
Jodie McLean 23:44
I love that I'm stealing that.
Stuart Frank 23:45
It's it's a really simple way of debriefing. Because it just prompts people. So we've got a large group of people that need to contribute to that. And it's just turned into a structure that works really well for doing that. And then there's about a 90 minute meeting where we go through that top to tail. We break it all down. And then we build it back up with those learnings from the previous year. Fresh Eyes for this year. And then, for me, particularly that constant view of what the attendee experience is and how we can improve on that. So that's how we you know, we are delivering on our four key tenants of World Tour to connect, learn, have fun and give back. So we do redesign the event in many ways every year. We are four weeks out today from this year's event. And yet the floor plan doesn't look like last year there will be things that that are similar because they are the core components. But the last thing I want is someone walking in the doors door to what ICC Sydney the same goal they went in last year and walking in and go back again. Now. I need it. I need it. Wow moment. And it's not easy to do, but it it requires some thought and planning and effort.
Jodie McLean 25:10
I think for the majority of guests as well, there is an element of safety in the same I think some audiences do like being familiar with an event. But as you say, we do need to change it up and keep it interesting and exciting for those that do want something new and different and the wow moment. So I think that's a great balance of let's keep the general format the same, but how can we change up things each year? Yeah, definitely. Right
Stuart Frank 25:39
there. People are largely creatures of habit. If you try and push them too far, it can push them away. So I totally agree their safety and comfort is a big one. They need to see those things like, oh, I need to go and kind of keynote and kind of break out not all we've turned breakouts on their head. Now. It's like one to one conversations for everyone. You can't push people too far outside their comfort zone. I think a lot of the virtual event platforms were interesting to experiment there around networking and pushing people into breakout rooms for small conversations when they're like, I don't want to I want to this. Yeah,
Jodie McLean 26:19
yeah, so true. I want to get a little practical with you now. So I'm curious to know what your go to tools and software are for planning events,
Stuart Frank 26:30
obviously, as a software company, our own products that really are a driving force in our event planning processes. So we eat our own dog food, we drink our own champagne, whatever the terminology everyone prefers. But we definitely do use our own tech to deliver on these programmes. So Sales Cloud is our primary CRM tool, it is the product that we are very, very well known for. And that is where all of our customer data lives. That is where our demand generation plans are built, deployed, and and go backwards. All registrations flow back into two Sales Cloud. So we can monitor who's registering who hasn't. Our salespeople can see which of their accounts are in or out. Marketing Cloud and other Salesforce products, is our marketing automation platform that deploys all of our demand generation emails. So incredibly powerful tool. Tableau is our analytics platform, we use that for a measurement pre during post event, Tableau tells us how we are tracking this ultimately is a business to business event, it is around your building pipeline influencing our and delivering to our sales teams. And then we have Slack. So slack is a collaboration tool. Some may use it some may or may not we So Salesforce acquired slack, back in 2021. And it's materially changed the way we work internally. And externally. That's an important one. So we do engage with our suppliers through slack. If there's gamers listening in, or parents of gamers as I am, you probably know discord. So slack is discord on steroids. It is collaboration, it is communication, it is project management is asset sharing, all in one place has amazing products. So that's a huge part of my day to day. Then, of course, and I think everyone appreciate it. This is all the spreadsheets, the slides, the documents, there's a lot. Now a lot of them are templates we carry from year to year that that we've developed over time. But there's a lot of a lot of those generated for an event. And current current age AI. This will be a massive theme for our event this year. We have a number of products with AI embedded. If you haven't started playing with AI, sign up, login to chat GPT grab a block of text, one of your event invitations, plug it in there and say make it shorter, make it more formal, make it longer. The results are really really cool. Very, very clever. And I think we're going to see more AI in the event sector coming there's hesitation on it. There's some people embracing it but we're not going to escape it so understanding a bit more I think is crucial and chat GPT is an easy way to do that. Last but not least in terms of tools for planning events for me coffee total go to cannot cannot run events without it.
Jodie McLean 29:45
What's your go to coffee?
Stuart Frank 29:48
Basically flat white or lotto? Yeah, that's really what I'm doing. I love that. It's yeah, that's how it
Jodie McLean 29:59
is crucial and then Sometimes on the day in energy drink in. Sure, um, I wonder if there's anyone in the industry that you look up to any companies that you sort of follow, or people that are doing cool things that you like to kind of engage with.
Stuart Frank 30:15
There's definitely a lot. So I like to look everywhere for inspiration both in the industry and outside in the industry. Early in my career, it was David grant. So David Grant was a phenomenal event producer, he passed away in 2015. And he was a man who created true experiences in his company, David grant special events. He did legendary work on on an event called the contro. Ball. And it broke all the rules of what an event could be what a social event could be. I think they're lucky, they didn't have Twitter, in stop mobiles, and all that sort of stuff back in the day, because it was next level stuff. So David was great, I had a chance to work with him a few times, and hugely inspiring. Then, as my career progressed, there were quite a few in agencies I look to, but a common thread for me, was Salesforce. So I knew about Salesforce events, I started to hear bits and pieces, were now a 25 year old company. And I started hearing and I was a Salesforce customer user for many years. So I'd see the event photos coming out. And that was what led me to really seek out this role was not something was advertised, I was actively chasing down this role. On a global level, we run astounding experiences with values at the heart. And that was a really big thing. For me, the products are awesome. But I need to believe in the values and it is a core element of what we do. Then, also industry, Julius Alaris is a blogger and industry thought leader, he started event manager blog.com. I followed that back in, I don't know what years that would have been many years ago. He's moved through a few different phases. Now he has an organisation called Bold push, which is his own product. And he publishes industry research and thought leadership. I have followed him for many, many years. We missed each other in San Francisco last year, he was in the airport as I was landing, and we we didn't quite connect. But I look to him, I think the trends that he shares are made up of a lot of different sources that he has access to these US based, I look at look to Him, then outside of events, streaming services. So streaming services, so your Netflix and your Spotify, they get to know you and serve up informed recommendations because they get to know you what you like, some of the random music genres or videos, end up in, you know, suggestive playlists that I would not have thought about otherwise. And I think about how, how you can apply that to an event experience. Getting to know people. Next up is concerts. So gigs, I love music always have many, many different genres. But when I go to a concert, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the lighting, looking at control desk, looking at the screen content and how they're marrying that that to what is on stage. I do enjoy the gigs. I'm very excited. I'm going to like pretty sure I'm going to Taylor Swift, not a not a massive, massive fan, which will kill a lot of Swifties out there.
Jodie McLean 33:43
But her it'll be an amazing event though.
Stuart Frank 33:45
They are phenomenal. She puts on a show. And that being an entertainer people like Bruno Mars, Robbie Williams, who deliver a show they have the persona is something that I find astounding. In another life, I absolutely love to be a rock star, I have no talent. I also am an avid cook. So I'm a son of a caterer been around great food my whole life and I love cooking. And an amazing food experience takes you on a journey. So food is a really powerful tool for events, again, does not have to be expensive, but with some thought it becomes very, very useful. So think about that. So
Jodie McLean 34:31
great. Thank you so much. A difficult one maybe for you. But if you could sum up all your years of experience into one piece of advice for people that plan business events, what would you say?
Stuart Frank 34:44
It's a really difficult one. So I talked before about that reliability to be curious. One really big thing to me, is values. So touched on that values are really important to me. and having them turn up in events is really, really useful. So I've talked about knowing your audience. But we as a company, for instance, we have, we have five company that just like customer success, trust, customer success, innovation for quality and sustainability. And I make an admission that we turn up with those values in what we do. There's no point putting values on, on a mission statement on a company website if you don't live and breathe those values. So that is one that I think is important staying true to yourself true to your values and, and turning up day by day with those in mind, and it can be your values and the company values. But that's, that's that one, stay calm. So summing up, all that experience. The worst thing you can do, whether that is with your executives looking to you to to steer the ship, your attendees looking to you as the person in control, the worst thing you can do is be frazzled. You can do that at the back in the production office. But calm face calm, demeanour, calm decisions are really, really important in events. So it takes practice, I do get asked quite a lot. How, how is it I am so calm when there's 10,000 people in the house, a lot of practice is, is the secret there. But planning, if you've got your plans in place, there is no need to panic. Things can be getting hairy with electrical storm on the horizon, and an A expensive piano and expensive talent, but you have your plans, you have your risk management, you have your, your contingency scenarios and you put them into place. That's that's fine. So be calm. And in most instances, we're not conducting brain surgery, we're running events. No one's gonna die. And I've actually had my fair share of heart attacks, and, and other medical incidents at events, but no one has died. We are not saving live, we are running events. So keep that in mind. There will be issues, there will be mistakes, there will be potential disasters. And it that's all it is it's a mistake. So don't weigh yourself down too much. If something does stuff up in some way. That's okay. If you have you know, if someone's shouting at you, okay, that's going to happen, things are stressful, people are not their best in that scenario. But it is. It is a fantastic industry, whether that is creating one dinner here and there, through to working in an event specific role. There are so many pathways, so many experiences you can create. And I love it. It keeps everyday fresh never know quite what's going to pop up today. And it can take you amazing places. So whether that's in your city for me, I've been all around the world, in in my job. Again, not all of the glamorous by any stretch. I have done periods of significant amounts of travel in previous roles. And no, it's not all fun. And it's not at the pointy end of the plane. But I have seen some amazing things. I've managed to engage with some amazing places and people through this industry. And it is an industry and it's an industry that has come back very, very well post COVID. I think the past year or so, yes, economy has been challenging. Budgets, travel restrictions, all those things have been a challenge. But the power of events, whether that is business events, whether that is purely social events cannot be underestimated. When you put people in a room together. magic can happen. Bring them together online in the hybrid world has its place. Don't be scared of hybrid and virtual. It is a development that for me, should not go away. We learned a lot during that era where we didn't have a choice. I'm very very strongly an advocate for not forgetting that and not going straight back to purely in person. So while we broadcast our keynote, a show pre and post that online for audiences who can't be there for whatever reason. One of those reasons In May the accessibility and this is something that plays into our quality value, we run an accessible event, we think about removing the barriers, whether that is closed captioning and Auslan. My entire Expo is flat floor. So anyone who is in a wheelchair can get to every corner of of our, our show. We have sensory zones, we have quiet room, we gather those accessibility requests, but that still may not be enough for someone who cannot turn up. So let's turn up to them online. On our website, we have a full accessibility guide. So screen reader friendly, it's that that is one that really for me is that is a key passion is making sure that it's accessible and you thought about it, and you don't have a situation where you run. And again, scale comes into it, run a dinner for 10 people that arrive at the restaurant realise there's two steps to the private dining room, and you have someone with a mobility challenge. So yeah, accessibility is a really, really high priority for me. And we have been doing things this way for almost the entire time I've been at the company, not because we have to. And in in the US there. There's the Americans Disability Act, and they have to do things in this country. We don't essentially have to do it. We do it, but I do it because it's the right thing to do. And that's that's coming back to that values alignment I mentioned before. Yeah. So yeah,
Jodie McLean 41:41
yeah, I love that you've talked about the values. And that can be a great place to start when you're designing your event as well is is one of those things that you want to come through every element of your event. And I think what I love there as well is, you know, sometimes events can feel really overwhelming or like this big thing that we have to do. But it can be really fun and really creative, and you can have fun with it. So if you are someone that's tasked with planning business events, then I hope that you'll take some inspiration from this and get creative with it and make sure you give yourself the time and space to think about how you could do it a little different to others. And when is your world to us so we can stock all the photos.
Stuart Frank 42:21
It is four weeks away, so 28th of February, and it is huge. We have the entirety of the ICC exhibition building, we have a good chunk of the convention, building 10,000 People 144 sessions in one day. So we run theatres, we run breakouts, we run the main keynote, 61 sponsors. There's lots of stats, there's lots going on there if you are and we do have a small business own. So if you are a small business looking at the looking at CRM solutions, come along Google World Tour Sydney, 2024, Salesforce world to Sydney, and come along. And if you are, by all means reach out to me, LinkedIn is probably the best one, or email us [email protected] Let me know and and we should be able to connect at some point during the
Jodie McLean 43:16
day. Awesome. Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast.
Stuart Frank 43:20
Thank you. It's been a total pleasure.
Jodie McLean 43:24
Thanks for listening to this episode of the events Insider PodCast. If you loved it, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, share with your friends, and I'll chat to you next week. Bye
