Creating Wow Virtual and Live Customer Events with Amanda Ma

Amanda Ma is the Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Innovate Marketing Group (IMG,) an award-winning event and experiential marketing agency based in Los Angeles.  Born in Taiwan and raised in Arcadia, CA, Amanda studied business at Boston University in Boston, MA and studied abroad in London, UK.

You can find Amanda and her team at https://innovatemkg.com
The bonus content can be found at https://timkubiak.com/


The Topics covered in this episode include
Amanda’s Back Story and Company History. How she got started in the events and experiential marketing industry. Her entrepreneurial journey and how her own leadership style changed as her business grew.
What Changes Have You seen in your core business 
The Benefits of Using an Events Agency
What does and an events company like yours do? 
Why do people use events companies rather than in house resources?
Your customer list is impressive. Can emerging brands and regional companies also benefit from your services?  
What are the typical client goals for an event?
How can the right event strategies help meet clients goals?
How to create an experience for guests at your event?
Is there a fundamental difference between events that are targeted at customers, for example, a product launch or “users conference”: vs. An Internal team event like an annual kick-off?
Are there universal elements that are the same at every event?
Do you help your clients refine and message to their target audience for an event or launch?
How do you measure the success of an event?
Potential Follow Up - How do you and your team provide cost control and an improved ROI?
Creating Culturally Inclusive Events
What advice would you give to a client who wants to create an event that is culturally inclusive but is worried that doing so might be interpreted as Cultural appropriation? 

My background is Tech and most of the major events have an international audience. What are some best practices for making sure guests all fell welcome, safe, and appreciated?

Multi-Lingual Events

Can “Event Apps” Help Create a More Inclusive Experience for events?


Why is the Pivot to Virtual Events is necessary?
You have a great PDF on the topic of moving to virtual events. It’s a big topic right now so can you briefly describe the differences, advantages to the hosting company and benefit to the attendees of 

1)A Webinar
2)Webcast
3)Live Streaming
4)And finally Virtual Events  

The cost of events, related T&E, and what not help many companies back. Has the shift to virtual events leveled the playing field for smaller companies?

How are you helping companies create unique experiences with the shift to virtual?

Transcript

Tim Kubiak : 0:00

Hi, thanks for listening to Botez in business. I'm your host Tim Kubiak. As always, you can find the show on its socials on Facebook and Instagram at bow ties in business. And on twitter at bow ties and bi z. You can find me personally at Tim Kubiak on Twitter at Tim Kubiak 412 on Instagram and of course at my website which is my name Tim Kubiak calm. Today we have an amazing guest Amanda Ma. She's the founder and chief experience officer of innovate marketing group and award winning events and experiential marketing agency based in Los Angeles. We're going to talk about a lot of things today, we're going to talk about her backstory, we're going to talk about the benefits of using an event agency for businesses of all sizes, how to create experiences for your event guests, and creating culturally inclusive experiences. And of course, we're going to talk about the pivot to virtual. So a little more about Amanda. Her company The innovate marketing group is known for producing remarkable corporate events by providing fresh ideas, infrastructure and logistics. They're a one stop solution from concept all the way through execution. Manda is an industry professional with 16 years of experience and event production event launch, activations design and execution. Her extensive background in strategic insights have produced event experiences for clients, including Toyota, East West Bank, Marriott, Honda bytedance, and tick tock. She spans a number of industries from auto finance technology, to retail and beauty. She was born in Taiwan and raised in Arcadia, California. Amanda studied business at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, and then studied abroad in London. Her entrepreneurial journey began in 2006 is the co founder of the fresh events company Incorporated, and the co founder of pamper me fabulous in 2008. after which she go on to Found the innovate Marketing Group, which through her leadership has flourished into one of the most distinguished event management design agencies, both nationally and internationally. Amanda, welcome to the show.

Amanda : 2:12

Thanks for having me by I've been looking forward to this, Tim.

Tim Kubiak : 2:15

It's been a pleasure. I'm glad we keep connected. So if you don't mind just so our listeners get to know you a little bit. Can you tell us a little more about your background? how you got into the business, that sort of thing before we jump into the, the topics at hand?

Amanda : 2:28

Sure. Um, I guess I've always been really good with planning and just being very organized. So even back in the days I remember, my friends would tell me, oh, you should be a event planner. You know, I don't know if you remember. But when the movie wedding planner, by Jennifer Lopez came out, one of my really good friend said, hey, that's, you know, but in real life, and I say no, that's not a real job. That's a movie. So I told my friend Tina that but who knew a few years later, I actually started my own events agency. In college and you know, after college, I was always very active in the community always taking a leadership role. So I knew I like to, you know, be around people and I'm always kind of the organized one. So somehow that always landed on my lap. After college, I started with corporate I did that for about three years. And then I started my own agency because I realized I want to events are a little bit more fresh, and more original and more memorable.

Tim Kubiak : 3:27

So what makes an event more fresh

Amanda : 3:30

def, I think there's so many that are just very cookie cutter, right? You go you eat, they do their presentation you leave. What we do differently is really considered the five senses, right? So when we do a hotel opening, we already have a fire breather before you even step in the hotel to kind of engage you that way you know and hope your hair doesn't catch on fire. No, just kidding. You know, things like that. And as soon as you walk in, you smell the food, right even see the food yet but you already can smell the food. And then you know we call the fees for the eyes because there may be there's a activation right when you walk in like our most recent hotel opening, we did a ginormous balloon wall. So people could actually do a picture in front of it. We did a floral step and repeat not just a standard backdrop step and repeat but we did floor one and just step by step people are like, well, this is so awesome. And then after you do that floral step and repeat we actually had a champagne wall greeting you and everybody was like, would you get the champagne you know and yes, we do have you know staff also help pass the Oh champagne, but the champagne wall is just kind of takes it to a no nother level of experience. Right? Yeah,

Tim Kubiak : 4:45

yeah. I was gonna say I've never seen that I've gotten I've done a bunch of boring events now. Yeah, I haven't been any fun ones like that in a long time. Yes,

Amanda : 4:54

no, you need to come to some of our events. I you know, honestly what? Several hotel companies we've done. We get to To invite some of our top clients, you know, our clients sometimes allow us to do so. So I remember one time we invited one of our top clients, and then the wife of our client was like, really, you know, they go to a lot of these quote unquote, events. Maybe she's, I really don't want to go so that our clients came by himself. And literally within the first five minutes, he called up his wife and say, Jennifer, you got to get over here. You gotta love this. So here's why to go Uber came and say, I love this, like, it's on his wife actually told him say, hey, next. Hi, is Amanda inviting you to a event, please make sure to add me as your plus one. But all the other boring ones. Please don't. Don't buy me

Tim Kubiak : 5:41

that that says a lot. Because if you do a ton of the events, even as a guest, right, you're right. It gets really tiring. So to create something unique that somebody wants to come to and be on your shortlist of your next event that says a lot about how well you do.

Amanda : 5:56

Thank you. Yeah, it was really fun. It was like, my wife decided to come after all, is that okay? Of course, right?

Tim Kubiak : 6:08

So your team has grown your business has grown. Right? So how have you changed your leadership style and your entrepreneurial journey is your business has grown, you've got more key clients. Right? So

Amanda : 6:20

correct. Yeah, I think in the beginning, when you're smaller, you kind of want to do everything on your own. Um, and I think in terms of leadership style, I would say more and more, you have to learn to let go and trust. And then right now my leadership style is more about empowerment. You know, letting them try it and giving them the freedom to do so and empower them to do so because I feel like for that, and I tell them you take ownership of the experience, just like a life experience, but you also take ownership of whatever that you do, right? Whether it's the office assistant and event assistant account manager, take ownership and we have our core value. Use. So I use that when I hire people to when I evaluate people and just on the day to day, right, we talk about, okay, how does this live up to the core value? Even when we talk about events? As a How does this Well, one of our core value is while service. Right? So while experience so they will challenge your team, like, how does this event you know, yes, you talk about all the logistics, all those those are great, but those are basics for us. But you know, so kind of bring it back? How do we continue to offer that while service? And then if they cannot answer the question, they'll have to go back to the drawing board and have a better answer the following week. If you

Tim Kubiak : 7:35

don't mind, can you share some of your other core values? Because that's fascinating.

Amanda : 7:39

Sure. So one is well service. And we also have integrity, as well as funding engagement because we work very hard, but I would also want it to be fun. No, we have be proactive, as well as grow and develop. And our last one is innovation. Because I feel like when you don't innovate, you die. And we're in the business of innovation, you know, constantly trying to come up with something creative, to engage people and keep them entertained.

Tim Kubiak : 8:10

And I know we're going to talk about the pivot due to the pandemic a little bit later. But how has social media and changes and trends in social media changed how you innovate at events?

Amanda : 8:23

In terms of social media, we have been using it as an extension of the event experience. So prior to COVID, you know, as a lot of we were put someone that's just on the social media so they could kind of for anyone who's not present, kind of create that FOMO effect, like, Oh, I should God Damn you. I told you to call you know, you're seeing it from the Facebook Live where the eyes you story and you're like, Oh, I should have accepted Amanda's invitation and head over to this fabulous event. She said it was fabulous. So we use that and also influencers, right? So sometimes averaging influencers, their network and they get invited to some of the events like the hotel openings that we do. Right so they get invited and they talk about it and their network to see so it's really an input occation of the life event experience interesting yeah

Tim Kubiak : 9:18

yeah I wouldn't have thought about influencers playing in the hotel opening right I you know, you say influencer to me I think fashion brand or something really retail but not something experienced base like you deal with

Amanda : 9:31

right and i think influencer so thinking of a broader perspective, a lot of times people thinking like, you know, a makeup tutorial or makeup right, those makeup artists or stuff like there's also business influencer or people just just influencer in the community because they're so well known. Right? So always Tim is here at this event. This is a really legit event. You know, so this is the who, who, whose event, right? This is the top notch event.

Tim Kubiak : 9:58

Yeah, that's that's a really good point one is not considered really. So if we can change the topic just a little bit, all right? What's the benefits of using an agency such as yours?

Amanda : 10:15

That's a great question. And I can't answer that, because I actually been on both sides. So you used to do corporate events, right. And then a lot of time we do corporate events, you're kind of bound to the same set of events every year. And a lot of times, you're really busy with internal events. So your parameters spectrum is a little bit more limited. So as an agency, a lot of time we're bringing to the client new ideas. You know, like, how about doing this? Have you tried this out? You know, there's just so many because we're exposed to events. 24 seven is not limited to just one company. We're constantly looking for that next fresh idea, so that we can help them impress their guests. One of the favorite things we love to hear is we always make our call Look like rockstars so that they, you know, because a lot of time, their managers or director or even CEO is like, how do you guys do this, you know, and they're like, Oh, we hire agency this time. They're like, Oh, I can tell, you know, not that they don't do a good job, they do a fantastic job, but different levels of skills, right, because a lot of time, even or sometimes just resources, to be honest, we have worked with a company, they're huge, they actually had a team of 15 event planners, and they still, you know, outsource some projects to us, because they just don't have the capacity to handle it. And they need more help, but they're someone who's professional, you know, so not just like an independent person, but like another company that's an extension of them. And we live in breathe kind of their protocols, their procedures, stuff like that.

Tim Kubiak : 11:48

So you work inside their marketing brands and their guidelines when you do that. So I've got a tech background. So one of the things I always struggled with in my career before I left corporate america was we would go to these massive shows in San Francisco in Las Vegas, right? And literally our marketing teams would be putting on our executive briefings and our suite management and all the one on ones and the tradeshow stuff. And inevitably there was a nighttime event and that would be somewhere where we could have benefited from somebody like you right because we could have come in said look, we're gonna run the tradeshow floor will run the executive meeting spark will do all that internal. Can you put on an event for engineers and it an event for executives and just do it and that is that kind of thing. Somebody could turn over to innovate marketing group.

Amanda : 12:41

Definitely. Yeah. Because a lot like you said there's so they had to there's certain private they can only handle so much. Right one of our client we talked to him this as I asked him how many events you do and literally the same person was in New York and San Francisco the same week but within three days. You know, because that two big events That's why they need us. So we really take care of all the venue. And they just arrived plug in and go, right because they got to take care of the quote unquote, their internal client, all their internal stakeholder, just that is a lot, right? handling all the internal politics and leaving the logistics of hotel tech to you know, a professional agency like ours.

Tim Kubiak : 13:24

So with that, you work with big brands. Do you work with smaller brands, regional companies, things like that? Are they a good fit for you?

Amanda : 13:39

Yes, yeah, we're not, I would say medium size because smaller, you know, companies don't really hire agency like ours. Middle to big size.

Tim Kubiak : 13:46

How do you define medium?

Amanda : 13:49

I would say anyone with more than 100 people.

Tim Kubiak : 13:52

Okay. So you define it by people not revenue.

Amanda : 13:55

Okay. Cool harangue? Yeah. And then because anything smaller, they'll just have their Secretary Doing anything larger than they're like, okay, we really need professional help. Well, we just usually when people hire us, it's just they want to take it to the next level. Right? We even have a company if it weren't for COVID, we would be really small doing an event right now. They wanted to after, you know, five years, they're like, this is this events growing. So we actually need a professional agency to help us kind of step up that experience, even though they do a great job, but they know it's time to for someone else to take it to another level.

Tim Kubiak : 14:31

Talking about that, before we go into the next question, you know, you have some great pictures on your website. If people want to find you Where Where should they find you? where's the best place to check out your stuff, so to speak,

Amanda : 14:42

please go to www dot innovate mkg.com and you'll see lots of great work there and hopefully we'll get to collaborate soon.

Tim Kubiak : 14:53

Yeah, in the pictures are amazing. Right. And you have you have all the socials I saw. So you're on Instagram am your you know, you get to, of course, you're in the business, you've got a great LinkedIn page. So,

Amanda : 15:06

yeah, so you can see we also have a YouTube page so you can actually see some videos of the events we done. Oh, that's great.

Tim Kubiak : 15:15

I didn't I'll admit I did not find that and check that out. So do you help clients set their goals for the events, whether it's the on the experience, whether it's number of attendees or type of attendees? How do you help with that?

Amanda : 15:31

Sure, actually, one of the, you know, our mission here is not just about doing an event, like a fun event. That's also very important. But we usually start with KPIs like what's the purpose of the event, right? We want every event to be very meaningful, like a grand opening was a perfect a conference also has a purpose. A gala also has a purpose. Like everything has a purpose. So we usually do that. And then we kind of have them list out their top three KPIs. So as we're building around that Event experience, we can continue to check back to that KPI and say, Okay, this hits the KPI. Right, because a lot of times we get so creative or the client gets so creative, and they have so many ideas. And then we help bring it back to ultimately what matters most because sometimes the dollars are not unlimited, right? So it's kind of like no, this is what makes the most impact and this hits your KPI so it's important that we circle back you know, and our client always are very appreciative of that because sometimes they get so excited we all get wrapped up in this excitement was like, wait, but that's just there's a doesn't hit our KPI, you know? So we kind of go back, what's your objective? What's your goal? Why are we doing this event? You know, and who is it for who's the demographic like that's those are all very important thing, elements that go through and even with our account managers here, they know before we start a project, to not just rush through that process. Oftentimes, if you set your up for success is to make sure You do that part right and invest time to doing that. Understanding the goals and objectives is very important.

Tim Kubiak : 17:10

How do you look at the right strategies to help meet that client's goals because I've done it. So a couple years ago, I decided to put on a 13 city roadshow with internal marketing resources. It was a nightmare, right? We were doing it over basically four months, we were coordinating five sets of sponsor speakers plus our own technical content plus our own executives and myself, you know, so how do you pick somebody who has a crazy idea like that, and help them make it something that they could really execute? And frankly, sleep a few days before the event? Probably cuz your team's up in all fairness.

Amanda : 17:50

Yeah, so the first one Oh, and last one to go. When you sleep, we sleep tip.

Tim Kubiak : 17:58

That's good. I didn't I didn't sleep Four and a half months. Oh,

Amanda : 18:01

my gosh. I mean, we do our clients are like they love the jam packed schedule. So again, I think it goes back to the most impactful, right. And then we always are big on quality versus quantity. You know, because we even do sponsorship opportunities, like for our clients, like evaluating what events to participate, like for them to sponsor, and a lot of times they're like, well, I want to be attend events. And then, you know, that's our goal. So we kind of go back to is that you want to be at 10 events, or is it because the number, right, because you could also do sponsor one big event and hit your KPIs? Or is it because you want to diversify that portfolio of what you sponsor and how you engage in the community? You know, so we kind of go back to the quality versus quantity and kind of again, what what's the purpose and why do you why Tim, you don't want to sleep for four months and you want to hit all these, right? Because you may say, Oh, I'm I want to do this one because I don't know, this is really good. And we kind of walk it through and sometimes they will figure out themselves like, okay, you're right. We don't need to necessarily do 100 that's 250, but really impactful and meaningful. Yeah.

Tim Kubiak : 19:17

Have you ever run into where clients don't have the right? customer list? prospect list, you know, to draw people into an event and how do you help them cope with that?

Amanda : 19:28

Yes, we definitely encounter that. So you know, when we have that conversation of who your demographic and who how you're sending it out that communication, you know, we call it that that discovery process, then we will kind of help guide them to the right, another direction, say, Hey, if you're, you're trying to attract this demographic, and you're sending the email to this list that doesn't, that's not your demographic. Right? And then they A lot of times, they just think, Oh, I have this list. I'm gonna use it. Right and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're trying to attract more folks to give you a very simple example, like hotel openings, right, who do you want to invite other than partner investor? Those are pretty typical. But you also want to invite planners, right? But sometimes hotels don't think that they just think like, I'm gonna throw this fabulous event and four people with planners is who's gonna bring you projects, like bring all those meetings to your property, you know, so we kind of have, we kind of help guide them and bridged out and where our agency we're a part of MPI, which is meeting professional International. So say, Oh, that's a great way you can also engage planners. So if the hotel happened to be in Hawaii or Southern California, reach out to that group and say, please come to a hotel opening and then you could check out the hotel because normally we always do a tour and you really get to see all aspects of the hotel because for planners, we need to know what we're promoting to our clients. You know, so use, I call this see it to believe it, right and even us Spence's and their hotels, sometimes you just have to see it right there. There's certain hotel we just don't recommend to client because maybe in that gorgeous ballroom, there's four poles you know and climb. Don't know that you just see like, Oh, beautiful picture. Don't never post a picture of the four polls in the middle and you're like, No, that doesn't work. And that's why people hire us, right? Because we had this inside knowledge. Or people say, Oh, I want to do a rooftop, you know, cocktail party. Oh, this this one is really great. But this other one's not great because the freight elevator is so small. It takes a lot of time for people like the vendors have loaded those again is like a planner knowledge. You know, if you don't work the downtown hotel venue like we know it so well. We're like, don't do that venue, that one is union. It also all those insider information and that's kind of ties it back to why people hire us.

Tim Kubiak : 21:55

That's a great point because if you've never dealt with drage in Union hotel, And you show up at one. It's a whole different game. And that's where a professional like you and your team can step in and really make it run so much smoother because you've either prepared for it or avoided it.

Amanda : 22:11

Correct? Yeah, one time. Literally, it took a guy two hours to move one podium. It was so frustrating. It was union. So that's definitely not on our recommendation list. Right? We're like, it doesn't take two hours. And we couldn't do it right. Being proactive is one of our company values. You can you could sense the frustration. My team was feeling like, can we help you like what, you know?

Tim Kubiak : 22:38

Yeah, that would be frustrating. I've never thought about that. But you're right. The simple things like I've waited for power and things like that to be run, but moving a podium or changing a table. I've never thought about that in a union setting. Yeah. If we go to you talked a lot earlier about creating an experience for guests. Can you talk about the difference? If people were thinking of using your firm between like a product launch versus a user's conference, or an internal team event? You know, are there different just sort of universal things that people should start thinking about as they reach out to you

Amanda : 23:19

see, what is the experience they're looking for? Right? So a lot of time we start with a conversation. And we do a lot of these these are kind of our core competency where we do a lot of these grand openings and you know conferences so we kind of know the right questions to ask and how that really helps the client guide that experience and as well as in locations also a big one because we do you know, majority of work is Southern California, California, and we have about 30% that is National. Okay.

Tim Kubiak : 23:57

So, is it the usual spots next Like the big cities, or do you find yourself in secondary markets when you do national things?

Amanda : 24:08

Like we were just in Washington DC before all this? Usually when the big cities Yeah,

Tim Kubiak : 24:13

yeah. Yeah. You know, it's it's always when I get invited to Dayton, Ohio, it scares me a little bit. Right. You say New York, DC Atlanta, you know, in the usual tradeshow hubs and I'm like, Okay, great. They're like, Yeah, can you do this thing in Dayton? Dayton Really? Sure. And by the way, I've got good friends in Dayton. So it's not a knock on them. Just an example of a small market that can be a bit challenging.

Amanda : 24:39

Yes, a little bit too. And that's why why the major ones very popular, but I think the secondary also have their own unique experiences as well. You know,

Tim Kubiak : 24:49

it's probably different to draw in that kind of a market I would think right if you're doing

Amanda : 24:55

Yeah, very different. Most of our client just like the big cities, so We don't really I mean, I would say Dallas is healthy, the least like, and that's not even secondary market. But we're usually in New York, Chicago, San Francisco. Yeah, before

Tim Kubiak : 25:10

they built the Gaylord in Dallas, I don't think I'd ever go into any major events there. And I went to a couple when they open that, because they seem to have parts of the big conference industry locked up being part of the mariadb family. So let me see here. How do you provide an ROI and a cost control for client? Because Because one of the things that happens is right, you get there and we talked about the union, but you find out you know, how do you make sure you have all the right AV all the other things, the signage, the freight, everything baked in when you're planning an event?

Amanda : 25:51

I think that's why it's important to get the scope of work and go understanding right? Like what it is that they want, and the What was service they need from us? Because, you know, we essentially provide a full spectrum of services from beginning to end. You hire us, we, you know, we, we help coordinate with other vendors, we're essentially a one stop shop, find a venue for them. But sometimes what ends up happening is if you want to add an extra day, right, that definitely boosts up your budget, we had a client where the conference was very high profile, and then it got even more high profile when we found out one of their major speakers accepted it, but then they had all these requirements, you know, they need it certain things and that was in the budget. Right. So for that we're usually really good about keeping our clients in budget. That's usually that one of the in our kickoff meeting, we talked about that. Right. What is your budget Do you have room for growth because there are opportunities will say hey, if you use this, you know, in terms of like backdrop for the conference like this Is 20,000 This is 30,000. But the 30,000 is much more impactful because of the phone reason we went in for us. It's not an upsell, right, because our charge doesn't change if the money goes to the vendor, but it's how does that translate into our ROI for the client? Because maybe the branding is very spectacular, right? Maybe is a screen because we were starting to do projection screens, you know, for a few years. And that was really nice, because it keeps the room very entertaining versus like, just static projections. You know, it's very different. Like one year we did a Dr. Seuss themed party and the whole room is just constantly changing. They're just so fun and inviting, even when you want to, like, calm down you can because the room is just so fun and just makes that atmosphere a little bit different, you know, and brings out the fun side of people. Yeah,

Tim Kubiak : 27:57

yeah. You know, in that, that does really Change the guests experience right is just having that little bit of you talked about champagne Marler, but bringing a little fun into the event no matter what, that really does make it stand out.

Amanda : 28:13

Correct and kind of going back to your question about the budget, right? So when we're doing the hotel opening for example, I remember specifically because originally we wanted to do a, you know, a much bigger or much bigger champagne wall, but then because of budget, we kind of made it a little bit smaller, but still awesome. You know? So I think those are how you adjust the budget because we're like, No, no, you need champagne law and because a lot of times what ends up happening is they love our ideas. And we say well, you have to cut a we curate based on the event, right? And then we usually recommend based on even though we present a few ideas, we say these are our favorite, we highly recommend go this route, right but what ended up happening maybe if they have 100,000, and they supply also really Love the champagne wall and I like it to be like 24 feet long there. Well, you know what your budget you could do maybe 16 versus 24, you know, so you can make adjustments that way, right? But sometimes you cut down too much impact is no longer there, we will also let the client know and say, Hey, Tim, this is now too small, and it's not gonna have the effect that you're originally looking for, or that we designed it for, you know, so maybe instead of that, and why don't we reallocate budget do a bigger for wall. Um, so that's more impactful. So we'll adjust it that way. But we're good with numbers.

Tim Kubiak : 29:37

That's an important thing because overruns will kill a budget, right? And that's a great way to keep your clients is to keep them in budget.

Amanda : 29:44

Correct. Because you remember it goes back to we make them look like rockstars by keeping them in budget, we make them look like rock stars.

Tim Kubiak : 29:53

So part of your background, right, you're born in Taiwan. And you run and I've heard you speak in other areas. interviews about creating culturally inclusive events. So can we talk about that for a little bit? Yeah, sure. So one of the things you talked about was, frankly, table layouts. So do you mind just kind of going through that for the listeners of how that influences a room and sets the tone?

Amanda : 30:16

What do you mean by table layout?

Tim Kubiak : 30:18

So you're talking about round tables versus long ones? Right, and just things like that, that go into consideration of making an event more welcoming and and connecting people better?

Amanda : 30:31

Correct. So typical room that you've probably experienced as you walk in and it just a bunch of roundtables or you walk in and just classroom stuff. We like to mix it up. So like, for example, one big a lot that we did, we actually have roundtables and in the middle we have what's called like a VIP long table. So all their major has sponsor or stakeholder or C or sat in a long table, and they just made that room look that much more exciting. We are also done a mix of rounds and Long's like banquet. As well as just like mixing it up even for you know, some lifestyle events, we do that too because as soon as you walk in the room, you're like, what what is different, right and then all it is is just a table mixing in instead of rounds you mix in sound, long table, or even some square table, sometimes changing up the type of table so meaning the material, so we'll have like wooden table and then next to it is another style of table and it just makes the room look a lot more interesting that way too.

Tim Kubiak : 31:35

Yeah, and it's funny sitting enough of these rooms, you notice subtle differences and that kind of touch, right? Because if everything's the same thing with the same tablecloth and the same chair covers, it looks like every other event

Amanda : 31:49

correct and then at the leaves, what we'll do is change up the table linens. So even as rounds will propose the client can we do two different colors, right and then even the four arrangement Because the table in is different will say, Okay, can we do two different four arrangements? You know? So there's like, all these different ways we do. And it's funny because we get people attend our event, and maybe they have attended the event prior without our agency being involved. And she's like, I noticed a difference. You know, like, because like you say, Tell me when you go to a lot of these, which I was attending a lot of these, and that's why I started the company. And, you know, you start to notice and appreciate the senior like, Oh, yeah, they did this versus like, Oh, just, you know, all the same. Not there's nothing wrong with that. But we're just looking for something a little bit more interesting.

Tim Kubiak : 32:38

Yeah. Because that is really what makes you come back makes you pay attention makes you tell your friends about it.

Amanda : 32:44

Correct. Yeah.

Tim Kubiak : 32:46

So if if somebody is planning and wants to do a culturally inclusive event, how do you how can you help them do that? So it's not misinterpreted as cultural appropriation or, you know, an inappropriate rap. presentation is that place you can help give guidance.

Amanda : 33:04

Definitely. I mean, we have a lot of Asian clients as well. So, you know, for some of these events, we don't have a lot of number fours. So like everywhere the hotel, they're like, How come? You know, we told them like, Oh, yeah, we have about 400 people and they're like, No, no, it says 50. Right. But they also go Yeah, if you notice, we actually took a table for 40 to 49. So we completely skip that section. And it's just funny, right? And then Asian people love the number eight because it's lucky. So if people get to set a table a they're so excited. They're like one of the lucky table. It's like smallest thing is actually pretty funny, you know, and then we have to make sure people are strategically placed. I think corporately, because we do mainly corporate events. So it's okay like we could use white, you know, those color but in certain culture They don't like white because White is for when you have a funeral. So if you do a white event, they don't like that. Right? They love reds. So a lot red and Sunday Our job is like, Okay, can we do like a color? That's close? Because you know, otherwise, there's so many red events, right? Like red and gold, red and gold. like, Okay, what else can we do other than red and go? That's so lucky, you know? Yeah. I think that falls under when we do a lot of our Lunar New Year's engagements or activations or events for our corporate clients. Everybody wants red, you know? So we're like, you just here at the office, all the systems are calling you say, do you have relatives who have relatives?

Tim Kubiak : 34:40

It's seasonal.

Amanda : 34:42

Seasonal in that we're booking like the lion dance, right? And the Jews, like we have two companies we go with and we say, okay, you know, sometimes it was the same day that we had to call the other company. Ryan, how many lions and we're like, Okay, well, they usually bring the lettuce with them and then we have to prepare red pocket. Like, there's a lot of logistics stuff that you know we love working on because we even done like bank openings. So to for Asian thing so the lion and we had to arrange for the lion dance because the lion actually blessed the vault. Okay, so it's kind of interesting. You're sitting Yeah, yeah, like we really get to see the vote but for hotel grant, I mean for bank openings, that's actually one of the must for Asian bank. So they will bless the vault and there's like this whole, you know, festivity. We love it. We love it,

Tim Kubiak : 35:33

is it? I don't say ritual, but I mean, it's, it's an expected part of that event, right. So you have to make sure you do it perfectly, I would think for the client to really appreciate it.

Amanda : 35:44

For sure. Yeah. Like kind of how you start right from the ribbon cutting to the vault blessing to the ultimate the kind of post reception for all their VIP guests.

Tim Kubiak : 35:56

So knowing that you have a large number of Asian You're probably dealing with multilingual events is that something you run into very often?

Amanda : 36:05

Most of our clients speak English, I would say even our Asian clientele, but our team, it also speaks Chinese fluently. So we could have been most even. Yeah, I would say most though English with a few that needs like that Chinese assistance

Tim Kubiak : 36:22

for larger events in my traditional industry, I would see, you know, for mainstage presentations, and even some of the breakouts, people would pick their agenda in advance, and then they would be given headsets and then have a translator. I can't imagine trying to coordinate that, because we'd have it literally we that people from 90 countries there, right? So you're dealing with, you know, English, Chinese, you know, maybe Farsi and certainly Spanish and several other languages. You know, how do you even begin to understand the mix at an event like that if if you're doing your job

Amanda : 37:01

Yeah, I mean, that just adds another layer in terms of logistics, you know, and luckily with technology's gotten a lot easier, because now that is literally one vendor we'll work with. And then all they do is help translate everything from my event into the different languages, right? Even right now we're, um, we just talked to a potential client not too long ago, and they're even have four languages they want to English, Mandarin, I think Dutch and Spanish. Right? So then for that, then we will work with our vendor who's a translating company, and then everything will be translated. There's a minor delay, like very little, you can't really tell, but there's minor delay as they translate, right? So it's pretty Yeah, it's pretty fluid. Now, I would say.

Tim Kubiak : 37:50

So one of the things and we're going to kind of move towards pivoting to virtual events, you know, because that's where the world's going but one of the things I thought is you built this beautiful PDF that's available on your website on pivoting to virtual. And as I was getting ready to talk to you today, I saw that you had hashtags and multiple languages and multiple characters at the end of that right? And it made me wonder. So many events now, especially large events have event based apps, but even smaller events. How do you deal with multilingual in that situation? Is it the same kind of translation service? Do you have to do it in house and download a different version?

Amanda : 38:33

We will work with a third party to help translate everything. Okay. Yeah, cuz we want to make sure it's done. Right. Right. Just because you think in certain words, there's no translation in the certain culture. Yeah. You know, like, I can't think of any right now. But I know there's definitely something in Chinese I'm always like, what is that English because I'm trying to, you know, tell someone else who's American. I just like there's no words, but it's This is what it means, you know,

Tim Kubiak : 39:03

I saw the company I last worked for in the corporate world, the previous owner before it was bought out by the conglomerate was of Chinese descent. So most of the staff spoke Mandarin, and some didn't really speak much English. And when the ownership group speaks Chinese, it worked well. And then, in my case, you brought me in and a Frenchman, after the fact. Right? And fortunately for me, one of the guys that was there grew up in a bilingual household. And he was a Chinese literature major. So I would literally call Jonathan and say okay, look, you know, I don't know how to say this. Right and communicate the point in I was in house translation and just doing that on a day to day basis. And by the way, it was the finance group that spoke Chinese so that we saw it um, you know, because nothing like a sales guy fighting with them. Counting about numbers. So but yeah, you know, so I know it from firsthand just the differences in the challenges and making sure that everybody's understood. And one of the things I had to learn, frankly, myself was, you know, in America, everybody, you know, walks in and says hi to the boss and chats and everything. And I learned in Chinese culture that you know, they're much more level conscious that, you know, at least that's what I was taught. And so somebody walking up to senior executive that was a warehouse person wasn't something that was normal. Right? You know, and I was the goop in the back with the bow tie that day, by the way. You're helping ship boxes and these poor guys were mortified. I'm like, what I'm just telling them I can use a tape gun. It's fine. Transcribed by https://otter.ai