Building Better Events With Vision, Focus, and Intentionality

[00:00:00] Tavar James: People want better, not more, across content, across events, across programming, across experiences. No one's going to go to them and say, "No, I want more. Give me more."

They're going to say, "No, just give me better."

[00:00:10] Alyssa Peltier: Great events create great brands, but pulling off an event that engages, excites, and connects audiences? Well, that takes a village, and we're that village. My name is Alyssa.

[00:00:22] Rachel Andrews: I'm Rachel.

[00:00:23] Kelly Cheng: I'm Kelly.

[00:00:24] Felicia Asiedu: And I'm Felicia.

[00:00:26] Alyssa Peltier: And you are listening to Great Events, the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators, and innovators in the world of events and marketing.

[00:00:34] Rachel Andrews: What is up, everybody, in the wide, wide world of events? My name is Rachel, and you are listening to or watching Great Events On the Road, a podcast by Cvent. I am super excited today for our guest. We have Tavar from Forrester. He is the VP of Global Events. Welcome.

[00:00:50] Tavar James: Thank you. Happy to be here for it.

[00:00:52] Rachel Andrews: Yes. We are currently on site at CEMA Summit. Tavar is very involved in CEMA. Why don't you just tell our listeners a little bit about you, how you got into the events world, and how you got to where you are now?

[00:01:02] Tavar James: I didn't always love my story.

[00:01:04] Rachel Andrews: Okay. Now you're owning your story.

[00:01:05] Tavar James: Yeah, I love it. So, I started in the hospitality industry. I was a front desk night auditor at a little Courtyard by Marriott in Boynton Beach, Florida. And this was right out of school, out of high school, actually. And I worked there at the front desk for about six to eight months.

And then the general manager and the director of sales and marketing came to me one day and said, "Hey, we love how you are with the guests. We have a position upstairs for a sales and marketing coordinator. You want to take it?" And at that point, I was in college. I was like, more money, better schedule.

[00:01:31] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. "Sign me up. Say less."

[00:01:33] Tavar James: Yeah. So I went upstairs, got involved in sales and marketing, but then I started to do catering. Back then, it was called catering events, right?

So I started to book events for the hotel. It was one of those unique Courtyards that had event space. So I booked events, I did BEOs, all that fun stuff. And then I was like, "Oh, I kind of like this," all while selling as well. Selling weddings and mitzvahs and all that stuff.

So, I quickly realized I love events, started to grow within the franchise that that company was with, called Ocean Properties. And then I quickly just climbed the ranks. I got into Marriott. Marriott moved me to New York, where I became an event manager at the Marriott in Brooklyn.

And then I had some sales roles with Marriott. And then my last role in hospitality was director of events at the Ritz-Carlton in New York. So I quickly climbed the ranks of hospitality.

Then when I got to the Ritz-Carlton, I was like, "Eh, there's more to this, 'cause I see other people in events on the other side of the business. At least people I'm doing BEOs for. How do I get on that side of the business?"

[00:02:25] Rachel Andrews: Right. "I want the money to spend on events."

[00:02:28] Tavar James: Exactly. So then, I got an opportunity to be the head of events for Equitable Financial Services. And then I did financial services, SaaS, SaaS to agency, agency. Now I'm at Forrester.

[00:02:39] Rachel Andrews: Okay. Wow.

[00:02:40] Tavar James: A little bit of a journey. I've been on all sides of the business.

[00:02:42] Rachel Andrews: That's awesome. So you know a little bit of everything?

[00:02:45] Tavar James: A little bit.

[00:02:45] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. It's always funny to me when I talk to a lot of people on the podcast. Everybody has such a unique story. And I think what we forget, even in college, I had no clue how many different avenues you could take in the industry. There are so many, definitely.

[00:02:59] Tavar James: We need to do a better job of showcasing the different facets of our industry.

[00:03:03] Rachel Andrews: 100%.

[00:03:04] Tavar James: And I think the generation that's coming into our industry, they're actually less of the Swiss Army knife that we are.

[00:03:11] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:03:11] Tavar James: Right? I think we, or at least I can speak for myself coming up in the industry, it was very much like you need to do everything.

You need to know how to plan, execute, be strategic, everything. Right?

[00:03:21] Rachel Andrews: Yeah.

[00:03:21] Tavar James: Where I think those that are coming up now, they're like, "No, I just want to do content," or, "I just want to do operations."

[00:03:28] Rachel Andrews: One focus area.

[00:03:28] Tavar James: Or, "I just want to do production." Right?

[00:03:30] Rachel Andrews: How luxurious for you.

[00:03:32] Tavar James: And there's a whole job for you. Right?

[00:03:34] Rachel Andrews: Yeah.

[00:03:34] Tavar James: So, I think we have to do a better job of being okay with that.

[00:03:37] Rachel Andrews: Right. Yeah, yeah. I wore so many hats. I've done so many random projects, and a lot of it is like, "That's technically HR. That's technically in the legal realm. That's procurement."

[00:03:47] Tavar James: Yeah. Right now, I'm hiring for a marketing manager just to market our event portfolio. And it's very interesting meeting with some people where they're just like, "Yeah, I just want to get the event out there. I want to make sure that it reaches as many people as possible, but I don't want to do any operations. I want to do content and just marketing the event." And I'm like, "Okay."

[00:04:06] Rachel Andrews: "All right. I have a job for you."

[00:04:07] Tavar James: "That's cool."

[00:04:08] Rachel Andrews: I like it. Well, tell me, actually, good segue, what's your team up to? What are y'all working on? And maybe for our listeners, I mean, Forrester, everybody knows Forrester, but maybe give a little background on that.

[00:04:17] Tavar James: Sure. So Forrester, we're a research and advisory firm. We're one of the big three: Gartner, Forrester, IDC. We've been around for about 47 years, and we have a pretty robust portfolio of events. Our events are structured by persona.

So we have events for the B2B marketing world. Our B2B Summit is our flagship event in Phoenix. We have our CX events, which is more B2C digital marketing. And then we have our tech and innovation events, which also include security.

So we have about 11 flagship events a year. Of course, we have field events and stuff like that, but our 11 flagship events are global. We have one per portfolio, per region. So one in North America, one in EMEA, one in APAC.

And now we're getting ready for our H2 events, which are our tech events, our AI forums in Singapore and Sydney. We have a few tech events in Texas and New York. We have our security event in D.C., and then we have our B2B and our tech event in London.

[00:05:06] Rachel Andrews: Wow.

[00:05:06] Tavar James: All coming up.

[00:05:07] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. We don't sleep. Right?

[00:05:09] Tavar James: We don't. I'm getting on a plane and going to Singapore on Monday.

[00:05:11] Rachel Andrews: I love it. I love it. Can't stop, won't stop. Speaking of AI, there's just so much going on, and I feel like everybody is trying to do everything at once. What are you doing for your events team? Are you guys training? Are you developing new roles? How is that?

[00:05:25] Tavar James: Not developing new roles. I don't think we're ready for that yet, but we're definitely trying to see how AI can influence just productivity. "How can we move faster? How can we move smarter?"

But at least I'm very careful in how much AI I'm throwing on my team. I believe that we, in our industry, need to get better at just continuing to push what AI cannot do. This is the golden moment of events, right?

But I think we need to focus on that and stay connected to that, because right now we're getting very noisy with the AI thing, and I'm afraid that in the midst of the noise, we're going to lose why we're really in this industry and we're going to lose our golden moment.

So I'm very careful with how much I push AI on my team. I'm like, "Yeah, use it to be productive. Content, branding, whatever the case may be, anything that helps you move faster, but don't get so caught up in it that you forget why we do what we do," which I feel is sometimes happening.

[00:06:19] Rachel Andrews: It is.

[00:06:19] Tavar James: It's a little scary.

[00:06:20] Rachel Andrews: It is, yeah. But I mean, I do think that we have the biggest job security in marketing because you can't replace human-to-human connection. More of that is happening. People want those experiences.

But you're right, though. You can put into Claude, "Give me an event strategy."

Is it good? Maybe the template is, but you need to also then use your brain.

[00:06:44] Tavar James: No, I tell people AI, for me, is a starting point. It's like a catapult. It's not necessarily where I land. It's not going to tell the full story, but it just gets me started.

We all get to a point where we hit a wall creatively. We're like, "Oh, I just need something to give me a..." And that's what I use AI for. I'm like, "Okay, give me a little help."

[00:06:59] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. I think it's hard 'cause everyone's jumping on it, and they're like, "I don't want to be left behind. I'm just going to do it," which is great. You need to not get left behind.

[00:07:05] Tavar James: You want to be aware, but you don't need to blow up shop for it.

[00:07:08] Rachel Andrews: Yeah.

[00:07:08] Tavar James: At least not yet.

[00:07:09] Rachel Andrews: Not yet. Yeah. I think leadership, especially at tech companies, is like, "How are we more productive? What can we cut? We're not going to backfill. It's going to be AI." And I think that's going to backfire on some people.

[00:07:19] Tavar James: Oh my God. Yeah. I feel like it's going to backfire kind of like, and this is very controversial, but kind of like how work from home is backfiring. Almost every company now is like, "Yeah, by 2028, we're going to be four days back in the office."

These were companies that were like, "Nope, we're never going to do it. We're never going back to the office. Work from home. It works, it's productive, blah, blah, blah, blah."

But no, a lot of companies are mandating back in the office.

I mean, AI is very different than that, but I feel like it's the same thing. There's this hype, and then it's going to somehow peter out, and everyone's going to be like, "Oh, remember when we were all going crazy about AI? Look at it now."

[00:07:50] Rachel Andrews: Okay. Well, we're going to look back at this podcast in two years and see what...

[00:07:54] Tavar James: Hopefully I'm right.

[00:07:56] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. "But we're both robots now." Well, VP of events, I feel like a lot of people strive for that title. Do you have any juicy details on how you can get to that level if you're striving to be that?

[00:08:10] Tavar James: I would say strive for the...

[00:08:11] Rachel Andrews: Asking for a friend.

[00:08:12] Tavar James: No, no, no, no. Strive for the scope, not the title.

[00:08:16] Rachel Andrews: Okay.

[00:08:17] Tavar James: Now granted, I think just psychologically, we all want the title. I respect that, and I'm one of them. I definitely want to continue to climb. And titles do matter to me to a degree, but I think what's most important for me right now is that I'm growing in scope. I'm growing in ownership. I'm growing in having a seat at the table. Depending on your organization, you can be a senior director, director, and have a seat at the table.

But I would say the one piece of advice I've been giving people that want to climb is just have a commercial mindset, have a vision, be a visionary leader. I think event marketers, event professionals, period, I think we get so focused on strategy, strategy, strategy, strategy, strategy. 'Cause again, we have this party planner complex where...

And I think we've finally gotten away from that, and people are like, "Oh no, now that I'm finally not considered a party planner, I never want to lose that, so let me focus on strategy." But not everybody can focus on strategy. Someone has to execute.

So, I have really honed in on having a commercial mindset. And what does that mean? That means thinking strategy, but also thinking bigger picture, right? So when I look at, for example, Forrester's events portfolio, not only is it a marketing channel, it's a P&L. So I'm thinking, when I'm talking to the CFO, I'm talking P&L. When I'm speaking to my CMO, I'm talking channel. When I'm talking to my head of brand, I'm talking awareness.

And so it's having that commercial mindset where you're looking at the business not from a singular lens, but from a full, holistic lens and what events can do for the business holistically. Starting to think like that, you start to realize that more executives listen. Where I think before, when you just think like an event marketer, you just think like an event planner, you go to the CEO, you want to have that one-on-one, and they are. They're talking to you as you're like, "What do you want to talk about?"

Whereas now I go in front of my CEO, it's a different conversation because he knows what I'm trying to influence, and he knows what I'm trying to influence because I've been very good at sharing the vision. I think I said it to you, I've got 10 years of work at Forrester. That's because I have a vision. I have a vision of where this business can be 3, 5, 10 years from now. And I've been very vocal about it, and I've been very bullish about it, to be honest with you, to the point where some of my executives are like, "What the hell, Tavar?"

[00:10:23] Rachel Andrews: "You're so aggressive about this."

[00:10:25] Tavar James: "Well, that's not what we do today," but I'm like, "But that's my vision, and that is what I think is best for the business, and that is where I think the business will go. You may not see it now, but 10 years from now, this is what's going to work for us."

So something like blowing up the summit and making it a forum. That's step one of my vision. And we're seeing the fruits of it. We're seeing it produce the results that we want. I encourage leaders to have a commercial mindset, have a holistic view of the business, and be a visionary leader, and be able to be a storyteller.

And share that vision and not think so singularly on just the marketing side. Be able to talk about the marketing side, the brand side, the humanistic side, and be very honest about it. I went in front of my CFO to share a 2027 plan. I knew he was going to be like, "Tavar, hell no." But I wanted to show him, "This is the business. This is where we are.

Now, I'm going to chip away, and I'm going to give you a B2, but my B1 is going to be the truth because I feel like before you were not getting the truth. So this is the truth of the business. Here are the numbers, and here's what I'm going to do."

[00:11:25] Rachel Andrews: It's not all sunshine and rainbows.

[00:11:26] Tavar James: Thank you.

[00:11:27] Rachel Andrews: Yeah.

[00:11:27] Tavar James: So anyway, I know it was a long answer, but if I can summarize it: commercial mindset, be a visionary leader.

[00:11:32] Rachel Andrews: I think so often we get caught up in the tactical, like, "Oh, I got to work on staffing. I got to do this." And then you just need to take a minute and take a step back and look at what you're doing.

And it's painful to do that sometimes 'cause we do so many events, and sometimes I'm like, "Why are we doing so many? Maybe we do less, and we do fewer events, but do them better. Quality over quantity situation."

[00:11:55] Tavar James: People want better, not more.

[00:11:57] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:11:57] Tavar James: Across content, across events, across programming, across experiences. No one's going to go to them and say, "No, I want more. Give me more." They're going to say, "No, just give me better.

Give me a better selection." So I agree with you on that.

I think the other thing is just having a good bench. So I will say I have a really good bench of lieutenants, leaders, right? I have my head of ops, I have my head of sales, I have my head of bodies. I have my nice bunch of leaders, where now that I'm a year and a half into my role, I'm slowly getting more comfortable with saying, "They got it."

Where I think in the beginning I was a little bit nosy, poking my head into everything, but now I've learned to trust my leadership team. And I have a really good bench of leaders where it's like, Okay, they're focused on execution. I'm focused on making sure that vision stays alive.

So when I sit with my leadership team and my executive team, I'm constantly reiterating that 10-year plan. "Remember, here's where we're going."

[00:12:44] Rachel Andrews: "Here's the end goal."

[00:12:45] Tavar James: "We'll remind you of what we're doing. Now here's an update of how we're getting there." And it just keeps people excited as well.

[00:12:51] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. And leadership, oftentimes, they don't want to be the strategist. They want someone to have a POV.

[00:12:57] Tavar James: I had to learn it the hard way, actually. I had to learn that not everyone wants that part of the job.

[00:13:03] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:13:03] Tavar James: Right? There are certain people, even some of my leaders that report to me, some of them are okay with just executing.

[00:13:09] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:13:10] Tavar James: "Give me what you need, Tavar, and I will execute."

But what I remind all of them is,

"In order for you to execute effectively, you need to be bought into the vision."

[00:13:16] Rachel Andrews: Totally.

[00:13:17] Tavar James: So if you're standing in that elevator and I'm not in that elevator with you, and someone says, "Hey, where's the events business going?"

Can you answer that question? Can you answer it confidently? Do you believe in it?

[00:13:25] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. In 30 seconds or less. Yeah.

[00:13:27] Tavar James: Right?

[00:13:27] Rachel Andrews: Yeah.

[00:13:27] Tavar James: So I had to learn that the hard way, that, "Okay, Tavar, you are the visionary. Not everyone is like that."

[00:13:32] Rachel Andrews: Totally. Yeah.

[00:13:32] Tavar James: "Your bench needs to just be the people that know how to execute that."

[00:13:35] Rachel Andrews: Okay, so what's next for you? What does a 10-year plan look like? Is this business metrics? Is this growth?

[00:13:42] Tavar James: Both.

[00:13:42] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:13:42] Tavar James: It's business metrics. So when I look at Forrester's events as a brand, when I look at it as a product, it's almost like a product roadmap, right? So right now, we're focusing on what I call small and mighty, right?

So smaller events, maybe more of them, but more intentional, to your point, the quality over the quantity, and how do I grow that? So what I've been telling people is I want to grow horizontally, not vertically. What that means is I don't want bigger events. I just want more events that are more intentional and more connected to the person.

[00:14:08] Rachel Andrews: Is that regional?

[00:14:09] Tavar James: Regional.

[00:14:09] Rachel Andrews: Is that persona-based?

[00:14:10] Tavar James: Persona-based and regional-based. 'Cause I think one of the things I'm noticing is that people are just...

they're still having a hard time seeing themselves at an event.

I think you and I have talked about certain events where it's like, "Okay, we're at that level now where I need to see more of me at that level." And if I don't see myself or my peers there, it's hard for me to want to go.

[00:14:28] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. "I don't have time for that."

[00:14:29] Tavar James: Yeah. Right? So it's like, "Do we have an event that is focused on data and AI, not just tech, but data and AI for CXOs?" Very specific, very targeted. So it's more of those. It's more of that.

And that's the 10-year plan to me, is how do I get Forrester's events business to be a true, not standalone product of Forrester, but in some ways like a sub-brand of Forrester where it's kind of its own motion.

[00:14:53] Rachel Andrews: Well, I think it's already there. We're all so hard on ourselves. Your brand is already there. People know your conferences, so it's out there.

[00:15:00] Tavar James: Believe it or not, though, people know Forrester. They don't know Forrester Events. I have to do a better job of getting our events up there. And so that's part of that 10-year plan.

[00:15:06] Rachel Andrews: That's cool.

[00:15:07] Tavar James: Yeah.

[00:15:07] Rachel Andrews: All right. Fun question. Hot takes. And this could be events world, personal, whatever. Anything people should stop doing? Anything people should start doing?

[00:15:18] Tavar James: I am, and this is because I'm a little bit of an introvert, but I really hate forced networking.

[00:15:24] Rachel Andrews: Oh yeah.

[00:15:25] Tavar James: I think we've gotten so addicted to this personalization, connection, community, blah, blah, but let it happen naturally. People are going to connect naturally. You give them the space and the places to do it, they will do it.

I understand some sessions need to have a little bit of like, "Go to this table." Fine. But I feel like the forced networking is on steroids right now, and it needs to chill out a little bit.

[00:15:48] Rachel Andrews: Forced round tables. I'm like, "I don't want to talk to this about this."

[00:15:51] Tavar James: Yeah. Just let it happen, folks. Where's the camera? Just let it happen, please. It will happen. Just make sure that you give them the right space, you have the right people in the room, and they will do it on their own. So let's just chill out on the force networking, kids.

[00:16:06] Rachel Andrews: "Stop holding me against my will to talk."

[00:16:07] Tavar James: Seriously. But as an introvert, it's exhausting.

[00:16:10] Rachel Andrews: It is.

[00:16:11] Tavar James: And then what happens is I'm starting to overevaluate myself because I feel like I'm not able to show up the way I want to show up 'cause I was forced. And then I get annoyed, and then I get frustrated, and then I wear it, and I'm like, "No, my social battery is just depleted. I promise. I'm a nice guy. My battery is dead."

[00:16:27] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. Well, you got to recharge.

[00:16:29] Tavar James: Yeah.

[00:16:29] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. I'm a 50-50. I call it ambivert.

[00:16:31] Tavar James: Ambivert. Yeah.

[00:16:32] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, 50-50. I do thrive externally, but after conferences like this, I die for two days 'cause I'm so tired of being extroverted. Last question. What would you tell your younger self if you had to go back, or rising professionals coming into the industry?

[00:16:47] Tavar James: Be selective of where you show up.

[00:16:48] Rachel Andrews: Okay.

[00:16:49] Tavar James: Yeah, really be selective of where you show up. People are very critical, not just in our industry but in industries in general. And one of the things that I did coming up in the industry is I felt like I needed to be everywhere all the time, and I wish I would've just been a little bit more selective of where I showed up.

So just be very selective, be intentional about where you want to show up. And just remember that even though you represent a company, you're wearing your personal brand as well. And so you just have to be careful with that.

[00:17:10] Rachel Andrews: Well, you have a great personal brand. And for listeners, please go follow Tavar. He's a great follow on LinkedIn. Where else could our listeners find you? LinkedIn?

[00:17:17] Tavar James: Just LinkedIn. I keep professional on LinkedIn.

[00:17:20] Rachel Andrews: I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining Great Events On the Road. Thank you to our listeners for joining today, and everyone have a great day.

[00:17:27] Tavar James: Thanks.

[00:17:30] Alyssa Peltier: Thanks for hanging out with us on Great Events, a podcast by Cvent. If you've been enjoying our podcast, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

[00:17:40] Rachel Andrews: And you can help fellow event professionals and marketers just like you discover Great Events by leaving us a rating on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

[00:17:50] Felicia Asiedu: Stay connected with us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, updates, and some extra doses of inspiration.

[00:17:57] Rachel Andrews: Got a great story or an event to share? We want to hear from you. Find us on LinkedIn, send us a DM, or drop us a note at greatevents@cvent.com.

[00:18:07] Felicia Asiedu: Big thanks to our amazing listeners, our guest speakers, and the incredible team behind the scenes. Remember, every great event begins with great people.

[00:18:17] Alyssa Peltier: And that's a wrap. Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.