Why Great Events Don’t Choose Between Revenue and Attendee Experience

[00:00:00] Rachel Benedick: The key for us is we do have to be willing to change and really looking at those events and saying,"What are you updating from year to year?" And it doesn't mean everything because that's overwhelming, right? Let's really dig in and say what worked and what did people respond really well to? And then, let's hope that that's 80%.

[00:00:20] 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. I'm Rachel. And I'm Felicia. And you're listening to Great Events, the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators, and innovators in the world of events and marketing. 

[00:00:43] Rachel Andrews: What is going on in the wide, wide world of events? My name is Rachel and I'm coming to you live from Great Events On The Road. Today we are talking about what it actually takes to build events, to grow organizations, develop professionals, and move the industry forward. And I have two of the best of the best from your favorite association, Meetings Professional International. I have Rachel Benedick and Lori Pugh. Rachel is the Chief Revenue Officer for MPI and Lori is the Vice President of MPI Academy. Welcome, ladies.

[00:01:15] Rachel Benedick: Thank you.

[00:01:16] Rachel Andrews: So excited to be taking this podcast on the road and it'sjust one of a series of many, many podcasts to come, so we're pumped to be here. But today as we're talking about driving growth of events and things like that, I mean, Rachelbrings both her revenue and experience strategy as well as destination strategy lens.She's definitely seen how events create business value from both sides of the table.

And Lori,you've also been in the industry for a while, so you know what it takes to bring education and experience design together.So you have a lot of knowledge on how you've shaped programs and things like that, that make events worth attending. So together, I feel like you are going to give us a great picture of all the things that people need to pay attention to when they're doing their events. Tell everyone listeningwhy you got into the events industry and a little bit of your background, like the 30 second elevator pitch of you. 

I'll start with you, Rachel.

[00:02:08] Rachel Benedick: All right. I joined MPI three years ago after spending 25 years at Visit Denver. So as you mentioned, kind of that destination side and now, on the professional association side. Unlike a lot of the people I see today, which is so exciting, I did not study this industry.

So I got my undergrad from Michigan State, which actually has an amazing hotel and hospitality program. And I studied psychology, got a master's in psychology and then, started working at a hotel in Denver and fell in love with the people. And that's really where it started for me and where my heart continues to be is the people that are a part of this industry I think is what really, really sets it apart. So that's what keeps me excited and makes me just want to continue to pour into it.

And you've been with MPI how long?

I just celebrated three years.

Three years.

I try to still say I'm new, but the team doesn't really let me. But I think it's all relative based on-

When do you stop being new? Like one and a half year, two years, one year?

No, I think it's relative based on where you were before and for how long.

[00:03:09] Rachel Andrews: This is also, is it dog years or is it like-

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Fair. 

[00:03:13] Lori Pugh: Fair.

[00:03:13] Rachel Andrews: Lori, what about you?

[00:03:15] Lori Pugh: Yeah, so I've been in the industry I think 22 years now and I worked at an ad agency. It's how I got in the business. And we had lots of clients that had preview events and product events and a lot of our clients though were home builders. And when the crash happened in 2007-ish, I decided to pivot to events full-time and fell in love with it and time's flown.

[00:03:37] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, you kind of get your heart sunk into the industry and then you're like, "If there's no other place, this is my home."

It's in your blood.

Love. Yeah. All right. Well, we are on the Great Events Podcast and we are actually on site at WEC at their program. So Rachel is right, which they love us. So I'm so happy that you all took the time to do this.This is kind of a big topic right now because of everything coming out with AI and people are always debating the value of events, right?What separates some of these events from being a nice to have event versus an event that clearly drives business? Because events as a channel is a big business driver. So why is that so important?

[00:04:14] Rachel Benedick: It's a great question. And I think there is such a juxtaposition right now with the importance of AI, which we know is a divisive topic, right? There's a very much a love-hate happening there and then the power of in person events. But I think, and I know you're passionate about this too, so much of what drives great events is the data, and it's the information around the event as well and it's how people are, what is their measure of success?

And I think we really have to drill down to each segment. We have personas of people that are attending our events, right? We have people that are coming for the education. We have people that are coming for the networking. We have people that are coming because they want actual business leads, right? But those measures of success are different, I think, for each segment. So digging in and understanding how that success is being measured and then, how you as an organization are going to deliver on it.

And then partnering with your host city on their measurements for success too, to make sure that you're driving business from their perspective as well. So I think it's a better understanding of all the different types of attendees that we have showing up at these events.

[00:05:22] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, that's for sure. And Lori, I feel like this is the main reason people come to events from the education and experience side. What do you think separates an event that kind of simply delivers programming versus one that creates lasting value and community for attendees?

[00:05:37] Lori Pugh: I've really seen a trend change from the, "Hey, we want hard hitting 20-minute sessions and onto the next one." It's more about what is the concept you just heard and then, how can you talk about it with a community of people who actually understand what you're going through. So it's all about the peer-to-peer component. And so oftentimes we just ... man, we slam in as much content, but no time to digest it, to talk about it, to apply it.

So I think that's what's really important in the design factor and with live events, because you can get content anywhere, even this podcast, but what you can't get is the relationship of the person next to you that you're talking to it about.

[00:06:14] Rachel Andrews: I feel like MPI does that well, you all take your attendee feedback very seriously. Oneof the follow-up questions for you, Lori, is what has changed most with attendee expectations? And I don't know if it's changed or maybe the trends have gotten more vocal, but what do you think?

[00:06:30] Lori Pugh: They've always wanted actionable insights. But I do say now with technology and what we can do, there's opportunities for them to get beyond just taking it in. They want to know, "Okay, what is the next step? What am I actually going to be able to do with this?" And man, we were talking about, I think it's back 2012. I remember thinking, "Oh, how great it would be to be able to personalize education if we had the right technology." And we're here.

We're here. Yeah.

Yeah, and so they're expecting it to meet those expectations and now, we can finally do that.

[00:07:03] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, that's a great answer. Yeah. I feel like the one thing that we see at our events is more networking. "Please, I want to meet people like me." And that's where you go to events to find a community and those actionable insights. But I feel like for a while there, you were right, people were like, "Let's not do hour-long sessions. Let's do 20-minute sessions." And you go to these sessions, it'd be rapid fire, and then there was no time to actually ask questions.

It's like, well, for my brain, I can't digest information unless I'm interacting with people or asking questions. I don't know. I don't think that's just me. I think that's most people.

[00:07:35] Lori Pugh: A hundred percent agree. One of those things, I give an example of it, is we want to see all the healthy food items on a buffet, but we also want the donuts. So we say we want all the healthy stuff, but we eat the donuts. We say we want fast-hitting education and we want 20-minute sessions, but then, we get mad when we don't have time to process it or reflect. So you have to have a balance.

[00:07:58] Rachel Andrews: My God, we order these big platters of crudité and a platter of chicken tenders. What do you think goes first?

[00:08:06] Rachel Benedick: It's those chicken tenders.

Yeah. And I really hope you have ranch for them too.

I know.

[00:08:10] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. I know that sounds horrible, but sometimes they bring these beautiful displays out and it ends up being such a waste. I'm like, "I would love to be the girl that eats the entire crudité tray and maybe I will be one day."

[00:08:22] Rachel Benedick: I think it's funny and it's a very funny example, but I think it really highlights something that's super important, which is one of the challenges I think we all have as event professionals is how well do we know our audiences and they're changing so much.There was a time when, whether it's WEC or whatever the industry show is, there was just an assumption like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to go to that. I'm going to go to that."

And now, those decisions are being really ... They're being looked at and you really have to make that case. Soit's not as easy as it used to be to get people to show up. And then, to really understand what are they looking for because it might be the platter of donuts or the chicken tenders, right? And if we keep missing that mark, there's what people say they want and then, what behavior shows up and then, how do we communicate that?

[00:09:13] Rachel Andrews: God, I have my emotional support chicken tenders.

Yeah. Well, actually that's a great segue into moving the case for event value into how leaders actually build that.Well, at least for me and maybe because I'm in the events industry, so I know events is a channel drive business, but what's actually working? So I'm going to ask Lori, you started to touch on some of this, but Lori, when you're shaping content or education for an event, how do you move from an audience their needs from an agenda, speaker mix, experience, design, what of those aspects truly lands? Does it differ every year? Is it completely different every single time?

[00:09:54] Lori Pugh: Yeah, we have community groups and I've really been relying on them much more than I used to just for context for the audience. I was with MPI for seven years, left for four, I've been back for a year. And I think what's really important is we have our listening ear to the people because a lot of times as planners, we think we know what everyone wants and we don't pause to go back and ask them. And so for me, vetting ideas with those groups has been super important.I'll even say it's really hard because there's so many topics so many people want and I'm known to over-content develop. And sometimes it's not necessarily even about the content, it's the sessions that are broad enough that people come with what they want to learn and then, we develop the session there on site with them like, okay, bring your challenges, what's going on for different sectors?

And people just want to be heard. And sometimes those sessions go off better than the ones where we've programmed them a year out. I mean, the whole world changes in a year and it's really hard. So sometimes I'll have session spots that I don't source until 60 days out for those types of topics that change.When it comes to speakers though, we do a call for speakers, but honestly, it's all about I want to hear from people who are planning conferences every day, even my suppliers.

Because I feel like they go to a lot more conferences. What worked for them? So as I get older and more experienced, it's less about what I think and listening to other people.

[00:11:22] Rachel Andrews: Right. Yeah. Always listen because you could design an amazing conference that you would want to go to, but it might not be like your audience. I was talking to Ken from Freeman who does all the insights and he was me in their recent study, I think by 2030, most of the later generations will be out of the industry and it'll be mostly Gen Z and millennials. And some of the Gen Z folks don't want certain things and we need to be listening to them because they could just up and not come to our conference.

And then, ruin our entire revenue strategy. Because it could make or break some businesses that rely on events completely for driving revenue, driving membership, whatever that might be. And so, it's big. No pressure.

[00:12:09] Lori Pugh: Right.

No pressure.

Well, it makes sense, Rachel, that you're so good at this because it's psychology. It really is.

[00:12:15] Rachel Benedick: I use that degree every day.

Yes.

You use that degree every day.

[00:12:17] Rachel Andrews: I hate to use the KPI word, but what KPIs are you tracking for attendee experience content, Lori?

[00:12:23] Lori Pugh: That one is hard. I'm trying to ... Surveys only get you so far. So what I am trying to leverage in really making sure I put it as my own personal KPI is how do I follow up with the people that attended afterwards to get them thinking about the content they experienced? Because I've been to a ton of conferences where, "Oh, that was great, but I can't ..." I jotted down notes and then, I lost my notebook and I don't remember what I was going to do after. So for me, that's a big success factor.

Of course, you want to drive revenue. I'm sitting next to the CRO, you got to say that, which is important.

[00:12:57] Rachel Andrews: That's where I'm going next for sure.

Okay. Okay. 

[00:13:01] Lori Pugh: But if it's relevant for them and it's part of a year long strategy, they're more likely to renew their membership. They're more likely to think that we cared if we followed up after and how do we take what sessions were super successful and maybe do a virtual summit on it? So really, it's the year long strategy coming out of this.

[00:13:17] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. Well, a follow up to that, Rachel, because I feel like how should teams align their event goals with revenue strategy, event growth, things like that and membership too, right?

[00:13:29] Rachel Benedick: Yep. Coming from the revenue side of it's interesting because we have these conversations internally and what I love about our team is I'm grateful because we're very aligned. But the comment I make a lot of times is every single person on our entire team needs to think about things through a revenue lens becauseit is the ultimate truly measure of success, because if you are delivering, they will renew their memberships, they will join as new members.

If you're delivering, the supplier partners are going to come back and you will get new ones. If you're delivering the meeting event professionals that are showing up are going to look at this when they look at their calendar and say, "Oh my gosh, well, I certainly can't miss WEC or I can't miss our European event," whatever it is. So revenue shows up as that real ultimate measure of success. And I think some teams that's a little bit more divided where we all really come together and say, "Okay, grow every segment?"

And how do we do it in a way where ... Because the other side of it is that you certainly don't want the experience for your attendees no matter what category they fall in to feel like revenue is the holy grail, right?

You don't want it to be so sales heavy that it's like-

Right, that's exactly right.

... I'm 

[00:14:43] Rachel Andrews: just being 

[00:14:43] Rachel Benedick: attacked the whole time.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it's really working with the teams to find that balance, but knowing that if you are really executing on great events and we are, then it shows up. It shows up and it's that very tangible result of really hitting those KPIs and giving your audiences what they're looking for.

[00:15:05] Rachel Andrews: What do you think event leaders, maybe outside, peoplethat are members maybe,just even from your destination background, what do you think event leaders often miss from those opportunities? Because I feel like we do so much work as planners and then, we get to the Super Bowl and we fumble the ball in some cases. What do you think event leaders sometimes miss out opportunity wise?

[00:15:25] Rachel Benedick: Coming from that destination side, what we used to always say was there's on main area where our goals really, really intersect with one another and it is the destination wants more people and the organization wants more people.That's somewhere where they really can intersect in working closely with the destination. And again, it is a partnership. So regardless, we're a show where we rely heavily on destination support, but even if you're not, they are vested in your success. So it's really sitting down and it's having those conversations that start a year or two out to utilize all those tools in your tool belt. Why would you not? If you have a great local expert, engage them and have those conversations.

And I think from the destination side, when I look at all these amazing meetings that are happening in these business events, I think some of it does come down to that really knowing the attendee. There's so many conversations where, we need this much for wifi or our people are going to drink coffee all day long and they're going to ... And then, what really happens is something that's different and really, the destination's job is to give that information. You should request or expect a really thorough post-convention report. I want to know exactly like how many concurrent users did I really have? Did people drink coffee all day long? What did that really look like in practice? And then, taking that in and saying, "How do we adjust for next year?" And then, communicating those adjustments. Because I know we're trying to tell people when we're trying something. Lori had a great, great idea for our European conference.

And we had one of our general session speakers and the audience got to vote on the topic that the general session speaker was going to talk about, and it was real time.

And it was fascinating because he had two topics and I was thinking, "Oh, I really want the second one." And I thought for sure this room is going to go with the first one. They didn't. It was fascinating. They went with the second one. But then, we had the opportunity where we were able to talk, and he was able to talk on stage and say, "Hey, if you really wanted to hear that first one, I'm doing a breakout later this afternoon."

[00:17:31] Rachel Andrews: Okay. It's hard.

[00:17:32] Rachel Benedick: So in communicating that and saying, "Hey, we're going to try something new here." 

[00:17:36] Rachel Andrews: Choose your own adventure, man. I like it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was a great idea.

That's really cool. I've always wanted to do choose your own adventure, but I have too much anxiety about not knowing because I'm such a planner.

[00:17:47] Lori Pugh: Well, it's the type A part of us. Is he going to have his presentation up? Is it going to be the right one? But man-

Is there like a 

[00:17:53] Rachel Andrews: blink twice for this one?

They're like signals.

Yeah. 

[00:17:56] Lori Pugh: Sometimes you just have to roll with it and that's what makes us, I think, special people as planners because we have to use our left brain and the right brain. We have to be analytical, but we also have to be creative to be successful.

[00:18:08] Rachel Andrews: Totally, totally. How do you think planners can continue to grow their conference? Obviously, working with the destination is one element of that. I feel like I'm always looking for new ideas of how do we grow? And maybe that's not the answer either. Maybe the answer quality over quantity, because that's a big conversation right now, with our industry too.

[00:18:27] Lori Pugh: You're right. It's two things. I think one from a vast numbers, a quantity perspective, especially in what we do, there's so many different sectors and there's so many people who would do events that they don't even know that there's an industry out there. I think that there's ways that you can bring in different verticals to grow, but we're seeing it in travel right now with super luxury travel and then, that is ... People who have money are willing to spend a lot for special experiences.

So when it comes to quality, how do you take it to the next level and find that audience that wants to come together with a small group where it's intimate, where it's invite only. So it's playing with those two sides to see how you can grow your business either with numbers or the financial side.

[00:19:13] Rachel Benedick: Right. But you're asking the right question, which is again, it comes back to what are those measures of success? Is more better? In some cases the answer might be yes, we want more people and here's why. In other cases, it might be less people but higher spend, the right people because there is a challenge I think every year when we do WEC because there's a little part of us that does try to be everything to everyone. We're trying to make sure we have education for people that are new to the industry.

We're trying to have education for mid-level. We're trying to have education that speaks to suppliers as well. We're trying to have senior level. So sometimes it might be experimenting with, okay, maybe we lean in a little more to this type of education for this year and we market it that way, right? Or it's looking and saying, ultimately will help us get to that north star and what does that north star look like? And that I think changes. We used to have five-year plans.

I don't know that five-year plans are the most effective thing right now. It feels like a five-month plan. It's like, what are we going to be doing in five months?

[00:20:15] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, it's flying by the seat of your pants. Planners love it.

[00:20:18] Rachel Benedick: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:20:20] Rachel Andrews: Everything is changing so quickly in real time. It's crazy. 

Which actually you keep giving me some great segues. We're talking next about predictions and looks ahead, what's next, all that fun stuff because everybody wants to know what's next, even if you don't know the next five years. What are some things ... I'll start with you, Lori. For event leaders, maybe just a piece of advice or something that planners or event leaders, I keep saying planners. We've got to broaden our horizons here beyond just planners.

But what do you think event leaders need to either start or stop doing in the next, let's call it, five to six months or a year?

[00:20:56] Lori Pugh: Managing teams, how to be a leader. We, a lot of times, know how to do our BEOs to operate, but how do we start moving ourselves into the role of developing people who are coming in and finding their strong suits? Because with AI, if you have a skill of managing people, that's going to get you up the ladder a lot quicker than how well do you organize an event? So that's one of the things I would also say we have to communicate our value as an industry better.

I think that is something we're really working hard to do. If I say, for instance, I'm a project manager, people know what that is. But if I say I'm a meeting manager, meeting an events manager, nobody knows what that is. So the point in saying that is everyone in our industry has to be able to talk in a similar language to get our industry or ourselves to advance to the next level. So I would say that's a big one. And then of course AI. I mean, it's the next, everything. It's the now, it's not the next.

[00:21:56] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, it's happening in real time. 

That's interesting that you say it like that. I feel like every day I come in, I'm like, okay, how do I rationalize? And we work in events companies too. Even us in the events industry still have to rationalize what we do every day. And you're right, the language is so different depending on what vertical you're in, what persona you are and we can't all get it together, which is why people come to MPI.

They're like, "Help me figure out how to speak the right language." And everyone, for a long time, I started hating the phrase, take your seat at the boardroom table, but it's still true. It's still like we're asking for a lot of money and we have to be able to provide value and growth and all those KPIs and things like that, on top of planning a flawless execution. It's almost like an impossible task it feels like.

[00:22:45] Lori Pugh: Yeah, it is.

[00:22:46] Rachel Andrews: It's a lot.

[00:22:46] Rachel Benedick: It is.

[00:22:47] Rachel Andrews: I'm not overwhelmed or anything.

[00:22:48] Rachel Benedick: No. You just have that event coming up in July, everything is fine. It's totally fine.

[00:22:53] Rachel Andrews: I know. 

Well, Rachel, same question to you. What do you think the industry will need to change over the next 12 months if it wants to unlock a new level of growth or evolve? 

[00:23:03] Rachel Benedick: I think the key word for me in that question is change. I think our industry has been really slow to change and there's things that we've talked about. I mean, all of us, sustainability for an example, right? We've talked about that for so many years, but there's still so much more opportunity just in that area, right? And you look at even what the Europeans are doing, they're light years ahead of us, right?

So I think that the key for us is we do have to be willing to change and really looking at those events and saying, "What are you updating from year to year?" And it doesn't mean everything because that's overwhelming. And I think that can be confusing to the attendees and the audience you're trying to pull in. So it's not like let's reinvent the wheel every single year, but let's really dig in and say, what worked and what did people respond really well to? And then let's hope that that's 80%.

And then, every year looking at that 20% and saying, "What are we going to do different?" And then like I said, the key is communicating it because I think sometimes you do something different, but then you don't tell anyone you did and they might not notice. We told people, it was a couple of years ago, we tried a totally different type of lunch and they hated it. Okay, great, but we told them, we were like, "We're going to try something new. Give us your feedback."

And they were like, "Hated it." And we were like, "Noted. Got it."

Won't try it again, but we try it so that you don't have to.

Yes, exactly. So it's like being willing to do that, but like I said, the key is-

[00:24:33] Rachel Andrews: Was that all vegan lunch or something? 

[00:24:34] Rachel Benedick: Yeah, we tried it and it didn't go over well, which then there's learnings from that, right? It's like if you take that ... I think it's Adam Grant, like if you take that scientist approach, like actually a scientist actually gets really excited when their hypothesis does not come true. They're like, "Oh—"

[00:24:53] Rachel Andrews: Because they ruled something out. 

[00:24:53] Rachel Benedick: Yes. I thought it was this, but it's not. So if we can take that mentality and say, "I'm totally willing to try this and I'm going to tell you about it. And then if you hate it, I'm actually going to listen to you as well. I'm not going to keep showing up in that way."

[00:25:05] Rachel Andrews: Because you were transparent and straightforward with it.

[00:25:08] Rachel Benedick: Yes. So I think that change element is key. And I think that there is an upside to AI because what AI is doing a little bit for all of us is it's making us ... Every email, every ad, every ... We're curious, is that real? Did AI write that? Did AI ... But when you're doing this, everyone can attest, there's no AI help here. Like, we are, you know, it's authenticity. And that authenticity I think is going to be craved even more as organizations continue to bring AI into their day-to-day and authenticity is exactly what happens when you're live in person face-to-face.

[00:25:48] Rachel Andrews: We have great job security with live events, I think.

[00:25:50] Rachel Benedick: That's right.

[00:25:51] Rachel Andrews: For sure.

Yes. I think one thing though on the AI side is going back to growth and data and events as a revenue channel, AI can help you with those business cases and help you do all the ... Sorry, but boring backend stuff that would take you 40 hours might take AI an hour. If you have the right data, if you have bad data, you're not really going to get anything great out of it, but that could help with your growth as well.

[00:26:18] Rachel Benedick: I think that's the potential. Lori's AI is Donna and we love Donna. She's very smart.

[00:26:24] Rachel Andrews: Is Donna your agent's name or...

[00:26:27] Lori Pugh: No, I just name it and I'll say, "Oh, I'm going to get Donna on that. Don't worry. She's going to have that in at three." I legitimately name her and bring her into the fold.

[00:26:35] Rachel Benedick: But there's a lot of excitement around that if you position it this way like, "Okay, dear team members, what if I could tell you that you are going to have assistance with your tactical administrative day-to-day things and every single person is going to be able to be more strategic?"

[00:26:51] Rachel Andrews: Right.

[00:26:51] Rachel Benedick: That's pretty exciting, right?

Yeah.

That's exciting.

[00:26:53] Rachel Andrews: I hate doing it, administrative work. I love it. I want to do a quick lightning round. So if someone watching or listening does one thing in the next week or for their next event to make their event more valuable to their attendees, sponsors, et cetera, their business, what should it be?

[00:27:12] Lori Pugh: My answer is going to be a little strange.

And I actually learned it from a coworker is pause. We're moving so fast that I think we don't stop and say, "Let's look at the registration experience. How can we make this a little bit better? Let's go to the airport arrival. How can we make it a little bit better?" Just pausing for a second and just looking at the things that don't even cost us money. How do we just stop doing logistics and think about how can we be the magician for a second for each of those steps? So that's mine.

[00:27:43] Rachel Andrews: That's a really good one. That is good. I'm going to put that on a Post-it note at my desk because sometimes I'm just going through the checklist so fast. What do you think, Rachel?

[00:27:51] Rachel Benedick: Well, she took mine.

[00:27:54] Rachel Andrews: Same brain. Just kidding. 

[00:27:57] Rachel Benedick: It's interesting because the first word that came into my head was listen. So I think it's a similar type of message, but perhaps around ask questions and then listen. So I think that looking at those surveys a little differently, like Lori mentioned, we've done some focus groups after one of our shows and digging in a little bit more and then, figuring out the right questions to ask and then listening and then that being the thread that you weave through everything.

So again, it's this full circle of communication. So it's the communication back of that. We asked, "This is what you told us. This is how we're going to pivot. This is what we're going to do differently."

[00:28:38] Rachel Andrews: Right. It's all for, you're doing it all for what, right? You have to drive ... just to put a fine tooth comb on this, just when you're looking at your events, pause, listen. I love that. But also, you're talking every day about your event. You're the one that knows it the best, but sometimes you need to pause and talk about the growth, talk about the experience and then is your event design intentional?

That was the whole purpose of this podcast is like, how do you do that? So thank you ladies so much for your wisdom here and doing it while you're on site in events is very impressive. So just one final shameless plug for MPI. Rachel, let's start with you. Where can listeners go to learn more about you, MPI, all the things?

[00:29:24] Rachel Benedick: They can go to lots of places, but mpi.org is our website. So that's really that first experience that people are going to get. We're also going to show up on LinkedIn, all the socials, Instagram. Lori is going to plug this, but the academy is retooling. We have a brand new learning management system, a new LMS, and it is really going to change how we get to interact with our community around education. So I'll let you-

[00:29:50] Rachel Andrews: Yeah, same question to you, Lori.

[00:29:52] Lori Pugh: I'm so excited about the new LMS. So there's lots of platforms out there, but what's different about this is the way it brings the community together and spotlights the community as the content creator. So I want people to step out of their comfort zones because there's so much wisdom in our community and why aren't people out there saying, "Hey, I'm an expert in X, Y, Z. How can I contribute to the industry?" So you'll see more and more coming out about that.

But mpi.org and then learning, you'll see that on there. And I'm on LinkedIn. I'm always available for a coffee chat and new ideas.

[00:30:27] Rachel Andrews: Nice. Okay. Well, thank you. And I know everybody is always looking for more information and you all have so many new things coming out every week really. So, I'm sure after WEC is all said and done, you'll have a little bit more time to do that. But thank you so much for joining Great Events Podcast. It's been a pleasure talking to you.

[00:30:45] Rachel Benedick: Thank you.

[00:30:45] Lori Pugh: Thank you. It's been great.

[00:30:46] Rachel Andrews: Yeah. And thanks to our listeners for joining. You'll see us on the next one. Thanks so much.

[00:30:51] 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. 

[00:31:04] 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.

[00:31:13] Felicia Asiedu: Stay connected with us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, updates, and some extra doses of inspiration. 

[00:31:20] Rachel Andrews: Got a great story or an event to share? We wanna hear from you. Find us on LinkedIn, send us a DM, or drop us a note at greatevents@cvent.com. 

[00:31:31] 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. 

[00:31:40] Alyssa Peltier: And that's a wrap! Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.