Lydia Forth | Patrick Rife | The Pixilated Podcast

hello and welcome to another episode of the Pixilated podcast I am your host Patrick Wright and we are in Season 3 and I'm excited because we have another excellent interview teed up for you today guys we're gonna be talking to Lydia 4th I connected with Lydia recently over LinkedIn it's where I do a lot of my prospecting for for interview guests for the Pixilated podcast for any of you who have been listening over the years know we really love to to find all kinds of people inside of the whole kind of events and marketing ecosystem and chat with them I firmly believe that the really interesting details lie in all of the kind of subgenres and and different roles and I love getting a chance to chat with people about that stuff so without further ado Lydia welcome to the Pixilated podcast thanks Patrick happy to be here yeah we're super happy to have you so as we've talked about a little bit I have some questions teed up for sure we're gonna talk about some good stuff today I hear a little bit about your background talk a little bit about the Biz Bash event that you were just at but before we go there why don't you let everyone know listening just give us you know 30 60 seconds about kind of your background and a little bit about how you ended up here yeah so I studied film production in college wanted to make movies but also like worked in events in college and really enjoyed that and my professor introduced me to the world of event production and so got my first job out of school with the Key Center as an associate producer supporting the producing team and then was quickly promoted to producer and have been supporting events ever since so my team specifically works on the production side so all the audio visual that goes into general session spaces and beyond but we're full service creative agency so also you know thinking through print decals how we can brand the space and any kind of creative installations as well that's awesome that's great so and and Q Center is where Q Center is in Saint Charles Illinois it's about 35 minutes from O'hare so out of Chicago area and my team is a little bit unique so key centers have a conference and hotel center and where the in house production team but we actually travel with our clients all over so people often meet us there when they have their conference there but because we're a significant step up from regular Hotel AV they like working with us and a lot of times like hey we actually have already booked our conference next year Dallas do would you guys come to Dallas with us and so that's kind of how that relationship has grown and then is Q Creative are those those two connected or has has one evolved from the other so Q Creative is the production team that's like the name of my my team yep that's great and if I remember correctly you did something in between those two is that correct I did yep so I left for about nine months I went to a marketing agency which is really fun I wanted to really test my video chops and my podcast chops specifically and so went to a video marketing agency and started or built up their marketing their I'm sorry their video business started their podcast for them but I really missed the event world which is funny to say because people who are in the event world know how like long the hours are but you know if you love it you you stick with it so came back to Q in January of this year to be back in the met world so what I'm what I'd love to like touch on first and I've already again I told you I was gonna start ignoring questions because my curiosity would take over so I apologize but I'd love to know a little bit about when you came back to Q right like what were those hardcore because I think that from a production side right I mean like you produce content right and producing content is challenging for a ton of reason producing video content is additionally challenging because like the standardization of what the expectation is grow so much right like we're mostly forming in widescreen but we need to serve it in tall screen right like the way that closed captioning became so important not for the reasons that closed captioning was invented for it all but because people watch content and they can't have the vole on their phones on so they have to do it so that workload and you like I'm in it all the time here producing podcast and content for Pixilated it's a lot to do and I imagine that your time at the agency kind of on the editing floor really got your chop I mean like that that that need to not be precious and to be workman like work woman like work person like in in the actual just the the the work you know the stuff yeah so sorry to like be too exaggerating and it but like I'd love to know cause there are probably some really strong points of view and skills that you were able to bring back into Q that helped to regiment things yeah I mean I did a lot of video production at Q before I left but not a lot for social so it was a lot more for like those super wide screens that were building in ballrooms and those kinds of things so custom screen sizes custom content you know we work with a lot of corporate clients so it was a lot of you know representing corporate and those kinds of things lots of text on screen animation and then switching to the agency was podcast social media clips for LinkedIn so like you said all of those kind of things thinking shooting in widescreen but thinking about the the phone and the captions and it was just about vole it was like about sheer like get out as much as you can post something every day if you can you know multiple times a week so coming back to Q it definitely gave me a different sense of really how much is possible if you have a team that's willing to like work super hard but also you have to have like a strategy and a plan throughout and events are sometimes like one off so there's a difference I think between like a show where you're having episodes and you're trying to produce content and then like a one off event where they need content you know specific for that yeah is that kind of answer your question it does yeah it absolutely does that I think like so to to set up the next set of questions I have help me help me understand you and your role in your team and kind of your current day to day like what is your you know like what are the chunks of work types that are filling up the majority of your schedule and like how are you guys getting through that yes I'm a senior producer now got promoted like about a month ago so that just means that I'm have more seniority or other people in the team which just a kind of relates to accounts and so who what gets what client accounts and so we're supporting events both on property at Q Center and then remotely at other properties so the day to day is a lot of calls planning coordinating lots of logistics you know with scenic vendors and print vendors and AV vendors and then a lot of client facing making sure that we're ready from their side going through agendas and everything and then content as well so really deep diving sometimes it's scripts sometimes it's bullet points you know diving into whatever it is that they give us to help create that content so really I think each day looks different depending on if I'm like fully in pre production obviously if you're working an event it's those long event days that I'm sure most of the audience is familiar with you know getting to the ballroom really early making sure everything works correctly supporting the general session and then rehearsals in the evening and then post production is you know wrapping up the event doing a lot of editing of any content that was captured and you know packaging everything up for the client so it really it kind of depends just on what the day what day I'm in what week I'm in so for us typically spring and fall are super busy smer is a little bit slower and then winter especially during Christmas time is quite a bit slower but this smer was a little unique we we actually had quite a bit of work this smer and I think live events are just coming back and people are just trying to fit them in whenever they can yeah yeah it's interesting I mean I've been I've been running you know like Pixilated for 12 years and there's always ebbs and flows in the events industry for sure and a lot of them are a lot of them have been consistent over you know the first nine years but since you know like since Covid and I and I believe that we're we're pretty firmly in post covid for all intents and purposes like people don't feel the need to acknowledge it anymore which is great but also like there's still so much erraticness that exists inside of the events ecosystem and I think that it's I don't think that we necessarily obviously tie it back to it but it's still clearly going through a lot of like undulations so Emily I would actually say sorry to interrupt you no no no no please I would say that we were actually seeing the way events are planned like being changed by Covid I think so much of it is like a little bit more last minute now people are having trouble actually knowing how many people are gonna attend their event cause so people sign up at the last minute which changes the budget and those kinds of things and then you know there are still upper times when you know a presenter can't travel for whatever reason or you know their audience can't travel and so we're then doing a lot of broadcasting someone in or broadcasting out to people watching so I would say even though it does feel like a post covid world it's really changed kind of the way that events are planned I mean I agree with you so so totally and completely it's amazing how last minute decisions are and I think the other thing that's really true is you know there was such an insane amount of capital that was deployed into event technology over the last four years and so much of it was just like redundant technology being built and and for like this very you know very narrow channel of of use and I think everybody saw it as great will like will create virtual tools and then we will grow them into being hybrid tools and we will grow to have time to do that but the way that kind of things open back up it was so knee jerk and it was like you know you was like stop and go and stop and go and then before we knew it it was like I don't think anyone in the event technology space expected to be flung back open in the same way that they were flung shut and what it did was it didn't really prepare any time to to develop I mean really like what we're talking about is is planning for how the tools get used making the minor adjustments to those tools so that way they are relevant in that space and then more than anything getting the marketing and the messaging out there to help our clients understand how they grow with them and they assist them and the problem is like in the events industry it can be you know pre covid it was very slow to adopt new technology very slow so then all the sudden you take this industry that had kind of not been that way and then have been forced to become that way because there was no other option and like the fatigue was so great and then all the sudden everyone is back behind the 8 ball again so you know like I one of the things that I find interesting is you're right like the the playbook for how events happen is being rewritten again except this time it's gonna be for a much more long term application and it's going to actually reorganize the entire ecosystem and the and everybody's just exhausted right and the tools aren't there and the and and now the economic environment the capital isn't there because you know like for all of the big money that flew into it and we're just watching these absolute juggernaut companies that became the biggest companies in the world over the pandemic are selling for I mean dramatic fractions of what they were worth you know 18 20 months ago so sorry that was more of a spiel than really agree with you Lydia like it's it is staggering how the change is happening and you know like you know what we try to do to adjust to it is we're trying to make sure that we have these products that people need on a regular basis but rather than having them always be something where there's like this individual kind of like mom and pop contractor and those those those people in those businesses are great but there are lots of big organizations that would really benefit from having like a scaled solution for capturing photos that is the same everywhere they need it so whether they're shipping it to a conference in like San Diego or whether they're doing like a mom and pop you know like the the the corporate office thing in in in in Boise Idaho they they those solutions and they're short for certainly far greater than ours right like technology is allowed it so that way the event planners on site can have so much more power in their hands without needing to be you know rewriting the story every single time like you guys need repeatable tools just as much as everyone else does that you can rely on and say like this is how we execute great events like we use this this this this and this and like it gets us 80% of the way there yeah yeah and it's interesting to like thinking beyond even the tech that we use but the data that's being collected and how that data is being used I think there's a big lack of actually using data that's been collected about attendees effectively and obviously we can get into like data privacy in those kinds of things but I do feel like so much of like apps and hybrid events are collecting data about attendees and then nothing's ever done with that and but event planners could really use that information to change they like plan for the future you know they can probably tell from different apps I don't know exactly what apps people are using but they can probably you know gather a lot of information about like what events people are attending what sessions are they attending what are they not attending how long are people staying at breaks at lunch all of those kinds of things and if just by leveraging the data that's already being collected I think people could really see an impact on you know overall enjoyment of the session because people are finding it to you like actually hit on what they care about but you know you have to you have to have some a partner or someone you know that helps you understand the data because it is at just ultimately it's data if you don't know what it means you you're totally right and I you know like what am I I don't wanna call it a great my observation right is right whether it's AI or whether it was NFTs or whether it was virtual events or it was all this stuff is we've got this culturally right we have this this desire to be talking about the new thing right and it's like like I don't care but like did you know about peanut butter and like I believe like I put it on everything like I put peanut butter on everything and peanut butter makes everything better so like oh like let me I'm a peanut butter consultant like I'm a peanut butter solutions expert and we end up so often like slathering peanut butter on everything instead of being like where is the peanut butter gonna like like let's just slide it in slowly right like let's think about and and to that end you know like an example of that is AI everything right now right let's move it up will leave the peanut butter alone will go to AI right AI is amazing and people are talking about all the way that AI is gonna change every single industry but like what would benefit as much more is a single person integrating AI like maybe that's part of their story to say like we're we're able to accomplish this with the help of AI but like far more important is like a company I don't know if you knew Nick Borelli or not but Nick was one recently he works the company called Zenis and they're creating these you know these these little pieces of hardware that go on the podi and they go in the corner of like a trade show booth and they record sentiment they're not taking a picture of your face but it's recording when your eyebrows move up right or when you get a smile on your face or when your shoulders pits forward and your doubt like it's taking all of that stuff and it's using it in real quantitative ways right where it's just not who we got AR in our booth or we've got like it's it's instead saying like how are we actually using this and we'd be so much better off if there was more space to think critically about how this might actually come in and compliment what we're doing as opposed to being like well have you added that element yet because if you haven't like you're probably missing out and like most people are like they don't they don't even know the the basics about it is as opposed to where it even actually would help them be better at what they do which is understandable you can't expect people to like just know how to use AI out of nowhere and and yeah not understanding I think I'm still questioning like where is AI going to transform the event industry and specifically event professionals like where is it gonna make our lives easier but also where is it not because I think people are saying like oh have it write your agenda have it do this like ask Chat BT Chat you BT two you know write all of your session descriptions and it's like yeah that's great that takes some work off of people you probably have to do some editing but is that is that the only solution what really is and I think at least for me I'm looking to other people probably to tell me what the best place that AI can be used like you're saying and really find you know how it can transform the business I'm in the industry instead of just here's a couple cool things that can do it can make a picture for you but is that gonna you know you really have to be able to right now at least put in the prompt that you really want which I think probably a lot of people in the event industry would laugh about you know our clients have to be able to describe just exactly what they want for AI to give it to them and I don't think they're quite there yet so we're safe for now but yeah I don't know I'm I'm curious as well we're all looking to see what what the future will hold with AI see what happens yeah yeah that's great so I guys I have two like forks and I gotta pick which one I want to before I go to the to fork B I wanna make sure I'm curious about so right like you are a content producer you work with video a lot you you produce these big quiet shows and you know five years ago it was probably 90 if not more percent all about getting that content together and getting your playbook together so that way when the event goes live everything is ready to go and then like you execute it like rock stars and then when you're done you're like we did it and that's that and now we're at a place where if you're doing it right at all you're definitely recording everything to at least be able to repurpose it post event and if you're doing it really great it's also maybe feeding into some kind of community that is all of you like the very small percentage of people that realize that like Covid was an opportunity to actually just build a bigger audience and have two sides of it and figure out not like this year were virtual and this year were in person and but instead like our people that can come and be with us in person and our greater community and figuring out how like you know like that supposed that was you know everyone was supposed to become a media empire right and that's impossible and really hard to do but it's also like sucks but it's true so I'm curious now like how was that changed like how much thinking are how much thinking are you doing about it how much are you guys suggesting it to clients and how much are clients coming in looking at it from you because I think it's really interesting right like we know that we should be doing that right you know like our clients are starting to catch up to it but you know it takes a long time to turn a real big ship and I'm curious how much they're starting to realize it's an opportunity and wanting to plan for it it really depends on the client so we do a lot of like internal only events so it's specifically internal for that company and so in that case they do wanna record everything and they wanna repurpose it for other stuff internal but it's not they're not trying to build a media empire and they you know they can't share things that are gonna be set at the event but even so it is us like often times encouraging them like you need to make sure you record this like and encouraging them to spend the extra budget to record you know breakout spaces and things outside of maybe the room where they already have a lot of technology and then I think on the other side where it's more external facing it just depends on the client like some clients are super eager they wanna capture everything a lot of clients have their own like media team already that is doing a lot of that work for them and so really it's just you know giving them an audio feed getting them connected to what we're putting on screen but yeah I don't know I don't know what we're seeing I guess quite yet just because so much of what I do is internal only yeah I don't know how to answer that that's okay that's alright that that that I think that was a pretty good answer in and of itself cause it is like it's it's very nuance and I think if you're you know if you're working in pharma versus you're working with a you know like a whatever a marketing or a hospital company or something along those lines like it's gonna vary you know internal external it's all gonna change and have a lot lot to do with it I'm just always curious to kind of know when those ideas are soaking all the way into the biggest industries because a lot of times you know the the largest companies can be the last ones to adopt things like that because they're just so big and it takes a long time to you know like you have somebody that's been the CEO of a healthcare system for 30 years and there's you know 65 years old you know the idea of them becoming like a talking head CEO even if it's great is like you know even if they can see it like getting there is that could be pretty hard so that's that's the you know the basis for the question I guess yeah I think we're seeing a lot more just like behind the scenes type like attend the conference with us type of content like very TikTok style being recorded and posted and even that sometimes is posted like internally like trying to encourage other people like you you should have been here come next time but not quite as much of like the trying to become like a media company but I mean a lot of the CEOs are just in front of the camera all the time at that level like they just have to do interviews often they have to you know speak to great keynote speakers they have to you know get in front of the camera and talk to their people or whatever it might be so it's not like a foreign world to them I don't think yep that's great so I wanna change direction here and I wanna chat a little bit if you're open to it chat about your experience at a Bizbash Connect so anybody in the events world that's not living in a whole is familiar with the Bizbash brand they are gold standard when it comes to whatever being a media empire content distribution really kind of calling out what's happening big and kind of how the events industry is evolving from a global perspective and and part of their work is they produce lots of events to help educate different sections of event professionals buyers that are inside of the space providers the whole the whole nine yards so they recently had their connect event and Lydia you went and checked it out yeah so I'd love to I have kind of like some specific questions that I really like to get because knowing that knowing that a lot of our listeners are a vet professionals I think that it would be kind of be cool to hear kind of what your goals were and how you how you prepare to accomplish them and then also a little bit of like what it was like for you but yeah so like so jping off like what were your is it is it your first Biz Bash event and what were your goals with attending yep it was my first time attending and yeah main goal is to just make people more aware of cute creative specifically so brand awareness I think was a main goal and then just making new connections for anybody yeah just clients I mean some specific key accounts but any clients who really are looking for a production partner in the future so yeah it was it was a really great experience I really enjoyed it I have haven't attended an event like that so it was cool to attend an event that's all industry professionals you know in my same industry was very like invigorating I was like I got very excited about the event industry and what's coming and just seeing honestly the sheer vole of business that's out there awesome that's great so so were you just an attendee or did you guys table I was just a supplier so we did appointments but we didn't have an exhibiting booth yeah okay that's great so in regards to that how many so like let's talk through like the table stakes of it so you were you were hosting meetings those are all brokered for you in advance yep so the if anybody's unfamiliar you essentially like fill out a profile it's almost like online dating and then they match you up with people and you can request people and they can request you back but there's a little bit of a connect doing the connections for you on the back end and then you're given a nine minute appointment with people so it's like speed dating you gotta get in there fast talk to them and then you have one minute of transition time and so the the planners actually sit at tables and then the suppliers are the ones you run around so it's a little bit of a different experience I think often the up it's the other way around where the suppliers have a table in the planners have to move between them so that was the experience and it very new for me I hadn't done anything like that before definitely have done pitching you know have have a 30 minute call the client welcome through our capabilities having to talk you know in nine minutes trying to learn about what their event is and how I fit into it if at all was a good challenge yeah so like I'm gonna we're gonna keep digging in here okay if you're alright with that because I know cause this is really fun like I I went to Event Tech Live in Las Vegas and I met this awesome company that builds apps I can't bring them to the top of my head this is wrong of me because they were so nice to me but they build the south by southwest app and they build the Salesforce apps and I ended up and they had their whole team there and I ended up talking to their STR and I never get to like talk to like died in the wool roles like that and I was just so like extremely nuanced and all my questions I was like what is your cold outreach like when do you LinkedIn when do you do this when do you do that and he was so nice and talking to me so that being said how many total meetings did you end up having I got 23 scheduled which from talking about other suppliers sounded like about the kind of magic nber so there was 44 points available it sounded like most of the planners had 40 or 44 and then suppliers were kind of in that 20 to 25 range so there are definitely more planners there than or more suppliers there than planners yeah okay break down the nine minutes how did you approach it yeah I tried to just introduce myself I had it like an iPad with some slides and just said like work a creative agency but also full service production team and I had studied people's profiles in advance and so a lot of them had listed that they were looking for an AV company so kind of said you know I saw you're looking for an AV company tell me what you're looking for and people would talk about a lot of people talked about the terrible experiences they've had which is understandable cause Hotel AV can be very difficult sometimes and mean obviously the mics don't work or the the screen stops working part way through you know that sticks in the planners mind as like oh that was a failure so people kind of shared with me about those kinds of things either a goal or a dream that they have or something that didn't go right in the past which allowed me then to talk about my teams like superior service on site and how we take care of the presenters making super professional keeping them super comfortable and then how we make the planner a lot more comfortable as well by just them having confidence in us and knowing that we're taking care of that space so they can actually focus on the other areas of the event so that's kind of like maybe the 60 second version of what I'd say and then really based off of what they were interested in I had a nber of slides and got to kind of jp around in those based off of what they wanted so some people have design in house they didn't wanna talk about my design team totally understandable we partner both ways if they need design we offer it if they have a designer their designer creates everything and we provide all the technology for the screens it goes on and work you know in tandem with them and then talked about virtual and hybrid as well and and video production so just depended on kind of the planner and what what resources they have and what resources they're looking for yeah so for these leads that you're reaching out to knowing that you guys are kind of location based but can but can do other was this for these leads that you anticipating coming to your town to do work or is this work that you're looking for traveling with them and ideally like a bigger a bigger contract where you become their AV provider their creative provider wherever they are yeah so I traveled with our director of sales and marketing who was selling the property so she had different appointments than me and so I did talk about the property to anyone who was interested but I'm not really looking for people to have to have to come there to work with us since we travel anywhere and we use as much local labor as we can each keep costs down for people so I think that gives us a competitive edge as well yeah so let's talk about conversions and obviously like they're far off so like I'm sure there's no money in the bank but how many of those conversations that you had which you say you think they're you know like they they will they will continue in a meaningful way not saying that they'll close but like of that portion of of leads that you had how many are turning into warm leads it's it's hard to tell right now cause it's only been a few days after the conference I think I could probably say like five 5 for sure I think we'll turn into like warmly maybe up to 10 will kind of just have to see and from what I think will happen is you know people might not need us right now their 2023 events are booked some of their early 2024 events they've already signed a contract they're working with the Hotel AV and so it may be end of 2024 early 2025 so that's a long time before we like you said see the money in the bank but I think just making the connection and keeping the connection is valuable and you know just I my goal is to kind of check back in with them hear how their events went in 2023 and 2024 and and see if they are looking you know to jp to production partner really honestly when a hotel AV fails that's a good thing for me so not I don't want your hotel AV to fail for anyone I really don't wish that on you because I know how stressful it is but it does I'm in there yeah if it does my team really cares and there's a big difference I think between you know the people who just provide gear and people who like care about making sure that your event goes off without a hitch so obviously technology can fail any of us at any time I'm not saying that you work with us and Mike will never like fail again but you know we're gonna do everything in our power to have backups and make sure that we're ready for those situations so yeah I think I think a few are gonna turn into warm leaves we'll see yeah that's great I mean experience like experiences how you respond to the mic failing you know like that's what you need you can't you know you you want people with good processes and good equipment and good standards and operating procedures to mitigate but you know you hire the pros based on how they're going to respond when all of that preparation gets you know it gets tripped up somehow it happens and what we do is we respond to it and like that's where we win like all day long and and honestly like not even just for like you the AV company but you know like when when something goes wrong on you know when the president is speaking to the country and something goes wrong and he responds in an appropriate way right by then this is like a non political statement it's anyone it's how you come back from something that trips you up that like is endearing it's you know like it's the good stuff it's why you know it's why I do these interviews live and off the cuff instead of overly preparing because like you and me are real people that's okay and that's about brand loyalty like people are much more loyal to a brand that they've actually had a problem with in the past and that problem has been resolved correctly by whoever that brand is and then they their loyalty is built more so than a brand that they have purchased from for a really long time and never had an issue with and so it's funny to even like talk about in this context because not that I want anything to go wrong for us either but you know it's it really is about how you respond when something doesn't go as it was supposed to I love that like so I have to share really quickly with you one of my my business partner one of the things that he says is you know like I like obviously we don't want anything to ever go wrong but he was like but when something goes wrong and you know like this customer comes in like hot and heavy and you know like they've got this perception of whatever whoever we are and how large we are and then like you answer the phone and you're like no no I own this company like you're talking to and then you can tell them every piece of nuance about their whole experience and you're addressing it you're concerned about it and then they like hang up the phone they go and leave you a five star review and it's all about that like sense of expectation you know like being able to be accountable to a moment like sometimes those moments forcing themselves onto the agenda isn't the worst thing in the world because it really does get give you the opportunity to show what what you're made of yeah and I'm sure about there's know that as well like I'm sure they have experienced things it's just the way of an industry is like something is gonna go wrong throughout this the time you just know it's gonna happen and it really is about how you're able to pivot able to respond what backups you have in place etc so awesome we're getting close to the end but I have a question or two more that I wanna sneak in here real quickly so first one is best three things about your dispatch connect experience what are your three call outs oh that's a good question I really I I really loved the trade show floor so all the exhibitor booths I thought were really interesting there was a lot of cities represented so they're looking obviously for planners to come to their city and I don't have business for them cause I need the planner to bring me to their city as well but it was really fun just to see the unique weight boost that they set up and unique experience they created and the strategy that went into how do we get someone to stay in our booth and talk to us you know not just have them walk by and give them a sticker or something like get them to hang out and talk to us there was a breast cancer research booth that was such a great installation they interviewed breast cancer survivors and then their partners as well so or family members and then basically in the booth you would fill out a survey about how you feel about breast cancer research and then you would watch the experience and then you fill out the same survey and they were basically just collecting data on if the experience changes how you feel about research but I from a production standpoint and a content standpoint just love the way it was set up it was vertical monitors and they were like the same height as me so as I'm watching someone talk about their experience of breast cancer it's like they're looking right at me and talking right to me which I thought was such a great way to you know to show that content and create an experience that really like moved my heart and I'm sure for many other people especially cause breast cancer is so common and so probably most people have known someone who's been afflicted with that so I I really enjoyed that experience it was inspiring for me but like okay how can I think about content in the future not just like oh yeah I need a wide screen and it needs to be set up the same way like let's flip it vertically and why would we do that you know so that's one of the nber ones sorry I'm rambling here the appointments were great as well like it was like I said it was my first time so if I go back in the future I think I'll have a much better understanding of what to do and what successful and what's not but it was great experience just to have to talk about us in such a short amount of time but also listen ask good questions and kind of get to you know what they're looking for the for the from the planar side and then just I just think the experience overall like because I haven't been to an event for event professionals it was just invigorating I know I already said that but just made me excited about the industry so often I'm like you know working in my Silo just getting my work done not talking to anybody and that can be they can be draining after amount of time so it was exciting just to see what other people are doing and to see so many people doing what I do and yeah just encouraging for sure that's awesome this is great this is really really great gosh what was my other oh that's so here by the the ultimate question the last question you're young professional right in a world that changes a ton where are you learning from on a daily basis like how are you how are you continuing to educate yourself stay abreast of things that are important feel like you're continuing to professionally develop and you know like aside from going to events like Biz Bash and things like that right that's maybe once or twice a quarter you know like every day how are you how are you staying informed oh that's such a great question I think that LinkedIn is like under leveraged to a certain extent like your LinkedIn V just auto populates with the people that you are connected with but going out and choosing like who you want to follow or what groups you wanna join there's so much that you can just learn from your LinkedIn feed if you have chosen to like curate it to a certain extent obviously great to see what your connections are doing but I think from like certain event groups I'm in and event professionals that I've chosen to follow I've gotten a lot more ideas and can see it on top of things and then LinkedIn learning I think is really powerful as well they have so many different courses in project management and all sorts of different tools that you can take in your spare time so those are two big ones and then really I would say for me and my co workers so much of our inspiration comes from just what's happening in the world so I'm a big Taylor Swift fan and just going to her show this smer was so inspiring seeing all the production and the way that they thought through content was really fun for me personally but also like bring that into my professional life my friends are like will you shut up about the production and I was like I can't it was so cool so and I know my coworkers like super into Beyonce and so similar thing for her like we just get a lot of inspiration and and really learn by seeing what other event professionals especially content creators are doing out there yeah yeah I had a Pixilated used to work with GNC the health nutrition store and one smer they took us to Bonnaroo and being immersed inside of something that that would and and literally being there before the walls went up the day before and then seeing it kind of like turn from a farm into this thing and all the interconnectivity was like such a huge growth moment for me like my mind was just exploding constantly because everything was driven by these RFID brace wristbands that we had on and we were like capturing photos and creating all these cool photo moments and Bonnaru is like a rich visual place so all of a sudden you know what we were only doing for GNC I was like wait hold on like if if this this if we could build a system to capture photos through their entire ecosystem but make it really part of the experience and have everybody be able to just like take a photo and scan their RFID and then keep going and then when they like open the Bonnaroo app like there are 4 new photos or there that it would like create this like awesome side of it so that's great it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that you were totally catalyzed by your Swifty experience because that's what great experiences do right they make us think they like I mean whatever like every time I travel somewhere I see all of these things in a different city and I'm like ah my city could implement that like that would be so cool like why does this not exist here you know like going to Austin are going to Portland Oregon and seeing all the food truck lots and being like this is genius and the like the overhead to start it is super low like you need an empty lot crushing run and electric and then like we can do this and some picnic tables we can like do this so I love that Lydia this has been great I don't know if you feel like it's been as great as I feel like it is but if you do I'll just say I told you so but look before we wrap up let everyone listening no like how do they work with you what's a good fit how do they get in touch all all the details absolutely I think LinkedIn is probably one of the best ways to get a hold of me so it's just Lydia 4th on LinkedIn easy to find me there people can email as well my email is just Lydia dot fourth at q center.com so easy fourth is spelled F O R t H so it's like the nber without the U and yeah I'm ready to connect and keep conversations going with anyone in the event industry or or beyond really Amazing Lydia on behalf of all of the Pixilated listeners out there thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share your story share your insights with us like I know that there are people that are going to hear this episode and and it's going to help them a lot so thank you for that yeah thanks for having me Patrick alright guys that's it another interview down on the Pixilated podcast again all of Lydia's information is going to be in the show notes so whether you're seeing this on YouTube or you're listening to it on a podcast open up the notes they'll be links to her LinkedIn and her email address so that way you can get in touch with her we try and make it as easy as possible two things that I wanna mention before we wrap up the first thing is if you're listening to the podcast and you enjoy it and you're already subscribed please leave us a 5 star review your reviews help more event professionals find our podcast our whole goal is just telling people stories sharing information helping to make our event ecosystem a better informed place so please do that and if you are not yet subscribed make sure you hit the subscribe button whether you're watching on YouTube or you're following me on on on LinkedIn or like you're jamming to this on Spotify on the way in when you hit follow that means that you'll get notified each time we publish a new episode and our goal is to make sure that you hear the stuff that you like so that's it another episode I'm Patrick graphic Pixilated until next time peace