Ep. 273- EVENTS are Changing! w/Event Industry LEGEND - Dahlia El Gazzar 🧠- Stop Pleasing the C-Suite and Focus on Your Audience!

0:08Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwetelson. Let's do this, not that.

0:40we are back for do this not that podcast presented by marigold and we have a friend of mine we have an industry giant here oh my god so who's here we're talking about events today all things events webinars events workshop doesn't matter and about three years ago i knew nothing about events and i started to get into the event world put on events and every person i came across said well do you know Dahlia? I go, what's a Dahlia? And everywhere I went, they go, well, you must know Dahlia. I go, I don't know who Dahlia is. And then I got to meet Dahlia and Dahlia took over half my brain because she is events.

1:17When you talk about events, there's nobody more relevant than Dahlia Elgazar, her agency, Dahlia plus agency. She knows it all. She does it all. Dahlia, I'm so excited to have you here. Jay, I'm so excited to be here with you. I mean, you should just change your name to events that should be your name hi my name is events and you should say what are you going to change your name to doofus doofus that's my name absolutely not no no spam as a designation after your name either exactly we're not eating spam so before we get into how we're going to fix everybody's events how did dahlia become the queen of all events how did this all happen So I'm actually it's not queen and it's not and it's not me.

2:05It's a fair. I'm a fairy godmother of the industry. And I will claim that other than being troublemaker and ruckus maker, I'll take fairy godmother. So the the reason why I am in the events industry is because of the awesome people that are in it. And I'm not this is not like, oh, let me sugarcoat any crap. It's it's the truth. Um, and I stumbled around doing events because of a very random event that I put together way back in the day, which was a camel race. Um, and I negotiated with Bedouins because I lived in the Sinai in Sharma Sheikh and, um, December 31st, when the boats were not allowed out because it It was a diving haven.

2:55Everybody wanted something to do on January 1st, and they were too sloshed to go out on the boats. So I went, negotiated with the Bedouins, said we're going to put a bunch of numbers on camels. We're going to call it the annual camel race. And we brought in buses full of Italians, Germans, Swiss, you name it. And it became an annual camel race. And to this day, it's there. That is unbelievable. That's how it started. By the way, I had dinner in a Bedouin tent and it was like the greatest meal I've ever had in my life. The nicest people I've ever interacted with. Well, if you can negotiate and be with Bedouins, you can do absolutely anything in your life.

3:38Yeah. They have to be nice to you. It's like the thing. Okay. So we're not talking camel racing, although that should be a whole separate episode. Let's pivot. All right. Now the person who's listening to this is like, well, I don't do camel racing, but I do. I'm a direct to consumer marketer. I do a pop-up event. I'm a B2B marketer. I do a little webinar. I do an internal workshop. Maybe I only have a meeting for 10 people in my organization. Maybe I put on a massive event. I'm an association. What is going on with events? Are we doing them right? Are all events amazing? All events are not amazing.

4:11There are some events, and I know event profs will agree with me on this. Some events, maybe all suck in some shape or form. And there's reasons for that. I think, first and foremost, there's three things that need to be taken in consideration in regards to events. Not events is a huge bucket. It's a category that everybody tries to fit everything underneath, whether it's an association putting an annual conference, webinar series, whether it's summits, regional roadshow, whatever. When you think of an event, it truly has to be some kind of experience that is laser focused on what the stakeholders want.

4:57And a lot of times when event organizers are putting events together, they have C-suite, they have someone saying, look at the dollar signs, we need to have a big splash of some kind, then the budget doesn't, you know, get to like, serve that. Or the plenary session has to have a huge LED, like stage on production, where if you really focus on what your attendees want, and like, even the micro targets that you are trying to get to an event, events will be designed in a very different format. And so there's a lot that goes in it. This is why everybody is drowning in data right now, but not using it the right way.

5:46And this is why where people for the longest time, they're like, well, we're not going to do virtual because nobody's going to come to it. And you can attest that that is a freaking lie, right? So this is where I think in 2025, the smart event organizers are going to take a step back. They're going to tell the C-suite, you have to pause for a second because we have to really like nail down what our audiences want. And this is where trade shows are going to change because consumer behaviors are changing. This is where the content and formatting is going to change because nobody or like nobody wants to sit in a plenary for 90 plus minutes in the dark with 9000 people or going back to back to sessions.

6:39Would you go to a program that's back to back from nine to five, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? No, absolutely not. And I couldn't agree with you more that, you know, it's funny, you mentioned consumer behavior, and we're talking about, you know, B2B events. And I think that that's really, really valid and important that everybody, the topic of what everybody's going to have their event about, whatever it is, right, it's probably a boring topic. Okay, but it's the packaging around that topic, the experience around that topic that you are kind of like buffering it with, is going to make your event either be great or feel like torture.

7:17I mean, do you subscribe to that, that you need to be kind of packaging the kind of the boring stuff with the fun stuff? Of course. This is why the whole idea of surprise and delight for attendees, even if it's for doctors or on a medical side or healthcare, they need to think of what are those experiences within the event that will either surprise and delight their attendees will be mind stamping, even from a content perspective, or what are they going to leave the conference with or the event with that will make them feel more valued and more empowered. And that kind of emotional aspect that you want to evoke within your event participants, even if it's like the wallflowers that are being sent as exhibitor personnel, and it's their first time and they're in a whole trade show floor, they have no idea what they're doing.

8:15They need something to grab onto when they are at that event so that they can say, yes, I'm going to go back. So all of these aspects are needed when designing the event. And sometimes it's a hit or miss. People want to rinse and repeat and they take the playbook from last year and they just say, we're going to do it the same we did because it was okay it wasn't great but it was okay so let me ask you a question okay now i'm that marketing manager that's out there and we're going to put on you know this in-person 100 person workshop inst louis about medical device garbage who cares whatever and now dalia gets hired you're now that marketing manager and last year we had this boring speaker and we served some horrible food when you say you know to reimagine events, whatever, what does that actually mean?

9:07I mean, are you adding in like a comedian? Like what is, how do you make it not feel like torture? So if it was a medical event, if they don't have an MC with charisma and like, you know, some energy, then you have to think of it that you got to bring someone in. So that's one. Second is, so it's the talent that you're putting within the production for an event. As a marketer, I would bring in someone that can evoke that energy and bookend the program that way. The other thing is, from a marketing perspective, I would say, take it a step further. And there are medical teams that are putting conferences together and embedding, for example, let's do a lab.

9:57Let's bring out the devices. Let have it be you know, not only a show and tell or only in a 10 by 10 or a 20 by 20, let them play with it, let them be in it, let it be immersive. If the if the devices cannot be flown in, for example, so like you have other than a health or medical association, I mean, you have AEM, which is the biggest manufacturing association. And every three years, they take over Vegas, and their trade show like booths or expos are the parking lots of the hotels. And they bring in all these construction, you know, big equipment, and they have people demo it right there. And so this is the type of design elements that you need to get out of your comfort zone, bring someone in that can just inject new ideas.

10:52Go crazy. Go crazy is right. And also, I don't care if you're organizing a 20-person thing within your company. I was just at an event and we were sitting. It was a table. It was a dinner. At the start of the dinner, the person who was leading those little events said, okay, everybody go around the table and I want you to say whatever your first job was when you were a teenager. What was it? And what did you think about it? And by the end, everyone felt super connected. Doing things like that matter, right? Because a lot of times when you come back from any event, you forget what you learned. But you don't forget how you were made to feel.

11:25You were inspired. You were motivated. You had fun. This is what we're looking for, right? Is that what we want out of any event? We want a memorable thing that's just not the content itself. Exactly. It's the exchange. It's the connections that you make. And then it is the allowance of you to continue those connections after you leave. So there's a disconnect when someone says, I went to an annual conference and I'm looking forward to next year. So you have all this time in between. When you and I are at inbound, there are certain connections and conversations you're carrying on, whether it's via Instagram Live or whether it's the forums that HubSpot has, for example, you need that continuation.

12:13Even if it's a dinner or a breakfast and it's people that are trying to connect, they will either connect because of challenges they're going through or successes that they want to share or something that's making them feel needed or in place with a certain community that they're trying to form. So, like, for example, we're doing a breakfast at an industry event in December. these organizers don't know each other, but they all have similar challenges. So I'm creating for them Oracle cards and they each get to grab an Oracle card and it's going to say, what do you think of this challenge? And let them come up with the solution, but then they share it.

13:01But that's a fun way other than saying, so how did your event suck this year? You know, I mean, and then then the conversation starts and then when they start meeting each other at the conference itself, they already have that relationship. Right. So that's that's the type of connection. The connections come through content, conversation, exchange and that camaraderie feeling that you evoke in them. I think that's so valuable. you know the problem i think what most people make the mistake when they're putting on event internal event workshop webinar big event they go okay let's come up with our plan for the content who are going to be the speakers what are they going to be speaking about but really equal to that has got to be okay what's our content and then what's the experiential thing what's the fun piece and then the other third should be and how will networking take place right you need to have it all be equal the content the networking and the experience or else it's going to be horrible it's to be torture.

14:00And the only reason people go to medical conferences is because they have to get their credits, right? If you don't have a hook like that, that you need to get your credits, nobody's going to come. Nobody wants to come. It's not normal when your event has a 50 % net new attendee rate every year. 50 % of the people that come are net new. That's not good. That means you lost 50%. And that's what you see all the time. All right. I want to get into some nonsense though, before we wrap up. Let's do nonsense. Oh, it's do nonsense. Okay. You go to quote unquote events. You might go to a wedding. Okay.

14:31You might go to some sort of big, uh, uh, graduation dinner thing, whatever, or an industry event. Are you always judging everybody? Do you walk in there and be like, this wedding sucks. Look at the table cards here. Look at how far away I am from the dance floor. The food's horrendous. Like, can you enjoy any event? Or are you always like, this sucks and here's why? So like, I'm the critique of the critiques kind of thing. Yes, yes. Usually industry events. Yes, I am. So I am. I am that person. But you can't you can't blame me. I'm like that with like 15 ,000 other people. So, yes, on that on weddings, I'm a bit lenient on it.

15:13So, you know, and I always put myself next to the dance floor. So that goes beyond saying so. But yeah, I critique quite a bit. Do you ever get asked because I was like, oh, you're an event person. It's like in people say, oh, you do marketing. Do you do on Super Bowl commercials? I'm like, no, I don't do that. Do you ever get hit up like you do events? Hey, can you help me with my wedding? You know, do you ever get that? I don't do weddings, but I do get hit quite a bit about like, you know, okay, we're looking at some networking ideas. So I am known for having an idea vault. And so like if you come and you say, okay, I need something for delivered that, you know, I need like bunnies to come out of hats or whatever.

15:58I know, I know a guy. So the answer is always yes, there is always ideas. And sometimes it creates, you know, it's great ideas. And sometimes it gives people gray hairs and they're like, no, you're, you're too much. So, well, I don't think you're too much. I think you're very, very awesome. And I want you to tell everybody how they get involved with your world and what exactly do you do and how to follow you all that we're gonna put in the show notes but tell everybody how to get involved with dahlia so dahlia at dahliaplus.com my phone number is 617-470-2655 i am always on linkedin um or on actually it's it's mostly linkedin these days and if you want to get involved in in in the dahlia Plus World, and that's the plus in Dahlia Plus Agency.

16:49Anything that you have that is an amazing idea, technology, strategy, whatever it is, when it comes to events, because events is included, like content is part of events, all of that, I would love to hear from you. And we work very well with different suppliers, tech organizers like you. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. Well, and just so you know how much I buy into Dahlia. Dahlia is a strategic advisor for my new event, Eventastic, which is the world's largest event about events, which can be free and virtual at eventastic.com. We got Dahlia on board. I wouldn't do it without her. It was the first phone call I made.

17:37So Dahlia, you're awesome. And thanks for being here. Appreciate it. All right. See you soon. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me. Guruevents.com. Check it out.