Event Experience Experts - Ep 10 - Money is Made in the Meeting Rooms

Jay Menashe: Most events are forgettable. Not because the people running them don't care, but because they're optimizing for logistics instead of memory. I'm Jay Menashe Senior Director of Strategy and Growth at Exhibitus, and this is Event Experience Experts. Every episode I sit down with the creatives, strategists, and senior leaders who are raising the bar on what live brand experiences can actually do. If you're done accepting forgettable, you're in the right place. Okay, everybody buckle up. It's gonna be the longest one yet. My guest today Has spent close to three decades in this industry, most of it on the agency side managing logistics for other people's visions. Then she crossed over, first Seagate, then Lenovo, and most recently Prologis, where she's building an events program from the ground up. Mandy Glenwright has seen this business from both sides of the table. And today, we're talking about what changes when you go from executing the plan to owning it. Now, this part might sound familiar, but Mandy and I first met through LinkedIn. We went back and forth through the comments section for a while before our first person in person meeting at Exhibitor Live 2025. Now I was just hoping to grab 15 minutes to meet this legend in person, which then turned into a 45 minute conversation. I then had to also cut short because I was literally chasing somebody down. And well, since then we've learned that if we schedule 30 minutes, we just laugh about it, because we're likely gonna need at least an hour and a half, maybe two, and maybe even more than that. But she's the epitome of a strategic event prof, a wonderful human, and has that don't bring me that Attitude just like me. See, I held the curse back. I'm very proud of myself. Love it. Mandy, welcome to the show.
Mandy Glenwright: Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
Jay Menashe: Long time coming. I know you were one of the first people, I'm like when I made a list of the people I was inviting, I'm like, Mandy should be my number one. thankfully we're here now, after a couple of reschedule well, only one reschedule, I would say. Yeah, yeah, no. But we're here. We're here on this lovely
Mandy Glenwright: some legends that you've already had on so like I'm pretty excited to be here. It's pretty great. So
Jay Menashe: I guess the pre Yeah, that's the prerequis for being on the show. You have to have some kind of legendary status.
Mandy Glenwright: Apparently, I know. You make me sound way cooler than I am.
Jay Menashe: Listen, to go from our side of the business, which I will say the dark side to where you are now, you know, it's speaks for itself.
Mandy Glenwright: It has definitely been a journey for sure. I I was just speaking to someone from my old world yesterday and I'm working on a on an event and putting some design concepts together, trying to kind of convey what I'm trying to to achieve. And I was bragging about the fact that everything I was putting in front of them was actually achievable because I have been on the other side. I would never bring someone something that defied gravity or just wasn't, you know, capable of of actually happening. So very proud of that. So I do still lean on my my history and my current role.
Jay Menashe: I mean you saying a booth can't levitate or defy gravity is you know that's gonna break some designers' hearts.
Mandy Glenwright: It is, it is, and and I have definitely had my fair share of Harry Potter magic designs. But no, we don't do that anymore. Not on my side at least.
Jay Menashe: I like it. I like it. Well, you know, speaking of your side, I'm actually gonna take a step way back. you know, obviously early in our careers, we know nothing, we think we know everything. What would you say, you know, you got wrong early in your career that has completely changed how you approach the work now?
Mandy Glenwright: My goodness. I think when I started so I started a very, very long time. You're very kind, almost three decades. It's actually been more than three decades. I've been doing this longer than some people in this industry have been alive, which is both a point of pride and shame. but I would say when I started, I was you know, I was very young. I was nineteen when I started. And I you know the first exhibit house I ever worked for was run by my mother. She was on the board of directors for EDPA in the nineties, so I was definitely like full deep And immersion into the industry. And being in those years and that young, I faked it a lot. Like I faked what I thought I knew because I was terrified to ask questions or to ever appear like I didn't know what I was doing. You know, there was always an air around me if everyone was top of their game and knew what they were doing. And so I just faked it and cleaned up my mistakes behind the scenes as best I could. And I really wish going back that I would have been braver and asking questions. Because if there's one thing, piece of advice that I give everyone I meet now and any networking opportunity or any conversation, someone who's new to events, is ask questions. Because those of us that have been doing this for really long time will clamor to support and help. And the amount of education and support that I've had just by raising my hand and opening my mouth in rooms where nobody has any idea who I am, absolutely invaluable. And I really wish I had learned that. lesson much earlier in my career.
Jay Menashe: No, I think that's smart advice for anybody, whether you're new to your career or you've been doing it for three plus decades. the why and how questions are such important information to get out of somebody and rather than just run with it. And and you know, listen, we're all guilty of it. Running into you know, we we hear some information, it's like, that seems straightforward. It's never straightforward. Ask why. Ask why multiple times. I've read it in multiple books. You know, just ask why and then ask it a couple more times and then you'll get down to like the brass tax of what's necessary.
Mandy Glenwright: Exactly. And the world that we exist in is not intuitive. There are a lot of elements that if you have never spent a concentrated amount of time in an event space or on a trade show floor, there are things that we do to us that are second nature that make no sense to civilians outside of this world. And when I have conversations and I'm trying to convey something that I'm building and it is with someone who's never been on a floor, the first thing I do is invite them to the space. Like anybody who works with me, it's mandatory that you spend time. in an event space or on a show floor. You just you have to understand the universe that we've created and why we do things the way that we do.
Jay Menashe: Yeah, I think the best way to become a part of a team in the event industry, especially on the agency side, is like just be a part of the install crew. Yep. There's no more uniting feeling than like, Woo, we just survived one. Like, you know, I never want to compare it to war, because obviously it's not the same as that. But it's like, you know, you go through it with each other and you're up late hours, hopefully not. But like, you know, I've been to a few installs where it's like one thirty, two thirty, three in the morning and it's
Mandy Glenwright: Overnight installs and you know, and it sounds brutal when you just say it like that, but I have a special place in my heart for for some of those moments, you know, achieving the end game when we have suffered the way that we do in order to pull it off. Like there's just nothing like it. And it's not for everyone. I've had people be part of those kind of installs and look at me at the end and be like, I will never do this again. And I'm like, bless you for knowing that about yourself. I I can't help myself. I love it. Still even now.
Jay Menashe: Yeah, I think there's a general like give it two months. Like you will know in two months with whether this industry is for you or not. And it's yeah. It's crazy to think it like that quickly, but you really you do know 'cause if you thrive in chaos and you thrive without actually knowing the plan, not you know what I mean, like there's no a step by step guide in our industry. There's no real training. Like, yes, you can learn the ins and outs of everything, but you can't possibly learn every every variable that's going to come at you through an install during an event hours, you know, afterwards, like what happened, it doesn't even matter. It's like the variables are it's impossible to track it all. Yeah.
Mandy Glenwright: The the limit does not exist for sure. And I've had people who have asked me in crisis situations, like, how did you learn how to handle that? Because I did it wrong. Every single thing I do right now is because I've done it wrong at least once or twice. And it eliminates when you've been doing this as long as I have and you've made as many mistakes and learned as much, it eliminates decision paralysis at this stage. Like you know that any decision you make, you have assembled the knowledge and the surroundings, the people on your in your network that will always help you solve. And and that's a it's a great thing to know about where I'm at in my career.
Jay Menashe: Yeah, no, I mean that having that support system makes all the difference. And I think when you're asking these questions or you're making these decisions, it's like think about that second and third principle decision. It's like, yeah, you're making a decision in this moment for this thing, but what other five things are gonna be affected by your decision or five other people are gonna be affected by it. You know, I remember one install from CES years ago and we, you know, wanted to get ahead of pre mounting product for a client and you know it was such an easy solve and we did it, and then we get there and the client's like, this isn't what we wanted and you know this story was especially painful because we had same after the fact but you know we get there and we used you know plastic siding which then we needed to replace and I also learned this lesson on this trip. You know they don't sell plastic siding in Vegas and very obviously why? Because it will melt. And so it took us two days to figure out a solution. And we got there and it was fine and I still have a relationship with this client thankfully. him and I, you know, we we we butt heads but We had a strong enough foundation to get through it. But it's yeah, it's like, you know, we weren't thinking like, well, what if this goes wrong? Where's the extra material? Why didn't we do this? And it's like you have to have those like those three questions are like just every single time. Like
Mandy Glenwright: Decision dominoes, that's what I call them.
Jay Menashe: Exactly. So now that you're in your job and you know, hey, you are the visionary. You get to bring the things to life. And of course there's always stakeholder involvement. But now that you're controlling the vision, the budget, you know, you're building a program, everything in between, how do you decide what your team wants versus what's realistic?
Mandy Glenwright: That is an amazing question. And it's really interesting because, you know, like you said when you were introducing me, I climbed the fence. It's always how I like to say it. I climbed the fence five years ago to the brand side. And when I did and when I decided to make that shift and I had been on the supplier side for so long and I'd had hundreds and hundreds of clients over the years at that were in the role that I'm in now. And I really thought I knew everything I needed to know. I looked at these customers and all my favorite clients, and they were very, you know, they were a strong handful that were. were my inspiration for giving me the confidence to make the choice and that I really respected and felt like I could be that. And I thought I knew everything I needed to know. And I climbed over the fence and I was very lucky to land at Seagate. And was very lucky to land with a you know really strong mentor and who helped me maximize my strengths, but also gave me a space to learn. Because what I didn't know was actually everything that I have based the last five years on. Understanding what I understand about trade shows Tremendously helpful. I, you know, we can talk, you know, concept to completion if we want to talk about trade shows and booths and all those other fun things. But never at in those first 30 plus years did I really focus on what I focus on now. And so being able to, you know, the physical booth itself and some of those pieces in the experience are definitely they're like number 10 on the list at this point. Like, yes, we need to, you know, the environment is very important, and yes, that you know what we bring people into is important. important but it's so far down the list of priorities for me that it shocks me when I think about it. And I really always believed it would be the priority of any program that I managed. And it really isn't. And the program that I'm building at Prologis, you know Prologis has a very robust event program. So but there's a a real strong variety of events. There are events where we're hosting customers, where we're hosting partners. The weight is really on on the side of us hosting events as opposed to being in an industry event space, which is what I'm working towards building is bringing us to that next level of sponsored presence on trade show floors and other events. But Really getting to what the objectives are is the work and really understanding how to take those objectives and build a strategy behind them has so much more to do with the connections and with the people than I ever anticipated. And even leaving the tech space and coming to the industrial and commercial real estate space and the supply chain and logistics area, even that has made it a completely different adventure. you know, you hear a lot and and I am guilty of it, I love to talk about measurement and success metrics and data analytics and all those fun things. And It's you know, you you see it kind of evolving right now. You see like measurement and you see like success and how we define it is even evolving past where it's been the last few years and you I see these like little key phrases like, you know, connection is the KPI and things like that, and you're like, that's like nice and warm and fuzzy, and but it's for where I am right now, it's one hundred percent accurate. The the people that I'm supporting, the teams I'm supporting and the objectives I'm supporting right now are really truly all about the connections and Enabling teams to continue to foster their relationships with key people, with key businesses, and it is so much more a relationship maintenance program than I've ever managed before. It is very, very removed from the transactional feel of scan a badge, follow up a lead, kind of like it just isn't in that space. That's just not how it's done in these circles, and I'm fascinated by it. So right now, my strategy is I've been going on this like listening tour. With all of these leaders in the different regions that I'm supporting and the different organizations and getting an understanding of, you know, really truly, and it's so much more than just make a sale. Like the that is the again, it is truly about the relationship maximizing their opportunities to connect with each other. And it's great. It's been really amazing. So trying to solve for that and then build the opportunities in the environments that people will feel comfortable, like building those relationships. relationships, that's the strategy that I'm working on right now. And it's different than anything I've ever done before. And I love it because still at this stage of my career, I have yet another opportunity to learn. That yet another opportunity to figure out a strategy behind an approach that I've never had to be responsible for before.
Jay Menashe: You know, there are a bunch of things that you said I latch to, but there was one relationship maintenance manager, that one specifically. And you know, it is. It sounds even when we talked I don't know, a month ago and we we talked about like what you're focused on and how this strategy has to change. So how do you, you know, report back? It's like, all right, we're we're taking the steps necessary. Obviously you're doing the things, but you know, to look back at like the actual results, how do you do that now? Or how are you thinking about doing it? 'Cause I know you're figuring that all out.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah, and it's it's you know, a big part of it is you know, I learned this from from an another legend from Gerlyn that was formerly with HPE when I met her for the first time on a show floor. I think we were at at reInvent and we were talking about I was grilling her on how she manages badge scans and like how do you you know, and she's like, no, no. She's like, Those are all MQLs right away. She's like, Those are yes, yes, there's the you know, the diamond in the rough moment where someone has like a really amazing connection in the booth and we definitely wanna be prepared for that she's like but we focus a lot of our efforts on our meeting program and the key phrase and I repeat it all the time that she said to me is the money is made in the meeting rooms and you know if you can get whether it's you know a pre-arranged meeting or people that you meet on site and you can get them into a meeting space you've already traveled half the journey like you've you've brought the right people to the table together so really that's a huge part of where my focus is right now is is building out the the programs that are going to enable these people to sit down with each other and just give them those opportunities. And so I started asking harder questions of my event space. I'm asking my sponsors, the hosts that I, you know, we're paying for our presence to these events, I'm asking them harder questions like what is the density of customer in your audience? Like what is the like really challenging them beyond the basic demographics and helping me understand, you know, who they're really going to encounter. We're really blessed that in the Industrial in the real estate space, we actually often get sort of a preview of who's registered for the event. And so I'm able to put even the names of these attendees in front of my critical staff that are going to be at this event so they are prepared in advance for who they're meeting. And again, we can work to foster those connections. The trade shows that I'm looking at right now, which is a whole new world of industry events, which is really exciting. A lot of them have hosted meeting programs. So they're helping to curate the audience by providing them targeted lists, by providing them our ideal customer profiles and really, you know, focusing in on the topics where we're bringing solutions to the table. We're arming these these shows by way of our sponsorship to help us curate these meeting programs. And again, I feel like that's you know, we're closing the the length of the journey. If you're standing on the show floor You know, you're doing your best to attract the right people and the ideal customers and the ideal prospects walking in the space. But for me, I'm definitely hedging my bets against having already done a lot of that work in advance and knowing who's gonna be there and already having meetings targeted for those people. Afterwards, so obviously I'm able to track, I'm able to track who we schedule meetings for, I'm able to report back on those things. But one of the other parts and this may seem really archaic and kind of strange, but it's been very successful is I spend a lot of time having. Post-event conversations and gathering anecdotal data. And it really, because the life cycle of the real estate, you know, purchase or lease or any of those pieces can be very lengthy. Oftentimes, for my purposes, having the anecdotal report on all of the customers and the prospects and the partners that we connected with and being able to gather that information from our sales leaders is strong. And it's a really great way to show attribution my favorite word, attribution, continuously Trying to connect multi-touch attribution. Like at the end of the year, I want to be able to say, here's a list of 50 people, and we saw them at this event, we saw them at that event. They were this webinar, they downloaded this white paper, they responded to this email that we sent post-event, like and be able to show the correlation between multi-touch attribution and pipeline impact. And you know, all of the data magic that happens behind the curtain of Salesforce.
Jay Menashe: No, that's amazing. And first of all, I think you just named the podcast, Money is made in the meeting room. That might be the name of it.
Mandy Glenwright: Favorite things ever. And again, something that never ever occurred to me on the supplier side. Like I, you know, I have definitely really shifted my perspective. And like I said right now, the shows that we're targeting and and everything that's done in on the real estate side of things, what I've learned in my my short time here so far, decisions are not made on a whim. they are very well researched. There's a lot of data to back up the value in decisions that are made, and it's very incremental. And so the the program. That I'm researching and trying to put together right now, it's a five-year strategy. Like if I even achieve 25% of what I'm projecting for 27 and 28, that's a success because this will be a slow burn growth program. But it means it will be solid. It will mean it will really be built on a strong foundation. That's not a real estate joke, I promise. it sounded like it, but it wasn't. So, and right now for like my 27 targets, I'm not even targeting show floor presents. That's a gross. pattern for me whereas you know uneducated on this side of the world me would have been like okay how big a booth space can we get how big a booth can we you know what's the booth gonna look like how's what's it gonna do what how am I gonna draw people in and it's literally a second tier marketing effort from my strategy right now which shocks me personally and I get on calls with these shows and I'm like I don't want to talk about the show floor. I want to talk about what other opportunities, how can you help me build these relationships With the audience. How you know, where am I going to get so thought leadership, of course, is really critical. and then what we do post event with thought leadership, again, I think is extremely critical, as well as those hosted meeting programs on top of our own initiatives to schedule meetings. Obviously, I'm providing our teams with the names of the companies that are attending and registrations as we have them, and they're able to then do their own targets and kind of invite people to the space. Sprinkle in a little hospitality. And like we've got the right now, the trifecta for me really is thought leadership, hosted meeting programs, and hospitality. And building on that to then be on the show floor in the future, I think is going to be pretty great. I learned a phrase recently in another webinar, actually. and I wish I could remember the woman who said it, I would give her credit. But she said something to the effect of I don't really focus on brand awareness, I focus on brand recall. And she defined it by when someone sees your logo or sees any kind of a marketing asset no matter what the form is what you want them to think is the last thing they learned from you not that they know your logo not that they know who you are not that they know that you're in real estate or logistics what did you learn the last time you encountered that logo and I love that so that has become for me that's become another drive
Jay Menashe: Chef's kiss. I mean there was something we were talking about yesterday on the Exhibitus webinar. I'll you know give a little promotion on that. But it was talking about like what is where does the trade show event fall within the buyer journey? And you know, it's very common. It's like, well, it's awareness, obviously. The reality is you're probably not stopping in that space or going to that event if you don't already have the awareness. And I I pushed, my point was like it's more about consideration. It's about to exactly what you're saying. It's like taking you from one step in the pipeline to the next, moving it moving it forward. And I'll also push back on your calling it archaic to get anecdotal information from evenings. you know,
Mandy Glenwright: Data analytics and like you know, went from zero tools to help us share, you know, to to measure this to so many tools that I at least once a week I'm reading a new prospectus or studying a new tool. The anecdotal part of it does seem archaic to me, but also in a way that I'm realizing that that practice still has more value than I think I gave it credence in my previous roles.
Jay Menashe: Well, it's hard when you're in the conversation to note everything down. So if you're asking questions, it'll also trigger memories in those conversations to be able to put it back into the notes and then take action on it. I actually spoke with the company yesterday, they you know, they were asking my advice, Mandy. That's big time. Very nice, very nice. but and you know, and I I thought it was an interesting tool and I think there are others like it out there, but you know, something Nicola said when she was on here. It's like, you know, I she had a team mentality in the booth. You were always stationed with somebody else. So somebody was having the conversation and somebody was the note taker and and I think for what you're talking about, that could actually That could be a really helpful approach to it as well. Or even just, hey, here's a voice recorder. Just can you just hit play like hit record on this while you're talking about Obviously, let them know they need to know they're being recorded, blah blah blah. but yeah, no, I I think you're onto something. But yeah, the awareness versus consideration and I would push it again, not archaic. It was smart. Yeah, but you have to connect those dots to find the value. That is there was somebody I met with and or I worked with in the past, Jeremy and I'm Say his last name or the company he worked at because he's not there anymore. But the way he painted that story of the sales and marketing alignment where he was able to basically, hey, we had this event, we met with these 47 customers. That was one touch point. When people focus on the single attribution blank, there's this we're we're all in a team sport here. Like there's no way that this one thing is the reason they bought from us. Right. And so I think, yeah, being able to tell that story, map all the different event touch points also with the other, you know, that also, you know, you have to rely on your sales team or the account team, whatever, to put this information in the CRM. And, you know, that's where again those anecdotal conversations are really gonna get that information. Because as someone who loves their CRM and loves that data, I'm not always great about putting it in there either.
Mandy Glenwright: hundred percent and I've had conversations with people that you know some of our are the leaders in our organization that have built you know multi decade careers on this style of relationship maintenance and the management and the connections they make and like I've had just you know I'm the new girl so I'm just constantly knocking on doors and having conversations and asking people just to kind of give me their perspective on what has happened so far, what works, what doesn't and some of these guys they know where their customers like they know where they went to college. They know like their you know their grandkids names like they know all of these details and they follow each other from organization to organizations and it's just it is amazing and it isn't that that isn't something that happens in other industries but I have never seen it carry this much weight as I have in the space that I'm in now and I'm just eternally impressed by it and realizing that it's actually my responsibility to figure out how to tailor these success metrics to them not the other way around. And I think it's really common practice where you know those of us that are have been in events for so long and we have all the same conversations and we all attend the same webinars and we know about the same tools and the universal lead captures and the meeting programs and all these fun, amazing things. And I think that we get to a point where we become these experts on these tools and on these methodologies that we think that it's our role to come into a space and basically force people into those places. This is how we're gonna measure success, which means you're going to follow these steps. Steps so that I can report back the way that I believe it should be done. And I've realized very quickly that that just isn't the case. That having the knowledge that I have, understanding the tools that I have is tremendously helpful, but it's actually my responsibility to figure out how to tailor this program to how these teams work and not the other way around. I cannot ever be the inhibitor to their progress. I simply have to figure out how to support it, enhance it, and tailor my reporting accordingly. It's not that it's not possible, but it's a whole lot heavier lift than it is to just force somebody to schedule, you know, every single thing they do in their CRM and to report every badge scan with notes. That just isn't a realistic approach for how I'm doing it. But I really love the challenge of figuring out how I'm going to design. And I'm still like definitely mid-strategy on how I'm gonna truly look at how I'm gonna report this, but it's really fun.
Jay Menashe: Yeah, and I think that's the how when people are approaching a new job, a new event, whatever it is, you can use your frameworks because the framework is what guides you. But knowing that the steps between the steps are how you adjust and yeah, I mean the we've always done it this way or I've always done it this way, it's like that's that's right. god, yeah. You know, I usually have to chew back down that projectile vomit sorry, Lara you're gonna have to hear that one. I like to reference her on the podcast. It makes her you know she's a part of this. She's not in the room, but she might as well.
Mandy Glenwright: That's perfect. I love it.
Jay Menashe: Well, I'm sorry we didn't schedule eight hours 'cause I still have a few more questions for you because you know. an hour's never enough, Mandy. I don't know what I was thinking. well, you know, I wanna take it from an attendee point of view now and you as an attendee, where's an event that you've actually been a guest at and something happened that you still think about that whether it impacted your event planning or in positively or negatively, you know, tell me a story that you have for that.
Mandy Glenwright: Ooh, so actually I have a really recent it's not necessarily an event that I attended. I'm actually attending their summit in September. So it's the Sponsorship Management Association is a new group that I've recently gotten connected to. a big part of my role at ProLogis is sponsorship management and we currently are you know, we sponsor in a couple of different lanes of events and but it all kind of falls under that umbrella. And I know sponsorship in the way of, you know transaction with an industry event and here's the show the floor space I'm paying for and the enhancements I'm paying for but this takes it to a whole other level and this really talks it goes to the strategy. So I'm attending their summit in September in Nashville, but I'm also taking a class for them right now that it's a basically it's a sort of sponsorship management playbook and it's once a week for a month and so I'm halfway through the course right now and it's really been valuable. And the thing that really struck me which is just perfect timing. for being new in this role and looking at building an additional program was a survey on the value of taking on an event. Anybody who's been in my role has had someone come and be like, we have to be at event XYZ. And I'm like, okay, great. Tell me why. And More than fifty percent of the time the answer is definitely not weighted in our favor. it's usually an emotional decision or a decision based on what competition does. and oftentimes I am unfortunately the bad guy who can poke holes in the we have to be at this show situation. But backing up those conversations with data and with an actual set of metrics, like this survey that they provided me with asks some really targeted questions, but weights the answers and literally does math for you and gives you this like I can take these questions and input this data and be like, here's why we really should do this. This is a great consideration, or here's why we shouldn't. Let's talk about the weak points in the conversation. And it has shifted my perspective completely. Because I'm so new, not only to the company, but to the industry that I'm supporting, having that tool in my arsenal right now has been amazing. Because as soon as people learn that I'm in this role, like they're knocking on my door, like, look at this though, and look at this show and look at this show. And I don't know enough yet about the industry I'm supporting, be the first to admit that, to know where the value is, to know if this should be weighted in our favor or not. And my leadership is looking at me to give those suggestions already at this early stage. So I needed that. that tool to help me guide the conversations and like it was in the first class and I'm gonna find the person who made it at the summit in September and I'm going to kiss them. Like I'm so obsessed with it. It's the
Jay Menashe: Can you get someone to record that moment so we can we can all do that?
Mandy Glenwright: I'll take a selfie with them after I do it.
Jay Menashe: I mean, listen, it takes the emotion out of it. and that is the hardest part in these conversations to your point, you know, we've always done it this way or we've always gone to this event. It's like, well, you know, it doesn't matter. you're spending X money. What are we getting out of it? Are you having meetings? Are you pushing things forward? Yep. And yeah, no, I love a good survey where it's like, just answer the question.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah. And it's just from the perspective of the sponsorship manager, which is definitely, you know, that is oftentimes in the event space a role uninto itself. Like that, like sponsorship management, like I and I'm meeting them through these classes in this association where, you know, they're not the executors. They are definitely all about and these are people that are managing sponsorships like in like, you know, large scale sporting events and music events in festivals and fairs, in addition to the types of events that we support as well. So it's a real diverse group of people, but sometimes that role is just sponsorship management. And so mine is sort of it's a core component of what I do in addition to the events. So it's been really refreshing to see a sort of a a new facet to my skill set and to be able to build on it. And this survey really approaches it from that lens as opposed from the event lens. Like it it really is a different conversation. So it's been it's very I love it. I love learning new things.
Jay Menashe: I mean thankfully you're a nice person 'cause otherwise I'd be really worried for any person that is now managing sponsorships that you're gonna be involved with. The amount of questions you're gonna be coming at them like, Well, I wanna do it this way and this way and that way. And can I what about this eighteen other things I wanna do now and can I yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing these.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah, it's it's fun. It's fun. I actually had one of those meetings yesterday. I'm like, let's talk about how we can customize our presence at something, which is another piece of advice. Like when we started this conversation, it's like don't be afraid to ask. Like I ask questions every single day that I'm nearly positive the answer is going to be no, but I still have to ask. Somebody along the way taught me that. I wish I could remember who it was, but it that no is not the worst answer you could possibly get. And you're never going to know if you don't ask. And I'm definitely practice that daily in in my role and ask.
Jay Menashe: My kids really take that advice to heart and I almost wish I didn't give it to them. Because hey, not you know, because I always say, you know, everything in life is negotiable. You have to ask the questions. Yes. I mean, I literally talk about the birth of my children. I'm like, yeah, I called the hospital after they were born. I like, Hey, can you knock anything off this bill? Twenty percent. Nothing else. I'm like asking. I mean, it just frustrates me on hell. Well, we won't get into the healthcare conversation now. But yeah, you literally I'll yeah, I have a story from college and I'll It's I can share this one, I won't get in trouble. so we were out at the bars and we're leaving and there was a hot dog stand and I'm like, you know, we're college kids, we're broke. I literally had two dollars, I think it was a two dollars per hot dog, and I was with one of my roommates. I'm like, hey buddy, I got two bucks. Is it possible to get two hot dogs? Guy gave me two hot dogs. My roommate like, jaw dropped, like, how did you do that? You're a magician.
Mandy Glenwright: I just asked him. Just don't be afraid to ask.
Jay Menashe: You know, you grow up in the the the mean streets of New York City with a family business in the bargain district where you literally can negotiate for anything on the street. Right. I learned I learned to ask those questions and it's a really good valuable point for anybody to take away. It's like just ask. Yeah, sometimes you're gonna get a no. Maybe more often than not, you're gonna get a no. but when you get those yeses and you get the thing I can't believe that just happened. Yeah.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah. We have now we have don't be afraid to ask and the money is made in the meeting rooms. Like we're done. We've we've found our data points for this conversation.
Jay Menashe: I have you know the posts have already written themselves. I love it.
Mandy Glenwright: Ha ha.
Jay Menashe: So now let's talk about your current role a little bit more. And you know, I you have buy-in, your boss, you worked for her before, so I already know that. But you know, what does a stakeholder have to believe before they'll give you the latitude to do something I guess genuinely memorable? Let's let's start there.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah, I think one of the things that's happening right now in the the program, it isn't That no one's ever been to a trade show or an industry event. Like a lot of the teams within my organization spend their time and resources and their efforts going to a lot of these events. And that was one of the one of my survey points for proposing where we could sponsor was seeing some of these really key teams are already going to these events and doing some of their own sort of grassroots marketing where they're they're connecting in advance with customers or prospects or partners, they're playing matchmaker with some of our You know, that the the ProLogis platform is much larger than real estate. There are a ton of value-added elements that we bring to the table that really kind of differentiate us in the market. And a lot of these teams that go to these industry events, that's what they're doing. They're having those extended conversations beyond the real estate conversation. And so it isn't like that no one's familiar with that space, but they're not necessarily familiar with what sponsorship and true, like established sponsored presence would look like. So I'm being asked to really almost simplify the strategy in some ways and define like how demand gen will be affected. Define truly what the benefits of sponsorship of these events is going to look like. And that right now my portfolio helps. It's not uncommon for people to introduce me and and call out a couple of key elements of my career in the past. I'm very blessed to have some really notable events and companies on my resume, which is great. and so they see my portfolio and they're like, okay, well, she's not a moron, she kind of knows what she's doing. And you know, being able to quickly define the the key benefits and the critical strategy behind event presence helps in those conversations, but also just talking to me, like just having these conversations, getting FaceTime with leaders and with decision makers in the organization, it's pretty great. And being able to quickly jump in, because I'm not shy, you and I know how that goes. And I think my very like my first week I was invited. to like a whole workshop and I looked at my boss for cues and she's like go and I just you know jumped in and I haven't stopped swimming since but it's I think what I'm told and what I rely on is the fact that I start talking about what I do. It's immediately apparent how much I love what I do and how much I love my job. And I really feel like that helps me with buy-in. I start talking about what I've done, about what I want to do, the strategy behind it. It's all wrapped in the passion I have for this job and for this industry. and people get excited by it. And I think that's really helping my case with some of this. Now, you know, I'm still gonna have to have my proof points on the other side of it, so I better be able to do the dance. That I'm saying I can do, but I'm pretty confident that we'll get there. And also that speaks to why the program is being built incrementally and slowly and with a really steady and solid foundation. Again.
Jay Menashe: And and I think the strategy and the thought process and the passion that comes with it is usually makes anything you're coming to them with automatically defensible. I had a boss in my past where it's like he would question me on the things I wanted to do and he's like, I'm sorry, I'm asking so many questions. I'm like, first of all, if I can't defend my point of view, which is exactly what you're saying, it's like then I shouldn't do it anyway. So yeah, I mean passion goes a long way, no doubt. I you know, you you can use that passion to charm people into thinking, believing, doing, you know, and I'll have another the kid story, but it's like, you know, my wife talked about my son. It's like he just has such confident he's nine, so take that with a grain of salt. yes. Such confident responses to things. It's like, bro, you have no idea what you're talking about. You've never done this in your life. You haven't done most things ever in your life. But it's that confidence and passion you come back with like, all right, let's give it shot. Yeah.
Mandy Glenwright: I envy that. I envy that delusion. Like don't second guess yourself. And you know, the other thing that I find that's really helpful is definitely because, you know, people like ourselves spend so much time in our peer circles and in networking opportunities and education opportunities, which I think are the best they've ever been that they are right now. There's just an endless amount of resources out there for us. I definitely pull from that pool of resources. I will save specific studies or white papers or use cases or Success stories from people on both sides of the business, still on the supplier side as well as on the brand side. and I use some of those as influence to model what I'm building as well as examples because we're not recreating the wheel. None of us are doing anything that's just so grandly unique that no one else has ever done it before. We're just trying to come at it from our perspective, put our own color and story on it, but we're really all have the same objectives. And so being able to pull from a really diverse group of resources and show success stories and use. use cases that speak to what I'm trying to build for us, it also is really helpful. And again, if they're out there, everything. It's just there's so many tools and resources. The number of articles I have saved and use cases that I haven't even read yet, like I'm like someday I'm gonna get to those because I know they're key. And a lot of them are written or proposed by people I really respect in the industry, which just again is always really helpful.
Jay Menashe: Yeah, it's a trusted source, makes a big difference. And so tough question for you. How many tabs do you currently have open in your browser?
Mandy Glenwright: No, I'm not a tab girl. I now if you ask me how many are my favorites, I don't want to talk about it. but no tabs tabs
Jay Menashe: Yeah.
Mandy Glenwright: and inbox are always clean and only open what I am currently addressing. My brain can't handle it otherwise.
Jay Menashe: Alright, I like that. I like that. Alright, so final question, most hard hitting question of the day. I'm just kidding. Okay. what's an event you're jealous you didn't plan?
Mandy Glenwright: Ooh an event I'm jealous I didn't plan. my goodness. Mmm. That one's gonna trip me up. Sorry, Lara
Jay Menashe: Take your time, it's all right.
Mandy Glenwright: What is an event like my goodness.
Jay Menashe: Now like we can be maybe it's the Super Bowl halftime show. I wish I was a part of that just to see them actually install it because it's like every year my wife and I were sitting there with these two event people.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah. You know what I gotta say, the thing that I really respect, that I you know, I've done I've done a lot of outdoor events, I've done a lot of sporting events, I've done the Super Bowl, done the NCAA football and basketball finals, done a lot of outdoor builds in my temporary structure years and things like that. But right now, one of the things that I see a lot of that I really have a lot of respect for because I know the struggle in trying to bring an immersive environment to a bare patch of land is people in the festival space, like people in Like the like the Coachella space or any of these big outdoor affairs and festivals that are bringing these truly targeted brand experiences. Like they're taking a bare patch of dirt or grass and they're building an environment that people come into. And I have so much respect for that. Like I just think that's a tremendous opportunity. And like it is to me, it's a harder lift. Like the variables are at their wildest in an outdoor space, and the things that you have To account for, like, God forbid, your air conditioning stops working, or your lighting, your generator has issues, or there's issues with outdoor restrooms. Like the variables that people that have to build immersive spaces and outdoor spaces face are tremendous, and I have so much respect for them. But I see what they're doing, and that they're able to build these spaces that people walk into, and they're transformed by the experience, and they forget the exterior. If you can make someone forget the exterior of where you are because of the the space you built for them, like the success behind that is tremendous. So that is the stuff I'm jealous. I'm jealous of not currently having an opportunity to do that.
Jay Menashe: I'm sure you will. You know, it's a true oasis in those in those moments. And as funny as it is, or funny is probably not the right word. You know, we complain about the the general contractors of any show, but the reality is like in those moments you really like, man, can I just call this one person to fix this thing? I'm the person, I have to figure it out. I have to create my own exhibitor manual with all these things. Power, elect you know, well, I guess power and electrical are the same. But yeah, no, I am also fascinated and I've learned a lot about that space this year, not necessarily festivals, but off site events. Where it's you you're not in the convention center. It's like, I didn't think about attaching dollies to every crate before we put it on the truck so we can easily wheel it off. Because you know, we were in San Francisco earlier this year, and yeah, it ended up being fine, it wasn't that bad. But that would have been a helpful tidbit that we figured out what is the exact path from the truck which didn't have a proper loading dock from the sidewalk to get it to this bar. And it's like, well, we could go this way, but then we have like eight steps. Doesn't sound like a lot. but eight steps feel a real lot, especially when they curve and then it's like we can go this other way where we have to go up and over a hill and it's like it's lose a lose situation.
Mandy Glenwright: Yeah. Yeah. It it's a lot years and years ago I did an event for a BMW championship golf event in Crooked Stick, Indiana. And we put a temporary structure, it was a BMW owner's like VIP experience that was out at in the middle of the course. And the path for the forklift to unload individual pallets of freight to get to the build site was about three quarters of a mile. And they literally one at a time had to lift the all of this steel and aluminum and glass off these trucks and take the journey to the site in order to build it. And there was no way around it, but we were most certainly not prepared for it. And it was a very good lesson learned. Like not that I would have had the budget to like, you know, helicopter it in, but I don't know that I could have done it a different way, but we definitely were not prepared for that journey when we got to that job site. So you know, never we never stopped learning.
Jay Menashe: Site visits with the right people. That is one of the keys. One of the keys. Yeah. That was my learning earlier this year. It's like, yeah, we had someone do a site visit. I'm like, no, no, no. I need to be on this site visit so I can look at it from my point of view or bring someone that in reality is gonna actually do the work. I just do the talking and distract people from you know seeing what we're doing behind the magic carpet.
Mandy Glenwright: Look over there!
Jay Menashe: do you want to go get lunch? Let's just go for lunch for an hour and a half or three hours or you know, 100 percent. Don't worry about it. Well Miss Mandy, you've said it all. I think we covered a a broad range. I'm really proud of us. We kept this under an hour. Amazing. I know we were question three and I'm like, my gosh, we're already at thirty minutes. I'm normally like I look at the clock I'm like, all right, seventeen minutes in. I'm to extend this a little bit. I did not worry about that today. we got it all covered. I think we already have multiple great titles and some really good talking points for for everybody to take away from this. You know for me, A money is made in the meeting room. B adapt. Don't just assume the way you measure an event is always going to be the way to see the hundred percent. And yeah, I I love the the relationship maintenance program that you're working on. And I think that's a really great way to leave it out. You know, I think all events are about relationships. Whether you're there for what you say is awareness or consideration or any part of the buyer journey, it's always gonna come down to has the relationship moved forward.
Mandy Glenwright: Yep, a hundred percent. I'm looking forward to being able to report back on this strategy and what I'm trying to build in the next year. So I think it's gonna be it's gonna be very exciting and I and I know that there are things left for me to learn while I'm building this out, from so many perspectives. You know, the industry and how I tailor this in order to set up the right people for success, which is really what we do, you know, and and we're just we're building that stage for them and I'm very excited about it.
Jay Menashe: Well, let's bookmark August twenty twenty seven as the next time you come on and we will report back to the audience.
Mandy Glenwright: I love it, that's perfect. Thank you so much for having me on today.
Jay Menashe: Anytime my pleasure. If you walked away with one thing you'll use, we did our job today. Event Experience Experts drops every week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and check us out on YouTube if you want to watch. I'm Jay Menashe See you next time.