This week, Rachel is on the trade show floor at Content Marketing World in Denver, running her own booth with a conversation station and a mobile podcast booth, interviewing executives for two straight days. So today’s episode is a standing ovation for event marketers and planners. She’s planned her share of events, but running a booth showed her how much work lives behind the scenes: contracts, vendors, shipping, electricity, branding, lead gen, and 14-hour days on your feet. Her admiration has grown a lot since she started hosting a podcast in the events industry and now handles the booth side herself.
Shout out Rachel Ring and Jessica Connolly as two of the best event pros out there, and mentions last week’s webinar with Adam Perry and Kayla Drake on field marketing. She also promises more odes to other kinds of marketers, and a special miniseries this week with marketers she meets at the show.
[00:00:00] Welcome back. It is a very special Monday of the Marketers Barely Managing podcast. Because it’s special, I want to open up with a song. And if any of you recognize the original tune of this, what I’m about to sing, uh, you might be as old as I am. “This one’s for event props. Event props of the world. This one’s for event props.” I don’t know what else to say other than wow. Much mad respect.
Chapter 2: On Site at Content Marketing World
[00:00:33] I was driven to sing because y’all today you should be hearing this on the first morning that I, yours truly, will be on site at Content Marketing World at my own booth [gasps] on the trade show floor on the exhibition floor. And uh, I have a conversation station, and I have a mobile podcast booth set up, and I will be interviewing executives for two straight days. And I will be manning that booth.
[00:00:57] I will have stickers I’m giving out. If anyone happens to be listening to this and you’re at Content Marketing World in Denver on this, in the year of our Lord 2026, come find me. I have a big green wall, and I’m probably have a couple of interview openings left. So you could certainly sign up, and I’ll give you the VIP executive podcast experience because that’s what I do. But that’s not what this episode is about. This episode is an ode to event marketers and event professionals, event planners.
Chapter 3: Why Event Pros Deserve Praise
[00:01:28] And listen, I can plan a party. I can plan like I planned my father’s 75th birthday gathering. I had a hand in planning my wedding. That was 20 years ago. I can plan stuff. I co-planned my son and his best friend’s co- high school graduation party. So, I can plan, right? You don’t truly fathom the work, the attention to detail, the management of so many copious details and contracts and vendors and rules and lead gen apps and design and electricity, utilities, shipping, branding, invitations, messaging.
[00:02:14] You cannot fully comprehend all that an event marketer and an event planner do when you’re talking at the level of sponsoring a booth at a trade show at a pretty large, largely attended event. I thought I had a grasp of it, and y’all, I have been with these teams. This is not the first time I’ve done a podcast studio standup at an activation at a trade show. I’ve done it for some brands that I’ve worked for. But man, I was not the one responsible for the booth. I literally was coordinating. And I’m going to shout out to my good friend Rachel Ring and also Jessica Connolly.
Chapter 4: Shoutouts and Lessons Learned
[00:02:50] Two of the best event people out there. Please go connect with them on LinkedIn. I’ll include their LinkedIn in the show notes, man. And I’m going to text them after I record this, too. Mad respect. And we should tag them anywhere I’m posting this. Seriously. And I host a business podcast in the events industry, and I get to talk to a lot of event planners. And y’all, I even hosted a webinar. By the time you hear this, it will have been last week, and you should totally go check that out because it talks about field marketing and stuff. It’s really insightful.
[00:03:21] Adam Perry and Kayla Drake were the guests on there. And I told them, I’m like, “Listen, this was before we recorded the webinar. Little insider baseball here. I don’t watch baseball. I should say insider hockey or something.” I told them, I’m like, “I have learned. I’ve had the privilege of learning over the last three and a half years because of this podcast that I host. I have learned from event planners. I know more than the average, you know, schmo out on the sidewalk about like, how to plan an event at a trade show, and I’m doing okay, but I have help and I have people supporting me and the staff at Informa are great. But yeah, it’s a lot.
[00:03:57] And so my awe of them has exponentially increased since I have had to handle the things that they handle. And so it really is. And I know some of you out there might be listening to this, and you might work in event marketing, or you are working marketing for those kinds of events that are really huge. You understand what I’m saying? For the rest of us who are not specifically event marketers, let us all just slowly turn toward them. Rise to our feet and applaud slowly, dramatically, because they deserve every ounce of it. And they just do. There’s so much that goes into it. And it’s not just like logistics.
Chapter 5: The Physical Grind of Events
[00:04:38] One of the questions I always ask at the end of those event podcasts and the webinars is like, “What’s your favorite go-to shoe that you wear?” Because these people are on the ground for 14-hour days or more. Usually they’re lifting, moving stuff. You know, they’re running over here, running over there. They’re manning the booth; they’re standing, they’re talking; they’re routing people to salespeople that are at their booth. I mean, I will have a stool at my booth. Usually, though, my endorphins kind of kick in, particularly when I’m hosting podcasts and stuff and on microphone. So, I’m probably going to be standing quite a bit, but I will sit at points because I’ll need to rest myself. I actually need to – that reminds me, I need to order something today.
Chapter 6: Details and Booth Realities
[00:05:16] I need to have a little, like, be right back sign because I’m probably going to use a clapperboard for that because that’ll be on brand. [sighs] See? See this? What I’m saying? I actually just exhibited what I’m going through. Like I had a detail that just went, “Oh, yes. Do you remember that, Rachel? You just mentioned something that brought it into the four, and now you need to go take care of that. I just need you to stop recording this episode.” Yeah. Event marketers, hats off. I don’t even wear hats that much anymore, but whatever. You are amazing. So, I plan to give all the props to them. Uh, if anyone is at Content Marketing World and you’re an event marketer, event professional, and you’re the one who helped set that booth up, please come on by. I’ll make you famous for 15 minutes. You deserve every minute of it. It is just its own special animal. So many of us marketers, you know, and everybody’s got different specialties, right?
Chapter 7: Marketer Specialties and Many Hats
[00:06:04] Like, I know if you’re strictly a social media marketer, you often are kind of going in, you know, you’re almost like a photog. You’re like a paparazzi for your brand, right? And you might be running around in aspects that other marketers, like who work on email marketing, might not because they’re, you know, they’re literally just at a computer. Let me write emails, set them up, get them scheduled to send, you know, test them, etc. All of this is so different, right?
[00:06:26] So, I will continue these odes. Odes to different types of marketers. Today, the event marketers get it, which is fitting because I am an event marketer today as well as the CEO and, you know, primary salesperson at my booth. So many hats, like I said, I don’t wear hats. I’m not really physically. I wear sun hats sometimes. But anyway, thank you to your event marketers, event props. I hope you enjoyed my song and your ode.
Chapter 8: Mini Series Tease and Goodbye
[00:06:55] And with that, please do stay tuned because there’s going to be a special marketers managing series miniseries of this podcast happening this week because I’ll be talking to marketers at Content Marketing World. All right, y’all. Have a good one and just give a big old hug to your fellow event marketer. Bye.