Event Peeps: Recent Episodes
Event Marketer
Welcome to Event Peeps, the podcast for creators of the brand experience. Listen in as we explore the experiential marketing discipline through the people, the playbooks, the ideas, and the strategies that are inspiring event campaigns and driving growth.
Creative director and experiential storyteller Dr. Ilana Gilovich-Stossel takes us behind the scenes of immersive theater experiences like "Sleep No More" and Hendrick's Gin's "Anotherland," revealing the art and science of turning a brand story into an extraordinary world. She shares her journey to becoming chief storyteller at Emursive Productions, and how she creates environments that seamlessly blend symbolism, mystery, personalization and human connection. Plus, Gilovich-Stossel breaks down the core elements of immersive design for narrative-driven events.
Mentorship has played a big role in Anna Nicholson's career, and now, she's giving back to the next generation, as a mentor in the Experiential in Color Mentorship Program. In this episode, the senior event manager at Yahoo talks about how she's imparting her most-impactful learnings, including the importance of betting on yourself and managing chaos with calmness. Plus, she takes EM inside Yahoo's recent SXSW activation, the AI-powered Yahoo Scout Inn, breaking down the importance of authenticity, community-driven moments and staying agile in a competitive experiential landscape.
Melissa Vilders, director-events strategy and experience for SAP Global Events, has figured out the work-life balance formula that fits her life and encourages fellow marketers to lean into self-care and "enjoy the boring moments." In this episode, she reveals the key mindset shifts that can create more impactful, inclusive events, without sacrificing one's personal well-being. Plus, Vilders shares practical tips for managing the post-event blues, elevating the attendee experience and fostering a supportive team environment.
In this special editors-only episode, join Event Marketer’s Juanita Chavarro Arias, managing editor, and Kait Shea, senior editor and manager-digital content, as they recap their experiences covering San Diego Comic-Con 2025. Standout moments included dodging machete-wielding clowns in “Twisted Metal” bumper cars, rocking out at Peacefest and reliving school days at “Abbott Elementary.” Plus, tune in for insights on Comic-Con’s evolution, activation trends, swag must-haves and the value of live actors in engaging pop-culture fans.
Justin Breton is all about embracing the unknown and taking a chance on new technologies. As head of brand marketing innovation at Walmart, he oversees content-to-commerce initiatives that engage with customers in meaningful ways and get them thinking differently about Walmart—not just as a retailer, but also as a digital destination. In this episode, Breton shares how the brand has evolved its digital strategy by venturing into shoppable livestreams with Walmart Live and launching activations in gaming platforms Roblox, Spatial and Zepeto. He also offers insights into how brands can explore the intersection of physical and digital as they look to add virtual extensions to marketing campaigns and scale community engagement.
In part two of our look back on the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we go inside Canada Olympic House, one of 30-plus hospitality houses organized by National Olympic Committees that popped up in the city to support athletes, their families and friends, brand partners, sponsors and fans. Greg Wamsley, vp-operations and sustainability lead at Mosaic North America, shares insights on the agency’s work with the Canadian Olympic Committee to design and produce Canada Olympic House, while Alyson Walker, svp-brands and properties at Wasserman, delves into Air Canada’s multifaceted Paris 2024 campaign and activations.
The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games took the world by storm this summer. We spoke with Jeff Handler, vp-Olympic and Paralympic clients, and Dennis Jenders, executive strategy director, from GMR, an experience agency headquartered in Wisconsin, to share their experiences from being on the ground in Paris during this exciting time. They discuss the city’s best-in-class brand activations, their favorite sporting events, and their predictions for the 2026 Winter Olympics and 2028 Summer Olympics.
The music festival experience today expands well beyond the gates, where VIP parties accommodate a wide array of celebrities and revelers, brands and partners, looking to capitalize on good vibes. In this episode, we explore the vast and evolving experiential landscape around music festivals with Pavan Pardasani, cmo of TAO Group Hospitality, which activates the exclusive Desert Nights after-hours experience during Coachella, as well as other pop-ups at festivals across the country. Plus, get festival experiential activation tips from Zev Norotsky, founder and ceo of ENTER, our partner on this episode. Grab your best fringe and listen along.
Building a team from scratch is no easy task, but Cyndie Wang took on the challenge when she started with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2015. Eight years later, as vp-global sponsorships and brand experience, she is reaping the benefits of establishing a culture of trust, ownership, transparency and authenticity, as her team has remained intact and continues to grow. While Wang, a two-time Women in Events honoree, manages and activates marketing partnerships with HPE’s sports and entertainment customers, it wasn’t always what she envisioned herself doing. In this episode, she takes us through her career switch from finance to marketing and shares her expertise in b-to-b events, KPIs and tech trends.
The events industry comes with its own unique set of challenges, but it’s always changing, and that’s what excites this episode’s guest, Sara Gorlick, vp-events at Rakuten. Having discovered a passion for the industry in her first role as an event coordinator, Gorlick has built an almost 20-year career planning conferences and events for wide-ranging audiences around the world. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of “Lucky Boxcutter,” her how-to book for aspiring event planners, she reflects on her biggest professional lessons and successes and shares the key insights, measurement tools and trends she’s gathered from her career.
Roger Mahusay, associate events manager at T-Mobile, was featured as part of this year’s Experiential in Color + Pride in Events program, which shines a spotlight on experience builders who are a part of, and identify with, the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Building off his Pride in Events profile, Mahusay delves deeper into his unconventional career journey and shares how he found his voice to succeed in his role at T-Mobile, planning employee events and managing performance recognition programs.
Brands that bring popular IP to life at fan conventions face the highest level of scrutiny from con-goers, who expect interactive, fan-first experiences that provide moments of surprise and delight, but never stray from “canon.” Lauren Collins, vp-promotions, events and experiences at AMC Networks, shares her perspective on the evolution of pop culture fan cons, how the network activated at San Diego Comic-Con this year and superfan trends she’s watching.
Creating an event for the industry, as opposed to only your customers, is a power move that requires a nuanced approach. In this episode, we sit down with Jessica Blake, senior director-global strategic events at Confluent, to talk 'year two' event planning strategies, the challenges and benefits of hosting an event for an industry as opposed to your users, and why listening is the most important tool to earn the respect of an evolving community.
Alongside Arya Davachi and Kate Wolff of Do the WeRQ, we explore the state of marketing to the queer community in light of recent controversies, why DEI “amateur hour” is over for brands, how event profs can use subtle “winks and nods” to the community in their events and why it’s OK to make mistakes if you’re willing to learn from them.
In this episode, Jim Gunning, cmo at non-alcoholic beer brand Best Day Brewing, weighs in on why the sober-curious movement has seen such rapid growth and how it’s impacting events. He also offers a look at how Best Day’s grassroots sampling strategy and approach to sports sponsorship is boosting brand awareness and busting misconceptions about the so-called lackluster taste of non-alcoholic beers.
We revisit the 10-day SXSW Conference & Festivals to pick out the most notable trends and cool experiences having an impact on experiential this year. Dan Preiss, vp-experiential marketing at Dell Technologies, joins this episode to walk us through the brand’s SXSW activation and discuss how this year’s content-focused approach differed from past events.
In this episode, Marrah Thomas, senior manager of global internal events and conferences at Delta Air Lines, helps break down what’s changing and what’s trending in employee engagement, how internal event marketing roles are evolving, and ideas on how to put experiential principles to work within organizations of any size.
Superfans are willing to follow the brands and properties they love across the country, the world, and now, into exciting and challenging new frontiers for marketers like the metaverse. For this episode, we sat down with Spencer Sherman, vp-live content and events at FaZe Clan, and Nick Garrett, director at GDX Studios, to talk about how collaborations are opening up new ways for FaZe to develop storylines and integrated marketing campaigns that come to life through live experiences.
Our guest Marley Finnegan, founder of sustainability-focused event firms Purpose Sustainability Strategy and Purpose Net Zero, sheds light on events’ environmental impact and strategies that can mitigate emissions and reduce waste. She also offers insight into what the SEC’s proposed climate risk disclosure rule means for events and which trends event professionals should note for 2023.
In this episode of Event Peeps, we explore the passion projects event marketers are working on outside of their hectic schedules with Talib Abdullahi, national event coordinator at Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
In our inaugural episode of the Event Peeps podcast, we discuss how the industry is doing and feeling in a mid-year update on the back-to-live with Erin McElroy, head of innovation for global events within IBM’s event and experience marketing group.
2020: In this archival episode of Event Marketer's podcast series "Take a Walk with an Executive," we revisit our conversation with Helen Stoddard, then head of global events at Twitter, to talk about wins, losses, and establishing your game face amid great uncertainty. Enjoy the look back.
2021: In this archival episode of Event Marketer's podcast series "Take a Walk with an Executive," we revisit our conversation with Mahiri Wise, product manager-Cloud product operations at Google, to talk hybrid events, screen fatigue (remember when?), and clever tactics being executed across the experiential marketing industry. Enjoy the look back.
2021: In this archival episode of Event Marketer's podcast series "Take a Walk with an Executive," we revisit our conversation with Kim Aimi, senior director-innovative activations at Visa, about new developments across the landscape, where the opportunity lies, where the industry can innovate, and how to embrace technology better.