HOW INNOVATION LEADS TO BETTER EVENTS

In this episode, we’re talking with Tim Berghoff, the former Senior Director of Event Marketing at Qualcomm about innovation in the live events industry. This conversation will make you more excited than ever to see what live events are going to look like as they start becoming the norm again. 

You can read the transcript below or listen to Episode 4 on the episode page, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. 

Episode 4 Transcript

JEREMY: Alright, I am here with Tim Berghoff, who is the former Senior Director of Event Marketing at Qualcomm. Tim, I was looking over your bio and you seem to have done some fascinating things. I'd love to just start off by you telling us a little bit about it. There are some Super Bowls in there and some Olympics in there. What were those events like and how does that translate into the live event world?

TIM: Thanks for having me, first of all. I've spent about 25 years in the overall event space. As you mentioned, I've spent a lot of time doing some global sport marketing ventures. I've been involved with seven different Olympics, two Super Bowls, a World Cup, and other numerous sporting events.

I actually got my start in the event space at the Atlanta Olympics. Then joined the real world after that and thought, "Wait a second, I think this whole event space is where my true passion lies," and that's what led me to my next event, which was the Super Bowl in San Diego. Finally, I landed at Qualcomm, and then I've spent the past 15 years leading the event team at Qualcomm.

JEREMY: Your Qualcomm experience is really why we wanted to talk to you today. If I had to boil this all down to one word, it would be innovation. Qualcomm, obviously, is an incredibly innovative technology company. I would imagine that on the events team, there's a certain amount of pressure on you to be innovative. First of all, is that true? If it is true, how do you do that? How do you keep being innovative in the live event space year after year after year?

TIM: Yeah, I think it definitely is true because events are the physical representation of the brand. As a brand for a high-tech company, you need to be cutting edge, and then everything that the brand does needs to be innovative and cutting edge. We're a big piece of that. We're the part that people see, touch, and experience.

There was unspoken pressure to constantly innovate, but I think part of the reason we love events is creativity and innovation anyway. If you aren't driven by innovation in the event space, you're probably not in the right job.

It comes with territory in a lot of ways, and what we do to bring innovation to our events is in two different ways. One is through the actual event design itself, so how you build your event and how you create the event through its physical design using cutting edge technology; whether it's lighting packages, theatrical elements, or other structural elements that are new, different. They make the event itself innovative and cutting edge.

Then another thing that we're able to do by being in the tech space is we bring our products and technologies to the forefront. What we want to do is have experiential elements at whatever event it may be, whether it's a trade show or conference where users can touch, see, or look at the new technology. The new technology itself is cutting edge, which then helps lead an element of the event itself being innovative.

I think one of the things that you do is constantly look at how you design your events and continue to reevaluate because technology and what's out there is always changing. You need to always stay on the edge as it changes. You don't want to be very cookie-cutter. We can't just rinse and repeat the same thing over and over. You're constantly having to change, adapt, and look at new ways to do things.

JEREMY: How do you do that for event technology? How do you stay on top of that? Does it come from The Olympics and Super Bowls? You see something on the halftime show and think we should do something like that at our event, or does it come from a magazine that you read or news sites you check out?

TIM: I'd say all the above. We work with a lot of partners, so it's this large ecosystem of everyone who is coming together to bring new ideas to the table and it's a very collaborative effort.

To your point, events and technologies are all around us. I think by being an event professional we're a bit ruined for actually sitting and watching an event, whether it's the Oscars or even just going to a play because you don't just sit there and enjoy it. You try to peek behind the stage or see what else is going on.

There’s that mindset where you're always looking at what's out there. Whether it's sitting on your couch at home or talking with one of your suppliers on something new they saw that maybe they did for a different partner of theirs that they can then bring to something that you do. It's about that entire collective whole of how you're always bringing new ideas to the fold.

JEREMY: You're so right. Before I got into live events, I was a theater person for many years, and my wife hated going to shows with me because I was never watching the play. I was watching the light cue. [JEREMY & TIM LAUGH]

TIM: Yeah, Vegas shows are the best because of their high-value production, and I’m always trying to figure out how they do that or what's going on. It makes it exciting to watch, but it also changes the experience, for sure.

JEREMY: Absolutely and I love what you said before, cause I was trying to think... You said there are two things, there's the event itself and how we create that. And so I started thinking, what's the second thing? What's the second thing? It really is the brand and the product - that is the star of the show.

Sometimes we think the presenters are the stars of the show, but really the brand and the product are - that's why we're all here. What you can do with that makes a huge difference.

Now I'm curious, you talked about how we are the live extension of the brand. Obviously, that changed once COVID hit. We became the virtual extension of brands. [JEREMY LAUGHS]

How did you make that pivot?

TIM: To what we were saying earlier, being innovative was very important to us because as we shifted to virtual, we were still announcing products and getting in front of customers. From the very beginning, we knew that we couldn't just do what was out there, and we needed to make sure that we were really at the forefront of being creative.

There weren't a lot of solutions when the world went virtual. There were very basic webinar types or live streaming capabilities, but the true virtual space that we're starting to see now after a couple of years didn't really exist back then.

We knew we needed to do something creative, but we didn't have a lot of options at our fingertips. This is where we actually decided to partner with Proscenium which turned out to be one of our best decisions because we were able to create our own unique solution that was innovative and cutting edge. We received accolades and tons of compliments from partners and the press about being cutting edge, innovative, and how we delivered our events which then reflected on the brand.

BETHANY: This is behind the scenes Bethany, breaking in with a fact check. One of the compliments Qualcomm received from the press came from Forbes who said, “The Summit itself is being hosted on an innovative virtual platform. I've participated in a host of remote events this year and Qualcomm has set the bar for engaging, immersive, and innovative meeting experiences.”

JEREMY: Now, I think what’s on everybody’s mind at this point is: ok we all went virtual... at some point, we’re coming back live, but we all know we’re not going back to where we were - we're going somewhere new.

In terms of live events, what do you think that looks like? Is there anything from the virtual events that you created that you think is going to carry forward?

TIM: Yeah, definitely. I think there are quite a few things that we'll carry forward. I think there are a lot more questions than answers at this point, but I think what we do know is that a basic live stream or throwing a camera in the back of the room and trying to broadcast it out is no longer going to be enough.

I think some of the lessons we learned from the virtual space of: audience attention spans being shorter, bite-sized content resonating more, high production quality; and truly how valuable that is and how much it actually resonates with the end user.

I think another thing that we never really used to do pre-pandemic, that we now need to deal with is the ability to address multiple audiences because now we've realized you can still address a home audience or a remote audience for people that may not travel anyway. It helps people to expand their reach.

I think all the new technologies and all the ways people are thinking about bringing the experience to those audiences. Those will be some of the major changes in the live experience. I think it's a two-way street. You'll also have people that are remote that can interact with those live whether it be an engineer that's in a remote location. You can now bring them onto the show floor, if you will, to then interact with the audience so it works both ways.

JEREMY: As you said, the big plus is now you can expand your reach into new audiences, different audiences, bigger audiences, but as you also said, you can't just stick a camera in the back of the house and expect that to work. That means that the budget is going to go up because you essentially have to do the live event you used to do plus an enhanced virtual event for your new audience.

Do you think people are going to get that and go there?

TIM: I hope people get it because my peers, and us internally, we were trying to beat that drum with our higher-ups for a very long time. We're trying to say, “By the way, everyone talks about hybrid. Everyone talks about this new world of multiple audiences and how we do this, but it's essentially planning two different events and it's a huge cost increase.”

I always thought about it as maybe not quite 2x, because there might be some economies of scale with them, but then I've heard other stories that because of the complexities of everything, have it over to more of a 2.5x cost to execute in the live and virtual space together and do a true hybrid event.

In the event space, we've always struggled with budgets just to execute on the live front. Now you're telling us we have to execute on the live front and the virtual front? I think something's going to have to give somewhere at some point whether it's budget relief or it's the sacrifice of picking our primary audience. I've talked to some peers who say we cannot address that home audience because we don't have budget and we're just going to have to focus on who shows in person or vice versa. We're not going to go to the live part, but we're just going to do our own virtual piece. I think those are things that companies need to work through, and there's obviously a lot of evaluation of the importance of the different audiences and the value they bring to them. 

I think a lot of this also brings about a reevaluation of your calendar because we've shown that things that used to be live maybe don't need to be live now, like a thought leadership piece where it's mostly speakers or some topics.

Then on the converse side, if it's matchmaking or interaction or cocktail reception and stuff like that, you almost can't do it virtually. I think to the original question, people will rethink their event mix and how they execute, so it's not always just paint everything hybrid and be done with it.

JEREMY: It really is going to mean a whole new re-evaluation of how you're communicating to your audiences and what's the right way to do that.

What about for companies who feel that innovation equals cost and that they don't want-maybe want to be innovative, but they feel that they can't afford to be innovative. What can a company like that do?

TIM: I think there's a misconception out there that innovation has to equal expensive, and there are a lot of ways to innovate without breaking the bank. Innovating doesn't necessarily mean using high technology or high costs. Innovative means doing something new and different, so there are lots of ways to do new and different that don't necessarily cost a lot of money. I think that an example that comes to mind is with social media. There have been numerous companies that have done a new social media campaign that has never been done before that then goes viral that they're able to get a huge presence from without spending hardly any money at all.

I consider that innovation because they did something new that nobody has done before. I just think companies like that need to think outside the box and realize it's about doing something new, and you don't have to spend a lot of money, necessarily.

JEREMY: Yeah, that's great advice. One of the things we've done at Proscenium - we've done some work for Harley-Davidson and they are also a very innovative company always looking to do things that are exciting and cool.

One of our creative directors, Chuck Santoro, did a show for them that was very low-tech. It was much more the kind of thing you might see in an Off-Broadway theatre, as opposed to a Broadway theatre. It had that kind of look and feel to it. It was perfect because, back to your point from before, the product that they were launching suited that particular aesthetic perfectly.

I've always thought: it doesn't have to be expensive, it has to be right. But to hear that it is true with innovation as well, I think that's really great advice.

Now, what about for companies that are not known for their innovation like the way Qualcomm is? I imagine their event teams don't have quite the same pressure on them to put on an innovative event each year. Do you think it's still important for those companies? Or do you think "Look, if you have a formula and it works and you can replicate it year after year, that may be just fine"?

TIM: No, I think it's extremely important because even if you think across all industries or companies, there's some level of innovation taking place. I think the main answer is that there's a sliding scale, right? I think it's really hard to come up with a company who does not innovate to some extent over time that still is able to remain relevant.

JEREMY: I wonder if - you've obviously, over the course of your career, seen a tremendous amount of innovation and as companies continue to innovate and continue to evolve, where do you think events are going in the next few years?

TIM: I think what we could do is take a lot of these new tools that have been created and we can bring them into the live space. Now people look at it as a whole different way of interacting and actually communicating with individuals, so now what was a way you would have never talked to somebody that's not there, can now be done through VR, a static monitor, or even a headset.

We didn't really do that a lot in the past, but now it's almost commonplace where you'd almost expect it.

Back to the innovation space, I think you had a bottled-up industry that spent so much of its focus on creating virtual solutions that you're going to see a little bit of liberation of like a mini gold rush of innovation. In the sense that now that we're back to live, I think there's this pent-up energy that will create new things that people had not thought of before, because the way people look at events, creating them, and executing them has all changed.

JEREMY: We had Mark Shearon on the podcast a couple of months ago, and he was talking about this great pause that we all got to take and that you never get to do that. In that pause, everybody from Taylor Swift to U2 to the Super Bowl to the Grammy's to Qualcomm can think about how they want to change and innovate. With what you are saying that once we come back, you're going to see a flurry of this innovation come out.

I love what you're saying about how it really is about how you want to communicate with people now. You know, I think about when phones became a part of all this and it seemed scary, right? People are going to be in the general session room, but they're going to have their phones.

They're going to be looking at their phones. How do we use their phones in order to continue to get our message to them? Now, the pandemic is asking a similar question. You can communicate with them in any number of ways, but what is going to be the most effective for your brand for this event?

What a great question to ask and the answers are going to be really exciting.

TIM: To that point, I think we've known all along, but this really highlights the fact that one size doesn't fit all. You don't have to have the same solution for two different people, so something might resonate with you that is totally opposite for me. Now we have ways to address both of ours.

The personalization of events is a continued movement that I think is what companies really need to focus on to truly succeed. You can't just throw something up and hope it resonates with everyone. You need to actually boil it down to the individual attendee and address them specifically.

That takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of resources and it's not an easy thing to do. The more successfully you're able to do that and target each person with what type of product they might want to learn about or what type of communication method is going to work for them will help you with your end goals of how you succeed.

The other thing, with what we were talking about before with a lot of this being the great pause that you mentioned with Mark, is it’s a great way to think about it as almost creating a reset and a blank slate.

Now when you go back to the live events as they're starting back up again, people aren't in the same rotation of events that are coming up. It's now, “I've got this event. I haven't done it in a few years. Maybe, now's a good time to rethink how I do this.”

JEREMY: We are starting to see that. I can vouch for that. They're coming back different than where they left off, which is really exciting. I love your word personalization. I think that's a great framework for what we really need to be thinking about going forward.

I'm wondering if we could move on to the Lightning Round, are you ready for three quick questions?

TIM: Yeah.

JEREMY: Our first question is who's your biggest get? A speaker, entertainer, or subject matter expert that you would either love to see at a live event or someone whom you would love to coach.

TIM: If I was able to get this person, we could sell tickets for a high dollar amount. We could partner together at a great event because it would be pretty cool, but my get would be Satoshi Nakamoto.

BETHANY: This is behind the scenes Bethany breaking in with a fact check. Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed person or persons who developed Bitcoin. To this day, no one knows their true identity.

TIM: Obviously him by himself would be an amazing gift, but what I was thinking, too, at a whole other layer to it would be to have him interviewed by Elon Musk, who I think is a fascinating character that would bring a whole new element to how to ask him about that world. Then after a little bit of a fireside chat with the two of them, I'd love to bring in a couple more of the traditional banking sector personnel like Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Chase. It's like a former federal reserve chairman, like Ben Shalom Bernanke or someone like that, where they could merge the two worlds of the old school banking with the new digital currency and have a conversation about digital currencies, global finance, and where it could all go.

JEREMY: You can sign me up for that. I'd be in the front row.

[TIM LAUGHS]

That sounds amazing. I love that answer.

Second question, what is one thing you wish presenters did more of or less of?

TIM: I would love for them to continue to be more concise, which is, what we talked about is one of the learnings from the pandemic. I hope they continue that because we've learned that people don't have the attention spans they used to.

I always, when I'm site, have trouble through the long presentations and keeping them shorter makes more sense to me. I would like for them to be less theoretical and more real-world examples. I think we learned, from the pandemic, that the speakers should be more relatable and interact more with the audience. I feel like there's so much in the old world where they would just stand up and present to you.

I'm wanting to flip that with more interaction whether it's bringing the audience into the questioning, bringing them through surveys, or interactions, however, you may want to do it. Bring the audience more in versus just speaking to them, like you're presenting now.

JEREMY: I love that, those are great answers. One more question, what is something, could be a book, a movie, a song, whatever you like, that was a big influence on you and particularly, if possible, influenced your professional career?

TIM: I don't know how much this is an influence on my career, per se, versus an overall mindset. In the movie Point Break when they're at the beach and Brody is talking about all the people in their metal coffins going to work. That quote always resonated with me. I don't ever want to just be somebody who sits in my car or goes to a job that I'm not passionate about. I have no interest in and I just live that life day after day.

It's almost like a marching death, not to be morbid about it. When you hear his passion in the movie talking about how he looks to those people, I've always had that in the back of my mind of wanting to be inspired. I want to be doing something I love. I want to be using creativity because that's what fuels me. I've always had that as an inspiration to try to drive career decisions, paths, or how I operate.

JEREMY: Well, that is so great. Thank you, Tim. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. You've given me a lot to think about and a lot of really exciting ideas for what things are going to look like when we come back. I'm feeling like I just want to go out and innovate.

TIM: Yeah, well thank you for having me, and as you said, I'm excited to see what the new world brings in and how our return to live events goes.

JEREMY: Well, that was so great getting to talk with Tim about how to bring innovation into corporate live events. For me, there were four top takeaways, and these are the four tops.

                 • Number four, innovation doesn't mean spending a lot of money. It means being new and different.

                 • Number three, the event is the physical manifestation of the brand, and the brand is the star of the show.

                 • Number two, innovation is an event design, and it's also a way to experience your brand and products.

                 • Number one, we have to think much more carefully about the right venue for our message now that we can customize and personalize our messaging. Like                               never before.

Look, I could talk about this stuff all day. If you want to talk to us about today's topic or anything about live events, check out our episode notes for more information or just go to proscenium.com to drop us a line. Send us a guest suggestion or tell us why you would make a good guest. We would love to hear from you because at Proscenium, we help presenters do their best in front of their most important audiences. As we like to say, we help brands perform. I have a sneaking suspicion that we can help your brand perform.