Where do we go from here?

Staceyann and Patrick discuss the current state of world and the events industry. From being home with the kids to pivoting to staying relevent and physical distancing they address the Cov...elephant in the room.

Have questions or an event story? Email wellseasonededucation@gmail.com to hear them on the show!

Transcript

Patrick Brochu  0:12  
Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us for the first episode of well seasoned podcast. Well, we're gonna jump right into things with Stacey and myself. So Stacey, why don't you go ahead and give a quick introduction, everybody.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  0:26  
I'm Stacey

Patrick Brochu  0:28  
Van Horn Doria. CMP. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  0:31  
You need all of that?

No, I'm not saying all that. Listen, okay. I'm Stacey, you will know me here as Stacey, Stacey n. Sa girl, all of them. And I've been in the events industry for a really long time. And it's kind of disturbing when I start counting the years how long it's been. But I'm, I'm a corporate planner. I'm a business owner. And all I do is events. What do you do, Patrick?

Patrick Brochu  0:53  
I am Patrick Brochu. I have no letters after my name.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  0:58  
So sad. So sad.

Patrick Brochu  1:00  
But I too have been in the events industry for quite some time since 2008. I have found myself on both sides of the fence as a planner and as a supplier and different types of suppliers through my time. So this all brought me into being more and more involved with MPI. And I later became a president of an MPI chapter. In my current job, I work at a production company, a media stage in South Florida and with offices in Puerto Rico, and we do some awesome events all over the world. And I'm really fortunate and that job has given me the opportunity to stay connected and travel throughout our industry and get to meet awesome people. And I'm most fortunate to know, Stacey, and having become friends with her. Oh, over the years. I think this is a great place for since this is our intro episode. Stacey, we might as well tell them our story about how we first met.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  1:51  
Yeah. And I'm,

I'm really mad because you outdid me on the intros. I kept it all casual. I'm like, Yeah,

I plan events, you know, no, something some feel like

I should tell everyone that I really do plan events. So I've done nonprofit and corporate medical, liquor, medicine, and everything in between. I've actually worked with a president, I've done a Will Smith event, just good times all around.

But talking about how Patrick and I met before we get into the whole juice of the podcast, it was at an event industry conference, IMAX, and it was my first conference there. And anyone who knows IMAX knows how huge that show is, and how uncomfortable it is to be there by yourself if you're not Patrick. And so I came in, and I sat down at a table to my my own business, and Patrick wouldn't allow me to mind my own business. So I'm sitting by myself. And Patrick comes over and he's all Hey, what's your name? And I'm all listen, it's been a long day. You don't actually need to talk to me, but I still told him what my name is. And then Patrick, you want to go ahead? Am I am I being right here?

Patrick Brochu  2:53  
Yeah, absolutely. So we were at our first IMAX together, and we met and Stacey was in the shack in the corner and sure enough around and introduce her to the people that I knew. And then we just hit it off in over the year. The rest of that particular year, we ended up at a WEC together at a Connect marketplace together at a few other events. And then every single year, we just started seeing each other more and more and more on the road and becoming better friends. And it's been invaluable having a friend who's a high profile planner like Stacey business wise, because she's able to introduce me to people and let me meet new potential clients. And she's my biggest advocate that's right there with me. But more than that, you know, being a great friend, somebody that I can hang out with and share relapse along the way in our industry, we're traveling so much and our significant others aren't there. So it's fun to have somebody to share those experiences with

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  3:40  
Yeah, and it's, it's also great to have Patrick in my side, because as we have heard in the story, I go to events, and I find a corner and I sit there and I need somebody that's outgoing that's, you know, willing to introduce me to people. And then once he opens that door and starts doing that, I can start doing that. And he's taught me so much on the ad side and on the event circuit side and my husband had an awkward date with Patrick and I as we celebrated our friends bursary, and you know, it's good time, we at some point need to share a picture.

Patrick Brochu  4:09  
Yeah, we're gonna have to have rocky on the podcast at some point down the road and Paige and have them both share, you know, because I think that we spend so much time together that you know, my wife hasn't met Stacey and yet, and I've had the opportunity to meet rocky twice. But you know, it's funny because we talk about each other so much, because we see each other so much in the field and everything. And then when we do shows together, it's just one of those highlights of our industry is getting to meet so many people from all over, but you really do make some of the best friends for your life within your industry and in other industries as well. So we're really fortunate here

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  4:39  
Yeah, and kind of going along that we've grown with each other in our careers through several jobs through technology innovations that we've been constantly being teacher students with each other and it kind of led to where we are now. Right. So we started on the speaking circuit doing different sessions within the industry and started to realize we have way more to say beyond the 30 or 40 The minutes that were given and it kind of led us to well season the podcast. So we just figured let's create a safe space for us to be, it's probably going to be me that's been controversial because I could feel it already, Patrick, would be great. But you know, just kind of create this space where we can talk about what's really going on within the industry. Where are we going. And of course, we're starting this at a time where COVID is ruling our lives, but we're hopeful. And we see a way out of this. And we know that we're all going to grow. And we just wanted to create this space for us to talk.

Patrick Brochu  5:31  
Yeah, and this idea for this particular podcast was born, even prior to us starting to do speaking a little history is that we were together. And Stacey was saying at one of our conferences that we should start a podcast. And I was like, Yeah, I wasn't really as keen on the idea. And then we actually jotted down some of our ideas, which is something that we would encourage our listeners to do, you know, jot down your ideas, make that board and make something that comes to life. And as we were writing it, I started thinking, Oh, man, some of these would actually be great sessions at some of the events like the IMAX as their WCS of the world that we attend, how can we turn those into a session, and really, without speaking very much to say, See, I started throwing up some ideas and making themes that were kind of funny to go along with our educational sessions. And if you go to our website, which is well seasoned education, calm, you'll see some of our educational sessions. And you'll see what I mean by serious education. But we're presenting in a really funny kind of outlandish way. So when we did that, then it was at IMAX in 2019, that we started talking again about, well, we should actually do the podcast. And we finally agreed on doing it when we were in Vancouver and speaking at sites International Conference doing a mainstage session in two breakouts there. And we had some downtime. And we were like, you know what, this is it, we're going to do it. But we're going to start because we knew we both had a busy few months ahead. We were like right after that, we're going to start and then COVID hit. And it was kind of a depression that hit us course, which I think everybody can relate to it kind of slack. And then one day, we just started sitting, so

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  6:53  
didn't and so here we are. first episode, we're at a party.

Patrick Brochu  6:59  
And Stacey is you You said you're going to be the controversial one. But I think you'll be the funny one. And I'm the one that will tend to go on, you know, rants or whatever. So let's go

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  7:08  
ahead and get started with where we are today. Like we said, we're starting this during COVID. It's August. I don't even know what phase of COVID we're in

Patrick Brochu  7:17  
the whole country is in different phases. So South Florida, I mean, we're still in total lockdown mode. They see you're you're in Reno, so you're I'm in the country,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  7:24  
not totally locked down. But we're next to California. So we kind of got that lockdown going on. And just the other day I read an article that somebody was diagnosed with the plague. So I put myself in a real block down. I'm like, I'm not trying to catch a plague.

Patrick Brochu  7:36  
And there are some places in the country in the south and some places in the Midwest that I've heard there are some conferences going on some fairly major size conferences, some following social distancing rules, some not as much all seem to have mask in place, but some masks aren't mandatory. So it's a crazy world that we're in.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  7:54  
Yeah, I know. Let's add to the fact that a lot of us are still working from home. I've always been a remote worker. So it's no change for me, Patrick, you are more of a kind of a hybrid, right, mostly on the road or in the office. And now you're home. Your boys are home. They're in school. And so you have to manage work, you have to set them up. It was so cute when you sent the pictures of the boys that they had phones on from their laptops, because they look like they were like backstage crew looks like they should.

There should be a production schedule in front of them calling

Patrick Brochu  8:22  
the show great perks of the job. You know, we're in work from home mode. I mean, I know that all over the country, there's people that are going back to school. Normally there's situations where people are sending their kids to school on a hybrid model where they're there some of the weekend home some of the week where I live, we're again in lockdown mode. So our kids are doing full on school from home. My wife Paige is a high school teacher. So she's in one room teaching high school students I'm in in our living room with my twins who just started kindergarten. And it's very hands on, they have two different laptops and I'm trying to do work on mine. And unfortunately, my job has been understanding and knows that kindergarten, what are you going to do? So I have to sit with them basically from 8am till two o'clock, I don't do any conference calls any meetings like that until after two prior to that I'm accessible from coworkers on email, text message, etc. And I'm doing a bit are going through show schedules and stuff like that, but I just can't be on the phone because I have to kindergarteners singing, dancing, listening to songs about watching bands, or whatever,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  9:21  
you know, just picturing that background of a conference call like

Patrick Brochu  9:26  
okay, you're kind of busy, but everybody's scene is in different situations and maybe one of our future guests will do a subject specifically on the working with kids and you know, working from home and that kind of

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  9:35  
Yeah, cuz he want to talk about something I can't relate to. It's that I am child free over here. So yes, but I do have a dog that acts like a child. So I don't know. But no, I mean, it's one of those things, I guess where I can't believe I'm saying it. We have to pivot and everybody has been forced to think about how they approach their day to day differently. You know, even from little things like going to the supermarket or making your doctor's opinion Men or how you interact with your children I know before you are on a schedule where it's like I dropped them off in the morning and pick them up at night. Now there's no dropping off in the morning and picking them up at night. And for you or for others that commute when I used to drive to the office, I used to love my windshield time, I would turn on whatever music or podcasts and the 20 or 30 minute drive that I had was my time.

Patrick Brochu  10:20  
And my mind was audiobooks. I'm a big audio book person,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  10:23  
right. And so now that time is taken away from you. For me, it kind of sets me in the mode of work, I used to travel so much I was on playing 70 80% of the time, I listened to all podcasts the entire time. And now I'm home working, I don't really do that. And I kind of noticed my brain shift a little bit. So how are you pivoting during this time,

Patrick Brochu  10:43  
the major thing is you said my wife being the teacher and everything last year was I would drop off the kids in the morning because of my job, you know, I didn't have to be until 910, whatever. So I could drop them off, go do some errands. And then I would work late, just the nature because we have a lot of clients on the West Coast or whatever. So I would just be available until seven, eight o'clock my time. And then I would come home, eat dinner, kids try to give bed that kind of thing. But my wife would pick them up. But now it's like, there's no time like everything revolves around the kids, they're here, obviously, they can't take care of themselves. So our schedules are just completely different. You know, Stacey, we've we've actually talked about this. It's been interesting with the work from home. And I think that some companies are finding this interesting, I feel like I'm just as productive if not more in this schedule. However, there's a give and take with that. Because some of it as actually taking time away, I end a little bit earlier to dinner with the family try to do a bike ride or something activity with kids put them to bed. And then I come back to my home office after that. And I'm working a few more hours later in the evening. And depending on what's going on, I may be working on code into the hours of the morning because I know the next morning I am full on kindergarten teachers slash cafeteria workers slash teachers slash

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  11:46  
the best cafeteria worker pool, those omelets.

Even how we go about planning our events for my company, I work within the medical industry planning their national sales meeting, one of the things we're going to discuss is okay, you're going to ask for people's attention for multiple days in a virtual world for a sales meeting, maybe we should look at offering a child care credit to say if you use care calm or one of those things, maybe we give you a credit so that you can actually say, Okay, I can stay attentive for the next three days. That's the first I've heard of that, Stacey. And that's actually pretty ingenious, I hadn't even thought about that. Yeah,so that's something that we're going to look into just because I completely get it you have to stay engaged while looking at your child learn about washing their hands. So I guess in this world of social distancing, and having to make these changes, you have to think about how you approach an event in a different way. 

Patrick Brochu  12:36  
I know that you're not a fan of it, but I'll go ahead and say it there's a big push in our industry and more on the event side, less on the corporate meeting side that I've heard of not calling it social distancing, but spatial or physical distancing. Because we're still a social world and you know, want that social interaction. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  12:50  
So you see, and this is where I know for you a controversial 

Patrick Brochu  12:53  
word play. I know, but you know, it's it is what it is.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  12:56  
Yeah, it's it's this word play that I get. And I understand it. And I feel like a trader with an industry not falling in line, and just, you know, changing the verbiage of what I'm saying, but I don't know. It's just not catching on. I know also, in terms of pivoting and staying relevant during these times, I don't know how many online courses and new certifications you get hit with.

Patrick Brochu  13:18  
I've done a few. I've done a few. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  13:20  
I have too

Patrick Brochu  13:21  
But you but you've done some more interesting ones than me. You know, some of mine were I think everybody in the industry did the FAA one. That was a pretty good one.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  13:29  
To talk about it. What is that for you,

Patrick Brochu  13:30  
Florida Atlantic University. And this was early on, this was probably April, like 17,000 people in the first round. And then they did it two more rounds, because they had such a high demand. And they were giving out a free course. And then I think the second course they charge like 20 bucks in the third course, they might have charged 20, or another amount or whatever. But it was literally just a course on Hospitality and Tourism Management. But yours that you've been telling me about have been interesting.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  13:51  
I'm doing a pandemic certification course. And so pandemic and emergency planning certification, I know it has a longer title. But basically, it's about how do you plan during this phase that we're in? And how do you plan afterwards, right? Because even when outside opens up, and who knows, maybe we're able to walk around without masks on, we are going to be looking at things differently. I'm pretty sure I'm not unique in saying this. But Long gone are the days of buffets, right? No one's eating off of a buffet anymore. And you're going to be thinking twice before you sit next to your favorite coworker in event. 

Patrick Brochu  14:22  
And something that is talked about in my side of our industry in this other world of audio visual production companies. The big discussion is and again, this is another key word that's out there right now is on the hybrid meetings, because you're going to have the people or companies that still want people to come but maybe they're going to follow the spatial distancing guidelines and have less people in the ballroom. So there's less less people that they can put there. But they still need to get that information out to the rest of the team. So maybe half of the team will be home half the team will be in person, whatever percentages doesn't matter, but let's be honest, that are gonna have fears of being around figures. So I don't think that large gatherings are gone all together because I have heard some naysayers say stuff like that, but we're too much of a social world and We understand the importance of being in the same room when these decisions and big events happen. But at the same time, I think that the hybrid model will be here to stay for a while. So for those people that had done pushback on virtual events, yeah, learning about them on the planning side, I think that they just need to understand that there's going to be some aspect of this virtual thing moving forward, regardless of what happens. Oh, yeah, that's exactly what my kindergarten teacher said, after the boys school today, because she was saying that based on our county, that if numbers are down for so many weeks, under a certain percentage, they're going to go back, but that there is always the threat the rest of this year that it could get cut, and they would go back to virtual. So she said, Yeah, there's no point not learning the virtual. Yeah, that was really good on her. You know, she's totally with it. And I think it's the same thing for our industry. Yeah. We don't know if this pandemic, even when we get past this one. What's the next thing? You might as well learn what you need to learn now?

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  15:47  
Yeah. And I mean, that's where you're seeing people thrive are the people who are ahead of their time staying up to date on technology and what we can do, how many times have you heard about someone who is like, I only plan physical events in x setting or boldklub? Okay, now you need to learn how are you going to use zoom? Or how are you going to use this platform and I'm tired of hearing

Patrick Brochu  16:09  
with virtual events, people think that it's so much easier. It's not, it's not easy to plan a bergeaud. It's, it's as difficult if not more difficult, depending on your meeting, because your meeting might have actually been easier meeting the plan. And you didn't realize it. Yeah, but all virtual meetings have a level of complication to them. I mean, just scheduling speakers who are working from home, worried about their Internet's at home, there are so many things. And I don't mean to scare you, it is as involved, if not more involved during the planning side,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  16:37  
right? I think that that fear of going into this virtual world with technology, and people not knowing where we're going next is leading to a mass exodus of people in the industry, which is really scary, right, you're looking at some of your best friends and your best contacts, just saying, You know what, I think this is my lesson, I'm out. And you can't really be mad at that at the same time, because you know, what, we all have bills to pay. And so you have to keep moving, and you have to find a way to pay that bill and stay alive. And I really do hope that the people that are leaving to find their way back, I do hope that

Patrick Brochu  17:09  
just today, a former client of mine, a good friend, I saw that they left our industry to go work at something totally outside of our industry and home renovation company or something. I've seen a lot of footsies coming realtors, obviously, there's always a person that loves their job and consultant thing out there. But you know, there's tons and tons of people that I've seen, either they're leaving the industry, or they were furloughed or laid off. And they have to find something in between. And obviously, our world is being compressed in the events world because it does take to a degree less people put on some of the virtual events, some particular spaces in our industry, like a destination management company. I know there are some very unique dmcs. And I don't want hate mail or anything, but there are some very unique dmcs that are doing some really cool things to keep themselves relevant in the virtual world. Yeah, that's not what I'm talking about. But there are a lot of dmcs that their only thing is just Hey, come to my destination of Caribbean island XYZ. And there's not a need for like a huge sales force there. It was, some of them are doing creative things, or they're doing virtual tours of the island or whatever. And that's great. And that's not what I'm talking about. Just saying our industry as a whole is being compressed right now.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  18:10  
Oh, yeah. I see who's gonna thrive and who's gonna survive. And if there's certain times I get things, and I'm like, Is this where you really want to go with this bra? It's really not, but they're trying. So should we tell the people what they should expect from feature podcasts?

Patrick Brochu  18:25  
Yeah, absolutely. We'll have some podcasters. Just Stacey and myself chatting along on topics of the day, but we're gonna have some interesting guests in and we actually have a few guests lined up for the next couple of episodes and some really cool content for you guys to be able to listen to. And if you have any suggestions for us, please feel free to write us in and we'll put our email address in the description of the podcast and you guys are more than welcome to email us. It's well seasoned education@gmail.com and send us an email if there's a subject or you're interested question in being on the show. We would love to hear from you, though some of our upcoming podcasts are around staying relevant. How are you doing that zoom fatigue? Is that a real thing? Let's talk a little bit about that selling in the age of COVID. What are we doing there? We'll have more episodes coming in. But those are just a few that are coming down the line and really look forward to having you guys.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  19:10  
Yeah, and just so I know some people are like, I'm tired of hearing about COVID it's now all going to be about COVID. So don't get worried about that. We'll

Patrick Brochu  19:16  
have fun while we're at it. And that just happens to be the time that we're

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  19:21  
we're gonna we're gonna pivot we're going to what is it physical distance.

Patrick Brochu  19:26  
All the words are gonna show up. Maybe one day down the road. We'll turn this into a video podcast because we're doing this on a video software. We can see each other as we're speaking and Stacey's facial expressions. And she said that were hysterical. So I think Yeah, yeah, we would love to have you guys on and appreciate you listen to this first episode.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  19:45  
Awesome. Should we add some paprika?

Patrick Brochu  19:48  
Oh, yeah, we're gonna have a little bit of paprika at the end of each episode. paprika has a very special meaning for us. And it's a kind of an inside joke and kind of the seasoning that means nothing. So I mean, we kind of like

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  20:00  
Lie on the end of a dish like just like, Oh, yeah, he's basically the glitter. Like,

Patrick Brochu  20:04  
what exactly? What's your paprika for the day? My paprika for the day is in the kids schooling today we had our parent teacher conferences I told you afterwards it was all the kids, all the parents were allowed on this Microsoft Teams meeting to discuss, you know, how we felt like things were going to give feedback to the teacher. I think our teacher is just rocking it. Absolutely rocking it. I have one one major issue that, you know, I wish that they would resolve but that's just in the fact that my child my children can't read yet because they're in kindergarten, and, you know, they have to switch classes to go from their main class to PE or to music or whatever. And they have to close programs, open programs, etc, etc, etc. God, that's complicated, like, yeah, you know, so But other than that, I'm teaching but man, these parents were berating that teacher, I Oh, be nice to your teachers, especially those that are in situations that they've never been in or never thought they would be in. Be nice to those teachers. Come on.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  20:54  
Everyone's adjusting.

Patrick Brochu  20:55  
My paprika be kind. 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  20:56  
Be kind 

Patrick Brochu  20:57  
Be kind. Rewind.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  20:59  
My paprika is I'm in Reno and to go into California is about 10 minutes away from me. So I am right by all of the fires all of them. We had an evacuation warning and

Patrick Brochu  21:11  
Yeah you sent me some pictures that you took like on your street like 

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  21:13  
That was insane. So everyone knows I'm from the Bronx. So this like wildfire thing that's happening is not my norm. And so, it were just under this blanket of smoke non stop what for the last two days, it's gotten clear outside and I was like, Oh my god, I'm so excited. So, I'm a peloton, girl, I spend I cardio I do all this stuff. And I decided I'm going to take my dog Milo for a walk using the peloton app. So I get out there and I am like, mall walkers speed walking down the path. I mean, gave myself a cramp. Because I'm all you know, 123 and all sudden, I look up and I'm surrounded by mountains and all the mountains disappear because all of a sudden the wind shifts and the smoke comes down and say on me and I'm like halfway through my walk. I now like coughing like non stop. And y'all know today we can't be coughing out loud, like people be giving you side eyes. So now I have all this smoke sitting on my chest. My dog is already annoyed at me. He's eight years old. And he's kind of like, I just want to go outside for a quick little lap around not this whole speed walking foolishness that you're doing. And I can't breathe and I start coughing. And I look ahead of you. It's like Bailey's coming towards me and I'm like, trying to control the cough and it's like building in my eyes and I finally had to let it out and like the parents totally diverted and went a different path. And I'm like, oh God, like I feel bad. But it was like all this smoke like I couldn't breathe.

Patrick Brochu  22:33  
You know you're you're right though. Like I I've seen myself with that phobia of people. That cough I've gone three aisles over where I found nobody.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  22:46  
Cooper like way way early on. Like he's trying to do this interview and he's all sitting there talking. He's holding the coffee. He's all his faces like contorting into all these shapes. And we're just like, breath, let it out. What's not even in the studio. They're on zoom and you're still like too nervous to cough out loud. But yeah, the

Patrick Brochu  23:04  
By the way Staceyann's celebrity envy or crush, if you will, and she's had the chance of meeting him twice is Anderson Cooper and want to talk about and she couldn't even get a word out. She was like,

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  23:17  
I giggled, I giggled like an idiot and not just like, okay, so you guys might giggle is not just like, it's like, I can't. 

Patrick Brochu  23:28  
She even playing me in that and everything and they're like, hey, Stacey, you want to meet this person who you hired as a speaker. And she can't speak

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  23:34  
I couldn't I couldn't do anything. And then he came to the event several times and like I mean, came to my venue several times and actually said he remembered me and I could just go

Okay, thanks for disturbing me.

So that's, that's episode one in the bag. We're done.

Patrick Brochu  23:51  
We'll see you guys next time.

Staceyann VanHorne-Doria  23:57  
Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and Staceyann VanHorne-Doria sound editing by Rocci Doria and song by Dr. Delight

Transcribed by https://otter.ai