Well Seasoned The Podcast
Well Seasoned The Podcast
They're Not All Broke!
Staceyann and Patrick are joined by Cherisse Challenger, Director of Venue and Event Sales with the Museum of the City of New York, to discuss non-profit events. They discuss everything from working with tight budgets, repurposing decor and the fact that not all non-profits are broke.
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All I could think about is how can you get that gorilla up there? Can he walk upstairs? Is this a cage situation? How big is it?
Patrick Brochu:How many meals from catering does the gorilla need?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Welcome to another episode of Well Seasoned the Podcast. I'm Stacey.
Patrick Brochu:And I'm Patrick.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:And he has to always think of his name. It's something new every time. And we're here today with somebody who I know. And I have to call her Miss Cherisse Challenger Cleary. Ooo - yeah, I used all the names - and Cherisse is the Director of Venue and Event Sales at the Museum of the City of New York. Welcome, Reese. Hey girl hey! Thank you for coming. So for everyone Reese and I worked together at the [USS] Intrepid Museum, just just a few short minutes ago, it wasn't that long-
Cherisse Challenger:Many, many, many, many, many years.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:-she's trying to make this sound good. Didn't have to do that.
Cherisse Challenger:That's where we got our tough skin. It's where we grew up.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:We almost had to tug that[censored] back ourselves. But remember that Panasonic event that we did, where they use the lifts over the Hudson River to bring like the largest TV in?
Cherisse Challenger:Oh yeah.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Fast forward umpteen years later, I met the ladies who did that event. It was so crazy. That was like, have you ever done an event at the intrepid because I feel like I know you and they're like, Yeah, we did that event. And I'm like, You Shut it. Remember when you came in talking about you wanted to bring lions and tigers and bears? And I was like, Where's my security at?
Cherisse Challenger:Oh, my gosh. And they talked about bringing the gorilla to knock around a tough book on the flight deck. Yeah, I was just thinking, how are we going to get the gorilla on the flight deck?
Patrick Brochu:I thought you were joking when you said lions, tigers and bears. Oh my. But you're literally talking animals like a gorilla.
Cherisse Challenger:No we're literally talking about lions, tigers, and bears and a gorilla.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yes. And then at one point, it changed to wanting to bring an elephant on the ship to walk on the Toughbook to show how tough the... okay.
Cherisse Challenger:The gorilla would knock the Toughbook around to show that it wouldn't break. And all I could think about is how many get that gorilla up there. Can he walk upstairs? Is this is a cage situation? How big is it?
Patrick Brochu:How many meals from catering does the gorilla need?
Cherisse Challenger:Is the gorilla on any special diet we should know about?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Questions. So with that we brought Reese on because we wanted Reese to talk about nonprofit events because we all know nonprofit events is a beast on its own. And like we said that's where you grow your skin and you learn to do things you never thought you would know how to do. Such as sitting somewhere in peeling labels off of bottles, because[...] Want to give us a little intro to yourself?
Cherisse Challenger:Sure. Well, my name is Cherisse Challenger. I've been in the event industry for, oh gosh going on 20 years. I'm dating myself now. I've done everything from lifecycle events
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:You're welcome. to corporate events and social events. I've worked for nonprofits within New York City. And I've done events in New York and Florida and California traveling for corporations like Nickelodeon, working for historic landmarks like Central Synagogue and the Intrepid Museum. I'm currently the Director of Venue Rentals, and Event Sales at the Museum of the City of New York.
Patrick Brochu:Just being in New York, the events that you do at those locations, because they're all known locations in New York. Some of them are landmarks as well. And so you get a plethora of events coming in. I've worked nonprofit, too. And Patrick being on the AV provider side, you're doing it all right? You've kind of dealt with the challenges and the ups and downs of planning nonprofit events. So you just wanted to kind of talk about differences, right? Because there are fundamental differences in planning a profit versus non profit event. Let's talk about the mission of doing events for profit versus nonprofit. I know it's so deep, right? Especially when you've worked for a place for a while you end up kind of living and breathing the mission and you find yourself kind of looking at events and going this is not even what we represent, it's a little bit different. Whereas for profit, I don't want to say that profit companies don't have a mission statement. They obviously do. But it's a little bit different and it might not be as aligned to what you're doing on a daily basis. How has that kind of worked with you in working at different institutions?
Cherisse Challenger:When you're planning events, the main thing that you need to think about is What's the goal of this event? Because people attend events thinking, Oh, what about the food and the flowers and the cocktails who's going to be there? But really, it's about the mission and the message that you're trying to drive home when you're having these events. So what's the purpose that the organization is trying to drive home to their audience when they're having these events? And when you're planning events for a venue or different cultural institutions, it's like you're working for 100 different companies in the year you're doing over 100 events a year and you really have to understand what their end goal is when they're having those events. So it's really important for you, when you're meeting with your clients to understand the purpose of the event, why are they trying to have this event in the first place? And this way, you can weave that into all of your planning, whether it's non profit or corporate, you really need to understand what their end goal is. If they're telling you that they want to have this event to build camaraderie with the team, because the departments are working in silos and this is their one time that everybody's in the room together, you really have to think about engagement and how you're going to bring those people together in that room. What is it gonna look like, what's it going to smell like, what's it gonna feel like when they come in there? And how are you going to get the people from marketing to talk to the people who are in-
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Um hmm. Sales.
Cherisse Challenger:- and how will you get those people to come together? When it's a nonprofit, you have to be a little bit more creative. Because a lot of times you can't appear to be spending a lot of money. And so you really have to think about how you are doing things a little bit outside the box, and how you're going to still have that mission present without breaking the bank. And so you tend to be very creative and really wanting to drive the message home, but you do have to really consider what the budget is, what the message is, who the audience is going to be and understanding why we're even bringing all of these people together in one room.
Patrick Brochu:I think that's a really good point and that's something that I find myself talking to the corporate planners about. What's the end goal? What are we going for? On the nonprofit side, it tends to be What's our call to action at the end of this? What's the end objective for people that are attending this gala? What is it that we want them to do? Do we want them to go volunteer? Do we want them to open their wallets? Do we want them to do both? What is that end objective? Now let's build everything around that particular thing.
Cherisse Challenger:Right. Really understanding what it is that they're trying to do. Why are you coming together? Why are you even having this event? And who's going to be there? Who are you talking to? Who are these people who are going to walk through these doors and how are they going to receive this message? In New York, people are going to events every night of the week and so you really have to think about is this going to be just yet another night for them? Or are you going to make this a night to remember for them?
Patrick Brochu:One other great point that you brought up is the perception of spending money, right? When you're a nonprofit planner, even if you get a great sponsor, and that great sponsor, let's say since I'm in AV. So in the AV world, let's say I come in to sponsor an event and we're going to throw up this big set, and we're going to sponsor this whole thing. And I've had event planners look at me and say, Well, that's great, but we can't do that. Why we're giving it to you? The perception is now are all of these attendees are going to think that they're going to give me $10. And of that $10, five of it is going back to throw in the event when really we needed to be X number. The first time I heard that I was taken aback by it. Then I was like, Oh, well, that makes total sense. I never thought-
Cherisse Challenger:Right.
Patrick Brochu:-it makes sense.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Especially on the venue side of it, there's a lot of times when you think about your venue's mission, or the institution's mission that you are working for, and then the people coming in, whereas if we're a hotel, they might do anything -- I don't want to say anything -- but you know, they're a little bit more open. But if you're working for a fallen hero funds, or feed the hungry, or whatever, and that's what you're representing, and somebody comes in talking about anything that goes against that, right? And as a salesperson, because you're living and breathing that mission, it becomes less about your commission or your pay and more like, No, we can't have this in here, like this doesn't align with us. Right? It's so different looking at events that way.
Cherisse Challenger:Once you've mastered that, and you know that that's something you have to be looking for, it'll take you a long way. I remember I was working for a nonprofit organization, and we were having a fundraising event. So we're bringing our high donors into a very intimate lunch setting. And we're at a country club. So we're putting all of the pieces together for this event and I had a vendor that I'd know very well and she said, Oh, I can donate centerpieces for this and I said, Oh, that was great, because I really don't have it in my budget to even do anything really elaborate so that would be great. Whatever you can send over I would be happy with but because we had a great relationship, she really wanted to do something special for me. She sent over these beautiful arrangements. Well, the president of the organization walks in and that she takes one step and she's like, What are these flowers? I hadn't gotten on site yet. But my assistant was there and she's like, Oh, yeah, we got these flowers. And they were donated, don't worry. We didn't pay for them. They were these huge, beautiful arrangements. And she's like, We can't have this. We can't have this hair right now. No. And she starts taking the flowers apart and breaking them into even smaller pieces. And I get this frantic call from someone saying Oh my gosh, she's here taking apart the centerpieces. She said they're too expensive to have on the table. Now this is a lunch with ladies who lunch in the middle of the day at a country club.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Oh my I goodness.
Cherisse Challenger:But because we're going to be asking them for money and telling them how we need this money to do whatever mission we were doing that day, we couldn't appear to have money already.
Patrick Brochu:Yeah, they're gonna take money and spend it on flowers.
Cherisse Challenger:And spend it on flowers and country clubs. No, you can't do that. So literally, we were in there trying to make smaller arrangements running into the kids and trying to find small vessels to break up these beautiful arrangements that this person was like, Oh, wow, this might be a good opportunity for me to get my name out there. We had to take them apart, because it's just the perception that this was gonna just ruin everything for this one lunch.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:And that kind of goes with the community engagement, right? You're able to get somebody within the community to donate their services, their goods... that's just also something nonprofit versus profit you rely on. You hope and pray somebody, out of the goodness of their heart, is going to want to donate their services to you. You really do!
Cherisse Challenger:Please like me and send me something I need it!
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:You look at these events and you know, we have no budget. And as an event manager, you're standing there and you're like, if I had like $500, more, the Dollar Tree, some glue and some crayons, I could do something right now.
Cherisse Challenger:If I could just take this five minutes and MacGyver, these little centerpieces together, everything will be great.
Patrick Brochu:So how do you keep the community involved so that when events come around, it's less of a ask and more of a want? With your institution and institutions, how do you approach community engagement?
Cherisse Challenger:It's a big part of what I do and it's constant. It can't just be when you need something, it has to be just an ongoing relationship, just like all relationships. And so if you see that there's someone in unity that is doing something for their business, you should be supporting them and getting the word out about them and you hope that they would reciprocate. But it's ongoing in the sense of you want to constantly be letting them know what you're working on, letting them know what is going on in your world...
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:...In your world... [laughter]
Cherisse Challenger:Distracted by small people who look like me. Before this I always had this mom guilt where he said, You know, I don't spend enough time I work a lot of late nights with events. And I have to be out all the time doing these events. And I don't get to spend time with my children and my husband. Well guess what, six months later? I'm like, eh. It was great.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:2020 fulfilled. Thank you. Moving on.
Patrick Brochu:We had the same topic in an earlier episode and I'm right there with you. I'm on the road a lot throughout the year and right now we're at a point where I've been home for six months, and I'm in the same boat as you. I can't wait to hop back into a ballroom.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So sad.
Patrick Brochu:I never thought I would have said that.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So real.
Cherisse Challenger:You know, the weekends are fine. We have time on Saturday and Sunday.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:I personally, you know, from no experience could say I agree with you guys.
Cherisse Challenger:Yeah. Thanks Stacey.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:You're welcome. Now coming back to where we were community
Cherisse Challenger:Right, but speaking of community engagement, yeah. We have to constantly just have those relationships with people and your go-to people that you trust, people who will deliver for you no matter what or it can be flexible with you when it comes to pricing or, you know, having dynamic pricing for different tiers of clients, different types of clients. So you have to have that in your back pocket, just so that you can stay diverse and you can also stay competitive in a really competitive market, but also so that you can get a couple different quotes for the same event and there'll be three different price points. You have to be able to be limber in a way that you can serve your clients in the in the best fashion.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:You touched on it, and I don't want it to go missed. It's not about just going back to your contacts when you need them. It's an ongoing relationship. And trust me, it's seen on both sides. If you have someone that only comes to you when they need a venue space, and they don't do anything on the other side, it's like well, no. And this is profit versus nonprofit, we have it on both sides. Foster relationships with your vendors. Don't just call them for that one event, and then radio silence here on out. It does make a difference because different opportunities come in different ways. Right? And you never know that event that's gonna sneak up on you when the president tells you that you have to plan an event on Monday and I'm not saying this is like personal experience or anything and that your weekends now gone and you have to spend all week speaking to hotels and whatnot but at least I have someone I could call when I'm like drinking.
Cherisse Challenger:Right. Yeah. What she said.
Patrick Brochu:I probably have in my inbox four or five different requests from nonprofits for producing their shows virtually right now. We actually just agreed to do one and just before we got on today, I sent something out of my social media. Hey, we're proud to be sponsoring this nonprofits virtual event, but we get so inundated on the supplier side that you're absolutely right. When you guys were talking about that relationship, I have one nonprofit that I sponsor every single year and it's not the biggest as a company. It doesn't give me the most exposure, but it's one that we do because we have a very strong relationship. That person is there helping us out, always introducing us to the important people that do attend their event that we can get business Back from so that person does it right. But just out of the woodwork, I get these Hail Marys, you know, that I'm sure they must be.
Cherisse Challenger:Right. They just take take take and they don't get it.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah. Yeah,
Cherisse Challenger:Well, that's good because you build those relationships, but also you build these kind of brand ambassadors for your company in your business. And so you have these people now that can go out and talk about the good work that you're doing and how professional you are. And so maybe you don't get the money that you're expecting for that particular event. But maybe they introduce you to someone else who does have a bigger budget, and you might book that event, and it's way better. And it goes a long way to have those relationships with people in your community and understand what it means to really foster those relationships and have good ties, because you might not even be in the room and someone might be talking about an event or a need for a plan or something and your name comes up. And that's when the real benefit comes.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:I kind of feel like I need to say this. Not all nonprofits are broke.
Patrick Brochu:I would agree with that. 100% Staceyann. We deal with a lot of nonprofits on our side, you know, looking for as much as they can. But we have some other nonprofits that we deal with. Their budgets are as big if not bigger than some of the big corporations that we're dealing with. So I mean, it's a total spectrum when we're talking about nonprofit programming.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah, yeah. I know this is something we're all dealing with now because of COVID, and reduction of teams, but in the nonprofit world -- and I just said not all nonprofits are broke -- many of the nonprofit organizations have small teams, and I'll speak from our experience Reese, we were looking for clients, we were doing site visits, we were putting together the contracts, we were executing the event, we're closing out the books... kind of going back where we said it kind of built us, right? You learn every aspect of the event and you can apply those skills everywhere. So now when I speak to my vendors, and I'm looking at contracts -- so if I drew up contracts, I knew what we're looking at what we're talking about, I knew those clauses that we're looking at, that's one of the things that I think is fantastic about working with a smaller team. On the flip side, you don't sleep, but I feel like I'm not sleeping now. So what's the difference? I don't know how are you dealing with having a smaller team to execute?
Cherisse Challenger:I think that when you have been in an environment where you do know everything from soup to nuts of how to execute it an event, it allows you to be a little bit more nimble when it comes to working in a small team. And so it doesn't really bother me, I actually would prefer to work in a small team, because it's a lot less of checks and balances, I have to go through I know steps that needs to be taken in order for us to get to the day of the event where you're executing, and everything is buttoned up. And you hit it right on the head Stacey when you talked about there's some teams that just handle sales, and there's some teams that just handle production, and then they might handle the sale and pass it to another team that will deal with contracting. And when you've done all of that stuff, it kind of helps the flow of the pre production go a little bit smoother and quicker, because you know what's the next step and you can be working in those multiple steps concurrently. So you don't have to wait for someone else to get it on their desk, and then have it in their timeline to work on it. And get it back to you and then you can take the next step you can keep the wheels going. And then things just keep going smoothly, and you have a lot less pauses where I've been in larger teams where you do have to pass it off to someone else. Yeah, that depends on what their workload is and you're kind of nudging them like, Hey, did you get this? Are you done with this? Can I have this by Friday? Til you get to the stern voice like I need this by Friday. You have it on your timeline. So you can keep things flowing a little bit better. So I actually prefer that format of working as a team for those reasons.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Patrick, on your side, do you prefer that as well? Do you rather say okay, I have my person over here that's going to deal with my production and graphics? How do you feel?
Patrick Brochu:It depends on the scenario, sometimes it's good when we break things up and have a larger team that we're communicating with, okay, graphics are coming from this person, I'm going to link their graphics with my graphics. I don't need to be as involved on that. That happens there. But a lot of times when we're dealing with nonprofits, we are dealing with smaller teams so in doing that, on our end, we're introducing, I feel like, those people up to multiple people versus instead of a one to one ratio, they're dealing with a lot more people on their end on our end, versus if that's the case, we've tried to streamline it and have all of our communication go through one person and back to them. I don't know if this makes sense what I'm saying or if I'm rambling, but you try to team them up either one to one or have it streamed through one person if there's a smaller team that we're dealing with, so that that person is not dealing with eight people on our end.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So let's talk about the elephant in the room. Everyone's like, Ah, you need to address what it really is. Yes, yes, the budget are small. We all get it. We've had to beg a couple times, as like I said earlier. Peel off labels, look at events from the night before and take those centerpieces and put it up in your office because you're gonna need it the next day.
Cherisse Challenger:You're telling all the secrets now.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:That's the thing, it's like, Oh, are you gonna use this? Are you taking these centerpieces home? I'll keep them. It's very nice. Thank you. And next day you're like, alright-
Cherisse Challenger:-no, no, don't worry about it, we'll take care of it, you go home and rest.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So, the budgets are smaller, which means you do become more creative. I'll speak on the venue side and even Patrick, sometimes on your side, I'm sure you have to do this too. You have to line up events back to back so that maybe the AV team only has to load in once and load out once you could save some money or now you're saving money because of equipment, you're saving money because of floral if you're working in a venue that has-
Cherisse Challenger:Production time.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:production, all that right? Because now you're looking at it and you'll say, listen, here's the stage, here's what they have. If we only do minor edits here and there, then maybe we can work something out to save money. So even though the budgets are smaller, it doesn't mean that you are creating a backyard party, you could do so much more with it as well, if you just kind of think creatively out of the box.
Cherisse Challenger:It's not a flaw if you can think it through that way. If you have several events, and they're going back to back and you know that you're going to be working with this vendor for several of these events, they can load in everything before the first event, stage some equipment that they're not necessarily using right now, set up so that reduces setup time for the next event, it might reduce your budget for loading purposes, cuz you don't have to do several trips, if you can let them leave equipment in a certain space and just stash it for the next event. And then you know, the cruise, you can even double up once they might be rigging lighting, but they might only need a certain amount of lights for this first event but they'll do the full lighting scope for two events, because they're already up there on those ladders. And so you just get it done at that time, that reduces the cost for those times, you don't have to do it twice. So being able to think about what the logistics entail ahead of time, so that you can cut down costs helps with the budget, and it helps with the mission of the organization if you can do that. So you're just constantly trying to piggyback off of different events and really think through the logistics and your timeline of what you have on your plate, whether it be just for one of them or multiple events that are happening within a week or month.
Patrick Brochu:So I'm thinking in my head about what I've known about different corporate events, this percent of the budget for the entire event goes towards the hotel, this percentage goes towards AV this percent for food and beverage... and I'm thinking to myself that with some exceptions in the corporate world, that the vast budget, I feel like, from an outsider, goes towards entertainment, and nonprofit -- and again, not talking about those of you out there listening that have corporate events, and you're hiring a list celebrity x-- I'm saying middle of the road corporate event in the nonprofit sector, more of their budget is going towards entertainment, that might be the band whoever's playing, could be walk around character, atmospheric entertainment, do you guys find that true, I'm just thinking off the top of my head that this is, from an outside perspective on this one, this is what I feel like I've seen.
Cherisse Challenger:It depends on the mission of the organization and the event It depends on where they want to place value. If you're having a gala, and you have a great, you know, speaker at this event, and you're going to spend a lot of money on AV because you want to make sure that you have all the equipment to make that go smoothly. If you're not doing very many events that year, but you're bringing everybody together for this one time, you might want to put a bigger dollar on the entertainment because you want them leaving feeling like this was a full-bodied event, and they've experienced something that they've never experienced before and they leave, they're talking about you, because you're gonna need that good feeling to last with those people for a very long time but you're not going to be doing a lot of events. It really does depend on the end goal, again, for the client and how many events you're dealing with the lifespan of your event, but you know where to put those dollars. If you're going to be having a bunch of events throughout the year, you might not want to spend a ton of money on decor because you're going to be doing a bunch of these things. And so really, let's just focus on content and making sure that the message goes out. But if this is your one thing, maybe you do like a big, blowout holiday party at the end of the year, entertainment is going to be a big portion a big percentage of your budget, because you're not doing a ton of events and so you want people to leave feeling like this was worth the wait and I'm glad I came.
Patrick Brochu:That makes sense.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah, totally.
Patrick Brochu:I don't know very much about this next subject, but I want to ask you guys. Working in historic landmarks... tell me about that. You guys have both worked in -
Cherisse Challenger:I'm gonna need a cocktail if we're gonna talk about that.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Oh child.
Patrick Brochu:Talk to me about the complications. I've worked in some historical landmarks where it's a little bit more white glove service, so for us, for AV, we're putting trusses up, we're having to bring in carpet to put it underneath so that we're not touching the marble floors, those kind of things. I understand a little bit but tell me from your perspectives a little bit about working in these historic landmarks,
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:it depends on if your landmark has elevators or bomb elevators, I mean-
Cherisse Challenger:Right? That's very very important.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:There's a lot of rules that go around working at a historic landmark, you're pretty much giving people the list of do's and don'ts. Remember the no confetti on the ship, because you find -
Cherisse Challenger:That's still my rule no matter where I am.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:I take that everywhere. Do not bring confetti anywhere near me, I had an event where somebody put out confetti on the table, and it was like wire hangers for me. I was like, what are you doing?
Cherisse Challenger:You're seeing confetti for years to
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Now we're gonna come back here in come. like 2050 and the same purple pi ce of dot is going to be he e. If there's anything from what you could put out, like he sai, the loading in, putting ca pet underneath, where you an store things remember we w re working in a museum, right? So a lot of the storage for th museum when you did an event as for the exhibits. So we were hiding all the exhibits behind hings so that we can do it. dunno. What are you dealing wit right now at your location?
Cherisse Challenger:Well, right now I'm in a museum, and I've been in museums in the past but you know, there's different types of museums. And so you see, I came into this one thinking, Yeah yeah I know, but the artifacts at the intrepid are very different than the artifacts at the Museum of City of New York. We were very careful at the Intrepid Museum, because artifacts would be planes but you don't have to really worry as much about climate and temperature control at the Intrepid because the planes are pretty resilient. But when I'm in an art museum, I have to worry about people wanting to open windows, and if the window is open, what is that going to do for the humidity in the room, and is that going to make the edge of the photos that we have on the wall curl up and then color is going to be discolored, and this is the only copy of this photo, we don't have replications of it. And so if this gets ruined, then that's when the world ends. So that's why you really have to understand the culture of the historical landmark that you work within and what's important to them and why it's important to them. At the moment, we wouldn't necessarily want people leaning on the planes and that's something you have to really focus on because when you're walking past a huge plane, you wouldn't think that you could do that much damage leaning on one but you could. You can. And so really discouraging people from even touching the planes, it's a hard thing to do. If you have outdoor space and more of a terrace area, people might think as soon as I step outside, maybe I can have a cigar bar out here during my event? Well, no, you can't, because you're still technically on the property of you know, this institution. So you can have a cigar bar. You have to go all the way over there, through the turnstiles at the corner, if you want to have it.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Even at a historic location, there are locations within the location that is sacred, we had the Kamikaze exhibit, that was a location on the ship where remember when the ship first opened, you'd walk by and like a vet would be sitting there in tears because this spot is where he lost his cousin, his brother, his best friend -- there's parts of the ship that become sacred within itself, or even I'm saying ship, but location in general, that becomes sacred within itself. So you kind of respect that. There's just so much, Patrick, that goes into it.
Cherisse Challenger:It's really a lot. I've worked at a synagogue, which is the oldest reformed synagogue in New York. In Jewish culture, there's a lot of candle lighting, but this particular sanctuary had experienced a really traumatic fire and rebuilt from that. And so I'm paying attention to when we're lighting the candles, how we're lighting the candles, how we're extinguishing the candles was a big deal for them, because they never want to have to go through restoring this historical landmark again, but they don't want to relinquish those traditions. You really have to pay attention to the history of these landmarks and why it's important and why the rules are in place, and maybe there needs to be new rules, or why are we holding on to particular rules? Some might seem like, what's the big deal? You know, why don't we just do it this way? Well we don't do it this way because in the past, we've had this experience, and we don't want to have to go down that road again. So let's just take these steps to be careful.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:On the site visit to we take a lot of time to not only show you the venue, but give you a little bit of a history so that hopefully when you come back here, you'll understand when we say no to this, it's because of this. So we took a lot of time in the site visits to say this is what this meant, and this is what this meant and this is what this place is. And did he know about this? So that when they're upset because you can't nail something into the side of the ship -
Cherisse Challenger:Open flame or whatever it is.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah, you get to kind of understand that.
Cherisse Challenger:it's hard for planners to because a lot of what you're taught as a planner is that you don't want to say no to your clients. So you're always trying to figure out a way to say no without saying no. You have to think of alternatives to what was suggested sometimes to make them feel better, but sometimes no is no. And sometimes you just have to have that kind of conviction to understand why the rules are in place. It's keeping the integrity of the institution. And that's part of why you're there as an ambassador of that museum or place or wherever the historical landmark that you're working within, so you understand the history and the memories that are created, and how important it is so many people. So part of your job is making sure that you preserve that. And in understanding why those rules are in place.
Patrick Brochu:Stacey you gave me a bit of a flashback, when you were talking about the elevator. We did a program in Antiguo Casino in Puerto Rico. So it's an old, you know, buildi g, but it's a small building in he middle of old San Juan. And in that one, we actually had to remove some windows on he second floor, because th ir ballroom space is on the sec nd floor, and they never ha a production this big, and it as only a 50 person dinner. We ad to take out the windows on he second story of this histo ic landmark and deliver our st ge decks through the windows of he second storey, because we couldn't go through the bot om floor because of the mar le floor. So we had to find anot er way around it. That was an undertaking. But some of th se clients, they see these venu s, and they get all excited ab ut these historic landmarks, nd they don't realize what he limitations are and the cost nd up being because of having to get around some of th se limitations. The same thi g, like if we're loading i to pretty much any major lea ue baseball or football stadi m, until you get the okay to be on the grass, you're not allowed on the grass. It's almost, Ree e, like what you're saying ab ut the painting like, Am I rea ly gonna upset the grass by ne person stepping? Yeah, ou might. So it's a thing. But i's been very interesting hear ng you guys talk about th
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:I think I've learned to do site visits a little bit differently, working in historic landmarks, because now it's like, yes, the space is important, and you want to see it. But let me see your back of house. What does the kitchen look like? Where's the elevator? How far is the elevator from the location of the event? How far is my storage from the location of the event? How can I move through? It translates from profit to nonprofit in different ways. Maybe nonprofit is you can't roll across the marble, maybe a profit location is you can't do it -- or I mean, nonprofit profit, it works both ways -- the union has to do it. So you just kind of end up doing site visits and looking at locations very differently than somebody coming in looking to do a wedding and might not have that knowledge, right? If they were not in the field. I think kind of goes with the tips and tricks of doing events or nonprofit events. It's their money, it's your resources. It's working in concert landmarks. What are some things that you think you've kind of picked up along the way that you almost feel like is applicable to multiple events?
Cherisse Challenger:One of the main things is to really listen to the client and think through what the purpose of your event is going to be ahead of time. Even before you go visit the venues really listening to what the mission is because you could get lost in so many details. And then you end up with this fabulous event that did nothing, it fell flat because you didn't follow up with what the mission is of the organization. For nonprofits in particular, you want to really understand what the budget is and how you're going to allocate those dollars to the different line items. And play around with it, get several different quotes. Don't be beholden to just one vendor, they might do a great job, but they might not be a good fit for this particular event, so really understanding what the budget is and how to make those dollars spread across all those different line items will go a long way for you. Another tip is to really understand the brand that you're working with. Understanding the brand will help you to get that message across. I used to work at Nickelodeon and I learned so much in my time there about branding. I remember we were doing an event for one of the Nickelodeon brands it was Nicktoons and so it's more it's more for adults, maybe those cartoons, and there's like nighttime cartoons and so we had to get a cake and I was like I have a vendor for a cake and the vendor was like oh yeah, I'm gonna put flowers around the side and I presented it to someone else. Yeah, we're gonna get a cake and they're gonna put flowers around the side they're like Flowers? That is not who we are.
Patrick Brochu:There better be slime. No flowers. What do you mean flowers?
Cherisse Challenger:They were like Flowers? And I'm like I guess you're right, looking around at all this orange and dark brown and -
Patrick Brochu:And green.
Cherisse Challenger:- really dark characters were like superheroes, stealth, super, you know? Why would you think flowers would be okay? Understanding the brand will go a long way and that way you know what those colors mean to them and getting the colors right. And with the messaging was the tagline... it will go a long way. And it helps you to infuse the message in smaller ways almost subliminally throughout the entire event. Maybe you have the logo on the screen when people are walking in, maybe you can put a gobo somewhere on the wall so that they can still see the brand when presentations are happening. You want to put it on signage somewhere or on the podium. Really figuring out ways to weave it in without having to announce it all the time will go a long way to the client being really happy.
Patrick Brochu:One of the brilliant things that today's episode is kind of turned into outside of our nonprofit discussion -- and I think it's important for suppliers and planners alike -- is the under arching theme that we have going on of knowing what the end goal is. And sometimes, not giving myself a pat on the back but sometimes when I've asked, hey, what's our objective, even in the corporate world, and it's comes across as a surprise. Well, nobody's ever asked that. Well what do you mean? And some of those planners on the corporate side don't even know what their objective is, which is mind-boggling to me. So know that objective, and for you, suppliers out there know that objective, because maybe they're asking you for something, but if you knew the objective, you'd have a better answer, I understand that you're looking for this, but this might actually help you get towards that objective a little bit better, and being able to see it. And I think that's kind of brilliant, that Reese you kept on bringing that up a few times. That is a real thing that I think in our industry, on the supplier side that they need to take more account of, what is that objective? What's our mission?
Cherisse Challenger:Yeah, I think understanding the mission will go a long way. It'll tell you how you could spend the money, they'll tell you who's going to be in the audience. Who will you select that speakers? What type of event it will be? Is this an annual event? Or is this a one time thing? Does this thing have legs? How long are we going to be talking about this? Or do we need to reinvent ourselves thereafter? So it's really understanding what the end goal is, will go a long way for just about every event, even a social event, if you're having a wedding, the end goal is that you get to get married. It's not just simple as getting married. What's the message that you want to say you're bringing on your two families together? And what is it that you want them to leave feeling? Do you want them to know you as a couple better? Do you want them to know the families as a whole, you want to blend the families together as a whole. So how are you going to make that happen during this event?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:...Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick Brochu:I mean, there was the mic drop right there, she just dropped the mic.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:We do a lot of customer facing events at my company now, and our budgets like everyone else's are growing tighter. You end up losing money for your decor, and for all that... I've spent a lot of time in Home Goods and Lowe's now going to Home Goods and Lowe's to the plant section and getting like little orchids and little stuff and it's like best thing ever. Like, using those resources and it's so funny because you spend all this money on these huge centerpieces, and you go to Lowe's and you get like a $10 orchid and everyone is like this one is mine at the end of this event, and you're like-
Cherisse Challenger:They're walking out the door with it.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:And it's like, this little orchid made a difference? Okay. And, just, we knew this before, but gaffers tape is the answer to everything. You know. Also, it's very expensive so you also never put it down.
Cherisse Challenger:That's right.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:You make your tackle box with all this stuff in it.
Cherisse Challenger:My little tool belt.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:I was gonna say, your tool belt. Walking around with tool belts like we're really doing something.
Cherisse Challenger:It's so true though you really can you can spend your dollars in a local business and it'll go a long way. I recently attended a dinner a very intimate dinner there was only about 30 people in attendance and they have our names personally, you know out of wood and I was like oh wow, this is so nice. You feel like you're expected, you feel like they thought this through and this is my seat my name is on my seat I can take this away at the end of the night. So this is my little takeaway from here. I thought it was this huge thing and I go and I'm thinking about it for another event. I'm like wow, that was really nice touch. Let me see if I can add that to this other event and I go look it up and it's like $1.50 per name like this little $1.50 thing went that long? I'm still talking about this a month later.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It's crazy. Reese you remember this? Chicken pot pie?
Cherisse Challenger:Oh, well, you know that's one of my favorites.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It was amazing. We're doing this gala, there's no money and of course everyone thinks high-end Gala, people are spending like thousands of dollars for ticket to go there. You think, Oh my god. Am I supposed to give them steak and lobster or shrimp? Well we had a McDonald's budget. What do you do with a McDonald's budget? You make a McDonald's dinner. We got chicken pot pies, but you make it fashion! The ceramic dish and instead of like a dough was like a filo dough that went over it. And so you're talking about going from 100 plus per meal, and I think we brought that down to like 60 bucks, but the stupidity of it-- or the greatness of it, I should say -- was that everyone loved the chicken pot pie.
Cherisse Challenger:I'm still talking about that chicken pot pie.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It was so good. Didn't we have like an apple pie station or like a American Pie station?
Cherisse Challenger:Yes. Some kind of pie going. It was like a pie theme going throughout that whole event.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So we had pies and we had chicken pot pie and it was fantastic. And everyone loved it.
Patrick Brochu:I do love some chicken pox.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It was delicious.
Patrick Brochu:I'm starting to think over here, man, it's almost dinnertime.
Cherisse Challenger:Right. If you don't like chicken pot pie, you can't sit with us.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:No. Mmm mm. Cuz we were right there in that kitchen like talking about Nobody gonna eat that plate? We gonna eat that plate.
Cherisse Challenger:But you know, the theme, the overall theme was a very Americana theme. So to have the chicken pot pie and apple pie and red, white and blue cloth linens, you know, it went a long way and the theme of the night, so it made sense.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It made sense. Totally.
Cherisse Challenger:And it was low cost, high impact.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Mm hmm. Yep. Those are, those are just some things. Thank you, Reese. But before we wrap everything up, we ask everyone, what's your pearl of wisdom that you want to leave with people? It could be anything from that snake plant behind you does not need to be watered every day people actually likes to be dry.
Cherisse Challenger:I don't know anything about that plant? Basically, you can ask my husband.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:What?!
Cherisse Challenger:I'm surprised it's still alive.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:My gosh. And that's why it's meant for you to, I think blah blah blah and give us something deep, whatever you'd like. What's your little pearl of wisdom?
Cherisse Challenger:Stay true to who you are when you're planning events. It's so easy to get lost. And if the answer is no for you, it is no. And you figure out a way to communicate that no, but don't let yourself be bent into a situation where you're uncomfortable and then you're paying for it later on when you knew better in the beginning. It's really important to just stick to your guns. If you're planning an event and you know your worth and you understand what's going on, you have to leave that group and make them understand your point of view. Sometimes there's many ways to skin a cat or come up with a better idea and you have to stay strong. You have there's many ways that we can do it, but we're going to do it this way.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah, exactly. I like it. Okay, Reese, you're gonna join us for paprika. Okay, it's the seasoning of nothing. So my paprika story of the week is when Reese and I discovered our love for rare steak.
Cherisse Challenger:Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It's my favorite story to tell about events, though you do know that, right?
Patrick Brochu:Right? I feel like we need to hear the story.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Okay. Okay. For our people that's listening, and they're like, I don't get it - I am Jamaican. And if you don't know what well done is, it's burnt.
Cherisse Challenger:It's like no pink at all. Don't play with me.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Nothing. And we eat very well done meat. So the year is approximately 2010ish?
Cherisse Challenger:Probably.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Sure. We had a very small high end event come to the ship. Now. Our caterer was an outside caterer but they were on a ship. And this particular client had probably 10-15 people? It was tiny, and they spent four or 500 a head -- on just food. So she calls up, You
Cherisse Challenger:A ton. guys. Dinner's ready. And we're like, ooh, we eating good tonight. We cross ship, we walk over, we were outside in the gun tub? It's this area of the ship that's right over the Hudson River. Beautiful, Patrick. It's like we're in a movie right now. This night, we walk out into the gun up and the table is set exactly how you would see in the actual event. Right over the Hudson, the sun is setting you see that amber light coming in -- I'm setting the scene here for you Stacey -- and we're out there just enjoying each other's company -
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Drinking wine.
Cherisse Challenger:The chef himself brings out the plate, put it's down for us. And we're sitting here and the client is not meeting us right now we're able to let our guard down a little bit and relax for a second.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:And we're eating and we're talking about how delicious, the most delicious steak the most delicious side, the appetizer's delicious.
Cherisse Challenger:If they would have put me in the electric chair at the end of that meal. I would have been okay. This is my last meal and I'm fine with that.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Delicious bottle of wine. And so we're just like sitting there with the caterer. And she's like, you guys, it's like pitch dark out here. You need to turn on the lights. And we're like, we don't even know where the lights are on this. And she's like, Oh, it's right here. So she flips on the lights and we look at her plate, and there's blood on our plate.
Patrick Brochu:And it's like mooing at you?
Cherisse Challenger:You know in those comics when the thought bubble comes up, and maybe two people's thought bubbles merge?
Patrick Brochu:Yes.
Cherisse Challenger:I think Stacey's and my thought bubble both came up and merged at the exact same time. We looked down at our plates and then we looked at each other after having talked about how delicious this steak was. I had to go back to my New York Bronx roots and say that meal, we tore that up.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It was a big toe production. It was delicious. I mean I almost picked up the plate and licked
Cherisse Challenger:She's like, yeah, this is delicious. Right? it. Cuz she's got this big, Brazilian accent.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:She's from Brazil. Like, you could hea the forks clink.
Cherisse Challenger:Yes. And it's like almost suddenly, we didn't even know what to say. And she's still going with the conversation, carving the steak, and she's like Good, right? And we look at each other and we like... was this like this the whole time?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:We were traumatized.
Patrick Brochu:So did you guys keep me or could you not eat any more?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:No so now so at the end of that we kind of -
Patrick Brochu:Cuz this turned into your love of steak-
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:So it did turn into a love but we excused ourselves and Reese and I, like a movie, walked down the entire coridor of the ship in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. So like for week after that we're like, but that was like the most delicious steak.
Cherisse Challenger:Like our brains, we couldn't wrap around the thought that this delicious steak it also have not been well done. How could they live in the same world together?
Patrick Brochu:Well welcome, welcome to the bright side of things here. I'm a big medium rare to rare. If anything is more than that, it has to have steak sauce, otherwise I will need it. I couldn't even look at a well done steak that's like a, hamburger, I dunno.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:From that experience. That's all I have is like a medium rare steak all the time. Yeah, that night I went home and I was like mom, there was blood on my plate. I need a detox tea. So that is my story of when we discovered that
Patrick Brochu:Stacey I wish I was there to take a photo of you we're actually good. eating that steak.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:During that process, when I tell you Reese and I were like [growl sounds].
Patrick Brochu:Yeah, that noise, Stacey.
Cherisse Challenger:We were eating this steak as if it was the first time we've ever eaten. She was eating the steak and also revving a car.
Patrick Brochu:Stacey has this video of me at a dinner one time and Vimari was there. Shout out to Vimari if you're listening. And Gilbert, I believe was there right?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah. And Mark.
Patrick Brochu:And Mark Kaplan. Okay. So we're all sitting down eating a dinner with a big group of people. I take this big bite-- this is the best steak ever. And I'm like, clearly in the video enjoying the steak a little too much. Stacey is videotaping me, not to my knowledge at the time-
Cherisse Challenger:Which she's very good at by the way.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Thank you.
Patrick Brochu:- and she's doing a sound over of it going num, num, num, num, num. Num. And I glance over at her and I'm like, Oh, god, this is gonna be everywhere.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:It is the best video I have. I actually just watched it the other night of him taking a bite
Patrick Brochu:It will not show up on our social media page. It will not.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Oh, it absolutely will.
Cherisse Challenger:Show it show it show-
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Do it do it-
Patrick Brochu:Anyway, so my paprika, since both of you guys are from New York, and I wanted to bring up the great late RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg who just recently passed away, she actually has a funny quote, because, you know, the notorious RBG. She was on stage at some event, the moderator asked her so what do you think about Biggie Smalls? Notorious, who you're named with. And she said, Well, I just recently found out about this person, looked him up, and she and he had a lot in common. And everybody in the crowd's like What? And she's like, yes, they were both from the mean streets.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:She's from the mean streets of where?
Patrick Brochu:Uh, Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Did you know that?
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Yeah.
Cherisse Challenger:Yeah.
Patrick Brochu:Anyway, my New Yorkers-
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Meanwhile I'm like, Okay, what is she gonna say? Like, what is it that you know, they both like that one song?
Patrick Brochu:Yeah. They both have their street cred.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:But seriously, I'm not messing with her though. I would not have messed with her.
Patrick Brochu:No, absolutely not.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:RIP girl. RIP.
Patrick Brochu:I think that that wraps up this week's episode. Thank you again to our special guest for joining us.
Cherisse Challenger:Thank you guys for having me. This was fun.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Before we wrap up, everyone, if you have any event questions, and if you have an event debrief -- whatever randomness happened and you know the one that's going to go in your memoir -- go ahead and share that with us. Don't worry, you can be anonymous. We'll give you a name. Email us at wellseasonededucation@gmail.com, they'll be in the show notes. Thanks everyone. You guys have a good day. Bye.
Patrick Brochu:Bye everybody.
Staceyann Van Horne-Doria:Episode produced by Patrick Brochu and Staceyann Van Horne-Doria. Sound editing by Rocci Doria and song by Dr. Delight.