Checked In with Splash
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Checked In with Splash
What B2B and B2C Experiential Marketers Can Learn from Each Other with Joe Rivers
In this episode of Checked In, host Camille White-Stern is joined by Joe Rivers, Director of Sales Enablement at Spiro.
Joe is a seasoned experiential marketer and thought leader with a diverse background in brand activation, tour management, and business development. Joe's career journey and expansive travels across 29 countries have provided him with countless experiences both attending and creating B2B and B2C events.
In this episode, he shares:
- What experiential marketing is and why it matters
- Examples of the most engaging B2B and B2C events he's attended and hosted
- The four most powerful emotions for B2B and B2C events
- The biggest components of great experiential marketing
- The one event he is still thinking about five years later
...and much more.
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This is Checked In with Splash. Hey everyone, welcome back to Checked In. My name is Camille White-Stern. I lead experiential marketing at Splash and I live for helping other marketers unlock new levels of success and understand the steps to achieving event-led growth for their organization. Today, we will be tuning in with Joe Rivers. Joe is a seasoned experiential marketer and thought leader, offering a distinctive perspective honed through diverse roles and global exploration, transitioning from brand activation and tour management to business development. Joe's journey has been characterized by thoughtful investigation into how experiences impact our physical and emotional well-being. He's now explored around 29 countries and 36 states and has gathered a wealth of knowledge and experiences that transcend borders. This international exposure has enriched his understanding of the dynamic events industry, allowing him to offer insights that are both unique and universally applicable.
Camille White-Stern:I'm so excited for you to tune into this conversation that I had with Joe. In it, we talk about his career journey to date. We get into experiential marketing, defining what it is. He shares really amazing and inspiring examples of creative B2B and B2C events and activations. We talk about the difference between those two things and the similarities, and he offers so many pearls of wisdom for you, so I hope you enjoy. Let's go ahead and get checked in with Joe Rivers. Joe, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. You and I both know this has been a long time coming and I'm so eager to get to pick your brain a little bit and share your insights with our listeners today. How are you doing?
Joe Rivers:I am very well. I appreciate it. Camille, Thank you very much for inviting me. I know this has been a long time coming and I'm really grateful that we're doing it. So I'm here.
Camille White-Stern:Awesome. Well, let's make the most of our time together and dive right in. I always ask our guests on the show to just paint a little bit of a picture of your career journey to date. I think it's so fascinating to hear how folks get to where they are today. So can you walk us through your career journey from an account executive and brand activation manager to you've been a director of experiences and partnerships and, just like, tell us about your career journey a little bit?
Joe Rivers:Yeah, I've said this so many times because I do believe our industry has that unorthodox approach. A lot of people always go oh yeah, I never heard of it, or I fell into it, or my family doesn't know what I do and they think I do weddings for a living and I'm like that's not it at all Relatable. So I actually graduated from Buffalo State College a little over 10 years ago and I wanted to go the ad agency route, right Like I wanted to move down to New York City and work in advertising. It just wasn't for me, it didn't feel right. I did like a summer placement at an ad agency down there. I ended up kind of saying, all right, this isn't for me.
Joe Rivers:But I found something within that marketing realm and it was just doing promos. So it was experiential, but not really me knowing it other than learning about event marketing at college. So I found myself doing brand ambassador gigs, eventually learned to go into being a tour manager. A tour manager. So I was a contractor for various agencies for several years, five plus years, whether it was seven months on the road or two months as an event producer and then going back on the road as a tour manager, and then in between them I went and backpacked overseas. So I always found myself traveling and trying to do more experiences whether that was professionally or personally, and then actively being an advocate for experiential after I found that passion and love for it and then I had a mentor of mine actually reach out and say it's time to get off the road. You've kind of been a carny for like the last five plus years. Inadvertently. You built skills, networking and doing sales because of always trying to find the next contract.
Joe Rivers:So I actually moved down to New York City and I worked for a production fabrication agency that specialized in events and experiential and I moved over to like the sales role, the sales capacity of doing new business development, sales strategy. And then I was there for a little over four years, certainly through the pandemic. You know that was like 2019 to 2023. Very grateful I was able to hold that job and found success in it as well. That only fueled my passion for experiential. It just evolved. I got to be exposed to so much more than I even realized there was in that world. But I think even further that it did more than anything is. It also uncovered another passion of mine and that was just connecting with people. Public speaking, being a thought leader. While marrying the idea of experiential is what I like to do and experiences is what I kind of live by in my own ethos of my life. So that covers kind of the gambit of my journey thus far.
Camille White-Stern:I love it. It is so funny there is you mentioned having been a tour manager. I also had a little stint as a tour manager when I was in the music industry and there's I feel like you're right. There are so many people who kind of have an unorthodox journey or kind of comes to events and experiential marketing are folks who have a background in the music industry or like live events or touring, and folks who have a background in like hospitality. So if, even if you were like a server or a bartender or you worked in the hospitality space, those are like two themes that seem to pop up all the time, and so it's just fun to hear how you came to where you are today. Thank you for sharing that.
Camille White-Stern:I would love to hear from your perspective. You know you mentioned like and so relatable, your parents being like do you plan weddings? Like what is experiential, like what does that even mean? I get the same response, not only like from my own family, but people who are maybe not in the marketing or event space so much when they see like my title, director of experiential marketing, they're like director of experimental marketing, what is experiential marketing? And I'm like oh my gosh. Let me enlighten you a little bit. So just for our listeners, who either can relate or maybe don't know so much about the experiential side of things because we have a really broad base of listeners here how would you define experiential marketing and what do you think is often most misunderstood about it?
Joe Rivers:I love that this is going to sound like a shameless plug for people. To go look at my LinkedIn profile.
Joe Rivers:But, recently I've been posting this thing that I call the experiential enthusiast. It's like what I'm trying to coin as my own term, but I'm sharing using chat, gpt, but also using my own perspective and lens on experiential and they're basically comparisons to everyday activities, right? So I said, what are the comparable narratives behind playing tennis and experiential marketing? Going to the gym experiential marketing, grocery shopping, going experiential? The reason being is that I think, to your point, there are so many people that don't get it right. So if you can compare it to an everyday activity, that people whether you're an accountant or a teacher or something you could probably understand what experiential marketing is by comparing it to just an everyday activity. I've shared those, but from my perspective, I always say experiential marketing is a positive experience that provides a cathartic moment for someone's individuality or their own memory. That sounds very dictionary and kind of Webster's almost. I'm one that says experiential marketing is just a positive experience, it's a positive moment and it evokes, hopefully, an emotional attachment to that brand or that service or that product, and that's my approach on it because I think it's very emotional.
Joe Rivers:I went to college to actually start to be a psychologist because that's what I've always loved. I love psychology. I didn't think I would want to be a psychiatrist, so that's what I've always loved. I love psychology. I didn't think I would want to be a psychiatrist, so that's why I shifted to marketing. But I'm so. I'm just so intrigued by the psychology and like the nature of ourselves, you know, and I just found that experiential ties so much into it. You know how many times on calls and meetings and everything, when you're with prospects or clients do they always talk about what's the ROI on experiential marketing? And it's so hard to find that. It's so hard to find that ROI on something because it's always emotionally driven.
Camille White-Stern:Yeah, it is so funny that you just shared that you went to college to study psychology and were deterred from psychiatry. Funny enough, I started my freshman year pre-med, thinking I was going to be a psychiatrist and then I was like, well, I actually hate science and I'm miserable in this chem lab and I need to pivot. And recently I say that I think to be a great marketer in general, whether you're an experiential marketer or you kind of dabble in other marketing domains or areas. The best marketers, but especially the best experiential marketers, are like secret psychologists. I have literally said that on another episode I forget which one, but I love that you just brought that up and I could not agree more to quantify when you've made or like provided a positive experience to an attendee or a group of attendees.
Camille White-Stern:But I'm wondering if you can share this is like perfect segue to my next question I'm wondering if you can share a few examples of really creative and impactful B2B events, especially that you've either helped produce or you've attended or just are aware of. Because when I think about quantifying ROI, we can get into the nitty gritty and different organizations will look at different metrics to measure the success of that positive experience that you've given someone or given a group of attendees, but without kind of zooming in on the granularity of like, what are the actual metrics we're measuring here? Determine ROI If we zoom out and we just think about, like you said, creating experiences that give someone that positive feeling when they think about your brand or a memory, like you said, what are some of the most creative examples that you've seen that you believe probably did, whether or not you were involved in measuring the ROI probably left an impactful, like lasting impression. And I want to ask you about B2C as well. But let's start with the B2B events that you've seen or participated in.
Joe Rivers:Yeah, I'm almost going to have to answer the question with a question Okay, where is that differentiation between B2B and B2C? These days, I'm looking at South by Southwest in a lens of wow, I'm a consumer of activations, so I go there and I'm thinking to myself this is amazing. I'm totally resonating with a brand that's activating there. However, the presence of South by Southwest is very B2B. It is very B2B. I would say the same thing about the Consumer Electronics Show. That is a B2B event. You're going there for partnerships and to unveil the latest gadgets and technology and any types of maybe relationships that would be built there. However, from again the lens of you and I attending something like that, I'd say, wow, this was really B2C too at the same time. So I guess that's that question I almost asked back. However, if I really want to put that lens again where I say, okay, this is a B2B event, south by Southwest is one, I think that has evolved over the years and some will definitely say it actually probably has gotten too big. It's almost in that Coachella phase, which I know is Coachella is amazing and that is a B2C event for sure, but it's also almost like has it jumped the shark? There's like influencers everywhere and there's just so many. You know, I get it, I get it. But I really believe that South by Southwest is one of those key B2B events where you're seeing brands come in and have a really strong presence. Pre-pandemic people can remember HBO coming there and doing the Westworld activation and, offsite from the city, it was just so well planned and curated and renowned as a go-to strategy and activation right After the pandemic. Some of these ones I've seen they're doing the exact same thing. It's planned, it's curated, it's multisensory. And then even the growth of South by Southwest as a conference. It's now being executed in Sydney, australia. There's going to be a London event next year, in 2025. So clearly the growth is substantial and very evident. So I would say that's one of my favorite B2B events.
Joe Rivers:From a B2B activation, I'm probably going to be a little biased, but when I was at one of my former predecessor of an employer, we created this activation for Shell. It was spectacular. I mean it was a two years in the making because of the shifts from the pandemic of only doing virtual. But then we wanted to do a road tour. Then we just did this one-stop shop. That was this 360 degree projection mapping dome experience to unveil a state-of-the-art facility that Shell Polymers, their plastics division, was being announced. So it was just spectacular because you saw how much work, creatively, strategically, and then the production and fabrication expertise and I thought to myself, wow, what a great job that was to see that go from literally literally the idea in the head all the way to seeing it being done in real life.
Camille White-Stern:Love it. That sounds wow. Two years in the making, that's a massive, a massive lift. That must have been so rewarding to see that come to life.
Joe Rivers:It was. I have to say that was one of those ones where I think even during it I didn't realize how amazing that was to see it come to life. Now that I'm putting those lens back on those nostalgia lens and I'm like that was a pretty amazing undertaking of an event.
Camille White-Stern:Yeah, I love that. I want to go back to what you just said and respect answering a question with a question. Where is the line? What is the difference between a B2B event, a B2C event? I think one of the reasons why I wanted to kind of get into some of these topics with you is because I don't disagree. I think that the line is blurred, you know, because that's kind of what I interpreted you saying. And, at the end of the day, whether you work for a B2B or B2C brand or you're producing an event for a B2B or B2C brand, an attendee is an attendee and they're a human being at the end of the day, right, and the best way to. I guess there's less distinction between how to deliver an exceptional attendee experience. Probably you should approach it in very similar ways from B2C to B2B and vice versa, and maybe only some of the goals that you might measure or the metrics that you might measure to kind of gauge outcomes and success in the sense of maybe revenue added to your business or business growth, might be really where the differentiation comes in. But anyways, I just wanted to comment on that because I hear you it's very blurred lines.
Camille White-Stern:So I have to ask you you mentioned the shell activation. The shell activation what have been some of the most engaging B2C activations that you've seen recently? And yeah, I'm just curious. I guess another follow-up question for you to think about at the same time would be stripping away the B2B versus B2C concept. Right, there are so many different events to choose from today. Once you go to a large scale event like a South by Southwest, there are so many activations to choose from. And I'm just curious what do you think is working today in terms of drawing people in? What gets you to want to engage and attend an activation? I'm just curious because people are, when I say people, event marketers, especially that I talk to are always asking like well, what's working today in terms of, like, driving attendance to an event or an activation? So I'd love to like I asked you a twofer, I'll just repeat again like most engaging, quote B2C events or activations and then, like, what do you think is drawing people in to intend or engage with those?
Joe Rivers:I'm going to answer the second one first.
Camille White-Stern:Okay, go for it.
Joe Rivers:Only because I just read I don't know if you subscribe to Morning Brew come out with something obviously every morning and it's insightful and things like that. And one of the stories today were about concert fatigue and how a lot of people right now particularly consumers, from a B2C standpoint, obviously, because that's what most concerts are I think there's just so much right now. There's just too much, and that FOMO is a very powerful element to saying what works and what doesn't work right. I've been fortunate to go to the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity as well as Art Basel, and guess what? Those two are vastly different events. However, there's so much going on, whether you're looking at the Miami version show of Art Basel or in the south of France for Cannes. It is very hard to go to everything. I don't know if that's always necessarily a good thing.
Joe Rivers:I just was in Montreal for C2, which is a very B-focused event, but I was so happy that I was able to almost attend everything that I wanted to you know and see everything, and there were some sessions you miss and some things you miss. I was so happy that I was able to almost attend everything that I wanted to you know and see everything, and there were some sessions you miss and some things you miss. And I have a friend, erica. She founded XP Land, which I highly recommend people check that out. She made the XP Fronts they were called. So basically it was like an experiential excursion to going to different studios around Montreal and that was during C2.
Joe Rivers:I thought to myself I didn't miss out on anything at C2, but I also got to be a part of that and I found that to be a really impactful way that maybe right now there needs to be that element of like letting people really experience what this event is, instead of having so much going on.
Joe Rivers:It's like you have to choose and that's great. But I think we're just inundated with choice all the time these days, just from all different facets of life, that we're almost becoming so overwhelmed that we have paralysis analysis. We can't actually choose because there's too much choice. So I found that there's some of these events that are going on that are very exclusive. So WPP, one of those media agency conglomerates, holds an event called Stream. I know that there's a couple others that are these very high profile quote, unquote, unconference like events where there's no really sessions, there's no really agenda but there's little interactive moments, idea generating conversations with people of vastly different industries, and they just let people kind of just be and be present and have no distractions, and I think that's a really interesting approach. That answers that first question in probably different ways.
Camille White-Stern:The second question yeah, yeah, yeah, in probably different ways.
Joe Rivers:The second question, the other one of probably my favorite B2C I'm actually going to mention Art Basel again, even though it's a very B2B focused event. The activation surrounding Art Basel and this is specific to the Miami show. If you go to the ones that are overseas in Basel, switzerland, where it started, it's very particular and there's not a lot of activations. It's more about the art and it's more about kind of the luxury that comes behind that art scene. It's very curated and it's very beautiful actually. But in reference to the Miami show, there was an Ikea activation last year that I really enjoyed and it was very B2C, because that's what Ikea is representing is to buy their products.
Joe Rivers:I have to say I loved it because, from an aesthetic standpoint, you walk in and each room was colorful. Now, this is the first time I've ever seen Ikea do something experiential, so to see them go through probably just months of planning obviously, and from a production value, it was very. It was pristine, the color palettes were beautiful. They obviously had a lot of their products in there and there was there was like a Japanese Zen room. That was just so, it was so peaceful, but it showcased their products how you could recreate that type of room.
Joe Rivers:And then there was just all these like interactive moments too. There was one room where they had paintbrushes hanging from the ceiling, and then there was also like the whole room. You could basically color and draw, and that's where it tied in with that art scene of Art Basel, but also kind of being like hey look, we're IKEA, we are creative and we are forward thinking in terms of like products and having a Scandinavian design, obviously because of what IKEA is and where they come from. So I thought that was one of the more interesting ones that I've seen in the last six to seven months now.
Camille White-Stern:Cool, very, very cool. I have not yet had an opportunity to produce an event or even attend Art Basel, but it is. I would love to. And I feel like you mentioned Ikea. I feel like they're probably really fun, out of the box ways that a brand could show up and have a presence there and play with the theme of being creative and artistic, and I would just love to do that. That's on my experiential bucket list for sure I want to talk more about.
Camille White-Stern:We've both kind of been mentioning our viewpoints on the similarities between B2C and B2B events and I would love to just unpack that a little bit more with you and get some more of your thoughts on both the similarities and maybe some key differences that you see among B2C and B2B events and or how the agencies or experiential or event marketers producing those events kind of approach their work. And if you had to give advice to a B2C marketer or a B2B marketer who's planning some events or activations, what would that advice be? What do you think might be missing? What might they not be thinking about that you would encourage them to think about?
Joe Rivers:Well, firstly, on that point, I want to reference a friend of mine. Her name's Liz Latham. She runs the we Are Eachie and it's really the community factor too, and it's just amazing what she shares on LinkedIn. Sometimes there's like a what if? Series and it's so cool because, like, there's these little things of like, what would you do at this trade show booth, what would you do at this conference or this pop up? That's different. And so I just want to say to any B2B, b2c marketer, eventer, event marketer, experiential strategist, whatever it may be take risks, that's it. That's kind of really at the basis of what we do.
Joe Rivers:Anyways, because you're trying to create a multi-sensory experience, and that's a whole nother topic. Creating a, an experience that touches on two, if not more, of the five senses Because I think sometimes we've been just slammed with all these like okay, here's a photo op, here's an Instagram moment, that's just a visual thing, it's just using your sight. What about using something else that smell or taste? I just think those are the most impactful ones is when you actually create an experience that's using more than just one sense, right?
Camille White-Stern:Yes.
Joe Rivers:So I would say that, to go further back on the similarities, I've always wanted to. I've had this notion for a while now that both B2B and B2C. Again, it goes down to those emotions, right, and I wrote something last summer actually, about the four emotions that I've found across my travels, across my professional career so far and just meeting people, whether it's in my town of Buffalo or anywhere else in the world right, and it is love, fear, hope and nostalgia, and I found that those four emotions tend to be some of the most powerful emotions. And there's tons of others and there's emotions that are subsets of those ones.
Joe Rivers:But when you look at something like nostalgia, as a 90s kid, whenever there's a 90s activation or I remember in 2021 in New York, there was a Friends like the first Friends immersive activation that came up and now it's all over, but like that was huge. I was like I'm definitely going to this and now it's all over, but like that was that was huge. I was like I'm definitely going to this, and then I brought my sisters. When she came, they came down to New York and I'm like this is everything that we. We watched, you know, and there was just a nostalgic proponent of it.
Joe Rivers:I've always said that in those similarities, those four emotions, if you can look at one and lock in on one or hone in on multiple for promotions, if you can look at one and lock in on one or hone in on multiple for putting that as the end result for the attendee, that's really impactful. Whether you're going to a booth at Dreamforce or some other trade show, all the way to an activation that's occurring at Cannes or South by or ComplexCon, if you can reach one of those emotions and have that as what you're trying to convey or evoke, I think it's really, really important. As for the differences, it's tough because it can be catered to whatever brand you're trying to help with.
Camille White-Stern:Right.
Joe Rivers:You know, maybe the agency's end goal. I did learn something from a brilliant strategist at my last company, at my last agency, and it was always asking why. I think, why is that differential component of when you're going to a B2B event or a B2C event? Make sure you ask the why. A lot of times we, as advertising agency individuals, we want to say, oh my God, how can we put the most creative thing forward or let's make sure we showcase our capabilities first and foremost. But if you take a step back and you just ask, why are you showing up at this B2B event or this B2C event, you'll maybe get a little bit more of a clarification on what the end result will look like, what the KPIs you're trying to hit, and then, at further, does it even make sense for you to show up there? I think it's really, really important for people to ask the why, first and foremost, whether it's B2B or B2C but there's a difference between the two because then you can kind of figure out which step you want to move forward with.
Camille White-Stern:I absolutely. You shared so many great nuggets just now. Thank you One agreed, liz Latham. She's a gem, a rock star. Taking risks, I think, is hugely important. Like you said, asking why and I love that concept of kind of just making sure you're really intentional about anchoring in on one of those four emotions. That's brilliant. I love that. Definitely going to share this episode with the rest of the team. I apply that to life too.
Joe Rivers:By the way, camille, I use that as like okay, what's the basis of decision-making here? I mean, I'm sure there's a nostalgia point of view or a fear based. You know, fear is a very. It has negative connotations, but if you use fear in the right way, it can actually drive ambition and drive entrepreneurial aspects of someone's mindsets you know, totally, yeah, totally, I love it.
Camille White-Stern:I'm curious, totally I love it. I'm curious. I feel like you have said so many great nuggets today, so many pearls of wisdom you've shared. Again, kind of stripping away B2B or B2C what do you think is just needed to be a great event marketer? Anything else? Because you've shared a lot already. You know, taking risk, kind of centering in on the core emotions, asking why. I'm curious if there's anything else that comes to mind when you think about what makes for a really great event or experiential marketer, or what leads to creating really impactful experiences for attendees, to creating really impactful experiences for attendees.
Joe Rivers:Yeah, I want to go with a multifaceted approach here, with two ideologies, one being I have a friend of mine.
Joe Rivers:His name's Andy Wetter and him and I actually lived in New Jersey together and then now he moved back to Switzerland, where he's from, and one thing that he said to me when we were leaving New Jersey, moving out from one another, he mentioned you'll pay everything in your bank account to come back to this moment right now. You'll wish you could spend every single thing that you have to be back in that moment, and I firmly believe that it was a powerful quote and just ideology that I said. That's something that you should resonate with when you're thinking of something from a professional, personal experience that you want to go and take right. So, whether you want to go backpack overseas or you want to take your family on a trip or just do like maybe a coffee date or something, know that you would probably wish you could always go back to that moment as you get older and more things happen in life, you know, so I'd like to use that.
Joe Rivers:And then I'd love to use another very good friend of mine and mentor. His name's Anthony Gomez. He once shared with me that adaptability and patience are some of the best attributes of the industry of experiential and, if I can reference an activation, if I want to call it that, that had those that still resonates with me to this day, and it happened in 2019. It was the 29 rooms activation that happens in Brooklyn. Right, you just sit down at a desk, a random stranger sits across from you and you're told to stare at that person for I think it was 30 or 60 seconds without breaking eye contact, right, like, yeah, you could smile, you could kind of obviously you could blink, but like you felt very, almost uncomfortable and everything was on the table at that point.
Joe Rivers:Like your vulnerability is there because you're just looking at this random person. Point, like your vulnerability is there because you're just looking at this random person and a deck of cards was put down on the table after those 60 seconds and it had, uh, questions that were extremely thought-provoking, very invasive to a certain degree. However, you just stared at that person for 60 seconds. There's really nothing else. All ice was, you know. So you can just ask away these questions, these personal questions, and I thought that is using that patience of staring at someone and then the adaptability of wow, like this is something that's now changing. All of a sudden, you're changing the landscape of like my area and like kind of just my own personal bubble in a way, and you have to adapt and be open. I've always remembered that one, because now it's already almost what four or five years since then, and I'm still touched by that activation. It was so simple. Sometimes it's the most simple thing that can be the most impactful.
Camille White-Stern:Love it. Oh my gosh, joe, you're so amazing. I feel like we could go on for hours and hours or even days. This has been so fun, I let's. We're going to wrap up, if you will humor me, with a little round of rapid fire questions. I just started doing this segment to kind of close out some of my interviews, and it's they're just fun questions for me to get to know you a little better, for our listeners to get to know you, and so are you ready? Are you down?
Joe Rivers:I'm ready.
Camille White-Stern:Cool Favorite playlist or music to listen to while traveling to an event.
Joe Rivers:I'm going to go with FKJ it stands for French Kiwi Juice. Okay, he is just an amazing artist and so it's very, it's very chill, sometimes ambient, but more so like almost has jazz influential. I mean, he plays different instruments and it's it's fantastic. I like it for just traveling, I like it for playing it at an event in the background, and then I've seen him a couple of times live too and he's just spectacular. So yeah, Amazing.
Camille White-Stern:I'm going to add FKJ to my list and get into them. Okay, you just mentioned an epic kind of icebreaker from the 29 rooms activation like eye gazing and then asking like really thought provoking questions. But what are your thoughts in general around networking icebreakers at events? Are you yay, Are you nay? How do you feel about them? What are the best ones, if any come to mind?
Joe Rivers:I like them when they're not forced. I like them when they're not forced. If you can really get something where you're just in a room with people or there's just something that you resonate with another person in that room, just let that happen. Just let that happen organically and authentically. Something will happen out of that If you let it happen. You just got it. Sometimes I know it's hard because you want to measure it, people want to measure these things, but I swear to you the best moments in life and the best relationships in life that I've had. Maybe it's anecdotal, but come from the most spontaneous and the most intriguing moments in life.
Camille White-Stern:Okay, fair enough, I'll take it. You've mentioned a few really incredible ones. I'm wondering if you have any more up your sleeve to share, just one activation that had you thinking about it for weeks or months later.
Joe Rivers:Oh, Camila, the 29 rooms. One was that one.
Camille White-Stern:Okay.
Joe Rivers:I will say Forza activation that happened at South by recently. I really enjoyed the five doors that each represented a sense and I like that a lot because there's just that sensory Again. It kind of came back to like, how do events both B2B and B2C and how do activations always make sure you kind of provide that multi-sensory thing? If you can really add in all five of them, you really knock it out of the park. I really think that was one of them that did it.
Camille White-Stern:You've shared a lot of great real life examples, so I appreciate it. I won't pressure you anymore. You mentioned you've traveled so much. What are your top three travel essentials?
Joe Rivers:Essentials. That's a tough one. I try not to check a bag ever. Rarely ever I don't think I have in the last five years Carry on crew. So yeah, I love like the packing cubes. It helps with an organized.
Camille White-Stern:Amen.
Joe Rivers:I mean organized chaos is usually the thematic elements to our industry. It's clearly organized all over to create an event, but it is chaotic. Everyone knows that. So organized chaos is it, and I think those packing cubes help with that. It's not an item per se, it's a mentality.
Joe Rivers:I've, both in my personal travels and my professional travels, I've always thought that you put in parameters in place, whether that's your date that you're departing and the date that you're arriving back home or wherever you're going. But leave time in there for spontaneous moments. But leave time in there for spontaneous moments, and that's something I'm certain that it's essential for you to learn something new, gain a new skill set, meet someone new. I think that's essential. And the third I mean I hate to say it right now, but these phones are pretty essential. I was in Japan once and I needed Google Translate and I used the app and I'm like scanning the subway system because they don't put it in English, and then rightfully so. Yeah, like I don't know how to get back to my hotel without this. So the phone has helped. In this day and age that we are in, it's impactful.
Camille White-Stern:So I love it. I love it. Okay, last question for you for rapid fire questions. Finish this sentence. The best events, dot dot dot.
Joe Rivers:The best events are the ones that don't try too hard but try everything they can to create a wonderful moment.
Camille White-Stern:Mic drop. Love it, joe. Okay, for real, for real. Last couple of questions for you. Where and how can listeners connect with you, stay in touch with you, learn more from you?
Joe Rivers:My LinkedIn. I tend to be on there quite a bit. I do really enjoy it as a medium and a platform. I kind of got rid of my other social media platforms as of last year to just Respect, and then I'm just open to always meeting. I mean, I live here in Buffalo and I absolutely love it. It's an amazing city, but I tend to travel quite a bit, so I'm always down to meet up at events and just anywhere. I think relationships are the most important thing we have, so- Couldn't agree more.
Joe Rivers:Always want to meet up. I'm available to chat.
Camille White-Stern:Amazing. Why are the best people from or live in Buffalo? I feel like I only know gems from Buffalo.
Joe Rivers:There's not as many people here, so maybe there's that. But I will say I've found that I have another mentor of mine. His name's Phil Schlitz and he was the one that recruited me off the road and he always told me he was like you got that Western New York humbleness vibe to you and I'm like I don't know what that means. I'll give credit to my parents who raised me and everything like that, but it's a nice place to be. The winters are tough, but it's a nice place to be and I think there's just something about our industry that when you're done with event, you're done with traveling, it's so good to just come home and you just you need to have that. I don't know if you've ever done the chakras or anything, but there's that root chakra and if you know what that feels like to be in that right state of mind.
Camille White-Stern:Yeah, I love it. Any last thoughts or pieces of advice that you want to share with our audience.
Joe Rivers:I'm going to quote Ted Lasso, if that's all right.
Camille White-Stern:Oh, my God, please do.
Joe Rivers:Just be curious, not judgmental. That's the best one I could. That dart scene when he says that that's a great quote to live by. And, camille, thank you so much for letting me join and be part of this. I love conversations like this.
Camille White-Stern:This was such a treat, joe. Truly, I feel like my cheeks hurt because I've been like smiling the whole time. Like I said, you're awesome. I appreciate so much of what you shared today. Thank you, Joe. All right folks, that's it for today.
Camille White-Stern:If you enjoyed today's episode or are a fan of the podcast in general, please let us know. Support this show by subscribing on your preferred podcast platform and, while you're at it, leave us a rating. We so appreciate feedback we receive about the show. So if you ever want to get in touch, you can email us at podcast at splash thatcom, or, better yet, join our Slack community, where you can message me directly. Last, but certainly not least, if you're a marketer using events to help your business grow and want to learn how Splash's platform can take your events to the next level, like we have for MongoDB, UCLA, Okta, Zendesk or even Sweetgreen, visit our website at wwwsplashthatcom. Until next time, take care.