Episode Player

How are we doing? Who do you want to learn from next? Text us with notes and ideas.

You can’t fake a great live experience, and you definitely can’t fake what people remember after they leave. We sit down with Laura Kate Whitney, founder and chief experience officer at Goodco, to talk about what it really takes to build experiences that feel personal, meaningful, and worth showing up for in Charleston and across the Southeast. 

Laura Kate shares the behind-the-scenes story of her long relationship with the Charleston Wine and Food Festival and how the festival’s mission has grown from filling hotel rooms to shining a spotlight on hospitality pros and reinvesting in the next generation. We also unpack how event planning and experiential marketing changed after the 2008 financial crisis, the rise of social media, and COVID, and why more brands now want smaller, deeper moments instead of pure scale. 

If you’re a marketer, founder, nonprofit leader, or anyone producing corporate events, you’ll love her framework for moving beyond impressions to create imprints, real touch points that leave a memory. She also gets practical about entrepreneurship: setting up a CRM, protecting cash flow when invoices run late, and using SCORE mentoring for accountability when you feel like quitting. 

Plus, there are two wild crisis stories involving flood water, lost venues, and last-minute pivots that somehow still end in a win. Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping Charleston, share this with a friend who plans events, and leave us a review with your biggest event lesson.

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

Support the show

Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association

Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Annual Sponsor: ‪SCRA; South Carolina Research Authority

Quarterly Sponsor: King and Columbus

CAMACast Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler, Amanda Bunting Comen, 

Silicon Harbor Hot Take Host: Stanfield Gray, https://digsouth.com

Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising

Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse

Score by:  The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase

YouTube...