The Vacuum Effect and it Ain't Pretty

It was Never About the Pink Couch

Every experience produces an emotion whether you planned it or not. Eight years ago I planned a memorial service for a woman named Mindy who chose me for a job when nobody else in that room wanted me there. I did not know it then but every decision I made that day was the framework I would spend the next eight years building. The pink couch. The world map with pins from every city her guests traveled from. The champagne with her logo on it. The jazz lounge. None of it was decoration. All of it was intentional emotional design before I had a name for any of it. This episode is the origin story of the pink couch, a tribute to the woman who gave me everything, and the moment I realized that what I do as an experiential strategist has always been about one thing. Making people feel something so specific and so intentional that it changes what they do next. This one is personal. And it might be the most important episode I have recorded.

The Vacuum Effect and it Ain't Pretty

This one is personal. Jenny spent a year planning a football-themed Mitzvah. Custom turf dance floor. Stenciled logo. A smoke-filled entrance moment that made her client cry. Every detail intentional, every element designed to land. And it did. Then the caterer was late. And just like that, everything Jenny built disappeared. Not physically — but emotionally. The tears at the door were gone. The dance floor stopped mattering. The client rewrote the story in real time, and Jenny was left holding the outcome of decisions that were never hers to make. This is called the vacuum effect. When one thing goes wrong in a live experience, it pulls every positive emotion right out of the room. And the finger always points at you. In this episode Jenny shares the raw truth of what happened, what she should have done differently, and the one conversation that would have protected her work before the first vendor was ever booked. This is an expensive lesson. She is sharing it so you do not have to learn it the same way. In this episode: * What the vacuum effect is and why it will come for your work too * Why even a flawless experience can be rewritten by one vendor failure * The three questions to answer with your client before a single vendor is booked * Why defining success in advance is your only real protection Get the workbook: amazon.com Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

Matthew Barney: Design for the Emotion and the ROI Takes Care of Itself

Matthew Barney left the Coast Guard, bought a one way ticket to Seattle, signed a lease on an apartment he never saw, and built a career producing experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world including AWS, Delta, and Microsoft. He describes himself as a creative person who became operationally dangerous. The moment I read that I knew we had to talk. In this conversation Matthew and I go deep on emotional design, why the gap between the event floor and the sales team is the most expensive gap in this industry, how he uses intentional gifting to create memories that last years, and what it actually takes to earn a seat at the table with C suite executives. If you have ever wondered whether creativity or strategy matters more in experiential, this episode will change how you think about that question entirely. The Proof Problem Masterclass is free and linked in the show notes. Watch it before you plan your next activation.

I Could Not Prove a Single Thing. Here Is What I Did About It.

I was standing in a former Denver Broncos airplane hangar in a gown, throat on fire, two major experiences back to back that weekend. And when I woke up on Monday morning I could not tell you what a single one of them did for the business. Not one metric. Not one data point. Twenty five years in this industry. An MBA in marketing. And I had nothing to show for it except a beautiful experience nobody could measure. In this episode I talk about what that moment cracked open in me, what I did about it, and why the professionals who will lead this industry over the next five years are not the most creative ones or the most logistically gifted ones. They are the ones who can prove their work actually changed something. The events industry is not being replaced by AI. The execution is. And the strategy has to come from somewhere. This episode is about where it comes from. Topics covered: why attendance and engagement are not metrics, what the Bizzabo 2026 data actually tells us about the measurement gap, how emotion drives behavior and behavior drives outcomes, and the framework that changed everything about how I work.

Stop Defending your Event Budget

You have been in that budget meeting. The one where someone asks whether the event was worth the spend and nobody in the room can answer the question. In this episode, Jenny Howard-Maxwell makes the case that events are not a line item to defend. They are an asset to invest in. And when you start showing up that way, everything changes. Your budget. Your title. The way your clients see you. Jenny shares the story of a $15,000 RFP that became a $100,000 engagement and the strategic framework that made it possible. If you are ready to stop justifying your work and start proving it, this episode is for you.