Event Planner Confessions

Canva is one of the world’s most recognizable digital platforms. Jimmy Knowles is responsible for making it something people can walk into, explore, and feel.In Part 1 of this Event Planner Confessions conversation, Ashley Currin sits down with Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva, to explore how creative careers are built and how digital-first brands can create meaningful real-world experiences.Jimmy shares the unconventional story of being offered his first events job from a commencement stage in front of approximately 11,000 people. That opportunity led him to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Fox, Civic Entertainment Group, Airbnb, and eventually Canva.He takes listeners behind the scenes of Airbnb Open, which grew from approximately 1,000 attendees into a 20,000-person experience spanning seven venues in downtown Los Angeles. Jimmy explains how that work shaped his approach to community building, audience connection, and designing experiences at scale.At Canva, the goal is not simply to place logos and brand colors inside a venue. Jimmy and his team want every physical experience to feel colorful, playful, inclusive, and unmistakably Canva.That philosophy helped shape Canva Create as an “un-conference conference” built around how audiences should feel, not only what the program needs to communicate. Jimmy explains why the strongest experiential marketing should create something audiences could not imagine coming from another brand.The conversation also explores how Jimmy’s theater background continues to influence his work. From collaboration and improvisation to reading the room and recovering in real time, he explains why the skills learned onstage remain essential to event planning and experiential leadership.Finally, Jimmy shares what is ahead for Canva’s experiential portfolio, including the continued evolution of Canva Create, Canva Originals, the Canva World Tour, and new opportunities to expand Canva’s creative ecosystem.In this episode, you will learn:How Jimmy Knowles built his career in experiential marketingWhat Airbnb Open taught him about community and scaleHow Canva transforms a digital-first brand into a physical experienceWhy Canva Create was built as an “un-conference conference”Why curiosity remains one of Jimmy’s most important creative toolsWhat Canva is building next through events, content, and communityPart 1 explores how Jimmy learned to build experiences people can feel. Part 2 continues with AI, trust, industry recognition, leadership, and his Event Planner Confessions.

More content is not always more valuable.In this episode of Event Planner Confessions, Cara Pratt talks with Tavar James, vice president of global events at Forrester, about why the company introduced shorter, more intimate Forums alongside its flagship Summits and shortened experiences across parts of the portfolio.Tavar shares how a listening tour with attendees, sponsors, clients, and internal teams exposed the real friction around event participation: higher travel costs, tighter budgets, too much time away from work and family, content overload, and sponsorship value that was not always obvious enough.He explains how Forrester responded with more accessible formats, bi-coastal options, shorter agendas, more flexible sponsorships, and a stronger focus on relevance. He also discusses how the team is measuring the change through satisfaction, content scores, NPS, ticket revenue, sponsorship revenue, and the ability to act quickly on yellow and red signals.The conversation then turns to leadership. Tavar breaks down how a clear point of view, commercial thinking, and transparency with both executives and the event team helped build buy-in before the strategy had a long results history.And in true Event Planner Confessions fashion, Tavar shares the emergency that changed how he thinks about empathy, executive communication, and having a plan before anyone believes they will need it.In this episode, you will learn:Why Forrester added shorter Forums without eliminating its flagship SummitsHow attendee and sponsor feedback shaped the new event formatsWhy accessibility includes cost, geography, time, and the option to self-fund attendanceHow shorter events change content, scheduling, team recovery, and sponsor valueWhich attendee and commercial signals Forrester is using to evaluate the strategyWhy event leaders need a point of view tied to commercial outcomesHow transparency can close the trust gap between leaders and their teamsThe best event size is not the biggest or the smallest. It is the one designed for the outcome the audience and the business actually need.

Anaheim is one of the most recognizable destinations in the country, but recognition does not always lead to consideration.Visit Anaheim’s research found that roughly nine out of ten people knew the city, yet there was a 64 percent drop between awareness and the number of people who would consider bringing a meeting or convention there. The challenge was not getting people to recognize Anaheim. It was helping them understand everything the destination offered beyond its most famous icons.In this episode of Event Planner Confessions, Ashley Currin and Sam Monroe sit down with Scott Oklin, Chief Marketing Officer of Visit Anaheim, to unpack the strategy behind the city’s new A-City unscripted positioning.Scott explains how Visit Anaheim used research, local partnerships, unexpected creative agencies, experiential campaigns, and Anaheim’s real community to build a more emotional and complete destination story. He also shares how local restaurants, breweries, entertainment venues, cultural communities, and unexpected spaces can become part of the event itself.In this episode, you will learn:Why Anaheim’s challenge was consideration rather than awarenessHow Visit Anaheim used research to guide its new destination positioningWhy emotional connection can influence destination decisionsHow iconic attractions can introduce attendees to a city’s broader cultureWhy local restaurants, venues, and communities should become part of the event experienceHow destination marketers and event planners can tell a more complete story togetherThe real opportunity is not simply getting people to recognize a destination, but helping them see, feel, and experience everything it can become.

Most event problems do not begin on-site. They begin much earlier, when expectations are misunderstood, important details are missed, or everyone leaves the same conversation with a different version of what was decided.In this episode of Event Planner Confessions, Cara sits down with executive coach Evan Roth to explore the communication and leadership skills event professionals need when the pressure is high. Evan is also Cara’s business coach and helped her shape the original vision for the podcast.Together, they break down why active listening requires more than staying quiet, how planners can create shared understanding across clients and vendors, and why clear follow-up can prevent small communication gaps from becoming major execution problems.The conversation also explores emotional regulation, written communication, feedback, trust, and conflict debt, the unresolved tension that continues building when difficult conversations are avoided. Evan explains why emotions spread through teams, when a conversation should move away from email or chat, and how trust can take months to build but only seconds to damage. Cara connects each lesson directly to the event world, where one missed delivery, absent vendor, or off-script speaker can test an entire team.In this episode, you will learn:Why listening failures create execution problemsHow to establish shared understandingWhen to move a conversation off emailHow emotions affect an event teamWhy unresolved conflict becomes conflict debtHow trust helps teams recover from mistakesThe strongest event teams are not the ones that never experience pressure. They are the ones that know how to listen, regulate their reactions, address conflict, and protect trust while working through it.

A packed calendar can look like ambition from the outside while quietly becoming the very thing that is burning you out. For event planners, every open space can quickly become another client call, site visit, internal meeting, networking event, travel block, or after-hours obligation. The work keeps getting done, but the margin disappears, the recovery time gets pushed aside, and eventually even success begins to feel exhausting.In this episode of Event Planner Confessions, Cara sits down with burnout and peak-performance speaker Erin Stafford immediately after her “Burn Bright, Not Out” keynote.Drawing from her experience as a bestselling author, Cambridge-trained social psychologist, and former hyper-growth executive, Erin explains why the same habits that help high achievers succeed can eventually leave them overwhelmed and depleted.She also shares practical ways event professionals can protect their time, reduce unnecessary pressure, and create careers that feel as strong on the inside as they look from the outside.In this episode, you will learn:Why removing one small commitment can change the way your entire week feelsHow shorter meetings create more margin without reducing productivityWhy travel, focus, and recovery time need to be protected intentionallyHow saying no without guilt can improve your performance and energyWhy JOMO may be more valuable than FOMO for high achieversHow defining success helps you decide what truly deserves your timeBurnout rarely begins with one dramatic moment. More often, it builds through hundreds of small commitments that leave no room to breathe. The question is not whether you can keep pushing, but what might change if you finally took one thing off.