The Experiential Strategist with Jenny Howard-Maxwell

The Cabbage Patch Kid Effect: How to Stop Being Just Another Event Planner Why do some event professionals get compared on price while others become indispensable strategic partners? In this episode, Jenny Howard-Maxwell takes us back to the toy catalogs of the 1980s to explain a challenge facing today's event industry: when everyone appears to offer the same thing, clients have little reason to choose based on anything other than price. The solution isn't a fancier proposal, a new job title, or more impressive event photos. It's learning to connect experiences to business objectives, design with intention, and prove what changed as a result. In This Episode The catalog problem: Why event proposals can make talented professionals look interchangeable. The Cabbage Patch Kid Effect: What a uniquely designed experience can teach us about differentiation. The planner plateau: Five signs that your skills are growing but your pay, influence, and opportunities aren't. The execution trap: Why delivering a flawless event isn't the same as demonstrating business impact. The five steps off the planner plateau: Connect, differentiate, prove, market, and communicate. The strategist shift: How to move from delivering an event brief to helping shape the business decisions behind it. How Strategist Are You? Ready to discover where you are on your journey from event executor to experiential strategist? Take the free Strategist Quiz from the Edgucation Institute. 👉 https://edgucationinstitute.com/strategistquiz About Your Host Jenny Howard-Maxwell is an experiential strategist and founder of the Edgucation Institute, where she teaches event professionals how to connect experiences to business goals, demonstrate their value, and become certified experiential strategists. You're listening to The Experiential Strategist — the strategy conversation the events industry has needed. Follow the show for more conversations about experiential strategy, business impact, and building a more valuable career in events.

What if the most important KPI at your next event isn’t on a spreadsheet? This week on The Experiential Strategist, I sit down with Dahlia El Gazzar, founder and Chief Ruckus Maker at Dahlia+ Agency and winner of PCMA’s 2026 Visionary Award for Digital Event Strategist. Google her and you’ll see tech. Talk to her and it’s all energy, emotion, and people. We get into why your program needs white space, how to design for your first-time attendee, the new KPI called ELUs (Eyes Light Up), and how to explain energy and emotion to the people holding the budget. Plus, Dahlia tells the story of stealing pool mattresses from a resort in Egypt to take 500 guests into the desert to watch shooting stars. And yes, we disagreed. Dahlia says event professionals don’t need another designation. I say the future is “Event Planner, comma, what?” Stick around to hear where we landed. If you’re tired of being polite and ready to make a ruckus, this one’s for you. In this episode: 00:00 Welcome and meet Dahlia 04:06 Designing for energy at a 15,000-person conference 07:48 Your program needs white space 10:04 The Vibe Arc Audit: journey mapping for energy 14:00 ELUs: a framework you can use tomorrow 16:32 Why first-timers don’t come back 19:35 How to sell energy and emotion to leadership 24:19 Pool mattresses in the Egyptian desert 30:12 Why “Chief Ruckus Maker” 37:36 AI: what’s real and what’s hype 41:17 The designation debate 46:13 Rapid fire Connect with Dahlia: Heading to IMEX? Find Dahlia on the Tech Stage and at Booth B4786 at the Dahlia+ pavilion. Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: Dahlia El Gazzar Work with Jenny: Free guide, From Event Executor to Experiential Strategist: https://edgucationinstitute.com/executortostrategist Book a free strategy session with me: https://jennyhm.com/meet Learn about the CPES certification: https://edgucationinstitute.com If this conversation fed your soul too, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with the event professional who needs to hear it.

Booked solid. Back to back events. Exhausted. And your income hasn't moved in years. If you own an event business and you've been in this industry 15+ years, this episode is for you. Jenny Howard-Maxwell breaks down why busy is not a business model, why a fancy new title won't change how clients price you, and the 2017 billion dollar acquisition event that changed everything for her. Plus, the one question to ask on your very next client call that shifts you from executor to Experiential Strategist. Grab the free guide, From Event Executor to Experiential Strategist: edgucationinstitute.com/executortostrategist More revenue, less stress. It starts with proving event success.

If you're a planner stuck in logistics after 5, 7, even 20 years in this industry, this episode is for you. Jenny breaks down why the events market is completely saturated with the same title carrying wildly different skill sets, why that's making it harder for hiring managers and clients to know exactly what you specialize in, and the one thing that changes your position in this market: a designation that tells your story before you ever say a word. Jenny gets honest about her own 20 years stuck at the same level, why her MBA meant exactly zero in this industry, and why she never earned her CMP or her CSEP, even after serving on the ILEA board. Plus, the real reason she built the Edgucation Institute and the CPES certification from scratch. Read the full breakdown of the industry's certifications on the blog: https://jennyhm.com/post/the-problem-with-the-event-planner-title Ready to break the planner plateau? Register for this week's live webinar: https://webinar.digitalcreatorstudio.io/webinar/registration/692a5da0f85a8bee7d0743c2

Ever watched a decision unfold in real time and just known it was going to backfire, but stayed quiet anyway? This week, Jenny gets personal about the hardest skill in event planning: knowing when and how to say no. Jenny walks through three real stories from her 20 years in the industry: a headline performer that killed the momentum of an entire fundraiser, a mechanical bull that almost derailed a western-themed milestone event, and a vodka luge that actually worked because it was designed with intention. Each one reveals a different piece of the same lesson. Not every "fun" idea belongs in your event, and knowing the difference is what separates a planner from a strategist. You'll learn: Why pushing back on clients (respectfully) is part of your job, not a risk to your reputation How mapping a purpose statement and emotional arc gives you the confidence, and the language, to say no The framework Jenny uses to test any idea before it makes the cut: Purpose, Behavior, Emotion, Activation & Anchoring, Outcome Why the real question is never "is this fun?" but "does this get us to the outcome we want?" If this episode resonates and you're ready to build this framework for yourself, enroll now at Edgucation Institute. Link below. 👇 Show Notes: 🔗 Enroll at Edgucation Institute: https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment 📩 Connect with Jenny: [email protected]