S8E10: Event Competencies with Lydia Tobin

Have you ever noticed how EVERYTHING is a funnel? In this episode, Dr. Kristin Malek, our host, and student Lydia Tobin introduce the key competencies essential for a career in events and marketing. They dive into practical insights on marketing and events, sharing the interdisciplinary benefits of their experiences. Tune in to explore unique event competencies, the connections between tourism and events, and how everything truly funnels down to something.

Events and Marketing Education (4:53)
Funnels (9:14)
Psychology and Events (12:26)
Crossovers between Events and Tourism (13:52)
Encouraging Motivation (19:45)
Continuous Learning (23:10)

Connect with Lydia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiatobin/ 

Visit the Experience University website for more information!
www.experienceuniversity.org

Connect with us on our socials!
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@experienceuniversity/podcasts 
Facebook: Experience University
Facebook: Design, Market, and Sell-Out Your Events
Instagram: @kristin.malek
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmm/ 

Transcript

Dr. K
You are listening to the Experience University podcast, season eight episode 10.

Speaker
Welcome to Experience University where we aim to educate, inspire, and empower individuals who wish to design transformational experiences. Now, your host, Dr. Kristin Malek.

Dr. K
Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to another epic episode on our podcast, Experience University. I am putting a special episode out today. We're right in the middle of season eight. Season eight is all things, everybody from different unique backgrounds. And this has included psychology and sound healing, just all of these different areas that we don't normally think of when it comes to events, but they're integral to events. They're such important components of events. We've been having so much fun. I think this is the 10th episode, ninth or 10th episode. We've had all these different fields.

And so I actually had a couple comments within the last two or three weeks. People sending me LinkedIn messages and students. So apparently, I'm so honored, but apparently there's some schools in the United Kingdom and some schools in Taiwan, some schools all around the world, that are requiring these podcast episodes as part of their homework assignments. And so if that is relevant to you, I am so incredibly humbled and honored that you're listening in. And so some of these students are super into it, and they've added me on LinkedIn. A couple of them even asked me to be mentors, and a couple of people have reached out, and they're like, "Season eight has been so eye-opening. But am I actually in the right major?" And I'm not trying to cause an existential crisis here. So I actually work with a bunch of super wonderful students, all different backgrounds. And I thought that I would bring one of my students on the podcast today who is majoring in marketing, with minors in psychology and hospitality, to have her talk a little bit on the podcast. So please welcome Lydia Tobin. Lydia, thank you so much for being here today.

Lydia
Hello! Thank you. I'm so excited to be on. I feel like I've listened to all your podcast episodes so far and been involved in it on the back end, and I'm super pumped to be with you right now. This is awesome.

Dr. K
Oh my gosh, I love it. And it's like, I see you almost every day. So some disclaimers upfront. We're gonna be talking about majors, we're gonna be talking about competencies. Every single school, every single state, and country is structured a little bit differently. So here in the United States, over 70% of event programs are actually within the College of Business, and 25% of them are within what we would call that, human sciences or education, even some agriculture, and a lot of those are focused in the Midwest, which is not, you know, obviously don't make a rule of that, there's schools everywhere, but I am in the Midwest and events are in hospitality here. So Lydia is a minor in hospitality, but that's not specific to events. So this can change. But Lydia's got the event competencies, and we're gonna talk about competencies. I do recognize that in Europe, there's a big discussion right now whether events should be part of the business industry or the creative industry. It's a really fascinating discussion. We've also got to experience design, which is normally with theater. So there's so many nuances. So we're gonna try to stick to competencies and maybe that lives in a different program than what school you're in or what field you're looking to go back into or if you're looking at a certificate or graduate degree. So this podcast is really great for everybody. So, all right, Lydia, are you ready to jump in?

Lydia
Yes, I'm so excited. See, I learn something from you every time because I would never have thought that in Europe, they're thinking about putting events in business or creative – they're both. Exactly one. They're both.

Dr. K
I think every field is like, “I'm my own industry. Why do I have to be part of another industry?” And then you look at the competencies and you're like, “Hm.” In events, we have the meeting, business, event competencies, or MBECS. That's a global initiative from, I don't know, 2012 to show how events should be on its own, like its own business, separate from hospitality. And then you look at it and it's like nine out of 12 of the categories are straight up business.

Lydia
We can't win.

Dr. K
I know, I know it's just so funny. So Lydia tell us how you ended up deciding marketing, events, psychology, tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you up to this point.

Lydia
Absolutely. So I have two older sisters, and I feel like everyone that is the youngest child is influenced to some degree by their parents or their siblings and all that. So my oldest sister went to school for events, and she was in marketing and events and I was like, “Wow, that sounds really interesting and right up my alley.” So when I went to college, I definitely wanted to pursue that, but I got to college, wanted to declare marketing for sure. But I was also looking into events still, and I was super confused when I wanted to declare events, and I had to declare hospitality, restaurant, and tourism management. Like I want nothing to do with hotels, and I want nothing to do with restaurants. I want to do events. So I don't want to declare that. So for like my first year of college, I didn't have hospitality in my realm whatsoever.

I was declared marketing, which I still am. The reason for that is because I am interested in the business world, and I am interested in the metrics and all of that. I would be an ADPR major if I wanted to be more on the creative side of things. But with marketing, I feel like I get to see the background of how everything works. And then also too, with events, you get to use events to your leverage, you get to have events be what get people to your company, or marketing gets people to your events. They literally live in a circle together. And then also too, you mentioned, I do have a psychology minor and that throws people for a curveball. I had a family friend recommend to me when I was in high school that if there's one thing you do, when going into marketing, you need to go into some type of psychology. And so I said, “Ok, I'll try it.” I'll try anything once. That's kind of my motto in life. I'll do anything once, and if I hate it, we'll move on.

But I took a couple psychology classes my freshman year, and I fell in love with that, and the route that I took in my class work with that was more how people work with each other and how they interact and less so the chemical side of psychology, you know, the brain chemicals and all that. But more so the, “How do I make someone else feel away and how can I make them do this thing that I want them to do?” So, psychology in that realm really works with marketing and how you get people to do the things that you want to do, and then also events, getting people to your events, wanting to hang out at your events, and see each other. So getting the things that they want to take away from it. Yeah, it all kind of works together. It's crazy to think that I'm almost over to college and I am right here now.

Dr. K
Yeah! It's so interesting because when I talk to high schoolers or freshman or sophomore, first year, second year, depending on where you live and the terms you use, I'm always like, “In your unrestricted electives, take some psychology” for event professionals that I'm talking to, I'm like, “Take some psychology like certifications or get on Coursera, or whatever” because understanding how people work when you're in events is super important. And so I absolutely love that you have those things. So I was a guest speaker in one of your classes, and I was in there speaking about events, and it was like the end of a spring term. And I have all these summer projects always. I always have all the summer funding. And I was in there, I was like, “We have four paid positions. Please, please, please. If you're interested, reach out,” and you reached out, and we've been working together now ever since like two years almost.

Lydia
Yes. I remember our first meeting. There were donuts and coffee in the office, and you and I sat for probably an hour and a half and just chatted, and I knew we hit it off. When I was leaving, I was like” Yes! This is awesome.” So it's fun now to think of how long we've been together. You've been with me my whole college journey. So it's super awesome.

Dr. K
I love, I love, I love it. I love that and our team because we have multiple people, which is wonderful. So you have done so much with me for events, marketing of events, events as part of the marketing plan, because those are different. Getting people to your events is very different than using events for conversion of a business or service product. You've done all my logos for all my events, including the one on my TED talk. You’ve done all of these things.

So for all those people out there who are like, “I didn't even know that I needed this competency” or “I didn't even know that I needed this information.” What's the things from marketing, from psychology, and from the events, working with me… what are the key things that have been the most beneficial?

Lydia
I am going to bring up our favorite thing: funnels. Everything is a sales funnel of some degree, maybe not sales, I shouldn't say sales funnel. But events, it's a funnel. Marketing is a funnel, talking about your feelings with people and getting people to be on your same page, psychology, is a funnel.

Dr. K
Dating app is a funnel.

Lydia
Everything is a funnel. And I think that's so important. So we read a book together, called Dot Com Secrets. And I love when we did that book club because we'd come to our meetings every week and we talk about our takeaways. And I think with reading that book together, you were able to kind of honestly teach me a lot of what my marketing classes haven't because we were able to have those conversations in context of what we were actually doing. So I understood better what the things meant. I think that the way that a funnel works, it's in everything, everything is a funnel.

It's taking the bigger pool and narrowing it and getting closer and getting people to be on your same page every step of the way until you reach your desired ending. Yeah, I love it. So, I think that's like the common thread between it all. Yes. We talk about a sales funnel in my sales classes, but we don't talk about it in any other realm. And I think that's like the huge issue. And what I'm learning in college is, that doesn't go through everything that we're doing. You know, even, even engineers use funnels. Everyone is doing it, and only we're talking about it in my sales class. I think that's a huge pain point of me being in college. I feel like I'm learning more from the on the job stuff, which is how it should be. I should be learning more from the experiences I have, but I think it's a huge issue, and I know the things that we doin my sales classes. Why are we only talking about them in there?

Dr. K
Well, there's types of funnels just like you mentioned. You have your sales for product and sales for service, but there's also educational funnels, which are a type of funnel. There's also what we have coined, though, I'm not sure that's out there anywhere, but we've coined event funnels, like how to structure your different types of events to get them to your desired goals, whether that's like an online webinar and like a online event to an in person event, to a mastermind to like whatever. So yeah. Funnels. As you know, every client we work with, we talk about funnels to the point where they're like, “Oh God, please do not mention another funnel.”

Lydia
Yes! No, and it's funny because it's completely wrapped up my world because now I think of everything as a funnel. Everything is and it's so true because they are.

Dr. K
Yeah, absolutely. So competency, like from psychology, like you took these 4-5-6 classes and you're like, “Ok, obviously knowing how people work, that's a broad thing.” But what's the one thing that you find that you keep referencing or applying to the events as we're planning it, as we're doing it?

Lydia
Yes. So in the fall, I took a class about motivation and learning information. Yes, a lot of it was how we retain information, but a lot of it was what encourages us as humans to want to learn something, especially in college when kids are so lackadaisical these days,  for lack of a better term, I think that we're at an all time high of people just not caring in all realms. But I think that having people be motivated in some degree to do what you want them to do and it doesn't have to be an incentive. You don't have to say, “Oh, I'll give you a $5 gift card if you do this.” It's making them see the benefit and the value in what you're offering them and making them want to take the next step of – “Wow, I got this from what we did. Wow, I'm on this journey with you. Now, I'm super invested. I want to know what else you have to say to me.” And that's a lot of what we think about in our events and making sure people have buy-in and all those good things. But that's one thing I definitely have taken away is how can you motivate people to truly be on your same page?

Dr. K
Yeah. Now that you've been doing events with me and in some of your event courses, work in the program. Now that you've been doing events for two years, what's the one thing that's the most surprising to you that you're like, “Wow, I wasn't really expecting that in events.” What would this be?

Lydia
Absolutely. So one of the first projects that we worked on, again, I mentioned earlier that events at the school that we're at falls under the hospitality, restaurant, tourism management major. And with us, our first project was in tourism, and we were talking about first impressions and all that good stuff. I remember being a little thrown off like, “OK, I wanna do events. I want to be planning. I don't really care about what's going on.”

That was my thought. That was my thought process. And something that I actually have come to really find interesting is convention and visitors bureaus, CVBs, and also destination marketing is a lot of what we ended up discussing and talking about. That's when the most surprising thing in our work with each other and through events is getting people to want to go to places is similar to getting people to want to go to your event. The crossover between that is crazy in my mind. But it's also super interesting because it's a different type of thing that people think to market. You think of marketing a product or a service, but you don't think about marketing. How can I get people to come to this literal location? What does this place have to offer you? I think that's been really surprising in our work together, how much I've enjoyed tourism work because I never expected. I didn't really know what it was and now that I do, I love it.

Dr. K
Yeah! It's so funny because we talk about how  it's a Venn diagram of overlap, and people are often like, “Kristin, what do you do?” Right. And I'm like, “I design events and experiences that change mindset behavior,” and that is a ton of marketing. It's a ton of events, ton of experience design. But I do a lot in rural tourism, and people are always surprised by that specifically, like rural tourism. And they're so surprised. I'm like, “Why are you surprised?” If your a rural destination that doesn't have a lot of physical permanent infrastructure, the way that you're going to get tourism is through events.

You don't have 10 different restaurants, you maybe don't have a grocery store, you don't have these things. So how can you build in events? A signature event, community events, you know, your arts and crafts festival, or your farmers market or your yearly like Swedish Heritage days or whatever? And then making sure that's a success by like you have public bathrooms or you bring them in, or like where are you going to get your food if you're a food dessert? So like we talk about those discussions, but how else do you bring money into the community when you don't necessarily have that infrastructure. So I do a ton in rural tourism with events. And so I'm so glad you mentioned that.

Lydia
Yes. And also too, another note on that is when a town is known for the event that they have annually: branding, marketing, it all ties together. It's what they're known for. So it's so funny because it is a glorious little venn diagram, even like a tri-venn diagram, if you will. But it's one of those things. It's very interesting for sure.

Dr. K
And I think here in the United States, it's like, “Oh you're an event planner, you must do weddings, right?” And I'm not sure globally how that is, but people are genuinely surprised by my marketing background and my marketing experience and events as part of marketing and marketing of events. And we were speaking to a Native American tribe, and we were trying to help them with their events, their powwows, their tourism, and the lady was like, “Excuse me, this may be rude. But like what exactly is your education and experience?” And I know you were laughing, and we had a big debrief about that after because events is everything. You have to market to get people there. You need psychology to understand how people work. You need some neuroscience for structure and flow and making sure that people are changing their mindset and behavior. You need like the architecture floor plans, you need your interior design, you need all of these things that we don't ever think about that.

Lydia
Yeah! I remember that instance. I thought it was hilarious. And you brought up weddings. I remember the day that we met in my class. I remember one of the first things you said to everyone who was raise your hand if you want to be a wedding planner, and then “I'm gonna change your mind by the end of this.” And that's what I knew I would love you because I'm like, “Yeah, it's not what people think.” It's not all that. It's cracked up to be no shame to the wedding people because we need you. But it's not for everyone.

Dr. K
It's amazing to me how many students think they want to do weddings. They're like, “I want to do weddings,” and that's so great. Like 5% of students still graduate wanting to be wedding planners, interning with wedding planners, getting a job as wedding planners. Beautiful. So glad we're helping you with that. But there's so many people that are like, “Oh, I hadn't quite put it together that I was going to have to work every Friday and Saturday for the rest of my life.” And there's only so much you can charge, and there's only 52 weeks in a year. I'm also going to have to do rentals. I'm also gonna have to do, you know, own my own venue or bed and breakfast or whatever if I want to continue to rise in income because otherwise I cap out. People just don't necessarily think about that, which is fascinating.

Lydia
It was just a fascinating thing because you open in class like that day, I still remember and it's been years.

Dr. K
That's awesome. It's so difficult sometimes because every program is structured differently, every major is different, they have different classes, different requirements. It's actually part of the problem with our industry is like saying you have a degree in events doesn't mean that you have the same competencies. I think that's where the MBA accredited business programs rock because globally, no matter what program you go to, it's guaranteed you're going to graduate with the same competencies. And that's why that program is strong. So obviously not the same events, sadly right now. So if you are talking to the people on the podcast. If someone's like, “Hey, Lydia, what piece of advice could you give me, or a course, or a certificate, or specific area?” But like if you have something specific, what would that be?

Lydia
Like we said, everyone needs to take a psychology class, specifically one in emotions or motivation, because making people feel a certain way is really hard and also making people motivated is really hard. If you can learn the little mental tricks that live in our brains that you don't know about or other people don't know about and then use to your advantage in the way you frame things, word things, all of that jazz, then you'll be much better off.

I use that stuff every day. I think about that every day, even in group project meetings, how can I get people? What time of day do I need to meet with people to get them to come to this meeting, stuff like that. It happens with everything. So I think for students listening, I think that definitely take a psychology class, take it as an elective if it's not part of what you're doing, or add it as a minor because genuinely I do think that on paper, it doesn't make sense with my marketing major and my hospitality background, but genuinely, it is something that I use every day.

Dr. K
And I think some people will say the call is gonna be like, “Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Like, absolutely.” Or anyone in the industry absolutely makes sense. I think this particular podcast episode is also really helpful for parents of, like, “How do I advise my student who's interested in events or sending them?” Like, obviously a lot of people come here for our event program just to work with me, which is super humbling.

Lydia
It's awesome, and it's true.

Dr. K
There are so many schools on the coast in the US, and in other areas in the world where events are part of marketing. Because it is. You have to market your events. Events are part of the marketing plan, the funnel, all of the things. So I would say if your parents are listening or if you're an event professional who is a parent whose kid also wants to be an event professional, looking at the structure of the school, the courses that are offered, the flexibility that you have, super, super important. OK, we could talk all night. So anyone listening on the podcast, so many people, event professionals, students, future leaders, all of the things. If you had one practical piece of advice to tell them to incorporate in their events like tomorrow, what would that be?

Lydia
I think that my biggest takeaway in working with you has just been that there's a lot of things I didn't know before I worked with you or how to do things, and just being able and willing to always figure that out for yourself. For example, I hadn't done a lot of graphic design work before working with you. There is something graphically that I designed for nearly every single one of our events from signage to logos, to workbooks, to whatever it may be.

There's something that my hands are on, on on my computer in that realm. And before we worked together, I was not well versed in Canva. And now I'm getting more into Adobe design things because I've also had to learn that for other things. But mostly my practical piece of advice is just don't say that you can't do something or you don't know how to do something because it's more so like it needs to be figured out – so therefore, I will figure it out. And if you have that mindset of "it'll get done, I just need a minute to figure it out," that's all you need to do. You need to look at things not like, "Oh, I don't know how to use Adobe in design, I can't do it," and instead look at it like, "I'll look up a tutorial. I'll google it a little bit and I will play around and I'll figure it out and I'll go from there." Yes.

Dr. K
Oh, and I love that because I know you were talking about at another time, like one of your interviews and something you said. And that's literally, this is my first job too. They were like, oh, do you know layers and photo pad? I'm like, “Not currently, but I will absolutely before the second interview. You can quiz me all you want.” And I think that really stood out. So even though there were like 40 applicants for that job at the architectural engineering firm, I ended up getting it because I'm so willing to learn and actually going and learning, not just saying, right.

Lydia
So I interviewed this past December and for my summer internship, they wanted me to know Adobe and what have I done this spring semester? Learned Adobe.

Dr. K
Exactly. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and on the call. It was kind of last minute. Right. I literally texted you earlier this week and I was like, “I have these comments, these students, if I were to record you this week, can we get it up this week because I really want to share these comments. So with that being said, if you're listening to the podcast or if you've heard the podcast for a while, make sure that you let me know what you want to hear because that's what I'm here for.

That's how we've made it to the end of season eight because I take all of the things that you want to learn and I do episodes. I find experts. Lydia is an expert at being a student right now. I find all these people and we talk about it and we dive deep and we offer these incredible perspectives that I know people are listening to all around the world, which is so awesome. Thank you again so much, Lydia.

Lydia
Yes. Thank you for having me. I've been listening to your podcast since we've been working together and now I'm so excited, but here I am, I'm on it. Yes, I made it.

Dr. K
And if you're listening, this is definitely one you want to check out on video because me and Lydia are very much hand talkers all over the place. It's so wonderful.

Lydia
I feel like you can hear my hand talking in my voice sometimes too. So if you're listening with your ears, then you're good. Yes.

Dr. K
Yes. It's so wonderful. Well, thank you everyone for dialing in and listening today. Of course, I never take your time for granted. Thank you so much for making the time to take the time and I will see you and hear you and talk to you next week.

Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Experience University podcast. Stay tuned for our next episode.