- Hello everyone, and welcome to Event Icons
where you get to chat with the icons of the event industry.
I'm Brandt Krueger, and with me is Tahira Endean,
and today we're gonna be talking about,
when is furniture more than just furniture?
When is it a chance to make a first impression.
And we're gonna be talking all about
the current and future state of event design,
especially when it comes to furniture.
Being joined by three fantastic guests from CORT furniture,
coming up right now on Event Icons.
- [Announcer] It's Wednesday at five pm eastern,
so you know what that means.
It's time for another episode of hashtag Event Icons
Presented by Endless Events.
The show where you get to ask the icons
of the event industry anything!
Use the question panel on the webinar
to submit your questions.
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Submit your questions with hashtag Event Icons.
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Now, without any further delay, this is hashtag event icons.
- All right everybody, let's get into it,
we've got a fantastic group here today, joining us today is
Kelsey Rausch who is the event designer
and account executive for CORT Events,
and president of the Arizona chapter of ILEA,
the International Live Events Association,
for those of you playing the home game.
Hello, Kelsey.
- Hi, it's great to be here, thanks for having me.
- Great, thanks for joining us.
We're also being joined by Lilian Shen,
Lilian is the CORT Events marketing manager
based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, hi Lilian.
- Hello hello, great to be here.
- And last but certainly not least,
why do people always have to say that?
Holly Larson, Holly Larson is the social media and marketing
coordinator for CORT Events based also in Las Vegas.
- Hi.
- Hi, Holly.
And with me is my co-host extraordinaire,
Tahira Endean, hi Tahira, how are things doing for you?
- Hi Brandt, things are really good here.
- Where are you globetrotting this week?
- New York, right in the heart of Manhattan.
So I have been, I actually went this morning
to the 9/11 memorial, so my brain is full
of how everything in the world can be impacted.
So I'm excited for today's conversation
about how we can change our events.
- Absolutely, well why don't you
take it away and get us started?
- All right, so we're gonna start off with,
the question we always start with was,
what got you into the events industry,
and we're gonna do it in alphabetical order
and start with Holly.
- Oh, first this time.
I actually started in my internship,
I worked at a water park, and it was a very small team.
So we just did everything, just two man team
getting everything situated it and everything,
which really got me into the industry.
And so after my internship was done, I looked on LinkedIn
and found CORT, which got me into the events industry.
- And what would you be doing
if you weren't in the events industry?
- Theme parks. (laughs)
- Which really is like the events industry.
That experience is all rolled into one.
All right thanks, welcome, Kelsey, same question.
- Well, long story short, when I was in college
I didn't know who I wanted to be when I grew up,
and I thought I wanted to be a chef.
And I was working in a restaurant for a while
because that was the requirement from the parents
in order to pay for culinary school.
And I started planning wine and beer dinners
and hosting a bunch of events for the restaurants
and it just kind of all took off from there.
You know the saying, it's all about who you know,
not what you know, and I made a connection in the industry
and I have never looked back since.
- There you go.
What would you be doing?
- Well, locally here at the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess
they have this gentleman, and his job is to hang out with
these two Labrador retrievers in the lobby all day,
and I think that that would be the dream job
is to just hang out with the dogs
at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess all day.
- That's a great job.
- That would be a great job.
- I'd be down for that.
- Yeah, right?
- Tell us about you, what brought you into the industry?
- Me, okay, so, when I went to college
I was a part of a lot of different student organizations
and I just realized very quickly that my set of skills
just happened to be geared towards event planning.
I always got all the responsibilities of the details,
the project management,
all the logistics got put on my plate,
and eventually it turned into something
that I took on in the professional world.
And so when CORT was looking for a marketing manager
it was just the perfect mishmash of events.
- Excellent, and if you weren't doing it,
and weren't hanging out with dogs, what would you be doing?
- I would probably be in the tech startup world,
that's where a lot of my professional background is,
and I think I just have a thing for chaos. (laughs)
Events world, tech startups, it's all kind of the same.
So I like that sense of urgency, the planning,
the you have to wear multiple hats kind of a thing.
So that's probably where I'd end up.
- You know, it's so similar, it's true,
I sort of spent the last five years
spending a lot of time with tech startups,
and yeah, I totally agree.
So before I move on I just wanna remind people
that they can drop their questions if they have them for you
into the Chatroll, the chat, on event hyphen icons dot com.
So that's a new tool that's really great,
actually super easy to use,
so Chatroll event hyphen icons dot com.
So, you guys are more than just a coach in an event.
So can you tell us how CORT sees
their role in the event industry?
- Well, CORT is a leader in the industry,
I think everybody knows the name CORT,
it's kind of become a household name as far as events go.
We see the red logo everywhere,
we're at all the conferences, things like that,
and we know all the trends in furniture services.
CORT was the first rental company
to introduce a cloud-based, 3D space planner on our website,
which is free to our customers,
and we have the largest selection
of the highest quantities of furniture in rental companies.
We know all the styles, the trends,
we're always looking forward.
We are essentially, I think, the leader.
- Sums it up.
- It's certainly one of the most recognizable names for sure
and I see you guys around all the time at trade shows,
and while there are definitely other rental companies
that provide furnishings for events,
it seems to me that you guys are one of the only ones
that specializes it, is that accurate or is there more
in the industry and I just don't see them?
- I mean I definitely think that we're not the only ones
in the industry, but I think that we're the leaders
of the industry and we kind of set the tone
as to where everything's going.
We listen to our clients and we hear what they have to say
and what the needs are in the market.
I know that our marketing manager is always
off in Europe somewhere kind of figuring out
what the next trend's gonna be,
and then brings them here to the US
and kinda puts them into the marketplace.
- And I think in addition to that
we're really known for the ability to scale.
Other companies within the same area will have,
let's say 500 of one piece, whereas we're able to deliver
on 500 one piece for 500 events, that sort of capacity.
So I think that's one of the things that
really sets us in that leadership space,
that we can accommodate such a national reach.
- So one of the things that we wanted to kind of
focus on today is how furniture and event design
can relate to each other, that when we're working on
how we're designing our event,
how do we bring in this furniture
to kind of intentionally design it
in whatever we're trying to achieve.
So if an event wanted to make people more comfortable
and open to conversations, I mean that's obviously
one of the main reasons that we do events,
is to encourage that face to face interaction.
What types of seating are gonna be able to
encourage people to talk to each other
and really encourage that kind of face to face,
face to face-ness, to coin a phrase. (laughs)
- I would say it's kind of the movable furniture,
we have products like Marche swivel ottomans.
You can turn to the person next to you
or you can turn to the person behind you
and really engage in a conversation,
or even our Swansons have that similar effect.
And that really engages you in conversations.
And then additionally you wanna have that power option
because you're constantly connected to your cell phones,
your laptops, taking notes, and that really helps you
connect on another level, just within the online community.
- Recently at CIMA and NACE,
two of the major event conferences,
we did that exact kind of set up
where we sectioned off different parts of the meeting space.
So the front will have the soft seating or powered seating,
the middle is more traditional
with little end tables nearby,
and at the very end we actually have communal tables.
So almost a bar height table
to kind of create like a stadium effect,
and that way you're also face to face with other attendees
and you're able to speak to each other
throughout the actual presentation.
- And I think ultimately the goal is
we all wanna be comfortable, right,
we don't wanna sit in some hard chairs
that are gonna make us not focus or wanna be there
and be thinking about what we're gonna be
having for dinner that night.
- Yeah. (laughter)
- I've sat at those tables at CIMA
and I love the whole layering of seating
for those reasons, I think it's really good.
I also have a super pet peeve against six foot rounds,
which nobody can talk across.
So what besides that very obvious choice,
what are the kinds of seating that you're seeing
that is actually inhibiting conversation,
how do we get past that?
- Theater seating, definitely.
You're facing forward, you're not engaging with the people
side to side, you're only looking at whoever is speaking,
and it really inhibits you from seeing anything around you.
You get very zoned in, you start looking at your phone
because you have nothing else to look at.
- And that traditional --
- And then you also have the awkward,
the stage is not in front of everybody
so then you have the awkward,
I'm turning my head like this for like 45 minutes,
which is -- - Exactly.
- And those traditional banquet chairs
are always so tight up next to each other
and you're just kind of like squishing,
and then people are obviously trying to skip a seat
every single time, you're just wasting that valuable
real estate where you could be putting in something
much more on-trend and comfortable for your attendees.
- Especially those ones where they literally lock together.
- Yeah!
(laughing)
- Immediately, the first thing that happens is
people go to the back row and start unhooking.
- That's the please don't move my chairs move.
(chuckling)
- One of the things I've noticed
definitely over the last couple of years
as I've been introduced to the new things
that you guys have come out with is,
actually incorporating power charging.
It was one of those things that in retrospect
seemed so incredibly obvious, it's like,
why did it take even just a couple of years
for us to start figuring out that we needed
outlets and power charging in our furniture?
What do you have now?
I'm assuming pretty much anything can have power into it,
but specifically what are some of the hot ticket items
when it comes to these kind of,
charge your devices while you're sitting items.
- My personal favorites and some of our newer items
are actually the tech tablet chairs,
which come in this beautiful gray,
and they have a nice tablet or a removable one
where you don't have to have the tablet included.
And that has a USB and it has a cord
so that you can plug in your laptop, too.
So that's a great piece for educational or whatever.
And then additionally we have the Lexington table
which is a wooden one that has metal legs,
and that one has charging in the middle
that has the USBs and the plug-ins for your laptop as well.
Two very different looks, but very useful for an event.
- So as an add on to that, Holly I love those choices,
the tablet on the bottom actually has a little shelf, too,
for you to slip your bag under so people aren't tripping,
and that was like the best discovery
when I was playing around in that chair.
The Lexington table, I was gonna laugh,
'cause Brandt, you mentioned that,
and I'm sitting here with my work phone, my personal phone,
my iPad's next to me, I'm on a laptop.
So when you have that communal table and you have six,
four, six, whatever, how many people there are at that table
you can really spread out and still have that room,
but stay connected at the same time.
- And to your point, there really is charging in anything.
We also have bars now that have charging ports in the top,
so if you wanna use them as like a reg desk or something
at an event, or, I don't know,
maybe you're pouring yourself a drink and you just wanna
(laughs) plug in your phone, I don't know.
- I mean now we just,
the comfort comes from knowing that people,
we can stay connected when we're at an event
where we're away from home.
And really, when you get to an event
and you start doing anything that's social,
or using the mobile app all day or any of those things,
of course we power down, and so I also think that
the mobile charging is a great place that,
you always meet people
when you're hanging out charging things.
And that's why we go to meetings is to talk to people.
- Couple things coming in from the chat and from Facebook,
by the way, Selena says hello from Orlando.
- Hey, Selena. - Hi!
- And the other question is is,
are you starting to experiment with the mat charging,
is I think what they mean.
So using the wireless charging and actually
laying things down on top of the furniture
in order to charge.
- Yes, so we do have a couple of pieces
that are compatible with the wireless charging.
We won't talk about the new releases,
but I will just drop a hint that
there's more of those coming out
in the beginning of 2019.
That's all I'm gonna say.
- Okay, all right, so it's a mini scoop, it's a mini scoop.
So pay attention out there folks,
coming up you might be seeing more in the way
of wireless charging when it comes to CORT.
- Oh, do you have any others, Brandt, that you wanna ask?
- No, those are the only two that are in right now
but it's a good time to remind folks
to go ahead and type in your questions
if you're joining us on Facebook Live
or if you're joining us on event dash icons dot com,
you can enter the chat right there while you're watching.
So you don't have to have a separate window open
or anything like that, you can have the screen open,
you can have the chat going,
drop your questions right in there
and we'll get them to our guests right away.
- So I know you mentioned shopping in Italy,
of course, which is always fun.
And obviously absolutely the place
where we need to be if we're seeing
where design trends are going with furniture.
So what is trending right now?
Globally, nationally, regionally, what's going on there?
- Yeah, definitely.
Mid-century is absolutely on fire right now.
We love that look, anything that's just
very modern, contemporary looking.
But one of the main things that's coming out right now
is that urban, industrial look.
So like the Lexington tables that Holly just mentioned
with the wood top but the metal black base,
it's that really kind of like rustic industrial mix
that people are just loving, especially this season.
As far as colors go I think we see it everywhere.
It's the grays, the blues, that kind of like warm gray
and also the kind of slate look.
It's just very neutral and it just,
it accommodates every kind of theme.
- Well and when we have Pantone doing things
like making the color of the year ultraviolet,
how are we supposed to translate that to furniture exactly?
(chuckling)
So, you know, there's some cool
projection tables, but, you know.
- I was not consulted.
(laughter)
- It'll be great to see what they come up with
next year and how that translates.
So what else do you, what else are, Holly and Kelsey,
what are you guys seeing out there in trends?
- I think a lot of it, what I see is mixed materials,
so we're putting the metals with the marble
or whatever it may be.
Additionally they're adding metallics, like I said.
There's like a Hayworth that we have
that you can put marble with, and that just creates
a whole bunch of different mixed materials.
And I think velvet is really coming back.
I mean you see it in all the girls dresses,
that crushed velvet.
We have a couple different pillows
that have that kind of style.
And then the last thing that I personally
am just a huge fan of is channel stitching.
I think it's making this huge comeback,
we have Beverly benches that come in that channel stitching
and it's just, it creates this beautiful line,
it makes it look clean, but at the same time
we're adding colors to that channel stitching,
which makes that pop, too.
So you're just getting so much dynamic view
and you're really looking, it's just fun.
- Nice.
- And I'm seeing that the way to bring in color, too,
is to pop it with an accent.
To Lilian's point, all the grays and warm tones
and things like that are in style for the couches,
but when we add the color via like a pillow
or an ottoman or something like that,
it's giving that life to your furniture design
but it's not being overly done,
and still keeping that industrial chic look.
- So let's just, while we're on the subject of pillows,
let's just talk about pillows.
So we've seen logo-ed pillows.
So what, how can you use that furniture
to help convey a brand message?
- Well branding is absolutely huge right now.
I mean, who doesn't love talking about themselves,
especially in the corporate world,
and what better way to do it than
to brand your logo on everything?
So CORT literally has made it available to brand everything.
We can brand pillows, we can brand your coffee table,
we can brand your cocktail table, your bar.
We have heads walls if you wanna brand the wall,
we can do that, literally anything and everything.
And as far as pillows go, I think the cool thing too,
and the ottomans, we have the slipcovers for those,
is you don't only have to use it for your company logo.
If you have a very unique design,
like say something with palm trees or polka-dots
or whatever it is, we could actually take that
and put that into our pillows as well,
and create something custom for your event.
So you have something unique that's not out there,
that anybody else has.
- So back in July this year, every quarter,
every quarter CORT hosts a VIP event,
and the last one in July was in New York
and our theme was a night in Cannes.
So it was very much inspired by the south of France,
this classic, mediterranean feel.
And we went nuts with the branding.
It was pretty much near our initial launch of it,
so yeah, we had the fabric slipcovers,
we had lighted columns and bars graphics.
We even had custom drapes creating these beautiful cabanas
to really give that tropical beach-side feel.
So we had these gorgeous marble graphics
mixed in with watercolor style floral.
So it really, that capability really allows the client
to take whatever vision they have and make it their own.
You can utilize the actual furniture selection
for colors and styles, but as far as
the full mood and the full theme,
that's really where it gives that extra oomph.
- I think it's worth emphasizing, too,
that I think a lot of folks think of you
as being exclusively rental, hey,
let's just look through a catalog and say
I want that, that, that, and that.
The fact that you offer these kinds of customizable options
I think sometimes gets lost,
so I just wanted to make sure that everybody caught that,
as far as what it is that you guys do.
How do you guys try and keep up,
when you're looking at all of these trends
that you were just talking about,
and you kind of rifled through a bunch of them,
how do you keep up with that?
As a company, keeping track of what's hot and what's not
on these trends has to be difficult.
- Oh, it's non-stop.
So every year, throughout the year we attend
all the major furniture markets,
whether it's in the US nationally or in Europe.
So Kevin Dana, he's our executive director
for product development and marketing,
he goes to Italy, to Milan, every single year
to really stay ahead of the trends and to figure out
where the overall furniture market is,
to kind of predict those upcoming trends
years and years out for the events industry.
And many of the current trends are obviously
towards flexibility like we've been talking about
with the meetings, it's just mirrored in furniture markets
whether it's retail, home, events, whatever it may be.
- We also listen to our client base as well,
the people that we work with.
For example, the tech tablet chair,
it was an idea that our internal team had,
but we listened to what it was our people wanted.
And developed it and redeveloped it
based on the feedback that we were getting
from our consumers.
- It's fantastic that you guys
have the opportunity to listen to your customers, too.
Okay, so let's talk about, one of the great things of course
that we all thought would never go away
was white on white on white on white furniture.
(chuckling)
But what are those trends that will never die?
Is there anything that becomes timeless?
- You guys wanna take it?
- I mean I guess, like you said, white on white on white,
that's a clean look, especially where I'm from,
I'm in Arizona, so people love that clean look
'cause we're always, people kind put us down with that
cow hoedown kind of western thing,
and we're not actually like that, go figure. (laughs)
But solids and things like that, I don't know.
Lilian will probably have anything to add.
- I think solid colors -- - Oh, go ahead.
- Sorry.
I think solid colors is a fair enough assessment,
because whether that be a solid black or solid white,
or you're going even with solid grays,
that's the key trend that's gonna keep staying
is having those monochromatic looks
at your events and at certain points.
- And when it comes to patterns, the more niche styles.
You know, it's fashion, it's furniture, it's all cyclical.
So essentially nothing really ever goes away.
We're seeing the 70s and the 80s come back now,
even in fashion we're seeing the 90s,
which means in furniture that'll probably come back soon.
So it really is all cyclical in a way.
- Like you said, it's that fashion trend, right?
But we're always gonna buy white desserts, it's true.
So of course one of the things that you're always gonna hear
is it's too expensive.
So we hear about many aspects of our programs,
and often including that non-venue provided seating.
So talk to us a little bit about
how you're addressing some of those challenges,
and also what that real value is
in providing some mixed seating?
- Well, when attendees are more comfortable,
they're more likely to be tuned into a meeting or an event.
Providing spaces that are just various elements of an event
is really crucial.
There should be a space for casual connection,
for networking,
for accidental communication and conversation,
and then of course the more structured areas,
your meeting halls.
- So it goes back to what we were talking about earlier with
our recent arrangements at CIMA, NACE,
and a lot of the other major, you know,
ILEA, and Upcoming and whatnot,
is really sectioning out your meeting space
to accommodate each of these different types of attendees.
Some people are very traditional
where they wanna sit there with a notepad
and pen or pencil and take notes on a table.
Others want to be connected,
others wanna be able to discuss
and have that impromptu conversation
like Holly just mentioned.
But ultimately it's like what we keep saying,
it's comfortability.
No matter where they are in any of these sections,
no matter how they work, that's what we want them to do.
So when you plan out these different segments,
that's the number one priority to keep in mind.
If someone's distracted, shifting around,
trying to unlock their chair from the banquet chair
next to them, they're not going to be listening to the event
or they're gonna be shifting around trying to get out.
- You get what you pay for. - Yeah.
- So I think, yeah, there's that.
One of the things the planners in the chat said,
what are some ways of achieving
new and fresh seating on a tight budget?
So is that something that you can help them with?
- Definitely, there's different colors,
if you're looking for a more inexpensive chair
we have chairs that come in green.
Just stackable chairs that come in green and looking for,
just something that looks a little bit different
than you would normally look for,
I think that's the difference between your event
when you have the house chairs
and your event when you have CORT furniture.
You're having that extra little pizazz to your event
because you don't look like everything else.
And so adding a stackable green chair
rather than a, you know, house chair
with the mesh seating that matches the floor.
There's a huge difference.
- And also, if you think a little bit outside the box
and utilize let's say like the Beverly ottomans,
which are essentially a bench,
yes you're getting one unit,
but you're seating multiple people on that.
So figuring out how to reconfigure the space,
so it doesn't necessarily have to be
everyone is individualized in their own space,
but you're able to share more communal area.
It minimizes the quantity, per se, that you have to cover,
but you can accommodate the same amount of attendees.
- Which is obviously, there's always,
it comes down to numbers, doesn't it?
- Yep.
Try to squeeze everyone in a little room.
- So one of the fun things that we get to do on this show
is deep dive a little bit into some of the stuff that
people don't necessarily think about all the time.
So for you guys, every day is moving day, right,
you're moving stuff around all the time,
so can you give us a little bit of a peek behind,
behind the curtain as far as what that
looks like from a logistic standpoint,
how are you guys able to handle the sheer volume
of rentals that you guys have,
and the amount of furniture that you have?
- Kelsey, do you wanna speak to that?
- Sure, I mean, with CORT, we talked about in the beginning
about how big of a company we are,
we have 16 warehouses nationwide
with a national rolling inventory.
And for those of you that don't know
what a national rolling inventory is,
it means we're constantly moving our furniture
from one warehouse to another in order to accommodate
these events of such large sizes,
especially in places like the Las Vegas market,
the New York market, things like that.
There's a lot that happens internally
with our ops department communication-wise
to make sure all this happens.
But our processes of scanning furniture in, out,
we know where everything is, we're able to track it.
We have some awesome new technology that we're rolling out,
we just learned about this past year
that's gonna make our scanning capability that much greater.
You have to stay ahead with the technology.
And then I think ultimately it boils down to
working with our clients and knowing who our clients are.
We take the time out of our days to come figure out
what their processes are, what works for them,
because no one's the same.
And the way that everybody is structured
is completely different, and I think it's important
that we have an amazing team that knows
who each and every person is and what it is that they need
to make their event a success.
- At the end of the day, as big of a company as we are
and as wide of a reach as we have,
the flawless communication between our sales team
and our operations is just seamless.
And it really allows us to have that personal touch on it
despite having this massive large following
going around at all times.
And needless to say, our operations teams in each district
are just absolutely phenomenal.
So every single piece of furniture no matter what
gets inspected from top to bottom.
It gets hand-packaged, when you get to the event
they're the ones that are hand-placing it
according to these space plans.
So really when it comes to the client, they are hands-off.
Once the order is in, they just have to,
if they have any changes be there to monitor,
but operations, the team really handles it.
It's completely white glove, it's just amazing.
- So I've never once heard of anybody say,
and their communication between
sales and operations is flawless.
(laughs)
- It really is, it's like that, every time.
Just, all right, do we have this, yes, all right, let's go.
And it's just there, the ball's rolling.
- Our operations team is some of the best people
I've ever met, they're always communicating to me,
hey, I don't have this furniture,
but can I get it in for you this way, and if not,
what do you want, how can I make it work for you,
they're always trying to make it work.
And working in events is sometimes
really frustrating when it comes to all the other steps,
so having a furniture team that really wants to
make your event work just is so helpful.
- I will say, though, sorry, if you saw the sheer volume
of emails that happens in one day behind the scenes
between sales and ops, you would understand,
but they definitely over-communicate with us
and we over-communicate with them, if there is such a thing,
and it makes everything go really really smoothly.
- I feel like you guys need to watch
the episode on productivity tools
'cause there's a really good Event Icons episode
about different tools besides email.
(chuckling)
- I know that you know Will in Slacks.
Will makes us use that for ILEA. (laughs)
- Yeah, no, it's helpful for sure, so yeah, it's good.
Email of course is nice and traceable
and there's lots of good reasons to use it.
So I'm never gonna say email's going away, it's not.
But that's fantastic, and it really is,
as an event producer, I am so reliant on knowing,
whether it's my furniture or my audio-visual
or my food and beverage that once I've sort of
given those marching orders, that there's all of these
other people who then need to make it happen.
I remember the last event I worked on
trying to explain to an executive
that the reason that we could do this and have it happen
in an actually unreasonable amount of time
was because there was more than 400 people on-site
making sure that everything was happening.
And just the look in their eyes was like, what!
But that is the reality, it's not just one person
who does anything, and communication really is,
that is the most important thing that we have.
And also as a producer, I know how many changes get made.
And sometimes it's like 17 changes
in literally, over two pieces of furniture,
and you kind of wanna poke your eyes out, let's get real.
'Cause sometimes it would be nice just to go from one to two
like, just give me your first order and your last order,
but that's not the way that it ever works.
And so it does take all of that juggling,
so I think that's incredible that you have 16 warehouses
and also those great processes
that make sure that everything happens.
So I feel happy about this kind of information.
- I wanna add, at the risk of stomping on a question
I think you were planning on bringing up later, Tahira,
I think it's important to stop a moment there
and talk about the maintenance.
That's one of the big issues that comes up
in AV all the time, so that's been my world is,
the fact that these things like you said
have to be inspected before they go out,
they have to be inspected when they come back,
they have to be repaired if there's a stitch,
or a heel goes through something
or wine gets spilled on something,
there's a lot of maintenance that goes into play
when you're dealing with any kind of hard goods like this.
So that has a lot to do with, like I said,
at the risk of what you were wanting to talk about Tahira,
is the cost that's involved in this.
A lot of times when people look at the cost they go,
well I could buy it for almost that.
And I think one of the biggest things
that they don't take into account
is this idea of maintenance and being,
well yes, but now you have to ship it,
you have to be responsible for it,
you have to make sure that before you use it again
it's been cleaned up.
Do you have anything to add just as far as the maintenance
side goes, 'cause I think that's really one of the things
that's undervalued when we talk about rental furniture.
- Well if you saw our repair shop based in Las Vegas,
you would be extremely impressed.
It's a whole section of its own,
you can go in there unless you have glasses and a hardhat on
'cause there's a full production happening
as far as repairs go.
I mean at the end of the day, it is rentals,
things happen, things break,
especially, people are kind moving things around on-site.
So we realize that and we factor that into our business.
And we do make sure that we go through everything,
everything once it gets cleaned gets wrapped
and ready to get put back on the shelf,
and then everything gets sticker-ed and signed by who did it
so there's accountability for it as well.
And I think ultimately we really really value
that everything goes out perfectly, and if it doesn't,
we have some extras on-hand in order to replace it
and make sure we can fix that in time.
- I've actually witnessed that
in one of my first events that I was at with CORT is,
we were doing delivery, something got dropped off,
and one of the little legs were just a little big chipped.
Immediately our production manager went right back
to the warehouse and brought another one.
And that's really the kind of service that you want,
and yeah, it's just unmatched.
That warehouse, the repair shop, is amazing, it really is.
Every time Holly and I walk by the warehouse
we're just kind of like, what are they doing in there?
But yeah, it's a well-oiled machine.
- So let's talk a little bit about,
because of course every planner has a budget,
every event has a budget, obviously they vary.
So what are some of the things that you are really seeing
where you can really help people be on-trend,
but also make their events just a little more and...
Useful, really, sorry I'm trying to think of the right word.
But to me when we have an event it's all about
creating conversations, that's, with the value
that you get from events is those face to face experiences,
and when we can find ways to help people do that.
And you've mentioned quite a few, but again,
I think when people start to listen to things
about furniture they think, oh, I can't do that.
So how can they do that?
- I mean, we definitely get people coming to us
with a wide range of budgets,
and kind of to what we were talking about earlier,
you get what you pay for.
We do cater to a certain market, we're not for everybody,
however, we wanna try to help as many people as we can,
and we definitely have something
in a variety of price ranges.
We have very high-end couches and then we have
things like the ottomans, which is a great substitute
to have a conversational space
without having to blow your budget on a couch.
So I think it's really about working
with your representative on your budget,
and my favorite question,
and this should be on your shit that event planners say,
maybe it has been, is I don't have a budget,
or I don't know what my budget is.
Everyone always has a budget,
there's always a bottom-line number,
so it's getting you to where that number is.
And it's generally me picking and prying and pulling
the right questions out in order to understand
what it is your needs are, what your bottom-line is,
and then finding what we have
that's suitable within that bottom-line
and still makes your event a success.
- Absolutely, we did have, I missed a joke
by the way that came in on Facebook.
So Nick Barelli pointed out that we had
pillow talk on Event Icons, so, you know.
(laughing)
Speaking of shit event planner say.
- Thanks, Nick.
- But thanks Nick, sorry I missed that earlier.
And yeah, we've got some folks in the chat
just agreeing and nodding and doing the virtual snaps
and saying that we had some good points
regarding the maintenance and things like that.
What about venues, are you guys
partnering with any venues at this time,
is there any kind of benefit to the planners?
- We definitely partner with venues in the sense that
sometimes venues wanna build packages that they can offer
people coming in, so we'll build custom packages,
and that's definitely based on the venue,
based on the regional area, what caters to that market.
We work in small venues for 50 people,
we work at venues for 750 thousand people
like the Waste Management Phoenix Open
golf tournament that we do every year.
So we literally can do anything of any size,
it's just working with that particular venue
and figuring out what works for them.
And also some venues have very particular guidelines
that we have to follow as to
what type of furniture can be in there.
I know that we have markets that require that
our furniture is, what is the word, flame-resistant
or whatever, things like that.
You get the markets now that have the marijuana,
so we're having to develop new furniture
that can withstand the weed smoke.
So we literally work in every type of venue,
it's just catering to the individual markets
and figuring out what their individual needs are.
- So, the...
Outdoor events, 'cause we love outdoor events.
So what's going on, what are we seeing for outdoor events?
- Yeah, definitely.
So one of the things, it's kind of a trick answer.
With outdoor events what we're seeing
is a lot of fluidity between the indoors and outdoors.
So being able to transition your attendees
from the inside to outside without that abrupt change
in your style, your design and things like that.
So furniture pieces that are able to accommodate
both indoors and the outdoor weather, whatever it may be,
just withstanding all of the elements
is really hot right now.
Incorporating greenery into designs,
so even when you're doing these indoor,
let's say you have an indoor venue.
If you wanna create that outdoor look,
you can bring in hedges or palms, whatever it may be,
and just really bring that feel inside to, you know,
have all the goodness of the outdoors without the weather.
And especially with the wood facades, things like that,
you really get to create that kind of natural feel.
- And I think too when you're outdoors,
you can get kind of lost in an outdoor space
with it maybe being a big field or something like that.
It's figuring out how to create those individual
kind of comfortable, I feel like I can relax here
kind of spaces.
So using things like wall dividers,
or Lilian mentioned the hedges,
to kind of create that more intimate feel
within a larger space, kind of pull that in.
- I think that's really critical, is this whole idea of
how do we create those smaller connection spaces.
You might have 10 thousand people at your event,
but you can still only talk to five at a time.
So I think that you're right, the whole,
there's a book by Dr. Paul Radde that's all about seating,
and his thing is,
if you have a straight row, you don't have a meeting.
When you talked about theater seating,
and so there's similarly things in there.
And I do think the things like the communal tables
where you have that smaller distance between people
really allows those conversations as well.
Again, as soon as we start to get too big,
it's impossible to have that conversation.
Kind of the same with couches,
sometimes they're not the best option
'cause you're a little bit too comfortable.
So you're then really only talking to sort of
one person beside you, which sometimes can be fabulous,
but if you're really there to, let's call it networking,
sometimes getting too comfortable isn't always a good thing.
But also where things like the bar height pedestal tables
are great, because people can really move around
and have those conversations, and you don't feel bad
about moving around if you're already standing up.
Whereas once you've kind of settled into a chair
you think oh, maybe I shouldn't leave these people.
What's happening with bars?
What's going on out there,
what are the things that you're seeing
that are kind of tying together
furniture and cocktail trends?
- We love our bars. (chuckling)
- We really do.
- Yeah.
- Okay, who doesn't love a bar,
'cause we all know what comes from it.
(chuckling)
- So I know Kelsey mentioned this earlier,
even with bars, we're adding power to that.
So always staying connected, being able to have that choice,
of a standard, a traditional rectangular bar,
or the curved bars, or whatever different designs.
All of ours, for instance, are again brand-able.
So we're going full circle on all of these trends
we keep talking about, but it really is a centerpiece.
So whether you wanna use the bar for the standard use
of a bar, or as a registration table, whatever it may be,
it really is such a versatile piece.
And with so many different options of style
and whatnot, it's just a classic.
- And with all of our bars, too, we make sure to have
what we call the wet and the dry version,
where we have built-in bus tub so that bartenders
can use that to make them more accessible,
or the dry version typically is used
more of like the registration desk.
And then the other trend that we're seeing with bars
is light up bars, with the glow kind of feature on it.
That way people can customize the colors,
if you wanna go technicolor we can go technicolor or if you,
say you're CORT and your color's red,
we can make your bar red.
That way we're customizing this piece of furniture for you
and making it a focal point.
So it's like we said just a minute ago,
who doesn't love a bar, and who doesn't wanna find the bar
when they first get to an event,
'cause I know that that's the first thing I'm looking for.
So you might as well light the thing up
and put it in front of the room.
- I think that's a really good point
about making things easy to find, as well.
So what have you got that's tall,
are you seeing anything being incorporated
that is also helping people with,
really that way-finding to the good time?
- Greenery I think is a really big one right now.
We have our seven foot hedges and our seven foot columns,
and any of the tall greenery.
I mean that's an eye-catching piece
that you're like oh, that's pretty.
And then we've seen people do really fun things
with our greenery where they hang a logo on it
or they put flowers in it or whatever it may be.
So you're kinda following those to your bar, or the stage,
or whatever may be the big focal point,
but that green area kinda helps
lead you in that direction, gives you the leading lines
that you see in photos and things like that.
That really help you see oh, okay,
this is where I'm supposed to be going.
I mean you really can make a little maze
if you want to, Alice in Wonderland style.
- I've seen that. (chuckling)
- Yeah.
And even something a little less subtle than greenery,
we have the Luna columns, where there are just seven foot,
eight foot, or seven, I can't remember the exact dimensions.
There's three different levels.
So you can really pair them up into these funky designs,
but it basically just, you can use them to,
again like the greenery columns, just kind of lead a path.
And those are brand-able, so essentially what you could do
is even get graphics printed that have,
hey you know what, this is this way,
and have arrows pointing in different directions
to actually serve as that kind of street sign.`
- Which I think is, yeah it's good when you can help people,
having something that's basically at a four foot level
doesn't help anybody, 'cause we're all taller than that.
So somebody asked, Brandt, you said, the name of the book,
so Dr. Paul Radde, he's got a couple of books.
It's thrival dot com, so T-H-R-I-V-A-L.
The specific book though is called Seating Matters,
State of the Art Seating Arrangements.
And it really, it's more than 100 pages
of different ways that you can really
utilize seating to create conversations.
So it's kind of the best friend
of the furniture companies, I think,
because it really is about not having
those straight rows and six foot rounds,
and things that really inhibit conversation.
'Cause it is, it kind of ties it all together, right?
So if we look at all the things that we've looked at
with furniture today it's, how can you create an experience.
And how can you use furniture to do that,
from the entry point where you've maybe got
some great way-finding and registration desks
that don't feel like a typical registration desk
where somebody's standing behind a six foot table
with lots of badges spread out,
which is my least favorite welcome experience.
But to do something that is a lot warmer.
I've even down things where we've had,
someone behind the registration desk
is doing sort of the administration of it,
but there's actually somebody standing in front
as if you were at a really nice retail store,
handing you your badge and making that experience
just a bit more personal.
The light up and all of those colors
makes it just feel like, I've arrived somewhere.
And I think that we can really use furniture
like you have to create that first sense of arrival,
that I am now somewhere
that is more interesting than I was before,
which is really fundamentally
what we should be doing with that.
And then really creating those other spaces
where people can have, if it's in a session room,
that tiered seating.
I even have done a lot of things where
doing pedestal tables or community tables at the back
but even just putting in some benches at the back
for those people who just wanna come in.
There's always those people who just wanna float
in and out of sessions, so why not make it easy
for them to do that, why do we punish them?
We don't give them anywhere to stand
'cause we've moved that theater row right to the very back,
so why not make it just a little bit friendlier.
And then all the branding that you can do, again,
just really that sense of place, you know, here I am.
And it can be as subtle, for some clients,
as the channel stitching being in their color
to branded slipcovers and pillows
and all those kinds of things.
So I think that the opportunities
that we have with furniture are immense,
and we just need to kind of get past that
but it's too expensive, because you don't necessarily
need to put it everywhere but you do need to use it
thoughtfully, I think, and to really bring in those elements
that are gonna really create that pow for people.
So you guys have given us so many really good ideas today
of ways we can do that that I'm just like,
now I'm on fire with ideas, so thank you very much.
- And one thing really quickly,
rows may not always be your worst enemy.
I think Holly mentioned one of our chairs earlier,
the Swanson chair?
We've had clients take Swanson chairs and just line them up
in theater seating, but the thing is
they move very easily, they rotate.
And so we've had clients where they had to have these
impromptu breakout sessions, all they had to do was just
turn around and all of a sudden you're in a pod.
And then you can turn right back,
you're back in theater seating.
So it's not always terrible, it just really depends
on the piece that you're using to furnish those rows.
- As always, the hour goes too fast,
we're starting to have to wind down
as we get towards the top of the hour.
Also, guest 2570 will be sure to put Tahira's book reference
in the show notes, so if you come back,
you'll be able to check that out on the blog.
We'll have all of the recommendations that are given.
So last chance for everyone in the chat
to get their questions in here,
in the meantime, we talked about making sure
that furniture could withstand the weed,
and making sure the furniture could withstand being outside.
I don't even know if you guys would know the answer to this,
maybe you've heard stories, but what would you say
the most unique location that you guys
have sent furniture to has been?
The oh, wow, really, that's where they put that?
Any of those in the stories around the office?
- Well, I mean, back to kind of what,
I mean I hate to keep going back to this,
I'm sorry Kevin Dana,
but I know that we've done a lot of the 4/20 festivals.
I mean, that's just a very unique thing
that's starting to pop up around the market.
It's not in my market yet,
so I don't know a ton on the topic yet,
but I know that it is something that
internally we are considering.
I personally deal with the Waste Management
Phoenix Open golf tournament every year,
and that is a show where we do
12 thousand pieces of furniture for a one week event,
and it's all throughout the whole golf course.
So there's things that I'm considering,
like the birds that hang out on the lakes
and where they're gonna poop at night.
And is mother nature gonna come in
with one of those crazy storms at night
if I put something outdoors.
So that's always something that we have to consider,
all the plan B, C, Ds and Es when we're doing furniture,
and I think that we definitely have product
that covers all of those needs.
It's just, what are those needs,
and can we help you get there?
- Either of you guys have any unusual locations to add in?
- I can't think of any.
- Most of my locations that I go to are pretty normal.
- That's all right.
- Marketing is pretty --
- Marketing is very tame when it comes to that.
- Yeah.
- I've heard weird stories, but I'm like, nah.
- Well that's okay, we can start to go into our,
we usually book in the show, right,
we've got the easy ones at the beginning,
we've got the easy ones at the end.
We did have, Dana was wondering from the chat,
is CORT gonna be at IMEX?
- Yes - Absolutely.
- Excellent.
- We will all be there, actually, everybody on this.
- Come find us.
- And you'll have product there to show off?
- Yes, we'll have a booth. - Yes, we'll have a booth.
- Excellent, okay, all right.
So yes, they'll all be there, great, so there you go, Dana.
And we'll remind you at the end of the show
but we'll be broadcasting live as well.
All right, so closing it out, we'll start with,
who did we start with at the beginning?
- You started with me.
- Okay.
- We went alphabetical.
- Well we'll go eeny-meeny-miney-mo this time.
So Holly, it's been decided scientifically,
'cause you're in the top left corner of my screen.
If you could pick only one,
what is your one tip you have for event planners?
It does not have to be specific to furniture,
but what would be your one tip?
- I would say...
I'm gonna go furniture, 'cause that's what I know.
I would say use your event, like,
we have our account executives
and they're really really useful tools,
and so reach out to them, because they're willing to
put together floor plans for you,
they have tools that they're willing to share with you,
and they really know what they're doing.
They know the right questions to ask,
they know what looks best together.
So utilize that tool, utilize the people
that know what they're talking about
because if you're like oh, I really wanna include
this furniture but I'm just not sure what
and I don't feel confident, they are.
So use the people that know what they're doing.
- And by the way, Dana says that they're not Kevin Dana,
and hope that they didn't scare you.
(laughing)
- For a split second that's actually what I was --
- I thought that, too.
- All right, Lilian, how about you?
If you could pick, what's your one tip for event planners?
- Yeah, I think one of the biggest challenges
for event planners is thinking too within the box,
so I would say don't be afraid to think outside the box,
really let your inspiration guide you.
And think as crazy as you can,
'cause you can always start here,
and then like Holly said, whittle it down
to what will actually fit within your budget,
your space, your theme, whatever it may be.
But if you really embrace that inspiration,
you'll be able to find something to help execute on that.
Whether you as a planner or as a client,
it's same advice across the board.
- All right, and Kelsey, you're up.
- I think my tip would be to,
any time that you're doing any sort of rentals,
and for me specifically furniture,
pick a provider that you can trust to deliver
on what it is that you're asking for.
Because like we were talking about before,
you get what you pay for.
So if you can't trust them,
and it may be a little bit cheaper,
you might not be getting what it is you had in mind
at the end of the day.
And I think too, as well, when we're talking about budgets,
grow the budget over time.
So you can start by maybe adding
a couple pieces of furniture the first year.
There's no going backwards in events,
we're always moving forward.
So then the next year you can add a few more pieces as well,
and when you're doing that with someone that you can trust
you know that they're gonna keep executing,
and to the way that you want every single time.
- There you be, okay, all right.
So, we're gonna go reverse order now,
so starting with you, Kelsey,
any cool resources you wanna share,
websites, blogs, books, gadgets,
again does not have to be furniture-related,
could be a life hack of some kind,
something that's working for you in your life.
Any resources you wanna share.
- Well I mean I'll just keep going back to furniture, sorry.
We have a really awesome --
- Unacceptable, we're not here to talk about furniture.
No, go ahead.
- I would say Social Tables.
Social tables has been an absolute lifesaver
to I think every event planner out there.
CORT offers it for free on our website
at CORT Events dot com.
It's a 2D and 3D space planning tool for events,
it has pretty loaded venue spaces,
you can create your own venue space,
and all of our products and many other products
are on there, and you can actually see
how it will fit into a space in realtime.
- All right, Lilian.
- Sure, so for us internally we use this platform
called Libris, but I think just generally speaking,
whatever photo management, event management tool
that you may have, but for us, it's our saving grace.
We use it to track every single event photo,
every studio shot, everything,
and what it does is it allows marketing and sales
to really create these custom, we call them light boxes,
for, whether it's clients or internal needs,
just to help visualize it.
So essentially at any second of the day
we can create these custom inspiration boards.
And for someone like me that's very very visual, I need it.
'Cause if you just describe a space
by combination of pieces to me,
I'm just gonna sit here and have
no idea what you just told me.
But if you show me a combination of images,
then I'm good to go and we can get that ball rolling.
So just organization as far as imagery goes
and being able to have flexibility
of creating these inspiration boards.
- Very nice, and Holly.
- I would say that a lot of people tell me
they have the problem of, oh, I don't know
where to get the inspiration from,
so for me that inspiration comes from your social media.
So using your Instagram and your Facebook and your Pinterest
but additionally they have sources
that you wouldn't normally think to use
that are more traditionally for your home furnishings.
Like Houzz I think is a really good resource.
And additionally I would also include Wayfair,
because those are the kind of things that you can be like,
hey, I like what this looks like,
how can CORT help me create something
that looks like this in a rental environment?
Because a lot of the times you're like,
I want that in my house, how do I get that
on the show floor or in the event.
I think all the time, I'm like, I really like that,
man I wish, and then, you know,
that's where we get our ideas from.
- Okay.
- Not only ideas but also just that,
sorry Brandt, that sense of comfort.
That we want to walk into environments
that are sort of aspirational.
And I can't wait what you guys create on the show floor
at IMEX, one of my favorite shows.
Just because I think that that is,
when we're looking for that, we go to shows to be inspired
and to really think about what we can do,
what we can bring in and what we can add,
and so I am really excited to see
what you guys bring there, thank you.
- Yay.
- We'll see you guys all there.
- All right.
So, Holly Larson, you are the social media
marketing coordinator for CORT Events,
Lilian Shen the events marketing manager for CORT,
and Kelsey Rausch, the event designer
and account executive for CORT,
thank you guys so much for joining us,
we really appreciate it.
- Thank you. - Thank you for having us.
- So Kelsey, I don't know if you're the right one to ask
about this, maybe probably all of you,
but where can we find out more
about CORT and what you guys are up to?
- You can find us at CORT Events dot com,
you can also follow us on social media,
I believe our handles Holly are CORT Events.
- All at CORT Events. - Everything.
- We keep it simple.
- Super easy to find.
- At CORT Events, at CORT events, at CORT events.
Great, well thank you guys again,
Tahira, thank you for joining me,
being my co-host and cohort in this endeavor.
And she's muted.
- Any time.
Well sort of any time, I might be busy next week, we'll see.
- You're gallivanting, you gallivant a lot I've noticed.
- I've been gallivanting.
If you need a life hack from me I can tell you
how to pack in a carryon for 32 days on the road.
- Wow, that's a lot of days.
- I need that.
- Where can people find out -- - We'll talk.
- What you're up to and where you're gallivanting to?
- Intentional event design dot CA.
- Nice, and I'm Brandt Krueger, Brandt Krueger dot com,
we wanna remind everybody that we're gonna be
broadcasting live from IMEX on the show floor
at the IMEX studio Wednesday, October 17th
at our normal time, so that's five PM eastern
which we're pretty sure is two PM local time
there in Las Vegas at the time,
'cause we haven't done any of the Daylight Savings
or any of that kind of stuff.
So hope you can stop by and join us live,
we're gonna have all of our crazy friends and guests
coming up and joining us, just like we've done
at other live events, it's always a blast.
So please do stop by and say hi,
if you can't be there, tune in and join us live
as always at event dash icons dot com.
As we record this show live every Wednesday at five pm
eastern you can watch behind the scenes on Facebook Live,
you can also watch us live on event dash icons dot com.
We release the show otherwise the following Tuesday
on iTunes, Pocket Cast, Stitcher
or whatever your favorite podcast app is.
But, again, the best way to join us live is,
if you haven't heard it enough already,
event dash icons dot com where you can watch us,
you can participate in the chat,
and you can get straight into the brains
of the event icons that join us on the show every week
by getting your chat questions answered there.
- [Male] Hello, everyone.
- We wanna know what you think, Twitter.
- [Male] I'm just wanting to send you a video.
- Somebody's watching right now. (laughs)
We hear Alex.
At least it sounds like Alex.
Best way to join us live, we wanna know what you think,
joining us on Twitter using hashtag event icons,
join the Event Icons Facebook group,
let us know what icons you wanna see on the show.
Thank you so much for joining us,
Barry, Selene, Reid, Dana, Nick, Dana,
everyone that was joining us on the chat
and joining us here live, thanks to our wonderful guests
and we'll see you next time on Event Icons.
(upbeat synth music)
- [Announcer] Thank you for joining us
for another amazing episode of hashtag Event Icons.
To catch the transcription
and all of the resources mentioned,
head to WWW dot hello endless dot com slash blog.
This week's episode will be posted
and available by next Tuesday.
Also, let us know what you thought
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Thank you again for joining us.
We'll see you next Wednesday at five PM eastern
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