Event Architects To Know in 2024 - Tonya Almond, CMP, Tag Agency

Written by Luke Whalin | Dec 5, 2024 2:00:00 PM

Welcome to the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series, where we highlight event professionals making waves across the events industry to share lessons learned and raise awareness of their invaluable contributions.

Name: Tonya Almond, CMP

Company Name: Tag Agency

Job Title: Founder & CEO

Can you briefly tell us about your background in event planning and how you got started in the industry?

My journey in events management began with Smithbucklin, and since then, I've dedicated my career to driving innovation, growth, and excellence in event design. Over the years, I've worked with diverse clients and audiences, honing my skills in contract negotiations, stakeholder engagement, marketing and communications, and more.

My passion for innovation and growth has driven me to create new revenue streams, build high-functioning teams, and establish successful sponsorship programs. I've also learned about the powerful impact of design thinking and how it can help us better understand our audience's needs and create event experiences that truly resonate.

In 2018, I stepped away from serving on the PCMA Board of Directors to become the Vice President of Knowledge & Experience Design at PCMA, where I was able to create impactful, engaging experiences, allowing partners to connect with their target audiences across four continents. Today, I'm proud to lead The Tag Agency, where we use data insights and design thinking principles to help organizations realize their growth potential through strategic event and experience design.

Through it all, my commitment to excellence and passion for driving growth and innovation for my clients has never wavered.

How do you go about selecting the perfect hotel or venue? What factors weigh most heavily in your decision?

First, what are the meeting's goals and objectives? What kind of location and hotel are best suited for it? Identifying those needs up front , and the budget makes it much easier to start the search.

Next, who will attend, and how long will the meeting last? If it’s a short meeting, maybe an airport property or nearby is better than being downtown, where traffic can be a deterrent or a farther away resort. Safety always comes into play as a deciding factor.

What else is happening at the meeting? Are there many dinners or other guests attending who need access to extracurricular activities?

Costs and availability are always a factor from time of year to the level of service. Partnering with the DMOs and hotel GSOs really helps to find the right fit.

What does the initial planning phase of securing a venue look like for you? Could you walk us through your initial steps?

I always initiate conversations with the DMO and the Global Sales Office for hotel chains to ensure successful events. I also keep in touch with my partners to stay informed about the demand for their destinations and hotels. This way, I can identify opportunities to fill gaps, which can be particularly helpful when I have flexibility with dates. Moreover, I can guide clients away from peak dates where rates are likely out of budget. By staying connected with my partners and being proactive in my approach, I can ensure the best possible outcomes for the organization.

Understanding the entire event's needs, from internal needs to stakeholder needs. What meetings are held in conjunction with the event, or are other networking events taking place? These factors must be considered as you look at venues from a travel perspective (time) for participants and budget parameters.

What common financial challenges often arise when organizing an event, what strategies do you use to mitigate them, and how do you avoid them?

Common challenges are labor costs and various administrative fees at venues to recover their costs in the supply chain distribution. Having an upfront conversation with the venues is important to understand all the fees and what each is for and what can be negotiated. Also, as you consider move-in, setup days, and how you’re using the space to maximize the labor, it is crucial to work with your production company and venue. You must be vigilant and ask questions about each line item to be informed and cut what’s unnecessary. Ask for a discount. Share your budget. Get what you need for the event to be a success.

As we look to personalize event experiences or provide surprise and delight moments, I typically protect the budget dollars for those elements.

How do you leverage technology to boost efficiency during the planning, execution, and post-event stages? What does your “event tech stack” look like? (For example, using Survey Monkey for surveying attendees post-event)

Project management software: Asana, Basecamp, or Monday
Event management software: Cadmium
Registration platform: Maritz or Cvent
Post Event: Survey Monkey or tied to the event platform

I recently saw a demo for the awards program Evessio, which looks amazing.

SharePoint is great for sharing versions, making real-time edits with teams, and sharing files with vendors. I also use other shared drive folders, like Dropbox or Google, as necessary.

To be more sustainable, I started using my iPad and iPad pencil with Adobe Pro to review all BEOs and other documents. The venues appreciated it, and then I had a digital copy for onsite with each version.

Do you use frameworks, templates, or other tools/documents to help you stay organized and manage the event planning process?

There are several different spreadsheets for planning and tracking performance, from housing and registration and speaker management to budget forecasts. When I design an experience, I always start with the data analysis of the event and the participants so I can understand who is coming (and who isn’t) and create an experience built for the stakeholders and their needs.

On the creative and innovative side, you have to build a space to capture photos, video clips, or articles of inspiration. I do that on a digital whiteboard and turn it into an event experience deck.

Do you have any specific strategies or insights for enhancing the attendee experience at your events?

Using design thinking principles, placing the audience at the center of the event experience, and then intentionally designing their journey from the beginning to the end is critical. It’s also essential to create for the entire person attending the event and their reasons for attending.

It’s not a battle between content or connection. It’s finding the right balance for both to exist and creating a purposeful journey for participants to choose a path for their experience. Networking will always be one of the main reasons people attend events, and it’s up to event organizers to make the events impactful, giving space and time for effective networking. As an organizer, you want participants to believe it was a good use of their time and that they just made a good connection(s).

Effective communication is crucial in any planning process. How do you ensure you and your event stakeholders are always on the same page?

Project management software can be a baseline tool for communication when there are multiple components. It’s important to understand how the project management software will be utilized across the organization and establish business rules everyone can follow for file storage.

Holding regular team and smaller focused meetings are also necessary for communicating in various stages of the planning process. It’s essential to have an agenda with objectives for the meetings. As you share the metrics, you may need to adjust your marketing, or perhaps you have a new sponsor and need to change something else in the program. It’s important to keep communication flowing in both directions.

Email newsletters, websites, and social media with videos are great ways to share with the broader stakeholders what’s happening at the event level. Influencers and social media takeovers are also effective.

How do you facilitate networking opportunities among attendees? Are there any specific tactics or strategies that you recommend?

There are several different ways to facilitate networking.

Create journey maps based on their profiles so they go through the meeting in small cohorts.
There can be groups assigned for meals so they can start the day together and meet throughout the day to reconnect about the various content. There can be a pre-event survey in registration that ties them together.
Place Ice-Breaker hobbies or personality traits on badges or ribbons to help spark conversations
Mentor events within your event can be an excellent way to bring together students, first-timers, and new members with established individuals in the industry.
Hosted buyer events with scheduled appointments.
Table topics or dinner table conversations
Provide white space to allow organic networking
Wellbeing events: fun run/walk, yoga, cooking class, hike
Dine Arounds

What's your go-to plan for handling emergencies or unexpected situations during an event?

Have a plan.
Stay calm.
Share your plan.
Make sure the venues know you’re their point of contact.
Meet the security team.

Depending on the emergency, you may need to maintain confidentiality so misinformation doesn’t spread and cause stress or panic. For example, a high-profile speaker could cancel, and you need to have a backup plan in place before information is shared (it did happen).

Have your emergency and crisis plan in place and share it with your leadership team so they understand their roles. Go over the plan with the entire on-site team. When an alarm went off in a convention center, a team member asked me if it was real. Did we have to evacuate? Yes, you have to listen and follow the instructions at the building and evacuate. Everyone was fine, as it was isolated to an elevator shaft on the other side of the building.

Can you share an example of a significant challenge you faced while planning an event conference and how you overcame it?

During the pandemic, many event organizers were faced with challenges and transformed. At PCMA, I created a new business model to engage our partners and audiences in each region for Convening Leaders in January 2021. People were burned out and fatigued from digital events I knew we had to do something different.

We created an omnichannel event with a test pilot live audience in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands, including a global broadcast. We had face-to-face host events bringing together event professionals across North America and Europe by our Partners and Sponsors. My team essentially oversaw a Singapore production and a North American production. We had a live emcee with the audience in Singapore, and we had our favorite emcee, Holly Ransom, who was in Australia. We filmed her segments in a studio and built the Main Stage shows with her in front of each audience member.

We created Main Stage experiences with lots of engagement. Everyone was active in the comments and sharing their thoughts, which you don’t get in a face-to-face event. One of the best was a group of musicians performing original lyrics about the industry to a mash-up of two songs: Gloria Gainer, I Will Survive, and Destiny’s Child, Survivor. Everyone was blown away by it.

There was so much positive feedback about the music we played in the “waiting rooms” and during the video intros that one of our team members created a Spotify playlist and shared it with everyone. Music plays a huge part in evoking emotion and imparting memories.

What are the typical steps you take in the post-event phase?

Wrap up emails to the stakeholders
Send evaluations to relevant participants
Thank you emails for speakers, participants, and sponsors/exhibitors
Announcing future dates
Share content from the event
Create FOMO with photos and videos on social media
Sharing our audience’s posts to amplify the event
Selling the next event and/or other products
Creating content from the event in the form of articles, blogs, webinars

What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you use to evaluate the success of an event?

Registration Attendance
Sponsorship revenue
Registration revenue
Net Income
Budget vs. Actual
Brand Awareness / Building
Customer Satisfaction
Sponsorship Satisfaction
New followers on each platform
Products sold
New members, if applicable
New business leads, if applicable

What advice would you offer someone just starting their career in the meetings and events industry?

Work on as many events of different sizes as you can because you learn something different from each one. The amount of detail and customer service required for a small leadership meeting teaches you so much. Ask questions and stay curious!

Get involved in an industry organization and volunteer. You will have the opportunity for education, but you will also build a network of industry peers you can rely on. This industry is built on relationships and the ability to foster connections.

This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series, in which HopSkip spotlights planners across the industry to raise awareness of how important the meetings/events community is to our world.

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