In this episode, Jenny connects that truth to two ideas at the center of her work: the language gap keeping talented event and experiential professionals stuck, and the five-pillar blueprint she built years ago to stop one broken microphone from defining an entire event's success.

If something in you has been asking "am I ready," this episode is your answer.

Jenny spent a year planning a football-themed Mitzvah. Custom turf dance floor. Stenciled logo. A smoke-filled entrance moment that made her client cry. Every detail intentional, every element designed to land. And it did.

Then the caterer was late.

And just like that, everything Jenny built disappeared. Not physically — but emotionally. The tears at the door were gone. The dance floor stopped mattering. The client rewrote the story in real time, and Jenny was left holding the outcome of decisions that were never hers to make.

This is called the vacuum effect. When one thing goes wrong in a live experience, it pulls every positive emotion right out of the room. And the finger always points at you.

In this episode Jenny shares the raw truth of what happened, what she should have done differently, and the one conversation that would have protected her work before the first vendor was ever booked.

This is an expensive lesson. She is sharing it so you do not have to learn it the same way.

In this episode:

• What the vacuum effect is and why it will come for your work too
• Why even a flawless experience can be rewritten by one vendor failure
• The three questions to answer with your client before a single vendor is booked
• Why defining success in advance is your only real protection

Get the workbook: amazon.com Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

In this conversation Matthew and I go deep on emotional design, why the gap between the event floor and the sales team is the most expensive gap in this industry, how he uses intentional gifting to create memories that last years, and what it actually takes to earn a seat at the table with C suite executives.

If you have ever wondered whether creativity or strategy matters more in experiential, this episode will change how you think about that question entirely.

The Proof Problem Masterclass is free and linked in the show notes. Watch it before you plan your next activation.

Twenty five years in this industry. An MBA in marketing. And I had nothing to show for it except a beautiful experience nobody could measure.

In this episode I talk about what that moment cracked open in me, what I did about it, and why the professionals who will lead this industry over the next five years are not the most creative ones or the most logistically gifted ones. They are the ones who can prove their work actually changed something.

The events industry is not being replaced by AI. The execution is. And the strategy has to come from somewhere. This episode is about where it comes from.

Topics covered: why attendance and engagement are not metrics, what the Bizzabo 2026 data actually tells us about the measurement gap, how emotion drives behavior and behavior drives outcomes, and the framework that changed everything about how I work.

But more is not the answer. Clarity is.

In this episode, Jenny breaks down the one question every event professional needs to answer before they book a single vendor — and how that question changes everything downstream.

In this episode:

• Why most planners can't prove event ROI and what's actually causing it
• The difference between planning an event and designing one
• How to turn a vague event purpose into real, measurable KPIs
• Why the most impactful events are almost never the most complicated
• The first pillar of Strategic Experience Design in practice

Your takeaway: Before your next event, answer this — "What does this event need to accomplish?" Write it down. Make it specific. Then let it drive every decision that follows.

Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

Then she explains the gap none of them fill — and why that gap is exactly what CPES was built for.

If you're a mid-career event professional who already knows how to run events but can't get a seat at the strategic table, this episode will help you understand what's missing and what to do about it.

In this episode:

• What the CMP actually covers and who it's designed for
• The difference between CSEP, CMM, DES, and lane-specific credentials
• The strategy gap Jenny identified after 20 years in the industry
• What CPES teaches and how it sits differently in the landscape
• How Atlas supports the CPES methodology in practice

Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

In this episode, I am talking about the gap that has been holding talented, experienced, brilliant event professionals back. Not because they are not good enough. Not because they do not work hard enough. But because the industry built an entire profession without building the pathway to advance within it.

That ends now.

We are talking about why the Planner Plateau is real and why it is not your fault. Why clients are no longer buying events, they are investing in outcomes. Why the existing certifications in this industry were never designed to take you to the strategic level. And what it actually looks like when you have the framework, the language, and the credential to show up as a strategic partner instead of a vendor.

The Experiential Edge Blueprint, built around five pillars: Purpose, Emotion, Behavior, Activation and Anchoring, and Outcome, is the methodology that connects what you design to what your client needs to prove. This episode is about why that framework exists, why the industry needs it, and why you are the one who gets to carry it forward.

The path is built. Come be part of the standard we are setting together.

Enroll in the CPES Certification: https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

Join me at The Strategists Hour — free monthly live session: https://jennyhm.com/thestrategistshour

Now I want you to think about how it felt when someone else took that moment away from you.

In this episode, I am sharing a story I have never forgotten. A three hour event across three floors of a stunning Denver hotel. A fourteen foot branded Christmas tree. Employees pulling me aside to tell me it was the best company party of their lives. And a Monday morning debrief that opened with a tip jar and burnt sweet potatoes.

That call changed everything I believed about event planning. Because I realized I had handed my client a blank scorecard and let him fill it in himself.

If you have ever walked out of a debrief feeling deflated after doing extraordinary work, this episode is for you. We are talking about the single most important conversation you are probably skipping, why vacuums always get filled by whoever shows up with an opinion, and what changes when you stop hoping your client noticed and start making sure they know.

This is not about difficult clients. This is not about unreasonable expectations. This is about a vacuum. And this episode is about making sure you are the one who fills it first.

In this episode:

The story of the Oxford Hotel holiday party and the debrief that changed how I plan every event. Why your client will always default to what went wrong when there is no framework in place. What the burnt sweet potatoes were really telling me. How defining success before a single vendor is booked changes everything about the debrief, your authority, and how your clients see you. Why this is not just a professional strategy. It is an act of self respect.

Join me at The Strategist's Hour

Once a month I go live for one free hour to teach exactly this framework. How to run the purpose conversation before anything else is decided. How to set KPIs your client will actually use. How to walk into every debrief already knowing you won.

Register here: https://jennyhm.com/thestrategistshour

Get certified:

The Certified Professional Experiential Strategist certification teaches you the full Strategic Experience Design methodology so you can lead every event with purpose, strategy, and proof of impact.

Learn more at edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

In this episode of The Experiential Strategist, Jenny Howard-Maxwell introduces the neuroscience behind why experiences move people and why that changes everything about how you design them. Drawing on the research of Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, Jenny breaks down how emotion actually works in the brain and why that makes intentional experience design one of the most powerful strategic tools available to you.

This is not about making events feel good. It is about making people feel a specific thing, at a specific moment, because you understand exactly what that feeling will do to their decision making.

In this episode: Why emotion is not a reaction but a prediction your brain constructs in advance How the environment you build feeds that prediction engine Why emotion and behavior are one process, not two How to design backward from the feeling you need your audience to have Why every event you have ever run was already influencing behavior without you knowing it.

In this episode of The Experiential Strategist, Jenny Howard-Maxwell breaks down why your post-event dashboards are full of accurate data that still cannot tell you whether your event worked. From check-in numbers to NPS scores, the platforms we rely on were built to manage logistics at scale. They were never built to prove a business outcome.

Jenny shares what twenty years in the industry and one very expensive lesson at EMS taught her about the gap between event activity and real results, and why 79% of event professionals are making budget decisions based on attendance numbers and intuition.

The shift is not from bad tech to better tech. It is from no purpose to clear purpose.

This episode will change the question you ask before planning begins.

In this episode: What event technology was actually built to do Why accurate data can still be the wrong data The one question to answer before you touch a vendor, book a venue, or open a brief What separates a planner from a strategist and why it matters for your career

Ready to design for outcomes? CPES enrollment is open now. 

https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

That is not a result. That is a recap.

In this episode I am breaking down exactly what your post-event report should be measuring, why most planners are leaving their seat at the table undefended, and the five KPI categories that translate experiential work into language leadership actually understands.

When you can prove event results in terms the boardroom already uses, you never have to defend your budget again.

This is the conversation the events industry has been avoiding. It ends here.

If you are ready to stop recapping and start proving results, the CPES certification is where you start.

Enroll at https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

It took years of research, an over-produced event or two, and a Lady Gaga impersonator to teach me otherwise.

In this episode I am breaking down the Peak End Rule, why the brain is designed to forget most of what happens at your event, and what to do instead. We also get into How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett and what her research means for every experience you design from this point forward.

Plus I am holding myself fully accountable for the moment I knew exactly what was wrong and said nothing anyway.

If you are still designing events forward from logistics instead of backward from outcomes, this one is for you.

If you are ready to stop planning events and start designing experiences that prove results, the CPES certification is where you start.

Enroll at https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

So Jenny went deeper.

In this episode she breaks down why the salary ceiling between $65,000 and $75,000 exists for so many event professionals, where it comes from, and most importantly what to do about it. She shares what she found when she typed a simple question into Google, what the marketing career ladder looks like versus what the events industry has offered, and the specific moment in her own career when everything changed.

This is not a motivational episode. It is a framework episode. The path exists. It just was never drawn until now.

In this episode Jenny covers why talent and hard work alone do not break the planner plateau, what separates the event professionals earning $150,000 and beyond from those stuck at $65,000, the career ladder the events industry has always deserved but never had, and how the CPES certification was built to close that gap permanently.

Ready to stop guessing and start climbing? The CPES certification was built for this exact moment. Enroll at edgucationinstitute.com

Jenny Howard Maxwell opens with a confession and then makes a case that most companies are actively undermining their most powerful marketing channel by treating events like administrative tasks. In-person events are the most trusted marketing channel in existence, more trusted than social media, more trusted than advertising, and yet companies hand them to whoever has bandwidth and wonder why they cannot prove ROI.

In this episode Jenny covers why the collaborative model between internal staff and external professionals works, what actually changes when events are designed strategically from the first conversation, how one budget conversation took a $15,000 event to over $100,000, and why the disconnect between marketing KPIs and event execution is costing companies in ways they cannot even measure.

This is the conversation the events industry has been avoiding. Jenny is done avoiding it.

https://jennyhm.com/getedgucated

If you have ever turned in a post-event report with the word engagement in it and could not define exactly what that meant in measurable terms, this episode is for you.

In this episode I am breaking down why engagement became our industry's go-to metric, why it is costing event professionals their credibility with leadership, and what we should be measuring instead.

What you will learn in this episode: Why engagement is the path of least resistance and why that is a problem What Google Analytics already knows that our industry has been ignoring The difference between engagement and behavior and why it changes everything Real examples of what behavioral outcomes actually look like across different event types The one question to ask before you plan your next event that changes your entire approach

Go back to your last post-event report. Find every place you used the word engagement. This episode will show you exactly what to do with it.

Ready to go deeper? The CPES Certification teaches you how to design events that produce measurable behavioral outcomes from the ground up.

Learn more at jennyhm.com.

That is exactly what most event professionals are doing right now. And it is costing us our credibility, our budgets, and our seat at the strategic table.

In this episode I am sharing the story that changed everything about how I approach my work. A $50,000 holiday party that had a live band, a fourteen foot Christmas tree with custom logo ornaments, signature cocktails, and arcade games. It was gorgeous. And it was almost completely derailed by sweet potatoes and a tip jar.

Here is what that experience taught me about power, proof, and what it actually means to define success.

What you will learn in this episode: Why most event professionals are handing clients the power to define success after the fact What the Discovery Meeting is and why it has to happen before anything else How Strategic Experience Design changes your entire client relationship The three dimensions every post-event report should measure: KPI outcomes, behavioral outcomes, and emotional outcomes How to produce an outcome report that makes you undeniable

This is how you stop defending your events and start leading with results.

Ready to learn the full methodology? The CPES Certification teaches you Strategic Experience Design from the ground up.

Learn more at jennyhm.com.

In this episode I am breaking down exactly why it happens, what the data actually says about event planner compensation, and the specific thing that separates the planners who break through from the ones who stay stuck.

Ready to break through the plateau? The CPES Certification teaches you the full Strategic Experience Design methodology so you can stop competing on logistics and start leading with strategy.

Learn more at jennyhm.com