August 29, 2025 • 34 mins
What happens when you set out to “just see who comes through the door” and end up building one of Asia’s most influential event companies?
In this episode of EventNewsDXB, I talk with Jasper Donat, co-founder and CEO of Branded, about his 30-year journey from Star TV in Hong Kong to creating the All That Matters conference and festival in Singapore. Jasper reflects on the wild early days of Asian events, the evolution of his company’s flagship platforms across music, sport, gaming, and marketing, and why live, face-to-face connections still matter more than ever in an AI-driven world.
We dive into the lessons of COVID, how Branded found creative ways to keep audiences engaged when everything went virtual (yes, even Cookie Monster got a keynote slot), and why Singapore and the Middle East are fast becoming global hubs for live experiences.
EventNewsDXb is proudly supported by Warehouse Four and -45dB
Production Credits:
Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Carless (00:19):
Thank you.
I hope this podcast gives yousome practical takeaways, fresh
perspectives and a deeperunderstanding of how things
really get done in one of theworld's most fast-moving event
markets.
And for Season 2, I'm superpleased to let you know that
Event News DXB is brought to youby Warehouse 4, probably
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(00:41):
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Check them out at minus45dbcom.
(01:06):
Before we dive into today'sepisode, I want to introduce a
guest who spent the last 30years shaping how live
experiences connect audiencesacross Asia and now increasingly
, across the Middle East.
Jasper Donat, co-founder andCEO of Branded, is the man
behind some of the region's mostinfluential event platforms,
from Music Matters to GamingMatters to the All that Matters
(01:28):
Festival in Singapore.
One of the things that reallystood out for me in our
conversation today was Jasper'sperspective on the power of
being there.
For him, the real value ofevents lies not just in what
happens on stage, but in theconversations and connections
that happen in between, theintroductions, the
collaborations and theserendipity that you can't
(01:48):
manufacture online.
We also explored how thismindset is playing out in the
Middle East, where markets likeDubai and Saudi Arabia are fast
becoming central to the globalevent landscape.
From the growth of esports andgaming in Dubai to Saudi's rapid
embrace of music and liveentertainment, investment in the
event industry in this regionis happening at a pace few could
(02:08):
have imagined a decade ago, andit's also why this part of the
world offers such excitingopportunities for event
professionals and brands alike.
It's a candid and inspiringconversation with someone who's
built a career on making boldmoves, taking risks and
reminding us why liveexperiences still matter.
So let's get into it.
Jasper Donat (02:37):
You're listening to the Event News DXB podcast.
Jasper, welcome to the podcastIan, it's great to be here.
Thank you very much forinviting me.
Ian Carless (02:45):
Oh, you're welcome.
Yeah, listen, I want to justjump straight in and start right
at the beginning.
Two easy questions to kick offwith your starter questions for
10 points how did you end up inAsia and how did you end up in
events?
Jasper Donat (02:58):
That's a reverse order then.
So I got into events in the UK.
I was working for Eurosport,the sports television channel,
and we made all of our moneyaround events and stuff and just
got into having a lot of fundoing that.
I was very young, I mean, I'dleft school when I was 16.
(03:19):
And so, anyway, that's anotherpodcast All on its own.
Yeah, but my boss at the timewas an amazing guy called Robert
Bland and he got brought over.
Rupert Murdoch bought Star TVand he got brought over to Hong
Kong to run sales for Star TV.
I get a call saying, hey, cometo Hong Kong and help run our
(03:42):
events division for Star Sportsand I was like, no, no, I'm
earning, you know yeah, lots ofmoney thousand pounds a year.
I've made it.
And he said get on a fuckingplane.
So I jumped on a plane, got offan amazing job working for a
guy called patrick murphy, whoyou know as well, absolutely.
And this was 1995, july 1995,where I promised my mother that
(04:07):
I would be gone for two yearsand here at 30 years later.
So so I moved to to star tv inhong kong, originally working
for star sports and then workingfor their event division, which
was called sports corporation,having a lot of fun doing tennis
in china and Singapore and golfand events, just events all
(04:28):
over Asia Pacific, the X Gamesin Phuket and what have you.
And then they had launched thismusic channel called Channel V,
which is essentially the AsianMTV and remember it well across
to run all their sales andmarketing.
And that was entirely event,that all of the money came from
events.
And we just had a lot of funorganizing some amazing, amazing
(04:50):
events which we can talk about.
And I just remember at the endof every month getting paid for
having the best time of my life.
It was like, ok, I can do this.
So yeah, so that was 30 yearsago.
Ian Carless (05:00):
That's fantastic.
And this month is your 30thanniversary, that's right, isn't
it?
Yeah, as you mentioned ourpaths ago.
That's fantastic, and it isthis month is your 30th
anniversary, that's right, isn'tit?
Yeah, as you mentioned, ourpaths crossed at star tv in hong
kong.
Those were wild days, weren'tthey?
It really was the wild west,but but I love your analogy
there just thinking getting tothe end of every month going.
I can't believe I'm gettingpaid for just having what a
wonderful time.
Look, we worked really hard.
Jasper Donat (05:19):
True, we played extremely hard, very true, but
it we had a rule you had to bein the, you had to be at work at
nine 30 the next morning, andwe were usually.
But but it was working hard andplaying hard with with some of
the most incredible people onthe planet.
We're all in the same boat,we're all expats, we're all
living away from home, all givenway too much responsibility,
(05:42):
but everyone all given way toomuch responsibility, but
everyone pulled their socks upand delivered right and so, yeah
, I mean it was crazy times, butjust so much fun, yeah it was,
wasn't it?
Ian Carless (05:53):
Let's fast forward, then.
So obviously, 25 years ago, youset up Branded, which you're
the CEO of.
How did that come about, andwhat was your goal when you set
up Branded?
Jasper Donat (06:03):
That's a really good question and my answer is
terrible because there isn'treally an answer that I had
found myself, as a lot of peoplehad.
You know, the road came to anend at Star TV.
They were localizing and my jobcame to an end and I found
myself footloose and fancy free,not a clue what I wanted to do
and I had a Nokia.
At that time there was no suchthing.
(06:23):
As you know, the internet was athing, but do, and I had a
Nokia.
At that time, there was no suchthing.
As you know, the internet was athing, but not really.
And I had taken a couple ofmonths to just go traveling and
play golf and play my guitar,and the phone kept ringing, with
people that I'd not met.
Or some friends saying oh, canyou help me connect with
so-and-so, can you, I want to dosomething in China?
Or, and just these amazingconversations that started
(06:45):
happening where I just starteddoing stuff that I wasn't
planning on doing.
I mean, for example, I get aphone call from a guy who I
didn't know at the time.
So I can be completely honestabout this.
A guy called Simon Fullerphones me and says I'm looking
at doing Pop Idol, pop idol in,and I remember googling him
(07:08):
going.
Oh okay he.
So he found he managed thespice girls and he's pop idol
and american idol.
And then 19 management he saidwe're looking at doing in china.
Um, I've been told you're theperson to to introduce me to
people.
So I just kind of walked aroundwith him, him and his business
partner opening doors in china,having a great time, just kind
of just.
But you know, I was, I had noidea how to run a business.
I was just making up as I wentalong and doing all these little
projects as a consultant really, and I.
(07:31):
Then there was another chap inHong Kong called Michael Denmark
who had found himself in asimilar situation where he his
role, he was a print sales guy,and we got together one
breakfast and said, hey, weshould be doing this together
what I don't know.
Let's just do somethingtogether.
And and we literally launched acompany that day.
I think we paid for it onmiamex because in hong kong at
(07:54):
the time, say, I have a companycost tuppence, hapenny it was
donut and denmark.
So we we originally called itdouble d media, thankfully for
about five minutes, because we'dbe cancelled now, and then we
ended up calling it branded andyeah, and and the idea was kind
of just to help people coming toasia, pacifics, who wanted to
(08:14):
meet people and open doors andstuff.
We never really had a plan andthat's.
That's the the long answer toyour question.
What was the plan is like, well,there, wasn't one, it was kind
of just wait and see who comesto the door and we, and through
that we just met some incrediblepeople who wanted to meet our
friends out here and and thenkind of every now and then we
we'd help people sellsponsorship for their events or
(08:36):
we you know all that stuff.
And then someone was like well,why don't you do your own
events?
I'm like yeah, okay we can.
Ian Carless (08:43):
We we can do that, because that's easy yeah so yeah
so we, so we.
Jasper Donat (08:49):
I can you know, I don't mind saying that we never
had a plan well, you've quicklydeveloped one, haven't you?
Ian Carless (08:53):
so I mean, obviously you're based in
Singapore.
You do a lot of work aroundAsia.
You've recently ventured intothe Middle East with gaming
matters, and we'll come on totalk about that in a little
while.
Jasper Donat (09:02):
But just very briefly, for those people that
perhaps aren't familiar withbranded, tell us what your sort
of key business aspects are atthe moment obviously we're
grounded around the doing ourevents, and most of the events
we do are our own ip right,mostly b2b, and when we can get
into b2b2C, we're best knownaround the Matters brand.
(09:25):
So music matters, sportsmatters, gaming, marketing, what
have you and we do those mostlyall over Asia Pacific, but we
have been extending into othermarkets as well.
And then they all roll up intoone big conference and festival
that happens in Singapore inSeptember around the Singapore
Grand Prix called All thatMatters.
(09:46):
And that's where you have themusic industry, the sports
industry, the game, all thesewonderful entertainment
businesses coming togetherduring the day, and then we have
a music festival at night.
And we're celebrating our 20thyear this year, wow, so we're
going to be having a lot of fun.
The theme for this year is Backto the Future, so we're going
to get nostalgic, but we're alsogoing to look very much into
the future and where this is allgoing to end up, if anyone
(10:07):
knows.
And yeah, so we do that.
And then we do some B2C eventsas well.
We have a wonderful, wonderfulplatform called it's a Girl
Thing, which is kind of like TEDfor Teens meets, a music
festival where we're targetingthe very young end of Gen Z
girls maybe, who are justleaving school or college or
(10:28):
just getting their first job ormoving out of house for the
first time, to influence andinspire and help them on their
journey.
So we get a lot of the world'stop female influencers and stars
on stage to talk about theirlives, to talk about where
they've got it right, where theygot it wrong, what would they
do differently, what advicewould they give, and it's very,
(10:49):
very inspirational, wonderfulcontent and fun.
We have music and all that kindof stuff.
And what's wonderful now aboutit's a Girl thing it's almost 10
years old itself is that thelast time we did it in India,
about 30% of the audience wereguys.
Wow, and I remember thinking Iwish, when I was 18 or 19 year
old in London, that I could goto an event like this, because
(11:11):
you learn so much about whatyour best mate, your best female
mates, are going through intheir lives when they're growing
up and getting older and stuff,and so, yes, we do that.
And when we can bring all theevents together in this B2B2 to
c environment, that's when wehave the most fun.
So all the matters when we havethe music festival at night.
Ian Carless (11:30):
It's, it's a lot of fun well, let's talk a little
bit more about that, about thematters platforms, the music,
the sports, the gaming.
What do you think?
I mean?
It's a.
It could be a long answer, this, but if you had to sort of
narrow it down into three orfour, say, bullet points, what
do you think it is that's madethem so successful?
Jasper Donat (11:47):
oh, good question.
I think I think, at the end ofthe day, the live events
business that we operate is allabout connections.
Yeah, it's all about beingthere.
It's all about meeting people.
Meeting people you know already.
Meeting people you've never metbefore.
It's like a music festival.
Yes, you buy a meeting peopleyou've never met before.
It's like a music festival.
Yes, you buy a ticket becauseyou want to see the, the bands
(12:09):
and stuff, but it's it's aboutwhat happens backstage, or or in
the bar, or with your friendsand that kind of stuff.
It's not just about the, theperformance, and you know this
is something that really camethrough post code.
You know, during during covidwe we did a lot of live virtual
events because you had to, butpost-COVID we don't live stream
(12:33):
anything because no one wants towatch a conference live
streamed.
On average, I'll get about fiverequests a year since COVID.
Are you live streaming your,your event?
Yeah, because it's about a noone's got eight hours to sit
there and watch their laptopscreen anymore and B it is.
(12:55):
It's.
It's about being in the lobby,it's about the, those, those
corridor meetings, those youknow, and it's about the
connections.
It's about people meetingpeople you know, and it's about
the connections, it's aboutpeople meeting people they
wouldn't normally meet.
I, I call it a big school disco.
You know, you get the musicindustry knows the music
industry, the sports industryknows, they all know each other
but they don't know.
And so when they turn up thefirst time, it's all like who's
(13:16):
that?
Ian Carless (13:17):
oh, it's like they all get a little bit bashful,
but then then they all gettogether and wow yes, now, I
know we were just chatting alittle bit before we started the
podcast, just sticking on thesubject of, obviously, that
horrible period that we all wentthrough with COVID and where
everything became online events.
You did manage to inject somefun into that, though, didn't
you?
I think you had some ratherinteresting keynote speakers and
(13:39):
guest interviewees.
Jasper Donat (13:41):
Yeah, I mean, it was when we first went into
lockdown and people were talkingabout these virtual events.
I was quoted as saying hellwill freeze over before we do a
virtual event.
And just before and all thatmatters was the first live
streamed event for us.
It was a five-day festival andI remember my marketing director
that morning turned around tome, said would you like me to
(14:01):
buy you a hat and gloves becauseit's going to get cold?
But we thought at the time it's, this is so, you know, to be
stuck at home to be all thiskind of stuff.
So we had all our wonderfuladvisors telling us what we
should and shouldn't be doingand what would they pay to to
tune into on a, on a laptopscreen and stuff.
Yeah, I remember a couple ofthem saying look, we're stuck at
home with our kids.
(14:21):
Is there anything you can dofor them?
Just as a throwaway comment.
So for that All that Matters,that year our opening keynote
was the Cookie Monster.
We did a deal with SesameStreet and I interviewed Cookie
Monster live as our firstkeynote and it was about kind of
so, cookie, how are youconnecting with your fans during
(14:44):
lockdown?
Yeah, and so it was a genuineB2B conversation, really
interesting stuff.
And then we had Elmo, and Elmointerviewed, I think, three or
four of our keynotes Brilliant.
One of them was Mike Shinoda,the lead singer of Linkin Park,
and just watching them all kindof just chatting it was.
(15:05):
It was amazing and and so muchfun and powerful stuff.
So so we we kind of went to, wereally thought outside the box,
what can we do to to really havefun?
But and I know we said thisbefore but that bit was fun and
it was when, as soon as theevent was over and you close
your laptop lid and your twocats are staring, you're going
(15:26):
can I, can we have food now,please, daddy?
It just completely wrecked thebuzz of that usual once you
finish the event, whether it'sbeen great or bad, you know
things go right, things go wrong.
You then go out for a, for adrink with your team and you're
kind of it's all about beingthere and not with the cats.
They didn't understand it.
Ian Carless (15:46):
Yeah it's interesting, that isn't it?
I mean that sort of dovetailsinto something else.
I was going to bring up thereaction from people after covid
and, as you say, that in somecases, that nervousness of being
in larger events, I think thesmaller events seem to come back
a little bit quicker, didn'tthey, than the certain.
I mean, obviously there's thelogistical and financial
concerns in that as well, but Ithink, just purely from an
audience perspective, in termsof what they felt comfortable
(16:08):
with, it took a while for thosebig, big events to come back.
The other thing I was going tosay I'm sure you'll have seen
the news recently and there wasa great quote from mark cuban,
wasn't there?
I mean, he was talking reallyabout, uh, ai, and I'll read the
quotes.
I just be curious to know yourreaction to this and where you
stand on it.
And he said, quote unquotewithin the next three years,
there will be so much AI, inparticular AI video, people
(16:32):
won't know if what they see orhear is real, which will result
in an explosion of face-to-faceengagement events and jobs.
Unquote.
How would you react to that?
Yes, emphatically.
Yeah, nice to talk to you.
Jasper Donat (16:51):
I think you know I do come from a very biased
perspective on that and I thinkI hope that he's right.
It's true, there is nothingthat beats being there.
And, yes, you want to be there.
Like I said earlier, you wantto be there when the big artists
are on stage, but you also wantto be in the bar with your
mates having fun and kind ofhaving experiences that you'll
talk about for the next 50 yearsof your life.
(17:13):
And you know, the metaversepromised that.
It hasn't delivered, it hasn'tgone anywhere close to it.
Now technology needs to justcatch up, and whether you can
then have a real experience inthe metaverse space or something
, let's see, let's see.
I won't say no, but it's aboutbeing there.
But then again you say tosomeone okay, to get to to a
(17:35):
music festival, you're going toget on a bus for eight hours,
you're going to camp in a in afreezing cold, muddy field and
yeah, all this kind of stuff.
And and you know they're goingto be gaming on the sofa, going,
oh, yeah, so we'll see.
But I, I, but I hope Mark Cubanis right that it is about the
being there and it's not aboutthe Zoom calls and the metaverse
(17:55):
.
Ian Carless (17:56):
Yeah, I agree.
Just moving forward.
Look, obviously events aren'tpossible without somebody to pay
for them.
With that in mind, how do youdesign your events and your
experiences in a way thatdelivers ROI for brands and your
partners?
Jasper Donat (18:12):
I think the way that we that's a very good
question the way that we workwith our partners is everyone is
different.
You know, I don't think anyonehas ever looked at one of our
sponsorship proposals and said,oh, can I have package B please?
It's literally here's what Iwould like to achieve.
Yeah, here are my objectives,here's my budget, here's, you
(18:35):
know, all that kind of stuff.
And then we set out to deliverit and really kind of go,
whether it's, you know, tinybudget or a massive budget, we
really want to deliver.
We measure success on thesponsors coming back.
Right, if they come back, itmeans that they've hit their
objectives and stuff.
There are certain things we cando for them and we will always
(18:57):
go beyond, you know, to deliver.
There's a lot of things we'renot allowed to do that you know
we're not allowed to.
If we could share databases,our lives would be so easy.
But you know there's obviouslywe absolutely stick to the rules
and we never share data and allthat stuff.
But you know it's connectingpeople and making sure that they
(19:19):
do meet people that they wantto meet and that the brand is
there and stuff.
And you know, I would love itto be back in the 80s where it's
all about having your brand onthe backdrop and everyone goes
oh look, coca-cola, I must havea Coca-Cola.
But it's not that now.
It is about you know, drillingdown much further into you know,
helping them drive in commerceand helping them build in their
(19:41):
communities, and, and, and, and,and, and, and.
So, yeah, we tend to have a lotof partners on our events for
that reason.
Yeah, it's not easy at all, butit's good to work with these
people.
Yeah.
Ian Carless (19:54):
Now, experiential is probably one of the big
buzzwords and probably has beenfor a couple of years now.
How do you find brands engagingwith the whole experiential
area?
Jasper Donat (20:05):
We're not so involved in that potential area.
We're not so involved in that.
I mean, I think, looking atwhat some of the experiences
that are happening in you knowthose massive 360 degree domes
and all that kind of stuffthat's, that's amazing.
I think brands becoming theirown media is something that's
very interesting, where you knowthat they're saying you know,
(20:26):
do I need to be advertising onthese platforms?
I can work with influencers andsell my own stuff that way, or,
you know, going straight toTikTok shop and stuff like that.
But that's, that's less eventdriven.
We would have them talkingabout that at our events.
I think creating experienceswith brands and for brands that
are memorable, that's that'salways going to be a big
business, because they need tobe live and in people's faces
(20:50):
and not just online and stuff.
It's not so much that we getinvolved in, though, but we do
have people talking about it atour events.
I mean, we do an event calledLive Matters, which is about the
live event industry, and we didit in a circus tent.
We have a lot of fun, by theway.
We did Live Matters in a circustent.
We have a lot of fun, by theway, we did Live Matters in a
circus tent on the harbour inHong Kong, brilliant, earlier
(21:12):
this year with Michael Denmark.
So the guy that I set brandedup.
He has a company called GEG inHong Kong now he owns the big
wheel there and he had thecircus in town Brilliant.
So, we did it in a circus tent.
So, with all of the trapeze andeverything hanging over
everyone's heads, the chairs onstage, one was a pink dinosaur,
one was a spaceman, one was acat, it was circus stuff and it
(21:34):
was just let's have fun, let'sdo something differently, and
you know.
So, yeah, we do have fun withstuff like that.
We did cricket matters in NewYork Brilliant.
That was only because the T20was going on and in india were
playing pakistan that week.
But you know it was.
It was amazing it wouldn'thappen this week.
Ian Carless (21:50):
Yeah, you know, we, we we do try and think outside
the box a little bit yeah, now,obviously, a lot of your events
are based in asia, but you'verecently ventured into the
middle east with gaming matters.
Can you tell us a bit aboutthat?
Jasper Donat (22:04):
yeah, I mean, we've actually done.
We've done a few events in themina region over time.
The first one we did was theYouTube Fan Fest, actually in
Jeddah back in 2017, where wewere, at the time, the second
ever international event thatwas allowed, where there was no
segregation between the in theaudience, partnered with uh,
(22:31):
with live nation and google, andit was a time when saudi was
going through the first kind ofchange.
You know, there was a wonderfulcoca-cola ad at the time where
the father handed his car key tohis daughter right and it won
loads of awards and stuff, andso it was.
It was just a time when, whensaudi was going through amazing
change and we and we did thisincredible event in jeddah.
And then, yeah, we we've donegaming matters in dubai for the
(22:53):
last two years, celebratingeverything to do with the gaming
industry, working with thedubai uh economy and tourism
government department aroundtheir esports festival, and
that's a b2b event that takesplace for a whole day, and we
have an academy as well,teaching young gamers about the
gaming business.
And then in november last year,at the emirates sevens the
(23:14):
dubai sevens we did rugbymatters and and that was where,
again, it was a half day event.
We did it at the coca-colaarena in dubai, where we
celebrated all things rugby, andI was very proud that the event
I mean rugby was my sports.
I'm as biased as hell, but Iwas.
I was very proud that half thespeakers were were women and
(23:35):
half the audience was women.
And also then discovering theEmirates Sevens and for the
first time and what amulti-sport event it was it blew
my mind away just seeing.
It wasn't just about the rugby,it was the football and the
netball and the cricket and thepaddle and the what have you,
and the fact that everyone thereis doing something, is is
(23:56):
playing, so everyone's in ashirt, of a sports shirt of some
sort, whether you're 8 or 80.
Yeah, absolutely loved it.
So hopefully we'll be bringingthat back again later this year
as well.
So so, watch this space.
Yeah, we're very excited aboutwhat's happening in that part of
the world.
You know Saudi is doing a lotwith music.
The Middle Beast Festival isthe biggest music festival in
(24:17):
the world.
The Riyadh Music Week I've beento it for a couple of years.
The Esports World Cup ishappening there now.
Yeah, it's a very, veryexciting, exciting time for that
part of the world.
So, yeah, it's a very, veryexciting, exciting time for that
part of the world.
So, yeah, hopefully we'll beback quite a lot.
Ian Carless (24:31):
Now you obviously think that gaming's not going
anywhere.
I think you'd have to have beenliving under a rock to think
it's not or to think it is sorry.
So what made you venture intothe gaming element, and where do
you hope to go with that?
Jasper Donat (24:45):
That's a very good question.
So we were approachedoriginally by the Singapore
government to ask if we could doan event for them.
They were opening a, a gamingstudio here and they said could
we do an event for the gamingindustry, the featured gamers
and publishers and what have you?
And, and they could bring somefans in as well.
(25:06):
So so we, we got blown, blownaway by the whole thing and then
turned it into its own eventand then merged it into the All
that Matters event as well.
And look, you know, gaming is ahuge, huge industry.
I mean, if you look at thenumbers, you know there's some
amazing facts where it's biggerthan music and movie industry
(25:26):
combined, but just by the numberof eyeballs and stuff.
Yeah, you know, it's.
It's.
Also there's no requirement onlanguage.
It'll just, you know, itdoesn't have to be in English or
in Chinese or in, in whateverit's, it's global, it's truly
global.
It's a flat, flat, digitallyflat world.
So so, doing gaming Madison,because they are promoting Mina
(25:46):
as a global gaming hub, yeah,and so it's great to have so
many people there, and I thinksomewhere like 70% of our
audience were from overseas,because they wanted to come and
learn about the region, yeah,and so yeah, hopefully more to
come.
Ian Carless (26:00):
How important is localization then in these kind
of events and in particular forthe Mina region?
Jasper Donat (26:05):
I think it's becoming more and more important
.
You know, know, the pendulumswings from regional to local,
global to regional to local andstuff, and at the moment, I
think that you've got some megamarkets opening up.
We do a lot of stuff in india.
At the moment, our biggestshareholder is an indian gaming
company and so you know, I'vebeen doing events in india for
(26:26):
30 years.
I love it as a as a an eventmarket, india is absolutely
fantastic, and you look atwhat's happening at the moment
the music site live music inIndia right now it's the gold at
the end of the rainbow,coldplay doing their biggest
show ever.
Yeah, pretty cool, yeah.
So, yeah, understanding thoselocal markets is very important.
(26:46):
A lot of it is being there.
But at the same time, if you'regoing to learn about India, you
need to learn about China andwhat's happening in Australia
and what's happening in Japanand two thirds of the world's
population, and then you add inMENA.
It's pretty exciting.
Ian Carless (27:00):
Now we live in a part of the world that is fairly
risk averse.
How do you find this region interms of clients being less or
more risk tolerant than, say,for example, Asia, where you are
?
Jasper Donat (27:29):
rules we have to, you know, in in many different
ways and so, being very, veryrespectful to what we can and
can't do, can't, can and can'tsay on stage, there are
restrictions in singapore, thatyou know.
If you're a music artist, youknow you have to submit your
lyrics and if the government sayno, then you have to change
your lyrics.
Yeah, um, sometimes an artistwill say no and say fine, we, we
respect you, but that's therules you know.
(27:50):
And and yeah, indonesia is thesame.
Malaysia, china, you know,china, they actually will have
someone.
I don't know if it's still thecase used to be that there would
literally be someone on stagewith you making sure that you
sang the lyrics.
So, for any rules andregulations that we face doing
events in, whether it's jubai orsaudi or whatever, we're
absolutely, absolutelyrespectful to it.
(28:12):
When we did the youtube fan festin jeddah in 2017, this is when
live music was not allowed inany format.
Like you couldn't play music,and so we didn't necessarily
agree with it, but we weren'tgoing to argue with it.
And also, we were told about amonth out, because our audience
was a mixed audience.
This was very new to them.
They said, oh, you can't haveany women on stage, which you
(28:36):
know that that is something thatyou know.
I stand very much against thatidea.
However, again, we had torespect the rules, so we
actually created it.
In the afternoon, we did aYouTube fan fest for women only,
right, so we could have thefemale creators and influencers
on stage and their fans and theaudience and that kind of stuff,
(28:57):
and we're very proud of what wedid, you know, again, not
necessarily agreeing with therules as as they were then.
It's changed.
Now there's a wonderful quotethat the ceo of the music
commission said that live musicwas banned.
The only place you could singin saudi was on a football
terrace, right, and.
But now there's women on stagein bands and men, everyone you
(29:18):
know on.
Live music is really kickingoff and it's a really exciting
market.
So I think people do need tocome to places like Dubai or Abu
Dhabi or Riyadh or Jeddah andyou don't go over the boundaries
, don't put your foot anywherenear the boundaries, just stick
to the rules and be respectful.
You know, and so far, so great.
Ian Carless (29:41):
Okay, so before we wrap it up, let's let me just
ask you a couple of quick firequestions.
Jasper Donat (29:44):
Shall we most underrated event role anyone,
anyone, anyone who is onreception for any attendees
turning up.
Yeah, the people who, thepeople who welcome and the first
people you meet, they have tohave a big smile on their face
and no problem is too big okay,one thing you'd ban at events.
Ian Carless (30:03):
Well, this is usually a good one.
Jasper Donat (30:04):
This what I ban at events, I don't know I there's
nothing really.
I mean, as long as someone'sthere and they're happy, then
I'm happy, oh fair enough, fairenough that's that for a
terrible answer yeah dreadful,but never mind, we'll roll with
it, okay?
Ian Carless (30:18):
next big thing that you're looking at closely in
terms of branded um, I do thinkwe touched on ai earlier.
Jasper Donat (30:25):
I think that really understanding where we
can win with ai going forward,where we can provide services
that we wouldn't normally beable to provide, experiences
that we wouldn't normally beable to provide for a bigger
audience and a larger group,bigger communities and
connections and stuff absolutely, like I said, translation
software is a simple thing andreally kind of exploring new
(30:49):
markets, getting more contentout there, yeah, and and
hopefully still having more fun.
You know I might be mid-50s butI still behave like an 18 year
old and I don't.
Ian Carless (31:00):
I hope that never changes oh, you and me both, I
think we were just chattingbefore the podcast, didn't we
saying both our kids keep, keepcomplaining that we're bigger
kids than they are.
Jasper Donat (31:09):
Long may that continue exactly the quote my
daughter said to me when she wasabout 10 years old daddy, when
you grow up will you be moreserious, and I will take that
absolutely as a success yeah,and we mentioned it at the top
of the podcast, it is your 30thanniversary in asia this month,
(31:29):
so here's one for you.
Ian Carless (31:31):
What advice would you ask a young jasper just
arriving in asia and justgetting started in the industry
there 30 years ago?
Jasper Donat (31:40):
the, the main things, that one of the
beautiful things about being anexpat is that we're all in the
same boat.
So your friends are your family.
Everyone really looks aftereach other.
You know where are you going tolive, what school are your kids
going to go to and how can Iopen doors for you Stuff that
would never happen, with all duerespect, would never happen in
New York or London.
(32:01):
Would never happen in new yorkor london or sydney or major
cities.
Yeah, people put their armsaround you and say, right,
welcome to you.
Know, I've lived in hong kongand singapore, welcome to hong
kong, welcome to see yourfriends, your family, and they
stay.
They're friends for life.
Yeah, and you may not see themfor 10 years, but then when
you're back with them again,it's's like, it's like it was
like 10 weeks.
(32:21):
So so I think I think you knowyour friends, your family.
I think don't give up.
You know, never, ever stopselling.
Just keep, keep going.
Don't be afraid of failure.
You know things, things gowrong, they're going to go wrong
, but just keep, keep on going.
I think I need to learn how tohear the word no a bit better.
(32:43):
I think that's something thatJasper needs to learn is you
know, if someone says no, thendon't do it.
But yeah, I think, just don'tgive up, keep going and enjoy
what you do, just do what youlove.
There you go, do what you love.
Ian Carless (32:58):
Speaking of things that you love.
We ask everybody on the podcastthis I know you're a music fan,
obviously.
Uh, so am I.
What's on your playlist at themoment?
Anything?
Jasper Donat (33:07):
before 1989 really showing your age now, mate oh,
totally, no, no, no, the, the,the music world, died at 1989.
No, I listened the.
The 80s um are are somethingthat that you know.
Ian Carless (33:21):
Yeah, and finally, what's next for yourself and
Brandon?
Jasper Donat (33:26):
We've got a number of events coming up.
There's a couple we haven'tannounced yet, so I can't talk
about them.
We're going to be in China andAustralia in the next few weeks,
but the big one coming up, ofcourse, is All that Matters in
Singapore September the 26th toOctober the 1st Music, sport,
gaming, marketing, everything todo with entertainment all
(33:47):
wrapped up under one roof, andthen the Singapore Grand Prix
takes place just after that.
So it's a great, great time tobe in Singapore, and Singapore
is an amazing global businesshub where you've got TikTok's
global headquarters, you canwalk from there to Facebook's
headquarters and they're in thesame building as Snap, and then
you get a cab to YouTube inabout 15 minutes.
So it's a pretty amazing place.
(34:09):
And then, yeah, I'll be back inDubai towards the end of the
year, as we were saying earlier,and really looking forward to
that.
Had such a great time at theEmirates 7.
So, yeah, lots and lots comingup lots we can't talk about as
well, but um, but yeah, andlooking forward to being the
same room as you brilliant.
Ian Carless (34:27):
Thanks very much for joining me on the podcast.
It's been fun.
Event news dxb is brought toyou by warehouse four probably
dubai's best independent eventvenue and and Minus 45 dB the
team transforming noisy eventspaces into slick, sound-reduced
(34:47):
environments.
The podcast was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast was produced by W4
Podcast Studio Dubai, and ifyou haven't done so already,
please do click that follow orsubscribe button.
(35:08):
We'll see you next time.
Thank you.
I hope this podcast gives yousome practical takeaways, fresh
perspectives and a deeperunderstanding of how things
really get done in one of theworld's most fast-moving event
markets.
And for Season 2, I'm superpleased to let you know that
Event News DXB is brought to youby Warehouse 4, probably
Dubai's best independent eventvenue, and Minus 45DB, the team
(00:41):
transforming noisy event spacesinto slick, sound, reduced
environments.
From full-size conferencetheaters to compact meeting pods
, minus 45db builds modularspaces that are quiet,
customizable and completelyturnkey, and they're sustainable
too smart design with zerowaste.
Check them out at minus45dbcom.
(01:06):
Before we dive into today'sepisode, I want to introduce a
guest who spent the last 30years shaping how live
experiences connect audiencesacross Asia and now increasingly
, across the Middle East.
Jasper Donat, co-founder andCEO of Branded, is the man
behind some of the region's mostinfluential event platforms,
from Music Matters to GamingMatters to the All that Matters
(01:28):
Festival in Singapore.
One of the things that reallystood out for me in our
conversation today was Jasper'sperspective on the power of
being there.
For him, the real value ofevents lies not just in what
happens on stage, but in theconversations and connections
that happen in between, theintroductions, the
collaborations and theserendipity that you can't
(01:48):
manufacture online.
We also explored how thismindset is playing out in the
Middle East, where markets likeDubai and Saudi Arabia are fast
becoming central to the globalevent landscape.
From the growth of esports andgaming in Dubai to Saudi's rapid
embrace of music and liveentertainment, investment in the
event industry in this regionis happening at a pace few could
(02:08):
have imagined a decade ago, andit's also why this part of the
world offers such excitingopportunities for event
professionals and brands alike.
It's a candid and inspiringconversation with someone who's
built a career on making boldmoves, taking risks and
reminding us why liveexperiences still matter.
So let's get into it.
Jasper Donat (02:37):
You're listening to the Event News DXB podcast.
Jasper, welcome to the podcastIan, it's great to be here.
Thank you very much forinviting me.
Ian Carless (02:45):
Oh, you're welcome.
Yeah, listen, I want to justjump straight in and start right
at the beginning.
Two easy questions to kick offwith your starter questions for
10 points how did you end up inAsia and how did you end up in
events?
Jasper Donat (02:58):
That's a reverse order then.
So I got into events in the UK.
I was working for Eurosport,the sports television channel,
and we made all of our moneyaround events and stuff and just
got into having a lot of fundoing that.
I was very young, I mean, I'dleft school when I was 16.
(03:19):
And so, anyway, that's anotherpodcast All on its own.
Yeah, but my boss at the timewas an amazing guy called Robert
Bland and he got brought over.
Rupert Murdoch bought Star TVand he got brought over to Hong
Kong to run sales for Star TV.
I get a call saying, hey, cometo Hong Kong and help run our
(03:42):
events division for Star Sportsand I was like, no, no, I'm
earning, you know yeah, lots ofmoney thousand pounds a year.
I've made it.
And he said get on a fuckingplane.
So I jumped on a plane, got offan amazing job working for a
guy called patrick murphy, whoyou know as well, absolutely.
And this was 1995, july 1995,where I promised my mother that
(04:07):
I would be gone for two yearsand here at 30 years later.
So so I moved to to star tv inhong kong, originally working
for star sports and then workingfor their event division, which
was called sports corporation,having a lot of fun doing tennis
in china and Singapore and golfand events, just events all
(04:28):
over Asia Pacific, the X Gamesin Phuket and what have you.
And then they had launched thismusic channel called Channel V,
which is essentially the AsianMTV and remember it well across
to run all their sales andmarketing.
And that was entirely event,that all of the money came from
events.
And we just had a lot of funorganizing some amazing, amazing
(04:50):
events which we can talk about.
And I just remember at the endof every month getting paid for
having the best time of my life.
It was like, ok, I can do this.
So yeah, so that was 30 yearsago.
Ian Carless (05:00):
That's fantastic.
And this month is your 30thanniversary, that's right, isn't
it?
Yeah, as you mentioned ourpaths ago.
That's fantastic, and it isthis month is your 30th
anniversary, that's right, isn'tit?
Yeah, as you mentioned, ourpaths crossed at star tv in hong
kong.
Those were wild days, weren'tthey?
It really was the wild west,but but I love your analogy
there just thinking getting tothe end of every month going.
I can't believe I'm gettingpaid for just having what a
wonderful time.
Look, we worked really hard.
Jasper Donat (05:19):
True, we played extremely hard, very true, but
it we had a rule you had to bein the, you had to be at work at
nine 30 the next morning, andwe were usually.
But but it was working hard andplaying hard with with some of
the most incredible people onthe planet.
We're all in the same boat,we're all expats, we're all
living away from home, all givenway too much responsibility,
(05:42):
but everyone all given way toomuch responsibility, but
everyone pulled their socks upand delivered right and so, yeah
, I mean it was crazy times, butjust so much fun, yeah it was,
wasn't it?
Ian Carless (05:53):
Let's fast forward, then.
So obviously, 25 years ago, youset up Branded, which you're
the CEO of.
How did that come about, andwhat was your goal when you set
up Branded?
Jasper Donat (06:03):
That's a really good question and my answer is
terrible because there isn'treally an answer that I had
found myself, as a lot of peoplehad.
You know, the road came to anend at Star TV.
They were localizing and my jobcame to an end and I found
myself footloose and fancy free,not a clue what I wanted to do
and I had a Nokia.
At that time there was no suchthing.
(06:23):
As you know, the internet was athing, but do, and I had a
Nokia.
At that time, there was no suchthing.
As you know, the internet was athing, but not really.
And I had taken a couple ofmonths to just go traveling and
play golf and play my guitar,and the phone kept ringing, with
people that I'd not met.
Or some friends saying oh, canyou help me connect with
so-and-so, can you, I want to dosomething in China?
Or, and just these amazingconversations that started
(06:45):
happening where I just starteddoing stuff that I wasn't
planning on doing.
I mean, for example, I get aphone call from a guy who I
didn't know at the time.
So I can be completely honestabout this.
A guy called Simon Fullerphones me and says I'm looking
at doing Pop Idol, pop idol in,and I remember googling him
(07:08):
going.
Oh okay he.
So he found he managed thespice girls and he's pop idol
and american idol.
And then 19 management he saidwe're looking at doing in china.
Um, I've been told you're theperson to to introduce me to
people.
So I just kind of walked aroundwith him, him and his business
partner opening doors in china,having a great time, just kind
of just.
But you know, I was, I had noidea how to run a business.
I was just making up as I wentalong and doing all these little
projects as a consultant really, and I.
(07:31):
Then there was another chap inHong Kong called Michael Denmark
who had found himself in asimilar situation where he his
role, he was a print sales guy,and we got together one
breakfast and said, hey, weshould be doing this together
what I don't know.
Let's just do somethingtogether.
And and we literally launched acompany that day.
I think we paid for it onmiamex because in hong kong at
(07:54):
the time, say, I have a companycost tuppence, hapenny it was
donut and denmark.
So we we originally called itdouble d media, thankfully for
about five minutes, because we'dbe cancelled now, and then we
ended up calling it branded andyeah, and and the idea was kind
of just to help people coming toasia, pacifics, who wanted to
(08:14):
meet people and open doors andstuff.
We never really had a plan andthat's.
That's the the long answer toyour question.
What was the plan is like, well,there, wasn't one, it was kind
of just wait and see who comesto the door and we, and through
that we just met some incrediblepeople who wanted to meet our
friends out here and and thenkind of every now and then we
we'd help people sellsponsorship for their events or
(08:36):
we you know all that stuff.
And then someone was like well,why don't you do your own
events?
I'm like yeah, okay we can.
Ian Carless (08:43):
We we can do that, because that's easy yeah so yeah
so we, so we.
Jasper Donat (08:49):
I can you know, I don't mind saying that we never
had a plan well, you've quicklydeveloped one, haven't you?
Ian Carless (08:53):
so I mean, obviously you're based in
Singapore.
You do a lot of work aroundAsia.
You've recently ventured intothe Middle East with gaming
matters, and we'll come on totalk about that in a little
while.
Jasper Donat (09:02):
But just very briefly, for those people that
perhaps aren't familiar withbranded, tell us what your sort
of key business aspects are atthe moment obviously we're
grounded around the doing ourevents, and most of the events
we do are our own ip right,mostly b2b, and when we can get
into b2b2C, we're best knownaround the Matters brand.
(09:25):
So music matters, sportsmatters, gaming, marketing, what
have you and we do those mostlyall over Asia Pacific, but we
have been extending into othermarkets as well.
And then they all roll up intoone big conference and festival
that happens in Singapore inSeptember around the Singapore
Grand Prix called All thatMatters.
(09:46):
And that's where you have themusic industry, the sports
industry, the game, all thesewonderful entertainment
businesses coming togetherduring the day, and then we have
a music festival at night.
And we're celebrating our 20thyear this year, wow, so we're
going to be having a lot of fun.
The theme for this year is Backto the Future, so we're going
to get nostalgic, but we're alsogoing to look very much into
the future and where this is allgoing to end up, if anyone
(10:07):
knows.
And yeah, so we do that.
And then we do some B2C eventsas well.
We have a wonderful, wonderfulplatform called it's a Girl
Thing, which is kind of like TEDfor Teens meets, a music
festival where we're targetingthe very young end of Gen Z
girls maybe, who are justleaving school or college or
(10:28):
just getting their first job ormoving out of house for the
first time, to influence andinspire and help them on their
journey.
So we get a lot of the world'stop female influencers and stars
on stage to talk about theirlives, to talk about where
they've got it right, where theygot it wrong, what would they
do differently, what advicewould they give, and it's very,
(10:49):
very inspirational, wonderfulcontent and fun.
We have music and all that kindof stuff.
And what's wonderful now aboutit's a Girl thing it's almost 10
years old itself is that thelast time we did it in India,
about 30% of the audience wereguys.
Wow, and I remember thinking Iwish, when I was 18 or 19 year
old in London, that I could goto an event like this, because
(11:11):
you learn so much about whatyour best mate, your best female
mates, are going through intheir lives when they're growing
up and getting older and stuff,and so, yes, we do that.
And when we can bring all theevents together in this B2B2 to
c environment, that's when wehave the most fun.
So all the matters when we havethe music festival at night.
Ian Carless (11:30):
It's, it's a lot of fun well, let's talk a little
bit more about that, about thematters platforms, the music,
the sports, the gaming.
What do you think?
I mean?
It's a.
It could be a long answer, this, but if you had to sort of
narrow it down into three orfour, say, bullet points, what
do you think it is that's madethem so successful?
Jasper Donat (11:47):
oh, good question.
I think I think, at the end ofthe day, the live events
business that we operate is allabout connections.
Yeah, it's all about beingthere.
It's all about meeting people.
Meeting people you know already.
Meeting people you've never metbefore.
It's like a music festival.
Yes, you buy a meeting peopleyou've never met before.
It's like a music festival.
Yes, you buy a ticket becauseyou want to see the, the bands
(12:09):
and stuff, but it's it's aboutwhat happens backstage, or or in
the bar, or with your friendsand that kind of stuff.
It's not just about the, theperformance, and you know this
is something that really camethrough post code.
You know, during during covidwe we did a lot of live virtual
events because you had to, butpost-COVID we don't live stream
(12:33):
anything because no one wants towatch a conference live
streamed.
On average, I'll get about fiverequests a year since COVID.
Are you live streaming your,your event?
Yeah, because it's about a noone's got eight hours to sit
there and watch their laptopscreen anymore and B it is.
(12:55):
It's.
It's about being in the lobby,it's about the, those, those
corridor meetings, those youknow, and it's about the
connections.
It's about people meetingpeople you know, and it's about
the connections, it's aboutpeople meeting people they
wouldn't normally meet.
I, I call it a big school disco.
You know, you get the musicindustry knows the music
industry, the sports industryknows, they all know each other
but they don't know.
And so when they turn up thefirst time, it's all like who's
(13:16):
that?
Ian Carless (13:17):
oh, it's like they all get a little bit bashful,
but then then they all gettogether and wow yes, now, I
know we were just chatting alittle bit before we started the
podcast, just sticking on thesubject of, obviously, that
horrible period that we all wentthrough with COVID and where
everything became online events.
You did manage to inject somefun into that, though, didn't
you?
I think you had some ratherinteresting keynote speakers and
(13:39):
guest interviewees.
Jasper Donat (13:41):
Yeah, I mean, it was when we first went into
lockdown and people were talkingabout these virtual events.
I was quoted as saying hellwill freeze over before we do a
virtual event.
And just before and all thatmatters was the first live
streamed event for us.
It was a five-day festival andI remember my marketing director
that morning turned around tome, said would you like me to
(14:01):
buy you a hat and gloves becauseit's going to get cold?
But we thought at the time it's, this is so, you know, to be
stuck at home to be all thiskind of stuff.
So we had all our wonderfuladvisors telling us what we
should and shouldn't be doingand what would they pay to to
tune into on a, on a laptopscreen and stuff.
Yeah, I remember a couple ofthem saying look, we're stuck at
home with our kids.
(14:21):
Is there anything you can dofor them?
Just as a throwaway comment.
So for that All that Matters,that year our opening keynote
was the Cookie Monster.
We did a deal with SesameStreet and I interviewed Cookie
Monster live as our firstkeynote and it was about kind of
so, cookie, how are youconnecting with your fans during
(14:44):
lockdown?
Yeah, and so it was a genuineB2B conversation, really
interesting stuff.
And then we had Elmo, and Elmointerviewed, I think, three or
four of our keynotes Brilliant.
One of them was Mike Shinoda,the lead singer of Linkin Park,
and just watching them all kindof just chatting it was.
(15:05):
It was amazing and and so muchfun and powerful stuff.
So so we we kind of went to, wereally thought outside the box,
what can we do to to really havefun?
But and I know we said thisbefore but that bit was fun and
it was when, as soon as theevent was over and you close
your laptop lid and your twocats are staring, you're going
(15:26):
can I, can we have food now,please, daddy?
It just completely wrecked thebuzz of that usual once you
finish the event, whether it'sbeen great or bad, you know
things go right, things go wrong.
You then go out for a, for adrink with your team and you're
kind of it's all about beingthere and not with the cats.
They didn't understand it.
Ian Carless (15:46):
Yeah it's interesting, that isn't it?
I mean that sort of dovetailsinto something else.
I was going to bring up thereaction from people after covid
and, as you say, that in somecases, that nervousness of being
in larger events, I think thesmaller events seem to come back
a little bit quicker, didn'tthey, than the certain.
I mean, obviously there's thelogistical and financial
concerns in that as well, but Ithink, just purely from an
audience perspective, in termsof what they felt comfortable
(16:08):
with, it took a while for thosebig, big events to come back.
The other thing I was going tosay I'm sure you'll have seen
the news recently and there wasa great quote from mark cuban,
wasn't there?
I mean, he was talking reallyabout, uh, ai, and I'll read the
quotes.
I just be curious to know yourreaction to this and where you
stand on it.
And he said, quote unquotewithin the next three years,
there will be so much AI, inparticular AI video, people
(16:32):
won't know if what they see orhear is real, which will result
in an explosion of face-to-faceengagement events and jobs.
Unquote.
How would you react to that?
Yes, emphatically.
Yeah, nice to talk to you.
Jasper Donat (16:51):
I think you know I do come from a very biased
perspective on that and I thinkI hope that he's right.
It's true, there is nothingthat beats being there.
And, yes, you want to be there.
Like I said earlier, you wantto be there when the big artists
are on stage, but you also wantto be in the bar with your
mates having fun and kind ofhaving experiences that you'll
talk about for the next 50 yearsof your life.
(17:13):
And you know, the metaversepromised that.
It hasn't delivered, it hasn'tgone anywhere close to it.
Now technology needs to justcatch up, and whether you can
then have a real experience inthe metaverse space or something
, let's see, let's see.
I won't say no, but it's aboutbeing there.
But then again you say tosomeone okay, to get to to a
(17:35):
music festival, you're going toget on a bus for eight hours,
you're going to camp in a in afreezing cold, muddy field and
yeah, all this kind of stuff.
And and you know they're goingto be gaming on the sofa, going,
oh, yeah, so we'll see.
But I, I, but I hope Mark Cubanis right that it is about the
being there and it's not aboutthe Zoom calls and the metaverse
(17:55):
.
Ian Carless (17:56):
Yeah, I agree.
Just moving forward.
Look, obviously events aren'tpossible without somebody to pay
for them.
With that in mind, how do youdesign your events and your
experiences in a way thatdelivers ROI for brands and your
partners?
Jasper Donat (18:12):
I think the way that we that's a very good
question the way that we workwith our partners is everyone is
different.
You know, I don't think anyonehas ever looked at one of our
sponsorship proposals and said,oh, can I have package B please?
It's literally here's what Iwould like to achieve.
Yeah, here are my objectives,here's my budget, here's, you
(18:35):
know, all that kind of stuff.
And then we set out to deliverit and really kind of go,
whether it's, you know, tinybudget or a massive budget, we
really want to deliver.
We measure success on thesponsors coming back.
Right, if they come back, itmeans that they've hit their
objectives and stuff.
There are certain things we cando for them and we will always
(18:57):
go beyond, you know, to deliver.
There's a lot of things we'renot allowed to do that you know
we're not allowed to.
If we could share databases,our lives would be so easy.
But you know there's obviouslywe absolutely stick to the rules
and we never share data and allthat stuff.
But you know it's connectingpeople and making sure that they
(19:19):
do meet people that they wantto meet and that the brand is
there and stuff.
And you know, I would love itto be back in the 80s where it's
all about having your brand onthe backdrop and everyone goes
oh look, coca-cola, I must havea Coca-Cola.
But it's not that now.
It is about you know, drillingdown much further into you know,
helping them drive in commerceand helping them build in their
(19:41):
communities, and, and, and, and,and, and, and.
So, yeah, we tend to have a lotof partners on our events for
that reason.
Yeah, it's not easy at all, butit's good to work with these
people.
Yeah.
Ian Carless (19:54):
Now, experiential is probably one of the big
buzzwords and probably has beenfor a couple of years now.
How do you find brands engagingwith the whole experiential
area?
Jasper Donat (20:05):
We're not so involved in that potential area.
We're not so involved in that.
I mean, I think, looking atwhat some of the experiences
that are happening in you knowthose massive 360 degree domes
and all that kind of stuffthat's, that's amazing.
I think brands becoming theirown media is something that's
very interesting, where you knowthat they're saying you know,
(20:26):
do I need to be advertising onthese platforms?
I can work with influencers andsell my own stuff that way, or,
you know, going straight toTikTok shop and stuff like that.
But that's, that's less eventdriven.
We would have them talkingabout that at our events.
I think creating experienceswith brands and for brands that
are memorable, that's that'salways going to be a big
business, because they need tobe live and in people's faces
(20:50):
and not just online and stuff.
It's not so much that we getinvolved in, though, but we do
have people talking about it atour events.
I mean, we do an event calledLive Matters, which is about the
live event industry, and we didit in a circus tent.
We have a lot of fun, by theway.
We did Live Matters in a circustent.
We have a lot of fun, by theway, we did Live Matters in a
circus tent on the harbour inHong Kong, brilliant, earlier
(21:12):
this year with Michael Denmark.
So the guy that I set brandedup.
He has a company called GEG inHong Kong now he owns the big
wheel there and he had thecircus in town Brilliant.
So, we did it in a circus tent.
So, with all of the trapeze andeverything hanging over
everyone's heads, the chairs onstage, one was a pink dinosaur,
one was a spaceman, one was acat, it was circus stuff and it
(21:34):
was just let's have fun, let'sdo something differently, and
you know.
So, yeah, we do have fun withstuff like that.
We did cricket matters in NewYork Brilliant.
That was only because the T20was going on and in india were
playing pakistan that week.
But you know it was.
It was amazing it wouldn'thappen this week.
Ian Carless (21:50):
Yeah, you know, we, we we do try and think outside
the box a little bit yeah, now,obviously, a lot of your events
are based in asia, but you'verecently ventured into the
middle east with gaming matters.
Can you tell us a bit aboutthat?
Jasper Donat (22:04):
yeah, I mean, we've actually done.
We've done a few events in themina region over time.
The first one we did was theYouTube Fan Fest, actually in
Jeddah back in 2017, where wewere, at the time, the second
ever international event thatwas allowed, where there was no
segregation between the in theaudience, partnered with uh,
(22:31):
with live nation and google, andit was a time when saudi was
going through the first kind ofchange.
You know, there was a wonderfulcoca-cola ad at the time where
the father handed his car key tohis daughter right and it won
loads of awards and stuff, andso it was.
It was just a time when, whensaudi was going through amazing
change and we and we did thisincredible event in jeddah.
And then, yeah, we we've donegaming matters in dubai for the
(22:53):
last two years, celebratingeverything to do with the gaming
industry, working with thedubai uh economy and tourism
government department aroundtheir esports festival, and
that's a b2b event that takesplace for a whole day, and we
have an academy as well,teaching young gamers about the
gaming business.
And then in november last year,at the emirates sevens the
(23:14):
dubai sevens we did rugbymatters and and that was where,
again, it was a half day event.
We did it at the coca-colaarena in dubai, where we
celebrated all things rugby, andI was very proud that the event
I mean rugby was my sports.
I'm as biased as hell, but Iwas.
I was very proud that half thespeakers were were women and
(23:35):
half the audience was women.
And also then discovering theEmirates Sevens and for the
first time and what amulti-sport event it was it blew
my mind away just seeing.
It wasn't just about the rugby,it was the football and the
netball and the cricket and thepaddle and the what have you,
and the fact that everyone thereis doing something, is is
(23:56):
playing, so everyone's in ashirt, of a sports shirt of some
sort, whether you're 8 or 80.
Yeah, absolutely loved it.
So hopefully we'll be bringingthat back again later this year
as well.
So so, watch this space.
Yeah, we're very excited aboutwhat's happening in that part of
the world.
You know Saudi is doing a lotwith music.
The Middle Beast Festival isthe biggest music festival in
(24:17):
the world.
The Riyadh Music Week I've beento it for a couple of years.
The Esports World Cup ishappening there now.
Yeah, it's a very, veryexciting, exciting time for that
part of the world.
So, yeah, it's a very, veryexciting, exciting time for that
part of the world.
So, yeah, hopefully we'll beback quite a lot.
Ian Carless (24:31):
Now you obviously think that gaming's not going
anywhere.
I think you'd have to have beenliving under a rock to think
it's not or to think it is sorry.
So what made you venture intothe gaming element, and where do
you hope to go with that?
Jasper Donat (24:45):
That's a very good question.
So we were approachedoriginally by the Singapore
government to ask if we could doan event for them.
They were opening a, a gamingstudio here and they said could
we do an event for the gamingindustry, the featured gamers
and publishers and what have you?
And, and they could bring somefans in as well.
(25:06):
So so we, we got blown, blownaway by the whole thing and then
turned it into its own eventand then merged it into the All
that Matters event as well.
And look, you know, gaming is ahuge, huge industry.
I mean, if you look at thenumbers, you know there's some
amazing facts where it's biggerthan music and movie industry
(25:26):
combined, but just by the numberof eyeballs and stuff.
Yeah, you know, it's.
It's.
Also there's no requirement onlanguage.
It'll just, you know, itdoesn't have to be in English or
in Chinese or in, in whateverit's, it's global, it's truly
global.
It's a flat, flat, digitallyflat world.
So so, doing gaming Madison,because they are promoting Mina
(25:46):
as a global gaming hub, yeah,and so it's great to have so
many people there, and I thinksomewhere like 70% of our
audience were from overseas,because they wanted to come and
learn about the region, yeah,and so yeah, hopefully more to
come.
Ian Carless (26:00):
How important is localization then in these kind
of events and in particular forthe Mina region?
Jasper Donat (26:05):
I think it's becoming more and more important
.
You know, know, the pendulumswings from regional to local,
global to regional to local andstuff, and at the moment, I
think that you've got some megamarkets opening up.
We do a lot of stuff in india.
At the moment, our biggestshareholder is an indian gaming
company and so you know, I'vebeen doing events in india for
(26:26):
30 years.
I love it as a as a an eventmarket, india is absolutely
fantastic, and you look atwhat's happening at the moment
the music site live music inIndia right now it's the gold at
the end of the rainbow,coldplay doing their biggest
show ever.
Yeah, pretty cool, yeah.
So, yeah, understanding thoselocal markets is very important.
(26:46):
A lot of it is being there.
But at the same time, if you'regoing to learn about India, you
need to learn about China andwhat's happening in Australia
and what's happening in Japanand two thirds of the world's
population, and then you add inMENA.
It's pretty exciting.
Ian Carless (27:00):
Now we live in a part of the world that is fairly
risk averse.
How do you find this region interms of clients being less or
more risk tolerant than, say,for example, Asia, where you are
?
Jasper Donat (27:29):
rules we have to, you know, in in many different
ways and so, being very, veryrespectful to what we can and
can't do, can't, can and can'tsay on stage, there are
restrictions in singapore, thatyou know.
If you're a music artist, youknow you have to submit your
lyrics and if the government sayno, then you have to change
your lyrics.
Yeah, um, sometimes an artistwill say no and say fine, we, we
respect you, but that's therules you know.
(27:50):
And and yeah, indonesia is thesame.
Malaysia, china, you know,china, they actually will have
someone.
I don't know if it's still thecase used to be that there would
literally be someone on stagewith you making sure that you
sang the lyrics.
So, for any rules andregulations that we face doing
events in, whether it's jubai orsaudi or whatever, we're
absolutely, absolutelyrespectful to it.
(28:12):
When we did the youtube fan festin jeddah in 2017, this is when
live music was not allowed inany format.
Like you couldn't play music,and so we didn't necessarily
agree with it, but we weren'tgoing to argue with it.
And also, we were told about amonth out, because our audience
was a mixed audience.
This was very new to them.
They said, oh, you can't haveany women on stage, which you
(28:36):
know that that is something thatyou know.
I stand very much against thatidea.
However, again, we had torespect the rules, so we
actually created it.
In the afternoon, we did aYouTube fan fest for women only,
right, so we could have thefemale creators and influencers
on stage and their fans and theaudience and that kind of stuff,
(28:57):
and we're very proud of what wedid, you know, again, not
necessarily agreeing with therules as as they were then.
It's changed.
Now there's a wonderful quotethat the ceo of the music
commission said that live musicwas banned.
The only place you could singin saudi was on a football
terrace, right, and.
But now there's women on stagein bands and men, everyone you
(29:18):
know on.
Live music is really kickingoff and it's a really exciting
market.
So I think people do need tocome to places like Dubai or Abu
Dhabi or Riyadh or Jeddah andyou don't go over the boundaries
, don't put your foot anywherenear the boundaries, just stick
to the rules and be respectful.
You know, and so far, so great.
Ian Carless (29:41):
Okay, so before we wrap it up, let's let me just
ask you a couple of quick firequestions.
Jasper Donat (29:44):
Shall we most underrated event role anyone,
anyone, anyone who is onreception for any attendees
turning up.
Yeah, the people who, thepeople who welcome and the first
people you meet, they have tohave a big smile on their face
and no problem is too big okay,one thing you'd ban at events.
Ian Carless (30:03):
Well, this is usually a good one.
Jasper Donat (30:04):
This what I ban at events, I don't know I there's
nothing really.
I mean, as long as someone'sthere and they're happy, then
I'm happy, oh fair enough, fairenough that's that for a
terrible answer yeah dreadful,but never mind, we'll roll with
it, okay?
Ian Carless (30:18):
next big thing that you're looking at closely in
terms of branded um, I do thinkwe touched on ai earlier.
Jasper Donat (30:25):
I think that really understanding where we
can win with ai going forward,where we can provide services
that we wouldn't normally beable to provide, experiences
that we wouldn't normally beable to provide for a bigger
audience and a larger group,bigger communities and
connections and stuff absolutely, like I said, translation
software is a simple thing andreally kind of exploring new
(30:49):
markets, getting more contentout there, yeah, and and
hopefully still having more fun.
You know I might be mid-50s butI still behave like an 18 year
old and I don't.
Ian Carless (31:00):
I hope that never changes oh, you and me both, I
think we were just chattingbefore the podcast, didn't we
saying both our kids keep, keepcomplaining that we're bigger
kids than they are.
Jasper Donat (31:09):
Long may that continue exactly the quote my
daughter said to me when she wasabout 10 years old daddy, when
you grow up will you be moreserious, and I will take that
absolutely as a success yeah,and we mentioned it at the top
of the podcast, it is your 30thanniversary in asia this month,
(31:29):
so here's one for you.
Ian Carless (31:31):
What advice would you ask a young jasper just
arriving in asia and justgetting started in the industry
there 30 years ago?
Jasper Donat (31:40):
the, the main things, that one of the
beautiful things about being anexpat is that we're all in the
same boat.
So your friends are your family.
Everyone really looks aftereach other.
You know where are you going tolive, what school are your kids
going to go to and how can Iopen doors for you Stuff that
would never happen, with all duerespect, would never happen in
New York or London.
(32:01):
Would never happen in new yorkor london or sydney or major
cities.
Yeah, people put their armsaround you and say, right,
welcome to you.
Know, I've lived in hong kongand singapore, welcome to hong
kong, welcome to see yourfriends, your family, and they
stay.
They're friends for life.
Yeah, and you may not see themfor 10 years, but then when
you're back with them again,it's's like, it's like it was
like 10 weeks.
(32:21):
So so I think I think you knowyour friends, your family.
I think don't give up.
You know, never, ever stopselling.
Just keep, keep going.
Don't be afraid of failure.
You know things, things gowrong, they're going to go wrong
, but just keep, keep on going.
I think I need to learn how tohear the word no a bit better.
(32:43):
I think that's something thatJasper needs to learn is you
know, if someone says no, thendon't do it.
But yeah, I think, just don'tgive up, keep going and enjoy
what you do, just do what youlove.
There you go, do what you love.
Ian Carless (32:58):
Speaking of things that you love.
We ask everybody on the podcastthis I know you're a music fan,
obviously.
Uh, so am I.
What's on your playlist at themoment?
Anything?
Jasper Donat (33:07):
before 1989 really showing your age now, mate oh,
totally, no, no, no, the, the,the music world, died at 1989.
No, I listened the.
The 80s um are are somethingthat that you know.
Ian Carless (33:21):
Yeah, and finally, what's next for yourself and
Brandon?
Jasper Donat (33:26):
We've got a number of events coming up.
There's a couple we haven'tannounced yet, so I can't talk
about them.
We're going to be in China andAustralia in the next few weeks,
but the big one coming up, ofcourse, is All that Matters in
Singapore September the 26th toOctober the 1st Music, sport,
gaming, marketing, everything todo with entertainment all
(33:47):
wrapped up under one roof, andthen the Singapore Grand Prix
takes place just after that.
So it's a great, great time tobe in Singapore, and Singapore
is an amazing global businesshub where you've got TikTok's
global headquarters, you canwalk from there to Facebook's
headquarters and they're in thesame building as Snap, and then
you get a cab to YouTube inabout 15 minutes.
So it's a pretty amazing place.
(34:09):
And then, yeah, I'll be back inDubai towards the end of the
year, as we were saying earlier,and really looking forward to
that.
Had such a great time at theEmirates 7.
So, yeah, lots and lots comingup lots we can't talk about as
well, but um, but yeah, andlooking forward to being the
same room as you brilliant.
Ian Carless (34:27):
Thanks very much for joining me on the podcast.
It's been fun.
Event news dxb is brought toyou by warehouse four probably
dubai's best independent eventvenue and and Minus 45 dB the
team transforming noisy eventspaces into slick, sound-reduced
(34:47):
environments.
The podcast was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast was produced by W4
Podcast Studio Dubai, and ifyou haven't done so already,
please do click that follow orsubscribe button.
(35:08):
We'll see you next time.
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