Mayhem & Method
Untangling the people, politics, and platforms that shape modern events "If we do our jobs right, our work should be invisible." Millions of people move through events every year — session to session, show floor to keynote — without a second thought. But somewhere behind the seamless experience is the invisible team that brought the thousands of pieces together. The team that knows exactly how close it came to going sideways. Jen Santos has spent 15 years producing corporate events at every scale — from CES' city-wide takeovers to multi-city roadshows that are their own special kind of chaos. She knows where the bodies are buried — and that most of them were buried long before load-in. Join Jen and expert guests as they go behind the scenes of event planning, event management, and event production to explore what goes wrong, what holds, and what the industry can do better.
Episodes
Ten thousand attendees. Millions watching online. One very important keynote. And absolutely no Wi-Fi. When the entire network at Moscone goes down, the backup plan turns out to be something nobody had on the run-of-show BINGO card: an event planner's phone hotspot.
Jen Santos sits down with longtime event-tech leader Paul Singh to unpack what happens when technology, executive expectations, and live-event...
What do you do when a bottle of industrial-strength adhesive remover gets run over by a forklift and sprays your nearly finished exhibit? Or when you walk onto the show floor hours before opening and discover your booth graphics have gone full Salvador Dalí?
You fix it. Fast.
And preferably before the client finishes saying, "That's not supposed to look like that, is it?"
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You can build the perfect agenda, confirm every detail, and still discover at lunch that half the room refuses to sit down. Because sometimes the biggest event curveball isn't AV, catering, or weather—it's realizing important cultural rules everyone else knows but were never actually explained to you.
Jen Santos sits down with David Moore, Director of Fun at Moore Style Events, to talk about the part...
You know it's going to be an interesting event day when someone checks in early, charms the registration desk, and casually walks away with your laptop. What follows? Badge swapping, security surveillance, and an accidental crash course in event security that feels suspiciously like an episode of CSI: Registration Desk.
Jen Santos sits down with longtime friend and event pro Kate Zurlo-Cuva to talk about t...
You can spend a million dollars on event Wi-Fi, replace every router in the building, and still watch an entire room of laptops suddenly decide they live in Germany. Because apparently, even the most sophisticated event technology is only one mysterious firmware update away from complete mayhem.
Jen Santos sits down with Josh Shepherd, VP of AI Solutions at Amego, to talk about the event technology failure...
One attendee. One last-minute halal request. And one chef who turned a potential food-and-beverage scramble into the best hotel meal the guest had ever eaten. Because apparently feeding people at events requires more than ordering 400 identical boxed lunches and hoping for the best.
Jen Santos sits down with Tracy Stuckrath, founder and Chief Connecting Officer of Thrive Meetings and Events, to talk about ...
What happens when the event app crashes, the Wi-Fi disappears, and the entire schedule lives inside the technology that just stopped working? Apparently, "blame the vendor" is not a contingency plan. Rude.
Jen Santos, host of Mayhem & Method, sits down with Vinnu Deshetty, founder of Event ROI Coach, to talk about event technology, data, and the very human chaos behind both. What starts as a conversati...
What do you do when the AV truck shows up… and half the gear is missing? Then the second truck shows up with the wrong cables. This is just one of the ways event production keeps everyone humble
In this episode of Mayhem and Method, Jen sits down with Elias Puurunen, founder of Tractus Events, to talk about the beautiful disaster zone where hybrid event production, in-house AV, missing equipment, fi...
You know your event app is having a moment when adoption drops from "everyone's using it!" to "does anyone have a paper guide?"
In this episode of Mayhem & Method, we get into what happens when a shiny new messaging feature becomes a sponsor spam cannon. Fun for literally no one.
Host Jen Santos is joined by Josh Vande Krol and Marty Choate, co-founders of Intrivium, for a story that...
A 10-foot-by-20-foot seating chart, a 400-person gala, and a client casually adding guests up to the last minute. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.
In this episode of Mayhem & Method, Jen Santos talks with Andrew Roby of Andrew Roby Events about a multi-day conference that turned into a master class in why "just a few more people" is never just a few more people.
What starts as a tightl...
What happens when 3,000 attendees get off a cruise ship, the event app loses its superpower, and one person decides Nassau is apparently a choose-your-own-adventure? This went from "fun port stop" to "please tell me Bob is back on the ship" real fast.
Host Jen Santos chats with Kelly Burhop, senior lead event technologist at Sound Planning Meeting and Events, on this episode of Mayhem & Method. Kelly i...
What do you do when your event is staring down half a million dollars in hotel penalties… and everyone in the room is ready for a fight? You take a breath, say "we blew it," and start figuring out how to make it right.
In Episode 2 of Mayhem & Method, host Jen Santos is joined by Therese Jardine, founder and CEO of Strategic Event Procurement, for a behind-the-scenes look at a contract gone sideways in a ver...
What happens when 1,200 people want ice cream… and the ice cream isn't frozen, the staff isn't staffed, and the vendor is panicking? Welcome to event planning, where even dessert can go completely off the rails, but a great event magically still gets served.
In this very first episode of Mayhem & Method, host Jen Santos welcomes award-winning event planner and founder of Beyond the BEO Shanondoa...
Mayhem & Method: Untangling the people, politics, and platforms that shape modern events
"If we do our jobs right, our work should be invisible."
Millions of people move through events every year — session to session, show floor to keynote — without a second thought. But somewhere behind the seamless experience is the invisible team that brought the thousands of pieces to...
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