May 7, 2025 • 29 mins
On The Move with Tami Richter, CVA
In this episode of TMSA’s On the Move, we sit down with Tami Richter, the VP of Event Operations at SXSW, to talk about event operations and marketing for SXSW, which is one of the nation’s largest entertainment events.
We’ll also dive into Tami’s upcoming TMSA ELEVATE panel. This presentation dives into the intricate transportation network of planes, trains, and trucks that ensures attendees, equipment, and experiences arrive seamlessly in Austin.
Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hello everyone, Welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,Executive Director at the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and
salespeople in transportationand logistics.
And today on the show I'm veryexcited we have Tammy Richter,
(00:46):
who is the VP of EventOperations at South by Southwest
.
She's going to be one of ourpanelists at our upcoming
Elevate show and she's here onthe podcast today.
How are you doing, Tammy?
I'm doing great.
It's so exciting to be here, soexcited to have you and to chat
with you about all things Southby Southwest and our upcoming
show as well that will be inAustin, Texas.
(01:07):
But can you first tell us alittle bit about your role as
the VP of Event Operations?
How did you first get involvedwith South by Southwest?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely so.
I'm a born and raised Austinite, which what we call it's what
we call we're unicorns at thispoint.
So I originally had an interestin criminal justice.
That's what I went to schoolfor.
In college I got the travel bugand I joined the airline
industry for a few years andthen in the early 2000s the
(01:36):
airline industry, just you know,as we all know and so I came
back to Austin and I startedworking in a bunch of the high
tech startups and I landed thejob as a marketing admin.
And one of the things that Idid as a marketing admin was I
coordinated the consumerelectronic show booth for my
company, and that is where Ijust absolutely fell in love
(01:58):
with events.
I love the logistics of it justthat small little bit of it and
I also wanted to get backinvolved with the city of Austin
.
It was very much, you know, inmy blood, being an Austinite.
So, flipping through the AustinChronicle looking for the next
big music show I wanted to go to, I saw a advertisement for
(02:20):
South by Southwest volunteersand so I went to the volunteer
call and, over almost 25 yearslater, here I am, the vice
president of event operations.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love that story and that journey to get there.
It is such a massive,multifaceted event.
What does your typical day looklike in the months leading up
to it, if you have a typical day?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
In one word, it's long and you're right, it's not
usually typical, but you know,our days consist of a lot of
coordination and planningmeetings.
We're collaborating with a lotof internal and external
stakeholders.
The event itself takes placeover the entire city of Austin,
(03:05):
and it's critical to balance thesuccess for attendees, but also
for the city.
We impact the city on a prettygrand scale, and so we want to
make sure that we're taking careof the city and that they are
also benefiting from our eventas much as our attendees are
that are coming from around theglobe from our event, as much as
our attendees are that arecoming from around the globe?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Absolutely, and you have so many events that range
from film and tech to music andeducation.
How do you keep all of thosemoving parts aligned?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So the secret sauce would be over communication.
You know, regardless of thecontent or the type of event
that we're producing, it'sreally the same from an
operational and logistics pointof view.
We're still having to staff it,we're still putting the pieces
together, we still have tocoordinate with the city, we
have to do the permitting.
So you know, on the back end ofit, everything's very similar.
(04:00):
On the front end it's going tolook really different.
We do an assessment for everysingle event that takes place at
South by Southwest.
That's showcases of a film, itcould be a speaking engagement,
it could be anything that'shappening.
So each one of those events wedo an assessment on and we look
at okay, what do we need interms of resources to make sure
(04:24):
that that event goes offseamlessly?
We want it to be successful, wewant to prevent disruptions and
, again, we want to preventpulling from resources from
anywhere other than our own.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
What do you think with all of those pieces is the
most kind of underestimatedchallenge that comes up when
you're planning this event.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I would say planning for the unexpected.
So because the event is solarge, you know, and, like I
said, it takes over an entirecity, basically downtown part of
Austin, we start planning morethan a year in advance for the
next event, so that planningcycle is very long.
(05:08):
So what we're planning forright now, at the end of April,
that could very much becompletely different in the next
30 days.
The political climate, theglobal trends, all of those
things influence how ourattendees see our event and how
(05:29):
they take in information.
So we have to take that intoconsideration.
We have to just continuouslyplan and make adjustments where
we need to to make sure thatit's going to be the optimal
experience for the people thatare coming to our event, whether
they're coming from outside ofAustin or they are part of our
community.
(05:50):
You know, one of the things thatI really really love is being
able to pivot really quickly.
So there's the planning aspectof it.
But then we get on site and wehave to, you know, make sure
that in a moment's notice we canfix a disruption.
(06:10):
We can, you know, pivot to goin a different direction if it's
not going how we expected it togo, and so being able to have
that forethought and havingthose resources ready to go at
plan A, b and C is instrumental,and that's the things that
people don't see.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean, you don't want them to see, you want
them to be like oh yeah, thisis just a seamless experience
for you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, exactly A couple of years ago I spoke at a
different conference and it wasa gentleman by the name of
Louis Gravance and he is fromDisney, and so he gave a talk
about the seven secrets to Wowservice, and what he said was
never let them see the wires.
(06:54):
And the second he said that Iwas like that's it.
That is totally what we do.
We do it all from behind thescenes and, as chaotic, as
chaotic as it seems in thebackground, you never see that
in the front.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I think that's really good advice.
I had a boss in college and hetold me because I wasn't doing
it, I was like a student managerat the dining hall.
It was a very serious job atthe time but he took something
about like leadership andguiding people that, um, I've
kind of taken with me.
But he was like you want to belike a duck?
(07:30):
And I'm like, excuse me, what?
And he was like you know, ducks, when they glide across the
water you just see this likemajestic duck going, you know,
but underneath the water theirfeet are like going like crazy,
but you don't see that and soyou need to be more like that.
And I've tried to be like that,but I feel like people tend to
(07:50):
see my feet going a little bitcrazy, but I do my best.
But I do think like that's whatyou want for your event
attendees and I love hearingthose because, yeah, like we're
planning for Elevate right now,there's so much going on, so
coordination, so many differentpeople, and our attendees are
(08:12):
like event planners andmarketing people and sales
people that can see the cracks,I think, a little bit more than
other people, because they dothis type of work, which also, I
think makes them a little bitmore forgiving, which is nice.
But and they'll like help, likeI remember last year that we're
having like an audio issue.
One of my members was like, doyou want me to?
Like, yeah, go tell them whatwe need, thank you.
But because we have all thesepeople that are part of this,
(08:34):
like planning process orexecuting, making sure that
their customers and theirsponsors are happy how do you
kind of ensure the coordinationbetween so many internal teams
and external vendors and thenyou talked about the city and
how important they are how doyou make sure all of those
coordination I mean, obviouslycommunication is going to be
really big here, but how do youmake sure that goes and
(08:57):
everything to support the event?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
um, yeah, obviously, frequent conversations,
especially leading up to theactual event.
Um, it's a lot of not assuming.
Um, you know, just because ithappened last year doesn't mean
it's going to happen this year.
So making sure that you're notassuming that you know it's just
a cut and paste sort of deal,um, not jumping to conclusions
and understanding how everythingthat you do impacts somebody
(09:22):
else, regardless of what it is.
It's going to have an impact onsomeone else and you have to
understand that.
So you know it's promoting bigideas.
Is is one of the pillars ofSouth by Southwest, and we can
put it on our social media, wecan hype it up, but if we
execute it and it falls flat,then it was all for nothing,
(09:46):
right?
So we want to make sure thatwe're having all of those very
detailed conversationsinternally, but also externally.
So we have very deepconversations with our city
partners.
There's actually a departmentcalled the Arts, culture, music
and entertainment They've justkind of switched their names so
(10:07):
I had to think about it for asecond and leading up to the
event, we have very regularmeetings, usually weekly when we
get closer, and it's all thedepartments so transportation,
public works, public safety,anybody that is going to be
impacted by our event or playssome role.
And we are very transparentwith what we are doing because
(10:31):
we want to make sure that theycan support us appropriately,
that we're again not impactingon their resources because, you
know, we may feel like we'regoing to be successful from
everything that we're puttinginto it, but we need them to
feel successful too and we needthem to be able to support us
and we need to support them.
And so those conversations arevery, very important.
Um, they're also very importantbecause we're working on
(10:54):
logistics together.
We have a ton of road closures,we change traffic flow, we have
, you know, barricade plans.
There's meridian barricade thathas to go up, there's
construction, uh, that needs tostop in certain areas so that we
can have our event.
So, having those umrelationships, those
communications and on a regularbasis, super important and again
(11:16):
, not assuming just, I sendemails all the time that are
like you probably already knowthis, but and I'm just going to
drop it in your lap again andprobably again so it's okay to
over-communicate.
I think people will appreciateit more than if they're left in
the dark because they didn'thear about something.
So, transparent, parent-freeearly engagement and again that
(11:38):
over-communication.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I think that's so true.
And especially like, even ifyou did tell someone something,
there are so many moving partsand I love what you said at the
beginning like what you do isaffect something else.
It's a domino effect.
So like if somebody in themiddle of the dominoes doesn't
know something, it really cancause chaos.
So like making sure and youmentioned like weekly calls
(12:01):
leading up to the event when isthat like time period of when
you're like oh, it's go time,it's now weekly.
We have to make sure we'retouching base.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
It's interesting because it's been very much the
same over my entire career atSouth by Southwest.
There's a lot of planningthat's happening, and then we
get to the December holidays andit's almost like people just
take a minute to take a breathand then we come back in the
holidays on the first day ofjanuary or the.
You know that we're back in theoffice and it's like, oh no,
(12:33):
it's go time and it's just a.
You know, emails flyingeverywhere, phone calls
happening.
There is a point in time whereyou're like, okay, no more
emails, it's phone calls only wedon't have time to wait for
emails, let's go um, so yeahit's when we, you know, january,
february, and then the fewweeks in march before we go on
site, absolute organized chaosit's the way to live, I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I think that's all.
Event planners can understandthat um do you guys then, after
the event, take a break?
Do you like take naps, or doyou're like, nope, let's go into
next year?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
We try, but we're not very successful at that at all.
We usually do.
We have a lot of wrap up,obviously that we have to do
with you know both our clientsor vendors.
We are looking at what wentwell, what went wrong kind of
doing your after action reviewof the event but at the same
time we're already planning for2026, while we're wrapping up
(13:31):
2025.
So there's not a whole lot ofdowntime.
We tend to take a day here anda day there, but, yeah, it's
full steam ahead for 26 already.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that's I.
Our event is Sunday throughTuesday, so June 8th through
10th.
I close the office forWednesday, thursday, friday of
that week, so that staff can napand, like you know, get
together after every and then,and then it's back to work on
Monday.
So like that's something I'vedone which I really like,
because it is like it's a lotand like I'm still in, like I'll
(14:04):
still be in Austin on Wednesdayand making sure the packages go
and ship right and everythinglike that, but not but like just
taking those couple of days tobe like, okay, we just did so
much, let's press a little bitbefore we start going.
That's been really helpful.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I think it's a little bit of waking up in the morning
, getting a couple of hours ofwork done and then everyone
going.
I don't think I have any moreleft in me, so I'm just going to
go, I'm just going to take theafternoon.
Yeah, you know, I think one ofthe great things about our staff
is that we have found a balancebetween work and personal life,
and you know, I'm pursuingthose things outside of the
(14:42):
office that are really importantto us, so we tend to try to
work that in together.
It's work hard, play hard, andit strikes a good balance.
So I've got four kids andsometimes I've just got to go do
kid things.
And that is very much anunderstood thing in our office.
We're going to get it done, butI also need to go to that track
(15:03):
meet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yep, absolutely Love that and so, thinking about that
experience side of of theattendee, the attendee
experience, people that arecoming to South by South but,
like you said, people come fromall over.
This is an event.
How does the operation side andmarketing then align to deliver
(15:25):
that experience from when youfirst start promoting it until
when people are leaving andbeing like, yeah, this is what
we loved or didn't?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It all boils down to having a shared vision.
You know, the vision of Southby Southwest is that we dedicate
ourselves to helping creativepeople achieve their goals.
That is what South by Southwestis all about, and so you know
that is what our marketing team,that is what our brand, you
know, is trying to accomplishthrough all of their work, and
(15:56):
it's the same thing that we aretrying to accomplish through all
of our work as operations.
And so you know, we know thatthe attendee journey, everything
that marketing does, you knowthere's a reason behind it.
There are very specific touchpoints that they have put into
place because they want thecustomer, the participants,
(16:17):
everybody who experiences Southby Southwest, to feel this
vision.
And you know, if operationscan't execute that and make it
again seamless and withoutdisruption, then it's gonna fall
flat and that's not gonna lookgood on social media.
Or we need to be able to buildthe trust of our audience and in
(16:40):
order to do that, we have towork together to produce what
you know what our vision is.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And when you're having those conversations,
having that shared vision, who'skind of at that table having
those discussions?
How do you make sure everyoneinternally is aligned?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, so it's a constant feedback loop and, like
I said, there's that overcommunication and you know, even
if you know I may hearsomething over here that I you
know it's not really in mywheelhouse, but I heard it and I
know that whatever I justoverheard could be impactful to
(17:17):
somebody else's role.
And so we have Slack at work.
We have a bunch of differentlike chat channels.
It can be as easy as just areally casual hey, I heard this
might be happening.
Is that true?
No, verifying information isreally important as well.
You know, making sure that youhave true and accurate
information.
You're not jumping toconclusions, you know, and just
you know, being transparentabout what you're hearing and
(17:39):
having conversations.
There is a thing that we havein our office called going
direct.
With respect, you know, ifsomething isn't going right or
somebody has said something,then we need to just go and talk
to that person directly andfind out what is going on.
You know it could be part ofyou know what you're doing or a
project that you're working on,or it could be personal, but
(17:59):
having those relationships andhaving trust in your co-workers,
you know it buildsaccountability and it is just
keeping that communication andthat feedback loop going um.
Like I said, our event changesover the course of a year, so
what we plan now is definitelynot going to be what you know
turns out to be when we get onsite.
So communication in bothdirections is really important,
(18:22):
you know.
The other thing is that youknow it may our clients.
They have big visions.
Our sales team sells, you know,different assets.
Those start as one thing andthey also morph as we go along.
So we want to be able todeliver, you know, the end
product to our sales clients andour sponsors, and we have to
(18:45):
accommodate for their changes aswell.
So not only are we having theinternal communications, but
we're we need to keep themlinked in too, because we want
to make sure that we're puttinginto place the systems of the
structures that are going tosupport them as well.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I like that.
I like how many catchphrasesyou guys seem to have in your
office to really like helppeople understand, like, hey,
we're all a team, we're in thistogether.
Let's get through it and figureout the best way to do that.
One thing I'm interested to youthat so South by Southwest has
grown and obviously and now youdo a South by Southwest, london
(19:23):
too, correct, and Sydney andSydney, wow.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I haven't done.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
London.
Yet London's coming, but we'vedone Sydney.
And how do you tactfullyapproach scalability when it
comes to event planning?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So I think what's really important is, no matter
how big or small the event is,again, keeping that shared
vision and, you know, makingsure that we're meeting our
company goals, making sure thateveryone in the company is on
board with that, you know'sgoing to make you successful.
(20:00):
You have to have buy-in.
You have to motivate people andget people excited about what
it is that we are producing.
You know, one of the greatthings about South by Southwest
is there's so much blood, sweatand tears that goes into the
whole planning of it and then weget to see it come to fruition.
(20:20):
It's very satisfying, but atthe end of the day, there's a
bunch of bumps that we're goingto hit, there's going to be
setbacks.
I mean, we all went throughCOVID-19.
That was pretty detrimental toa lot of people, including us.
And I think just making surethat you know we, we know where,
you know we know what we wantto do, we know what we want to
(20:42):
do for the people, we are proudof it and no matter how
difficult it is, we have a goal,we have an end game.
We know what we want to do andwe want to do it for the people
that attend our event.
So keeping that morale up,keeping that excitement up about
our brand is instrumental, andthat's regardless of the size or
the location.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I think that's really important.
I always remind peopleeverything should be towards
your company goals and what youwant to do, and especially like
on the marketing side.
We have a lot of like smallmarketing teams that are tasked
with doing all this kind ofstuff and they're like I just
feel overwhelmed and I'm likeit's okay to be like, hey, what
is this, what is the goal ofthis?
(21:27):
How does it align to ourcompany goals?
Because if somebody hasn'tthought through that, then it
might not be the right fit forwhat you're doing or not
something that you have toprioritize.
So I love hearing that fromsomebody who produces this huge
show you know, like that's stillreally important.
Everything we do still needs toalign to the company goals, and
then we scale based on on that.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So that's really good , you know, and you know I love
that we have this huge eventthat we can see our successes
and and grow from every year.
But it's also the little winsthat you have to take into
account as you get to that largeevent as well.
Um, like I said, you know it'sgoing to be.
There's going to be ups anddowns, ups and flows, and just
maintaining, you know, somehumility about it and some drive
(22:06):
, yeah, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Absolutely.
And I knew about South bySouthwest London because we are
really excited that we get tohave you guys in Austin for our
TMSA Elevate show, which is June8th through 10th.
But part of when we were tryingto decide who is going to come
was because this was right onthe tail end of South by
Southwest London and we werelike, okay, who can come?
What makes sense?
(22:30):
This panel is really exciting.
People have asked me how weaccomplished it and I said I was
a very persistent executivedirector.
To this wonderful woman namedTammy, who I remember our first
meeting, I was like what do youknow about us?
And like you're like this justkind of fell into my lap Tell me
more.
But I loved because what wedecided to put together is this
(22:53):
really awesome panel of youtalking about the event side.
We have the former chief brandofficer of South by Southwest
coming on the panel and then wealso have your customer
relationship person at Friedmanwho does the logistics of the
event, and so it's this reallypowerful presentation panel of
people who do all of theexecution, from marketing to
(23:16):
sales, to operations, toexecution.
And then we have BryceBrumley-ley milligan, who will
be um, who does everything islogistics podcast and tmsa board
member.
She'll be the moderator forthis panel.
So, um, that's like my quickhit, but you tell us what, what
you're excited about, whatpeople can expect from the panel
yeah, I'm super excited becauseyou know the way I thought
about it was almost like ajourney.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Um.
So jay mabaska as you mentioned, she is our former co-president
.
She just recently retired butis still very much involved with
the company and she was ourchief brand officer for a number
of years.
So she is the brains behind ourlook and feel and our brand
message and has been for manyyears.
And then Barb Barb has been ouryou know contact with Freeman
(24:01):
AV since the early 90s.
So she's been with us foralmost the whole run of South by
Southwest and so she has seenit grow.
And so this journey is, you know, we start at the unveiling of
our look and feel every year forthe next event, which we just
got a sneak peek of and we mayget to see it during your
conference, maybe like thepublic and be like it's really,
(24:23):
it's, it's great, I love it.
But it starts with her and itstarts with brand and building
the brand and the messaging youknow.
And then there's, you know,they've sold the dream and now
it goes into Tammy world whereI've got to facilitate the dream
and make sure that it goes offwithout a hitch and I'm
delivering it.
(24:44):
I want it to be all over socialmedia about how awesome it was.
And then there's also anotherlayer of that, and that's Farm
and Freeman and the amount of AVequipment that they have got to
bring into the city of Austinis.
It's a logistical like wonderwhat she does, and she does it
(25:05):
with a smile on her face andshe's keeping us happy and she's
fixing the problems and puttingout the fires, and so, you know
, I just think it's reallyinteresting to be able to
introduce all these differentperspectives into how we pull
off this really large event,because it's not just South by
Southwest, it's our vendors,it's our you know our clients,
it's people bringing things intoAustin, it's all of our local
(25:27):
businesses supporting us as well.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So just being able to tell the story of the bigger
picture, I think, is reallyexciting to us, because we don't
get to do that very often, andwhat do you think is important
for transportation marketing andsales professionals that will
be in the audience to reallyunderstand the event operation
side of things and what they cantake home with them?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So it's a lot of the coordination but it's a lot of
building relationships.
It's how you communicate withone another and the important
bits of that communication.
You know how is it that youknow we are going to put in this
infrastructure that has so manydifferent moving pieces to it?
You know it's a big puzzlereally, because you've got the
(26:10):
brand bed, you've got the youknow the logistics operations
bit and then you've got all ofour sales clients and our
vendors and trying to fit thattogether in a way that makes
sense.
It's difficult, it'schallenging, but completely
doable and you just have to beable to understand kind of the
motivation and how it works best.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I love that, really excited.
So hopefully everyone that'slistening will join us at TMSA
Elevate June 8th through 10th.
They are closing out our showand I'm happy to announce that
if you're watching this, we havea flash sale going on for
tickets.
So if you go to register, usethe code FLASH all caps and
(26:56):
you'll be able to get that dealnow through Friday, may 9th.
So check that out, get yourflash sale, join us here
directly from Tammy and her team.
Really really excited to haveyou and happy you came on the
show.
One last question for you thatI ask everybody who comes on and
that's if you could go back intime and advise a younger Tammy
(27:17):
anything personally orprofessionally.
When would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I think I'd probably go back to before I started at
South by Southwest in my youknow, maybe high school years
and I would tell myself to makesure that you be your generalist
about life and that you are alifelong learner, because you
don't have to know everythingabout everything, you just have
to know something about a lot ofthings and I think that helps
you through life, open a lot ofdoors, have a different
(27:52):
perspective, see the biggerpicture, build relationships.
So I would say, don't staysiloed, get involved, stay
engaged and you never know, youcould end up at south by
southwest as the vp of eventoperations I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I think that's really great advice.
So happy to have you on theshow and have you coming to
elevate.
If you guys want to check outthe show, next week we'll be
joined by jessica whit who willbe um.
She's with warnercommunications and pr.
They are a new member of TMSAcoming to Elevate for the first
time, so really excited to haveher join the show.
And if you want to register forElevate, I'll pop up that QR
(28:30):
code one more time for you.
Remember to use the code FLASHwhen you are registering now
through the end of the speak.
And, tammy, it was so great tohave you on the show.
It's been wonderful to workwith you over the past couple
months and I'm excited to seeall the work that we've been
doing come to fruition as well,I'm looking forward to seeing
everybody in austin, and I hopeto see a lot of new faces too
(28:51):
perfect, sounds good, thank you,and thank you good day and see
you in austin.
Yes you, thank you.
Hello everyone, Welcome to On the Move, a show
where we share transportation,sales and marketing success
stories.
I am Jennifer Karpis-Romain,Executive Director at the
Transportation Marketing andSales Association, which is a
trade nonprofit educating andconnecting marketing and
salespeople in transportationand logistics.
And today on the show I'm veryexcited we have Tammy Richter,
(00:46):
who is the VP of EventOperations at South by Southwest
.
She's going to be one of ourpanelists at our upcoming
Elevate show and she's here onthe podcast today.
How are you doing, Tammy?
I'm doing great.
It's so exciting to be here, soexcited to have you and to chat
with you about all things Southby Southwest and our upcoming
show as well that will be inAustin, Texas.
(01:07):
But can you first tell us alittle bit about your role as
the VP of Event Operations?
How did you first get involvedwith South by Southwest?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely so.
I'm a born and raised Austinite, which what we call it's what
we call we're unicorns at thispoint.
So I originally had an interestin criminal justice.
That's what I went to schoolfor.
In college I got the travel bugand I joined the airline
industry for a few years andthen in the early 2000s the
(01:36):
airline industry, just you know,as we all know and so I came
back to Austin and I startedworking in a bunch of the high
tech startups and I landed thejob as a marketing admin.
And one of the things that Idid as a marketing admin was I
coordinated the consumerelectronic show booth for my
company, and that is where Ijust absolutely fell in love
(01:58):
with events.
I love the logistics of it justthat small little bit of it and
I also wanted to get backinvolved with the city of Austin
.
It was very much, you know, inmy blood, being an Austinite.
So, flipping through the AustinChronicle looking for the next
big music show I wanted to go to, I saw a advertisement for
(02:20):
South by Southwest volunteersand so I went to the volunteer
call and, over almost 25 yearslater, here I am, the vice
president of event operations.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love that story and that journey to get there.
It is such a massive,multifaceted event.
What does your typical day looklike in the months leading up
to it, if you have a typical day?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
In one word, it's long and you're right, it's not
usually typical, but you know,our days consist of a lot of
coordination and planningmeetings.
We're collaborating with a lotof internal and external
stakeholders.
The event itself takes placeover the entire city of Austin,
(03:05):
and it's critical to balance thesuccess for attendees, but also
for the city.
We impact the city on a prettygrand scale, and so we want to
make sure that we're taking careof the city and that they are
also benefiting from our eventas much as our attendees are
that are coming from around theglobe from our event, as much as
our attendees are that arecoming from around the globe?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Absolutely, and you have so many events that range
from film and tech to music andeducation.
How do you keep all of thosemoving parts aligned?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So the secret sauce would be over communication.
You know, regardless of thecontent or the type of event
that we're producing, it'sreally the same from an
operational and logistics pointof view.
We're still having to staff it,we're still putting the pieces
together, we still have tocoordinate with the city, we
have to do the permitting.
So you know, on the back end ofit, everything's very similar.
(04:00):
On the front end it's going tolook really different.
We do an assessment for everysingle event that takes place at
South by Southwest.
That's showcases of a film, itcould be a speaking engagement,
it could be anything that'shappening.
So each one of those events wedo an assessment on and we look
at okay, what do we need interms of resources to make sure
(04:24):
that that event goes offseamlessly?
We want it to be successful, wewant to prevent disruptions and
, again, we want to preventpulling from resources from
anywhere other than our own.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
What do you think with all of those pieces is the
most kind of underestimatedchallenge that comes up when
you're planning this event.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I would say planning for the unexpected.
So because the event is solarge, you know, and, like I
said, it takes over an entirecity, basically downtown part of
Austin, we start planning morethan a year in advance for the
next event, so that planningcycle is very long.
(05:08):
So what we're planning forright now, at the end of April,
that could very much becompletely different in the next
30 days.
The political climate, theglobal trends, all of those
things influence how ourattendees see our event and how
(05:29):
they take in information.
So we have to take that intoconsideration.
We have to just continuouslyplan and make adjustments where
we need to to make sure thatit's going to be the optimal
experience for the people thatare coming to our event, whether
they're coming from outside ofAustin or they are part of our
community.
(05:50):
You know, one of the things thatI really really love is being
able to pivot really quickly.
So there's the planning aspectof it.
But then we get on site and wehave to, you know, make sure
that in a moment's notice we canfix a disruption.
(06:10):
We can, you know, pivot to goin a different direction if it's
not going how we expected it togo, and so being able to have
that forethought and havingthose resources ready to go at
plan A, b and C is instrumental,and that's the things that
people don't see.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean, you don't want them to see, you want
them to be like oh yeah, thisis just a seamless experience
for you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, exactly A couple of years ago I spoke at a
different conference and it wasa gentleman by the name of
Louis Gravance and he is fromDisney, and so he gave a talk
about the seven secrets to Wowservice, and what he said was
never let them see the wires.
(06:54):
And the second he said that Iwas like that's it.
That is totally what we do.
We do it all from behind thescenes and, as chaotic, as
chaotic as it seems in thebackground, you never see that
in the front.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I think that's really good advice.
I had a boss in college and hetold me because I wasn't doing
it, I was like a student managerat the dining hall.
It was a very serious job atthe time but he took something
about like leadership andguiding people that, um, I've
kind of taken with me.
But he was like you want to belike a duck?
(07:30):
And I'm like, excuse me, what?
And he was like you know, ducks, when they glide across the
water you just see this likemajestic duck going, you know,
but underneath the water theirfeet are like going like crazy,
but you don't see that and soyou need to be more like that.
And I've tried to be like that,but I feel like people tend to
(07:50):
see my feet going a little bitcrazy, but I do my best.
But I do think like that's whatyou want for your event
attendees and I love hearingthose because, yeah, like we're
planning for Elevate right now,there's so much going on, so
coordination, so many differentpeople, and our attendees are
(08:12):
like event planners andmarketing people and sales
people that can see the cracks,I think, a little bit more than
other people, because they dothis type of work, which also, I
think makes them a little bitmore forgiving, which is nice.
But and they'll like help, likeI remember last year that we're
having like an audio issue.
One of my members was like, doyou want me to?
Like, yeah, go tell them whatwe need, thank you.
But because we have all thesepeople that are part of this,
(08:34):
like planning process orexecuting, making sure that
their customers and theirsponsors are happy how do you
kind of ensure the coordinationbetween so many internal teams
and external vendors and thenyou talked about the city and
how important they are how doyou make sure all of those
coordination I mean, obviouslycommunication is going to be
really big here, but how do youmake sure that goes and
(08:57):
everything to support the event?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
um, yeah, obviously, frequent conversations,
especially leading up to theactual event.
Um, it's a lot of not assuming.
Um, you know, just because ithappened last year doesn't mean
it's going to happen this year.
So making sure that you're notassuming that you know it's just
a cut and paste sort of deal,um, not jumping to conclusions
and understanding how everythingthat you do impacts somebody
(09:22):
else, regardless of what it is.
It's going to have an impact onsomeone else and you have to
understand that.
So you know it's promoting bigideas.
Is is one of the pillars ofSouth by Southwest, and we can
put it on our social media, wecan hype it up, but if we
execute it and it falls flat,then it was all for nothing,
(09:46):
right?
So we want to make sure thatwe're having all of those very
detailed conversationsinternally, but also externally.
So we have very deepconversations with our city
partners.
There's actually a departmentcalled the Arts, culture, music
and entertainment They've justkind of switched their names so
(10:07):
I had to think about it for asecond and leading up to the
event, we have very regularmeetings, usually weekly when we
get closer, and it's all thedepartments so transportation,
public works, public safety,anybody that is going to be
impacted by our event or playssome role.
And we are very transparentwith what we are doing because
(10:31):
we want to make sure that theycan support us appropriately,
that we're again not impactingon their resources because, you
know, we may feel like we'regoing to be successful from
everything that we're puttinginto it, but we need them to
feel successful too and we needthem to be able to support us
and we need to support them.
And so those conversations arevery, very important.
Um, they're also very importantbecause we're working on
(10:54):
logistics together.
We have a ton of road closures,we change traffic flow, we have
, you know, barricade plans.
There's meridian barricade thathas to go up, there's
construction, uh, that needs tostop in certain areas so that we
can have our event.
So, having those umrelationships, those
communications and on a regularbasis, super important and again
(11:16):
, not assuming just, I sendemails all the time that are
like you probably already knowthis, but and I'm just going to
drop it in your lap again andprobably again so it's okay to
over-communicate.
I think people will appreciateit more than if they're left in
the dark because they didn'thear about something.
So, transparent, parent-freeearly engagement and again that
(11:38):
over-communication.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I think that's so true.
And especially like, even ifyou did tell someone something,
there are so many moving partsand I love what you said at the
beginning like what you do isaffect something else.
It's a domino effect.
So like if somebody in themiddle of the dominoes doesn't
know something, it really cancause chaos.
So like making sure and youmentioned like weekly calls
(12:01):
leading up to the event when isthat like time period of when
you're like oh, it's go time,it's now weekly.
We have to make sure we'retouching base.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
It's interesting because it's been very much the
same over my entire career atSouth by Southwest.
There's a lot of planningthat's happening, and then we
get to the December holidays andit's almost like people just
take a minute to take a breathand then we come back in the
holidays on the first day ofjanuary or the.
You know that we're back in theoffice and it's like, oh no,
(12:33):
it's go time and it's just a.
You know, emails flyingeverywhere, phone calls
happening.
There is a point in time whereyou're like, okay, no more
emails, it's phone calls only wedon't have time to wait for
emails, let's go um, so yeahit's when we, you know, january,
february, and then the fewweeks in march before we go on
site, absolute organized chaosit's the way to live, I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I think that's all.
Event planners can understandthat um do you guys then, after
the event, take a break?
Do you like take naps, or doyou're like, nope, let's go into
next year?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
We try, but we're not very successful at that at all.
We usually do.
We have a lot of wrap up,obviously that we have to do
with you know both our clientsor vendors.
We are looking at what wentwell, what went wrong kind of
doing your after action reviewof the event but at the same
time we're already planning for2026, while we're wrapping up
(13:31):
2025.
So there's not a whole lot ofdowntime.
We tend to take a day here anda day there, but, yeah, it's
full steam ahead for 26 already.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that's I.
Our event is Sunday throughTuesday, so June 8th through
10th.
I close the office forWednesday, thursday, friday of
that week, so that staff can napand, like you know, get
together after every and then,and then it's back to work on
Monday.
So like that's something I'vedone which I really like,
because it is like it's a lotand like I'm still in, like I'll
(14:04):
still be in Austin on Wednesdayand making sure the packages go
and ship right and everythinglike that, but not but like just
taking those couple of days tobe like, okay, we just did so
much, let's press a little bitbefore we start going.
That's been really helpful.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I think it's a little bit of waking up in the morning
, getting a couple of hours ofwork done and then everyone
going.
I don't think I have any moreleft in me, so I'm just going to
go, I'm just going to take theafternoon.
Yeah, you know, I think one ofthe great things about our staff
is that we have found a balancebetween work and personal life,
and you know, I'm pursuingthose things outside of the
(14:42):
office that are really importantto us, so we tend to try to
work that in together.
It's work hard, play hard, andit strikes a good balance.
So I've got four kids andsometimes I've just got to go do
kid things.
And that is very much anunderstood thing in our office.
We're going to get it done, butI also need to go to that track
(15:03):
meet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yep, absolutely Love that and so, thinking about that
experience side of of theattendee, the attendee
experience, people that arecoming to South by South but,
like you said, people come fromall over.
This is an event.
How does the operation side andmarketing then align to deliver
(15:25):
that experience from when youfirst start promoting it until
when people are leaving andbeing like, yeah, this is what
we loved or didn't?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It all boils down to having a shared vision.
You know, the vision of Southby Southwest is that we dedicate
ourselves to helping creativepeople achieve their goals.
That is what South by Southwestis all about, and so you know
that is what our marketing team,that is what our brand, you
know, is trying to accomplishthrough all of their work, and
(15:56):
it's the same thing that we aretrying to accomplish through all
of our work as operations.
And so you know, we know thatthe attendee journey, everything
that marketing does, you knowthere's a reason behind it.
There are very specific touchpoints that they have put into
place because they want thecustomer, the participants,
(16:17):
everybody who experiences Southby Southwest, to feel this
vision.
And you know, if operationscan't execute that and make it
again seamless and withoutdisruption, then it's gonna fall
flat and that's not gonna lookgood on social media.
Or we need to be able to buildthe trust of our audience and in
(16:40):
order to do that, we have towork together to produce what
you know what our vision is.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And when you're having those conversations,
having that shared vision, who'skind of at that table having
those discussions?
How do you make sure everyoneinternally is aligned?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, so it's a constant feedback loop and, like
I said, there's that overcommunication and you know, even
if you know I may hearsomething over here that I you
know it's not really in mywheelhouse, but I heard it and I
know that whatever I justoverheard could be impactful to
(17:17):
somebody else's role.
And so we have Slack at work.
We have a bunch of differentlike chat channels.
It can be as easy as just areally casual hey, I heard this
might be happening.
Is that true?
No, verifying information isreally important as well.
You know, making sure that youhave true and accurate
information.
You're not jumping toconclusions, you know, and just
you know, being transparentabout what you're hearing and
(17:39):
having conversations.
There is a thing that we havein our office called going
direct.
With respect, you know, ifsomething isn't going right or
somebody has said something,then we need to just go and talk
to that person directly andfind out what is going on.
You know it could be part ofyou know what you're doing or a
project that you're working on,or it could be personal, but
(17:59):
having those relationships andhaving trust in your co-workers,
you know it buildsaccountability and it is just
keeping that communication andthat feedback loop going um.
Like I said, our event changesover the course of a year, so
what we plan now is definitelynot going to be what you know
turns out to be when we get onsite.
So communication in bothdirections is really important,
(18:22):
you know.
The other thing is that youknow it may our clients.
They have big visions.
Our sales team sells, you know,different assets.
Those start as one thing andthey also morph as we go along.
So we want to be able todeliver, you know, the end
product to our sales clients andour sponsors, and we have to
(18:45):
accommodate for their changes aswell.
So not only are we having theinternal communications, but
we're we need to keep themlinked in too, because we want
to make sure that we're puttinginto place the systems of the
structures that are going tosupport them as well.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I like that.
I like how many catchphrasesyou guys seem to have in your
office to really like helppeople understand, like, hey,
we're all a team, we're in thistogether.
Let's get through it and figureout the best way to do that.
One thing I'm interested to youthat so South by Southwest has
grown and obviously and now youdo a South by Southwest, london
(19:23):
too, correct, and Sydney andSydney, wow.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I haven't done.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
London.
Yet London's coming, but we'vedone Sydney.
And how do you tactfullyapproach scalability when it
comes to event planning?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So I think what's really important is, no matter
how big or small the event is,again, keeping that shared
vision and, you know, makingsure that we're meeting our
company goals, making sure thateveryone in the company is on
board with that, you know'sgoing to make you successful.
(20:00):
You have to have buy-in.
You have to motivate people andget people excited about what
it is that we are producing.
You know, one of the greatthings about South by Southwest
is there's so much blood, sweatand tears that goes into the
whole planning of it and then weget to see it come to fruition.
(20:20):
It's very satisfying, but atthe end of the day, there's a
bunch of bumps that we're goingto hit, there's going to be
setbacks.
I mean, we all went throughCOVID-19.
That was pretty detrimental toa lot of people, including us.
And I think just making surethat you know we, we know where,
you know we know what we wantto do, we know what we want to
(20:42):
do for the people, we are proudof it and no matter how
difficult it is, we have a goal,we have an end game.
We know what we want to do andwe want to do it for the people
that attend our event.
So keeping that morale up,keeping that excitement up about
our brand is instrumental, andthat's regardless of the size or
the location.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I think that's really important.
I always remind peopleeverything should be towards
your company goals and what youwant to do, and especially like
on the marketing side.
We have a lot of like smallmarketing teams that are tasked
with doing all this kind ofstuff and they're like I just
feel overwhelmed and I'm likeit's okay to be like, hey, what
is this, what is the goal ofthis?
(21:27):
How does it align to ourcompany goals?
Because if somebody hasn'tthought through that, then it
might not be the right fit forwhat you're doing or not
something that you have toprioritize.
So I love hearing that fromsomebody who produces this huge
show you know, like that's stillreally important.
Everything we do still needs toalign to the company goals, and
then we scale based on on that.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So that's really good , you know, and you know I love
that we have this huge eventthat we can see our successes
and and grow from every year.
But it's also the little winsthat you have to take into
account as you get to that largeevent as well.
Um, like I said, you know it'sgoing to be.
There's going to be ups anddowns, ups and flows, and just
maintaining, you know, somehumility about it and some drive
(22:06):
, yeah, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Absolutely.
And I knew about South bySouthwest London because we are
really excited that we get tohave you guys in Austin for our
TMSA Elevate show, which is June8th through 10th.
But part of when we were tryingto decide who is going to come
was because this was right onthe tail end of South by
Southwest London and we werelike, okay, who can come?
What makes sense?
(22:30):
This panel is really exciting.
People have asked me how weaccomplished it and I said I was
a very persistent executivedirector.
To this wonderful woman namedTammy, who I remember our first
meeting, I was like what do youknow about us?
And like you're like this justkind of fell into my lap Tell me
more.
But I loved because what wedecided to put together is this
(22:53):
really awesome panel of youtalking about the event side.
We have the former chief brandofficer of South by Southwest
coming on the panel and then wealso have your customer
relationship person at Friedmanwho does the logistics of the
event, and so it's this reallypowerful presentation panel of
people who do all of theexecution, from marketing to
(23:16):
sales, to operations, toexecution.
And then we have BryceBrumley-ley milligan, who will
be um, who does everything islogistics podcast and tmsa board
member.
She'll be the moderator forthis panel.
So, um, that's like my quickhit, but you tell us what, what
you're excited about, whatpeople can expect from the panel
yeah, I'm super excited becauseyou know the way I thought
about it was almost like ajourney.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Um.
So jay mabaska as you mentioned, she is our former co-president
.
She just recently retired butis still very much involved with
the company and she was ourchief brand officer for a number
of years.
So she is the brains behind ourlook and feel and our brand
message and has been for manyyears.
And then Barb Barb has been ouryou know contact with Freeman
(24:01):
AV since the early 90s.
So she's been with us foralmost the whole run of South by
Southwest and so she has seenit grow.
And so this journey is, you know, we start at the unveiling of
our look and feel every year forthe next event, which we just
got a sneak peek of and we mayget to see it during your
conference, maybe like thepublic and be like it's really,
(24:23):
it's, it's great, I love it.
But it starts with her and itstarts with brand and building
the brand and the messaging youknow.
And then there's, you know,they've sold the dream and now
it goes into Tammy world whereI've got to facilitate the dream
and make sure that it goes offwithout a hitch and I'm
delivering it.
(24:44):
I want it to be all over socialmedia about how awesome it was.
And then there's also anotherlayer of that, and that's Farm
and Freeman and the amount of AVequipment that they have got to
bring into the city of Austinis.
It's a logistical like wonderwhat she does, and she does it
(25:05):
with a smile on her face andshe's keeping us happy and she's
fixing the problems and puttingout the fires, and so, you know
, I just think it's reallyinteresting to be able to
introduce all these differentperspectives into how we pull
off this really large event,because it's not just South by
Southwest, it's our vendors,it's our you know our clients,
it's people bringing things intoAustin, it's all of our local
(25:27):
businesses supporting us as well.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So just being able to tell the story of the bigger
picture, I think, is reallyexciting to us, because we don't
get to do that very often, andwhat do you think is important
for transportation marketing andsales professionals that will
be in the audience to reallyunderstand the event operation
side of things and what they cantake home with them?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
So it's a lot of the coordination but it's a lot of
building relationships.
It's how you communicate withone another and the important
bits of that communication.
You know how is it that youknow we are going to put in this
infrastructure that has so manydifferent moving pieces to it?
You know it's a big puzzlereally, because you've got the
(26:10):
brand bed, you've got the youknow the logistics operations
bit and then you've got all ofour sales clients and our
vendors and trying to fit thattogether in a way that makes
sense.
It's difficult, it'schallenging, but completely
doable and you just have to beable to understand kind of the
motivation and how it works best.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I love that, really excited.
So hopefully everyone that'slistening will join us at TMSA
Elevate June 8th through 10th.
They are closing out our showand I'm happy to announce that
if you're watching this, we havea flash sale going on for
tickets.
So if you go to register, usethe code FLASH all caps and
(26:56):
you'll be able to get that dealnow through Friday, may 9th.
So check that out, get yourflash sale, join us here
directly from Tammy and her team.
Really really excited to haveyou and happy you came on the
show.
One last question for you thatI ask everybody who comes on and
that's if you could go back intime and advise a younger Tammy
(27:17):
anything personally orprofessionally.
When would you go back to andwhat would you say?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I think I'd probably go back to before I started at
South by Southwest in my youknow, maybe high school years
and I would tell myself to makesure that you be your generalist
about life and that you are alifelong learner, because you
don't have to know everythingabout everything, you just have
to know something about a lot ofthings and I think that helps
you through life, open a lot ofdoors, have a different
(27:52):
perspective, see the biggerpicture, build relationships.
So I would say, don't staysiloed, get involved, stay
engaged and you never know, youcould end up at south by
southwest as the vp of eventoperations I love that.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I think that's really great advice.
So happy to have you on theshow and have you coming to
elevate.
If you guys want to check outthe show, next week we'll be
joined by jessica whit who willbe um.
She's with warnercommunications and pr.
They are a new member of TMSAcoming to Elevate for the first
time, so really excited to haveher join the show.
And if you want to register forElevate, I'll pop up that QR
(28:30):
code one more time for you.
Remember to use the code FLASHwhen you are registering now
through the end of the speak.
And, tammy, it was so great tohave you on the show.
It's been wonderful to workwith you over the past couple
months and I'm excited to seeall the work that we've been
doing come to fruition as well,I'm looking forward to seeing
everybody in austin, and I hopeto see a lot of new faces too
(28:51):
perfect, sounds good, thank you,and thank you good day and see
you in austin.
Yes you, thank you.
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