The Experiential Strategist with Jenny Howard-Maxwell

JennyHoward-Maxwell
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship

The industry spends $128 billion on experiential every year. Only 23% of the people producing it can prove it worked. The Experiential Strategist is the podcast for experiential professionals who are done being measured by logistics and ready to be recognized for outcomes. Hosted by Jenny Howard-Maxwell, founder of the Edgucation Institute and creator of the Certified Professional Experiential Strategist certification, this show covers the psychology of experience design, the science of measuring behavioral and emotional outcomes, and the framework that changes how you work and how you are valued. If you have ever produced an activation that landed and still could not prove what it drove, this podcast was made for you.

  1. 1d ago

    The Cabbage Patch Kid Effect: How to Stop Being Just Another Event Planner

    The Cabbage Patch Kid Effect: How to Stop Being Just Another Event Planner Why do some event professionals get compared on price while others become indispensable strategic partners? In this episode, Jenny Howard-Maxwell takes us back to the toy catalogs of the 1980s to explain a challenge facing today's event industry: when everyone appears to offer the same thing, clients have little reason to choose based on anything other than price. The solution isn't a fancier proposal, a new job title, or more impressive event photos. It's learning to connect experiences to business objectives, design with intention, and prove what changed as a result. In This Episode The catalog problem: Why event proposals can make talented professionals look interchangeable. The Cabbage Patch Kid Effect: What a uniquely designed experience can teach us about differentiation. The planner plateau: Five signs that your skills are growing but your pay, influence, and opportunities aren't. The execution trap: Why delivering a flawless event isn't the same as demonstrating business impact. The five steps off the planner plateau: Connect, differentiate, prove, market, and communicate. The strategist shift: How to move from delivering an event brief to helping shape the business decisions behind it. How Strategist Are You? Ready to discover where you are on your journey from event executor to experiential strategist? Take the free Strategist Quiz from the Edgucation Institute. 👉 https://edgucationinstitute.com/strategistquiz About Your Host Jenny Howard-Maxwell is an experiential strategist and founder of the Edgucation Institute, where she teaches event professionals how to connect experiences to business goals, demonstrate their value, and become certified experiential strategists. You're listening to The Experiential Strategist — the strategy conversation the events industry has needed. Follow the show for more conversations about experiential strategy, business impact, and building a more valuable career in events.

  2. Oct 8

    Designing Events for Energy, Emotion & Impact with Dahlia El Gazzar

    What if the most important KPI at your next event isn’t on a spreadsheet? This week on The Experiential Strategist, I sit down with Dahlia El Gazzar, founder and Chief Ruckus Maker at Dahlia+ Agency and winner of PCMA’s 2026 Visionary Award for Digital Event Strategist. Google her and you’ll see tech. Talk to her and it’s all energy, emotion, and people. We get into why your program needs white space, how to design for your first-time attendee, the new KPI called ELUs (Eyes Light Up), and how to explain energy and emotion to the people holding the budget. Plus, Dahlia tells the story of stealing pool mattresses from a resort in Egypt to take 500 guests into the desert to watch shooting stars. And yes, we disagreed. Dahlia says event professionals don’t need another designation. I say the future is “Event Planner, comma, what?” Stick around to hear where we landed. If you’re tired of being polite and ready to make a ruckus, this one’s for you. In this episode: 00:00 Welcome and meet Dahlia 04:06 Designing for energy at a 15,000-person conference 07:48 Your program needs white space 10:04 The Vibe Arc Audit: journey mapping for energy 14:00 ELUs: a framework you can use tomorrow 16:32 Why first-timers don’t come back 19:35 How to sell energy and emotion to leadership 24:19 Pool mattresses in the Egyptian desert 30:12 Why “Chief Ruckus Maker” 37:36 AI: what’s real and what’s hype 41:17 The designation debate 46:13 Rapid fire Connect with Dahlia: Heading to IMEX? Find Dahlia on the Tech Stage and at Booth B4786 at the Dahlia+ pavilion. Email: dahlia@dahliaplus.com LinkedIn: Dahlia El Gazzar Work with Jenny: Free guide, From Event Executor to Experiential Strategist: https://edgucationinstitute.com/executortostrategist Book a free strategy session with me: https://jennyhm.com/meet Learn about the CPES certification: https://edgucationinstitute.com If this conversation fed your soul too, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with the event professional who needs to hear it.

  3. Oct 5

    Booked Solid Is Not a Badge of Honor

    Booked solid. Back to back events. Exhausted. And your income hasn't moved in years. If you own an event business and you've been in this industry 15+ years, this episode is for you. Jenny Howard-Maxwell breaks down why busy is not a business model, why a fancy new title won't change how clients price you, and the 2017 billion dollar acquisition event that changed everything for her. Plus, the one question to ask on your very next client call that shifts you from executor to Experiential Strategist. Grab the free guide, From Event Executor to Experiential Strategist: edgucationinstitute.com/executortostrategist More revenue, less stress. It starts with proving event success.

  4. Sep 21

    The Planner Plateau (And How to Get Unstuck)

    If you're a planner stuck in logistics after 5, 7, even 20 years in this industry, this episode is for you. Jenny breaks down why the events market is completely saturated with the same title carrying wildly different skill sets, why that's making it harder for hiring managers and clients to know exactly what you specialize in, and the one thing that changes your position in this market: a designation that tells your story before you ever say a word. Jenny gets honest about her own 20 years stuck at the same level, why her MBA meant exactly zero in this industry, and why she never earned her CMP or her CSEP, even after serving on the ILEA board. Plus, the real reason she built the Edgucation Institute and the CPES certification from scratch. Read the full breakdown of the industry's certifications on the blog: https://jennyhm.com/post/the-problem-with-the-event-planner-title Ready to break the planner plateau? Register for this week's live webinar: https://webinar.digitalcreatorstudio.io/webinar/registration/692a5da0f85a8bee7d0743c2

  5. Sep 8

    How to Push Back on an Event Brief (Whether You're Two Days or Six Months Out)

    Ever watched a decision unfold in real time and just known it was going to backfire, but stayed quiet anyway? This week, Jenny gets personal about the hardest skill in event planning: knowing when and how to say no. Jenny walks through three real stories from her 20 years in the industry: a headline performer that killed the momentum of an entire fundraiser, a mechanical bull that almost derailed a western-themed milestone event, and a vodka luge that actually worked because it was designed with intention. Each one reveals a different piece of the same lesson. Not every "fun" idea belongs in your event, and knowing the difference is what separates a planner from a strategist. You'll learn: Why pushing back on clients (respectfully) is part of your job, not a risk to your reputation How mapping a purpose statement and emotional arc gives you the confidence, and the language, to say no The framework Jenny uses to test any idea before it makes the cut: Purpose, Behavior, Emotion, Activation & Anchoring, Outcome Why the real question is never "is this fun?" but "does this get us to the outcome we want?" If this episode resonates and you're ready to build this framework for yourself, enroll now at Edgucation Institute. Link below. 👇 Show Notes: 🔗 Enroll at Edgucation Institute: https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment 📩 Connect with Jenny: Jenny@JennyHM.com

  6. Aug 31

    The Night I Lost My Power (And How I Took It Back)

    Every event planner has a version of this story. You produce something beautiful. You do everything right. And then one detail, completely out of your control, becomes the entire verdict on your work. In this episode, I'm telling you about the fifty thousand dollar, three story holiday event I planned for a well known brand. Fourteen foot branded Christmas trees. Live entertainment. A quiet lounge for guests who wanted to step away from the crowd. It was one of the best events I had produced. And on Monday morning, I got scrutinized anyway, because a new bartender put out a tip jar at a fully hosted bar, and that single moment became the lens my client used to judge the entire night. This episode is about the deep frustration every planner feels when we're held responsible for every detail and idiot move from vendors we vetted and trusted ourselves. It's about what happens when you let someone else define success for you after the fact, instead of defining it yourself before the event ever starts. And it's about the framework I built so it never happens to me, or the planners I train, again. If you've ever walked away from an event knowing it was good and gotten torn apart for reasons that had nothing to do with your actual work, this one is for you. In this episode: Why an MBA in marketing didn't stop me from getting blindsided on my own event The full story behind the tip jar, the sweet potatoes, and the valet line Why "it felt like a hit" is not the same as proof The three languages every event planner needs to learn: outcomes, ROI, and leadership How to take your power back before the next event, not after Show Notes / Links Enroll in the Certified Professional Experiential Strategist (CPES) certification: https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment Learn more about Jenny and HM Experiential: https://jennyhm.com/meet-jenny Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyhoward-maxwell/ Subscribe to The Experiential Strategist podcast: https://theexperientialstrategist.podbean.com/ Read this week's Tuesday Edge newsletter: Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7411811551592218625

  7. Aug 19

    The Events Industry Never Had a Measurement Standard. Dax Callner Built One.

    Dax Callner has spent over 25 years building marketing programs for brands like P&G, American Express, Google, and Microsoft. But what earned him a seat on this show isn't the client list. It's that he looked at an industry spending billions of dollars every year and realized almost nobody in it could prove what their events actually produced. So he built the standard himself. Dax is founder and board president of EMMA, the Experiential Marketing Measurement Association, and in this conversation we get into why measurement became his life's work, what changed when EMMA rebranded from its former name, and why he refuses to use the term ROI even though everyone else in the industry throws it around. In this episode, we cover: Why Dax became obsessed with truth long before he became obsessed with measurement The new EMMA certification launching this month, and what the 13 modules actually cover Why "ROI" is the wrong word for what most of us are trying to measure, and what he uses instead The moment his agency chose to tell a client the truth about a failed event, and what it earned them The difference between tacticians and strategists, and why both matter What has to change industry-wide for events to stop being the first line item cut from a marketing budget Why asking why is the most important skill an event planner can learn If you have ever finished an event, called it a success, and had no real way to prove it, this conversation is for you. Connect with Dax Callner and EMMA: Website: eventmeasurement.org https://www.linkedin.com/company/eventmeasurement/ Connect with Jenny: https://edgucationinstitute.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyhoward-maxwel

  8. Aug 10

    Are We Taking ROI Too Far

    I dropped an F-bomb on this podcast for the first time. That should tell you how strongly I feel about this one. Last week I moderated two debate series at Event Konnector, and one conversation got more heated than anything else on the agenda: how far the events industry is willing to go to prove ROI. Facial recognition at check-in. Technology built to read attendee emotion in real time. All of it justified the same way, we have to prove this worked. I break down what the data actually shows, why the companies that built this tech don't even trust it anymore, and where I land on measuring emotion the right way, without ever putting a camera on someone's face. I still believe in proving your event's ROI more than almost anything. This episode is about the line between proving it and surveilling the people who showed up to find out. Read the whole rant here: https://jennyhm.com/post/are-we-trying-to-measure-too-much-at-our-events

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The industry spends $128 billion on experiential every year. Only 23% of the people producing it can prove it worked. The Experiential Strategist is the podcast for experiential professionals who are done being measured by logistics and ready to be recognized for outcomes. Hosted by Jenny Howard-Maxwell, founder of the Edgucation Institute and creator of the Certified Professional Experiential Strategist certification, this show covers the psychology of experience design, the science of measuring behavioral and emotional outcomes, and the framework that changes how you work and how you are valued. If you have ever produced an activation that landed and still could not prove what it drove, this podcast was made for you.

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