Farah Allen is an accomplished media technology leader with over 17 years of experience. Allen is currently the CEO & founder of ‘The Labz, The Labz is an interactive events platform that allows event organizers and content creators an entertainment-focused event solution that increases their RSVP rate and drives more revenue. Whether presenting films, theater productions, episodic and panel discussions, The Labz makes an exciting theatrical online experience.  Farah’s previous executive positions include President and CEO of The Allen Group Management consulting Agency, where her clients included fortune 500 companies, and CEO and Cofounder of Song Society App. Farah has the honor of being the AJC Women of the Year for technology and is featured in publications such as Forbes and The Washington Post. The Labz also was named by Atlanta American Inno top startup to watch.

Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Farah Allen: [00:00:00] Hi, my name is Farah Allen and I'm the founder of the Labs Fair.

[00:00:19] Jahn Karsybaev: [00:00:19] Thanks so much for finding time to join us on the Abbey podcast. Can you tell us before we talk about your current company and your role as the CEO and founder of that, give us a thumbnail version of your career timeline.

[00:00:33] Farah Allen: [00:00:33] Ah, thumbnail. Okay. I'll try. Well, my career started in architecture and construction. Yeah, silence is creative, but I was also some one whose parents wouldn't allow me to be an artist. So I became an architect. And through my time in architecture was great, but then I realized I couldn't be frank. I'd first start out making bathroom remodels, and I just didn't like that feeling. So technology was my next step in my career. Technology just opened up so many doors for me just to create what I wanted to. It's really fascinating to know that we can build anything via technology. I started a management consulting company and was very successful with that, but unfortunately I had to give all the products I created a way and I wanted to keep the products I wanted to build a company. I just had that strong desire and a lack of opportunity as a woman and trying to quickly expand my career and she had negative roles. This didn't seem like the opportunities were there for me. So I made my own opportunity and started the labs.

[00:01:47] Jahn Karsybaev: [00:01:47] I love what you just said. I decided to create my own opportunity. That's a very powerful statement in a way that I also operate in that way that I'm a creator first. I'm a builder first. And if there is, at the end of the day, it's not about knocking on the doors, just almost building your own door. So that definitely resonates, which leads me to that further point. Tell us a little bit about what you have built. What are you currently working on?

[00:02:14] Farah Allen: [00:02:14] Yeah. So I have built a way for creators to express selves online. So that's via collaboration. Having very visual collaborative tools, which ultimately right now, the tools that are collaborative are made by engineers that may not be in the creative industry because they're giving you black and white and gray. You use designs where creatives are so involved in the world. And so I'm visual. That those options weren't available. So I created options that were more visual, more customizable to how people like to create content, create music, share videos, all those things. We've built into the labs, but because of COVID. We made a shift in focus because we, sorry, users and film and theater and in music, wanted to present in the way that we've created our technology, which was very visual, very creative minded and focused, but they didn't have Technology out. They were platforms that gave them options to express themselves and present, present their content. So we took our same ideas behind the lives and put them into an event. Presentation tool that allows you to fully customize experiences that fit