If you've ever wondered about the inner workings of events like XOXO, World Domination Summit, Sneaker Week, and the One Motorcycle Show, you're in for a treat. Our guest this week, Rachel Coddington, shares the deets on how small teams can manage such large events and handle controversies with grace and poise.

Guest Bio

Rachel Coddington currently works alongside the vibrant minds at Instrument, creating more meaningful experiences across disciplines and skill levels. Her passion lies in formatting moments of togetherness to be accessible and inclusive- which frequently means integrating technology with a more thoughtful lens. 

She has spent the last 10 years creating and managing events, both independently—XOXO, World Domination Summit, Sneaker Week PDX, One Motorcycle Show—and through Design Week Portland as their Managing Director. She prides herself on creating seamless, entertaining, incendiary events with enthusiasm, skill and experience.

Key Topics and Takeaways

0:03:58 - Event Curation and Experiential Design

Rachel touches on two key aspects of event planning and curation. First, she emphasizes the importance of supporting event curators by taking care of logistical details, such as speaker arrangements and accommodations, to allow them to focus on content and experience creation. Second, Rachel underscores the significance of deeply understanding event attendees. This involves not only their interests but also their physical, social, and psychological needs, such as catering to introverts, individuals with social anxiety, and parents with children.

0:17:50 - Security and Inclusion at Events

We talk about XOXO's response to an online harassments campaign targeting one of their speakers. Rachel walks us through the security measures put in place, including the identification of key individuals and potential threats. We also look at extra steps events can take to create space for attendees when an event touches on difficult topics.

0:33:28 - Managing an event team with honesty and empathy

Rachel shares how she strikes a balance between empathy and reality when managing an event team within a large event agency like Instrument. How do we show compassion for a situation and provide what is feasible while being truthful about the company's needs? We also discuss the pros and cons of working for an agency, vs being an independent event producer.

Want to dive deeper? Take our free 30 minute training, Community Event Mastery. Access it here.

Next episode: Building and leading strong event teams

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy