The Eventex Podcast

Can a great idea beat a big event budget? Leon Winkler has spent 20 years proving it at Ubisoft — a shoestring Just Dance fashion show that earned global press, and a $300 supermarket run that won more goodwill than all the big spend around it.

His path there was anything but straight — from product marketing and PR to producing Ubisoft's presence at E3 and Gamescom. Leon went from creating a number-one TV show, and losing almost everything when it fell apart, to building some of the biggest stages in gaming.

In this episode of The Eventex Podcast, he reveals how an introverted kid obsessed with hip-hop, gaming and television became the person trusted to bring Ubisoft's biggest ideas to life.

From combining T-Pain, Lil Yachty, esports and Rainbow Six on one stage to turning an underused Gamescom booth into a party that competitors eventually started copying, Leon shares the unconventional ideas, relationships, mistakes and instincts behind his approach to live experiences.

He also goes back to where it all started: creating his own urban music TV show with almost no experience, watching it become the number-one show on its channel, and then losing the contract, money, relationships and much of the life he had built around it. He explains how starting again eventually led him to Ubisoft — including the rejection email he refused to accept — and why some of the hardest moments in his career shaped the producer he became.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How a shoestring-budget Just Dance fashion show helped put him on Ubisoft's international radar

• Why he transformed hours of Gamescom queueing into part of the experience instead of treating it as dead time

• Why a $300 supermarket run on ice creams beat far bigger event spend — and what that taught him about audiences

• Why the future may belong to smaller, more bespoke experiences rather than bigger productions for the sake of scale

• Why he believes in-person experiences matter more than ever — even as brands chase digital reach

• How Leon combined Celebrity Deathmatch, hip-hop and esports into a Ubisoft experience featuring T-Pain and Lil Yachty

• How creating a number-one TV show ultimately cost him almost everything, and what made him start again

• How he turned a rejection from Ubisoft into a job offer — and stayed for the next 20 years

• What happened when a Ubisoft party on the 21st floor left executives stuck in an elevator and hundreds of guests outside

• Why agencies, clients and producers all share responsibility when an event goes wrong

• How he uses AI as a creative sparring partner without letting it replace human ideas

• Why the strongest Eventex Awards entries show how people actually felt — not just how beautiful the event looked

• What going all-in on a career can cost — and why Leon now reminds himself not to forget to live

This is not a straight-line career story. It's a conversation about taking risks before you know what you're doing, trusting your gut when something feels wrong, building a network without realizing you're building one, and learning that sometimes the most memorable event investment is simply handing an ice cream to someone who's been standing in the heat for hours.

What happens when you're responsible for LinkedIn's biggest global events — and the caterer doesn't show up, the venue cuts your capacity on the day, or the budget suddenly disappears?

Danielle Damiano Medeiros has spent 12 years building LinkedIn's presence at Cannes Lions, the World Economic Forum, NewFronts and some of the world's biggest industry gatherings. In this episode of The Eventex Podcast, she reveals what actually happens behind the polished final experience.

From creating LinkedIn's Cannes Lions speakeasy with Tao Group to rescuing a 250-person vineyard dinner with snacks from a gas station, Danielle shares the decisions, failures, politics and last-minute pivots behind major global events.

She also explains why events shouldn't end when the doors close, why creators are still underestimated by brands, where AI genuinely helps event teams, and what "doing more with less" looks like when you're working at Cannes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Danielle believes an event should become a movement, not just a moment
• How a 100-person Cannes session went on to reach 81,000+ people through content
• What she did when a caterer failed to appear for a 250-person dinner
• How she handled a venue cutting capacity on the day of the event
• Why shrinking budgets can sometimes lead to more ambitious creative ideas
• How LinkedIn turned a Cannes Lions budget problem into a partnership with Nespresso
• Why the best events create moments where guests want to film — and moments where they forget about their phones
• Where AI is genuinely useful in event production, and where human creativity still wins
• Why creators may be one of the most underestimated opportunities in events
• What working at the highest level of the events industry actually costs you

This is not a polished success story.

It's a conversation about the ideas that worked, the ones that didn't, and what event leaders do when the plan falls apart.

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About Danielle Damiano Medeiros

Danielle Damiano Medeiros is Global Head of Industry Tentpole Experiences at LinkedIn, where she leads the strategy, creative direction and execution behind LinkedIn's presence at major global industry events.

Her career spans advertising, media, experiential marketing and global events, with a focus on turning major brand moments into experiences that drive community, content and business impact.

Danielle is also a member of the Eventex Awards jury.

About The Eventex Podcast

Events and experiences, unfiltered.

Everyone sees the final result. Almost no one hears what it took to get there — the near-misses, the 3 a.m. calls, the decisions that cost more than money, and the stories that never make it into the case study.

The Eventex Podcast is where those conversations happen.

After years of covering the events and experience marketing industry through the Eventex Awards, rankings and industry indexes, this show turns the perspective around. Instead of looking at the finished work from the outside, it asks what it actually feels like to build it.

Each episode is a long-form, one-on-one conversation with someone who has been deep inside something significant — with no script, no pre-agreed questions and no PR polish.

The territory is broad: scale and execution, power and politics, crisis and chaos, creative risk, industry truths, and where events are headed next.

Hosting the show is Laura Schwartz of Laura Schwartz Live — veteran keynote speaker, emcee, former White House Director of Events, and long-time President of the Eventex Awards jury.

🎧 Discover more episodes of The Eventex Podcast at eventex.com