This one is personal.

Jenny spent a year planning a football-themed Mitzvah. Custom turf dance floor. Stenciled logo. A smoke-filled entrance moment that made her client cry. Every detail intentional, every element designed to land. And it did.

Then the caterer was late.

And just like that, everything Jenny built disappeared. Not physically — but emotionally. The tears at the door were gone. The dance floor stopped mattering. The client rewrote the story in real time, and Jenny was left holding the outcome of decisions that were never hers to make.

This is called the vacuum effect. When one thing goes wrong in a live experience, it pulls every positive emotion right out of the room. And the finger always points at you.

In this episode Jenny shares the raw truth of what happened, what she should have done differently, and the one conversation that would have protected her work before the first vendor was ever booked.

This is an expensive lesson. She is sharing it so you do not have to learn it the same way.

In this episode:

Get the workbook: amazon.com

Matthew Barney left the Coast Guard, bought a one way ticket to Seattle, signed a lease on an apartment he never saw, and built a career producing experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world including AWS, Delta, and Microsoft. He describes himself as a creative person who became operationally dangerous. The moment I read that I knew we had to talk.

In this conversation Matthew and I go deep on emotional design, why the gap between the event floor and the sales team is the most expensive gap in this industry, how he uses intentional gifting to create memories that last years, and what it actually takes to earn a seat at the table with C suite executives.

If you have ever wondered whether creativity or strategy matters more in experiential, this episode will change how you think about that question entirely.

The Proof Problem Masterclass is free and linked in the show notes. Watch it before you plan your next activation.

I was standing in a former Denver Broncos airplane hangar in a gown, throat on fire, two major experiences back to back that weekend. And when I woke up on Monday morning I could not tell you what a single one of them did for the business. Not one metric. Not one data point.

Twenty five years in this industry. An MBA in marketing. And I had nothing to show for it except a beautiful experience nobody could measure.

In this episode I talk about what that moment cracked open in me, what I did about it, and why the professionals who will lead this industry over the next five years are not the most creative ones or the most logistically gifted ones. They are the ones who can prove their work actually changed something.

The events industry is not being replaced by AI. The execution is. And the strategy has to come from somewhere. This episode is about where it comes from.

Topics covered: why attendance and engagement are not metrics, what the Bizzabo 2026 data actually tells us about the measurement gap, how emotion drives behavior and behavior drives outcomes, and the framework that changed everything about how I work.

You have been in that budget meeting. The one where someone asks whether the event was worth the spend and nobody in the room can answer the question. In this episode, Jenny Howard-Maxwell makes the case that events are not a line item to defend. They are an asset to invest in. And when you start showing up that way, everything changes. Your budget. Your title. The way your clients see you. Jenny shares the story of a $15,000 RFP that became a $100,000 engagement and the strategic framework that made it possible. If you are ready to stop justifying your work and start proving it, this episode is for you.

There is a title that has been quietly redefining what the events industry pays for and who gets the seat at the table. Experiential strategist. And if you have been in this industry for seven to ten years, designing corporate events, brand activations, and experiential campaigns, there is a good chance you already are one. You just do not have the language to prove it yet. In this episode I share why I held the titles of VP of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer and still could not bring myself to claim that identity, what the research actually shows about how experiential strategists land these roles, and the three outcome categories that separate a planner from a strategist in the eyes of the brands paying six figures for this work. This one is for the planner who knows they are more than a logistics expert but has not found the words to say so yet.

Most event planners are not hearing what the job boards are actually saying right now. Last week I pulled 12 real experiential marketing job postings from Google, Reddit, Versace, SKIMS, Vuori, and A24. What I found changes everything about how you need to be presenting yourself in this market. Seventy five percent of those postings did not require a degree. But every single one required the same thing: proven results. In this episode I break down exactly what the market is screening for, why so many talented planners are struggling to make that case, and what you can do right now to close the gap. If your resume is full of events and empty of outcomes, this one is for you.

After twenty years in the industry, Jenny has noticed a pattern: when event professionals aren't sure their event is working, they add more. More décor. More activations. More production value. More spend.

But more is not the answer. Clarity is.

In this episode, Jenny breaks down the one question every event professional needs to answer before they book a single vendor — and how that question changes everything downstream.

In this episode:

Your takeaway: Before your next event, answer this — "What does this event need to accomplish?" Write it down. Make it specific. Then let it drive every decision that follows.

Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

In this episode, Jenny breaks down every major certification in the events industry: the CMP, CSEP, CMM, DES, CEM, and DMCP. What they cover, who they're built for, and where they sit in the landscape.

Then she explains the gap none of them fill — and why that gap is exactly what CPES was built for.

If you're a mid-career event professional who already knows how to run events but can't get a seat at the strategic table, this episode will help you understand what's missing and what to do about it.

In this episode:

Learn more about CPES: edgucationinstitute.com

There are two types of event professionals in this industry. Planners and strategists. And for too long, there has been no clear path from one to the other.

In this episode, I am talking about the gap that has been holding talented, experienced, brilliant event professionals back. Not because they are not good enough. Not because they do not work hard enough. But because the industry built an entire profession without building the pathway to advance within it.

That ends now.

We are talking about why the Planner Plateau is real and why it is not your fault. Why clients are no longer buying events, they are investing in outcomes. Why the existing certifications in this industry were never designed to take you to the strategic level. And what it actually looks like when you have the framework, the language, and the credential to show up as a strategic partner instead of a vendor.

The Experiential Edge Blueprint, built around five pillars: Purpose, Emotion, Behavior, Activation and Anchoring, and Outcome, is the methodology that connects what you design to what your client needs to prove. This episode is about why that framework exists, why the industry needs it, and why you are the one who gets to carry it forward.

The path is built. Come be part of the standard we are setting together.

Enroll in the CPES Certification: https://edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment

Join me at The Strategists Hour — free monthly live session: https://jennyhm.com/thestrategistshour

I want you to think about the most successful event you have ever planned. Not the biggest. Not the most expensive. The one where you knew, in your bones, that you had done something extraordinary.

Now I want you to think about how it felt when someone else took that moment away from you.

In this episode, I am sharing a story I have never forgotten. A three hour event across three floors of a stunning Denver hotel. A fourteen foot branded Christmas tree. Employees pulling me aside to tell me it was the best company party of their lives. And a Monday morning debrief that opened with a tip jar and burnt sweet potatoes.

That call changed everything I believed about event planning. Because I realized I had handed my client a blank scorecard and let him fill it in himself.

If you have ever walked out of a debrief feeling deflated after doing extraordinary work, this episode is for you. We are talking about the single most important conversation you are probably skipping, why vacuums always get filled by whoever shows up with an opinion, and what changes when you stop hoping your client noticed and start making sure they know.

This is not about difficult clients. This is not about unreasonable expectations. This is about a vacuum. And this episode is about making sure you are the one who fills it first.

In this episode:

The story of the Oxford Hotel holiday party and the debrief that changed how I plan every event. Why your client will always default to what went wrong when there is no framework in place. What the burnt sweet potatoes were really telling me. How defining success before a single vendor is booked changes everything about the debrief, your authority, and how your clients see you. Why this is not just a professional strategy. It is an act of self respect.

Join me at The Strategist's Hour

Once a month I go live for one free hour to teach exactly this framework. How to run the purpose conversation before anything else is decided. How to set KPIs your client will actually use. How to walk into every debrief already knowing you won.

Register here: https://jennyhm.com/thestrategistshour

Get certified:

The Certified Professional Experiential Strategist certification teaches you the full Strategic Experience Design methodology so you can lead every event with purpose, strategy, and proof of impact.

Learn more at edgucationinstitute.com/enrollment