Event Production and Trade Show Management with Jeff Bogan

What you need to know

• Expert event production leaders manage both logistics and team dynamics to solve problems.
• Asking cascading questions helps production teams put the right resources in place to execute.
• Clarity leads to efficiency, which supports the event budget.

Jeff Bogan’s job is to bridge creative vision and technical execution teams for corporate events and trade shows held all over the globe. As Vice President of Production at Hartmann Studios, Jeff oversees multiple production departments to fulfill global event creative designs and deliverables for clients like Adobe, Cisco and the city of San Francisco. He’s responsible for event management logistics for everything from championship parades to international trade shows.

We asked Jeff about what fuels his work, the essentials of event production success and how he approaches leadership to ensure the best outcomes for his clients.

Q: What fuels your passion for event production?

Jeff: There are always new variables. We work with different clients, teams and partner vendors on different types of events. I like to complete things. I’m also often involved at the front end of a project, clarifying our client’s goals and expectations so our team has a well-defined problem to solve. 

Q: You work on some extremely complex global events. Can you give us a sense of the scale of the projects you take on?

Jeff: We work in difficult situations. I remind our team that clients don’t hire us to do the easy work that they can do themselves.

One of our biggest annual events is a retailer’s private trade show that covers 600,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space. Between 30-100 suppliers demonstrate products within each of nearly 20 departments. It takes 10-12 days to load in 50-60 trucks worth of custom fabricated scenic and exhibits, 400 trucks of product and vendor shipments, five trucks of AV, two trucks of lighting and seven trucks of rigging. Daily labor calls involve between 100-300 professionals and a staff of 60+. I was responsible for all the logistics , vendors and labor behind executing. Those big events are where our team makes connections and bonds.

My first international event was Cisco IoT in Dubai. That was an opportunity to take a client that we worked with domestically and execute for them internationally. Working with different partners and groups overseas was an exciting challenge, and we created a unique solution. It’s important to learn the customs and terminology to communicate effectively.

Q: What elements make for a successful corporate event?

Jeff: If we’re talking about a wish list, we can help our clients best when they have:  

• A clear understanding of what they want to accomplish.  
• A team willing to partner with us to further define the problem and the right solution. 
• Stakeholders that are open to letting us push what they think is possible for the best attendee experience.  

Q: Tell us your priorities to kick off event production.

Jeff: A lot of our clients come to us with a very general idea, and it’s up to us to make that more specific so it’s more tangible and realistic for our teams to execute. The first questions we ask help to define the scope of the event. Getting tactical right off the bat is critical to make sure we get the right team in place for what the client needs.

I want to know parameters like: Do you have a general session? Do you have breakouts? Do you have an expo floor or a trade show hall? Is it open for public participation, or is it a private meeting with a select audience? Do you have evening events? Do you have a welcome reception? Do you have a closing event or concert? Once defined, the teams move into an information funnel, figuring out what are the do’s and don’ts for that particular part of the show. If you are having a general session: Where is it? How long? What’s your show like? Who’s providing creative? For breakouts: How many breakouts? How many run concurrently?

That information will tell you which vendors you can put in play.

Q: Collaboration is key. How do you create success across diverse event teams?

Jeff: I’m constantly surrounded by talented and tenured people on our projects. Encouraging our team to listen, learn and stay humble is key. My technical expertise got me into this field. What’s put me where I’m at now is my ability to read the room, look at the broader picture, take a breath and make the best decision to push the event in the right direction. Come to the table with a common goal of solving the event and everyone looking good. I think you get more collaboration when you demonstrate expertise but remain polite to people. You’re only as good as your last show. That’s our mantra.

Q: What event management question do you get again and again?

The most common is “What is this going to cost?” Oftentimes, our clients struggle with putting a value or figure on a solution. Unfortunately, we can’t flip to a page in a catalog. There’s more complexity in our field. That’s why we ask a lot of questions.

It’s like being in an escape room. We keep asking questions to unlock the right solution. If we go down multiple paths, we waste time. Since our time equates to clients’ money, the faster we can get the right answers, the quicker and cheaper we can execute. That frees up more budget to pay for event inclusions instead of spending on event management.

All our senior production staff can take an open-ended request and know what questions to ask, what levers to pull, what vendors to engage to get an event to the next phase.

Q: Where do you find event industry inspiration?

Jeff: There’s an industry event every week. The Grammys. The Academy Awards. It’s fun to see what can be done on that scale with a big budget and all year to plan. We never get that luxury, but we can draw ideas, concepts and tactics from them. We also work with a lot of the same contractor and vendor talent in the industry. Spending time with our network of people is how you soak in a lot of that information.

Never being able to rest on our laurels is also refreshing and inspiring. You can’t get stale.

Discover more of the magic Jeff’s teams make executing corporate events, worldwide.