To celebrate The Event Group's 20th Anniversary, each month this year we are looking back at some of the milestones that brought us to today. This month we look at a few of our more complicated events.

The Event Group at 20: Lights, Camera, Action

Prior to founding The Event Group, Incorporated, Eileen Manning began her career as a photographer/video producer. Before she was 20, she was working for a top national ad agency on photo shoots in New York and commercials in Hollywood. After being recruited away from the ad world, Eileen moved to a Fortune 500 company, where she began to produce a series of meetings and videos designed to motivate the company’s large salesforce. Those experiences were foundational to her view of event production, and that history is one reason TEG takes special pride in the design and execution of all our events!

In the early days, Eileen often travelled with a semi full of production gear. She was involved in all aspects of the productions, including shooting, writing scripts, recording sound, editing, and working with speakers and executives. She and her team were tasked with producing content that was both educational and actionable – not unlike the events TEG produces today.

Eileen found that the creative staff and the logistics staff were frequently fighting over budgets: one team wanted the room to be grander, the other thought more money should go toward the entertainment, etc. Her view was that everyone was on the same team and it was important not to lose sight of the original goals of the event and make decisions to support that. In the end, she successfully lobbied to have the groups integrated into a single department. That philosophy helped inform the structure of The Event Group, where Eileen again put marketing and logistics on the same team since they need to work hand-in-hand to execute a successful event. At The Event Group, we strongly believe that the visual aspect of an event can help complement and reinforce the message being delivered. Since not everyone is an auditory learner, having the right visual cues to guide the attendees can help them retain the important information and get more out of the event.

Additionally, many of our events are recorded or televised, which provides the added challenge of having to stage both for the in-person audience as well as the cameras. Often times, this can also mean collaborating with TV producers and union members on the final production. Based on our experience, we know what’s needed to make it work – and just as importantly for our clients’ bottom lines, we speak A/V lingo and know what isn’t needed.

If you missed any of our previous 20th Anniversary milestones, you can read about them here: TEG Milestones