The cavnessHR podcast – A talk with Victoria Matey
www.cavnessHR.com

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Social Media links for Victoria Below!!

Matey Events FB: https://www.facebook.com/mateyevents/
Matey Events Twitter: https://twitter.com/MateyEvents
Matey Events Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mateyevents/
Victoria’s email: matey.events@gmail.com
Website: www.matey.events
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriamatey/
Fb: https://www.facebook.com/mateyevents/
Telegram (in Russian only): t.me/mateyevents

Victoria’s Book Recommendation!!!

"Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills” by James Gilmore.

https://amzn.to/2xoSHc6

Jason: Hello and welcome to the cavnessHR podcast. I'm your host Jason Cavness. Our guest today is Victoria Matey. Victoria are you ready to be great today?

Victoria: Yes

Jason: Victoria is a business events professional with 15 years international experience in the industry. She has successfully delivered many business events with high profiles. Such as an investment showcase in London and those on a smaller scale. In 2001, She received her first major in linguistics. From Russian University and worked as a product coordinator for various organizations. Over the years she has been involved in delivering business events and realized this was something she liked doing. She then decided to get an Events Management education. She's always been keen to share her expertise and she noticed in her home country of Russia. There was a lack of education and professional government opportunities for event specialists. So in 2015 she started Matey Events. Victoria, thank you for being here.

Victoria: My pleasure.

Jason: So, what's you keeping busy these days?

Victoria: Well it's mostly the last part that you just talked about. This is the consulting business. This is what I am mostly busy with at the moment. Because I used to run the events as you told the audience. It was both like high profile events like large scale conferences. It was also more of those as with smaller scale events. For example, you know internal meetings and trainings and workshops. So I have been doing it for a long time really for dozens of years almost. Then it just turned out that I have accumulated so much knowledge that I decided that it's time to go back. Also, because I notice that there is a lack of information, specifically for the Russian professionals to design. So it evolved throughout the three years they have been doing it since 2015. Now I'm doing the event consulting. Both for the event professionals and for the event organizers. I provide advice about how to how to plan the events from the strategic point of view. From the content point of view. But I also am developing the review at the event consulting for the participants. Because what I have noticed and what I believe is that it's kind of a shared responsibility for the event's success. When you go to the event, when you attend a conference for example or a workshop. It's not the full responsibility for the organizer only to provide you with the best event experience and the best outcomes. But it's also the event participant who should put their own efforts into making it a success. What we have now is that event professionals they do a lot to provide the improved experience. When we meet face to face we achieve a lot of results. In order to do that we need to get prepared for it. Event professionals use a lot of techniques and methods to do that. But again as I said it's not only their responsibility. It's the responsibility of the event attendees to make the most out of the investment of time and money into the event. So this is what I do. I provide them with a training about how to get prepared for the event the best way possible.

Jason: Victoria, is there a way to know if an event will be successful before it happens?

Victoria: Well, to a degree to some extent yes. You can kind of especially if it's not the first time event. You can certainly make sure that some things are done in in a way that would lead to success. But events are such things that you can't really predict it 100 percent. Again, it's very human type of business. So it's a lot of interaction between your team members, between all the event stakeholders, all the event partners and all players involved. It is also a lot of interaction between the audience happening on site. So you can't really predict all of it. But you really can make sure that you're 100 percent ready and you have done whatever is possible to do to make it a success.

Jason: Victoria, there are many factors in pulling of a great event. How do you tell people to focus on what they can control and not so much what you can't control.

Victoria: It's not about the control itself. There are specific things that you can prepare beforehand. For example, if you attend a conference you would need to make sure that you have researched properly. First of all, the first thing to do is to actually choose the right conference or the right business event. Because there are so many events going on at the same time. It's like hundreds and you need to choose wisely because it's an investment of your time and money. You need to choose wisely of where to go and why you need to go there particularly. So you need to set your own goals. You need to think about why you are attending the event. Why your attending this particular event first of all and then you set your goals. Everything else will literally come out of it naturally. Because you would need to know what you need to do in order to not just waste your time and just have fun. For example, if you have a goal of making new contacts you need to prepare yourself for the networking. Do some practicalities as well. A lot of people do not think about bringing their own business cards or just forget some required materials to bring with themselves to show to other people. So it might be as simple as that. It might be more specific. So it all depends on your goals.

Jason: Victoria, can you talk some about event design.

Victoria: Oh yes absolutely. Event design is a relatively new thing on the logistics side and it has the content side. Event design is all about creating such an experience that would be beneficial for the particular attendee. The event which would fulfill the goals of those who organize and of those who attend the event. So event design is not a simple process of putting together speakers and catering and travel things. It's actually thinking deeper about what your audience is going to achieve by attending your event and why in the first place you need to organize it for your innovation. For example if you're doing an internal event. You need to think about why you are doing this event and how it is beneficial to the overall strategy of your organization. Everything else will come out of these things.

Jason: Victoria, can you talk about your experience of doing business here in the United States and doing business in Russia?

Victoria: It's different because the mentality is different, the culture is different. I'm pleased to be in the United States from the professional point of view. It's very beneficial, because United States and the UK are the best places to be in terms of events planning and events management. They have a long history of industry development. In Russia it is different because the industry is not so developed. For me as a professional it's of course it's more interesting to stay in a place where it's all happening right now. All the new trends are emerging and developing from here. I have been working with international events so often that it's all like mixed up already. I can't really see the biggest difference because people they have been traveling a lot and as professionals they have been organizing events everywhere. So I wouldn't say there are huge differences. But there are of course.

Jason: Victoria, can you talk about a time you were successful in the past? What you learned from this success and what we can learn from the success that you had in the past.

Victoria: I would say one of my proudest moments like professional proudest moments was the investment showcase event. Which was a high profile flagship event. In London, in the UK. The event itself was about bringing the startup companies and investors together. So that the companies could showcase their services and reach their ideas to the investors. It was done in London and it is an annual event. Personally for me that was a huge advancement in my career. Because it was an event I had done for the first time abroad. It was in London high profile and in English. Again, which is not my native language. What I've learned from it was that you need to stay focused and organized as much as you can. That's those are the qualities that every event planner would need to stay focused and organized. But when it comes to working in another country and in another language. It probably you know you need it to dabble in those qualities. So I was very proud and I remember this particular case just because this is one of the first of the first events that I organized and coordinated myself abroad.

Jason: Victoria, next talk about a time you failed in the past. What you learned from this and what we can learn from this time you failed in the past.

Victoria: Event planners are always asked about the failures, because there are so many stories about what went wrong during the event planning or during the event itself. I was so lucky not to have major failures during my professional career. So I can't really share any funny story about that. I mean they were of course some minor things that luckily were fixed straight away. Sometimes it requires more effort. Sometimes it was just easier to fix. From my experience the only thing is just to stay calm. This is very important for the event planner. Because when you go and panic it won't help at all. It will even damage your reputation and damage your image, because it won't really solve the problem. So you need really to train yourself. Put yourself in that mode that you don't panic if something happens. Even if it is something major, there is always a solution. This is a major thing I want everybody to remember.

Jason: And you know first when the little details go wrong. But just stay calm, because no one else is going to notice.

Victoria: It's often the case when you think that something especially when it comes to details and you know it should not be that way. But it should be that way and you're kind of your panicking and you think oh my god everybody is noticing. People won't notice know how it should be. In those cases people are very positive about things happening within their events.

Jason: Let's talk about someone has helped you in the past and how they helped you.

Victoria: I would say it's my family first of all. Because they always support me and encourage me. I mean my family supports and knows a lot about what I'm doing. But when I think about other people my colleagues. I would say these are my bosses.

Jason: Victoria, tell us something about yourself that most people don't know. Of course, close friends and family know this. But people who know you on a day to day basis don't know this about you.

Victoria: I think most people that know me, they kind of know that I have been traveling a lot. I moved a lot within Russia as well and abroad and back and forth you know. When I tell these little details about my traveling it's probably something people don't know about me.

Jason: Victoria, I understand you have a book to recommend.

Victoria: This is a book I really liked. It is called "Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills” by James Gilmore. The book introduces this six looking glass metaphor. The author explains that we need to look at the things in different modes. Through our binoculars and focals and through the rose colored glasses. These are different methods to look at the things to find the best solution. Because some of those glasses will allow you to see the bigger picture. While others for example the microscope, allows you to look at things in the detail. What I like about this book most is that it actually applicable to every aspect of our life be it personal or professional. So I really recommend you read this book and see how it helps in daily life and professional life.

Jason: Victoria, can you share your social media for yourself your company? So people can reach out to you.

Victoria: My web site is in two languages as you said it's in Russian and in English. It has different content sometimes. But you can reach me through the web site. The website is matey.events. Then the same handle for Twitter and for Facebook for Instagram. Then my email is Mateyevents@gmail.com.

Jason: To our listeners we will have the links to her book recommendation and her social media links on our show notes. You can find our show notes at www.cavnessHRblog.com.

Jason: Victoria, we are coming to the end of our talk. Can you provide any last minute advice and wisdom on any subject you want to talk about.

Victoria: If we talk about events. If you go to an event. Make sure that you are prepared for it. Do not just leave it to the organizers to make your event experience a success. It's also your responsibility to do that. If you're an event organizer. It is one of the best times we are actually experiencing and we are witnessing what is happening in the industry. So if you want to talk about it, just drop me a message. My last minute advice like overall will be stay focused and organized.

Jason: Victoria, thank you for being a guest on our podcast. Thank you to our listeners as well and remember to be great every day.