In this episode of Event Experience, host Rachel Moore sits down with Ethan Dowie, founder and CEO of Indigo Promotions, to unpack what makes event merchandise truly memorable. From his roots in nonprofit event planning to building a go-to merch agency for top brands, Ethan shares how swag can evolve from a throwaway freebie into a strategic engagement tool.
You’ll hear how Ethan helps clients shift from transactional vendor relationships to creative, consultative partnerships. He explains why swag should be treated as the “icing on the cake”—not the afterthought—and how reverse-engineering your merch strategy around specific goals (like social sharing or post-event brand recall) leads to more effective, high-impact giveaways.
Whether it's designing diamond-studded charms for VIPs or using print-on-demand to reduce waste and increase personalization, Ethan offers insights into what’s next for event swag: quality over quantity, tech-forward fulfillment, and audience-first thinking.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:58] Rachel Moore: Everyone, welcome back to the next episode in your queue of the Event Experience podcast by Bizzabo.
I'm so happy to be here with you with today's guest, who is the founder and CEO of Indigo Promotions. What he calls a merch matchmaker for iconic brands. Over the past five years, our guest has helped companies like Zappos, MGM Resorts, Bloomberg and Mac Cosmetics create branded merchandise that people actually keep, what? When's the last time we can remember that? They keep it, they wear it and they talk about it.
He's passionate about turning ideas into unforgettable merch experiences and blending creativity with practical strategies to run successful marketing campaigns and events. Get ready for insight, fresh ideas, and stories from the world of brand building through merch.
With all that, I'm so pleased to welcome Ethan Dowey as our guest on event experience. Thanks for joining us on the pod, Ethan.
[00:01:50] Ethan Dowie: It is a true pleasure to be here, Rachel. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:53] Rachel Moore: I am excited. as I, we will get into it. I, I have thoughts, I have strong feelings about swag and mostly my family has strong feelings about them, but I'm sure we all do.
We are gonna dig into this with you.
First, I did wanna ask you some get to know you questions so our audience can get a little bit more of a sense about you. Not just what you do, but who you are as a person, which we all love.
So, first up. This is kind of a good question considering the industry of events. The fact that a lot of times it's a very long day of people running around on the ground and just trying to make sure everything's going smoothly.
Ethan, I'll ask you if you are having a long event day before you, what are your go-to on the ground event day shoes that you'll be wearing?
[00:02:31] Ethan Dowie: Wow. That is an awesome question. I always feel like, especially, this goes back to my first business, which was a nonprofit, and it was in the event space, which helped me get into this industry.
I always had some type of running shoe on no matter what, because I was bouncing from area to area to area and then I'd be driving somewhere and then I'd have to pick somebody up, and it was just always chaotic.
And I was like, I can't just be in dress shoes while I'm hosting these crazy, busy events that are keeping me on my toes. So no matter what, I will always be in some form of a running sneaker or business casual issues that can turn into a running sneaker.
[00:03:06] Rachel Moore: Well, unfortunately, I think it's great too that nowadays they are so in, I mean, it's like, "Hey, comfort over anything else," right? And, but they still can like, be super trendy and just match up with everything. So, you are definitely aligning with a whole lot of other recommendations we've gotten from our podcast guests about what they're wearing too. So love to hear that.
Is there anything that you're listening to, watching or even reading these days that you can't put down and it doesn't have to be related to events?
[00:03:30] Ethan Dowie: My favorite author is Robert Green, and I've recently just ran through all of his books from 48 Laws of Power to 33 Strategies of War and what's funny is merchandise is such an interesting piece of events and with all the strategy that's involved and all the detail, these things that I learned that are obviously not supposed to be related to merchandise. Still somehow come back to how I'm building indigo and ways that I want to connect with people down the line.
So, although it's a very serious topic, his books and all the life stuff he talks about, I find that it still relates to my world and that's an author that I can recommend to everybody for sure.
[00:04:09] Rachel Moore: Hey, we love getting new book and author recommendations on here. So that's great. And that's the thing too, is like a lot of these times, you know, whatever the topic might be, usually there's some way. This correlates to the stuff I do every day and the things that I make and the people that I talk to and things like that. So thanks for that recommendation.
Is there a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events that you might've found interesting lately?
[00:04:32] Ethan Dowie: I feel like one thing that I keep hearing and especially because it relates to swag and it relates to merch or promo items. Is that, there's a lot of recommendations for people to just forget about it and just, you know, trash it, it's not worth your budget, you're wasting money. And I will die on this hill that, that is just not the proper way to go about it.
And obviously I'm biased, but whether I was in merch or I wasn't. I just feel like people aren't thinking about it the right way. They don't consider how to creatively use items to promote the event.
And the number one lesson and the number one rule for me that I tell people when we're working on their event is, don't think of our items as the whole cake. The cake is your event itself. The merch is the icing on top.
And I have so many examples of when people have that frame. It makes the ordering process much easier and I think it allows them to become more creative.
[00:05:26] Rachel Moore: You made a cake analogy, which I'm always gonna be a fan of but I think that's such a good, good point to bring up too, where it's like, and it can be, that's a thing even, like I was thinking about us having this discussion today about the role that swag and merch plays in events and I, I love that we're tackling it because it can feel like, "Ugh, just forget about it. Don't even worry about it. Let's just not worry."
And I would get too, like, especially I would, and if you have some thoughts on this as we talk too about, you know, well decreasing budgets or maybe trying to allocate dollars differently. It's like, "Yeah, let's make swag or merch on the cutting floor," right?
But, it's such a crucial component and I really love that you are, kind of supporting that too. I think in my notes I even called it kind of a pillar of event planning for successful event execution. And, that's what we wanna talk about today, especially from you, you know, you're not just, you are working behind the scenes and stuff, but you're actually, this is your jam. Is the whole merch game.
As always, I have literally just dedicated two sentences to tell people about who you are. That's just not enough.
Ethan, wanna toss it back over to you. Can you tell our listeners more about you,your role at your current brand and, and just what your world is like right now? Get brand merch out there and be a merch matchmaker.
[00:06:39] Ethan Dowie: Heck yeah. So I, I feel like my merch story is a bit interesting because I only started this company to really fix what I saw out there when I was the orderer of branded merchandise at my past nonprofit organization.
I just never had a good experience. It always came and it was the wrong color. There was holes in it and it just was very transactional and it didn't feel good when we were ordering these very creative items.
So, I really just jumped headfirst into the industry and thought to myself, I can do a better job. I had no design experience. I just wanted to be an entrepreneur and you know, over the past five years, I've learned so much about how to work with big companies, small companies, and more importantly, how to design merchandise.
People are not only gonna keep but reference and show people and tell people. And that has been the most impactful part for me over the last five years. Just creating things that are actually remembered.
[00:07:36] Rachel Moore: And that's the whole goal. I mean, gosh, y'all. All right. Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room right now, which, you know, maybe you did do an elephant as merch for something brand or something like that. It literally comes down to that, like, how do we tie it in? How do we put, make, take something tactile that is something that can walk away and walk around and with be a representation of our brand with somebody.
And it's just this age old question and I just don't think any of our listeners or people watching this podcast are gonna be like, " Oh yeah, I've totally nailed it all the time every time." No, cause things change and stuff.
So, Ethan, you kind of mentioned too about how you got started , with merchant swag, but I'd love to dig a little bit more into your journey too.
You mentioned about being an entrepreneur, not having a design background, but saying, "I just know this is broken. And I need to get fixed." So can you tell us more about that? Like, how did you get started with this? Like what was your kinda launchpad for like, okay, let's start helping people with merch and making, it better for people?
[00:08:29] Ethan Dowie: And just so everyone knows what really my hypothesis was when I jumped right in, it was just that everything felt so transactional when I was dealing with vendors like Indigo before Indigo existed.
It was super, gimme your money and then maybe you'll get the stuff that you want. And like, I'm not even kidding, like it was over and over. That was the experience and I, I just, I didn't vibe with that. I felt like that wasn't the proper way to go about it, because the industry is so creative and so fun and so cool. There had to be a better way to do it.
So going into it, I was just like, if I can figure that portion out, that's the key that's gonna unlock us working with all of these big brands. It could have been completely wrong. But I feel like after a year of researching and working with small companies and really staying in the weeds of just being like. What do you want?
Like, I would talk to all these people and then when I would cold call and I would talk to people at events and I would just ask the buyers like, "What are you not getting right now?" Is it similar stuff to me? Is it different things?
And I feel like using all of those as like mini case studies for what's wrong with the industry and what's wrong with merchandise in general. It allowed me to mold Indigo early on into its DNA for what I thought would be the ultimate fix.
So I think year one to three, it was just me kind of like taking the feedback I was getting from people and then trying to immediately apply it to the projects that we were working on.
And it's not that I really had, "Oh, we need to make so much money off of this right away in mind." It was more so can I make their event 10 times better than it is that they were even thinking and get people talking about the merch that they're using there. And it did and it worked. And I would get this feedback and I, we would get reorders.
So I feel like it just started to flow because I was fixing all the things that I was hearing about.
[00:10:27] Rachel Moore: What a key thing too. I mean, we harp on it a lot on this podcast with a lot of our guests. you know, and we've tackled topics about event execution every which way, every aspect of it. But there's just this recurring theme. Not everybody has this down, but it's the start with listening.
And that sounds like what you did, where you're like, well, this is messed up and I can't be the only one that feels this way. So really, let me take a pulse at everybody. Are you feeling the same way I am? And or tell me all the ways that you're feeling about this. And then, okay, great. So now find those common denominators and say, well, great, well how, can we fix that then?
and gosh, you talk about event planners, all the details that they're dealing with, Like you said, where it's like, well, we paid this vendor. I sure hope. It turns out, you know, that we get the things we needed. We get them on time because it's not even just the vendor itself. I mean, if you're having an in-person event, there are customs things.
I mean, what if there's a delay? What if there's, I mean, there's stuff that's out of your control that could be, you know, whether it's geopolitical or it's economical. It might be just based on different locales. Oh my gosh, there's a strike happening over there or. the flat tire or a traffic jam happened over here.
The thing you don't wanna ha lose control over is like, yeah, but at least my vendor is not just treating me like whatever hope it works out okay. You know? And so I just really appreciate that you brought that up and you know, not even just talking to from or talking in addition to rather. the fact that you are wanting to solve this pain point for event planners and brands, let's dive into like how merchant swag actually work for those folks where we might tend to think, and, this gets back, I told you all, I teased you that this, we're gonna circle back to this.
I personally might tend to think about merchant swag as something I'm gonna bring home to my family so they can all call dibs on stuff. I literally bring home stuff in my suitcase, put it out on the table, and they all gather, they look like actual vultures. Just like, okay, I want that, I want that. but I also will be in an event, I'd be like, Ooh, that that'd be something my, my daughter would like, or that'd be, I want that, I'm calling dibs on that.
but. Swag and merch can mean so much more than that. So I'd love to hear from your perspective, how can merch move the needle for like brands, like as far as like lead generation, uh, lead nurturing, brand marketing that goes beyond the event? Yeah.
[00:12:42] Ethan Dowie: Well, the number one thing to keep in mind is that whatever your goal is with the merch or, or with your event, you have to know your audience. I think that's number one mistake that I see is that people will come to us with this goal in mind, but then they're like, all right, let's sort this. And it's not really what the audience wants, it's what they want.
It's like, okay, I think this is cool, but your audience might be completely different from you. And we've seen that. Over and over and over again. So I always tell people, the big brands, the ones who are iconic, that know exactly who they're selling to, they skip that step with us because they know exactly who they're talking about.
So they don't need us to help them figure it out. They're just like, "Hey, this is my exact audience. What items do you have that fit this theme? And having that frame. Allows us just to be so focused on figuring out the merch for that theme. We line it up and then everything makes sense for whatever outcome they want.
But I, to get back to your question, I think the most important thing is you have to. Reverse engineer the entire process. You can't try to build it one step at a time. You have to take the last step when they're getting their items and say to yourself, what do I want them to do with it? Do I want them to bring it home to their family?
Do I want them to take a picture of it and post it on social media? It changes per brand that we're working on. And there's so many different projects we have, but what doesn't change is that there's always an outcome that they're wanting. So I think the reverse engineering process is something that we've gotten good at of just saying like, Hey, what outcome do you want?
Okay, let's take it further. What do you want it to have happen after that? Let's take it further. And it just, it paints such a clear vision that our clients might not have been thinking about originally. They maybe just wanted 10 hoodies. Or a thousand hoodies and we're like, okay, but what about this?
What about this for your employees too? And it just, I think it ties together the overall merch vision in a way that they weren't even thinking was gonna be a thing before contacting us.
[00:14:50] Rachel Moore: Yeah. I'm gonna get really anecdotal here too, because like, I'm even thinking like I don't have it to show you all, but I have, I'm sure we've all seen people co-working with their laptops or something, or being out in the wild with their laptops and their stickers on 'em, and I put stickers on my laptop and I've got a couple of brand stickers.
That I thought were just cool stickers or I liked the brand and I have them on my laptop, and that's great 'cause I can think about like, oh, okay, well good, then we're gonna have people see that logo. However, if it's not like a major. Household name brand that everybody knows that logo. Like I could put a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi logo on my, my laptop and people were like, yeah, I know exactly what that is.
I could put some random brand out there that maybe people haven't heard of yet, have not been a customer of, they didn't go to that trade show or whatever, and put that on my laptop and nobody's gonna know what that is.
We'll be right back with more event experience after the break.
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We're back with Ethan Dowey to ask how a sticker of our favorite logo is supposed to move mountains for our brand.
[00:16:28] Rachel Moore: So I kind of would like, there's a little bit of a spinoff question from what we just talked about.
so like what if people come to you and say, yeah, we want stickers of our logo. Great. What do you want people to do with that? And what's the outcome are, are you guys kind of helping them think through that saying, well, what do you want people to, what's, what do you want the result of that sticker to be?
Do you want it to be a discussion about that brand or just somebody randomly sees it, says, cool sticker on that person's water bottle or laptop? I mean, it goes farther than that, right?
[00:16:55] Ethan Dowie: Yes. and I, say this all the time. I look at Indigo as, yes, we're making all the stuff, but we're also the brand consultants in a way. I try to kind of position ourselves of never just being like, all right, we'll take your order. Yep. You'll get 'em in a week and a half. I want to just. go deeper, like I wanna go further with everything so that whether you're coming to me with a, an order for a hundred stickers or you know, 5,000 hoodies, there's always a reason why you're getting what you're getting so that I can justify making it.
Because if I think it's like not, I don't wanna use the word dumb, but if I think it is. Maybe not the most thought out as it could be. I'm not afraid to ask the question of just like, what do trying to get out of this? And I think your sticker example is perfect because maybe someone will come to us and say, Hey, I want stickers and I want people to put them on our laptops, but then we could hit 'em with.
Have you thought about a QR code that then links back to your website? It's just little things like that that always help us add to the merchandise. And most importantly, and I tell my team this all the time, add value. How do we constantly add value with every single project we're working on? Sometimes people are set.
They're like, no, no, no. I want the stickers and I want it on my computer and I'm good. And it's like, okay, that's your vision. We're hitting it. No problem at all. But I feel like we would be doing. The early version of Indigo a disservice. If we ever change that frame of mind to stop helping people when we think it goes further than it does.
[00:18:22] Rachel Moore: I love that you, you mentioned that too. 'cause Yeah, I mean, I, I, it can be easily become a checkbox, like, oh, make sure you order merch, make sure you order swag or whatever. and people are like, yep, I got it. Okay, well I just need, I guess I'll, and they, you know, maybe they're gonna just go ask like Chat GPT or something.
Okay, well what kind, what's my standard? What are some normal things I should get? And Oh yeah. Stickers, oh shirts, and water bottles, you know, and stuff like that. But maybe. They're not, like you said, they're not thinking through. Yeah. But is it just so you can like, have stuff people can grab?
What do you want to happen? And I'd love that y'all provide that too, to say, well, let's think more through what act it's a call to action. It really is. It's just like having someone click a link or something on an email you send out or letting you scan their badge at the event or something like that.
But there should equally be some thought put into, well what, where is this thing gonna go in the world? I still remember very. I'm very sad about it. I had a water bottle, with a brand on it and I was like also proud of it and I left it in the airport at Las Vegas and I kept thinking, I like.
Well, it's like a message in a bottle, right? It's gonna get out there and somebody will see that brand and maybe they'll, follow it and look it up on Google or whatever. So I'm just like, be, you know, I, it was very like kind of hunger games, like who just, you know, be blessed on your way. but yeah, the merch can keep on, you know, it can still resonate even if it leaves your purview, I guess.
You know, you just wanna always think where it can end up. Right?
[00:19:44] Ethan Dowie: I would love to give an example too, of just someone, some company that we had no association affiliation with at all. We didn't make the merch or anything, but it was an event that I just attended. It was a half marathon called the Rocky Run, and they were so smart about how they used merch because they used it to promote the entire event.
Prior, the whole website was filled with all of the merch that people would get based on what they ran. And if they did mower events, if they did three events versus two, they got this and got that and they made it like a status symbol. And you know that it worked because after the race, and you get your three medals for doing all three events, when you're walking around with the three medals.
Every single person that you walk by that also did it, that doesn't have their medals yet, comes up to you and says, where'd you get your medals? Where'd you get your medals? Where'd you get your medal? It's just, it's a constant. That question must have been asked a thousand times that day, and I, I just think things like that when you're able to use it to promote stuff, which was their goal in this case, it shows that the merch is actually effective and it's that icing on top that I referred to previously.
[00:20:53] Rachel Moore: Yeah. Well, speaking of that then, you know, thanks for that example too. let's look back at this year, 2025, were there any standout merch, uh, items that you think kinda won the year or maybe even by specific industry or type, but, um, what do you think kinda was like, oh, this was every, what everybody was clearing for, and then why do you think those were the big ones?
[00:21:13] Ethan Dowie: I think the coolest project that we personally worked on at Indigo, and it was a, it was a really complicated one was for a hotel chain on the West Coast and their goal they came with us with a really super clear vision and it was just a complicated one the whole entire way they wanted to craft together a sterling silver charm mixed with a real natural diamond that was in the shape of their million dollar slot tournament that they wanted to give out to VIP clients and it's only like 50 to a hundred of them.
But our mission then became, okay, there we are two routes you can go. When you're making merch, you have stock items that already exist and people can just reference a tote bag and say, okay, this is what I want or you have entirely custom items that you have to figure out how to make and figure out the logistics behind where you're getting everything from.
So, then our challenge became, all right, how do we find somewhere that will be able to get us this sterling silver, and then we need to be able to design and die cut the charm exactly into the design and logo that they want. And then we also need to put a diamond on it and we also need to laser engrave it.
So that was kind of our challenge of what we were juggling. And on top of that, we only had a month and a half. So there was a lot of stuff going on that we were like, "Whoa, we gotta get, you know this outta the way very, very soon."
And that's kind of at our specialty now because over the last five years we have really navigated a lot of complex projects and it's allowed us to build a very clear list of factories worldwide that we use in certain situations. And it's just as simple as seeing what is the most cost effective way we can get everything done.
So it's not costing them a million bucks and it's something that is still of the quality that they're expecting. And for anyone watching on the screen, I do have this project right to the right of me. 'cause I always have to keep a sample and it came out beautifully. There's a diamond is right here in the middle of the five, it had a laser engraving on the back and it was to represent their $5 million slot tournament.
So this was just a cool one that like, it was so out of the norm and it was so complicated that once we finished it, we felt like it, like raised our level. Like, we had, we had another notch in our belt of just being like, we can do this stuff. Like we can handle any complex project that comes our way.
[00:23:38] Rachel Moore: That sure goes beyond like pens and things like that. But, again, it's like, like, I'm trying to think of like, well, if I wanted to get that made, I wouldn't even know where to start, you know? And just offering and saying, "Well, we've got the, those relationships where we know how to put that together." And especially in that kind of time crunch. That's wild.
But, um, you mentioned that too. I, one thing, to me this kind of correlates because I know at Bizzabo for the last year to year and a half, it feels like something we've been hearing a lot about. Say from like, the type of events that we're hearing, micro events and so I seem to have like really become, become more of the forefront. And taken the day and taken center stage and usually they're happening kind of ancillary to maybe a larger event and stuff like that.
But the reason I bring that up. light of what the example you just shared, it feels much more custom. Like you said, almost like elite, exclusive, where it's like, I don't wanna miss getting that. That's something I'm not gonna see every day. Just like a micro event. It's like, well, that's not gonna happen all the time. This is gonna be unique.
Do you feel like that's an aspect of merch too, where it's like the more you can make it feel like it's not just a run of the mill, pen, you know, or a sticker, or even a tote that, "Okay, well I might have 10 of those at home." Do you think people are kind of gravitating more to that? I want something unique, I want something different that maybe nobody else has?
[00:24:59] Ethan Dowie: I definitely think that is where we're headed going into the new year, and I, I just feel like based on the orders that we've gotten and the conversations we've had, because the conversations have evolved from five years ago of just being like. 'Need 50 shirts, what do you got? Need this, need a pen. What do you got.' To, 'Hey, this is what we're trying to do.' Like, do you have anything like really cool that, maybe is on the more unique side? Like we have that conversation so much nowadays that I do feel like that's where, where we're headed.
You know, with what you said about the micro events, I feel like, it's always going to be quality over quantity. And until people change their mindset on that, merch will always be looked at as a tchotchke type item, which is always that that's the opposite of how we want to come across. We want it to be unique and iconic. And there's some brands that do it right, and I think sometimes you have to look at the bigger ones and the ones that stand out how do this on a daily basis and have a process for it and.
Some are just set in their ways and will always just be like, it's just a box to check and it's, it's just something to get done for every event we hold no matter what. But I think it, things are turning a tide though and we'll eventually be, "Hey, we need a unique item for every event we have." And you know, we can't just have anything standard.
[00:26:19] Rachel Moore: Yeah. Well speaking of that then, I mean we we're recording this, it is November of 2025 when we're recording this. So for the next year, 2026, is there anything you're predicting that might kind of be the new. Thing, the new kind of hot item, or set of items or whatever type of items, type of merch that people might be starting to gravitate toward for next year.
[00:26:40] Ethan Dowie: I actually think it's more of a technology that is, uh, a merch technology that is becoming very popular and we over the past. Three to four months or so have been setting up a lot of what we call print on demand stores. And these are very, very cool because specifically for people in the events world, it's a way to get your merch to get a lot of eyes on your merch before the event even takes place or after the event takes place.
And you don't have to commit to as much inventory as you would. If you were just buying it and hoping you either sell it or can give it away. So what a print on demand store is, is you basically set up a a pre-list of designs on shirts.
Pens, mugs, all types of apparel beforehand. And then when people are at the event or before the event, you send out an email blast and they can see all of the merch available.
And if they order it, then that one piece will print and ship on demand. And if they don't, then it doesn't cost you any money. And I, I really think that trend is gonna become a lot more popular because so many times we have people not really sure. How much to get of something and then they're just guessing and then they have a thousand extra hoodies or pens and they're like, well, this was going in the storage unit.
And like, we don't want to, I don't want anyone to feel like that. Like I hate when I overbuy something and I'm like, I didn't even need it. Like this sucks. I just, I think that's a bad look on us. So when people use these stores, it helps a lot because then they're never overbuying and it's just always a way to keep things consistent and they don't have to commit to you overcommit to a lot of things.
[00:28:21] Rachel Moore: Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. I mean, I. just think even anything you think about that too, where it's like it's order on demand and honestly, that on demand thing just feels very, very right for the times. You know, where it's like, yeah. I mean we've even, and again, another topic we've talked about, Ad nauseum on this podcast is the tendency lately for people to make a game time decision about going to an event, even very last minute. it is the bane of every event planner out there because, you know, these registrations they're getting are like, oh my gosh, you're coming in really last minute. And if I'm trying to plan for.
headcount for any reason. It usually just throws a whole wrench in there. But that is where we are. People are very much like, yep, I'm gonna decide now a little bit more spontaneous, spur the moment. Not saying they're not researching their options and stuff, but they might be like, yeah, I'll decide at the last minute.
And I appreciate that you brought that up, that that technology is becoming more prevalent to say, well, that's okay that we can still give them that piece of merch that is gonna be great for your brain, and we can get that to them. They can make that kind of late game time decision and it still works.
I only have one last question for you. Easiest question of all, uh, where can our listeners find and follow you online?
[00:29:28] Ethan Dowie: I am most active on Instagram and LinkedIn. Everyone can follow me @EthanDowey and for anybody because I feel like. The event world is so challenging and you always do need a friend for anyone that needs help with their brand or branded merchandise free 15 minute consultation.
If you just DM me "Bizzabo" and I'll know exactly where you came from, I'll know you're listening to this podcast and when I got into this industry. I really just wanted to help people create iconic merch. And it's not just for giant brands like Mac and, you know, MGM Resorts. It's for anybody, anyone working on a project deserves the ability to create iconic merch.
So if anybody needs help, I'm always available and just message me Bizzabo at all my social medias.
Ethan, Skill Up advice reminds us that how it starts is not always how it's going in the future.
[00:30:29] Rachel Moore: something that really helped or would have helped me out at the beginning of my career is knowing that for every event and for every project, and for my business in general. How we start things is not always how they have to end up. And I feel like I just didn't really take into account that there would be so many different factors that would change.
[00:30:53] Ethan Dowie: Where we are gonna be in a year or two. And as long as I kept the vision the same for obviously long-term goals for Indigo and I kept that vision the same, but was very flexible on the details of how we get there. I think that would've helped me out and led to me being a lot less stressed.
And I say that whether it's one event or 10 events or one project, or two projects. Now I'm a lot more understanding when it hits the fan in the middle of a project because I just know. Things are meant to go wrong. And it's not always just a direct that it's our fault if we didn't plan for it.
And it's more so just how do we react to this change that is inevitably going to happen. So I keep that in mind with my business just in general and every project that happens, I'm just like, alright, something's gonna go wrong here, so let's figure it out when it comes off. And I just think anyone in event planning knows it is a lot like that, the logistic.
I respect anyone in that world because. I've seen so much panic on people's face, talking to them live like at an event or via Zoom, just panicking that they don't have, you know, enough time to get merch or whatever. And I think anything that makes your life easier is hopefully helpful. And I know that advice would've helped me when I was starting my career.
Thanks again to Ethan Dowey for joining us on Event Experience, and thank you for listening.
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You can find transcripts of each episode and key takeaways on Bizzabo.com/podcast.
On behalf of the team, thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of Event Experience.
