The founding of la marque consulting resulted from years of networking and partnerships with industry professionals. Reece and team are not only equipped to help plan your activations, but we know the best people to elevate your brand and bring your vision to life.
Reece’s career has led him down a path highly focused on elevated hospitality and experiential events. Although he is largely involved in the Sports Hospitality and Sponsorship world, his 12+ years of experience in the hospitality industry has provided him the opportunity to collaborate with clients stemming from all backgrounds. At the end of the day, events and hospitality activations are intended to be executed flawlessly and leave memorable impressions. Having worked with budgets of all sizes, his team can maximize dollars spent to deliver the best outcomes imaginable.
Aside from perfecting skills in event activations and hospitality programs, Reece’s experience has organically created long-lasting partnerships with venues, vendors, and internationally known production companies.
How long has your company been producing events? What is your main focus?
I started my company in early 2018 after my role on the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee dissolved. The relationships I developed over my two years with the Host Committee provided me with a platform to pursue projects on my own. Although I’m capable of producing a variety of events, my expertise is highly focused on sports hospitality-related programs. This could be with a team, League, or sponsor. Typically these programs will be multi-day.
How do you leverage event technology and what would you consider the biggest game-changer?
Technology in recent years has provided event professionals with a variety of outlets to intertwine new elements with their events.
Personally, I feel that creating an app where you can brand the content for the event or program is the biggest game-changer as of late. In some of these platforms, you can manage ticket allocations, guest check-ins, day-to-day itineraries and much, much, more.
A simple hashtag (#) for a particular program can also be fun to introduce, assuming the client approves.
Have you used Gamification in your events? If yes, how was it received?
Yes, I have incorporated this into a number of hospitality programs. This is a great way to get attendees involved and more engaged in the experiential activation. Will everyone participate? Probably not, but for those that do, I have only received positive feedback.
What is your favorite city for events and why?
Truthfully, no particular city has an impact on the success of an event in my opinion. I have worked with great clients on very different programs in a range of cities. One just has to appropriately vet the vendors and venues involved in a particular location. If done correctly, an event or program can be successful anywhere.
What are some practices to follow that will help you to create the Wow factor that attendees seek with a limited budget?
I have always been an advocate of transparency. It is so important and critical to have a successful event. Client and contractor relationships will benefit more if expectations are understood upfront.
Just because a budget may be limited, doesn’t mean the experience has to be poor. Choices just have to be made on what deliverables are the most important. This can usually be navigated easily with a client, and the attendees will never know any different. If this means cutting items from a program, my first elements to eliminate would be floral anything (they die and have to be replenished) and a fully hosted bar (wine and beer are fine).
How do you measure the success of an event?
Surveys have become a trending element to gather information post-event. I do not use this for every program, but for larger ones it’s helpful.
For more intimate events, it’s common to receive feedback (positive or negative) the day-of or shortly after. With larger activations that require partners and sponsorship, one just has to be diligent in being close with the client and their wants and expectations. Their ROI will usually be a result of what branding or recognition they received with a particular program.
