7th-8th Feb ‘19 Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park

“We do not host events, we host guests!”

Introducing Laura Schwartz, Former White

House Director of Events

eventsThe Queen ofeventsThe Queen of

During that time, Laura worked on more than a

thousand events – roughly one every three days of her tenure. The type of events varied – from press conferences with world leaders and bill signings with members of Congress to black tie dinners, memorial services and America’s 24-hour Millennium celebration – but no matter what event she was planning, she had the world’s attention.

With immense pressure, the delicate nature of power struggles between nations and the stress of putting on world-class events every time, Laura’s experience at the White House has many lessons for everyone who is in the business of events.

This eBook pulls together some of the key lessons Laura learnt. Laura shares tips on how to run a successful event and how she organised some of the world’s highest profile events, to the words of wisdom she’s been given throughout her career from some instantly recognisable names.

Meet Laura Schwartz!

Laura Schwartz spent eight years at the White

House during the Clinton administration, from 1993 to 2001. She held many roles in this

time, including Director of Events.

IMAGE: Laura briefing the former First lady prior to a satelite teleconference (left).

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The Business of Events

1 Clear messages

When you run an event there must be a reason for that as well as a message you want to portray. You should keep that message in mind the entire time you’re planning an event, as you may find more and more ways to deliver that message.

“You always want to go back to the message you most want to communicate, because I believe strongly that the most effective way to communicate a message is through a powerful event."

Laura says, “What makes that event powerful is the fact that you, as the event planner, really have that message in mind the entire time, and you communicate it effectively on a myriad of levels and opportunities.”

3 Empower those around you

Events run most smoothly when everyone is on the same page, knows what their role is and how that fits into the bigger picture. We’ve all heard horror stories of things going wrong because details were kept to a small group without the rest of the team being clued in.

According to Laura, whether it’s a state dinner or a press conference, giving the whole team a full briefing helps to make events run more smoothly. She says, “When you empower everybody around you, you have much better success. I didn’t only take the staff members that were going to be working on that event on the walk-through, I took the volunteers and the interns because they were just as much a part of it as any paid staff member. We had a very lean staff, so I wanted them to be involved.”

2 Admit when you don’t know something

No one knows everything about an event, regardless of how well prepared they are. Being a ‘yes person’ will get you found out quickly but being honest and saying you don’t know – and making sure you find out – will earn you a lot more respect. If you’re in charge of an event, you should be as well-connected as possible so that you can find out any detail in just one phone call.

Laura says, “It’s better to say that you don’t have the answer, but you’re going to find out what it is, and when you’re asked to give an opinion you give it honestly and respectfully, but you have to remember to always say why you’re saying what you’re saying.”

Three main takeaways:Laura has three key lessons to pass on to all companies with a stake in events. It doesn’t matter if you’re planning an event for multiple heads of states or a local sports club, you should have a clear message, you should be honest when you don’t know something and you should empower those around you for best results.

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I have a few mantras, but one of them is that we do not host

events, we host guests.

And that means if one guest is too cold, it’s all for nothing. If one guest can’t get to the food, forget about it. If one guest can’t see, if one guest can’t hear what’s going on, if one guest can’t easily get to where they need to go, forget about it.

If we look at events only for their structures and their logistics, which is all part of it, but we forget about the guest experience, as they

navigate through that event, that’s where your problems come in.

Think of the reaction you want after the event to create an event from the moment they get the save the date and the invitation, and especially walking in, they can be present. They can focus on the task

at hand, and effectively receive the message you’re getting to them.

I call it ‘seamless subliminal stimuli’ and we can create these moments of seamless and very subliminal stimuli that get the guest into the right frame of mind.”

“We do not host events, we host guests.”

Why we run events

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The Business of Events

Hillary Clinton

“Hillary always asked people for their opinion. She had one, but that didn’t negate her from asking others what they thought. And sometimes she’d change her mind and other times she would stick with her original thought.”

Evelyn Lieberman

“Evelyn was as tough as she was kind. She made sure that people work hard regardless of their age or any of it. She made sure people were heard always, and she really told me, ‘Hey, I didn’t hear you speak up in that meeting. Come tomorrow with something’. You better believe I was saying something after that!”

Oprah Winfrey

“I have a program where I talk about setting the bar, and that’s because we look at women like Oprah, and we’re like Oprah really set the bar for me. Oprah and what she did, how she gives back, empowering women, development, she really sets my bar.”

Rosa Parks

When I met Rosa Parks it was just inspiring. You can’t help but think if she could have strength on that day all those years ago, I can have strength on any day, today, in this present day in time.

Four of the women who inspired Laura Schwartz:

We all have women we admire in our lives – the ones who teach, lead and inspire us to do great things. For Laura Schwartz those women were some of the most powerful and inspirational women in America, with whom she interacted during her time as Director of Events. Laura shares some of the lessons she learnt from some of the world’s most inspirational women.

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of entertainment, which can be a great way to showcase some of the heroes of the country and the new president at the same time.

The organisational committee has their work cut out to work out invitation lists, performers for the ball, finding out what the new president wants, setting a theme for the day, organising security and all other details that go along with planning a national celebration.

Laura said, "Presidential inaugurations are a magnificent moment for the democracy of the United States of America, no matter who’s getting inaugurated. It really is something to be held to a very high standard as seen in the United States and what it stands for."

up with a half-moon table. The [US] president and Hillary were in the middle and then it just went out in protocol order, and thanks to NATO there is a protocol order of admission so we could seat everybody in that order.”

Presidential inaugurationsIn America, presidential inaugurations occur on 20 January while elections are in early November. This gives the organisers less than three months to get everything ready for the incoming president.

After the incoming president takes their oath, it's on to celebrate with lunch, parades and inauguration balls. This is a time for people to meet the new president and congratulate them on their success. It's also a time for celebration, with music, readings and other forms

Hosting NATO events

Perhaps the biggest event of Laura’s career was organising

the anniversary event for the 50th anniversary of NATO, which included the largest gathering of heads of state at any one event.

As anyone who’s ever made a seating plan will know, there’s a real skill and delicacy that’s required to make everything work. Power balances are even greater when you’re working with some of the most important people in the world, and making someone feel less important than world leaders could have major implications. The answer? Think outside the box.

Laura explains, “How do you decide who sits at which table? If a president at table three thinks 'Why am I not at table number one?' it can really get hairy. Hillary [Clinton] came up with a brilliant idea. She had her carpenters come

Learning from major events

It may feel like every event we put on is the be all and end all, but spare a thought for those who put on events for heads of state. Not only do they have every aspect of their work broadcast and watched by millions, but they have the expectations – not of a company or an industry – but of an entire country to live up to.

IMAGE: Laura and briefing the former First lady (right).

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The Business of Events

“Think

outside the box.

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No matter what differences people may have, there’s always something that we have in common. There’s perhaps no clearer distinction than in US politics, where Democrats and Republicans are fiercely opposed on many matters.

If you’re worried about people clashing at your events, remember

that they’re each there with a purpose in mind, whether that’s to learn, to network or something else.

“You try to either break up the headiness of politics with great social moments that people can put aside their differences and be a part of something very positive. They can let their guard down and realise that there's more that brings them together than divides them.”

Sometimes events need a focal point to bring people together, and an organised meal can do just that. We all need to eat, so arranging a sit down meal gives people a chance to relax and get to know

each other. In terms of networking, it has huge benefits, but like any aspect of an event there’s a lot of preparation and planning that needs to go into the menu you offer guests.

How to pull off an event amidst a scandal

Organising and running an event is hard enough at the best of times, but when there's an external factor – be it a scandal, a protest or a negative news story – impacting your work, it’s even harder to keep on top of your job.

As the Director of Events for the White House during the Clinton administration, Laura had to balance organising events and getting a clear message out while also trying to keep the focus away from the president's affair scandal and impeachment.

Staying on messageDuring this troubled time, the press clearly had one agenda on its mind while Bill Clinton wanted to carry on with his job. Using events to deliver these messages, it was important that these were created to allow him to carry on his job uninterrupted.

Laura said, "It was my job to make sure that we could continue doing events as usual, building on the message. Let’s say our message, let’s keep talking about health care, let’s keep talking about education, let’s keep talking about criminal justice reform, things that matter."

"You just want to do everything you can to make that better and serving the administration to make sure you can get the message across, to make sure that the president can continue doing to the best of his ability the job he was elected for."

Events bring people together

The Business of Events

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When there’s a major new story or scandal afoot, it can be hard to keep everyone focused on what’s important to you and your event. No matter what President Clinton wanted to talk about, there were bound to be questions from members of the media who wanted to change the subject.

To prevent this, events were set up in a way that the press had little direct access to the president. Schwartz and her team would get tips from other members of staff when big stories were about to break, making sure that the media were kept at bay at the times they were hungriest to ask questions. They were still able to attend, take notes and report on what President Clinton was saying, but they didn’t have the same access as before.

Staying focusedLaura Schwartz is the international keynote at the upcoming The Business of Events conference, held in Sydney, Australia on 7-8 February 2019.

IMAGES: Laura and former President Clinton joking

with staff in the outer office of the Oval Office (left);

Laura prepping for a State Dinner at the White House (above); Laura briefing the

former President (below).

Laura said, “I made sure that instead of the president walking through the door with press on either side to get to the stage at the other side of the room, I put the press at the other side of the room and I had the president walk up to the door, right to the stage.”

“After the event, instead of just having lovely piano music play him out, I got a brass quintet, so you couldn’t hear the press say those things, and we could try to keep it as respectful as possible.”

While the press still wrote and talked about the scandal on a near-constant loop, by framing the events this way, Laura was able to help the president deliver his message without being side-tracked by journalists, adding more fuel to their news cycles.

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Register today for The Business of Events and you’ll meet and greet Laura Schwartz in an intimate and

exclusive event on Friday 8th February. You’ll also take home a signed copy of Laura’s book Eat, Drink and

Succeed and network with other industry peers.

Register today using promo code: TBOELAURA 

About the eventThe Business of Events is an insightful, two-day conference that will provide

perspective into the event marketplace and how it will impact your business. Senior executives from the world’s most recognisable events will share their secrets for turning single day events into week-long ‘must attend’ experiences. The Business

of Events will take you behind the scenes of some of the most groundbreaking events, giving you the opportunity to learn directly from the strategists of their success.

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February 7-8 2019 | Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park

The Business of Events