You've already got that customer. If less people are getting married, that means it's simple math. If you want to continue to make. A good living, you're going to have to make more money from each wedding if there's less weddings overall. So we definitely help you do that both on the education side and then also on the exhibitors for sure.
I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business, marketing expert, speaker, and blogger, and you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you're in the right place.
Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm joined by Shannon Underwood, Vice President and Conference Director of the Wedding MBA. If you've listened to my podcast previously, you'll have heard me talk all about that big wedding industry conference I attended in Vegas last year. Well, that was Wedding MBA, so I'm thrilled to be chatting with Shannon for today's episode.
With 200 exhibitors, over 150 educational seminars and thousands of attendees, this event for wedding pros is the biggest in the world. Today, she's going to give us a little sneak peek behind the scenes of what goes into organizing such a huge event and why it's worth all of you attending. Shannon, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me. So happy to be here.
I am so happy to have you on here. I will never forget. We met when I came out to Vegas and I said to my friend, I was like, I'm going to look out for Shannon who runs this event. And the first person I bumped into when I walked in to register for my badge. was you. and, it was a pleasure to be there. It was a pleasure to come out to Vegas.
Anna, I'm really excited for my audience to meet you today and to find out a little bit more about Wedding MBA and what goes into organizing such a huge, amazing event. So take me back. How did Wedding MBA start? When did it start? And how did it start its life?
Wedding MBA started 17 years ago, actually in Phoenix. So our first wedding MBA was at the Phoenix convention center. And we had about 300 attendees, maybe two exhibitors. I don't know any exhibits really the first year we might've had our own booth. And it was. It was small, but we were figuring things out and hush, it was so exciting that we just had to continue doing it each year.
Love that. And what's so funny and will be funny to my listeners is you talk about it and you say, you know, we started 17 years ago. It was so small. There's only 300 people. I can tell you, Shannon, that the biggest conferences here in the UK, we only have about 150 to 200 people. So to us, 300 people already sounds like a huge amount of people. So tell us, so 300 people in the first one. Now, what do you expect typically at a wedding MBA?
We expect between 5, 500 and 6, 000 attendees and we'll probably be about 225 booths or so, so it's gonna be a big one.
What an amazing expansion. So where did the idea come from? Why did you decide to do that first wedding MBA? Why did you decide to do an educational conference?
You know, it's interesting. We are a family run business and my parents, Had gotten their start in wedding photography and videography. Actually, that was my dad's first job starting in high school. And so they actually had run a videography convention. It was called wedding MBA. But totally different audience many years before that. So we had felt like at this point, there was room and need for an all industry conference where the education really got ramped up with our start in bridal shows.
We noticed there were a lot of really talented, talented wedding pros that just weren't making money. They weren't staying in business. We would see these sad stories of someone that was just so creative that just really couldn't monetize their creativity and their hard work. So that's really what inspired us were our exhibitors at the time. And we had America's largest bridal show that we had sold, you know, some years back now, but that was our inspiration.
And so you started out in Phoenix and obviously now the events in Las Vegas. So at what point did that change happen? And, and why Vegas?
Why Vegas? We just really outgrew our Phoenix area both just the facility in terms of being able to see enough people and then just things to do, there's so many. So much to do in Las Vegas and we really felt like if we were going to make this thing big, we needed to go somewhere where everyone wanted to be. We needed an international destination and Vegas is definitely that right spot.
Yeah, absolutely. Although I found when I flew out because I flew out to Vegas last year, I flew on a Friday night and I had my laptop because I wanted to do some work on the plane and everyone else on the plane, it felt like was on a or bachelorette party coming over. from the UK, and there's me, like, sitting, doing my work on the plane.
So it's definitely the party city, but It was a great location, a great place to be able to come and a great place for people to meet because I was talking to people who'd flown from all over the world and you know, even people from within the States, it almost taken them as long as it did for me to fly over. So it's a perfect destination for us. We fly to, the English love Las Vegas, the English fly to Las Vegas all the time. Oh, I love it. So there's lots of people.
Oh, I love it. And it's fun to compare the flight out versus the flight back. Like our wedding MBA attendees, they feel really good about themselves because they're there more for business and they kind of stay away from, you know, the craziness. They have fun, but it's not too crazy, but they always sort of laugh at people as they're going home, right? Like they go out, they're so excited and then they come back and they're just. Yeah. are just tired and hungover.
So they're sort of looking at him and laughing and saying, I learned a lot. What did you, what did you do? So yeah, we, I totally get what you're saying.
It was, it was a, it was a great trip. It's a great city and a great place to be and a lot of fun. And obviously a lot of wedding inspiration there. Again, lots of people come out from the UK to go and get married in Vegas. I know last year there was a, you did a, Awesome. People did a tour of the chapels in Las Vegas as well. So, you know, it's, it's the place that people think of when they think of weddings too.
Absolutely.
So over the years, Wedding MBA has obviously evolved from what it was originally. As you look forward to this event coming up in 2025, where have you got to now? What are your aims with the business and how do you see this year's events?
Everything's changing, right? So I think that our attendees feel a lot of pressure to get better quality leads to close those leads because things have slowed down a little bit for them. So education becomes increasingly more important. For that reason, they see more competitors pop up, whether it's another venue down the street or another planner that they're trying to compete with, or a DJ that just decided to do this as a side job.
They really are feeling that pressure to really, I think, ram things up. So Wedding MBA is there to help. They're there to help both on The education side, and then also the exhibit side, you know, what is it that we can offer on a wholesale side that might be able to be added to packages so that you can monetize, you know, you've already got that customer.
If less people are getting married, that means it's simple math and we want to continue our lifestyle and, and continue as a wedding pro to continue to make. A good living. You're going to have to make more money from each wedding if there's less weddings overall. So we definitely help you do that both on the education side and then also on the exhibitors for sure.
And I'm sure you see attendees coming back year after year after year because there's always something new to learn. There's always something new to see and I talk a lot about helping people be 1 percent better than their competitors, like finding the new things, finding the new inspiration, looking at what they do. So, you know, I'm guessing your people that come back, they come back because they're always learning something new and it's worth them attending year after year.
Absolutely. And we're starting a new fun pilot program this year where we're doing some hands on education, which we're really excited about. We're starting it in a smaller way this year, and then hopefully for the following year, it will be something really big. So I think there's increasing evidence that people want to do things that are hands on and so exciting and just to kind of be part of the presentation. So you'll see a little bit of that.
This year with some contests we have going on and then some live hands on demo, which will be so fun. And then you'll see if things go well, which I think that it will, then you'll see a continuation and expansion of that moving into the following years.
Love that. That sounds very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing more about it. Now, people may be wondering. Who goes to Wedding MBA? Is there a certain sector of the market? Is it people from all over? You know your audience better than anyone else. Who are your typical Wedding MBA attendees?
Our average attendee has been in business for seven years or longer. They're a wedding professional. So any of those core categories, they're not just one. I mean, venues and planners are our largest groups, but we get everything from Florists to caterers, to photographers, to DJs to officiants, really anyone that you can imagine that's part of the wedding day, right? So those are our biggest groups that come to wedding MBA.
Okay, so every different kind of edit type and one of the things I thought was really smart when I came out and I loved it on that again on that first day when I checked in and everyone gets their lanyard and just explain to everyone how the lanyard system works so that you can identify the other people that do what you do.
Absolutely. The lanyards are color coded. So if I say a caterer, I'm going to be able to meet other caters just by looking at the color of the lanyard. And then there will be a key when you check in. I'll say this color means this type of vendor and you'll be able to see it yourself. So it's a great way to just start open conversations with people, whether they're in your category, or maybe you want to know more about another category. So it's an easy way to identify.
I think it's so smart. It's such a simple way, but it's a great way for people to network. So some of the people I've been talking to here from the UK who are thinking of coming out they, they want to connect with planners who are planning weddings out in the U S and so I'm like, well, it's great. Cause you can come in and you can just look around the room.
And if you spot that color lanyard, you can go right up to them and you will automatically know that they probably are a planner or a wedding planner. Or if you want to meet a venue, a photographer is a really, really smart system. And I think if people make the most of it, they can make some incredible new connections as well. I'm sure you see people making relationships and business connections all over the place.
They do. And I think it's so much fun because sometimes someone will, will pick someone and just say, how's it going? You know, they'll, they'll meet someone that has the same vendor category and they'll kind of Exchange email addresses is pretty common. And then just. Really talk to each other throughout the course of the year and say, Hey, you know, what are you doing about this? Or what do you remember about that? And there's also great ways to connect with our speakers.
I feel like they're very accessible. They're really put you in a position where you feel at ease and you feel comfortable and we're doing a speaker meet and greet this year. So it will make it easier to make those face to face connections. And. Our speakers really want to help.
I mean you know from experience they really want to help people and they want to meet you face to face because they're up there on that big stage but they actually want to make that personal connection too so our speakers are a really great resource for attendees too.
Well I love that you bring up the speakers because that's what I was going to speak to you about Nick. So I've been to a lot of conferences, I've spoken at a lot of conferences and I think one of the downfalls sometimes of some of these conferences is that the education is poor, that there's education isn't very good or people stand up there and they'll talk about how amazing their business is but it just makes the people in the audience feel kind of bad.
And when I came out to Vegas last year, I was blown away by the standard of education. I think you have the best educators in the industry, the people that I've had on my podcast, the people that I really rate, every single one of them pretty much is there in that room. And I think the education is the best education that you're going to get in the industry anywhere in the world. So talk to me because I know that's important to you.
How do you ensure that level of education year after year after year? And how do you get people to keep coming back?
Absolutely. I think the hardest part about my job is saying no. So for us, we have a lot of speakers that apply, but there's a lot of people out there that are not ready. You know, they might be ready at some point, but they're not ready or they're just not of the wedding MBA mindset.
So we look for people like yourself, Becca, that are really looking to give Actionable content and make it easy to follow and easy to understand, but by talking up to the audience and not down to them and not making it a commercial or an ego boost. And so our speakers are just really vetted. So if they're not of the same mindset is us, it's a no. And. You wouldn't believe how many people want to be speakers. It's incredibly high.
I thought everyone's supposed to be scared of public speaking, but it seems like that's the most common question I get. But to protect our audience and their investment and their time, it's really important. That we find people that give actionable takeaway items that they can bring back to their hometown and really implement immediately.
And I really respect you because I know it's difficult to say no to people, but actually that's what makes your event run year after year after year because people know if they're gonna, you know, come out to Vegas, and I've told that to the people from the UK, they're coming. It's a big commitment for them to leave one country, fly across the world, and come to Vegas.
But I've said to them, I can guarantee you that it will be the best education you will get in the world, because I know how important it is to the organizers, to Shannon, to everyone. Ensure they have the best people in the room. And I think it's great that you set that standard. I know that you spend a lot of time on it. I know you look at it every single year and make sure you're giving people the best. But there's a lot of sessions as well. There is no way that people could go to everything.
No, no. That's why they have to come back every year.
Right? It was fun when you and I first met. I, you had a like. I'm, I'm anticipating a big fan club for you for this year because you have these groupies that were like, is that, is that, and you were just picking up like your lanyard. I mean, it really, it left a lasting impression on me when we first met. So you've got such a strong reputation. I'm so excited to bring you out to Lettingham BA.
Well, I hope so because I, sometimes I wake up at night and think, is anyone going to come and sit in the English girls talk or are they all going to be somewhere else?
Oh, yes. They love the English girl. Yes, they do.
It's going to be a lot of fun and it is, yeah, you do such a great job at the education. Now for people that are thinking of coming, and I know this was the case for me last year when I obviously had never been before. I'd seen about it online. I'd read about it. I'd spoken to people about it. But when I first looked at the program and first saw the sheer size of it, I just had this huge sense of overwhelm.
So if there's people listening who are kind of thinking of coming, but they're feeling so overwhelmed with the size of it, do you have any tips for them about how to get the most out of the event?
Your guide is really that downloadable program. So I think even just going on to the wedding mba. com website, clicking on schedule, and then you'll have a downloadable. It's 25 pages, but you'll have a downloadable version that we take a lot of care. With so you'll see three bullet points about each of the classes. That's really an advertisement to like, what is this class about? Is it for me?
So I focus on those three bullet points with the classes and don't feel like you have to go see everything just really focus in and what's most important to your business. Now, you know, maybe you're doing a real focus on social media. And so then you kind of narrow down that group or maybe you're looking at lead generation or sales or trends or whatever it might be. I would look to that focus. The good news is within the specialties, you don't have to make a choice.
So if you are a, you know, gown and tux, you know, company owner, you would actually just go to those classes during that timeframe. You don't have to. Do, but we actually, we have a lot of companies that do more than one thing. They might be a florist. They might also be a wedding designer, a planner. And that's great too. So then maybe they're jumping in and out of rooms, but for the specialty classes, it's basically like two types of education and one.
You've got a specialty coursework and then you have the general classes and for the specialty, typically you don't have to make a whole lot of choices. So it doesn't feel as overwhelming. But for the general classes, you will have to go through and just kind of look at it up in advance. But I do recommend people to look up the speakers in advance too.
You know, if they see a speaker's name on there, To follow them on social media, see if they like, you know, the angle and the perspective that they have. And that can also help them to make a better decision on classwork.
Yeah, that's a great idea, actually. And I, again, I would recommend that to people. Go check out the Wedding MBA podcast, because they do a great job of interviewing a whole bunch of different speakers. And by going and listening to those and hearing about the topics, you can then decide, is this speaker resonating with me? Does this sound like I want to hear more from them? or actually maybe I'll, I'll go to a different class. And I also back up exactly what you said, Shannon.
I think the more prepared you are before you come, the more you'll get out of the event. So this was me last year. I checked into my hotel in Vegas and I sat on my bed with my printed schedule and a green highlighter pen. And I literally went through every page of the schedule and Thought, who do I want to chat with? Who do I want to meet? Which topics are of interest to me?
And I went through with my highlighter and I highlighted everything I wanted to go to, but it really helped because then I kind of had a vague plan of, I want to go to this room and then I'm going to go to this room and then I'm going to go here. Then I'm going to take a break. So I do think it is, although you can just pop into any session. I think if you want to get the most out of it, planning ahead.
Otherwise, you talk to people, and I had this even when I was out last year, and they're like, oh, I missed this session. I didn't realize they'd already spoken. And, and the, the moment's gone. So get your highlighters out, everyone. Get your, get your schedule. I love it. Highlights. I love it. Now the other big part of the exhibit of the wedding, BA is the exhibition. And again, I think this is a huge part of the event.
I feel like I didn't explore as much as I could have done last year because I was running from room to room meeting people. So if people are coming and there are some great exhibitors, how do you think attendees can get the most out of that exhibition hall? What should they be doing?
I think the best form of action would be on the first day, so November 13th, on that first day of exhibits when they open, I would definitely walk through everything, but I'd probably take notes and take photos. That's a good recommendation. I have sometimes you forget things and then you want to connect and I have every year where someone will call me in a panic and say, Oh my gosh, I met this amazing vendor.
And we help, we hope to connect them with them afterwards, but it does help if you take photos of the boost you're most interested in. And then on the second day, Use that second day that exhibits are open to walk through exhibits. And then we also have these 10 minute show floor talks and they're given by our exhibitors specifically. So if there's something you really want to know more about, maybe it's a CRM or a new linen line, or, I mean, it was just a lot of variety on there.
You might want to sit in on some of those classes. They're more hyper focused, so you're not going to want to go to all of them, but there are some definite ones you might want to pick and choose.
Yeah, and I found, especially last year, some of those smaller stage talks in the exhibit hall, if there was a piece of software that I was interested in or a computer program and they maybe had a 10 15 minute session, it just gave you an opportunity to go and hear more about that software and think, is this interesting to me? And then if it is, maybe I can go have a longer conversation with them back at their booth.
So again, get your highlighters out everyone, go through those talks because there are some, there's some gold in there and I think you, you do need to look through and see what's there. And I think the thing is that that's really important and again, anyone listening that's going to the event for the first time, I would really encourage you to, before you go, Think about what your goals are for the event. Like, what is it that you want to get out of it? And be really clear on that.
Because I think when we turn up at an event and we don't know what we want, it doesn't always turn out how we wanted it to be. But when we turn up at an event and we think, right, my goal this year is that I want to connect with this speaker and this speaker, or I want to find a new piece of software to help my business run more smoothly. Or I want to find the next big trends that are coming into the industry in the US so that we can bring them back to the UK and do them here first. All right.
So if we know what we're going for, then we can plan our trip. around that. And there's a variety of reasons you might want to go. I mean, if you're English, just the chance to come to Las Vegas tax deductible is a great reason to come. And at the same time, it's a chance to meet people.
I mean, one of the reasons I came last year was, I think it's the only time when all those smart wedding educational people are in the same place because they're based all around the world, all across the States. And you won't see those people in the same room. all together at any other point in the year.
That is so true. I know that people will say that they run into more people from like their hometown, but wedding MBA then because you're always so busy when you're in the thick of it. So you get that face to face networking time, which is really neat. And then sometimes people will. organize evening events to get together with their sort of micro groups or small groups and that's another great opportunity.
So talk to me a little bit then about the social side of Wedding MBA because we've talked about the education, we talked about the exhibition, but you do have a social side of it too.
We do. We have a party on November 13th. It's at the Hard Rock. So you're getting two in one on that one. There's no charge to get in. You just wear your lanyard so people know who you are. And we can really see everyone in there on that seat because you're like dancing and talking. I'm sitting but the kickoff party will start. It's from 6 to 7. We'll actually have the speaker meet and greet. So that's a little bit more low key.
We'll have some nice instrumental music playing in the background and just an opportunity to just kind of shake hands with the people that you're probably following on social media or podcast or wherever. And then at 7 o'clock till midnight, it's a DJ takeover party. So what that becomes is just a lot of fun. There's a lot of dancing, a lot of networking just a lot of enjoyment of other people that are in the industry and being able to have a good time with them.
So that's the biggest event because it's for everyone. But we do find that a lot of people also organize, you know, additional dinners and other fun meetups along the way too.
Yeah. And again, you have a Facebook group, don't you? A Wedding MBA Facebook group that I joined last year, where if people are attending, they can join that. And I noticed that a bunch of social events were posted on there. So is that a good place for people to connect?
Absolutely. It definitely starts getting, I think, more active the closer you get to the event, but absolutely. Definitely join there. A great place for updates is also just the wedding MBA to like our page for Facebook or to follow us for Instagram. So if we have other kind of fun things that you should know about, or maybe an exhibitor that's brand new to us, things like that, that's a great way to get updates also.
Amazing. I'm really looking forward to your speaker meet and greet this year. I think it's a great opportunity. I think it's a really great idea. I'm definitely going to make sure that I'm there. So if you are there in Vegas, come find me at the speaker meet and greet. And for those of you that are not familiar with Vegas, because again, when I was planning to come last year, all of these things, I didn't know. So the hard rock is right there on the strip, right in the middle.
But what it's, I didn't realize till I, just before I came is that You can get to the convention center really easy in Las Vegas from the Strip. So you can go to and from the convention center to the Strip just on the monorail or by Uber and it isn't that far away. I know people worry about, should I stay by the convention? Should I stay on the Strip? I would say wherever you stay, it's not that hard to get from one to the other.
So you can have a little bit of Vegas time if you want, or you can stay in the quiet by the convention center, but the Hard Rock's right there on the Strip. So that's a little bit of the Strip experience on that note.
It is. And we do have a list of a lot of hotels that we've negotiated. Really good. I'm very proud of the prices. If you look on the wedding MBA site and just click on hotels, there will be hot links to a lot of choices are also be price points. So, it just makes that planning process just a little bit faster and easier and the monorail is great. You're right.
Monorail is the way to go if you just want kind of an easy way, but yes, Uber and Lyft work, work out well too, especially when you're going from the airport to your hotels.
Yeah, I used the Monorail a lot last year and my step count in Vegas, like you lose weight that week because I walked so many steps because everything is so huge, not just Wedding MBA, like literally everything in Vegas is massive. Now, Shannon, obviously you believe that continuing education. is important. That's why you put on this event every single year. But why do you think it's that important? Why should wedding businesses pay attention to their continued development?
I think it's circular. So you as a business owner, if you're investing in yourself and improving in yourself and your business, It will come back to you. It will come back to you from other people referring you business because they're going to say, wow, I haven't seen that before. Like who thought of that? It will come back to you on new leads because you're going to be doing better posts, maybe better copy on your website. It comes back to you.
So although you're putting it into yourself and you do have to take the time out of your busy schedule, I promise you it will pay off both emotionally and financially. I think it's good to have a little bit of a break to see a more aerial view of your business because you're so in the thick of it. Sometimes you get so caught up in things you don't see See business opportunities that might be just sitting right there in plain view.
And then also just having the tools and abilities, you know, we might want to do some great things for our business, but we might not know how, and we might not have the budget to hire an individual specialist for each aspect of that. So then you become that specialist and during your downtime or off season, it's a great time. To really, instead of just waiting for the next wedding to be setting yourself up to make more money and be more profitable when you are busy.
Absolutely. And it's a date to get in the diary. It's a date to look forward to after a busy wedding season. And you can see that it's a place where people are just happy to come back to you, happy to reconnect. Get some new ideas for their business. And I can see myself why people come back year after year after year, because they have such a great time.
So if you're listening to this and you're thinking of coming out to Wedding MBA, I am sure you can tell from this episode, I encourage you to do it. I think it's. One of the best things you could do for your wedding business this year. If you do want to get your ticket, you can get them on the wedding MBA website. I'll link to it in the show notes and make sure you use my coupon code. Use the code Becca B E C C A because you get a really great discount when you use that.
And if you've got questions, you want to find out more, do reach out to me. I'm going to be talking. On the stage, all about the subject of judgment. So the talk is called, Oh, snap. And we're going to be talking about how people make snap judgments of you and your business and how we can make the right first impression. So if you want to come hear this English accent out in Vegas, I hope you'll join me.
In my stage talk, and I'm sure Shannon will be popping ahead in to my room at some point as well. Shannon, it's been so fun having you on the podcast today. Now I always end the podcast with the same question, and it's this. What's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your own business?
Creativity used right can be profitable.
Creativity used right can be profitable.
Yeah. I mean, the other way to maybe say it is. You can profit from your creativity.
Absolutely.
I think sometimes we don't invest enough time and looking at new perspectives and ways to approach things. And we could actually be turning down some business opportunities because of it. So use that creative brain that you have. and use it to make more money and offer more for your business and for your clients.
Absolutely. I 100 percent agree with you. There's so many creative people out there and you absolutely can make money from your passion and be profitable and go to Vegas, see us out there and learn all about how to do it better. Shannon, it's been so much fun. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to see you back in person in November.
Thank you. We can't wait to see you on stage Becca.
I love that conversation with Shannon. Didn't you, you guys all know from listening to the podcast how much fun I had in Vegas last year. So I do hope that you'll consider joining me this year. If not, take a look and try and get it in your budget. For the year after, because it really is worth attending. And for all of you who know, I've been planning to get my book written by the time I'm in Las Vegas. So for me, the time is ticking down because I can see the dates getting closer and closer.
And I hope you'll all be there to celebrate with me too. I'll see you next time.