Expertise Outweighs Years Experience

From the desk of: Amy Goldberg

Which would you pick?  Which is more important? Does it matter the topic?  If you were designing a rooftop garden, do you hire a florist that ‘s been making wedding bouquets for 20 years or do you prefer to hire a horticulturalist that works with planted materials and specializes in the nuances of urban rooftop design and installation. 

Expertise versus years experience, has always been an intriguing concept to me.  Now, more than ever, as we continue on the road towards a new normal in the event business, it is something to investigate further.  

I’ve been in the event business for 12+ years and have done and seen quite a bit, and worked my way out of more than a few event day pickles.  At this point in my career, very little surprises me and I know I’m prepared for even the most unexpected possibility of an event snafu.   

On March 10, 2020… everyone’s event business experience counter was reset to ZERO.  Until then, no one I knew in the event business had held a 100% technology dependent fundraiser, bat mitzvah, conference, wedding, graduation, birthday party or even a shivah.  Beginning March 11th, AE Events took it upon ourselves to dive head first into this pool without any water wings on – we wanted to not only understand the technology but needed to figure out how one of our greatest assets, our creativity, could help our clients see a light in this somewhat dark, albeit, momentary place we found ourselves in.  We have continued to push harder to increase our expertise in the arena and dive deeper into the creativity and possibilities of our new virtual and hybrid worlds.  

Life cycle moments were still to be celebrated, sales teams still needed to “convene” with their sales managers, non-profits clients still needed to fund their important missions and connect with their donor base.   

All the years of experience I had in the event business did just one main thing for me – and it was actually ESSENTIAL to not just survive, but to thrive in this environment.  The best thing those 12+ years of experience did for me is to remind me how confident I am that this is just another challenge I am prepared to take on and figure out and add to my tool box.   This ol’ dog (well not that old…) is learning a new trick and I’m invigorated by doing so…not just for the survivial of our jobs and our industry, but because if you are not learning, you are not growing. 

Let’s not forget that when you are sick you go to the doctor you’ve likely had for some length of time that knows your wonky knee, and that your blood pressure rises when you go see them…but that’s only because doctors freak you out.  When you have an acute issue, these folks then send you to the experts in the field, the specialist with the expertise in exactly what ails you.  AE Events has taken the challenge on to be the specialist in the virtual and hybrid world of events; and just because it only got going 156 days ago just means that we have the opportunity to drive the event industry forward together.  Everyone started 156 days ago.