In this episode, host Rachel Moore dives into the vital role of networking in event production with Brad Jackson, the visionary behind Live Out of Office. Brad shares his journey from working with giants like Live Nation to founding an experiential marketing hub, emphasizing the transformative shift toward collaborative platforms that support freelancers, agencies, and brands. Through discussions on career transitions, the value of a robust network, and leveraging technology for efficiency, Jackson provides insights into the evolving landscape of event production and marketing.
Listeners are treated to Jackson’s personal story, reflecting on his roots in the concert industry and his adventurous leap into freelancing in LA, leading to the inception of Live Out of Office. This platform aims to streamline the event production process, making it more accessible and efficient for industry professionals.
Here’s more of what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:09] Rachel Moore: Welcome to Event Experience by Bizzabo, the podcast where we bring the best and brightest Event Experience Leaders together to share stories, tips, and lessons learned from creating some of the world’s biggest events.
I’m Rachel Moore, your podcast host.
We work in an industry where a great network isn’t a nice to have; it’s a necessity. Our guest, Brad Jackson — founder of Live Out of Office — is about to share why our connections are the building blocks of our trade and the achievement we strive for in events we design. Get ready to ponder the power of connection in Event Experience.
[00:00:56] Rachel Moore: Today on Bizzabo’s podcast Event Experience, I’m speaking with a production and promotional pro in the industry for over 13 years. This person has had roles at Live Nation and NVE, The Experience Agency, and today he is the founder and executive producer of Live Out of Office. I am speaking with Brad Jackson for the podcast today.
[00:01:18] Brad, thank you for joining me across microphones.
[00:01:20] Brad Jackson: Hi, Rachel. So happy to be here.
[00:01:23] Rachel Moore: I’m happy you’re here too. And what I’m also happy to do is happy to hand over to you a bit more of an overview of what your day to day is. I just give the really high level view to our listeners, but tell us a bit more about what your current role entails as the founder and executive producer of Out of Office.
[00:01:41] Brad Jackson: Absolutely. So Out of Office these days is a experiential marketing hub for brands, agencies, and freelancers. It’s turned into a bit of a tech platform over the last year. And we’ve got thousands of members in the community now, all working within experiential and collaborating with each other. My day to day these days is keeping that up and running, but I also act as an executive producer for a handful of long term clients or just projects that really still excite me because I do, at my core, love still producing events.
[00:02:22] Rachel Moore: That’s amazing too. That sounds awesome because I know talking a lot about collaboration. We’re definitely gonna get more into that really is the kind of crux of the whole events industry and what we do day in day out.
[00:02:33] Let’s get into some get to know you questions, Brad. What are your go to on the ground event day shoes? What are you going to wear that’s going to save your feet?
[00:02:45] Brad Jackson: What an awesome question. And I talk about this all the time with my producer friends. I’ve gone through all the options right now. I’ve actually got a pair of Adidas ultra boosts that I’ve been loving. They’re lightweight, breathable, but I think that’s what I would go with right now.
[00:03:06] Rachel Moore: Excellent. My husband is an Adidas guy. I’m personally a Skechers person. I don’t really even care if they’re styling or not. Sometimes it’s just like my, but my feet love them. So yes, I can relate with that.
[00:03:16] Brad Jackson: I do have to say those little heel inserts that you can put in are usually a lifesaver with all shoes.
[00:03:23] Rachel Moore: Absolutely. Oh my gosh, that’s so true. I still remember one of my favorite event producers. It’s the first time I was in an event with her and working at a booth and I had worn a pair of shoes my mom had handed over to me, because she and I have the same size feet, and so they worked fine for a whole day, I was walking around, so I decided to wear it at this event, and for whatever reason, it’s oh, no, I can feel blister right now.
[00:03:43] And so I remember getting to the booth in the morning, and I was like, I don’t suppose you, and she’s oh my god, I totally have blister band aids, where does that on your foot, do you need a heel band aid, do you need a toe band aid, what do you got? And so she had the whole thing. Oh, I love it. Once again, event planners who just know.
[00:03:57] Brad Jackson: I know. And I’ve worked with the gamut of the event planners and producers who have literally like a suitcase full of all those types of items that they just go to every event with and, mini printers and all this kind of stuff, which is, and I really appreciate, I have to say, I’m not that type of producer.
[00:04:17] I’ve got like my little case I like to bring, but it’s more like zip ties, knives, like that kind of stuff. I’m not really the blister bandaid guy, unfortunately, but I always have respect for that person on site.
[00:04:30] Rachel Moore: But I bet we could find that person on out of office.
[00:04:33] Brad Jackson: 100%. Yes.
[00:04:35] Rachel Moore: Awesome. Is there anything that you’re listening to or reading or watching these days that you can’t put down?
[00:04:42] Brad Jackson: I think especially for maybe the freelancers in your audience, Chris Do is a YouTuber and he comes from the brand strategy, creative side of things, but his lessons on YouTube and his videos on YouTube are, if you can pull them out of like his world of like creative brand, graphic design, all of that, and just put it into our world.
[00:05:08] I think his lessons and concepts around like how to price yourself, how to close and pitch new projects are just phenomenal. So he’s somebody, whenever I see it pop up on YouTube, I always give it a listen.
[00:05:21] Rachel Moore: Very cool. I love it when we get different recommendations from folks and as a daily YouTube watcher.
[00:05:26] What did we do before YouTube? My goodness.
[00:05:28] Brad Jackson: I know. I know.
[00:05:29] Rachel Moore: They were encyclopedias. I’m pretty sure. But yeah. Is there a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events that you found interesting lately?
[00:05:42] Brad Jackson: I think there was a lot of really good stuff that just came out of South by Southwest.
[00:05:47] I was very impressed specifically with the level of detail at the Porsche experience. Which I think was a Czarnowski experience that they put on, but I love seeing obviously there was some phenomenal talks and presentations that happened there, but I geek out on like beautiful production and like when fabrication and decor and all those elements almost look like amazing film shoot.
[00:06:17] That’s what I really love. And they did a great job with that one. There was a handful of really great concepts and experiences out there, but that’s been fun to see those recaps.
[00:06:26] Rachel Moore: Really cool. Nice.
[00:06:28] I know we’re going to talk about where you are today more and what that’s all about, but I also think it’s important to look at background, right?
[00:06:35] I mentioned you have quite a wealth of experience in events and in production that I think will let us see how you’ve arrived to where you are today and a little bit more about Out of Office. Can you share with us how you came up in events and what your experience has been like as you’ve progressed through your career in production and promotion?
[00:06:53] Brad Jackson: Yeah. If we go way back, University of Iowa, I was part of a amazing program there called Scope Productions. And it was one of the best in the country for students to get involved in the concert industry and bringing all the shows on campus. That ended up leading me to an internship and then a job with Live Nation in Chicago.
[00:07:15] I jumped right into production and venue management. Northerly Island, which is out by the Planetarium, for those who are familiar with Chicago, was my venue. And I jumped right into Jimmy Buffett coming to town, and Three Days of Fish, and just these amazing concerts coming through Chicago, and learning production jumping right into it. And that was incredible. I always had a dream of moving to California and I knew LA being the epicenter of entertainment, was probably somewhere I should head for. So packed up the car, no plan, no friends, didn’t really know what I was doing, but drove out to LA. And found a nice little studio apartment out there and just started taking interviews and meeting everybody I possibly could.
[00:08:07] That’s when I started to come across experiential marketing at the time, which was just this somewhat new concept, but I loved it because it merged my love of marketing and branding with event production. And I ended up coming across NVE when there was probably only eight of us at the time there and went in for an interview as a coordinator.
[00:08:32] There wasn’t really a position available, but once I was there, they were like, let’s just figure something out. So took that job, long, long commute to get there every day. But I was like, I’m in LA. I made it. This is it. I was with them for about five years and just had the ride of my life growing it to what it is today with Brett and the team over there. I was in the production department and eventually became a senior producer. But more importantly, it was just amazing to be a part of growing an agency like that and doing everything from the sales pitches to the creative and then building out all the processes within production, account management, and just seeing all the different aspects of building an agency.
[00:09:19] So while I was out there, I got to produce things like Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscar party, Seth McFarlane’s Christmas party. We would do a pop up for Adidas at Coachella, tour for Amazon across the country to promote new shows, festivals for Pandora Radio. So it was really like a great experience of just working with top tier clients and getting to work on all those types of projects.
[00:09:46] Rachel Moore: I appreciate you sharing all that too. One thing that I think probably will resonate with a lot of our listeners, and I’d really be curious to know how many of them had a similar experience when you talk about the origin of you getting into event production, how you just got thrown into it.
[00:10:00] It was like from zero to 60 or more where, just move into it and Hey, guess what? Phish is in town. And so it was Jimmy Buffett. And you’re like, all right, then let’s go. Probably pretty relatable to a lot of our listeners.
[00:10:11] Brad Jackson: Yes. And I think that’s often how events are, whether you’re working with really big clients or it might be a smaller project, but still, you’re always on your toes as much as you can plan.
[00:10:21] There’s always things going on and you just have to figure it out.
[00:10:24] Rachel Moore: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s interesting too, you try figuring it out because it’s not just about logistics. It’s also about the people, and obviously they’re the main player in this whole scenario of creating events because we’re doing it for people.
[00:10:38] It involves people, and our audiences people, and the presenters and the performers are people. I know you’ve already mentioned, events are about making those connections between people. How has all this experience that you just relayed to us, how has that shaped your philosophy on that connection and the role that events play in fostering those connections? So much. There’s two parts to it.
[00:11:00] Brad Jackson: There’s how does that help you with your career or your agency and connections with that, but then also like events in general. And what does that mean for kind of culture and connecting people? I think both are very important in terms of like real life experiences and connecting people.
[00:11:19] I think It’s a form of communication and gathering that’s been around forever. And it is just such a essential part of marketing and branding and awareness. It’s like a core function of what people like to do, which is getting together. But then on the side of kind of more so building a business, when I was at NVE, I really saw a link to Brett’s massive success was through his network he had built over the years. And as much as I like to think you can be working from any city and kind of be remote, I also saw the importance of being in a city like LA, and now I reference that time as almost jumping in the express lane for a couple years, just because everybody is there and the energy is there and you’re meeting people and someone knows another person.
[00:12:18] These days I’m in Denver, but I’m so thankful for my time there just purely off of, you That aspect of building a network and meeting people.
[00:12:27] Rachel Moore: And I think that segues us excellently into today, right? Your latest project, we already mentioned you’re the founder and executive producer for Out of Office.
[00:12:37] Tell us about that because this is going to pull the whole thing together. It’s going to be like the Big Lebowski where the carpet brings the room together. But how is that working with all the things you just shared.
[00:12:47] Brad Jackson: It does all get pulled together, but not necessarily in a very intentional way.
[00:12:52] It’s just played out over the years. I’m proud of what it is today. So after my time at NVE, I left as a senior producer and took the jump to go freelance, which I’m happy to talk about that too, but that took a lot of courage and a lot of thought to leave such a great team. But I always had this burning, burning desire to start my own business and do my own thing.
[00:13:14] So that was about five years ago. I just really doubled down on my network again and was lucky enough to link up with a couple PR agencies that wanted to expand into experiential. And then I started producing events as a freelancer for Mattel, getting involved with Live Nation and Google and building my own book of business as a freelancer and slowly climbing up to an executive producer.
[00:13:44] About a year and a half ago, I had the realization that I just don’t want to necessarily work alone as a freelance EP for my whole career. I want to build something larger. And so I was thinking about how can you scale the things that people find value in when they work with me. And offer that to more and more people.
[00:14:07] And that’s where Out of Office, the concept was developed. And also with my passion of encouraging people to go freelance who are interested in that. The first iteration was just how can I have a better directory of great freelancers around the world? Because as an EP, I get asked all the time to either do a project and build a team or referrals for a great producer, creative director, account manager. And I like to have kind of the best in my sphere at all times where I can just be a connector for people.
[00:14:44] Rachel Moore: Yeah. Okay. I want to dig into that too, because you do talk about like today’s event professional. They could be someone who’s yeah, I can head up like creating this event, whatever size it might be. Of course, that’s going to impact how many more resources aside from that person are needed. That network comes into play massively, right? Because as you go through your career as an event professional, maybe you’re meeting people because you are getting thrown together because you work for a particular brand and that’s who else is working on with that brand and you work with those folks or and or you’re working with partners or vendors or, just those third parties where it’s yes, but I need a trusted this that we don’t have in house.
[00:15:22] And of course, pure freelance where you’re like you are creating your own village that helps put on these events. I like that you mentioned as well, sometimes it’s, it is about geography, right? Where you can go to a major metro area that has a great way to build those connections in person and stuff.
[00:15:39] Like how important has that been for you and how important do you think that is for just our listeners of event professionals network all the time?
[00:15:47] Brad Jackson: It is said so often, but I would say for a while I brushed it off a little, oh, yeah, build your network, whatever.
[00:15:54] Brad Jackson: And I think when you’re under the umbrella of a brand or an agency, especially with a really good owner or a leader, it’s easy to not realize the power of their network that’s bringing in a lot of the connections that you have as somebody who’s working there. And it’s not until you take a leap out on your own where you realize like, Oh, when I was under that umbrella, I was very reactive to projects coming in and that’s great.
[00:16:21] But now that you’re on your own or you’re starting your own agency or your own business, you have to be extremely proactive and nobody’s emailing you with tasks to do. You have to be out getting your own business and connections. And so that’s where the network comes into play. Like initially it’s more like a personal branding type thing, finding your way.
[00:16:44] And then I think as you graduate through your career, you start to realize that the importance isn’t necessarily on like the technician aspect of the business anymore: coming up with a great floor plan or picking out very specific furniture and things like that. It’s more about I have the confidence to go produce in any city at this point, because my network is strong enough that I can call on anyone that I need to.
[00:17:12] If I can’t find the right vendor, I know one person who could point me in the right direction. And then that slowly starts to expand even globally, which is then when you start to realize okay, cool. I, it’s a confidence thing of, I can go somewhere new. I can advise a client. And have that confidence of like really good people to count on.
[00:17:33] And then events in general is just very collaborative and you’re bringing, just like a film, you’re bringing in all the best of the best to put together a finished product that you could definitely never do alone.
[00:17:44] Rachel Moore: So how does Out of Office help facilitate that? Is that kind of the thing where let’s see if we could clone you, Brad and makes you like, I just need a Brad who can connect me with literally everyone I need.
[00:17:54] Am I incorrect or inaccurate to say that this is a master network personified in a platform?
[00:17:59] Brad Jackson: Definitely. I’m on a mission to really create the best hub for our industry and be that kind of ultimate connector. So phase one was really me starting with the freelancers because that’s me and who I know and who I love.
[00:18:15] And so I put it out into the world that I was going down this direction and put a little form on my website to start building a directory of freelancers. And we quickly got about 1, 500 freelancers in Experiential from around the world that filled out the form. And that told me, okay, they’re looking for community, they’re looking, freelancing is pretty lonely.
[00:18:39] So they’re looking for something, they’re looking for business resources, places to ask questions. So I ended up personally getting on video calls with over 200 of them to just get to know them and ask questions. And the three main things for the freelancers were personal branding, so like a website with case studies, logo wall, all of that.
[00:19:00] The second thing was a vendor database, so like vetted vendors that they could trust and again go to a city that they’ve never produced in and have the confidence. And then the third thing was community. So passing gigs to each other, asking for support and like business resources about being your own boss.
[00:19:20] So that was like my mission for phase one. I knew if I could just get a lot of great freelancers and just get them super excited. Then the agencies will naturally come to work with them. And then the brands will also naturally be curious to see what the agencies and freelancers are doing. And sure enough, that’s exactly what’s happening now.
[00:19:42] Rachel Moore: That’s really cool. And you ran through it. I love that you had it manifest just the way an event would, right? Where, you might put something together. Okay, let me put out the registration page and, just, Hey, everybody here’s here and see who registers much like you did with a form and interest where I’m like, okay, who would be interested in this?
[00:19:59] And immediately everybody’s yes, please. I will take all of what you’re talking about. So obviously you were hitting a nerve in a good way. I want to deviate too. Cause you had mentioned something earlier. You’re talking about freelancers. I’m sure a lot of our listeners are in that exact place where they’re a freelancer. They’re carving their own path.
[00:20:17] How was that transition for you from full time to freelance as far as like being an event producer and an executive producer and making that switch?
[00:20:25] Brad Jackson: Yeah. It was tough, definitely tough. The hardest part was leaving the agency family because as most of, I think probably everybody listening to this in events knows it’s like.
[00:20:37] You go into these projects and they’re just so crazy. And the timelines are so wild. You’re on site for 18 hours and it’s just so intense, but you like, you just grow really close to these people. And so there’s that element of leaving them. So
[00:20:55] Brad Jackson: I always tell people like, you need to have this kind of unexplainable burning desire to want to work for yourself because it’s hard to take the jump, but then it’s even harder to continue down that once you’re out. It’s very easy to panic and be like, I’m just going to go full time again somewhere else. So you need this like underlying thing that drives you a little extra.
[00:21:22] And then once you’re out, the toughest thing again is there’s nobody telling you what you should be doing. And I think the agency culture is so reactive to emails coming in and client requests and changes that when you are on your own it’s very daunting to try and figure out in terms of time management, your value is not necessarily the number of hours that you’re spending on a project.
[00:21:54] You can go to the gym in the middle of the day and it’s okay. That was a really hard thing for me to wrap my head around of not sitting in front, like staring at my inbox. Yes. It’s that, honestly, it took about a year and a half to deprogram myself from that type of thinking and just put the emphasis of value that I can bring to a project, like away from the fact that I email respond at 10 PM.
[00:22:24] Which unfortunately is very glorified in our world of so and so worked through the weekend. Aren’t they a rock star? And it’s not necessarily,
[00:22:32] Rachel Moore: That sounds neat. But is it?
[00:22:34] Brad Jackson: Yeah, but I would say that was honestly one of the hardest things is just figuring out who you are outside of a brand or an agency.
[00:22:44] Rachel Moore: Absolutely.
[00:22:46] Ad Break Intro: We’ll be right back with more Event Experience after the break.
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[00:23:33] Ad Break Outro: We’re back with Brad Jackson to explore the challenges event professionals face in today’s work dynamics.
[00:23:44] Rachel Moore: Obviously you have your own history, knowing the challenges, particularly for someone who is quote unquote Out of Office, which is the name of the platform. You just named some of those challenges about what it’s like to be Out of Office and in your own kind of business and world and freelancing.
[00:24:01] What are some other challenges that you think that Out of Office can help with when it comes to freelancers in the events industry?
[00:24:09] Brad Jackson: What I’m really proud of and honestly, the platform didn’t fully come to life until all of these new AI tools came out. And I know AI is such a hot topic right now and everybody is saying it but truthfully, I always had this vision of what if all of the talent was able to easily onboard to essentially a huge mastermind of data and information where we could all work together seamlessly. So what we did for the onboarding process to just get your personal website and portfolio up and running, there’s tons of AI tools hidden behind the scenes where with just your LinkedIn profile and uploading your resume, we basically can complete your personal website for you about 80 percent of the way there within a few minutes. And then when you’re creating a new case study, we go out into the world and find any press or media articles about your event that happened. You can check mark the ones that apply. And then again, AI creates your case study for you with about 80 percent of the way done.
[00:25:20] You can go in and edit all these features. Same with the vendor database, there’s an AI co pilot on top of that to help you coordinate your event quicker. So I see it as just pure efficiency right now. So now a senior producer or a creative director can get a project further and faster on their own than they, they used to be able to do, which is just so great to see come to life. We’re now rolling out creative features with renderings and concepting and pulling in competitor case study data so that if you have a client that wants to, let’s say, go to Art Basel, we can quickly pull all of their competitors, what they’ve done at similar events and put together concepts and renderings for you in a couple of minutes.
[00:26:12] And it just kicks off. Kicks off like brainstorming, and it recommends like vendors you should work with, venues you should consider, other freelancers on platform that have worked with that client or similar clients that you could collaborate with.
[00:26:27] Rachel Moore: Wow. That’s super cool. Yeah. Look, you nailed it on the head.
[00:26:30] Everybody’s AI, what’s it doing? It’s just, it’s everywhere we turn, whether in good or bad ways, where you’re seeing good effects, some byproducts of it or aftermath of it and things like that. Even from the experience standpoint, as someone is in the platform and they’re just getting some practice using AI and seeing what it can do for them, it’s super cool.
[00:26:51] I love that you’re incorporating that and being cognizant of what the technological tools are these days that, Everything that’s possible with them.
[00:26:59] Brad Jackson: Yeah. And I’m finding it gives our freelancers and our members the ability to say yes to more projects because again, like a producer like me who has a production background, I love creative concepting, but I would have no clue where to start to render out something or come up with ideas when I’m in the weeds on like the technical or logistics side of things.
[00:27:23] But now. I can just plug it in here and at least get some brainstorming thoughts going. Yeah,
[00:27:29] Brad Jackson: I think a really important point on AI is it is definitely not replacing people right now from my perspective, but what it is doing is. Helping with efficiencies. And I think as long as you can look at maybe all the tasks that you might do across a project, which one of those repeat themselves almost every single time, and can I use AI to make it more efficient for those repeatable tasks?
[00:28:00] That’s where you can really start to leverage your time, which is money when you’re freelancing.
[00:28:06] Rachel Moore: Oh my gosh, you’re so right. I literally was just thinking like something that someone could be doing. You do have your own business or whatever. You almost need to track the time you spend on your business as much as you need to track time you’re spending for a client. It’s a whole different ball game, but I love that you’ve created this platform that really does boil down to you saw what could solve your own challenges and where you particularly could solve challenges for others and say, can we turn this into something, can we make this broader than yourself?
[00:28:38] It’s very much the mentality of, and the nature of a, an event person where you’re just like, this should reach more people and make it better for everyone. So it’s great.
[00:28:47] Brad Jackson: It is funny you say that because I was the other morning having that thought of Wow. Okay.
[00:28:53] Am I now just like a tech platform guy or whatever? But I think it’s still like when I thought about it, it’s still producing. Like I’m still taking different aspects and parts and putting them together into one thing to come out with a different outcome. So I still am happy to say I’m a producer, it’s just in a different realm for right now.
[00:29:17] Rachel Moore: Yeah, you’re still making an experience for people. It’s just a little different than what, it’s not Phish. It’s not a Phish concert. Let’s just say that. And then I have the easiest question of all, where can our listeners find and follow you online?
[00:29:28] Brad Jackson: So LinkedIn, Brad Jackson, I decided a year ago to, to hit LinkedIn pretty hard and it’s paid off immensely.
[00:29:36] I can not recommend it higher for people in our world. And then LiveOutofOffice.Com is the new website and where you can go choose your own path, freelancer agency brand, and we’ll be rolling out very soon.
[00:30:04] Rachel Moore: To SkillUp your event success, Brad is focused on two letters that should be super familiar to all of us by now.
[00:30:12] Brad Jackson: I’m still gonna hang on the AI efficiency thing right now. Again, I know it’s such a hot topic and probably every podcast that everyone’s listening to right now is talking about it. But I think if you’re not playing around in that world right now and trying to find some efficiencies, it’ll pass you up.
I know Adobe just launched some incredible new features that like the creatives in my sphere are so excited about. Renderings for me as a producer, I used to have to go get quotes from rendering artists and then narrow it down and it would take four or five days for turnarounds and it’d be extremely expensive.
And now those tools are just getting better and better. So I would really encourage people to explore. I think as much as I love our industry, I think it’s a little bit old school and it’s ripe for some new stuff to come through. And I think, yeah, there’s going to be a shake up pretty soon. As long as you can I’m very grateful at this point in my career, I can step back and look at all the aspects of how a project happens in the industry and who are the players and all that. And just try and find where things are inefficient and like, how can I make that better?
[00:31:29] Rachel Moore: Thanks again to Brad Jackson 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/podcasts.
On behalf of the team, thank you. We’ll gather again soon for a new episode of Event Experience.
