Written by
Scott Schenker
Scott has spent a career making events memorable, meaningful, and magical. Beginning with two of the world’s foremost event planning firms, Jack Morton and George P. Johnson, he worked across clients, industries, and continents to deliver amazing experiences that were as good for participants as for the organizations responsible for the gatherings. He moved to the corporate side as global head of events at technology powerhouses SAP, Microsoft, and ServiceNow. He is opinionated, generous, and still committed to every client’s, every participant’s, and now every reader’s success. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and is the world’s grumpiest man when he hears the words “early bird discount.” (See Essay 4.8 | Scarcity.)
With
Bryan Rutberg
Bryan spent over 20 years in sales, marketing, and communications at Hewlett-Packard, McKinsey & Company, and Microsoft, consistently attending, speaking at, and helping plan events. He presented at microcomputer user group meetings in the 1990s, wrote speeches for Microsoft executives in the 2000s, and was Director of Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center, where he and his team produced thousands of mini events connecting customer and partner executives with Microsoft leaders. He met Scott after moving into consulting, and during Scott’s years at Microsoft, Bryan’s team attended dozens of conferences to capture behind-the-scenes stories of event delivery and impact. Today, Bryan still writes speeches (and books) and is a keynoter at sales kickoffs, leadership retreats, and association meetings. He motivates and educates on building great customer relationships.