Trendsetter Tuesday: Why Bill Reed Believes Innovation is Vital to a Successful Event
To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today has launched a new podcast series called "Trendsetter Tuesday," in order to learn more about the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue.
In episode of the Trendsetter Tuesday podcast, Meetings Today digital content coordinator Logan Pratt sat down with Bill Reed, Chief Event Strategy Officer for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and one of this year's Meetings Trendsetters.
The American Society of Hematology (ASH), is an organization focused on the causes and treatments of blood disorders. In December, ASH will host their 66th annual Meeting and Exhibition, which in 2023 was attended by over 30,000 medical professionals from over 110 countries, making it one of the largest healthcare events in the world. That event also had the added bonus of being a hybrid event, with Reed now becoming one of the foremost advocates and experts on hybrid meetings in the industry.
Reed talks about his journey in the meetings industry to this point, why he is always asking questions and innovating and why he is never complacent with the status quo.
[Related: The 2024 Meetings Trendsetters Paving New Paths in the Events Industry]
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Transcript:
Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by the Microsoft Teams AI transcript program and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.
Logan Pratt
Hello, and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast, I’m Logan Pratt, digital content coordinator for Meetings Today, and we’re back with another podcast celebrating our Meetings Trendsetters class of 2024.
Every year, Meetings Today selects 20 Trendsetters whose unique contributions to the meetings and events industry make them stand out, and here with us today is one of those trendsetters, Bill Reed.
Bill Reed is the Chief Event Strategy Offer for the American Society of Hematology, or ASH, an organization focused on the causes and treatments of blood disorders. In December, ASH will host their 66th annual Meeting and Exhibition, which in 2023 was attended by over 30,000 medical professionals from over 110 countries, making it one of the largest healthcare events in the world. That event also had the added bonus of being a hybrid event, with Bill now becoming one of the foremost advocates and experts on hybrid meetings in the industry. And he’s here today to talk more about his own journey in the industry. Welcome to the show, Bill.
Bill Reed
Thanks so much Logan, it's great to be with you.
Logan Pratt
Yeah. It's good to talk with you again. I know we we talked a few months ago for the other podcast that we have called Fast Forward. How have things been going since then? I know you guys are kind of gearing up for your next event here in December.
Bill Reed
Absolutely. We are coming down the homestretch as they say, and we'll be anticipating 35,000 participants the first week of December. So we're awfully excited about that and look forward to delivering a great experience.
Logan Pratt
Yeah. Well I can't wait to to read all about it. So I know you've had a long journey in the events industry up till this point and everyone seems to always have, like, a different story about how they got into the industry. So how did you begin your journey into the means industry? And you know, how did you get started?
Bill Reed
You know, Logan, I feel pretty fortunate that early on in my life, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So I find that many colleagues in the events industry sometimes stumbled upon this industry or came to this ecosystem from a a different original career path. For me, it was what I intended all along. So I went to a great hospitality management school in Florida. And after graduating set out on a hotel career which, you know, looking back on it in hindsight, was very instrumental in charting a path forward that really has brought me a lot of satisfaction in my career.
So you know, after many years and working in different capacity in hotels, from operations to convention services, sales positions both on property as well as in what are now called global sales office or national sales offices, I made a transition and joined a meeting management firm, an entertainment company at Disney. And that eventually led me to the opportunity to fully exercise all of that experience at ASH. And I've now been at ASH for 11 years. So it's been a great journey and I think I've been really fortunate because I've been exposed to many aspects of the industry and that has probably helped me by having the broad perspective on what's possible.
Logan Pratt
Yeah. And I was just about to ask 'cause, I think you just, yeah, you crossed 10 years at ASH just recently, just looking at your LinkedIn profile and it's been one of your longest kind of career points at this point. So what made you decide to go to ASH and what are the benefits of working at a company like that compared to where you were previously?
Bill Reed
You know what led me to ASH is probably divine intervention. I know that sounds really pollyanna-like, but I really felt likea all of my talents and skills and experience aligned with what ASH was looking for at the time, and I think it's proven to be quite a nice marriage between what I was looking for. I was really seeking an opportunity to work for a mission based organization. And one of the things that I think ASH does extremely well is for all of us we understand the connection between what we individually do, meaning what our job is responsible for, and connecting the dots all the way through our hematologist to the patients that hematologists serve and the research interests that Hematologists are trying to figure out. So I think it's a great career recipe when you understand how your role fits into the much bigger picture.
And one thing that I know for sure at this point in my career, I do my best work in an organization that has a strong culture.
And all throughout my career, I may not have known it then but I most certainly know it now, each one of the organizations I've worked with had had a strong culture. They weren't all the same culture, but I know something that makes me happiest is when I'm in working with people and there's a strong culture in play. And that's definitely true at ASH and the culture we often talk about is what we create for ourselves. So it's not up to some omnipotent person to define it, we all create it and we all have to live up to it. And that's a really powerful environment to do whatever it is that you do for the organization.
So ours is based upon quality orientation, our brand reputation being paramount in everything that we do. Being very methodical, thoughtful about the approaches we take in what we do and really looking at things from the long term perspective. And probably this is unique about the association world is that we have a really strong partnership between our volunteer leaders, the hematologists that serve in different governance capacity and the staff. So it's a partnership, an equal partnership, and we have very defined roles. The volunteer leaders understand where they bring value and the staff understands the value that we bring to the table and it's not... I've seen in other situations where those two forces kind of fight with each other, or there's a tension.
I think at ASH, what is wonderful is those two forces are aligned towards the same common goal.
Logan Pratt
Definitely. And I know the last time we had talked, you were just coming off of your 2023 meeting and exhibition and now at the time of recording this, you guys are gearing up for your next event, as we mentioned earlier. So what kind of things are you guys planning and how are you planning to innovate and improve upon the format that you had last year?
Bill Reed
Well, you know during another aspect of the culture, we are not a status-quo type of organization. So in my years with ASH I I have to say there's never really been a rinse and repeat year. And every year we're always looking to make improvements upon what we did in the previous yea. And in 2023 and 2024, we had the additional challenge of both years were going to be in the same location. So we will be in San Diego two years in a row through a coincidence, it wasn't really intended to be that way.
So the challenge became about how do we make this meeting happening in the same location feel different to the participants?
And we drew upon trying to step into the shoes of our 2024 ASH president and wanting him to feel a sense of satisfaction that the meeting that occurred during his year as president was not the same as the previous year's president. So that made it a personal connection to we don't want to let, in this case, doctor Narla down, who's been a member of ASH for decades.
So we set upon how can we change things up knowing that certain components of the meeting probably can't change all that much. You know, certain things fit a certain way in a any city location and for ASH, and with that number of participants, we have to maximize both our indoor space between the convention center and the adjacent hotels and all of the hotels in San Diego county. And as well as how do we maximize the use of outdoor spaces? And in many ways, we are building indoor spaces outdoors.
So that gives us a license to be creative, but we want to be mindful because with our brand reputation. There is very little error for "oops" or things we didn't think about. So we spend an awful lot of energy in making sure that the new components are tested well in advance of being exposed to our audience.
Logan Pratt
How do you go about testing one of those things? Because I imagine that is probably the scariest part about, you know, constantly innovating and introducing new aspects to your meeting is you don't want to, as you said, make an oops and, you know, alienate a lot of the people that you know. You've worked so hard to get people to, you know, trust your brand. So how how do you test stuff? How do you, you know, get inspiration from what... To innovate versus what to keep the same?
Bill Reed
Yeah, great question, Logan. And I think this goes back to my early career experience in the hospitality industry. Let me first say I believe that if you are trained well in a hospitality role, I have a belief you can do anything in life because it teaches you core basics about working with people. But moreover to that, you are conditioned to anticipate the unexpected. I'm going to say that again, because I think it's so important to anticipate the unexpected.
So over the course of my hotel career, you get better all the time because you are anticipating the variables that possibly could happen and that is most definitely true in events. We know just about any scenario can take place, but when you have anticipated what those scenarios could be, you're further along the path of thinking about what's the antidote to something about ready to come off the rails, so to speak. If this were to happen, what should we do?
And I think our team really exercises that muscle frequently of not only developing a plan, but crafting in advance what's our plan B, our plan C, our plan D. Sometimes it can be exhausting because you're investing energy in back up plans that are never used. But I tell you, when you need to use those backup plans, it's worth all the energy you put into it.
So for me, that's what I I appreciate my hotel background so much because that taught me the importance of anticipating things.
And just simple envisioning putting yourself into the space. You know what you have physically designed, but then imagining it with people being infused and what the traffic flow will look like, what will it feel like to the participant?
And I work on a team that, collectively between all of us, I think we do a masterful job of thinking about all the possible scenarios and picking the one that is going to be most effective as your plan.
Logan Pratt
Yeah, it's just it sounds crazy to, like, have all of these, you know, scenarios in your head. How do you... do you guys spend a lot of time brainstorming that? Because I imagine a lot of planners in our audience, you know, they obviously want to plan for every contingency and stuff, but it's just sometimes hard to think about what even could happen. Do you spend a lot of time brainstorming or just have a lot of... do you pull from your experience to be like "Well, I saw this at one event, so this is obviously something that could happen and we need to be prepared for it."
Bill Reed
I think that experience of watching other events is an important component because we definitely have the opportunity to learn from our colleagues on what works and what doesn't work.
I think also observing a diversity of event types is really helpful as well. And that's where my background with a meeting management firm, where you are working upon all different types of events, whether it was corporate events, association events. I guess we call them enthusiast events these days, you know, sports and activities like marathons or tournaments and things like that. You you begin to see the exciting aspect of this profession, is there are a million ways to do anything and there's no one right way. And you've got to match up the methodology with what is going to serve your objective and the culture of your organization really well.
And I don't know that it takes an awful lot of time. So when when I hear people say "I don't have the time for that," I get a little nervous about that. Because we all have plenty of time, it's what you're doing with your brain constantly. So for instance, I walk every day at 4:00 in the morning. That's my quiet time and I put on my earbuds and I listen to music and I think through these scenarios, as I'm doing something else. In this case, it's walking, but for others it might be while you're working out, while you're taking a shower, it's actively engaging that brain in the imagination of what's to come.
So it's, you know, in many conferences there are sessions on mindfulness. And in our industry, mindfulness might just be leveraging that time to imagine different scenarios. And what is possible could happen both good and bad, right? You... when you're sort of envisioning these things after a while, you start to get a sense of what is going to work and what might not work.
And you have the ability because you're thinking about these things in advance to make tweaks to course correct.
You know, athletes think of this as muscle memory, right? So they repeat many of the same workout regimens because your body gets used to it and you get more efficient with it. And the same thing is true for this type of scenario, imagination or whatever you'd like to call it. Scenario planning is probably more common thinking about that.
So I think there's plenty of time, but it's starts with the commitment. Do I accept it's my responsibility to do everything I possibly can without leaving any stone unturned to make sure a great experience is the result? And an additional component, Logan, to that aspect of constant, you can call it innovation, sometimes people get nervous with that word, can be constant tweaking or improvement. Continuous improvement is the notion that we have the responsibility, but also the freedom the organization has given us, and trust our judgment to make some changes.
And I recognize we're in a unique situation because I hear from colleagues at other organizations where they don't have that freedom or haven't been given that empowerment right. And that can be stifling. But I do believe we have it because we earned it.
Right? I don't know in any organization if anyone's going to just unilaterally come to you and say, "Do whatever the heck you want to do and let us know later." That's just not going to happen. So we've earned the right to have more wiggle room and freedom because we have developed a track record. We've proven ourselves that when we introduce something new we're not going to embarrass the organization by the introduction, right?
So one of the things that we do I think quite well is we do a lot of subtle beta testing on concepts on a smaller scale and then ramp it up and magnify it in round two. And what that does... that format allows you to learn what you can learn without an awful lot of people being exposed to what you can improve upon so you can fix it, make it better, and then when you unveil it to a larger portion of the audience. It's, you know, version 2.0 or version 3.0.
And that's a lesson we all can learn from the software industry, right? If you think about software programs, you have no idea how many versions are into it. You know you've got version 16.1-82, right? I think that has a good example for all of us in the events profession to do the same type of thing of constantly be looking to improve rather than follow the same checklist over and over and over.
And for me, I know that I do my best work when I'm not in status quo mode. Some people are great in status quo. I know that about myself over the years, I'm best when I'm constantly pushing myself outside of the comfort zone. And luckily, our team is entirely about that. We have diversity in our team in many ways. But you know the way we think we're diverse the way our preferences are diverse. So when we tackle a new component, we've got people thinking about it and watching for different aspects. So we're not cookie cutters or clones of each other, and that makes our team really, really strong.
Logan Pratt
Yeah. How do you guys… I'm really interested in this process of like, you know, innovation and stuff and constantly changing stuff. How often do you guys, you know, throw out ideas as well, like when? When do you also sometimes have to recognize that an idea isn't, you know, working, or how? How do you, you know, process the ideation of this and decide what to… what to even put your time into?
Bill Reed
Yeah, we- it's a great question and I'm chuckling here because that scenario just happened this morning where some colleagues and I, we were working on something we were trying to introduce and this morning we all kind of came to the a-ha moment at the same time that… We have an expression that “this may be a solution in desperate search of a problem,” meaning we were trying to execute something and when we really thought about it, why are we trying so hard to fit this square peg into a round hole?
And it helped us as we were struggling… it helped us to see, “OK, this is an idea.
It doesn't mean it's a great idea.” And maybe this is telling us we should put the idea in the idea file for next year. And see if we might come at it differently. Or could we target it differently? So that happens and that's a really good thing.
And one of the things that I remember distinctly in in my first couple of months at ASH, a sage colleague of mine, after I had pitched a new idea, and with the stakeholders that I was discussing it with, we came to the conclusion that the answer was no. And as I internalize that… Who likes to get a no answer, right? One of my colleagues shared with me the advice to think about no is not meaning no. But instead thinking about it as “not just yet.” And that was really helpful for me because patience is not my strong suit, Logan. Put that right out there and all of my colleagues will attest to that. That sometimes ideas are a few steps ahead of where they should be or where they're going to have the greatest success and that can be a really good thing.
So when something's not ready, it's OK to say, “OK, it's not ready, but let's not lose track of this idea. And let's keep it at the forefront for the future.”
Logan Pratt
Yeah, I'm sure it's also very humbling to have to realize that something that you might have also thought like, “Oh, this is a great idea.” And then you work on it for a while and then you're like, “Oh, maybe not so.”
Bill Reed
Well, we all have those moments, I think. Right? Because…
Logan Pratt
Exactly.
Bill Reed
But also I think one of the advantages of being… Having experience over a period of time is you begin to collect the wisdom to understand, not to personalize your ideas too much. The idea got rejected. I didn't get rejected and having the mindset that it's about the idea. And it wasn't about you or it's not your idea, it's an idea to make an improvement on X or Y or Z. So kind of creating some separation between you and the idea is something that has evolved for me over decades.
Logan Pratt
Definitely. And I also want to kind of transition into asking you a little bit about just the concept of trendsetters in general. Because obviously you were named a trendsetter this year by us, and I kind of want to ask you a little bit about, you know, how would you define somebody who is a trendsetter? And what would you give advice to anybody who maybe wants to get into, you know, your position. Who maybe, like me, just starting off in the industry.
Bill Reed
Great. And I will start by saying, Logan, that I take great joy at this point in my career.
Being considered a trendsetter, whatever that means, right. Because what that tells me is I must be doing something right that at this point in my career, I think I'm in my fourth decade might be my fifth if I do the math correctly, that I'm still looking to learn, looking to break barriers to whatever degree possible.
So I love the honor of being selected as one of the trendsetters. So I wanna thank you for that. But I think you know what I would share what has served me well is…
Wherever you are in your career, are you asking good questions? Are you seeking to observe different experiences in the events space? Are you reading as much material as you possibly can from a variety of different sources and when?
I think about, in the arc of my career, one of the things that I'm really grateful for is the exposure to different sources of inspiration. So when you think about it, Logan, where do you draw your inspiration from? And someone taught me early on to not look inwardly, only at the events industry, because that's probably going to lead you to the point of recycling other ideas rather than do you look for inspiration outwardly
to other parts of life.
So it's become a habit for me too. You know, if I go to a baseball or a football game or a tennis stadium I am looking to draw inspiration from those environments and what could be learned. What are they doing well? In my portion of my career in a meeting management firm, I used to love to go to corporate events to learn about how they bolster their brand through events and I think corporate planners out there could look to the association world and find examples because associations are great about building community and connections.
So looking for inspiration in a variety of different silos, if you will, rather than staying, you know, in my case, if I only look towards what other medical societies are doing with their meetings. We'd all begin to look alike, so you have to look at other sources and reading other materials besides industry publications. So, you know, reading Fast Company magazine is a great example for me or looking at design industry magazines is helpful so that you're learning beyond the borders of what we already are exposed to.
Logan Pratt
Definitely. I love that. Thank you so much, Bill, for all of this.
Just as kind of like a last question, you know, where can people you know find you? And how can our audience stay connected with you and everything that ASH is doing? I know you guys have obviously your event coming up pretty soon.
Bill Reed
Yeah, well, I if you want to connect with me on X, formally Twitter.
I'm at @reednow. And you can follow me there. I tend to use that vehicle more for professional posts. On Facebook I kind of keep that reserved for my inner circle of friends and family and such.
But also, you know through industry events, I welcome the opportunity to talk with anyone. So if I don't come up to you at an event, I am absolutely welcoming for you to come up to me and find me and connect the good old fashioned way face to face.
Logan Pratt
Awesome. Well, yeah, thank you so much for being on the show, bill.
Bill Reed
Thank you, Logan, appreciate it.
Logan Pratt
That was Bill Reed, Chief Event Strategy Officer for the American Society of Hematology and one of our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters. Once again, I'm Logan Pratt, digital content coordinator for Meetings Today. And thanks again for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast. If you want to hear more, head on over to meetingstoday.com/podcasts, thank you so much for listening.
