Interview - PeriSean Hall

PeriSean Hall

In the past, I’ve brought you keynote speakers and some of the secrets behind success in their careers. Now that we’re slowly getting back to holding live events, it is only apt that I bring you a production expert that has done many small and large events for the business industry. Today, she is sharing the secrets that will help you plan and produce your next best event.

PeriSean Hall used to work as an on-air radio personality, Getting into event production was not planned. One day at work, she was asked by the general manager of the station to co-produce a Pastor’s Appreciation Banquet in the Dallas Fort Worth area. After thinking about it for 24 hours, she said yes to the opportunity and successfully produced the event attended by 350+ pastors and their spouses. PeriSean knew that she was moving to go work as a full-time event producer. That first banquet was the precursor for what was to come. She started producing events with thousands of guests. Today, she produces a number of large multi-day events a year.

Believe in yourself. That is her advice for people beginning their careers as event producers. PeriSean shares that she had to learn to believe in herself when she first started. “Sometimes we put ourselves in boxes, that we can only do what we think we are capable of doing. When someone asks you to do something that you’ve never seen yourself doing, they obviously see something in you that you need to explore so you have to believe that you can do it.”

PeriSean shares 3 things that event producers must do in the early stages of planning an event.

1. The first is to do site visits. You must know what the venue looks like ahead of time and you need to make sure that everything is how it’s supposed to be.

2. The second one is room set-ups. Ensure that the general session room and breakout rooms are set for the week if you have a multi-day event.

3. The last one is conducting event surveys to measure your event’s success. “Getting valuable feedback from your attendees is everything.” The result of these surveys will help you improve and will become the foundation of your next event.

PeriSean adds that the food, networking, and keynote speakers are critical. Balancing the schedule during the event is also important. PeriSean always makes sure that they have up to 30-minute breaks in between sessions so the attendees can get up, stretch, grab snacks, and network. Evening parties are also critical in her events so that her attendees are able to bond, relax, and have some more fun. “Our members want to meet up with one another, they want to be able to network. They don’t want to always be in a meeting where they’re sitting and listening even though that’s valuable as well.”

At the onset of the pandemic in 2020 when people were forced to work from home, the company she works for decided to do online events. In a matter of two months, she produced an online event from her kitchen table.

Virtual events are much different than in-person events. According to her, there are two keys to a successful virtual event.

1. The first one is speaking. The keynotes speakers make virtual events interesting. As the producer, PeriSean has to make sure she schedules rehearsals with all of the speakers to give them instructions, hear their content, and coach them what they need them to speak about. “The audience is going to be sitting and watching at home so you have to bring forth something to keep their attention so they’re not up doing other things.”

2. The other key is having a keynote draw. For PeriSean, the most important part about selecting keynote speakers is that they need to be educational,  well-known in the industry, and have written books because their audience members are readers and business leaders. This past year, their company went beyond the budget to hire the best keynote speakers. “It was a great draw. People came in droves and they got what they came for.”

PeriSean has used speakers from both inside and outside their organization and there’s been a debate about which has more value. People inside the organization are like peers and it is great hearing and learning from your peers especially when they have been successful in their own rights. However, an insider speaker can have a recurring theme. According to PeriSean, hiring speakers from the outside has great benefits. “People need to be inspired, they need clear glasses.” She likes bringing in speakers from outside of the organization to be able to leave people with takeaways that they can implement as soon as they get home.

When health protocols were getting less strict, Service World said “No more virtual!” PeriSean broke the mold and went outside of the box. Their company was the first in their industry to launch a different version of a hybrid event. They called it The Barefoot Roundtable. The event was at the beach and everybody was under a huge tent wearing color-coded badges according to the level of contact they wanted. People were free to engage and talk to one another. “It seemed like it had been 20 years since we last did that.” Going “barefoot was such a hit that Service World company is reprising the concept next spring in Palm Springs, California.

Planning an event requires a lot of logistics. You cannot have a successful event without making sure everything is in place. PeriSean shares that the most rewarding part is the big saves. When an event goes live and something happens that is not planned for, she is at her best. PeriSean loves the opportunity and the challenge to recover from that kind of moment. Every event producer must be creative to figure out what they could do to fix the problem right away.

She also recalled a whimsical moment that happened during the Barefoot Roundtable. She had the urge to sing along to a favorite song during one of the breaks “The next thing I know, everybody was clapping. It was that overwhelming sense of freedom. It was live. It was in the moment. I think magical things occur when you’re in the moment and you cannot plan for magical things so that’s very inspirational to me.”