Taylor Weinstein, 27, works in Toronto as director of event management services at Redstone Agency Inc. As a 2017 40 Under 40 honoree, Weinstein discusses her passion for the events industry.
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What I do: My responsibilities include managing an extensive event portfolio, with a focus on millennial and Gen Z engagement tactics and programs. I also run our onboarding, training and development program as it relates to events, as well our internship and student development initiatives. The bulk of my time is spent planning, coordinating, and executing national and international conferences, which is what I love most. There is no greater feeling than watching all of the pieces of this ever-changing puzzle that is your event come together.
How I got here: My event management experience began in New York City working for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in the corporate events department. After my time there, I returned to my hometown of Toronto to accept a position as event coordinator with an established event and association management company, and I remained there for almost four years. Last year, I made the move to Redstone, where I am contributing to the development of our event department from the ground up.
My greatest career accomplishment: I’m most proud of the trajectory of my career. In five short years, I have grown from an event coordinator with a simple portfolio of events to director of events at a leading event management agency.
Impressive stats: I have been able to dramatically increase sponsorship in some instances while decreasing an event’s overall expenses. For example, for my client’s 2013 conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I was able to reduce expenses by 15 percent and increase sponsorship by 250 percent. I did this by overhauling the existing conference budget to find cost-saving areas. When it came to sponsorship, I developed meaningful relationships with each sponsor and stakeholder and created customized packages to better reflect their needs. The measures taken were tremendously successful and moved the conference from a deficit to surplus of over $50,000.
A specific improvement I’ve made: Working for a startup, I have been able to implement a variety of best practices and methods to noticeably impact and improve our day-to-day tasks. This includes developing a series of communication templates that save time and resources, streaming weekly and monthly reporting to better update our clients, and implementing a team communication tool to help foster a collaborative working culture. More specifically, as a team, we began using an online platform to share messages, ideas and updates, which has helped limit the number of internal emails we receive on a daily basis.
What I’m working on: I am currently working on six events: two full-day conferences, one awards show, one TED Talks-style event, one CEO roundtable and a three-day conference in Prague. I am most excited about the TED Talks-style event, as we are trying out a series of new volunteer engagement strategies, sponsorship techniques and marketing methods.
What I do outside of work: I absolutely love to eat. If I am not at work, you can most likely find me in the kitchen trying out a new recipe. I am also passionate about travel and seeing different parts of the world. My most recent trip was to New Zealand, where I learned to drive on the opposite side of the road. Finally, I am incredibly enthusiastic about the event planning industry, which is why I love to speak at local colleges to engage future leaders of event planning.
