Danielle Brody
Event work
A sampling of some of the events I produced.
I've worked on producing, managing, and marketing many corporate events (and personal ones, like a 25th birthday party with a roast and personalized drink sticks, which aren't listed here!).
At Crain’s (2017-2019), we produced custom events for our clients. I helped manage client relationships, hire vendors, and execute these high-level events, which included promotion and post-event content. I ideated the Family Business Awards June 2018. As the events manager at Westfair Communications (from 2015-2016), I planned, marketed, produced, and ran about 18 events per year for 100-250 people. Sometimes, I even spoke in the beginning to open the event.
Family Business Awards
For the first time, Crain's honored 15 top family businesses across industries in New York City. This included a cocktail reception hosted at our NY HQ, a special section with a profile on each business, a website and print recap. I oversaw the custom editorial coverage. The event was a success with great attendance from all the families.
Landing Latin America
United Airlines wanted to reach those who travel often to Latin America. We planned this private armchair discussion for the brand. Attendance of 70+. I helped with the pitch, named it and helped execute with my team. I edited the custom editorial coverage we produced post-event.
Pitching the Angels
I worked with the Westchester Angels, a local investor group, to produce Westfair’s first pitching event. We led up to the event with a series of columns written by one of the Angels and marketed the event online, in print, via email and through our networks. The event began with a breakfast panel Q&A session. David Heath, founder of Bombas socks, gave the keynote speech, then four pre-vetted startups pitched and received live feedback and scores from four judges. It was a new type of event for the newspaper which connected us to a fresh audience and brought our coverage to life.
Downtown's New Direction: Will smart growth get us there?
This year Westfair itself went in a new direction with its annual real estate event. I secured speakers from different sectors of government who could speak about “Smart Growth” and downtown development. I named the event and compiled photos and essays, two of which I wrote, from 15 governments in Westchester and Fairfield counties about their smart growth initiatives. We ran one article per week and reprinted all of them, with an opening essay I wrote, in a supplement inserted into the newspaper and distributed at the event.
Transformation Conference
As our first Transformation panel neared, we needed to drum up awareness to increase attendance. While our keynote was well-known, our panelists were not. I decided to create brief “teaser” videos of interviews with our panelists in their offices about what they do and how they have transformed their companies. I thought this would introduce them to our audience while giving them a taste of what the event would be like. A former reporter, I conducted the interviews and wrote articles to accompany the videos which were created by our in-house producer. We incorporated the videos into our newsletters, email marketing and social media and played clips at the event. Click the images above to see the videos.
Milli Awards
In November of 2015 and 2016 we produced the Milli Awards, a new awards program for millennials. The first event in 2015 was a creative challenge that led me to think of new elements that we now incorporate into all of our events. At the first milli event, we started to use more social media and hashtags before and during the program, a visual presentation behind the stage, 3D printed awards and backdrop with our logos to increase branding. At the first event, I performed a skit with my coworker about millennial stereotypes and the keynote was from Uber. At the most recent event, we held a successful after-party with a restaurant and another happy hour at Neiman Marcus, another sponsor, two nights later. I also tried using more provocative headlines in our email marketing like, “Who say millis are lazy?” This is one of my favorite events because the age group allows for a lot of fun and inspires me to take the event to the next level.
Other events
Other events I have run include the Family-owned Business Awards in February 2016, where I first started to incorporate previous winners, or “alumni” into the event, and secured the vice president of Harney & Sons Tea as the keynote. At Powerful Women in January 2016, I secured New York Times health columnist, Jane Brody, as a panelist. The 40 under 40 event in June 2016 was the smoothest and most profitable event in 12 years.