Adrienne Zepeda with MD&M West and Informa Markets

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

MD&M West, medtech automation, industrial innovation, Informa, event planning, manufacturing, exhibitors, attendees, feedback, technology, networking, human connection, innovation, resilience, future trends.

00:00

Hey, this episode of Industrial Talk is proudly brought to you by MD&M West and the incredible news and brews team. MD&M West delivered big medtech automation, packaging, plastics and design all came together under one roof, the innovation, the energy, the conversation, it was everything that makes this industry extraordinary. I was on the floor, capturing the stories, the breakthroughs and the leaders who are shaping the future. Thanks for tuning in and celebrating the people driving industrial innovation. Industrial Talk powered by MD&M West and the news and brews team.

00:47

Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go

01:05

all right once again. Welcome to Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for joining. Thank you very much for your continued support. We are broadcasting here, MD&M West, brought to you by those wonderful people at news and brews. We are all a part of one big, happy family, and we're telling the story of manufacturers, and they're all here, they're all here, and they're just absolutely solving the problems and challenges that that are impacting the market and industry today. And I'm saying, okay, okay, Scott, you got me. You're saying this is incredible. And I'm telling you, you need to be a part of this organ, this event. If you're not here at MD&M West, I'm sorry, because it's an important event, put this on your calendar. It's brought to you by those wonderful people at Informa. Informa is an incredible organization, and you know why they're incredible? We're gonna be talking to a person, a professional, an amazing individual that represents that company and that has put on MD&M West, and we're going to talk a little bit about I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. If you come to this event and you see all the stuff that has to happen, yeah, Adrienne is one of those individuals that ensures that it's all happening. You might not be you might not know that it's happening. It's happening and it's making your life better. Let's get cracking Yeah. There you go. How you doing? I'm doing really good. How is the show going for you? Amazing.

02:28

In one word, it's been a fantastic show.

02:31

How many people are here? Over 12,000 Shut up.

02:35

Yeah. And we still got one more day to go.

02:37

Yes, yeah. What I'm sorry, see, I just, I just jumped to it, because I'm just so fascinated when I, when I walk around and I and I look, and I see the signage, I see this, and I see this person says, hey, I can help you. And now this, and it's all just there. And, you know, we just take it. I can appreciate that, but your team, you and others, look at every bit of the details,

03:07

every single one. There's a lot to be considered, things that you don't even think about because you don't have to, which is, it's our job too, so you don't have to, yeah, you

03:17

again again. When do you begin planning for next year,

03:23

probably in about two weeks, three weeks, four weeks from now? Are you kidding me? No, always. I mean, I have to say the show for me is always top of mind. So I am always thinking about it, always thinking of new experiences. I go somewhere, I take that and I think of how it could be implemented at our show. How could be something cool at our show? What could we be doing better? We take feedback from people we talk to all year long, and we roll that into our plans. But I'm never not planning the next show. I'm planning probably two, three years ahead all the time you have to, yeah.

04:03

Are you really telling me you're about three years out to three years out

04:06

to probably two years out, at least? Because there's some things, you know, we have, we have such a short time with you all. We get you all for about three days with our exhibitors. We probably have about five. And we get that that's one year out of one year. We get that much time with you, also to have experiences that resonate with you for the rest of the year, to be able to supply experiences, get you those leads, get you that connection to the manufacturer, whatever that may be, we have such a limited, finite time to be able to do a lot for a lot of people. And so we have to look at, how do we condense that into three days? How do we make drive the most impact for everybody? How do we provide the most value? There's a lot of editing, a lot of noodles on the wall.

04:48

How do you how do you measure success? I'm sorry, I'm jumping again. Can you give us a little background on who you are? You could say I've been having. It. I've been looking around and go, Yeah, this is great. I just jump right into it. Just give us a background, and then I'll quit. Go back to where we were.

05:07

I like it, yeah? Real quick. Adrienne Zepeda, I work for Informa. I'm currently vice president one of two of our manufacturing division. Oversee six events. Currently, MD&M brand being one of them. But previously, as of last year, I was event director for MD&M West, and a couple of our other smaller regional shows are med device events. And I've been with Informa for five years. I've been in manufacturing for 15, going on 20, close to 20 years started when you were 10, started when I was 10. It's amazing.

05:41

We grow up so fast.

05:44

Okay, so in that little bio that's amazing, see again, my ears were going to start to bleed, and my, you know, my eyeballs are bleeding because I don't see how,

05:57

how large is your team?

06:00

I mean, define team. We're really cross collaborative. Our core team, which is event what you would call event management, is four currently, but but broader team like we couldn't do this without sales. We couldn't do this without our operations team. We couldn't do this without our digital marketing team. We couldn't do it without our event technology team. So there's really, once you start to ratchet in all those numbers, which you absolutely shouldn't have to. We're probably about 50 to 60.

06:33

Maybe. How do you measure success?

06:37

Well, for me personally, seeing everybody here at the event, seeing it all come together, seeing the booths get laid out, seeing people shaking hands, smiling faces, hearing testimonials of exhibitors. We just had one who said, you know, normally it dies down in the afternoon, but we've been busy all day long to start to finish. Another exhibitor, yeah. You know, last year, we got about 700 leads over three days, like hearing that their success is my success. I don't do this for myself. I do this for the industry. I do this for our exhibitors. I do this for our attendees. I do this for the products that they make that affect people's lives. It's more about outcome from that perspective,

07:19

the you in your bio, you indicated that you had, like, what? Four other projects. Yeah, four total, yeah. Can you share with us what those are? You got MDN M West.

07:29

We have MDN M West. Up next will be MD&M south. That's in April in Charlotte. Following that up, we have a lot of events in the fall, because that's when it really gets interesting. But we start with PBS Texas, which is a conference program. Then we roll into med device Boston, which is a regional event in Boston, districtly around medical device manufacturing, so that segment tip only. And then we roll into MDM Midwest. And then from there, we go over to med device Silicon Valley, and I'm hoping I'm not forgetting anything.

08:04

I think that's all about. See, just that alone is an amazing body of work, because it's, it's, it's one thing to be able to have MD&M West, okay, and I've got the tables here. They just show up and you got this and touch somebody had to think through this. And then you just sort of throw that all throughout this. I would imagine that your team just says, Okay, we got to do that. Yeah, we got to set the chairs up, but they they got to arrive over there, yeah, that's where they need to be. And then we got to have this speaker talk at this particular time. And, and it's like this, this conference ballet of being able to have things not fall through the cracks. So with that said, and then you have all of the other events that it's just compounds, yeah, how, how do you live in the world of chaos?

09:00

It's called events. You have to live in love chaos in order to be in events. But it's, it's just like I said, you don't turn it off. You can't really, I mean, to some extent, right? So you have to love what you're doing. But, but, yeah, there's just a lot of details, like even just getting this set up, or even just getting this area set up, and being intentional, being thoughtful, being making decisions. I get into decision paralysis come, you know, a month before the show, I

09:24

can't imagine. I don't know how you do it. I really don't I have a massive amount of appreciation for what you do, just because, just because there's power there. Yeah, it was just there.

09:37

Somebody had to say, put power there,

09:42

along with all the other power requirements, put it there. That, to me, is just remarkable. Remarkable. Are we seeing growth? Are we seeing you had the covid challenge like that was a tough one. What do we do? How do we survive? What the story needs to happen. We still need to network. We still need solutions. How have we come through that whole covid and into where we are today? Are we seeing a better trend?

10:14

11:16

That's amazing, see, that really is amazing. That's a testament to your team and and that resiliency and and the passion from what I see to get that message out, to be able to create that environment, to be able to have people still connect, because it still is a human to human connection. It's that know, like and trust, and you're not going to get it anywhere else. You need to. You just need to be in the proximity of the people.

11:42

We're not there yet where you can do a handshake through a computer. I'm sure it'll happen someday, but I feel like it's that connection piece that you just can't, can't duplicate in the digital

11:51

Yeah, I had an interview with human hand. No. Real hand. Real hand.

11:56

Yeah. Have you seen that? Dueling robots? Doing pianos with robots. It's amazing.

12:04

And I'll sit there and I'll just geek out, like

12:09

I have such a Gomer for this stuff, because I just, I see things that are out here on the floor, and to me, it's again, like, what you guys do, right? It just blows my mind. And then you see the technology, and it blows your mind, because that real hand, it's like, yeah, all the description you need. It is, I said, I told him. I said, Hey, that's a great name. I drove the log. I did the logo. All right. So anyway, we're here. How, what do you think is going to happen next year? Just going to continue to grow? And the reason, let me just sort of frame this question the conversations that we've been having here are one that is just like, massive innovation, massive technology, and there's a there's a velocity that exists with it, you know, more, better, faster, stronger, you know. And it just never stops. And I always struggle with the human side, right? It's like, how do you keep up? They just came out with that, that hand and the hands great, but next year is, it's going to be hand plus, you know, hand X, and it's just, how do you see that? How does it, how do you do that?

13:33

I mean, when it comes to the industry, I boggles my mind. I, I started manufacturing, and I, you know, I got assigned manufacturing events, as I mentioned a while ago, and I thought, well, I don't know a thing about manufacturing. That doesn't sound fun. That's a dirty job. That's a warehouse. How do I turn that into a trade show? I loved being wrong at that moment, and I just immediately dug in and got into what is manufacturing. And I've never looked back because of the fact that, I mean, not to use the S word, but it's sexy, like there are so much going on and there's so many cool things happening, and it's, they save lives, and they help lives. And, you know, sometimes it makes us a little bit lazier, but by golly, it's you get it all. And there's so much that can be done and so much being done. And I can't predict what's going to happen in manufacturing next? Because who can, I mean, look back 20 years ago. Who would know we were where we are now? Robots playing pianos.

14:29

Those are some of the funnest conversations. And the reason is, is if somebody says, hey, you've been coming to me telling me a little bit about MD&M, this is my 15th year, and all I can think about is, like you've seen changes? Yeah, tell me about it. What's, what's on your mind? Yeah, what have you seen? Share with us what that looks like. It's, it's pretty spectacular. There's one company that and it's, it is dazzling. Planner, motor. You see that little mag lift magnetic and it's just zipping around.

15:05

It's a fun way you can just, it's like a cat. I feel like a cat with a laser.

15:10

It's so funny, because you walk by, you can't help but stare at that. It's like a fire. You're just like staring at it. You just can't stop staring at it. We did a little thing over there, and little on site interview, awesome. You can slip a business card under those things. You're kidding. No, they're elevated because So, so when you talk about maintenance and you see the stuff zipping around and doing this stuff and all that, there's no wear and tear, because nothing, everything is static because it's magnets and then nothing touches anything

15:46

that's amazing. That's incredible, see,

15:52

because I had that car and said, Tell me about maintenance. And no, there's no maintenance,

15:58

just clean atmosphere, I guess,

16:00

nothing, nothing wears out because everything is just so static.

16:04

That's amazing. Tell me a

16:05

story that has blown your mind here?

16:08

Oh, gosh, that's a good question. Ah, I can't even what would be worthy.

16:15

Yeah, I'm sorry, because you got so many other things on your mind.

16:19

No, you do. I mean, it's a great question. I wish I had an answer for it right off the top of my head. Top of my head. I, I don't, but, yeah, I don't know there's, there's, I that's what I love about you, and that's why I love that you're here, is that you get to tell everybody stories. You get the real scoop, you get the real from the horse's mouth point of view. And I just get to listen and enjoy the moment. But, yeah, I wish I had some cool stories, but my brain just went blank.

16:43

It's not a problem. So what also amazes me when you go through here and you're looking through the this hall and that hall and all of the stuff. And I interviewed him, he was great, too. He was fantastic. He I brought it, brought here. He's brought tears to my eyes. He looks pretty good, the green team, anyway. So you go through that, and you you see the equipment that gets brought in, then it gets hooked up, and then it does what it needs to do. And that, always, I can truly appreciate the amount of effort that goes into just to create the shop to be able to demonstrate your capabilities. But they do it. They do. I love that, yeah. And I'm always struck by the fact that, wow, you can do that. Well, I didn't know that. I didn't know that at all. No, what the heck man

17:33

who thought of that? How did you think of that? And where the heck did that thought come from? That's exactly right.

17:38

Yeah. And it never stops. The energy never stops. That that that, that passion for innovation never stops. I was just, I was I was talking to somebody that manufactures pallets polymer palettes, right? It's polymer palettes. Like, how do you continue to improve upon polymer palettes? It's polymer palettes. But there's always some way of making it better, stronger, more efficient, and they just drive to that, that effort. And I just you can't you've got to respect the the energy.

18:14

Yeah, the entire industry is that way. I mean, manufacturing it where it is now, is because there's got to be a better way. There has to be. It's got to work better, faster, quicker, smoother, whatever it might be.

18:26

Yeah, it has to be, yeah. So what are you looking forward to next year as you begin to plan in two weeks, MD&M, Wes, what are you looking for?

18:35

Oh, just bringing everybody together again. I think my favorite thing is we always get back together as a team. We do. I'm guilty of this, and it's a good guilty, I feel like anyways. But I scour through the survey data. I really rely on it. I take notes from our exhibitor advisory board. I take notes from our attendee advisory board. I match the two together. Where's, where's that point that needs to rise to the top, if you will. And then it goes into the planning. It immediately gets built into the planning. What are we doing? What can we do better? So kind of like manufacturing,

19:03

I guess it is. You're absolutely correct, yeah. How do see? How do you deal with that? That feedback that's not so nice,

19:14

you know, I have to say, I go into these surveys and I have to pump myself up a little bit, because I'm giving everybody my baby that I love so much, and they're telling me it's ugly sometimes. And so I have to realize that that's okay. And again, it's not, not necessarily my show. This is their show. This is the attendee show, the exhibitor show. So if there's something wrong with it, I'm going to make it better. It's not for me. And I have to take myself out of the equation. Start it.

19:40

Man, it would, it would crush my soul, because I just because you, because of all of the work that you put into this event, it's everything. Your heart is in the right place, your passion is there. And somebody goes, the coffee was cold. I.

20:00

Bag. Call me next time. I'll bring you. So it

20:04

is so funny to be able to have this. It's like, hey, this was a great show. Love the people fantastic. Coffee was cold. Coffee was cold. You know, you can have all of this great, stellar reviews, and then that coffee is cold, and you're like, Man, I can't get past the coffee. It's a cold

20:21

it is hard I put on the coffee. A couple layers of skin to work through the surveys,

20:25

but I just I I am so incredibly in awe of what you guys do, because I just couldn't

20:33

do it well. I mean, you kind of do though. You're here with us. You help us make it great. This is one of those moments where we get to create value and provide some experiences.

20:43

And, you know, it's so funny, because you see my calendar, the calendar is completely full, right? And there's, there's more stories to be told. I have just been in this hall.

20:53

That's this hall, not that Hall.

20:58

This hall, this one. Yes, this right? How do people get a hold of you? There? We you there? They're saying, I want to be a part of this. What's the

21:04

21:25

Already nailed down. Are you out on LinkedIn? I am on LinkedIn. Shut up. That's good stuff. Your staff cards out there? Yeah, connect with

21:37

you. Yeah, please. I'd like that

21:40

22:07

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

22:16

Yeah, you can tell. You can tell I was geeking out at that event, talking to Adrienne, talking about how Informa markets pulls all of that together. It was outstanding. It was an outstanding event. And Informa just just so that you know, this is not just one and done. This is not this is an investment in you. They have endless they have just so many other events that you need to be a part of, that you need to look into. Because the reality is, you need these events to create the relationships, to have the conversations that are meaningful to you, and then create a road, path to success. That's what they're all about. They're about your success. No doubt about it. We're gonna have more from this conversation, from this event. Adrienne. Reach out to her. Be bold. Be brave. Dare greatly. Hang out with her. You're gonna change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.