Hello World 👋

It’s here, finally! The official launch of our newest venture, SLATE Event Management.

In case you couldn’t tell by the company name, we’re a team of experienced B2B event strategists excited to support a variety of industries and markets with all their conference, expo, and event planning needs.

Hi, I’m Matt and I’m one of the co-founders of SLATE. Together, with my business partner Megan, we plan to deepen our relationships with all of those who make up the business events industry, while helping organizations create experiences that foster their own community development. For me, that’s what this is all about— relationships.

I’ll let my partner Megan introduce herself in a separate get to know us kind of post, but for now, here’s my story.

I got my first taste of the events industry while I was still attending college. My mom was working for a trade show management company and they needed someone to help manage the freight operations for an event that coincided with a university break.

At the time, I didn’t know what a trade show was, let alone what freight-ops entailed. To my delight, I learned in the best way I tend to learn – by being thrown directly into the fire.

I showed up to my first day, around 5 or 6 in the morning and found myself surrounded by industry veterans, all hitting the ground running. The trade show was, at the time, one of the largest B2B events in NYC, taking over the entire Javits Center and a couple of Piers. For the move-in and move-out process of the two-week operation, I supported the freight-ops team and helped with floor management during exhibit setup. For the actual event, I supported the registration and customer service teams.

On my first event in the industry, I remember pausing and being in complete awe of the entire operation. I watched a completely empty hall get filled with pallets, and crates, and machinery, and teamsters, go from looking like a tornado ran through the place, to looking perfect and polished with fully constructed booths, shiny lights, and clean aisle carpet laid in what felt like a matter of hours.

I went from being a bar manager where I felt like I knew everything (spoiler, I didn’t) to being immersed in this new world where I was caught in the middle of truck drivers, union labor, building and facility teams, exhibiting clients, attendees, (30,000 of them) and the show management team. It was chaotic, but if you’ve been in the industry for more than a day, you know what I’m referring to—organized chaos. And I was in my element!

I quickly learned I couldn’t just do one thing, and one thing only for a career. I needed the freedom to do all the things that light me up, operations and logistics, creative branding and marketing, and of course, with networking and relationship building at the center of it all. Add all of this to my passion for travel and hospitality, and it really is the perfect industry for me, and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

A couple years into that role, I met Megan and we hit it off from the very beginning. Fast forward a few years later and she was the first team member I brought on board when I was able to expand a team I was leading. Just a couple of more years after that, and here we are— kicking off SLATE Event Management together and opening ourselves up to working with all of you!

Now that you know a little bit more about me, I’m excited to take you along for the journey. I hope you follow along to learn about industry trends, events for the #eventprofs, and more about the experiences that SLATE will produce with some epic partners.