From Magic to Metrics: Infotainment with Engagify | Episode #96

Transcript: "(00:00) if you saw someone throw down $2,000 on the floor of a trade show challenging anyone walking by to win it would that make you stop and take notice of course don't lie this is the world of infotainment of magic but more importantly influencer and crowd psychology creating Booth bars conveying technical messaging and collecting leads this is episode 96 of great things with great Tech with Anders Bullinger CEO and founder of engag AI so come on I know you want what I'm selling you just don' t even know it yet hey Anders welcome to great things with (00:44) great Tech it's it's great to have you on I've wanted to have you on for a long time um great to have you but just give us a bit of an overview of of yourself um what you do and a little bit about engager fire and then we'll dig into how you became this master of of the public event and the crowd at TR shows all right thanks Anthony um yeah thanks for having me on by the way this is uh this is great connecting because we've seen each other over the years and to kind of interact on a podcast it's great uh yeah (01:15) my company and gagey we we usually say we we create engagement at events such as trade shows or we train your teams to be more engaging so we we we're we're on a mission to rehumanize business through engagement and so this includes uh Gathering big crowds of people around a trade show booth communicating a message passionately finding qualified leads and ultimately you know generating Pipeline and sales fo r for companies at trade shows is is kind of where that comes from um but my background is that I'm a I'm a magician so that actually came (01:50) first and then trade shows and you know the performance skills kind of enhanced what we do at trade shows and and it became you know a business and and beam software is been a client for a long time so absolutely in in fact I think I've I met you before I started at V I've got memories of very early VM worlds maybe I want to say 2012 2013 all that tim e ago when you know and there's pictures I've got pictures of of I can find me in a crowd of literally probably 3 or 400 people with you in the center you know hurting the crowd in doing a (02:24) trick to basically grab people's attention on the booth so we we we go back a long time and then obviously through t whether it be um VM worlds whether it be reinvents and other other bits we've crossed over a lot and this is why I wanted to get you on because people might be asking you know why why am I getting a magician run who is doing engagement on the show well yeah and I was going to say we we technically call ourselves infotainers and and so just to kind of put a point on that is that when you say to a company hey we're going to (02:55) bring in a magician what Pops to mind like guy with a top hat and pulling a rabbit out of a like cheesy magician kind of thing right and so you know what we've done is is you know we call it infotainer we get to kind of Define it then you know the comp any's Mission critical information that they want communicated done in an entertaining way right and so that's where the engagement comes from the entertainment side of thing so um I just like to put that out there just because you know it can kind of in their minds um maybe go to a place (03:27) where we don't want to go and and but once you see it and exper erence it and you hear that the messaging on point and the effects or the magic is a visual metaphor to be able to hang that messaging on so that people remember it and experience it yeah and just to sort of explain that further from my perspective I I was actually blown away with the way that you are able to bind together the the the magic the engagement but you clearly do your um research on on the customers and the vendors as well like you know V back to (04:03) front like you could sell it you could you could you know you could do something like that because you actually have that knowledge to be able to be effective in that r ole like it has to be something that you you and your team are kind of into right so that's the technology aspect of it for me as well and that's the link which is really interesting um so magician so magic right like take us back to you know young Anders like what what started that interest in in Magic uh before we get into the INF perspective sure sure so um (04:34) back in like 1982 there was a a Fisher Price magic set like a toy magic set uh I have it downstairs uh you know in my office here but I got that I was 5 years old I started my first magic trick for non-f family was you know showand tell at kindergarten you know and it was such a hit that I kept getting more and more magic hits and Magic books for Christmas and for my birthday and so when I got to be about 12 I actually with pencil crayon made a poster that I put up in the post office in my little town of 500 people W some (05:11) Manitoba Canada and got three gigs that year right and they were I I charged five dollar for a half an hour for a half an hour show and uh they were all the same kids so it's like it was my best friend's little brother's birthday and then it was his buddy's birthday and so I had to kept in my show because the kids were catching on right it was the same kids you're 12 you're 12 at this point and you're charging for shows that's yeah so yeah it wasn't it wasn't much but it was like you know I was thrilled to be more than I yeah yeah uh (05:46) so then you know I got a little bit older sta rting doing uh some fairs and festivals you know when I was probably like 14 or 15 I got a business card you know I was like really you know felt awesome having a business card uh then I went to University I got a four-year Physics degree a Bachelor of Science so that was my kind of like um don't run away to the circus kind of thing like our backup plan kind of thing happening um that my parents kind of insisted on uh but that was good it was it was a time where I was able to (06:16) kind of bui ld my business and you know just you know have have fun but also just get doing more and more shows um at that time I started wearing a suit and so I kind of went a little bit more corporate so it was kind of almost the same magic but with a bit of different twist and new promo pictures and made it look a little more mature uh and then eventually I did a a few trade shows actually in University I did my first trade show and I and when I watched I went to the um there was it was an agricultural s how and I went to the (06:48) Cargill booth and in that booth there was a ventriloquist and he was just killing it and I asked him you know how he got started and he actually had gotten the gig from man named Joel Bower and I at the time was reading a book on trade shows by Joel Bower W so he was kind the top trade show magician at that time and uh or or almost ever in in a sense years later I got to train with him with 29 other magicians about how to learn trade shows so that's when I got train ed by Joel that's when I started going ah like how do we take how do we (07:25) take the cheese out of the magic part make it a high passion message driven presentation that takes people from you know point a where they're experiencing the pain points you know to point B where they have the solution and they have the benefits but there's this aha moment in the Middle where where the magic effect happens but also where you introduce the company's you know solution and benefits so that they go you know that moment where people discover you know that what the company does in that that sweet or that secret (07:58) sauce if you will you know that's what we want to lock into their minds and so you know taking and the more I would learn about it the more I fascinated it became because you know you're using magic to create a peak experience where people we're creating curiosity and wonder in the minds of the people watching which is a a very very powerful state for selling yeah and and at a at a moment at a moment where there's thousand other distractions going on in a trade show people's minds are everywhere looking forward to going out (08:31) and you know having a drink and networking and generally people don't come to trade show to work but they understand that this is part of the process and it was interesting that you talked about that what I what I would call that aha moment that you do so so well and now that I think about what you just said you do manage to marry both the ma gic and the AHA of the product together at that same time and it almost becomes like an explosion at that one point and I've seen people's faces as you get to that point just go whoa you (09:03) know who you know I've seen them just literally lose their mind lose their if I can say that because the Magic's awesome but then they also realize that you've tied in a a product pitch as well or the message for the vendor so and in their mind they're going how did I get myself to this point I'm here a nd I'm listening to it and you know it's worth bam you know so it it's great having seen that and I I think people really only will understand it if they do actually see it live and you know like you've you've probably lost (09:32) you would have lost count because you can't count you you've probably performed in front of hundreds and hundreds and hundred thousands people like maybe even Millions like just over the time right yeah I don't even I I haven't even tried it's more we we do think abou g American client was vhm software back in in 2011 and so I came down and did that show and then the VP of of worldwide marketing at that point Carrie Reber she uh was bringing me in and then eventually moved to another company and she says I know we can't get you because VHS you know got you do you have someone else and so when I trained with my mentor there were (11:06) some other guys that were on the same page like they understand the system right and so shukuma Avery was the who I we brough of that we saw that coming because it was just happening right away and in fact just I think yesterday A Memory came up on the last trade show I worked in that year and it was a ghost town right you're walking around it was just such a weird it it would line up five years crazy yeah yeah and so during dur that time we were always so busy that we didn't Rebrand but we had we had a marketing consultancy come in and say you know what the infotainers is so much about hey look what we do right this h has has a better feel to it it sounds like it's it's it's a modern tech name (13:47) isn't it like yeah yeah yeah and and and at the same time it's kind of like now we're having this ability to engag ify yeah events and teams right it's kind of a verb in a sense so um that's that's how that came about I'm actually quite surprised that it was still still around and available when like looking back retrospectively right it's kind of obvious we got we got engage ai. (14:10) a and we also have doc e yeah yeah for sure so we um will do often group W which is probably the (15:19) most common um but we also do have on demand training so people can train on their own you know uh in their own time in that sense um we don't really do too much one-on one training um special special circumstances sometimes we do that um but often it is you know um a group training or whether it's in person or virtually yeah yeah yeah yeah so let's talk about trade shows because they obviously everyone's gone to a lf to feel good at that time about getting a new gift or getting something for free and then at that moment I guess the idea is that you then associate that with the brand that's giving away the gift right like (16:50) is that the general sort of you know why of why these freebies are in existence at these trade shows yeah I mean and that goes back way back right the the they used to call them premiums or promotional items right and then you know they sometimes get a bad rap people call it Trink les of some food product samples of some lotion of some you know laundry detergent whatever it is but people have such a gimme gimme sense of entitlement at that show that it like I almost was like dis Ed by it which you know I mean I work in trade shows all the time and I know these things work but it's kind of like you know so I mean we we see it we see it at (18:38) Tech shows and and there is some of this you know entitlement of like hey I want this I want this right oh yeah if if that exist ying to see if I've actually got a ve situation on my desk I probably I've got one but I'm not going to show that one but you've got them around right still from maybe five or six years ago the Spinners were oh here's one yeah there we go like a a little like a little ball which I I still use all the time and you know for me I don't actually notice what's on there but I use the ball all the time but for someone else who's maybe looking to buy a backup maybe they'll be playing with this one day a I was gonna say is that I I do a magic effect where I cut a deck of cards using the shadow of (21:17) my hand and I flick out the card that someone just chose and so that is such I candy that is such a unique effect it's more of a closing effect but I open with it that it will gather this crowd of people I then will stand you know stand up and then I have something where they all connect with each other and I make them fist bump each other and then there's another effect that happens I then wel o now we start doing stuff and we're talking about VH and they get that that's why I'm there right like they understand I know it now right but I'm and my my goal at that point is to co-create an event with them and I'll even say that to them saying (22:55) it's not me doing it for you it's us doing it for each other who wants to have a good time say yeah and that is the buyin moment where they go yeah like and then I'm like all right let's go you know like I'm going to unleash the storm now rig yeah yeah and uh but then you know the idea is hey you know answer me loud answer me clear is it simple and does it work and you get this resounding yeah now I can't do that with most companies because you just don't have that love of the product you don't just don't have that kind of penetration but then I say hey doesn't matter what we say about ourselves it's what our customers say (24:21) how many people would agree right so now I'm just I'm I'm basically making a case to take a closer look the power of it as well in terms of just if there's no one there at the start if you're there I'm I'm almost guaranteed that there going to be people by the time I'm starting right that that's the power of it as well so that's really cool that's that's that side of it so um I guess let's let's finish on the trade shows and then I want to get on to just speaking and and you know confidence and engagement that at that point so where do you see trade shows going because obviously for a while there etings and all this and you kind of go are these events required right yeah uh of course events came back (26:57) big um and and people needed that connection right there there is always an element of trust that is involved in buying something and being in person breathing the same air rubbing shoulders with that person is going to drive trust a lot further a lot faster than virtual will ever do right and with virtual virtual backgrounds and I'm pointing behind me I have a real background but I' I mean I I I'm biased because I I work at events I want events to continue uh but at the same time I feel like there is going to be a bit of a A pullback or a shrinking maybe of presence of some companies just because (28:44) it's getting out of hand in in my opinion do do you also think that it's it's a cyclical thing where a number of companies will rise up together in a particular industry right um we saw it in cloud and virtualization backup you know the these little these all PODS of compan omething comes along that is the new you know uh Tech Tech dour kind of thing happening and everyone wants to be a part of that they're going to flock to it and and you know that will be the the next big thing and it might take the Shine off some of these other shows because it's just maybe becoming old news or or what have you but um you know (30:15) that cyclical thing I think will yeah continue to play out uh time and time again I imagine yeah we've got about 10 minutes left so I wanted to to t the fact that I let myself sort of spin out into this uh sort of this this flight response which created the panic attack which meant that I lucky I I recognize what was happening so I didn't faint on stage I've never fainted on stage so that's a joke that we always use right you know if the Demo's going wrong if I Fain you know just just just move me to the back of the stage but I realized what was happening I pulled myself off got myself together came back um how why do you (31:45) think why if we run that in our heads a little too much that can kind of you know possibly (32:55) spin into something um I when I think of the the I think they call it the chain of being but this idea that you know you're breathing can control your state and your state can control your thoughts and this whole thing so you know if if you ever are if you're listening to this and you have a thing coming up you know deep breaths right we want to we don't want to go into this like you said flight or fight re that when you are on fire You' just came off stage you're like oh man I killed it you're in that state you smell that smell and it can be whatever mine's mine's some sort of relaxing smell or (34:32) whatever but it could be uh these inhalers that there's one called I think there's called boom or something like that but you can look up these things and it looks like a little chapstick right next time you're in a on fire again smell it again if you can do it two or three times we're trying to at people even if it's not we're not just talking about crowd speaking we're talking about if you're giving a presentation to a board or you're talk giving a tech talk to try and convince someone to buy your product like let's ground it back in the technical sense you know when you're just killing it you know when you're on fire because I think (36:07) in your I know that I do in my head as I'm talking and still delivering in my head I'm going dude you you're on like you're Crush like this is this you you feel like being human is is definitely better where where are we going where's the next five or 10 years going in this space good question um I mean definitely you know events are finally embracing more data and and and so what we're seeing that way and in fact we have a new partner that we're using and we call a crowd metric where we put sensors in the booth and it it works off of cell phone signatures so it actually can see you know how many people are walking (37:41) around how many p sts right and we we have people that we Supply and then (38:37) making sure you deliver a memorable message right around that so making sure that you're saying the right things you've made it engaging in terms of the simplification of it you know and and and then also U making sure you deliver it well so in terms of the future I think just data on execution is going to be is going to be big that's very uh dark night if you're I'm I'm picturing that dark night scene the Batman scene where they're eat Tech this has been a very engaging conversation I got that pun in excellent all right thanks for having me Anthony appreciate it awesome good stuff hey just as a reminder thanks for (40:01) listening to this episode stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to highlight companies and Technologies shaping our world don't forget to follow us on social media at jtjt podcast and visit jtw j.com for more great content and all past episodes if you enjoyed this episode