Visit www.ISES.com to join today and may the force by with you, always.  ISES Indiana would love to have you join our amazing chapter and be a part of the ISES Team. You will soon discover you are part of a much larger universe . . .

Please reach out to our Membership Committee with any questions:  Katie Putnam and Kate Edwards at membership@ileaindiana.com  (Thanks to our ISES MidBest Friends at ISES Cleveland for the out-of-this-world video). #ISESmidBest #TeamISES

Come Kick Off The Holiday Stress!

Need another reason to become a member?  How about FREE MEMBER EVENTS!!  Details Below...

Join your fellow ISES Indiana Members at the Hard Rock Café on January 7th.  The event is from 5-7 pm.  This is a free member event and is for members only.  Enjoy some food and drink and the fabulous company around you!

It is free, but you must be a member and RSVP!  Click here to REGISTER!

Last Chance to RSVP for the fantastic ISES Free Member Event:  

January 5th at 5 pm.

Thank You to our Event Sponsors:

Hard Rock Cafe - Indianapolis

We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming event!  

DECEMBER MEMBER SPOTLIGHT : 

Sarah Keeker

Owner 

Plum & Poppy Weddings and Events

and

The Barn in Zionsville

Plum & Poppy

The Barn in Zionsville

1.  What is your title and position at your current company?  

Owner Plum & Poppy Weddings and The Barn in Zionsville

2.  What does your company do? How is it different than others like it? 

Plum & Poppy is a wedding planning company and The Barn in Zionsville is a barn wedding venue. Plum & Poppy is different because we believe we tailor our services to help our clients achieve their individual goals for their weddings. The Barn in Zionsville is different because we allow couples to bring in any vendors they like which can help to make our venue a great value.

3.  How many years have you been in the industry? 

3.5

4.  What was your very first job?  

 My first job was working at a Pizza place in Zionsville

5.  What lead you in into the event industry? 

I graduated from Purdue with a Sale degree and then attended the Culinary Institute of America. These two educational pursuits landed me in a great position to own event industry businesses. 

6.  Why did you decide to join ISES? 

I wanted to expand our network of vendors we know and work with. ISES has a great reputation and we are excited to meet new people every month!

7.  What are you looking to gain out of our ISES membership and how can we help you achieve that?

We are very excited to submit our work for the PACE awards. We have worked with lots of other ISES members and would love to showcase our work together.

8.  What is your most memorable event? Why?

This year I was asked to help two lifelong friends with their weddings and it was such a huge honor! They were memorable because they were gorgeous weddings but also because of the feeling of satisfaction you get from helping those who know you and put their trust in you have a fantastic day!

9.  What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? 

That I am a professionally trained chef who worked in NYC before I moved back to Indianapolis. 

10.      If you were not in the event industry, what would be your dream job? 

I would own a small restaurant and cook something different every day. 

SPEAKER SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT : 

Megan Johnston

Manager, Event Services 

Accent Indy, a DMC Network Company 

Accent Indy   

1.     What is your title and position at your current company? 

Manager, Event Services

2.     What does your company do? What makes it unique/special?

Accent Indy is the Destination Management Company (DMC) of choice for hundreds of corporations, associations and conventions meeting in central Indiana every year.  Since our founding in 1989, we have stood for market leading creativity, local expertise, flawless execution and personalized service.  Our reputation is preceded by years of experience designing and managing all aspects of our clients’ programs from airport arrival to departure and everything in between.

3.     How many years have you been in the industry? 

2.5 years

4.     What lead you in into the event industry? 

My family was always big on hosting events and parties while I was growing up. I’m talking everything from Thanksgiving for 100 and dinner parties of 15 to an annual Double Decker Luau for 500! Needless to say a love for events runs in my family. After I decided professional music just wasn’t my thing, I found myself wanting to pursue more classes in my minor (hospitality) and the rest is history!

5.     What is your most memorable event? Why? 

My most memorable event was an event I did for an association on Georgia Street. It had a street fair vibe for over 2,000 guests and with 6 different forms on entertainment, there was something for everyone. It was the first event that our company had done on Georgia Street, so I was really proud to start from scratch and put my own spin on it.       

6.     What’s one thing most people don’t know about you or your business? 

I originally went to Ball State University to study opera!

7.     If you were not in the event industry, what would be your dream job?

Something in the Music Industry either being a personal assistant, tour manager, or backup singer!

8.     What exciting things does your company have in store for 2016?

We are all really looking forward to the 100^th Running of the Indianapolis 500! There is nothing like Indy in the month of May!

9.     Favorite thing about being an ISES member?

I enjoy being on the board and getting to seeing my industry family on a regular basis. Also, it’s always helpful having vendors that I know I can trust and enjoy working with.

Thank you to Megan Johnston with Accent Indy for being a speaker sponsor for our November Education Intensive!  We would not have been able to have such amazing speakers without your support!

Ben Glenn has been speaking professionally since 1995. With two decades of experience, his charisma and energy have allowed him to gain the confidence and understanding that is essential to connecting with an audience.  He specializes in motivational speaking for faith-based, educational, and corporate events.

Video of Ben Glenn 

Enjoy a little sneak peek from Ben Glenn:

1.       What does your company do and what makes is different than others like it?

My company is all about inspiring people to be the best version of themselves. To be okay with being different. To turn challenging times into victories. I know I'm not the only speaker out there who gets on stage with the hope of having the audience leave inspired at the end of my presentation, but what what sets me apart is something which very, very few people do - I would guess fewer than 10 in the whole world - and that is: creating a beautiful landscape drawing - a Speedscape - on a huge 6x8 foot canvas, live in front of the audience in about 10 minutes. If you've never seen something like this, it is definitely an experience that sticks with you. There's just something really powerful and surprising about seeing the process unfold. The "creation" coupled with the music, then seeing the finished product appear so rapidly really helps people remember my message for years after the event, and believe it or not, it all ties in perfectly with my message!

2.       What lead you to your current career and how long have you been in the field?

I met my mentor, Bill Leach, when I was just a kid in high school, and he got me started on the path of creating these beautiful drawings live in front of the audience - his generation called it chalk art, I call it Speedscaping. He was already in his 70s when I met him; didn't have any family, but before he passed away, he gave me his chalk art equipment and supplies, plus contact info to some of his camp clients. I guess I picked up where he left off. This was almost 20 years ago and I dropped out of college to pursue the speaking circuit full time. Started with summer camps, and churches, then went on to do lots of school assemblies, then teachers and parents, and now that I've gotten so much older and wiser, I work with a lot of corporate clients. ;)

3.       What is your most memorable event/project? Why?

Hard to narrow it down to just one - there have been a handful! Traveling to Thailand to speak at a MDRT event, and having to stop after every couple of sentences so that the translator who was up on stage with me, could translate what I was saying was memorable for how awkward it was. All my jokes came with a 2 minute delay in response. Very unsatisfying! Another one that sticks out was facing 70,000 pairs of eyeballs at the Silverdome in Detroit. It was surreal seeing so many people all in one place watching me. Thank God for the jumbotrons - I must have looked like a tiny speck to the people in the nosebleed section! There was another one I remember because it was such a tiny group - maybe 15-20 people, and it was all adults in their 40s and 50s, and I had to have been 26 or 27 - completely intimidated to be in such close to proximity with people who I thought for sure were sitting there thinking, "What's this kid going to tell me, I don't already know!?"

4.       What is one thing people do not know about you?

That I can run gas, electric and plumbing. My wife and I bought a fixer up when we moved to Indianapolis in 1999. We didn't have the money, so I ended up pretty much doing everything with my own two hands, and learning how to do it as I went, by reading how-to books. It's amazing that I lived to tell! There were some close calls!

5.       If you were not in your current career, what would be your dream job?

I actually really love almost everything (except for the travel part) about my job. It's a perfect match with my ADHD traits. I love the variety, and never having one event be like any other. I enjoy performing and it's always gratifying when I get great feedback, or get speaking requests from adults who saw me back when they were in junior high, and now want to bring in me in to speak to their employees or students. Those particular speaking requests also make me feel really old, but it's definitely flattering to get them, and makes the job not only fun, but personally satisfying on many different levels.

6.       Anything else you would like us readers to know about you?

 Probably the most random thing is that in the last couple of years I have really gotten into designing and coding educational and fun game apps. I never thought I'd have the patience to sit and stare at the computer for hours at a time, but strangely I've learned that I really enjoy the process. I was largely inspired to do the apps because of my daughters - especially the educational ones. My 3rd grader was struggling with spelling, as I did when I was in school. Back then, the technology did not exist, but I can imagine how much I could have been helped if my spelling drills were gamefied, so I decided to try my hand at it, and it totally worked. After my daughter had been using the app to help with memorizing her list of weekly words, for a few weeks, the teacher emailed and asked, "What exactly is this app?? Annie has gone from getting more than half of the words wrong on the quizzes, to almost 100% accuracy!" I knew then, that making apps to help my kids was going to be something I'd be sticking with for a while. 

See Ben Glenn in action at the January Monthly Luncheon - January 20, 2016 from 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM at Indiana Landmarks Center!  

Happy Holidays! 

Get into the Holiday Spirit!

Today is the last day to register for our Holiday Lunch on December 9th at The Manor at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  Don't forget to register!

Also, please consider donating to our Holiday Toy Drive by bringing one of your favorite new infant or toddler toys!  Hope to see you next week - for now enjoy a sneak peek of The Manor!

DECEMBER MEMBER SPOTLIGHT : 

Larry Marshall

Owner 

Marshall Camera

Marshall Camera

1.       What is your title and position at your current company? 

Lead Cinematographer and Owner

2.      What does your company do? How is it different than others like it? 

Myself and my team focus on shooting story-driven video for weddings and events.  While we also have done training and corporate video, we find it very rewarding to shoot personal wedding films for our couples.  My background stems from the narrative feature/short film industry in Chicago, story based, cinematic films are a natural fit.  When I lived in Chicago for a few years,  I advanced through the Feature Film camera department starting from Camera Production Assistant, to 2nd Assistant Camera, to 1st Assistant Camera (Focus Puller).  Becoming the head of the camera department for a Feature Film is a large undertaking, and it's where I learned all my camera skills and ability to work as a team.  If even 1 person is unwilling or unable to do their job, the entire film suffers...and this translates right through to event filmmaking.

3.      How many years have you been in the industry? 

First wedding was in 2005, shooting professionally since 2009, and opened my business in 2012.

4.      What was your very first job? 

Weeding a day lily farm when I was 12.

5.      What lead you in into the event industry? 

After moving to West Lafayette, IN because my wife was accepted to Purdue for her PHD, I was in need of a job, preferably with video.  When no one local to Lafayette was hiring in video, I decided to start my business working for myself.

6.      Why did you decide to join ISES? 

Because I want to meet my fellow vendors and get to know them better.  Any time you know the team covering the event, it makes the video go much smoother and yields a better product.

7.      What are you looking to gain out of our ISES membership and how can we help you achieve that?

Same answer as the previous question, but I would to attend social events like lunch, or outings for team-based events?  :)

8.     What is your most memorable event? Why? 

Probably one of the weddings we shot last in 2014.  Everything clicked on all cylinders with emotion, shots, lighting, audio, speeches, just the entire package and the film was truly moving.

9.      What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? 

I was the head of the camera department for a feature film directed by an Academy Award Nominee and now we're buds.

     10.      If you were not in the event industry, what would be your dream job? 

Filming features.