Greg Topalian is a guy who has a similar experience to many of us hardened executives in the events business yet he seems much more enlightened in his approach. Having spent seventeen years at Reed Exhibitions Greg learned how to manage a P&L like many of us, but his path took a different course.
As many may know, Greg ‘got religion’ after being assigned to creating an incubator group called LaunchPad where ultimately he would focus on enthusiast events like New York Comicon, an event very different to any he had run previously. As he told me, he ‘didn’t know what it meant’ to be involved in such events, although it’s clear he soon figured it out as NYCC grew into a division called ReedPop that would ultimately include over 12 shows.
The method? Develop a different approach towards your event stakeholders that the ‘consumers’ of these events were quite different than most of Reed’s traditional events- more like ‘fans’ than attendees.
THE BLUE OCEAN WAY
Greg told me that there are few people in the industry who understand the recipe for such an event, and is an advocate of the ‘blue ocean strategy’ application for creating events-where you build the event for the fan rather than the exhibitor- because you are either creating demand or harnessing it in such a way that you are already way ahead of everyone else- all from the non-traditional way of developing the event-while still having a profit objective in mind.
The philosophy of ‘blue’ oceans event creation versus traditional ‘red’ oceans:
“Blue oceans… denote all the industries not in existence today – the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.”*
His main advice: Share and create an open environment where people can create as a starting point rather than a ‘nice to have’ option. Of course this goes against the tenet I find too often in the events market which is: “You must control everything that happens especially those elements which contribute to revenue creation”. Greg certainly feels and acts differently. Though revenue remains essential to any events organization, but I sense an ‘ease’ in Greg that he is willing to concede certain short term goals in deference to long term growth potential. His reputation continues to accelerate grounded in a successful though unorthodox but successful approach, which is underpinned from training at a global power house like Reed.
THE FUTURE OF EMERGENT EVENTS
Greg’s new company, LeftField Media, has embraced these philosophies and acting as an ‘incubator’ for fast growing events of that style; his focus is all about R&D then emerging from under the radar with tested events which are profitable and have staying power. Sounds like a winning formula to me.
If you have a chance to check out Greg speaking- like here– please do, it’s refreshing to get a fresh way of making money and being psyched to do it!