44: How to Successfully Move Your Events Portfolio to Virtual with Melanie Bradshaw

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, we are extremely grateful to be speaking with Melanie Bradshaw, the Vice-President of Global Events for the direct sales company, SeneGence. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Melanie has a wealth of experience in meetings and events. Like most of us, she had to switch to virtual last year, and she learned a lot from doing that. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, she will be speaking to us mainly about two things. She will talk about her international experience working in more than twenty-five different countries, and she will also be sharing her virtual experience.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We gained a lot from our conversation with Melanie, and we are sure that you will too! </span></p> <p><strong>Melanie Bradshaw’s bio</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Melanie Bradshaw has spent her entire professional career in event organization, production, and management. Working across a wide variety of industries and with extensive experience in both the association and the private sector, Melanie has led teams that have organized business events for up to +35,000 participants in over 25 countries. In her current role, and like many event organizers, she has used the challenges of 2020 to transform 12 of her company's biggest international live events to virtual, and she is thrilled to connect and share the learnings from her experiences.</span></p> <p><strong>Getting into the events industry</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When attending university, Melanie was unsure about what her niche was going to be. After graduating, she took a job with the events team at the university. It was a fit for her. She quickly got locked into a role that she had not been trained for, but she knew that if she tried and stayed open to learning, she could figure it out. Melanie had a patient boss who was open to working with her, so she grew into the role with which she was titled.</span></p> <p><span styl