My Biggest Lesson: Carmen Lai
Carmen is an account director at Backlash, a creative experiential agency specialising in beauty experiential pop-ups and retail brand experiences. Her journey in experiential marketing has taken her across the globe, delivering world-class experiences in Hong Kong, Sydney, and London from roadshows to festivals to immersive pop-ups. Her day-to-day consists of mostly project management, ensuring seamless collaboration between creative, production, and the client, as well as mentoring junior talent.
As I close off my 10th year in the Events industry, I feel grateful to say that I still love this crazy world of events as much as I did in my first year. Don’t get me wrong - it has its ups and downs… and the demanding nature of this job is undeniable.
But I learned quite early on in my career that as long as you have a good team with you and when we share the same passion to overcome any scenario thrown at us - even down to the most mundane task like unpacking and putting together over thousands of goodie bags or conference packs into the early hours of the night - then those late nights working, lack of sleep, anxiety (you name it!) makes it worthwhile.
I’m sure my peers who have been in this industry just as long, if not longer, would agree with this sentiment. It’s not just a job - we do it because we enjoy the thrill and we don’t mind the chaos in between because we know at the end of it the moment is all worth it. As event marketers, we create these extraordinary experiences for the people that matter most: the consumer. That magical moment when everything falls into place and you see the reactions of people experiencing what you have created is pure delight. It's that moment that makes the time and every effort in the process rewarding.
We recently had our end of year company update where we reflected on this year’s projects, both big and small, and to close off the meeting I asked the team what their most challenging and favourite project was this year. Most had different answers for what they found most challenging versus what their favourite project was but mine was one and the same.
My most recent project at Backlash really honed in on this sentiment. The reason it was both physically and mentally challenging but yet rewarding for me was because we as a team made the impossible possible from planning to build to live, despite the countless challenges we came across from every aspect of the project, all in the span of a couple of months.
Some of the challenging moments which happened during the outdoor build in the wet cold UK temperatures, had me thinking my feet were suffering from hypothermia or when my colleague and I (Gardening Queens™) had to manually shovel mulch onto the grounds surrounding the build because the rain had made the surroundings too wet and muddy. These are things behind the scenes that no one likes to do but someone has to so we power through. But with all things done and the pop-up opened to the public, I witnessed countless visitors creating digital art pieces and dedicating heartfelt messages to their loved ones that were then revealed on the exterior screens of the pop-up that made up the Pandora jewellery box. We had marriage proposals, best friends thanking and giving each other encouragement for their next chapters in life, and people showing their loved one love and appreciation that may not always be apparent. Those magical moments brought tears, hugs and laughter all around and created meaningful memories that brought it home for me especially in times like these.
Creating these brand experiences isn’t just about sales, logistics and execution; they are about connecting with people in a profound and emotional way. So for those new to events or still in events after all these years, let’s keep doing what we’re doing because the purpose outweighs the chaos.
