Brittney Glass

I would say just going back to my upbringing and the things that were instilled in me, and then just all of the people that I have come across in my life. Whether they're senior level executives or just someone that sort of fed into me at some point, all of those connections and relationships have contributed to where I am today. It's really about the foundation I was given and the people who have invested in me along the way.

The best career advice I ever received was from Daryl Butler, an executive here at Google, and it was all about influence and impact. He told me to focus on what you have the ability to influence and make the biggest impact in those spaces. Even if you're entry level and trying to figure out how to move forward, the question is: Where are you right now, and how can you make the biggest impact in the space that you're in right now, in this moment? And then that will naturally project you in the right direction. I will never forget that advice. It was so impactful for me, and I've carried it for these past three years. I constantly ask myself: what can I do right now, in this moment, with the resources that I have, with the connections that I currently have? How can I make an impact with the places I'm able to influence right now?

Don't let anybody stop your creativity. Sometimes, especially in a corporate setting, you hear a lot of no's because maybe your ideas seem unrealistic to the person you're telling them to. But there's always going to be a yes somewhere. You have to just go find the yes and get buy-in. Make sure you can explain what you're trying to do in a way that would get the buy-in from the person that you're trying to get it from. Don't let anybody stifle your creativity. Be as big, bold, and as weird as you need to be to do the things that you love. I feel like, as women, we get stifled a lot and told you need to do this, or you need to do that, or this is not what women do, this is not what girls do. But none of that, actually. That's all a construct that was created by the patriarchy. So just be as bold as you need to be. Be unapologetically yourself and be involved.

One of the biggest challenges and opportunities is AI. Obviously, AI is everywhere and it's not going anywhere anytime soon, but in the event space, we have the creativity and the freedom to figure out how to incorporate it in a responsible way. We need to figure out how to incorporate it in a way that's more than just having someone type up a prompt at an event and get a fun picture. We have a way to use it to create really impactful moments. The biggest opportunity is how do we incorporate AI to be impactful and not necessarily harmful. Another challenge is making sure that in our industry, it's easy to fall into a pattern. We often forget that the events industry and marketing in general is a creative energy, it's a creative industry. Behind the scenes, there's paperwork, you have to upload leads, write out scripts, and do all that admin work, but we forget that marketing is meant to be creative and it's meant for you to think outside of the box, same with events in general.

My biggest value is doing no harm. It doesn't hurt to be nice to people. It doesn't hurt to say hello to a homeless person, or start a conversation with them, or compliment someone that you don't know. My second biggest value is that communication and clarity are forms of kindness. And the last one, which I'm just learning, is that no is a full sentence. That's one that I'm really starting to embrace.