William Fogler, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based WM Events, has come a long way from planning his mother’s 50th birthday party, when he hired a stripper from the Yellow Pages. He was 12 years old then. Today, his award-winning events company, which has a lengthy roster of household-name clients, including professional sports teams like MLB’s Atlanta Braves and corporate giants such as Microsoft and Delta Air Lines, is marking two decades of success.
Smart Meetings caught up with Fogler to ask him to reflect on his career and the changes he has witnessed in the events industry over the past 20 years.
Fogler grew up in Colorado in a family that loved to entertain. “I also loved making parties,” he says. “I loved cooking.” He cut his teeth working for a caterer in Denver.
Lead Times, Planning Cycles Shrink
What’s changed since 2004, when he started WM Events? “One of the major things is lead times and planning cycles. In the olden days, we used to plan our parties for a year, sometimes longer. But not anymore. It’s really lucky to get 90 days. Thirty to 60 days tends to be the norm,” he says.
He thinks this is not all bad. “The industry has gotten so used to it. It means there’s not a lot of time to switch back and forth as to what your objectives are. You just have to set them and go. We throw more people at it, working in teams. Our newer planners, they don’t know anything different.”
Learn more: Humanizing the Evolution of Events
Burnout is a concern, he acknowledges, but overall the constant forward motion is a positive for his planners. “They don’t have extended time to talk about the same thing,” he says. “They get very focused; they get it done, and it’s over. It’s created a thicker skin for our team.”
When he first started, his team was him—and “a contractor here and there.” Like everyone else in the industry, he lost ground during Covid. Since then, he’s scaled up to more than two dozen employees, along with a large roster of contractors in 45 markets across the country.
Today’s Talent Challenge
His major challenge today? “Talent,” he replies without hesitation. “While I have a very wonderful team, I always have my ear to the ground. For years, we hired people right out of college, because the perception was that what we do is glamorous and a lot of fun. But the industry has become way more sophisticated than that.”
Read More: Smart Chat: Julius Robinson On Winning the War for Talent
Like all small business owners, he worries about any turn of events that might derail further progress. The economy, another pandemic. But, looking back, he says he wouldn’t do anything differently. “Absolutely not. I’ve enjoyed such a wonderful career and had so many amazing experiences all over the world—in the British Virgin Islands, on Richard Branson’s private island; the opening of a factory in Mexico. I’ve learned so much.”
Are those kinds of events what he’s most proud of? “The thing that most excites me is providing a wonderful place for people to work and make a living,” Fogler replies.
