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In this episode of the Convene Podcast, we sit down with Deanna Nwosu, a 25-year industry veteran and internal events strategist at REI, to explore what it really takes to grow a meaningful, purpose-aligned career in the fast-changing world of events. From breaking into the industry to becoming a confident leader, Deanna shares candid insights on mentorship, collaboration, strategic thinking—and why being open to pivots might be your most valuable superpower.
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Music: Inspirational Cinematic Piano with Orchestra
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What is PCMA Convene Podcast?
Since 1986, Convene has been delivering award-winning content that helps event professionals plan and execute innovative and successful events. Join the Convene editors as we dive into the latest topics of interest to — and some flying under the radar of — the business events community.
Convene Series: How to Build a Career on Your Terms with Deanna Nwosu: Mentorship, Pivots, and Purpose-Driven Growth in Events
*Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies
Deanna Nwosu: Your career is what you make it. There's no one pathway to what success looks like.
Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene podcast.
Deanna Nwosu, an industry professional with 25 years of experience in the hospitality and events industry, is our guest in this Season 7 episode. She currently creates internal events and experiences for employees at REI, where her role blends storytelling, content creation, and a passion for bringing people together.
During our conversation, Deanna shares what it means to build a purpose-driven career on your own terms, how mentorship and curiosity have shaped her journey, and why being open to pivots—yes, pivots—can lead to growth you didn’t see coming.
Whether you’re just starting out in events or you're guiding the next generation of planners, this conversation is the real talk and encouragement you need to own your unique path.
We start now.
You've had a 25 year journey in the industry and looking back, what do you wish someone had told you when you were just starting out? And how can industry veterans better support those entering the field today?
Deanna Nwosu: Oh, there's so many things I would tell, you know, teenage Deanna, but I think the biggest thing is that your career is what you make it. There's no one pathway to what success looks like.
And I would also say, get the idea out of your head that success is, you know, dictated to you by, you know, what you see in the magazines or what you see in industry events and things of that nature.
Your success in your career is yours to define and yours to create. And so it may not look like working for the biggest name brands and the biggest events and things that have a lot of glitz and glamour and a lot of notoriety.
But are you getting out of your career what you want out of it? Are you getting the development, the learning, the doing the kind of work you want to do, you know, something that, you know, fills your cup because you're going to be spending most of your adult waking hours doing that work.
So I think that would be the biggest thing I would tell younger me entering this industry.
Magdalina Atanassova: I can relate to that for sure. What other struggles do you think are currently common for newcomers? What are they facing in the industry?
Deanna Nwosu: Well, I mean, right now the industry just looks a lot different than it did even five years ago, you know, pre pandemic. I think of how much institutional knowledge we lost for those who left the industry for, you know, for good and didn't return when meetings and events came back.
And so I think probably mentorship, you know, that, that ability to learn from those who are veterans, that ability to Kind of pass, pass that experiential knowledge down and kind of train up the next generation.
So I think we're seeing it in some of dealings with our vendors and partners that may have early career individuals that haven't been mentored by those with a little bit more experience in the game.
And it just feels and looks different in how we work together. And when I look back at me coming out of college or early career, I didn't understand the value of networking as well.
I thought networking was a very transactional thing, felt scripted, it felt weird, you know, and Now I'm on TikTok and I see how they talk about LinkedIn and like that's how I viewed networking or going to a cocktail reception with, you know, the industry,
the local chapter from these industry associations. And so I think for those of us who have some, some time in the industry, those of us who've been around for a while, it's just kind of breaking down that facade and just being relatable, being easy to approach and being welcoming to also hearing their perspective.
Because just because we've got wisdom to give and wisdom to partake doesn't mean that they don't have a unique perspective that also has value and should be shared.
Magdalina Atanassova: And I think it's important to just highlight the fact that newcomers don't have to be necessarily people just out of college. Right. They can be people with a lot of experience.
But other industries that are now joining us, especially like you mentioned, especially after the pandemic that everything changed and a lot of cards were reshuffled,
what do you think would be a good practice for those individuals to overcome these challenges? Is it easy to find mentorship? Because you mentioned mentorship is a problem. And if it's difficult, what other strategies can they employ?
Deanna Nwosu: I think it's just being willing to ask, being willing to be vulnerable and raise your hand and say, hey, I would like to learn more or I feel insecure about this or I don't really understand that.
I think that's honestly the first step is a little bit of like introspection of what is it you need really taking self inventory of where are my strengths, where are my weaknesses, where are the places that I know I need to develop and then going out into the world and looking for that.
So it could be whether it's within your company and asking your, you know, your boss, your coworkers, your colleagues, hey, I need to work on this skill I want to develop.
And who do you think would be a good person for me to talk to internally, you know, externally, you know, of course I'm, I'm a big advocate of LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn.
I think there's a way to utilize it that feels authentic and doesn't feel so bro y, I think, or so thought leader, a little inauthentic, I guess you could say is the best way to put it.
But I honestly just put out an ask recently. I said, hey, I realized I don't have any male mentors or male thought leaders in my circle that I go to on a regular basis and here's the areas that I would, I'm interested in and does anyone have any recommendations?
And I got one and I just met with him earlier this week. And so I think it just comes from a place of being,
being open to acknowledging what you don't know, acknowledging where you have room to grow, where your opportunities are, and then just being unapologetic and open to asking.
Magdalina Atanassova: I love that. And on the other side of the, of this equation with the more experienced planners, how can they create this culture that fosters mentorship and encourages growth?
Deanna Nwosu: I think it's that spirit of curiosity because I think what may turn off newcomers or early career individuals is maybe that closed off mindset, or you don't know because you haven't been doing it as long as I have, or this is just how the industry is.
There's always room for improvement, like having that continuous improvement mindset. And I think if you are coming across those who are newer to the industry or early career and you got that spirit of curiosity, you're asking them about their experience, you're asking them about how they perceive things.
Right. I think there's beauty in us sharing our different perspectives. It goes back to why diversity is important because we all have different lived experiences and we bring that collective experience together.
What we can build together is really beautiful and really awesome.
So, yeah, I think it's just if we are open and genuinely asking for their input and asking to understand how they see things and perceive things, I think it will create that kind of trust and that ability to share information back and forth.
Magdalina Atanassova: And what helped you grow into a leadership mindset and maybe how can others identify when it's time to stretch into new roles?
Deanna Nwosu: A lot of things I think just, I would just say the journey I've made over the past five years has been kind of going back to that, like introspection of where am I strong and where do I have opportunity to grow?
And I really tried to lean into my strengths by like creating avenues to Hone them, develop them and showcase them.
So I know that I'm great at public speaking.
Well, when I really sat back with it, I said, well, have you given yourself an opportunity to further develop that skillset, to further showcase that skill set? I hadn't.
So I joined my local toastmasters to kind of help with getting, you know, building in the reps. And then I started applying to speaking at events because it was like, you have to practice the things that you want to get better at.
And if I didn't have actual conferences or meetings to speak at, there was no like forcing function for me to practice. Right. And so I think that was the first thing is just, you know,
where are the things that I am strong and I have not done a good job of showcasing those things. And then conversely, where are those things where I need to develop?
I think one thing I needed to develop more of was more confidence and more self advocacy.
I spent a year being an independent contractor and consultant and that kind of forces you to develop a little bit more of that. You know, I've never done sales or business development outside of, you know, my experience as an independent.
And you have to learn how to go and find the business and ask for the sale and it forces you to speak up, it forces you to build your confidence muscle.
So I think that that's been kind of my journey specifically and I would say most recently it's been about really you're like, I have a 25 year career, but I mean, honestly I do.
I started working at Taco Bell in the summer of 2000 and that's the hospitality industry. Every job I've had from then to now has been some type of service delivery.
It's been events, it's been hotel, it's been restaurant. There's always been an element of customer service. And so it's just like being on this side of it and looking back and all those different roles, just understanding they all had a purpose, they all had a input into where I'm at now and how I kind of lead today.
Magdalina Atanassova: Was there anyone that really saw your potential? A mentor that really gave that hand and said, you know, I see a lot in you and let me show you what's your true potential.
Deanna Nwosu: So I would say there's one clear as day moment that kind of was like a flip switch in me. And that was a previous job I had.
And this was, I don't know, maybe around 2017, 2018,
and a coworker was telling me, gosh, Dana, you are so good at. She's just like, you could be like a newscaster. I just love the way that you can, like, present and you're just really good at public speaking.
And I don't know, it's so interesting how someone's like, one, like, offhand comment, something they're not even thinking of, like, can really spark something within you. And like, that.
That was like a catalyst to me saying, you know what? I am good at those things. I do need to do more of that. And, you know, shout out to her.
This was a former colleague back when I was working in Ohio. And so that kind of, I would probably say the early seedling that kind of set off some things in motion.
But I would say most recently, my former director here at rei, we. We talk once a month. And she has been great at really saying, Deanna, here's the things that.
That you are great at, and here's where I see your potential,
and here's what you need to do to go after that. Right. It's one thing to say, hey, you've got potential. Hey, I see X, Y and Z in you. But it's been really beneficial and helpful for her to just say, hey, have you done this?
Here's step one, here's step two, here's step three. And if I come back to her, say, okay, I did step one, but I don't know if step two can happen.
Okay, well, here's what you need to. Here's the conversation you need to have. Here's the things that you need to be doing on your own separate from those conversations. And so it's just really invaluable to have people that have seen your work and know what your goals and things are and can give you,
like, really hard truths sometimes that you don't want to hear. But also, like, it comes from a place of, like, really helping you, you know, maximize your potential and reach your, you know, reach your ultimate goals.
Yeah.
Magdalina Atanassova: And I wanted to ask you about this example that you gave. Now, what actionable strategies can teams use to optimize structure, roles, and collaboration, especially as the pace of event planning accelerates?
Deanna Nwosu: Oh, I just feel like. I know in my current role, but probably, I would say since Pandemic, we've all been in a space of being nimble and having to learn how to adapt to change.
And so I think what I've been grappling with or kind of like working through is what are frameworks that we can put in place? Meaning, here's a set of questions to help with decision making.
Here's who makes decisions in certain scenarios. Right. Like, I think creating those guardrails is really important because we have to be so adaptable, we have to be so nimble and sometimes decisions have to be in a quick turn.
Communications have to be shifted and pivoted and rescheduled. That I think it's more so about proactively asking, what are our trigger points for when we need to send certain messages?
Who are the audiences we need to prioritize in certain moments? Right. Like having that kind of framework set up in advance so that when situations fall into our lap, which seems to be every three to seven business days, there's something we're reacting to or adapting to, then you at least have some guidelines and some guardrails to make those decisions in those moments.
So I think it takes intentionality in advance to just kind of set yourself up to be as flexible as possible.
Magdalina Atanassova: And your role at REI blends content, storytelling and internal connection. So how can event themes enhance collaboration with other departments to create more cohesive experiences?
Deanna Nwosu: I think the biggest win that, you know, I've experienced in that regard is really understanding what our partners, our internal partners, what their goals are. So if we're partnering on an event or they are, you know, collaborating on a certain program,
it's understanding how does this fit within their goals. How does this one off experience tie into what they are attempting to accomplish? Whether it's a big, huge enterprise wide project or if this is just, oh, we've got to communicate this out to employees because this change is coming.
So whether it's your IT team that has big changes and they want to just get a message at an event, okay, well,
what's the best way to utilize that message? Because how does this fit within your bigger project and your bigger rollout? If it's the people team that has some big project that we're rolling out across the enterprise, it's okay, what are the repeatable phrases and what's the repeatable stories that we can kind of kick off at this in person experience?
And then throughout the year, through content and communications, we are re emphasizing and repeating those things. So it's just a matter of understanding what are their goals in zooming out and understanding how this moment, this experience is a piece of the puzzle.
Magdalina Atanassova: And for those new to the industry, how can they effectively communicate the value of events to leadership and stakeholders who may not really get it right away?
Deanna Nwosu: I think it kind of goes back to that and I think as event professionals,
it's going to sound a little counterintuitive, but we have to zoom out of the event.
And I think it also is to our benefit if we can get our foot, our finger, like a little grasp on work that is outside of our events. Right. And so we can look at our events as channels.
This is an opportunity to relay a message as part of a, you know, a bigger strategy or this moment in time. You know, I'm in an eternal event. So a lot of our events are about, you know, engaging our employees,
connecting them to each other, connecting them to the brand. Okay, well, what are those other things? What's secondary to that? Where, okay, we've got brand moments that are customer facing.
And how do we tie that in? We've got,
again, big ERP rollouts and we're updating frameworks and we're updating software. How are we folding in some training opportunities to make sure people know what's coming down the pipeline and they're ready for, you know, changes and things to the system?
So it's just kind of like taking a click out of what are the secondary and tertiary waves of impact of this moment in this experience.
And then it's a lot easier to go to stakeholders, to go to executives, because they really don't care what we're eating. They don't care about the av, but they do care about how people are walking away from that moment, how we're setting them up for.
For helping customers, how we're setting them up to decrease costs. They do care about those things. And so it takes a step out of some of that really granular conversation and speaking to those secondary,
tertiary potential outcomes if you land the event objectives as desired.
Magdalina Atanassova: And I'm sure that many industry leaders have heard the fact that, you know, event planners are just logistics. They don't have strategic skills. But you're speaking. Exactly. On the contrary, there's a lot of strategy and thinking beyond just logistics and just one single event.
So I hope newcomers also pick on that because it's not just booking a room and F and B.
Deanna Nwosu: Right, Right. And the thing is, like, what we do is strategic.
There's only so much you can beat your head against the wall to help people get it. At a certain point, you have to try a different angle. You have to speak their language and understand that some of the strategic decisions you're making, they're not going to see them that way.
And that's okay. It's all about. It really comes about marketing. It's about marketing what your event impact is on that audience, you know, showcasing,
hey, at last year's Event we helped the IT team get ahead of some of their messaging and as a result we were able to cut down the implementation time from what we expected was five weeks.
It really was four weeks. Right. If you can say that is a clear outcome of an event, well then you can go into those next meetings and there's more trust and there's gonna be a little bit more autonomy for decision making because you have a proven track record of how you've impacted the business.
And so it's just a matter of I. Sometimes we are speaking event language and our stakeholders just, they'll never understand it and it is what it is. So how do we zoom out of event language?
How do we also connect ourselves really as much as we can get a little bit more connected to the other business partners and other work streams to really demonstrate the value of our programs?
Magdalina Atanassova: And changing the topic a little bit. You've been in the industry for 25 years, so that, that's quite of a career. How do you stay creative, grounded and purpose driven in such a fast paced industry?
And what advice would you have for newcomers to find their why?
Deanna Nwosu: I think for me it's just trying new things. I'm just open to trying. Just like it's just try it. It's kind of my like slogan, I guess you could say being creative just I mean being curious, asking questions, you know, if you're in a meeting, being willing to raise your hand and ask more questions.
And I think it starts there just being curious under trying to understand why the rationale behind decisions or understanding the guiding principles behind certain teams and their needs and their projects and things of that nature.
So I think it's also a combination of looking externally so it could be through listening to podcasts like this one, reading articles, being on social media like LinkedIn or Instagram or TikTok.
And that's where I get a lot of my ideas is just consuming other content and then asking myself how could I apply this thing to this business problem I'm experiencing at work.
And so it just kind of,
it creates that kind of ongoing creativity in addition to being like internally curious about the business, being curious about out other teams and their needs and just trying to understand what are the problems we're really trying to fix and address.
And what can we look to outside of our company as examples or case studies that we could maybe implement as well.
Magdalina Atanassova: That's wonderful. So if you could give just one piece of advice to newcomers and one to those that guide them, what would it be?
Deanna Nwosu: The word pivot is not a bad word. I know it became a bad word in 2020, but it's not a bad word.
Be open to pivot and it could look like within your role pivoting on plans that you're making for a program. It could look like pivoting within your role from I was a very logistics focused person for events for the majority of my career and in my current role I'm more on the story telling the content,
speaker, prep, executive coaching side. But that's because I was open to pivoting. And so I would just say pivot's not a bad word. Be open to pivoting and I think being open to it will allow that curiosity and creativity to really grow because you can see more opportunities when you don't create any unnecessary limitations on yourself.
Magdalina Atanassova: I love that. Was there anything we didn't mention we should before we wrap up?
Deanna Nwosu: No. This was great. I enjoyed the conversation and hopefully it's helpful to at least one person listening.
Magdalina Atanassova: Thank you so much for the time and for all the insights. It was a pleasure.
Deanna Nwosu: Thank you, Maggie.
Magdalina Atanassova: Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.