In the fast-paced world of tech startups, event planning plays a crucial role in building relationships, fostering partnerships, and landing deals. And Pilar Sbisa, an events manager at Sauce Labs, knows a thing or two about how it’s done. 

I met Pilar at a recent networking event for event industry professionals at Culinary Artistas. She was there doing what any good event manager does: connecting with industry peers and getting inspiration. 

From her unique experiences to budget management and keeping up with industry trends, Pilar shared insights we could all learn from. 

Getting Started In Events

Culinary Artiastas: Did you always know you wanted to be in events?

Pilar Sbisa: No! I thought it seemed like too much fun to be a real job. I always knew I wanted to do some sort of marketing, but I didn’t know how or where. I started in sales and business development and then got an opportunity from there.

Culinary Artistas: What do you love about your job?

Pilar Sbisa: It’s having the creative freedom of being given a budget and deciding what to do in a way that’s most going to benefit the company. I also love creating food menus. It's my favorite part. Whether it's for 10 people or 300 people, it really excites me. 

Culinary Artistas: How do you determine what will most benefit the company?

Pilar Sbisa: Well, I’ve learned that experience alone will not close a deal, but it helps to build relationships. Eventually, it does go back into the company as far as pipeline growth or revenue growth. I love seeing those actual results from an event.

Building Relationships & Closing Deals

Culinary Artistas: Have you ever had an event that did close the deal?

Pilar Sbisa: We have this big customer advisory meeting that we host for our top customers—we fly them out and we have a whole week of meetings and events. It’s my favorite event to plan because we get to really impress them. So, I get to come up with really unique experiences and fun ideas for venues and food, and it’s a really great opportunity to truly build relationships that leads to more business. 

Culinary Artistas: On that note, what’s one of the most unique experiences you've come up with?

Pilar Sbisa: My favorite was hosting our customer advisory meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. I booked out this old car museum venue for dinner and no one had any idea what to expect. After driving on a bus for 25 minutes, we pull up to this warehouse-type building, and even I was like, “My goodness, what is this place?!” Old cars were hanging on the walls and vintage jewelry was decorating the space, and we had dinner in the middle of it all. Everyone was blown away and it was a fun conversation starter.

Challenging Moments & Valuable Lessons

Culinary Artistas: Can you share a specific event or project that challenged you the most and any invaluable lessons you learned from it?

Pilar Sbisa: Probably my very first kickoff event. It was for over 300 of our employees, which was intimidating for a first event. However, I had a really great manager at the time, who I shadowed. She taught me that the number of people doesn't necessarily have to mean that it's a harder event to plan. It adds extra challenges, and there's a lot more to take into consideration, like AV setups and dietary restrictions, but it doesn't have to be super overwhelming. It can be just taking what you already know from the smaller events and doing it on a larger scale.

Culinary Artistas: Startups often have unique cultures, priorities and challenges. How do you approach event planning to align with the values and goals of your organization? 

Pilar Sbisa: What I really enjoy about this startup is that it's really collaborative and people like getting to know each other on a personal level. The culture is very fun and free-spirited, so that makes it easier to plan events. We’re not here to give you a sales pitch—we really want to get to know you and talk to you and learn about you personally before we get to the business. It works!

Budget Management & Cost Saving Strategies

Culinary Artistas: How do you manage budget constraints when planning events, and do you have any creative cost-saving strategies?

Pilar Sbisa: Once I get my budget, I choose the location. We tend to choose locations that are less expensive, which helps in saving money and sticking to a budget. We do a comparison of what it would cost in different locations, too. Because if you just lock yourself down into a location that you think is the best, you'll have to then sacrifice things elsewhere. You might not be able to do a really amazing off-site dinner or have entertainment because you spent most of the budget on the location.  My philosophy is that you may not be in the most glamorous city, but you can make the experience amazing and beautiful and unique because you have more of a budget.

Culinary ArtistasAre there any tools that you use to plan? 

Pilar Sbisa: There's plenty of budgeting tools out there, but Google sheets and Excel are just what I'm comfortable with. That way I know how much money I have left, and I don't leave it up to the procurement system or somebody else to manage.

Prioritizing & Vendor Relations

Culinary Artistas: How do you prioritize and manage multiple events, given the fast-paced nature of startups?

Pilar Sbisa: You pretty much just have to be dynamic and go with the flow. Sometimes it’s easier for me to work on multiple events at one time so I don’t get sucked into any one thing for too long. I like being able to check things off and move on to the next task. 

Culinary Artistas: Vendor relations and third-party vendor management are crucial. What strategies have you found most effective in building strong vendor relationships and ensuring smooth collaborations?

Pilar Sbisa: Once you find somebody that you like to work with, keep them! It’s really helpful being able to build up that relationship so you both understand a little bit more about your work style or your company's brand or anything like that. Also, just being approachable and friendly, as well as really communicative, goes a long way. 

On-Site Event Execution & Event Success

Culinary Artistas: On-site execution is a critical phase. Any best practices you've developed to ensure events run smoothly?

Pilar Sbisa: Yes, having an organizational tool, whether it’s Google sheets Trello, or Asana, is critical so that the day-off you know what you have and what’s missing. Also being flexible. It is rare everything will go as planned so always be able to think on your toes.

Culinary Artistas: How do you measure the success of events in a startup? What KPIs and metrics do you focus on?

Pilar Sbisa: Pipeline generation or pipeline influenced. For me personally, success of an event comes through feedback—whether it's on site, people verbally saying things to me or sending out a survey and getting the vibe for how it went.

Staying Updated with Industry Trends

Culinary Artistas: In a rapidly evolving industry, how do you stay up to date with the latest event industry trends and adapt your strategies accordingly?

Pilar Sbisa: I love keeping up with Meeting Professionals International and going to networking events, like the one I attended at Culinary Artistas. I attend those not only for networking and getting to know other people, but also seeing how the event is run, and getting ideas of fresh things that are happening around me. I like being able to experience those rather than reading about it.

Culinary Artistas: Thanks for your time Pilar!

Pilar Sbisa: My pleasure!

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To connect or get more insights, you can follow Pilar on LinkedIn.

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