Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Yinka Freeman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Yinka , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to inspire others in the events and hospitality industry to create events with intention. COVID-19 put a pause on the events industry for almost two years and we are seeing a revitalization within the industry as attendees are expecting more from the events they attend. With this in mind, I fully believe event professionals now have a chance to create events that can inspire and engage attendees in meaningful ways. We can intentionally produced events that take our attendees on a journey from the minute that walk into a space. We can excite them by producing events were we are tapping into their five senses and were we allow them to create their own communities within the events.

Yinka , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am the founder of Triple Pocket Events. Triple Pocket focuses on intentionally designed inclusive experiences for both corporate and private clientele. We focus on the purpose of the event, then reverse engineer the planning process to tell our attendees a story. I really believe that we are more storytellers than event planners. We can provide all services needed so that our clients can be as involved with the event planning process as they’d like. It’s all about collaboration for us! We love planning experiences that have a purpose behind them and that bring a communities together. During the height of the pandemic we had the opportunity to work with many organizations that aligned themselves with various social causes, working alongside those organizations has really formed the types of events we enjoy planning. We are on a mission to change the way events and experiences can shape communities and bring people together.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started Triple Pocket Events in October of 2019 and then the pandemic hit. Within days my fully planned out year was no longer and all my contracts were gone. Having no idea what to do, I went in a little funk for about two weeks, then I decided that I was not going to let this be the end of my company. It took me years to start Triple Pocket because of fear of not succeeding and I knew I had to give it all that I had in me to not let it fail. So I started doing what I do best, research and learning. Everyday for a month, I would research the ins and outs of the events and hospitality industry and what other event professionals are currently doing. Through that research, I found out about virtual events and went into a deep dive of what exactly that is. I went to all the webinars and sales demos I could find so that I could educate myself as much as possible. I started volunteering my time to other event professionals that were already in the virtual space so I could get hands on learning. When I felt like I was in a good spot with my knowledge of virtual events, I started reaching out to my clients and talking to them about producing their events virtually. This was the pivot I needed to bring my business back. For the past two years, Triple Pocket has produced over 100+ virtual events and I have grown to really love the world of virtual events. I have seen on so many levels how we can stay connected in a virtual space, how we can start communities in a virtual space and how we can intentionally create experiences in a virtual space. If it weren’t for that pivot to virtual events, Triple Pocket would probably not be around today. It’s allowed me to reach a more global clientele and align myself with other event professionals I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet in the live events space.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I’ve been extremely lucky in not having to put a lot of effort towards marketing Triple Pocket Events, with most of my new clients coming to me through referrals, which to me is the best marketing I could ask for. When you have old clients that will sing your praises to others and recommend you out of thousands of others out there, that carries a lot of weight. To me that means my clients put 100% of their trust in the work I do and believe the product that I produce to be amongst the best. This inspires me to create meaningful and trusting relationships with my clients from the very beginning.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.triplepocketevents.com
• Instagram: triplepocketevents or yinkagenevieve
• Facebook: Triple Pocket Events or yinka.freeman.5
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yinka-freeman/
• Twitter: yinkagenevieve

Image Credits
Fiona Buckley Media Sharisse Coulter Photography Sydney Valiente