We were lucky to catch up with Laurie Kirby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Laurie, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started this conference as a solution to a problem. Having been an attorney for 20 years a large part of what I did was serve as a problem solver. When I switched occupations to become a Festival producer, I saw there was nowhere to go for education, networking, and collaboration. Thus, I was intrigued by the idea of creating a conference where I could bring together leaders from various festivals to learn from, and collaborate with each other. I never dreamed that 10 years later, we would be such a great success.

Laurie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the business of running Festivals because I served on the board of the Newport Rhode Island Film Festival. As a lifelong Film and Music lover, I have attended many festivals throughout my life. In fact, our family traveled to festivals every summer throughout the country. Thus it was quite an honor and a challenge to create a festival in my hometown of Newport, Rhode Island. I ultimately moved to the West Coast and after running several festivals, I created FestForums for all of the festivals to learn and grow together. No one else was doing this and no one else is still doing this in the United States and so it’s a real honor to have found a way to give back to the festival community.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I am absolutely 100% committed to the idea that each person who comes is giving their valuable time to be at Fest forms. Time is a one-way street which we can never get back and it is important that they have received their benefit of the bargain (legal term)! I tried to meet each and every person who is there, I interview every speaker, I talk with every sponsor and I seek to engage on site with all of our attendees. Thus we have the best word-of-mouth of any conference I’ve ever heard of. People love it, they come back. We have a great reputation, and I believe in honesty and transparency, in all that I do. When you follow those simple rules, you can sleep at night.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

As someone who has worked for many people, I discovered what I did not want to be in terms of a leader. I am a proud Leo and so it is natural for me to be a leader. That means I have a huge responsibility for everyone that works with me. I treat each person with dignity and respect and have told them that this is a learning opportunity to be a better professional and to be a better human being. And it is important that we work on both.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://FestForums.com
• Instagram: @FestForums
• Facebook: @FestForums
• Linkedin: @FestForums
• Twitter: @FestForums
• Youtube: @FestForums

Image Credits

Laurie Kirby