Gabriela Neves, Partner, Factory360
Data from Event Marketer’s annual Event Agency Business Forecast indicated that 2024 would be a year of growth, as agency leaders reported business development, hiring and marketing among their top three investments. Early findings from our 2025 forecast (out this November) show “people” continue to be a key investment for agency leaders, remaining second in line in their top investments heading into next year.
“What I’m seeing is more people in our industry,” says Gabriela Neves, partner at Factory360. “And at the collegiate level, event industry curriculum has never been more popular, which means we won’t see any shortage of talent in the near future.”
For this edition of our quarterly column focused on trends around hiring, onboarding and culture, we sat down with Neves to talk in-demand skills, hybrid work and the next generation.
A Growing Talent Pool
While the initial post-pandemic market and mass exodus forced agencies to eye talent from other sectors, this kind of demand appears to be leveling off. The market is strong, and so is the event in-industry talent pool for the agency side of the business. Neves has an intimate perspective on the next generation as an advisory board member at Florida International University focused on its event industry curriculum.
“We don’t have to look beyond the industry,” she says. “There is a very specific type of person who has passion for experiential, and we look for people who know the industry and thrive off of that energy of wanting to solve on the fly, be resourceful, and be social.”
Creative Roles in Demand
Among new hires her agency is focused on: b-to-b candidates who bring technical skills to the table, from knowledge around regulated industries, to working with conference and convention centers, to operations, to live-streaming, and, most importantly, creatives. Neves says her agency is up to 16 full-time creatives—a team that in some ways is growing faster than the accounts team, as clients are seeking out and are willing to pay for more creative services.
Purposeful Spontaneity is In
Some 40 percent of the Factory360 workforce is now fully remote, and the rest is hybrid in New York or Florida. A focus for Neves is to foster the spontaneity that happens in office environments with the opposite effect—planned exchanges. On top of a weekly hall-hands internal meeting where new employees are introduced, virtual coffees are scheduled with nearly every member of the organization, too.
“What we do is plan. We have all our employees sign up for time to virtually meet our new hires,” Neves says. “The feedback we get from the new team members is, ‘I feel really welcomed.’”
But there’s still room for some spontaneity: Every year the agency holds Factory Day where the entire organization flies in in-market for fun challenges and activities. This year, it was a cooking challenge that required employees to shop within 15 minutes and cook against a clock in a test kitchen.
Culture That is Presented, Not Learned
To be successful in hybrid, agency leaders say having a strong culture is imperative. But it needs to be based off what you already are, not what you want to be, according Neves. At Factory360, the agency’s core pillars, which include inclusivity, transparency and intentionality, are communicated early and often.
“We don’t believe in being something we’re not. We recognize, build on and lean into what we know is good about the agency,” Neves says. “This begins at the interview process, where we talk about what it’s like to work at the agency, we talk about what kinds of people excel at the agency. And I’m careful not to use the word ‘fit in,’ because if anything, we want people to accentuate—not conform.”
Image Credit: iStock/Govindanmarudhai
