Turning failure into success: Fyre Festival’s Andy King to share learnings with The Meetings Show

Event planner Andy King, known for his role in planning the infamous Fyre Festival, is to share learnings from his illustrious 30-year career and top tips for success in an exclusive session for The Meetings Show.

King, who helped put together the ill-fated Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, will lead a virtual keynote session on Wednesday 21 October 2020 at The Meetings Show, the UK’s leading platform for the world’s meetings and events community.

Before working with jailed Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland, King spent three decades building a successful event planning business, with a high-profile portfolio of clients including Disney, Vogue, The Rolling Stones and Beyoncé. Known for his ‘above and beyond the job’ attitude, the New Yorker, has continued to work in the industry through his company Inward Point which champions zero waste, sustainable events while raising money to pay back the out-of-pocket Fyre Festival contractors in the Bahamas.

In his session for The Meetings Show, part of the platform’s comprehensive live and virtual education programme, King will reveal how his life changed following the airing of the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix in 2019, give valuable tips on how to turn negatives into positives, offer insight into running sustainable events, and more. He said: “Part of my piece will be around overcoming failure. My message to event planners is ‘get out there and fail’. You don’t learn until you fail. Get out there and try new things. You learn more from your failures than your successes.”

The Meetings Show event director Jack Marczewski, said: “We’re so excited to have Andy King as our keynote speaker and are thrilled that he can join us at the show and share his valuable learnings with our attendees. “Andy has successfully run events for more than 30 years, but, as we all know, is no stranger to a crisis. With the meetings and events industry currently facing its own challenges in light of the pandemic, hearing about Andy’s experiences and how he has turned negatives into positives will be invaluable to our community, whichever area they work in. And thanks to our new format, Andy’s learnings will be accessible to everyone, wherever they are.”

Andy King’s session leads a stellar line up of speakers and a dynamic range of session formats being delivered across the three days. The show will provide insight on future trends, effective use of technology, measuring ROI as well as future event design and formats, creative thinking and sustainability.

The show’s new online platform will seamlessly integrate the education programme for pre-qualified buyers who are unable to physically attend, so they can access live and on-demand education content, including sessions designed specifically for a virtual audience.

Registration is open for the live show - taking place at Olympia London on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 October - and the virtual experience, which will run on October 19, 20 and 21. To register, click here.