Event folks like to joke about chaos, but Jay Schwedelson and Rachel Andrews get into what it actually takes to build a career inside that chaos. Rachel shares how she went from school events and holiday parties to leading a massive global events program, why “embrace the suck” is secretly great career advice, and what is really changing for attendees on-site. They also talk about burnout, boundaries, and how to build networking formats that do not make introverts want to hide by the coffee station.

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Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn and check out Cvent CONNECT in Nashville, her “big family reunion” style industry event that brings together event pros and event technologists from across the world.

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Best Moments:

(01:45) Rachel’s oldest-child energy, early love of bringing people together, and the moment she realized she wanted the events side, not PR.

(05:10) How saying yes to “small” assignments like a company holiday party turned into a 15-year path to leading events at a huge brand.

(08:05) Why attendees keep begging for “more networking” and how Rachel designs formats that actually work for introverts and ambiverts.

(11:15) The problem with topic tables that go nowhere and how facilitators and “influencer hosts” can make roundtables worth showing up for.

(14:10) Rachel’s honest take on burnout, the myth of “do more with less,” and why she fiercely protects PTO and being present with her family.

(17:20) What 1,000 last-minute registrations revealed about attendee behavior and how she is feeling about event budgets and growth heading into 2026.

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Check out Jay’s YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay’s TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson

Check Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/

Jay Schwedelson: we are back for do this, not that. Presented by Marigold and we have an amazing human being here. We have a friend here, she's a big deal. So we got Rachel Andrews, who is CNTs Global Head of Events. Now, first of all, if you don't know cnt, I don't know what rock you're under, but Cvents a Beast.

Jay Schwedelson: Okay? They have almost 5,000 employees. It almost 21,000 customers, and they're. One of the largest, not the largest event technology companies in the world. They are the platform that everybody uses to plan, to manage, to optimize their events. Virtual in person, you name it, it's wild and it's all Rachel's fault.

Jay Schwedelson: She has this massive team that's overseeing delivering on like over a thousand events a year. Okay? She's won all these awards. She sits on all these boards. If there's anything about the event world that she doesn't know, then it doesn't exist, and I'm excited to talk with her. Rachel, welcome to the show.

Rachel Andrews: What an intro. It's almost up there with a Kelsey Intro.

Jay Schwedelson: Yes. Well, uh, Rachel was nice enough to have me on her podcast earlier today, and we wore costumes. I was a banana. She was Wonder Woman. And you are Wonder Woman. So let me ju what a, what a cheesy segue. Let me ask you a question before we get into all this. How did Rachel become Rachel?

Rachel Andrews: God, I don't even know. I, I, uh, I'm just like this weird thing that exists in the world, right? Um, I, I've been me for as long as I've known. Right? I, uh, you mean like how did I become the head of events at CA

Jay Schwedelson: Yes. Yes. What is your path?

Rachel Andrews: You know, um, I've always been, uh, an oldest child, so I feel like because of that I have loved organizing and making sure that I was the peacekeeper and organizational person in my family.

Rachel Andrews: And, uh, I always love gathering. I've always loved bringing people together. I always like to make sure this person's okay and this person's okay and they've connected. I'm like known in my life and my circle of friends for being the friend that is introduced. People like 85 times. One of my best friends is like, I've met your brother like 10 times.

Rachel Andrews: You don't have to introduce him to us every single time we hang out. And I just do that because it's just like inherently my nature. So I think that that has like translated into my love for bringing people together, which is also then translated into planning events. Um, I, you know, started my love of kind of the event side of things in college, which most people, most people do.

Rachel Andrews: But even before that, I was planning just like. I know like back then I was doing more social things and then I gravitated towards corporate events. 'cause I was like, screw the social events. I don't wanna be in charge of someone's happiest day of their life. I wanna, I wanna like drive, I wanna drive results in business, uh, boring, right?

Rachel Andrews: But I, I started with like, things like our high school fashion show. I, I, I orchestrated a lot of events in college fundraisers. Silent auction. I planned our like 25th anniversary of our, our, um, at Virginia Tech, like our, our com school. So just like, I just loved it. And then I moved to New York. I got a random, random job.

Rachel Andrews: Um, so funny. One of the alumni of Virginia Tech worked for, do you remember the show on MTV called Yo Mama

Jay Schwedelson: Of course.

Rachel Andrews: Met the producer of that show 'cause he was a, a Virginia Tech alumni and he introduced me to, uh, a company in New York that was looking at the time I thought I wanted to be in pr. Um, and I, at the time, he introduced me to an events PR company and I interned for them. And I just re realized doing PR that I really wanted to do the events side.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, good timing.

Rachel Andrews: Yeah, really great, you know, nailed it. Um, uh, but it was a true like chest of fire. Um, fake it till you make it situation. When, um, the whole department changed and I was basically handed some of these bigger events, um, did those for a while and then ended up getting a job at cnt. Um, I've been there for 15 years, but we had like four.

Rachel Andrews: Five planners at the time, very disjointed team, and I grew that into a team of 40. So, you know, we're, we're just like completely, um, you know, every year has changed to be like a different, uh, a different team, a different company, different goals. So I feel like even though I've been here 15 years, I have, I have kind of like expanded what we've done, changed it at 18 different times.

Rachel Andrews: So it's been great.

Jay Schwedelson: Well, you know what's amazing and before we get into like, I want your perspective on the event world 'cause you have the perspective, but for people listening out there, maybe you're a marketing manager, maybe you started your job or maybe you're in a, a role that you're like, this sucks, I'm never gonna get to the next level, whatever.

Jay Schwedelson: I went deep on Rachel's LinkedIn and when I did that. She's been at CNT now 15 years, and at the very beginning, the first thing that she lists is that she worked on CNTs holiday party at the lowest possible level, right? And now here you are the vice President of what, or director or whatever the hell you are.

Jay Schwedelson: You're a really important person,

Rachel Andrews: It is like, I think global, uh, head of world domination, I

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. You are it. Okay. You're like the Yoda of events. Okay. But you started and, and the reason I say people listening, you know, uh, or maybe frustrat in their role, it fe feels like what you did was every little thing, a little, little door, they opened the opportunity. You didn't just laugh at like, oh, it's a holiday party.

Jay Schwedelson: I can't believe this is what I'm doing. You took it seriously, and that's how you grew in your career. Is that what you did? Were you

Rachel Andrews: Totally. Oh my God. Yeah.

Jay Schwedelson: what they give me.

Rachel Andrews: You know what? I was always very like, hungry to do more and more and more. What else? What else, what else, what else? Um, you know, I don't, I don't know if that's just like me or I'm insane. Maybe I'm a sociopath, I have a psychopath. I don't know. I actually don't know. Like I think all, all people in events are

Jay Schwedelson: I am staying quiet on all of that.

Rachel Andrews: No, I think to do what we do takes a type of hunger and passion and a little insanity, um, in the best way possible, right? Like, so I think that that's part of it. Um, I also think just. I think I'm a different beast of, of person because I work for, uh, an event. It's very meta. Like I work for an event tech company as the event person.

Rachel Andrews: Uh, planning events for event technologists and event planners. So like the people that come to my events are me at other companies. And so no pressure. Right. Planning events for your own peers. I think that that has also motivated me. 'cause like I can't. Fail. I can't look bad in front of people. And not that that's the only motivation, but like, that's part of it, right?

Rachel Andrews: It's like you wanna make sure that you're doing the right thing. And then early on, I, uh, this is really, if you google my name, it's kind of embarrassing if you Google my name, um, I think it's like the 10th article that comes up. It says Embrace the Suck. It's

Jay Schwedelson: oh.

Rachel Andrews: the, it's. It's the military like lo uh, motto of embrace the sucker.

Rachel Andrews: I think it's the Navy Seals, but they say embrace the suck. Meaning just like, get through it, do it, learn it, move on to the next thing, and just keep reinventing your reinventing what you wanna do. Because if you're just like, okay, I've done the same shit every single year. I have kind of right. We, we haven't changed our events program all that drastically, but the company shifted growth.

Rachel Andrews: Uh, targets have changed and like we, we try to always level up, even though we're doing relatively the same events every year. We, we also try to infuse it with new things, so. I just give, we give ourselves that challenge on the team, um, to, to have that kind of service mindset of like, what can we do better?

Rachel Andrews: What can we do better? And sometimes to a fault, right? Like sometimes we're like, maybe that's a little bit too much of what we can do better. We're like pretty close to perfect on this thing.

Jay Schwedelson: So, all right. But I wanna, I want to dig into it a little bit. Okay. So you, you're putting on a ton of venture. You're helping a lot of the. Events, you're doing all this stuff, what really has changed? 'cause everyone's listening like, okay, I'm going to this event this year. I went to it last year. What?

Jay Schwedelson: They're gonna have a, a new sandwich, uh, that they're handing out. Like, what is things that are actually changing at events that people should be like, wow, I didn't even realize that. That's a big thing about Bob. Everybody's doing.

Rachel Andrews: Yeah. I mean the, the best, the best thing I think that people can do is, I mean, I just told you on the, our other podcast that we did is everybody wants more networking. More networking, more networking, more networking is like the number one thing that, that, that people want. And so what we're we try to do every year is.

Rachel Andrews: Do more of that, but try to invent it in better ways. Like also when you have an event for 5,000 people, which is our, you know, one of our bigger conferences gets up to that some years. Um, when you have event for over, let's just call it over a thousand people, you, you need to be able to, uh, go dig into those personas and help those people connect with each other.

Rachel Andrews: Otherwise, you're walking into this. Like convention center, wherever the hell you're doing the event and you're like, who the hell do I talk to? And, and so it's up to event profs or event marketers to create that community for them. That's not new. That's just not well done. Right. And so that's always in people's minds.

Rachel Andrews: We are creating communities for people, but are they really throwing people into a room, a keynote room, or a panel room and saying, meet each other, or, it's not great. Like even if you have the color coded things on the badges, you need to, for. Almost force people to meet up in these smaller formats because not everybody is a big extrovert.

Rachel Andrews: So one of my like focuses right now is figuring out, okay, for this event. Who's an introvert? Most people in the events industry are introverts and or, or ambiverts is what I call myself is like, I'm very, I'm I'm very much both. And so how do you plan for that and, and force people together? So like, I don't know if that exactly answers your question, but I think one other, sorry.

Rachel Andrews: I'll just say one more thing

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, no,

Rachel Andrews: to invent, invent the, invent the, um, invent, invent the events, um, is by. Thinking through all the trends and seeing which ones are BS and which ones are, which ones are actually valuable to people. Like, I think, um, you know, these discussions, peer-to-peer discussions are really valuable.

Rachel Andrews: I think doing these fun, silly activations are valuable 'cause it does give something, does give people something to do and bond over. I think like this trend of the pickleball to, uh, tournaments popping up at events is awesome. Like it's just bonding in a better way. Um, versus like. Hello. We are at a round table and we are going to talk about ai.

Rachel Andrews: Like, I just don't think that, that, that's good, but not enough.

Jay Schwedelson: I have a question about the the round table thing. 'cause I see that now at a lot of events, small events, big events where they'll say, okay, there's a room over here and there's 10 tables and every table is a little sign on the table, and I'll have a topic. You know, this topic over here is healthcare and this one's nonprofit, whatever.

Jay Schwedelson: And now go and find your tribe, find your table. And then, um, I always try to do that and it's the most uncomfortable, awkward, horrendous experience ever. And I wind up just looking at my phone. Are those obviously not how I feel about them, but are those motions, do they work? 'cause I see 'em at all the events.

Jay Schwedelson: Now maybe I'm a loser.

Rachel Andrews: Maybe when they're, when I will say, uh, you know, and, and, and I hate to hate on other conferences, but when you just put signs on a table and say, good luck, have at it like that sucks. That really sucks. And, and I think. That most people would agree with me, and again, like most people are introverts, walking up to a table and, and just saying, I'm here to talk about healthcare.

Rachel Andrews: And then like, there's a sheet on the table that tells you what to do. It's like, how lame is that? I think if you, if you, if you have. Uh, facilitators or what I've seen now are like influencer facilitators that really know their craft and like really help the conversation. Those work. I, I will say that those work and those do help, um, the table, but I, it it's, it's tough.

Rachel Andrews: Like, especially with people that don't have budgets, that's a very cheap way to bring people together. Uh, I, I'm just gonna be

Jay Schwedelson: No. No, that's smart. I mean, you have to have the right person working the table and I think that people aren't thinking like that and, and so, all right. I wanna pivot here, and I have something super random to ask you about life in general, because you have a lot going on. You're traveling. I don't know if I know a person that goes to more events than you do.

Jay Schwedelson: Okay? You're all over the place. And the thing that I wanna dig into is I go on LinkedIn, I'll message you. You're one of the few people. That'll message me back relatively quickly and I see you online commenting on things. I wanna know, are you the most efficient human being? How does Rachel manage her time?

Jay Schwedelson: Do you get up at four in the morning? I wanna know your every day because everyone's about to get inspired. 'cause I don't know how the hell you're doing it.

Rachel Andrews: I don't either, you know what my superpower would be if I had one to buy locate, like I think that it would be great if I could buy Locate, but I haven't figured that out yet. Uh, no. I just think, you know, LinkedIn's my, my favorite platform I use and, and I love engaging with people. The thing I love the most is there's a lot of people that are looking for mentors out there and reach out and wanna just chat about something.

Rachel Andrews: Sometimes the best messages are just people being like, Hey, I have this problem, what do you think? I, I love that. And so I, that's why I like continuously am on it. Um, I, I, uh, I probably went to a little bit too many events this year, but part of that is just the fact that I have to produce events. Bring the latest and greatest to the events industry.

Rachel Andrews: As a person that plans an event for the events industry, I felt the need that I needed to go and see what was going on because for a while there, when I was, when I was uh, you know, grinding, I wasn't going to anything. And then we were expected to bring all the latest and greatest trends, all the latest and greatest activations, and I'm like, shit, uh, Pinterest or Reddit, please tell me what, or like.

Rachel Andrews: Please fill out this survey on LinkedIn. Like the, like trying to get crowdsource some stuff was not enough. Like going to events is, is, uh, is in there, but I, I don't know if I have tips and tricks. I, I try to sleep a full eight hours. It, it's just, it's, it's a pretty tough, but it's a good question.

Jay Schwedelson: Or are you more fluid than that? Like how can you get it all done?

Rachel Andrews: I was telling someone, I think I had 18 meetings yesterday and at the end of the day I was like, I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do all my work. So I had to, you know, reprioritize and shift some things. I also am like a very strong, strong supporter of, of PTO. If you take PTO, take the damn PTO. Uh, and I try to tell my team that too.

Rachel Andrews: Try not to bother them when they're on pt. I think it's just so important to get a mental health break and not. Shame people for it, um, because we have it for a reason. And mental health is a serious crisis in the events industry. Uh, people are burning out at crazy speeds just because this do more with less my least favorite saying in the fricking world, do more with less.

Rachel Andrews: Like what are the hell does that mean? Um, that's the mantra of mo most corporations and most event profs, or especially heads of events, are feeling that really deeply. Um, so anyway, I'm, I, I. I don't think I have the right answer for you. I think that like I'm doing, I'm doing the best that I can with what I got, like most of us.

Rachel Andrews: Um, but I'm just really trying to be present when I'm present with my family. However, I am present with my family, like I, I have made that like line very clear, like when I'm off, I try to really be off. Um.

Jay Schwedelson: I think that's good. I think, you know, I'm not a, I hate the phrase work life balance because I don't. I think that you need to have a balance in your life, but I'm not one of these people that believe you're just shutting off a 5:00 PM on, you know, on a Friday and not thinking about it again until Monday morning.

Jay Schwedelson: People in the industry, they're always, I think, too optimistic. They're like, oh, our numbers, we will kick in the last three weeks. We need a lot of registration. The, uh, walkup in person's gonna be great, that that's gonna make our numbers or some other horse crap. Uh, when, you know, this year is tough. I mean, international travel coming in for any events is like tough, right?

Rachel Andrews: I am, I'm still in limbo about that if I'm being honest. Like I, I, um, I wanna be positive and say it's gonna be, it's gonna be great, but we're still in a lot of socioeconomic like. Crises with certain industries like the association, government, uh, education spaces are feeling the, the heat. And I think that the also corporate, uh, corporations are also feeling the heat of things like tariffs and, um.

Rachel Andrews: Other factors hitting their budgets, like the do more do, do more with less stuff. Um, also there's a big, there's a big, uh, turning of heads to what can we use AI to, to increase efficiency. Um, not that that reduces headcount, but maybe that helps us get more efficient so we can do more with less. Um, and there's a big focus on that.

Rachel Andrews: So I think that that's gonna be, um, the case. I mean, my, the, the. Your original point of just like this last minute registration thing, it's real like that happened to us. We got last, it was it last year? I think it was both years. We had almost a thousand people register in like the last six weeks. It's just like, I mean, but I think about my own be behavior.

Rachel Andrews: I know that I'm gonna go to that event, but sometimes I don't register for it until a month out. Like sometimes I just don't have the mental capacity to think about what I'm doing in that month. I know it. It's on my calendar. I know I'm doing it. I'm like, okay, now I will do it. I'll book it, I'll, I'll focus on it.

Rachel Andrews: And then I'm, I'm, I'm, that's just my behavior. So other attendees are behaving that way too? Um, onsite registration, nah, not so much. Like especially when you're flying somewhere, maybe the local component comes in, but if you're flying. Somewhere. Nobody's like walking up to that unless it's like a, a local London event and they can just pop outta their office and come in.

Rachel Andrews: Um, but I, I just, I don't know what, I don't know what the twenties 26 will have in store. I, I, I kind of feel like in my gut it's gonna continue to, to, to grow and then there's gonna be like a flat line at some point.

Jay Schwedelson: That's super interesting that there's like a hockey stick the last few weeks like you just talked about. 'cause I. I, uh, I wouldn't expect it. I would just think that people are trying to grab whatever the deal is, the best deal. But I love hearing it. I love hearing all last big most important question.

Jay Schwedelson: You, you fly a lot 'cause you travel a lot. What is the TV and movies that you are downloading that are like Rachel Andrews is, is is like, this is what you need to be watching. Um, 'cause this is the best stuff.

Rachel Andrews: I just watch. So I, I use, um, I use the apps. I use, uh, Netflix and Amazon Prime apps to watch. 'cause I, I feel like I get on these move, the, the, the screens on the TVs are just, I don't know, I can't deal with them. And the, the sound never works. I don't even know. Um, so I, I download all my apps, but I just watch Black Rabbit on Netflix.

Rachel Andrews: I

Jay Schwedelson: I'm in the middle of it. If you screw me up on that, I'm not talking to you.

Rachel Andrews: Yeah. And then I usually download, you know, like, like every basic woman, I love some true crime, so I'll download some true crime stuff. But, um, that, and then what did I watch on Amazon? I'm like a sucker for the summer. I turn pretty, I know it's for like, you know, I think millennials were, were, uh, were targeted and attacked by that.

Rachel Andrews: Like, it, those guys are like, like what we grew up with, with the teenage heart throbs. Um, but totally, totally into that.

Jay Schwedelson: that's a good choice. I, I, you know, Jason Bateman, who's in Black Rabbit, we, we wanted to get him for our email event, our guru conference, but he was busy filming Black Rabbit. He said he was gonna be promoing or whatever. So that's how we wound up

Rachel Andrews: it's kind of like, um,

Jay Schwedelson: we got Nicole Kidden instead, but whatever.

Rachel Andrews: what's the other show he did? It's kind of like, um, Ozark vibes.

Jay Schwedelson: it's like always dark fives. It is,

Rachel Andrews: yeah, I really, I, I just, I, I'm obsessed. Anything Jason Bateman Bateman does, I'm in like, he's just so talented.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, he cracks me up. He's a funny dude for sure, but you are a funny ette and I appreciate you being here. The clip that we're gonna put all of her social is when Rachel says she loves getting dms on LinkedIn and then we're gonna put like a billion dollars boosting behind it so that way she'll get 10 gazillion dms.

Jay Schwedelson: But most importantly, we're putting her LinkedIn in the show notes. Everybody should reach out to her. She's actually an incredible follow, incredible person to connect with. Rachel, what else should we do to get involved with your world?

Rachel Andrews: Um, gotta go. Shameless plug for Stephen Connect. Uh, we're going to Nashville next year. It's gonna be awesome. We're gonna get Jay there. He's gonna do something crazy. He, he'll have his great hair on display for everyone to see. Uh, I, I think you know that, that's what I would recommend to people. Check that out.

Rachel Andrews: It's not just at. It's an event tech conference, but it's not just all Cvent, it's an industry event as well. Um, big family reunion every time. Love it. Um, but yeah, just, um, I, thanks for having me on. I, I, I don't have anything else to plug other than like, CNT Connect is the jam and, uh, I am excited to participate in the, uh, the conference you have coming up.

Jay Schwedelson: Yes, we're getting you to do air guitar. I cannot wait to go to Nashville. Do C Event Connect everyone. Connect with Rachel Andrews. She's incredible. Thanks for being here. You crushed it.

Rachel Andrews: Woo. Thanks for having me.