“Take a risk and don’t be afraid to fail”: Andy King of Fyre Festival’s message to the meetings and events community is one we should all take to heart
To say times are challenging right now would be a massive understatement. Restrictions introduced to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 are having a huge impact on our professional and personal lives, so we could all be excused for focusing on survival and refraining from doing anything that would push us out of our comfort zones.
However, those tuning into the keynote with event planner Andy King at The Meetings Show last month were given the opposite advice and told to push the boundaries, try new things and take a risk to help ‘get through this crazy world of Covid’.
King, as you’ll know if you’ve seen Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, is well-versed in surviving a crisis and, as he explained in his engaging talk, has not only managed to overcome the biggest failure of his career, but is now using the experience to inspire others.
For those yet to see the documentary, King was recruited by entrepreneur Bill McFarland (now in prison for fraud) to help organise a luxury music festival in the Bahamas. Hired for his ‘above and beyond attitude’ and wealth of experience, the event planner knew he was in hot water when it became apparent that attendees were being promised way more than he and his team could deliver. He also found himself in a compromising position when asked to ensure a pallet of mineral water made it through customs.
Party-goers who paid a fortune to stay in luxury villas, swig Champagne and party with supermodels on a luxury island, were outraged when they arrived to stay in tents on the beach and found understocked bars and nothing but ‘that cheese sandwich’ to eat.
The ill-fated festival meant King’s 30-year career managing high-profile events, was in jeopardy, but as he told more than 700 event professionals in the keynote, he refused to let one job define him and instead turned the negative experience into a positive one – taking advantage of the publicity to highlight the good he could do.
“You can imagine, after a 30-year career of many, many, many successful events, to be known now for one event – the failed Fyre Festival – is crazy,” he said.
“Was it my dream to be known as the ‘Blow Job King of the World’? No, I probably would have preferred to be known as one of the best event planners, but any PR is good PR these days and it’s actually given me an amazing platform.”
After setting up funds to pay back workers in the Bahamas who had been left out of pocket, King focused on speaking engagements to help pay them back and has consulted on events.
The fact that he has turned the biggest failure of his career into a new, fruitful opportunity, is a message he was keen to push out to others. Recognising the pressure the industry is currently under with face-to-face events limited, King encouraged attendees to ‘think out of the box’ and try something new.
Most importantly, King encouraged us to take the risk during times of adversity. Because, right now, what have we got to lose?
“It’s a time of opportunity and we need to try to do a lot of different things to get through this crazy world of Covid. A lot of it is going to be taking a risk. You might find you fail once in a while, but I think you’ll see a lot more successes than failures.”
