In the events world planning is everything, but not everything goes according to plan. When Cass received a phone call from their college advisor with the news that they wouldn’t be able to claim their scholarships to attend college, they quit their job managing a small town pizzeria and packed a Uhaul for Las Vegas.

It’s there that they became an event professional activating experiential marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 brands. From managing Samsung customer appreciation programs at Vegas’s most high-profile music venues to executing brand launches for start-ups, Cass learned the ins and outs of event production, the nuance of great customer service, and the impact of events on consumers.

But something was very very wrong. they often had to wait more than 90 days to be paid by staffing agencies, account manager turnover was so frequent relationship-building opportunities and basic lines of communication were severed, on-site team culture was toxic without proper agency leadership in place, and feedback loops were closed so there was never any opportunity to share what they learned to improve future programs. It was clear there was a growing roar of pessimism from event professionals across the nation about the state of the event staffing industry. Cass saw these problems as an opportunity to do something better, so when the time came to pick up their first client, they opened Engage.

At Engage, Cass wanted to introduce a new way of doing business. One where clients, partners, and staff worked together with a shared purpose and responsibility to each other.