Event Agency Success: How Trish Knox Stays Ahead
Melanie Zeidlhack
Mar 10, 2025
In the fast-paced world of corporate event planning, success often comes down to being one step ahead. Trish Knox, founder of TK Events, has built an award-winning event management agency with offices in Canada and the UK and understands this fact. With a team of 20 subject matter experts across creative design, event technology, registration, and production, TK Events specializes in producing everything from large-scale corporate conferences to high-touch executive events and global incentive programs.
Trish’s journey into events began when she “got the event bug” while working at an advertising agency. After a stint at Apple Canada, she faced the familiar crossroads of balancing family and career, initially turning to freelance work. When demand grew, she decided to expand rather than turn down business—a choice that led to the thriving agency she leads today.
Strategic Hotel Selection Process for Corporate Events
For Trish and her team, destination selection and attendee experience are paramount when sourcing hotels and conference venues. “Many of our corporate events fall into tier 1 cities simply because of size,” she explains, “so we’ll look at venues from a destination standpoint and then tailor options based on the ‘experience’ the destination offers.”
What constitutes a winning venue experience for business events?
TK Events prioritizes budget considerations, service levels, unique food and beverage offerings, and hotels that have invested in on-site furniture, décor, and recent renovations. However, event logistics remain equally important—meeting space requirements, room block management, and direct flight access for global attendees.
The venue sourcing process begins with comprehensive research and a detailed RFP management strategy. “We review proposals and our ‘must have’ clauses/concessions and present a shortlist to the client,” Trish shares. She emphasizes the importance of hotel site visits, which she approaches “like planning a mini-event with detailed agendas, critical reviews, and walkthroughs.”
Navigating Corporate Event Budget Management
Like many professional event planners, Trish identifies short lead times as a persistent challenge in event budget management. “It interferes with the ability to negotiate hotel discounts and incentives—you are less likely to receive the best options when you’re desperate to find available conference space,” she notes.
Another common financial hurdle in corporate event planning: “Low/unrealistic budgets against expectations.” TK Events addresses these challenges through strategic client education, demonstrating the cost savings potential of early commitments, and providing comprehensive event cost estimates for all major elements—from venue selection and F&B to audiovisual technology, event signage, and entertainment booking.
Building a Strategic Event Technology Stack
TK Events leverages a diverse event technology toolkit for streamlined event management, including project management platforms like Jira and Monday.com alongside team communication tools like Slack. Perhaps most unique in their event planning software arsenal is their proprietary virtual event platform that “elevates the virtual experience.” Trish is particularly excited about their soon-to-launch “Virtual Creator Studio,” which will allow clients to “design, build, and host their own virtual corporate events while integrating with other leading virtual solutions.”
Creating Memorable Corporate Event Experiences
“As a live and virtual event agency, we are always looking for ways to elevate the attendee experience at business conferences,” Trish shares. Her philosophy on corporate event technology is refreshingly straightforward: “Simple, efficient technology equals attendee satisfaction and improved business event ROI.”
TK Events focuses on creating seamless conference experiences through integrated event technology solutions. They ensure that event registration systems, conference mobile apps, and attendee scanning technology work harmoniously. They’ve also succeeded with inventive attendee engagement strategies like gamification via mobile apps and augmented reality (AR) technology in corporate event activations.
Trish and her team make elevating the event experience a priority for all audiences. For a recent hybrid global business conference, both in-person and virtual attendees could participate equally in main-stage polls and interactive Q&A sessions.
Overcoming Hotel Contract Challenges for Business Events
Recent industry volatility has created new challenges for corporate event planning, particularly with attendance forecasting and hotel contract negotiations. “We have had to increase hotel room blocks and source alternate venues to deal with unexpected registration surges,” Trish explains. “Hotel attrition penalties have become tough to navigate when client attendance goals aren’t met.”
She shares a recent example where strong hotel contract negotiation skills proved crucial in corporate event management: “A recent client event’s registration success meant that we had to go back to the host hotel multiple times requesting additional rooms. This is hard to do at a locked-in volume rate when hotels can make so much more selling rooms at a nightly rate to the general public.”
Career Advice for Corporate Event Planners
Trish’s response is powerful when asked what career advice she’d give to those starting in professional event management and corporate meeting planning:
“Do more. And by that, I don’t mean put in more hours. I mean do more than is expected and be the person your team, your client can’t do without.”
Her secret to successful event planning careers?
“Be that person who is indispensable. If I look back in my early career, I just made myself that person who had the answers, doing the thinking, I was one step ahead always.”
This event management philosophy has become the DNA of TK Events: “Don’t just be the doer but be the thinker and strategist—the one who has the expertise in corporate event logistics and everybody relies on.”
In an event planning industry defined by details and deadlines, Trish Knox has built her reputation on anticipating needs and going beyond expectations—an approach that continues to serve her award-winning event management agency and its corporate clients around the world.
