The Experiential Edit, Vol. 6: Meg Kilroy, Producer, Experiential and Live Events at MC²
Behind every great experience is a producer keeping countless moving pieces on track. For Meg Kilroy, Producer at MC², bringing marketing to life means balancing creative ambition with budgets, timelines, logistics, and plenty of problem-solving along the way.
In this edition of The Experiential Edit, Meg shares their perspective on what it really takes to produce live experiences, from protecting the creative vision and navigating the unexpected to building strong teams and knowing when to step away and recharge. Through it all, they bring an appreciation for the people behind the work and the satisfaction of seeing months of planning come together in one memorable experience.
What is your role, and how would you describe it to someone outside the industry?
Since starting my role at MC², one of my most enjoyable challenges has been figuring out how to describe my job without using a million buzzwords that people outside our industry may not understand. What is an activation? What does “experiential” mean? What kind of producer am I? After a little over a year at MC², I think I’ve finally figured it out.
When someone asks what an Experiential Producer does, I tell them that we bring marketing to life. Brands and companies hire us to showcase their products in the most creative and memorable ways possible beyond the digital world. We rarely do the same thing twice. Whether we’re producing an event, tour, conference, or activation, we develop creative solutions that transform a brand’s message into an experience people won’t forget.
What’s one detail guests may never notice, but producers obsess over?
Everyone sees the finished product, and if the client or anyone experiencing our work never has to think about what happened behind the scenes, then we’ve done our job well. I like to describe producers as ducks: on the surface, we appear to be gliding along effortlessly, while underneath the water, we’re paddling like mad. One detail I’m always obsessing over is timing, whether that means getting a proof approved in time for a vendor or making sure our truck is packed and out of the venue by the required deadline. It's a delicate ballet of keeping every moving piece on schedule, but that’s also what keeps the work interesting!
What’s the most underrated skill a great producer needs?
I think one of the most important skills a producer can develop is knowing how to turn off the work part of their brain when needed. It’s so easy to lie awake at night thinking about everything on your to-do list or to be with friends on the weekend while mentally running through work but that’s how burnout happens. You can’t show up on Monday refreshed and ready to go if you never truly step away.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever packed, sourced, shipped, fixed, or found for an event?
Nothing too crazy has happened to me in the events world yet! But before pivoting to events, I worked in television and film production. My first job as a production coordinator was on a Comedy Central series called The Gorburger Show, which followed an eccentric alien puppet who takes over a talk show. Let’s just say the job involved ordering some very large, custom NSFW inflatables. It was quite the introduction to being a Production Coordinator!
What’s one rule you swear by onsite?
Gratitude. Everyone works incredibly hard, and it’s easy to get caught up in the stress of the moment and the pressure to get everything done. But it’s so important to pause and thank the people around you from the labor team and brand ambassadors to vendors and fellow producers. It takes a team to make the magic happen, and every person who contributes deserves to be acknowledged and feel appreciated.
What’s an event trend you love, hate, or secretly want to bring back?
While I think most people have moved on from flash mobs, I secretly still love them! As a musical theater fan, the idea of people going about their day and suddenly breaking into a synchronized dance is so much fun to me. Entertainment has become increasingly digital, so I love seeing live performances celebrated. It adds such a wonderful sense of energy and whimsy to an event.
How do producers help protect the creative vision while making it actually happen?
Producing is always a delicate balance between the client’s vision, the available budget, and the time we have to bring it all together. We always want to give clients everything they dream of while working realistically within those limitations. A strong producer draws not only from their own experience, but also from the knowledge and expertise of the entire team including creative, the shop, and fellow producers. Together, we can determine where costs can be adjusted, develop creative solutions, and modify a build to transform a client’s dream into a feasible reality. No one can do this alone. It’s about collaborating, combining our strengths, and putting our minds together to make the magic happen.
What does being a producer mean to you beyond timelines, budgets, and logistics?
It's about being proud of your work. It’s standing back at the end of a long event day after months of preparation and saying, “Wow, we did that.” It means knowing that I learned something new, pushed myself, solved challenges, and made a few miracles happen along the way. Most importantly, it’s about bringing joy to the client and creating an experience that leaves everyone in attendance smiling. That’s what experiential work means to me: making sure everyone walks away having had a truly great experience.
For Meg, producing is about much more than keeping a project on schedule. It’s about finding solutions, supporting the people around you, and taking pride in what the team creates together. While much of a producer’s work happens behind the scenes, the payoff is right there in the finished experience: seeing an idea become real and knowing all those moving pieces came together to create something people genuinely enjoyed.
