Inside the New Event Ops War Room
George P. Johnson is Writing the New Scrip: "Wait, has anything really changed?"
That was my honest first reaction when I saw George P. Johnson celebrating its 111th anniversary. GPJ, one of the largest and oldest experience marketing firms in the world, had just posted a sleek reflection on their legacy—from flag-making for Detroit parades in 1914 to producing global hybrid showcases in 2025. But the underlying message felt almost nostalgic. Familiar.
I’ve been in this industry long enough to remember what we used to call "event production." Back then, an event’s impact was measured in applause, media pickups, and maybe a glossy magazine spread. The PR team was your megaphone—working the phones, sending out exclusives, dropping a photo to a trade pub. If a quote made it into Ad Age or BizBash, you’d won the cycle.
But here’s the twist: while the words might sound the same, the battlefield has changed. And that change is what I’m calling the rise of the Event Ops War Room.
This isn’t something GPJ claimed in their post—but it’s what I see in the subtext. Their 111th anniversary isn’t just a marker of longevity. It’s a sign of survival in a radically different landscape where brands must choreograph emotion, amplify in real time, and transform events into cultural broadcasts.
Events are no longer one-offs. They are serialized, data-driven, emotion-engineered media properties. They’re not just designed to fill a room—they’re designed to echo. And the people who make that happen? They don’t sit in a greenroom. They run a war room.
The 2025 Event Ops War Room
Let’s pull back the curtain. Today’s most successful live events are powered by real-time cultural operators—an entirely new cast of characters who have quietly replaced the old-school stagehands and production managers.
Here's what I believe the modern experience stack could look like:
• Emotional Strategist – Owns the arc of audience feelings: when they laugh, cry, gasp, cheer. Designs the emotional blueprint.
• Speed-to-Social Producer – Captures and publishes breakout moments within 30–90 seconds. Turns applause into virality.
• Prompt Engineer – Feeds AI tools to generate session recaps, visuals, speaker intros, and social copy in real time.
• AI Literacy Trainer – Ensures the entire team knows how to co-create with GPTs, Midjourney, and other tools.
• Narrative Stream Architect – Orchestrates the through-line across main stage, backstage, short-form video, and internal comms.
• Vibe Curator – Oversees set design, lighting, ambient music, and the overall emotional temperature of the space.
• Engagement Loop Engineer – Manages how stage content loops into social, CRM campaigns, and internal team culture.
This is no longer an AV crew and a clipboard. It's a creative ops unit, a newsroom, and a psychological experience lab.
Why It Matters
With ~$465 million in annual revenue and over 1,600 employees across 29 global offices, George P. Johnson isn’t just a legacy firm—it’s one of the top three global experiential marketing agencies, ranked alongside major players like Freeman (which now includes Sparks), Jack Morton Worldwide, and GES. But where others may boast scale or holding company muscle, GPJ differentiates through strategic clarity. Their focus on turning live events into emotional, media-scaled moments makes them uniquely positioned to lead this new operational era.
So when GPJ leans into the language of “Live Production,” this isn’t fluff. It’s a directional move by one of the few firms with both the infrastructure and the vision to transform how we plan, share, and emotionally engineer events.
When GPJ talks about "Live Production," they’re really talking about amplification—breaking the fourth wall. They’re designing for the person in the room and the person on the scroll. They're designing for sentiment and shareability.
And while it may feel like nothing’s changed, the truth is: everything has.
We no longer just measure applause—we measure ripples. And if your war room isn’t equipped to convert emotion into movement, you’re not just behind. You’re invisible.
So yes, GPJ’s 111th anniversary is a milestone. But it's also a message:
The brands that win hearts today are the ones that can move a room—and then make that room move the world.
Would you like to be in that room?
Welcome to the new era of convening. The Event Ops War Room is open.
David, what a fantastic spotlight on GPJ’s 111th anniversary. Few firms have not only endured but reinvented themselves across so many waves of change in our industry. From parades in 1914 to hybrid showcases in 2025, their story reminds us that survival in events is really about transformation.
What struck me most is how the words haven’t changed—“production,” “live,” “experience”—but the operating model has. Referencing today’s most resonant events do require the Event Ops War Room: a new orchestration of emotional strategists, social producers, AI prompt engineers, vibe curators, and engagement loop designers.
The old measure of success was applause, a glossy trade pub mention, maybe a TV hit. The new measure is ripples: how moments extend, amplify, and loop back into culture in real time. GPJ’s anniversary isn’t just a celebration of heritage—it’s a signal that the firms who will lead the next century are those that turn convenings into serialized, emotion-engineered media properties.
The truth is: we no longer just design for the person in the room. We design for the person on the scroll. And when an event can move a room and then make that room move the world—that’s when we’ve hit the mark.
Congratulations to GPJ on 111 years. The Event Ops War Room is officially open and I look forward to be continually inspired by their innovations.