“We were driven by indescribable joy and adrenaline, we wrote our tender materials almost to the point of exhaustion at night” –
Interview with Józsi Kondor, Head of Communications.
What is your passion? What is the job you like doing the most?
My passion is sports. Which is not a job, but I grew up in a competitive sports environment as a pentathlete, and for a long time, I thought it would be my career. Today, it remains a part of my life alongside work. I feel like it’s in my veins, and I can’t and don’t want to let it go, it’s the main driving force of my being. That’s why I enjoy working on sports-related events and team-building activities, where the focus is on activities and community building.
…and what does life bring? For the past 12 years, we have been continuously working on both external and internal events for the country’s largest sports store. Every task is close to my heart.
Additionally, I have a hobby that is also part of my work. I love hosting shows and speaking to people in a way that is appropriate for the event. It’s been 18 years this year that I’ve been asked to be the voice of several major companies and national sporting events. It motivates, relaxes, and recharges me, even though it involves challenges and requires serious preparation.
Finally, when I think about the passionate side of all ConceptFlow events, I am the field person who coordinates on-site from dawn until the next morning, handling situations with extensive experience. I’m a perpetuum mobile type, tireless, and I even enjoy it. 🙂
Did you always want to be an event manager?
As a preschooler, I wanted to be a truck driver. Now, I laugh when I think about sitting on the highway, driving thousands of kilometers, locked in a box. Me! No way.
Honestly, if I rewind time, I was twenty-one when I started working as an event manager. My obsession and love for sports led me to get a job at the Hungarian Marathon Club. At that time, I was just drawn to the world of events. Then I got more and more involved. I think being twenty-one is a time when you have a strong attraction at the start of your career, and it leaves a deep mark on you. Even though I had career changes, I always ended up back in event management.
Over time, I understood more clearly what this profession entails and how much creativity is needed to respond well to diverse needs and create a unique atmosphere by organizing events. This shifted to a more conscious approach, and I increasingly felt that I had to follow my own path, using my insights, ideas, and visions to transform events. This feeling grew stronger after meeting Évi.
What was the first project you really loved?
We’ve been through a lot of love projects over 13 years, but it might be weird to say, but the first job, the first ConceptFlow order left the deepest mark on me. We worked tirelessly for it. It didn’t fall into our laps, and we didn’t bring clients from my previous years; we wanted to start with a clean slate. We wanted the success of ConceptFlow, starting from the first order, to be genuinely the result of our joint efforts.
It took nearly a year of tremendous background work, preparation, building, and redesigning. We thought success would come sooner, but it wasn’t easy. We cried together, laughed together and believed together. We believed that it had to work. Then in 2012, when a bank announced that our concept had won the tender, we burst into indescribable celebration. That moment unlocked something, and orders started coming in, one after another. We were driven by indescribable joy and adrenaline, we wrote our tender materials almost to the point of exhaustion at night to successfully manage events for multinational companies.
That was the most defining first project, the beginning of our journey.
What do you love most about the world of events?
My personality thrives on the constant variety and pulsation of this industry.
No two events are the same; we never do the same thing twice, and creativity has to be limitless. We spend a lot of time on the road, performing in diverse locations. During the event season, we sleep little, but we’re awake a lot.
Another unique aspect is that it’s a profession of instant feedback. Whether the participants like the event or not, it’s written all over their faces, and you can take professional steps to change or maintain their experience accordingly.
What was the most difficult event you had to organize?
I’d like to say there wasn’t one, but that’s not true. There are always challenges because each situation requires us to present something different during an event, even if it repeats year after year. There needs to be a creative idea, a concept that must be impactful and reflect the client’s needs and expectations for the event.
In our case, it starts with a big tsunami of ideas, sketched concepts and plans. It can’t be clichéd; it requires a fresh mind and a sensitive touch to resonate with and hit the mark in the mind of a multinational company.
After that comes the construction phase, where every detail must be thought through and executed. These are challenges, but also adrenaline-boosting thrill, as you lead a special event to success. I trust in myself, in our knowledge, experience, colleagues, and team. I think we have a staff that handles these situations perfectly. This allows us to conserve energy for other tasks, such as communication and company management.
What is it like to run a company?
It’s difficult. Honestly, in the early days, we didn’t fully grasp how much it entailed, and we slowly picked it up. It’s a multifaceted task that you either have the character for, you either take it on or you fail. There are aspects I naturally possess, but in some areas, I’m entirely different from seasoned CEOs.
It’s a lot of responsibility, you constantly need to innovate, and you can never stop. You must always be in motion, seeking new events and opportunities to gain new clients, ensuring a balanced environment for colleagues, providing a secure future, and focusing on growth for all of us. We weren’t thinking in terms of a few years or sudden success; we wanted to create a stable company for the long term.
What challenges do you face day by day?
One thought that comes to mind is the challenge of staying afloat in an unstable economic environment (COVID, energy crisis), which has greatly affected this industry. As leaders, we bear the burden of solving and mitigating these issues. We survived, but we also experienced and struggled through it.
My second thought is on a daily basis, as we live in a duality: one is meeting customer needs which I mentioned earlier, and the other is equally important, being present in our family life, blessed with three beautiful children.
There is no template for this, no book that can be taken off the shelf, we have to figure out for ourselves how to run a company, run a family, how to function as a business partner, as a parent, as a spouse, while living a turbulent life. This is a significant challenge.
What advice can you give to those running a business with young children?
It’s not that easy. I don’t know if there is any good advice. I think it requires finding balance, maintaining energy, and having the ability to switch gears when you’re with your children. You can’t bring work into that space as much, especially with very young children. You need to give them the attention they need. And that means that I, as a father, have to do the jobs that women used to have to do because of the bad social norms. If Évi has an important meeting, then I’m the one with the kids.
We carefully thought through running a company while raising our children, and we laid down the foundation: whoever is taking care of them must give nearly 100% of themselves in terms of attention and care. I believe we still do that to this day, and we see that it works with our kids.
If someone wants to run a company well and be a good parent, they must pour the right amount of effort into both roles. You have to have very good logistical and organizational skills because you have to bounce between the two without compromising your clients/work and raising children.
However, let me add that it is an immense pride and joy to have such a wonderful family!:)
