We Put Guacamole at the Center of a Networking Event

How a stranger who ate the free guacamole and left inspired a deliberately overproduced, completely non-lame networking mixer.

The Guacamole Mixer Co. started because a stranger ate an entire bowl of free guacamole and left.

My friend Justin Hayward and I were buddies living and working around Venice Beach. We were both businesspeople and marketing people, but we also liked to have a good time.

One of our regular places was Sunny Spot, a colorful Caribbean-inspired restaurant and bar from chef Roy Choi near the corner of Abbot Kinney and Washington Boulevard.

One night, Justin and I were sitting at the bar when a full networking event seemed to materialize around us.

People arrived wearing name tags. Business cards came out. Small groups formed. The room filled with professionals who had apparently gathered for the specific purpose of meeting other professionals.

Nobody spoke to us.

Nobody introduced themselves. Nobody invited us into a conversation. The networking event simply happened around us while Justin and I continued sitting at the bar talking to each other.

Then a man walked in.

He sat down at the bar, found one of the small bowls of complimentary guacamole, ate the entire thing and left.

He did not network.

He guac-and-rolled.

Justin and I thought that was hilarious.

Then we began asking a more useful question:

Why do so many networking events suck, and what would happen if we created one that people actually wanted to attend?

A joke became a company

The phrase “guac-and-roll” sent us into an extended run of avocado jokes.

That conversation became a name. The name became a logo. Then came social accounts, event concepts, merchandise and an entire visual identity for a company that had not existed a few minutes earlier.

Justin and I created The Guacamole Mixer Co. out of thin air.

It was partly a real company and partly an elaborate bit. We were experienced enough in branding, marketing and social media to make it look completely legitimate, even while the underlying idea remained wonderfully ridiculous.

We developed a logo built around an avocado and a conversation bubble. We created branded shirts and hats. We designed signs, social graphics and event pages. We developed an entire voice based on avocado jokes, music references and our promise to produce networking events that were not lame.

All we needed was somewhere to hold one.

Turning a hotel lobby into Guac This Way

At the time, the Aloft El Segundo–Los Angeles Airport was an Evan White PR client.

Aloft properties were designed around social spaces, live music, colorful common areas and the W XYZ bar. The El Segundo team was a great creative partner, and the lobby gave us exactly the kind of environment we needed.

On August 13, 2018, our imaginary avocado company became real.

We called the event Guac This Way.

Our sign welcomed guests to:

L.A.’s original NON-LAME networking mixer.

More than 60 people officially RSVP’d, and somewhere around 70 or 80 people ultimately filled the lobby. For an idea that had begun with two friends watching a stranger steal dinner from a networking event, it suddenly looked remarkably legitimate.

But attracting people to the room was only half the job.

The point was to make the room worth remembering.

Guac This Way filled the Aloft El Segundo lobby with approximately 70 to 80 guests, live music, branded details and a considerable amount of avocado.

A theme should make decisions for you

A lot of events have themes that exist only on the invitation.

The event is called something clever. Somebody creates a logo. A banner goes near the entrance. Then everyone walks into the same cocktail reception they have attended 50 times before.

We wanted the Guac This Way theme to influence everything.

There was all-you-can-eat guacamole served inside avocado shells. There were drink specials at the W XYZ bar, green balloons and live music. We put avocado-shaped pool floats in the hotel pool.

Guests could take home branded Guacamole Mixer Co. shirts and hats. Custom chalkboards carried the visual identity through the lobby. Even the registration process became part of the joke.

One sign instructed guests to:

1. Drop a business card into the fishbowl.

2. Put on their own wristband because they were adults.

3. Grab some guacamole and hit the bar.

Why the fishbowl?

Because one lucky guest would win the fishbowl itself, filled with avocados.

It was a business-card drawing for a bowl of produce.

And people remembered it.

The food was not merely catering added to a networking event. Guacamole was the organizing idea behind the entire experience.

Then an avocado took the microphone

I had one additional idea that I did not tell anyone about.

Not the hotel.

Not the musicians.

Not even Justin.

I knew a Los Angeles singing-telegram performer whom I had hired for a few previous gags. I found an adult avocado costume on Amazon, bought it and had it shipped directly to his house.

During the event, while live music was playing in the Aloft lobby, an enormous avocado walked through the door.

He walked directly toward the performers.

Then he took the microphone and began singing “Guac This Way,” an avocado-themed reworking of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

The lyrics had been rewritten around avocados and guacamole. The room stopped to watch. People laughed, took photographs and tried to understand why an avocado had commandeered the entertainment.

Then he posed for pictures with the guests and left.

It was hilarious. It was unexpected. And it gave the event the one thing that most networking mixers never produce: a moment everyone in the room could talk about together.

You can see the singing avocado and the rest of the party in the original Guac This Way event video on LinkedIn.

The guacamole made networking easier

It is tempting to look at all these elements as decorations.

The costumes were not the strategy. Neither were the pool floats, avocado shells or fishbowl giveaway.

Participation was the strategy.

Traditional networking events put all the responsibility on the attendee. You enter a room filled with strangers and are expected to walk up to someone cold, introduce yourself and manufacture an interesting conversation.

That is uncomfortable for a lot of people. It is also why many networking events become clusters of people talking exclusively to colleagues they already know.

Guac This Way gave everyone easy openings.

You could talk about the avocado who had just interrupted the band. You could take a photograph in the pool float. You could discuss whether a fishbowl of avocados was an excellent prize or an absurd one. You could ask someone where they found the guacamole served inside an avocado shell.

The creative details gave strangers permission to interact.

That was the real product.

We planned the receipts, too

We did not spend all that time creating the experience only to let it disappear when the room cleared.

We brought professional photo and video teams to document the event. We captured the signs, food, crowd, entertainment, merchandise and social interaction. Guests were encouraged to tag The Guacamole Mixer Co. and Aloft El Segundo in their posts.

The result was a collection of visual evidence that showed what had happened, who participated and what the experience felt like.

Afterward, Aloft El Segundo’s sales director emailed me about the recap:

“Evan, the Guac This Way video is amazing!”

She asked whether she could share it on LinkedIn.

That message mattered because it demonstrated that the event had accomplished something beyond selling tickets. It gave our client a room full of people, a successful social activation and original content that made the hotel look like a place where interesting things happened.

That is what I now call the receipts.

If you produce an incredible event but fail to photograph, record and distribute it, the experience exists only in the memories of the people who attended.

Those memories matter. But the right content allows the experience to continue working after the guests leave.

The event worked better than the business model

The honest version of this story is that The Guacamole Mixer Co. was not an especially good standalone business.

Justin and I imagined ticket sales and partnerships making the model work. In practice, it was a lot of production for a networking event, and the ticket economics were not particularly compelling.

But Guac This Way itself was a success.

We filled the Aloft lobby. The guests had fun. People talked to one another. The hotel received attention and original social content. A ridiculous idea became a complete brand experience that people could see, taste, wear, photograph and remember.

Not every successful creative project needs to become a permanent company.

Some ideas are valuable because they teach you what works.

Guac This Way reinforced several event-marketing lessons that I have carried into the conferences, parties, podcast studios and brand activations I produce today.

What Guac This Way taught me about event marketing

1. Start with a story people can repeat

“We held a networking mixer” is not much of a story.

“We created a guacamole company after watching a stranger eat the free guac and leave” is something people can repeat.

A strong event concept should be explainable in a sentence and interesting enough that attendees want to tell someone else.

2. A theme is an operating system, not a decoration

The best themes help make decisions.

What should the prize be? A fishbowl of avocados.

What should the surprise entertainment be? A singing avocado.

What should the signature song be? “Guac This Way.”

What should be floating in the pool? Giant avocados.

When the central idea is strong, hundreds of small creative choices begin reinforcing one another.

3. Give people something to do together

Networking becomes easier when people have a shared activity, joke, challenge or surprise.

You cannot force strangers to build relationships, but you can create an environment that makes beginning a conversation feel natural.

4. Build at least one moment nobody expects

The singing avocado was not advertised.

That was why it worked.

There is real value in giving attendees something they could not have anticipated from the invitation. Surprise creates attention. Attention creates photographs, conversations and memories.

5. Capture the experience while it is happening

Photography and video should be part of event planning from the beginning, not an afterthought added when someone remembers to pull out a phone.

Plan the shots you need. Capture the venue branding, room energy, partners, performers, guests and small creative details. Produce something the host, sponsors and attendees will want to share.

6. Judge the event by more than ticket sales

The ticket business was not the winner here.

The relationships, client satisfaction, social content, venue visibility and proof of creative execution were far more valuable.

That distinction continues to matter in my work today. An event can produce introductions, interviews, customer conversations, photographs, videos, podcast episodes and future opportunities that extend well beyond the revenue collected at the door.

Make the room give people a story

Years later, I still think about the man who walked into Sunny Spot, ate the free guacamole and left.

He had no idea that Justin and I were watching him. He certainly did not know that his efficient snack theft would inspire a logo, a company, a hotel activation and a singing avocado performing an Aerosmith parody.

But that is how creative ideas often begin.

You notice something strange.

You make a joke.

Then you keep following the joke until it becomes an experience other people can enter.

That instinct continues to shape how I approach event and conference marketing today. The venue, content, entertainment, guests, photography and follow-up should not exist as disconnected line items. They should work together to create the story people will remember and repeat.

The room will eventually clear.

The food will disappear.

Someone will take home a fishbowl of avocados.

But if the event gives people a genuinely good story, the marketing keeps working long after the guacamole is gone.

Planning a conference activation, customer event or networking experience that people will actually remember? Book a call with Evan White PR.