Preston Bailey, Event Designer Extraordinaire, appears to have a nasty habit when presenting in public. The event guru, a favorite of Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Liza Minelli, Lawrence Fishburne, Matt Lauer, Joan Rivers, and many more, is an icon to wedding and event planners everywhere.
His work is brilliant, and often ground breaking. The fact that he inspires great work, in others, is outstanding.
Here’s the downside. On my trip to Toronto to a couple of months ago, Bailey spoke to a gathering at BizBash. The audience of several hundred people, mostly women, were there for ideas and inspiration. They got that and more than they bargained for.
Bailey dropped the F-bomb, referring to certain vendors as f**kin’ idiots. As well, he referred to some of his brides as b*tches during the course of the presentation. He wasn’t the slightest bit apologetic about it. Didn’t miss a beat.
In talking with some wedding planners, after the event, I was told that this wasn’t the first time his language was ‘out of bounds’ at a public presentation (AIFM being just one of the conferences mentioned). After verifying this from several people, I was pretty disappointed.
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We are in an open-mike, YouTube world. One just can do this. Whether you’re a world class designer or a local small business owner, people judge us in a split second. When one has reached icon status in an industry, it carries ‘role model responsibility.’
Preston Bailey is a design genius, but wedding planners and design professionals that look up to him, are a bit less enamored with him. Very sad.
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