My name is Matt Vilanova, and I have spent more than 15 years of my life in the events industry. Over that time I’ve worked on events of all types, shapes, and sizes with local companies, globally recognized musicians and bands, some of the biggest enterprise brand names in the world, and even the Secret Service. Music was around me every day of my life from the time I was a kid which lead me to events as a young adult, and I never wanted to lose the excitement of being at a live show. Seeing the faces and reactions of the attendees as they looked around was always what made all of the hard work worth it.

About ten years ago however, I made what was then the scariest decision of my life – I found a role with an Event Technology SaaS company, and left live event production. I was worried that I might never get the chance to feel that rush of excitement again and nervous that I wouldn’t be able to make the switch from being blue-collar. In my first years however, I developed a friendship with a colleague who was kind and gracious enough with her knowledge to teach me how to read CSS and use APIs. She inspired and encouraged me to keep learning, and I will be forever grateful that our paths crossed. I was able to do more to help her and work with customers on more and more every day, until I realized that helping people put something amazing together was what brought me that rush and I was fortunate enough to realize it while still working in the industry I loved.

In the last 5 years, I’ve continued building on my understanding of Frontend development and APIs and took every opportunity along the way to learn new platforms and tools, to make use of it. Not too long ago, my then direct report said two things that I smiled off at the time but would prove to completely change the way I looked at this work, and how I wanted to approach the next scary decision I made.

In my first major project, I helped to build out a custom Eloqua integration for a customer in the first-ever delivery of something like this for the company. The first of the two things he said was after delivering the integration, as I expressed how nervous I was that I would fail. In true leadership form, he reassured me and said “Sometimes in life, you have to get out over your skis.” This has since given me the confidence to know when it’s time to take a leap, and trust the skills and knowledge you have.

In a debrief meeting with internal stakeholders on the same project, the CEO asked the group seemingly rhetorically – how this integration was able to be delivered when it hadn’t been possible before. The same direct report answered him without missing a beat, “If you ever want something done, tell Matt he can’t do it.” One of the things I pride myself on, is a never-ending hunger to learn and understand, and that moment only intensified it.

Today, Vilanova Solutions exists because it was time to get out over my skis again and help the industry that has given me a career in more meaningful and direct ways.

I’m looking forward to building something new with new and familiar folks, let’s talk about what’s next for you!