What is Exceptional Vibe?

You know that feeling when you’re at a great event and you think to yourself, “this is an exceptional vibe”?

That moment… that instant when you find yourself living fully in the moment… that is what I strive for with each experience I create, and that is what I aim to share with you.

My name is Johann Warnholtz, and I am the founder of Exceptional Vibe. After fifteen years of working in marketing and event production, I decided it was time to start my own business and create my own events so that I can focus on my passion: creating extraordinary experiences that celebrate local communities and businesses.

While the huge, multi-thousand-attendee festivals are fun and have their place, there are a few things that get lost in events of that scale. For one, it’s harder for attendees to connect with vendors (and vice versa) when there are five thousand people to attend to and one hundred fifty vendors to visit. Another issue is that small, local businesses often struggle to staff booths at larger events or produce the amount of product and samples needed to service the crowds.

So, while larger festivals are great, there’s also a need for smaller, “boutique” festivals that allow a variety of businesses to participate and create the desired connection between the brands and the attendees.

That’s where I come in. My favorite festival or event to plan is one with thirty to fifty vendors and six hundred to a thousand attendees. Attendees feel like it’s big enough to be fun, and vendors can make meaningful connections with those attendees.

Isn’t that why the vendors are there in the first place? Event marketing is about getting in front of your potential clientele and making an impression that turns them into a customer. If the event is so big that your business gets lost in the fray, then why participate?

An example of this contrast? There is an excellent food festival here in Phoenix that happens each spring and is attended by at least three thousand people. It’s huge and features tons of local restaurants and chefs. In 2022, I was working for a local magazine and we launched our own food festival. The bigger one hadn’t come back since the pandemic, so there was room for us to fill that space. I focused on recruiting smaller, mom-and-pop restaurants that didn’t have the production capacity to participate in the larger festival and capped the attendance at eight hundred people. It was a huge hit and for the three years I was working for that magazine, our food festival was a success. The attendees loved it because they actually had the opportunity to talk to the chefs and restaurant owners, and the restaurants loved it because they were able to connect with attendees. Now both festivals coexist and do well because they occupy different market spaces. It’s a perfect example of how both event classes are necessary.

So, that’s Exceptional Vibe. It’s my effort to create extraordinary experiences that are meaningful for the attendee and the vendor. It’s my effort to create sensational moments that leave an impression and support communities.

I hope you’ll follow along and be a part of this project. The best way to get involved is to stay up-to-date and attend any of my events that pique your interest. You can stay informed by subscribing to my events newsletter, where I highlight my events as well as other great local events. You can also follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, where I try to keep the content informative, entertaining, and positive.

Either way, I hope I get to create an experience that makes you sit back and think, “this vibe is exceptional!”

See you out there!