Vilona Trachtenberg is a Live Events Marketing Manager with the Buffalo Sabres. She is responsible for the marketing and promotion of all concerts and live events at KeyBank Center (where the Buffalo Sabres and Bandits play), Blue Cross Arena (where the Rochester Americans and Knighthawks play), and Highmark Stadium (where the Buffalo Bills play).
What is your educational background and how did it influence you to go into the entertainment industry?
Getting into this field was not a linear path. When I started college, entertainment industry was not what I intended on doing career-wise – it wasn’t even a thought I had at the time.
During my senior year of high school, I was interested in economics and political science – and I chose those two topics as majors and my Bachelor of Arts degree. I have also loved reading and writing since I was in elementary school, which led me to graduate with a journalism certificate, as well. After that, I earned my MBA and worked full time in supply chain management for eight years while pursuing entertainment industry endeavors on the side.
The desire to work in the industry popped into my life in 2011 very unexpectedly (I was a junior in college at the time). While working at my part time job at Subway, I met a few UB students who also worked there who opened my eyes to an entire world of new music. The more they showed me, the more I was enamored with it. Once I knew entertainment was my passion, I did everything in my power to pursue it as a career. The lesson here is sometimes what you intend on doing with your life and your passions may completely switch, and you can still be successful and make them happen. My educational background didn’t necessarily influence me into following the entertainment path, but the material I learned, the papers I wrote, the discipline professors instilled – it all still very much helps in my current role.
What do you do as an events marketing manager and what kinds of projects/programs have you worked on?
I’m lucky to work on amazing events with amazing promoters including concerts, comedy shows, wrestling, Disney On Ice, and more. When we find out we’re going to host those shows, I meet with the marketing teams who work for the event promoters, and we put a marketing plan together. I help execute their marketing strategy – whether it’s purchasing advertisements from radio stations, TV, or billboards, or brainstorming grassroots/influencer marketing strategies to reach the people who would be interested in attending our events.
Since it’s also customary to provide gifts to the artists who perform at our venues, I research gift ideas and work with local vendors on them. I’m also privileged to collaborate with talented teams within the Sabres organization. I work with our creative team on social media content, and during the sports seasons, I work with our game presentation teams on ticket giveaways, and how to promote live events during games.
What, if anything, do you wish you would have known prior to entering into this industry?
For me, it was a long journey – but it was and still is a great journey. I’m grateful for every moment of it, because I learned and continue to learn so many lessons and meet great people – but it did take 12 years to earn a full-time job in the industry. It took years of networking and outreach and working every part time job I could find in music and entertainment locally. I took on every internship or part time job I could find with promoters, radio stations, music publications, concert venues, and music-related nonprofits.
My first music internship was with After Dark Presents, and from there, I continued trying everything I could find. I sold merchandise at shows, sold food tickets at outdoor concerts, helped clean venues until 5 AM (ask me about the Guns N’ Roses show at the Outer Harbor about ten years ago), worked on radio campaigns, and created email communications. I took on every task and option that was at my disposal just to be around live entertainment. I have many, many stories I can share of amazing experiences I’ve had along the way. I am also fortunate to have worked for Live Nation in a part-time marketing capacity for a few years at Darien Lake Amphitheater. Through the process, I built up contacts that recommended me for my current role. I’m grateful for my boss and the team at the Buffalo Sabres who took a chance on me for a full-time position. My first day on the job was our Thomas Rhett concert in July of 2023 at KeyBank Center.
With all that said, I wish I knew throughout the process that it would eventually work out for me. With all the efforts, there were times where it was difficult to keep going. While I pursued everything I mentioned above, I didn’t know whether it would turn into anything full time. But, if you have a dream, goal or passion that shines so brightly in you and you can’t give it up, no matter how hard it is, you just have to keep going. I have a sign in my kitchen that says, “Life does not give you any desire without the means to acquire it,” and that continues to motivate me.
What organizations, clubs or internships where you involved in during college? How did those experiences help prepare you for your current role?
When I realized my calling was entertainment industry, when I was a junior in college, UB provided many opportunities to explore those passions. I wrote for The Spectrum that year, as part of the arts desk. That gave me the opportunity to learn from incredible writers and editors (many of the people I shared a newsroom with are now writers for The New York Times, CBS News, and ESPN. I was surrounded by the upper echelon of talent and I’m still grateful for it over a decade later).
While writing for The Spectrum, I had the privilege of interviewing musicians, reviewed art gallery exhibits, and wrote about change-makers in the community. Years later, I helped write and research entertainment news for a few years at The Blast, which The Spectrum and my journalism program prepared me for. (Shout out to Matt Parrino who is the current faculty adviser for The Spectrum and my editor back in 2011-2012 for opening my eyes to a solid foundation of writing and reporting). I also had my own radio show for a semester at WRUB and played and talked about alternative rock music, which is very much still my persona. Those activities prepared me for the line of work I do today and am grateful for the experiences and lifelong friends I met through them.
What are the biggest challenges that you typically face in your career?
Entertainment is an interesting field because plans can shift quickly – including event announce timelines and tour timelines. We may spend time creating a marketing plan, but our job is to bring the promoters’ and artists’ visions to life, so we can’t be set in our ways. If a better opportunity arises that may work better for the show, we have to change the plan and make it happen for them. The promoters trust us to do the best we can for the shows, and the responsibility and honor of that work isn’t lost on us. Adaptability and flexibility are key, and building strong relationships with those who help us in our roles are important. When plans do change, we need to quickly communicate the changes to those who help us with these plans (digital marketing, ticketing, operations, and creative teams). It’s a great learning experience in communication and making sure everyone is aligned to ensure the result is seamless.
What other advice do you have for anyone that would want to pursue a career in entertainment or marketing?
While it wasn’t easy (for me at least) to break into the industry, it’s very well worth it. The experiences I’ve witnessed, the behind-the-scenes we get to be a part of and the exclusivity of the line of work is always exciting. As an example, this past April, we hosted Luke Combs at Highmark Stadium for two back-to-back concerts and that was the largest scale event I’ve ever been part of, and one of my favorite weekends.
What worked for me, though, to help break in, is that I would spend hours at a time brainstorming my goals, and action steps I could take, and writing them down and following through. I remember coming home from a friend’s wedding in Santa Fe back in 2019, and I had an eight-hour layover. During that time, one of my goals was to pick up writing again, and I wanted to be a freelancer. I spent that layover researching different publications that would suit me, how people became freelancers, people I should reach out to for advice, and wrote it all down. It wasn’t immediate, but I put into practice everything I wrote down and I eventually accomplished that goal.
I’ve made many more lists since then, have researched and messaged people in the business asking them about their roles and their journeys. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone gathering advice from friends of friends who work at record labels and news publications. Consistency is key and I believe if you’re invested in pursuing this line of work, you need to do something each day to accomplish your goals. You have to take every opportunity that comes your way. You have to be open to talking to many people and resist being afraid to reach out to people who have a similar role you’d like to pursue. Some of the people I messaged on LinkedIn, who gave me advice over the years, have become close friends and have helped me along the way to get here.
Volunteering for nonprofits is also extremely helpful. Since nonprofits are very event and fundraiser-focused, you learn skills that parallel working in the live events industry. I use these skills every day.
If a UB student wanted to talk with you, what is the best way to reach you?
I am on Connect-a-Bull, UB’s new alumni-student networking platform and on LinkedIn.
NOTE: if you are a UB student or alumnus who would like to connect with others to give or get career insights you can join Connect-a-Bull. Interested in sharing your career story with UB students by answering questions like Vilona? Email Ed Brodka, UB Career Design Consultant, at brodka@buffalo.edu.