A Strategic Collaboration Concept
PO’ UP! LIVE has spent its first year proving that the concept works. The show has developed its own identity, host chemistry, audience participation, live-event format, and growing community. After successfully moving into paid programming, the next question is not simply how do we throw another show?
It is:
How do we scale PO’ UP! while protecting what makes the brand ours—and making sure growth is financially sustainable?
One potential answer is a strategic collaboration with MVEMNT, beginning with a larger PO’ UP! LIVE experience at Hi-Lawn at Union Market.
MVEMNT already operates across media, culture, events, editorial content, and podcast production. Its current podcast studio provides video-first production with engineering and multi-camera capabilities. MVEMNT Hi-Lawn is an outdoor rooftop venue built around music, social experiences, food, drinks, and lawn activities, making it worth exploring as a possible environment for an expanded version of PO’ UP! LIVE. Hi-Lawn
What Each Brand Brings
PO’ UP! LIVE brings:
- An established interactive live-show concept
- James and Sierra as hosts
- Audience participation and games
- A growing community
- Existing event experience and proof of concept
- Artist, college, entertainment, and DMV relationships
- A format that can potentially travel into different environments
MVEMNT potentially brings:
- Experience producing and promoting larger cultural events
- Media and editorial distribution
- Podcast/video production capabilities
- Venue and industry relationships
- Access to larger audiences
- Knowledge around event operations, promotion, sponsorship, and scaling
The goal would not be for PO’ UP! to operate underneath MVEMNT. The opportunity is to determine whether two independent brands can combine their strengths to create something larger than either could create alone.
The Hi-Lawn Pilot
The first collaboration could be a PO’ UP! LIVE × MVEMNT Hi-Lawn Edition.
PO’ UP! would remain the core entertainment property while expanding into a fuller experience:
Social hour → PO’ UP! LIVE show → music/performance element → after-show experience
Before moving forward, both teams would need to understand:
- Hi-Lawn availability, capacity, and event terms
- Production, sound, staffing, security, and weather requirements
- Food/beverage arrangements
- Ticket structure and pricing
- Marketing responsibilities
- Sponsorship opportunities
- Overall event budget and financial risk
The working assumption is that the partnership may require more sweat equity than direct financial investment from MVEMNT, particularly if existing relationships reduce venue barriers. That should be confirmed during planning rather than assumed.
Most importantly, the teams should establish a budget before tickets go on sale and determine the attendance and revenue needed to break even and become profitable.
The objective should never be simply to put 300 people in the venue. It should be to put 300 people there while creating a financially healthy event.
Pre-Event Promotion & Audience Growth
The collaboration should begin before event night.
One opportunity would be recording a PO’ UP! LIVE story/interview inside the MVEMNT studio discussing how PO’ UP! started, lessons from the first year, the transition into paid shows, and where the platform is going.
That session could create:
Full interview/podcast
→ MVEMNT article
→ PO’ UP! website article
→ 3o7PM website article
→ Short-form social clips
→ Photos and promotional assets
→ Hi-Lawn event announcement
The broader campaign could include collaborative announcements, host videos, previous-show highlights, guest announcements, editorial/newsletter coverage, social collaborations, community reposts, sponsor promotion, targeted advertising where appropriate, and event-week countdown content.
Every major promotional touchpoint should also create an opportunity to capture audience information, not simply generate impressions.
Ticket registration, giveaways, games, RSVP forms, QR codes, and event-night activations could allow guests to opt into communication from PO’ UP!, MVEMNT, or both brands, depending on their preference.
This allows both organizations to leave the event with something more valuable than social impressions: an audience they can continue communicating with.
Event-Night Content
The event itself should also be treated as a media and audience-development opportunity.
Content could include:
- Professional photography and highlight footage
- Crowd reactions and interviews
- Game and audience moments
- Host clips
- Sponsor integrations
- Behind-the-scenes content
- QR-based email/SMS sign-ups
- Giveaways or audience participation tied to voluntary registration
These assets should continue working after the event ends.
Post-Event Promotion & Measurement
Within 24–48 hours: photos, thank-you posts, crowd clips, and early highlights.
During the first week: official recap content, sponsor acknowledgments, event results, and strongest social moments.
During the following weeks: additional clips, articles, interviews, and continued storytelling.
Both teams should then conduct a post-event review using agreed-upon Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as:
Attendance | ticket revenue | profit margin | email/SMS growth | social reach | usable content created | sponsor revenue | marketing performance | customer engagement
Financial performance should be reviewed just as seriously as attendance.
Before the event, the teams should know:
Break-even attendance → target attendance → target revenue → maximum approved expenses → desired profit margin
Marketing spend should also be tracked through ticket links, discount codes, or other attribution where possible so both organizations can understand which audiences and promotional channels actually produced sales.
The objective is to determine whether this can become a repeatable, profitable partnership, rather than simply producing one crowded event.
Protecting Both Brands
Any collaboration should preserve the identity PO’ UP! has already built while ensuring MVEMNT receives meaningful value from its involvement.
Before finalizing an agreement, both organizations should establish:
- Ownership of the PO’ UP! name and concept
- Brand and logo placement
- Approval over major format changes
- Content ownership and usage rights
- Audience/customer data access and consent
- Revenue and expense transparency
- Responsibilities of each organization
- How future events would be approved
The goal is growth through partnership, not absorption into a larger brand.
Additional Opportunities
Beyond Hi-Lawn, there may be opportunities for James and Sierra to support MVEMNT as ambassadors, hosts, content collaborators, or promotional partners for selected projects.
That should be explored separately and structured around mutual value rather than automatically included in the PO’ UP! partnership.
Longer-term possibilities could include additional PO’ UP! editions, college activations, festivals, sponsored experiences, and other collaborative events.
Recommended Next Steps
- PO’ UP! leadership reviews the concept internally.
- Liz determines whether it represents the direction of the PO’ UP! brand.
- PO’ UP! identifies its non-negotiables, desired outcomes, and financial expectations.
- James introduces the concept to Mike for feedback from MVEMNT’s perspective.
- If there is interest, leadership from both organizations meets.
- Confirm Hi-Lawn requirements and economics.
- Define responsibilities, audience-data strategy, and contributions.
- Build the event budget, break-even point, KPIs, and promotion calendar.
- Determine whether the concept makes sense as a pilot.
The central question is not whether MVEMNT can help PO’ UP!.
It is whether PO’ UP! LIVE and MVEMNT can create measurable value for one another—and use Hi-Lawn as the first test of a partnership that can grow audiences, create content, and make financial sense for both organizations.