You Don't Need Budget, You Need One Good Idea | Leon Winkler, Ubisoft
Can a great idea beat a big event budget? Leon Winkler has spent 20 years proving it at Ubisoft — a shoestring Just Dance fashion show that earned global press, and a $300 supermarket run that won more goodwill than all the big spend around it. His path there was anything but straight — from product marketing and PR to producing Ubisoft's presence at E3 and Gamescom. Leon went from creating a number-one TV show, and losing almost everything when it fell apart, to building some of the biggest stages in gaming. In this episode of The Eventex Podcast, he reveals how an introverted kid obsessed with hip-hop, gaming and television became the person trusted to bring Ubisoft's biggest ideas to life. From combining T-Pain, Lil Yachty, esports and Rainbow Six on one stage to turning an underused Gamescom booth into a party that competitors eventually started copying, Leon shares the unconventional ideas, relationships, mistakes and instincts behind his approach to live experiences. He also goes back to where it all started: creating his own urban music TV show with almost no experience, watching it become the number-one show on its channel, and then losing the contract, money, relationships and much of the life he had built around it. He explains how starting again eventually led him to Ubisoft — including the rejection email he refused to accept — and why some of the hardest moments in his career shaped the producer he became. In this episode, you'll learn: • How a shoestring-budget Just Dance fashion show helped put him on Ubisoft's international radar • Why he transformed hours of Gamescom queueing into part of the experience instead of treating it as dead time • Why a $300 supermarket run on ice creams beat far bigger event spend — and what that taught him about audiences • Why the future may belong to smaller, more bespoke experiences rather than bigger productions for the sake of scale • Why he believes in-person experiences matter more than ever — even as brands chase digital reach • How Leon combined Celebrity Deathmatch, hip-hop and esports into a Ubisoft experience featuring T-Pain and Lil Yachty • How creating a number-one TV show ultimately cost him almost everything, and what made him start again • How he turned a rejection from Ubisoft into a job offer — and stayed for the next 20 years • What happened when a Ubisoft party on the 21st floor left executives stuck in an elevator and hundreds of guests outside • Why agencies, clients and producers all share responsibility when an event goes wrong • How he uses AI as a creative sparring partner without letting it replace human ideas • Why the strongest Eventex Awards entries show how people actually felt — not just how beautiful the event looked • What going all-in on a career can cost — and why Leon now reminds himself not to forget to live This is not a straight-line career story. It's a conversation about taking risks before you know what you're doing, trusting your gut when something feels wrong, building a network without realizing you're building one, and learning that sometimes the most memorable event investment is simply handing an ice cream to someone who's been standing in the heat for hours.
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