Presenting Coffee Talk: a weekly roundtable led by the city's best doers curated by Presence Agency.

Every Wednesday at 1pm we'll be sipping Stumptown Coffee in the lobby while we chat with some of our favorite people in town about what they're doing.

Our next installment features Matt Woodburn and Sarah Neukom, Founders of ESP Presents. Matt and Sarah will be with us chatting about The power of Buzz Marketing, and how to build a business on word of mouth. Using ESP Presents as a case study, Matt and Sarah can share about their best practices in business and provide tangible advice for other creatives.

ESP Presents, a boutique event company based out of Chicago, was founded in 2014 as the passion project of Matt Woodburn and Sarah Neukom. As a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in fields such as film, music, video and life-style marketing, Matt’s diverse range of experiences gave him unparalleled experience and insight into the world of event production. When Matt and Sarah met in 2012, her background in nonprofits and fundraising made her an invaluable asset with professional skills and business acumen that uniquely complimented Matt’s creative nature. Understanding what was lacking in the market and the power of combining their passions together, they founded ESP Presents in 2014 as an attempt to bring greater purpose to their work and to better serve the community they live in.

Today, they've built a business around that mission, and work alongside purpose-driven brands (Lululemon, Airbnb) and major nonprofits to make that dream a reality. Now, nearing its 5-year anniversary, ESP has plans to expand the capabilities to serve clients in new ways and in fact, just opened up their own venue space, Exchange312, an intimate and customizable event space in the heart of Wicker Park. Sharing a love of hosting, creating and relationship building, Exchange is just the latest endeavor for these passionate entrepreneurs who have long dreamed of having a space they could call their own.