December 2021 - Nicholas Hixon

Nicholas Hixon Creative Director  Hartmann Member since July 2021

Please extend a warm welcome to Nicholas Hixon who joined MPI Georgia in July 2021. He joined MPI on his way out to Vegas for the MPI WEC show. After learning more about MPI while in Vegas, Nicholas learned about the different chapters. Having recently relocated to Atlanta from San Francisco, he was very excited to join a new community filled with other creative minds. As Creative Director at Hartmann, Nicholas focused working on the attendee experience through the environment, activations, engagements, entertainment, and overall conceptual development. In fact, his company created the luncheon at the MPI WEC show with the introduction of next year’s location in beautiful San Francisco.

Since the beginning of Covid, his target has been prominently aimed towards RFPs within his company which has been a great learning experience. Coming from a 3D design mindset and curating an experience in 2D has had its ups and downs but it’s progress, not perfection. Nicholas has been able to grow as a designer and director and while concentrating on different attendee interactions. Through his professional career he has garnered a few best practices including trusting your gut. “As a creative mind, my gut has always led me to the best adventures, turn networking into a hobby, explore mediums outside the 3D design world and instead of saying ‘why?’ replace that with ‘why not?’.” The best advice Nicholas has received as a new employee during a brainstorming session was: “Don’t be afraid to say what’s on your mind, because I guarantee you, no one here is thinking the same thing”. He learned to embrace the fact that everyone thinks differently, including himself, and “it’s a really good thing because it got me to where I’m at today and I’m very proud of that.”

Nicholas finds inspiration in many different people including Salvador Dali & Iris Van Herpen. However, as a creative, he is also an observer and picks-up on details. Sometimes even walking through the grocery store may spark an idea for an engagement. “There’s so much odd beauty in this world that gets overlooked way too often and being inspired by those people and moments helps to fuel my creativity and creates new experiences for the attendees at my events.” On a more personal note, there are a few things Nicholas collects, but his greatest is his shoe collection. “I’m known for my fancy footwear (in my company and in life) and I also design shoes.” He hopes one day to start a fashion brand with over-the-top experiential shoes that command attention and showcase beauty in unfamiliar ways.