Marketing

Oracle CloudWorld 2023 is all set to kickoff next week. If you're still on the fence about attending it, and don’t have the time to do your research, we’ve got you covered!

Here’s all you need to know.

What's it about?

It’s the largest gathering of Oracle customers and partners from around the world.

When and where is it happening?

Oracle CloudWorld will be held between September 18–21, 2023 at The Venetian Conference and Expo Center in Las Vegas. It is an in-person first conference.

What to expect:

• Extensive learning opportunities from Oracle experts
• Networking sessions with peers from various industries
• Exploration of the latest Oracle innovations
• A focus on Oracle solutions, including infrastructure, databases, and applications
• Insights to tackle complex business challenges

Sessions you may like:

Transform customer experience quickly with infrastructure and applications 

Discover how to rapidly transform customer experiences by leveraging Oracle's infrastructure and applications. Understand the benefits of Oracle's integrated cloud suite in delivering seamless customer experiences.

Maximize your marketing impact with Oracle Advertising and CX

Dive into the capabilities of Oracle Advertising and CX to enhance your marketing strategies. Learn how to drive better results and ROI from your marketing campaigns using Oracle's suite of tools.

Generative AI use cases, best practices, and strategies

Experts from Atlassian, Intermedia, Cohere, Accenture, and Oracle will discuss generative AI use cases, success stories, deployment strategies, and best practices.

‘Note’worthy keynotes:

• Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle will be discussing the latest advancements in Oracle Cloud, providing insights into the future of cloud technology.
• Safra Catz, CEO, Oracle will be sharing her vision for the future of business in the cloud era, emphasizing the role of Oracle in shaping that future.

Networking ops:

Oracle's sales and product teams are arranging small, by-invitation gatherings for individuals to interact with peers and specialists. The event includes a meal, beverages, and some entertainment in Las Vegas. Besides this, there are a host of sessions hosted by AMD, PwC, Accenture, etc. Plus, you can always spark up a conversation at CloudWorld Hub during your coffee breaks.

How to register?

The passes and pricing deets are available on their website.

Touted to be the AI event of the year, Dreamforce 2023, Salesforce's renowned annual conference is happening between Sep 12 - 14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA- and it promises to be a hoot!

For those of you who are wondering if it’s worth your time and money, here's a sneak peek into what’s in store.

Quick highlights

• 1,500+ sessions, 75+ AI thought leaders
• Real-time conversations with thought leaders
• A-list entertainer performances
• Surprises around every corner

A star-studded speaker lineup, alright (alright, alright):

Other important speakers include:

Marc Benioff - Chair, CEO and co-founder, Salesforce

Sam Altman - CEO, OpenAI - AI innovator and expert

Ayanna Howard, Ph.D - Accomplished roboticist, entrepreneur and educator

Viola Davis - Award-winning actress, producer and NY Times bestselling author

Rainn Wilson - Award-winning actor, comedian and NY Times bestselling author

Important AI sessions:

Here are some of the standout AI sessions lined up:

• AI for Everyone: This session promises to demystify AI for the general audience, breaking down complex concepts into digestible insights.
• Einstein Automate: Dive deep into the world of automation with Salesforce's Einstein Automate, exploring how businesses can streamline operations using AI.
• Tableau Business Science: A session dedicated to data visualization and business intelligence, highlighting the importance of data-driven decision-making in modern enterprises.
• MuleSoft Composer for Salesforce: This will focus on integrating various data sources, ensuring seamless data flow across platforms, powered by AI.

What's unique about this year’s edition?

Apart from the regular sessions, Dreamforce 2023 is introducing "TrAIlblazer Experiences," a unique blend of learning and entertainment. These experiences are designed to inspire attendees, offering a mix of hands-on workshops, luminary sessions, and networking opportunities.

And last but not the least…

To add a touch of entertainment to the event, the legendary rock band Foo Fighters will be tearing up the stage!

How to register:

Interested in attending? You can register for Dreamforce 2023 on the Salesforce website. Given the event's popularity, it's advisable to book your spot asap!

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Businesses are waking up to the potential of influencer marketing. 

A recent poll by InvespCro revealed a staggering 94% of marketers believe influencer marketing is a game-changer for B2B businesses. 

With such compelling stats, it pays to know how to tap into influencer marketing. At the same time, for someone starting out, it also pays to know what not to do. Luckily, we got some killer insights from Anton Shulke, Head of Influencer Marketing at Duda, in our recent edition of Event Heroes.

Here are four cool takeaways from that conversation that you can confidently bookmark:

1. The essence of influencer marketing is relationship building

One of the key points Anton underscores is the importance of investing time and effort in building relationships with influencers. No matter what the current trends are and what different strategies you’re following, at the end of the day, relationship building determines the success of your influencer marketing efforts.

"I think you will win in influencer marketing (B2B especially) if you kind of hold your horses and you invest, invest in not, not money, invest your time and, and, and effort in relationship with your influencer.” advises Anton.

2. Authenticity is key

Anton reiterates the power of trust and the human element in influencer marketing. Authentic recommendations can significantly influence purchasing decisions. He stresses the importance of working with an influencer who sees value in your business as well as your product. If they don’t like it - how will they vouch for you?

Highlighting this point, he says, "Only work with people who want to work with you who see value in working with you. It also is very important to work with people who like your products (not necessarily who use your product)."

3. All experts are not influencers, and vice versa

On the topic of how influencers can add value to B2B conferences, Anton acknowledges that they can help you reach a wider audience and promote your event, but also highlights that it is important for an event marketer to know the difference between an influencer and an expert, and this will help you aptly reach out to them for different purposes to better your conferences.

"Expert and influencer - it's not the same. One expert would be absolutely fantastic - but nobody knows him because he doesn't want to be a public figure. Experts will bring some tips or some deep knowledge people want, of course, but this expert would not bring registrations of course because nobody knows him. So you need someone who will bring your registration.”

4. Start small and scale up once you see results

Getting started with B2B influencer marketing can be a bit puzzling. As a marketing leader who is planning to kick things off, how do you make the first move? Anton suggests that starting with low-cost initiatives, like webinars, can be an effective way to dip your toes into influencer marketing without a hefty investment.

You can watch our entire conversation with Anton right here.

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History informs us about the future - and the same holds true for B2B conferences.

By looking back, we can glean insights that help us move forward with clarity and purpose. And this perspective becomes even more invaluable when it comes from an industry veteran who has witnessed the ebb and flow of event technology over the years.

Enter Sharyn Fitzpatrick, a top-55 event technologist who currently helms events at Sysdig, a cybersecurity software company.

Sharyn has been in the events industry for over 25 years, and carries with her some invaluable learnings from her journey. She has seen the industry evolve, adapt, and transform. 

So, when she shares a nugget of wisdom or a tale from her journey, it's not just a story – it's a roadmap.

Here's a quick look at some pearls of wisdom she shared with us in a recent edition of Event Heroes.

Staying agile with event tech is not optional

We’re not trying to sound like Captain Obvious when we say event technology is advancing at a rapid pace, because it’s still relevant - every passing day.

Platforms are evolving, new tools are emerging, and the integration possibilities are expanding. For event marketers, this means continuously updating their knowledge and being ready to adapt. Leveraging the latest features and integrations can significantly enhance the attendee experience.

Psst: Read how Zylo used Zuddl’s Saleforce integration to create 46% growth in new pipeline from their user conference SaaSMe 2023

When asked about leveraging event tech to build better events, Sharyn says "You need to be able to use an API or an embed code... platforms that have been more open source, open API, not a closed API will allow you to create a better experience for your attendee."

Always have a backup plan... or three

An event with zero challenges? - that’s Utopia!

Technical issues, unexpected changes, or disruptions can throw a wrench in the most well-laid plans. Sharyn emphasizes the importance of not just having a Plan B but also a Plan C and beyond. Being prepared for multiple scenarios ensures that you can pivot effectively, no matter what challenges arise.

“One of the stories I love telling is when we did this Charlie Miller webinar in February. I got a call at 4 am that one of our assisting speakers was sick and couldn't attend... so you've got to have kind of a backup plan for the different things that you do.” Sharyn remarks.

‍Harness creativity in your strategy

In the bustling area of event marketing, creativity is the only differentiator, and has always been. 

It's not just about having a unique theme or engaging content; it's about reimagining the entire attendee experience. 

From the way content is delivered to the engagement strategies employed, every aspect can benefit from a touch of creativity.

"Creativity is the soul of having a good events program... I believe in finding creative ways to deliver the right webinar experience." advises Sharyn.

Audience first, always

The logic is simple, really. Unless you truly know who your audience is, how can you expect to create an impactful event experience that captivates and converts?

Knowing who you're catering to, their preferences, expectations, and needs, is paramount. Tailoring your event experience to resonate with the audience ensures that you're providing them with authentic value and not just giving them a lofty philosophy that won’t make a difference to their career. 

After all, an event is as successful as the value it provides to its attendees.

Sharyn reiterates this approach by stating: "Make sure you know who you're doing the events program for, who the target audience is, and what experience you want to create."

We hope these pearls of wisdom help you shape your own memorable event marketing journey.

You can also watch our entire conversation with Sharyn at your convenience!

"Ok, Google, tell me why I should attend Google Cloud Next 2023?"

As one of the most awaited tech events of the year, this event promises a deep dive into the latest innovations in cloud technology. 

If you're still wondering if you should attend, here's a sneak peek into what's in store:

What’s it all about?

Google Cloud Next is Google Cloud's premier annual conference, a gathering where technologists, innovators, and decision-makers come together to dive deep into the latest advancements in cloud technology. From illuminating keynotes to hands-on learning sessions, the event offers a unique blend of technical content, strategic insights, and opportunities to connect with experts and peers.

Whether you're an IT professional, developer, or a tech enthusiast, Google Cloud Next promises to equip you with the knowledge and tools to shape the future of cloud computing.

What you can expect:

This event is up your alley, if you wish to:

• Dive into Google's recent breakthroughs in AI, data protection, efficiency, and beyond.
• Delve into main presentations, detailed discussions, and live demonstrations.
• Engage in practical workshops, educational sessions, and get certified on the spot.
• Stay informed with the latest product trajectory news.
• Network with Google's top visionaries at the executive gathering hub.

Top speakers to look out for:

Thomas Kurian - CEO of Google Cloud‍

With his vast experience and vision, Thomas's insights into the future of cloud technology are known to be enlightening. With nearly 30 years under his belt, he's honed his skills in engineering, cultivated strong business relationships, and effectively led large teams. Thomas is on the advisory councils for Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Princeton's School of Engineering.

Brad Calder - VP, Engineering at Google Cloud

Brad's sessions are known for their technical depth, providing a granular look into the workings of cloud technology. Brad Calder holds the VP and GM position for Cloud Platform and Technical Infrastructure at Google Cloud, managing networking, storage, data analytics, and core compute sectors. He has published over 100 papers in the areas of systems, architecture and compilers.

Aimee Catalano - Senior Director, Google

Aimee is a renowned expert in the go-to-market strategy for partner ecosystems and is notable for her contributions to DEI initiatives. Over her two decades in enterprise marketing, Aimee has led numerous leadership roles in both large and small firms, notably as the VP of Corporate Marketing at Pure Storage and the VP of Alliance Marketing for Citrix.

Sessions you may like:

What's new with generative AI at Google Cloud

Experts including David DeSanto from GitLab, and key figures from Google and The World Bank, will delve into Google Cloud's advancements in generative AI. Learn how organizations are leveraging these innovations and stay tuned for exciting announcements in Machine Learning and Generative AI.

What's next: Redefining productivity with Google Workspace

Join Harris Beber, Kristina Behr, Dave Citron, Yulie Kwon Kim, and Aparna Pappu from Google at the Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA from 12:15 - 13:00 GMT-7. Explore how Google is revolutionizing work by integrating AI into daily productivity tools. This session will unveil Google's vision for the future of collaboration and how Google Workspace can elevate creativity and efficiency in the modern hybrid work environment.

Collaboration 2.0: The Evolution of Work through AI and Data‍

Join Brian Goldstein from Google, along with industry leaders from Dialpad and OpenText, as they discuss the transformative impact of AI on collaboration technologies. This session delves into how intelligent tools are reshaping the modern hybrid workplace, empowering employees to achieve peak productivity. Learn from experts at the cutting edge of AI and data integration, and discover strategies to future-proof collaboration while maximizing outcomes.

Innovators Hive | Google Cloud Next ’23

Innovators Hive is the go-to spot for developers and practitioners to discover the latest from Google Cloud. Whether joining in-person or virtually, this is your destination for up-to-date learning materials, Innovators program details, engaging challenges to test your expertise, and exclusive digital badges for Next ’23 participants.

Elevate your Possible with Enterprise-Ready Generative AI powered by Google Cloud

Join Genevieve Chamard, Steve Jones, and Jennifer Marchand from Capgemini as they explore the synergy of human intelligence, cloud, and Generative AI. This session will guide enterprises on leveraging the latest technologies, showcasing real-world applications and strategies in the cloud for scalable and responsible business growth.

The when, where and how:

• Date: October 11-13, 2023
• Location: Moscone Center, San Francisco, with select content and interactive experiences available online.
• Registration: Head over to the official event page to secure your spot. (just a heads up - most sessions are already full, so decide fast!)

Ever felt the pressure of creating a standout event on a shoestring budget? 

You're not alone. 

Kimberly Wong, Senior Manager - Field Marketing, Global Events and Experiences at Paddle, knows that struggle all too well. Having worked in the hospitality industry prior to entering the B2B SaaS space, Kim’s experiences with running events are as unique as they come!

That’s why we sat down with her and discussed tried-and-true strategies to make every penny count and elevate your events without emptying your pockets!

And since ‘time is money’, let’s save you some and head right into the takeaways.

Hack 1: Build genuine vendor relationships

As event marketers, we all deal with vendors who help us translate our vision to reality. At this stage, it’s important to not think of your vendors as mere service providers, but rather as partners in your success. 

Kimberly's approach underscores the value of these relationships. She notes, "Coming from hotels, I had a network of vendors that I rely on for various needs like swag, rentals, lighting, AV, and more. Building relationships with these vendors is crucial because you develop trust in their work quality." 

How does this help with your budget? A better relationship means a better understanding of each other's needs. More open communication channels can lead to smoother operations, fewer misunderstandings, and even better deals or value-added services!

Hack 2: Know your non-negotiables

Every event rests on key pillars, the non-negotiable elements that define its core. Kimberly advises to identify and prioritize these from the get-go. 

She suggests, "Start with the non-negotiables. Things that are never going to change." This isn't just about budgeting; it's about understanding the essence of your event. By identifying these pillars, you’ll ensure that the most critical aspects of your event remain uncompromised, allowing for flexibility and cost cuts in other areas without diluting the event's main objectives.

“For example you know how many people you're going to send on the team, you know you're going to need to do XYZ meals, you know you're going to have to pay this speaker right? When you start with that you get you get a base of what you're going to need to spend.” adds Kimberly.

Hack 3: Tap into community insights

In today’s super-saturated space of B2B events, no one person has all the answers. Kimberly champions the idea of leaning on the collective wisdom of the community. 

She mentions, "Joining an association... you connect with planners and suppliers that become your back pocket." This isn't just about networking; it's about shared experiences, learning from others' successes and mistakes, and tapping into a reservoir of knowledge that can help you navigate challenges, anticipate trends, and make informed decisions.

Hack 4: Prioritize quality over quantity (at any cost!)

The phrase ‘do more with less’ is great - as long as you don’t end up coming off as a cheapskate.

Kimberly offers a word of caution that while cost cutting, you may want to steer clear of cutting high-impact elements too thin, which in turn dampens the “oomph” factor of your event.

For instance, she emphasizes, "You don't want to skimp on the kind of swag or giveaways... if it's good, they'll keep it; if not, they'll probably leave it back at their hotel room." 

This is about the legacy of your event. It's about ensuring that every touchpoint, every interaction, and every takeaway resonates with quality. 

Liked these tips? Try ‘em out and let us know what worked for you? Also, you can watch our full conversation with Kimberly Wong on-demand for more insights!

Hello there, tech enthusiasts! Have you blocked out July 26, 2023, on your calendar yet? If not, it's high time you did. The AWS Summit New York is on the horizon, and it's shaping up to be a landmark event in the world of cloud computing.

A broad spectrum of learning

The AWS Summit New York is a treasure trove of knowledge. With over 115 sessions spanning a wide range of topics, there's something for everyone. Whether your interest lies in AI, machine learning, databases, or serverless technologies, rest assured you'll find a session that piques your curiosity. And who better to guide you through these sessions than AWS experts, builders, customers, and partners?

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Keynote by Swami Sivasubramanian

One of the highlights of the event is the keynote speech by Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Databases, Analytics, and ML at AWS. Swami will delve into the innovative ways companies are leveraging AWS to revolutionize their industries. From the latest advancements in infrastructure, data, and AI to strategies for optimizing IT spending, Swami's keynote promises to be a wealth of information.

Hot topics to explore

The AWS Summit New York is a hub for the latest trends and innovations in cloud computing. With discussions on AI & Machine Learning, Data & Analytics, Storage, EC2 Compute, Serverless, Containers and Functions, Database, and DevOps & Developer Productivity, you're sure to stay ahead of the curve in the tech world.

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Networking opportunities

Beyond the learning opportunities, the AWS Summit New York also provides a platform for networking. Engage in meaningful conversations, share insights, and build connections that could lead to future collaborations.

Expo and AWS DeepRacer League

The Summit also features an Expo where you can see cutting-edge products and the latest solutions from sponsoring partners. And for those with a competitive spirit, the AWS DeepRacer League offers a chance to build and train a reinforcement learning model and compete for prizes and glory.

AWS training and certification

The Summit provides opportunities for AWS Training and Certification. Learn from AWS experts about real-world cloud scenarios, validate your cloud expertise, and gain practical experience.

In a nutshell

So, what can you expect from the AWS Summit New York? A day filled with insightful sessions, a keynote speech by an industry leader, discussions on trending topics, networking opportunities, an exciting expo, and even a racing competition!

Whether you’re hosting a small webinar with clients or throwing a community-wide potluck, your goal as an event marketer is likely the same: to get the right people through the door. 

But how do you know what catches your target audience’s attention, and how do you incorporate it into your marketing materials?

Understanding what resonates with your audience, meeting them where they are, and using innovative marketing channels are all key elements of an effective event marketing approach. This guide will help you glean new insights into your target audience’s motivations and leverage them to boost RSVPs. Let’s get started!

1.Reach out to social media influencers

You’re likely already leveraging social media to promote your organization’s events, but you might be overlooking one of the most powerful assets social media has to offer: influencers. With thousands or even millions of people tuned into their accounts, influencers provide a valuable opportunity to boost your organization’s visibility and attract attendees to your upcoming event.

While influencers can be difficult to contact, much less book as a marketing partner, you can try these strategies to secure their support:

• Start small. It’s probably not realistic for your organization to go after the most popular influencers right away, but you have a much better chance of engaging influencers with a smaller following. 

• Leverage your existing connections. Partnering with an influencer you already have a relationship with is more likely to succeed than starting from scratch. Gauge if your organization’s staff, audience, or board members have any connections with influencers and if they would be a good fit for your marketing campaign. 

• Make appealing partnership packages. Ensure the marketing partnership’s value proposition is clear from the beginning by offering appealing benefits. For instance, you could highlight the brand exposure that accompanies working with your organization, as well as offer incentives like VIP invitations to the event.

• Offer them creative input. Remember that, while the marketing campaign is for your event, you’re still using an account tied to your influencer partner’s brand. Make the collaboration a true partnership by offering the influencer significant creative control over the marketing content. You could offer them multiple options, such as a guest blog post or a social media takeover, to ensure that you’re both happy with the campaign outcome. 

Influencers present a golden opportunity to market your event but remember that they should only represent one part of your larger social media marketing strategy. It’s also important to produce engaging, informative content that resonates with your audience. Structure your influencer marketing plan to align with your existing social media content plan to ensure a cohesive experience for your audience. 

2. Embrace video marketing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how valuable a video can be for your marketing strategy! With short-form video’s above-average ROI of 30%, your organization has a lot to gain from adding video content to your event marketing plan. Here are some simple ways that you can implement video content into your event marketing approach:

• Create event teasers. Build excitement around your upcoming event by sharing short videos teasing aspects of your event, such as behind-the-scenes clips of the venue, the food, or your keynote speaker preparing their speech. 

• Use existing event footage. If you’re marketing a recurring event and have exciting footage from one of your past gatherings, leverage it as marketing material.

• Share event recap videos. Even after the event, your footage can be useful. For instance, you can use footage that shows the overall atmosphere of the event and highlights your organization’s success. 

• Leverage live streams. Many social media platforms have free live-streaming capabilities that you can use to interact with your target audience. If your event features a guest speaker or entertainer, consider hosting a live-broadcasted Q&A-style interview about their part in your upcoming event. 

Not a cinematographer? No worries—you don’t have to be to get started. Ensure that you invest in a smart device that you can record on, a fast internet connection for live streams, and video editing software so your content looks professional. 

3. Use ChatGPT

AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, are becoming more prevalent, and it’s easy to see why. With some practice, you can use ChatGPT to optimize your event marketing approach and content by:

• Streamlining the content creation process: From generating FAQs to email subject lines, you can use ChatGPT to conquer writer's block and write engaging content.

• Finding relevant facts: Using ChatGPT-4, you can ask the AI to comb the internet, cutting down the time required to research effectively.

• Leveraging live-chat support: Use a GPT-powered chatbot as a resource for event attendees who might need a quick answer to a question. If it doesn’t know the exact answer to a question, ChatGPT can provide the event coordinator’s contact information to direct them to the right point of contact.

• Collecting feedback: After the event ends, you still have valuable data to collect from your attendees. Rather than a static feedback form, ChatGPT can ask questions conversationally, yielding more nuanced feedback from event attendees for your future use.

The sky’s the limit with ChatGPT, and it’s getting more advanced every day. Take some time to explore its capabilities—you’re sure to get some use out of it for your marketing campaign.

4. Personalize your marketing emails

Email is a tried-and-true organization marketing tool, but are you using it to its full potential? Your audience gets dozens (if not hundreds) of emails a day, so it’s your job to cut through the clutter and grab their attention. 

The best way to do this is through personalization, which involves segmenting your audience based on shared characteristics, such as their engagement history, demographics, and geographic location, and developing different email streams that align with their preferences. For instance, when planning an event, you might reserve in-person invitations for supporters living within your general area and send virtual invites to those living outside of it. This attention to detail will help boost engagement. 

To segment your email lists, automate your efforts with a powerful CRM and email campaign management software. Maintain data hygiene within these systems by continually updating relevant contact information. Doing so will help you stay up-to-date on your target audience’s interests.

Next Steps for Starting Your Marketing Campaign

Now that you have these tips in your back pocket, you might already be picturing your future marketing campaign. Before you begin, remember to set achievable goals that position you for success. Start with clear objectives and break them down into actionable steps to add nuance to your campaign. Don’t forget to keep your organization’s vision for the event as your primary focus and build your campaign around it. Before you know it, you’ll have RSVPs flooding your inbox!

What happens in Vegas… is certainly worth your attention. 

And it’s no exception with CCW (Customer Contact Week), Las Vegas. Every year, CCW provides a valuable platform for vendors, business leaders, and CX innovators to come together, fostering opportunities for connection, collaboration, and networking.

This year’s edition will be CCW’s 25th, and will kick off on 19th June at Caesars Forum and go on until 22nd June. Going by the agenda and speaker line-up, this year’s edition promises to be a cracker of an event for CX industry leaders!

But instead of just taking our word for it, you can read this article to see if CCW is worth your time. So without further ado… here’s what you can expect from CCW 2023:

The major takeaways

Boost your customer strategy 

Join over 3,000 world-class customer contact and CX leaders for a chance to explore a wide range of trends and opportunities in the customer experience landscape, right from keynote addresses and informative summits to hands-on workshops.

Stay updated with the latest developments in CX

Leverage the opportunity to gain extensive knowledge about the digital revolution in the CX realm and  groundbreaking technology that’s revolutionizing how organizations engage with their customers.

Psst… here’s a link to the complete agenda.

Get CMP certified

Take the Contact Center Leader Exam and walk away with a CMP certificate - Fun fact: Leaders who demonstrate excellence in CMP Certified competencies have a significantly higher likelihood of surpassing performance expectations.

Who’s headlining?

The main stage headliners at CCW 2023 is quite the smorgasbord of talent from diverse walks of life. 

Here’s a quick look at this illustrious list:

• Abby Wambach: Soccer Legend & NYTimes Best Selling Author. Abby Wambach is a renowned soccer player, Olympic gold medalist, and FIFA Women's World Cup champion. 
• Armando (Pitbull) Perez: Grammy® Award-winning Musician & Entrepreneur. Pitbull is a globally recognized musician and entrepreneur. 
• Timnit Gebru: Founder, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. Timnit Gebru is a prominent figure in AI research and ethics.
• Jenn Lim: CEO and Co-founder, Delivering Happiness. Jenn Lim is the CEO and co-founder of Delivering Happiness, a company focused on creating happier workplaces. 
• Mark King: CEO, Taco Bell. Mark King is the CEO of Taco Bell, a fast-food chain that needs no introduction.
• Jon Dorenbos: NFL Long Snapper & AGT Finalist. Jon Dorenbos is a former NFL long snapper and finalist on America's Got Talent. 
• Rebecca Jarvis: Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent, ABC News. Rebecca Jarvis is a renowned journalist and correspondent for ABC News. 
  

How to register?

You can either choose to purchase a General Admission pass, All-Access pass or a 2-day vendor pass. More details are available in this link.

Also, come meet us?

Event Heroes Cocktail and Dinner

Before the hustle and bustle of CCW takes over, come join us for an evening of good company and great conversation. No formalities, no agendas, just a chance to hang out, meet fellow event marketers, and enjoy some tasty food and drinks together. 

When and where is the Event Heroes Dinner happening?

June 18, 2023 | 6 PM - 8 PM PST

Brooklyn Bowl, Las Vegas

RSVP here

No matter the size of your organization, the life stage you’re in or how much money your company is putting behind events, one common factor that must be dealt with is getting everybody internally on board with your vision and plan as an event marketer.

But as you already may know, this is no cake-walk. 

Dealing with human beings in a business context comes with its challenges - no two individuals are alike, let alone two different functions within a company, making collaboration and ever-challenging endeavour - friction and resistance are sometimes just a part of the game.

So does this mean you just accept the fact that alignment is a bummer and run your event anyway? 

Of course not. Without proper collaboration, succeeding in events is almost impossible.

In our recent edition of Event Heroes, we spoke to Ashley Maurus, Director of Experience Marketing at Quantum Metric. Ashley has been passionate about planning and organizing things since her childhood! 

Currently, she is at the helm of all the marketing events that Quantum Metric runs in North America, and has a wealth of experience in collaborating with internal stakeholders.

In this article, we’ve shared 5 tips from our conversation with her that can help you run better events by getting that crucial internal buy-in.

Tip 1: Overcome Resistance Through Trust and Communication

When we asked Ashley why collaboration is difficult, she highlighted that it’s never easy to sync with different personalities, functions and goals, but trust and communication can go a long way.

"At the end of the day, buy-in is very much built on trust. " says Ashley. “When you're met in those times of resistance, maybe with somebody clashing with your idea, ask why - get to the root of where that resistance is coming from." 

"Because so often, I think we finish that story in our mind for that person. It might be something completely different. [Getting to the root of resistance] is just a moment of connection to really bridge that gap."

Key takeaway: By actively listening and understanding your internal stakeholders, you can establish trust, laying the groundwork for a collaborative relationship.

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Tip 2: Align Goals and Objectives

According to Ashley, alignment of goals is the key driver of event success, and it must be done well before the actual event. "It's doing that upfront work - getting everyone aligned, making sure that everyone's in agreement on the goals, the ‘why we're doing this’, and the ‘who's the audience’.”

Highlighting the core aspect of alignment, Ashley states: “I think it's just understanding what the goal of each of those departments will be, and understanding what they're trying to accomplish and aligning that goal with yours.” 

Key takeaway: When goals and objectives are aligned, collaboration becomes smoother, leading to more efficient and effective outcomes.

Tip 3: Leverage Your Existing Customer Base

Ashley emphasizes the importance of leveraging existing relationships by pro-actively collaborating with your customer success team, an often overlooked internal stakeholder.

Highlighting their importance, Ashley says “In my opinion, they’re arguably the most crucial because they're responsible for getting your existing customers to your event, which means you know the people that are going to sell on your behalf - and that's where the real magic happens.”

“There's nobody that's going to be stronger at selling your product than your existing customer base so we always pepper in at least a few customer brands at our events - just to be an extension of our team and really that proof point sharing their real life experiences using the product in a way that we can't because they have that trust behind it.”

Key takeaway: Collaborating with the customer success team can help leverage existing customer relationships to drive sales and build trust at your event.

Tip 4: Engage Your Partnership Ecosystem

Another overlooked function, according to Ashley, is the partnership team and ecosystem which can really strengthen your brand when it comes to events. Of course, to successfully have them onboard with your plan, it’s important to understand what your partner brands’ needs are and why they would want to participate in your event. 

“Your ecosystem, your partner network is so key in B2B Tech but especially in the startup world. It's going to strengthen your brand. Each brand really participating expands your audience reach.”

Key takeaway: Collaboration with your partner ecosystem can help you get multiple brands to participate in events, thereby expanding the audience reach and enhancing your event’s credibility.

Tip 5: Acknowledge Internal Marketing Efforts

Ashley points out that sometimes the internal marketing team is taken for granted, assuming they are already on board with your event marketing efforts, but that is not always the case. Without the support and cooperation of the internal marketing team, you could be left isolated and alone in your efforts.

“I mean I like to think everyone has events at the center of everything they do but that's not the case - you know there's other marketing activities out there. So I think just an acknowledgment of that sometimes with your internal marketing team or even if you have some sort of shout out system within your organization - just giving them those kudos every once in a while really goes a long way.”

Key takeaway: Recognizing the efforts of your internal marketing team and giving them the kudos they deserve can foster a positive and collaborative environment.

So you see, the right perspective can go a long way in helping you collaborate better with your internal stakeholders, and in turn, run successful B2B events.

Halfway through 2023, chances are you've already attended several B2B events this year, and are questioning whether you can just skip Forrester's 2023 B2B Summit. Is it really worth your time and effort?

In a word: yes.

Namely because unpredictability and uncertainty have been the name of the game for the past few years. Marketers have had to deal with diversifying routes to market, changes in consumer behavior and difficult-to-predict buying motions. 

That’s why the summit’s theme this year -  ‘ADAPT. ACT. GROW’ - is timely and pertinent. At Forrester's 2023 B2B Summit North America, marketers can get key strategies, pragmatic frameworks, and compelling data they need to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. 

When is it? June 5 – 7, 2023

Where is it?

This year’s edition is hybrid, with attendees able to either attend virtually or in-person in Austin.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

🎯 100+s tactical sessions aligned to marketing roles

Whether your focus is customer marketing, product marketing, marketing operations, demand and ABM, partner ecosystem marketing or sales, you can expect sessions addressing any and all challenges and goals that you’re currently facing at work. Take away ready-to-use insights and tactics that you can implement the very next day:

Here’s a snapshot of noteworthy sessions available for different roles:

• Align Marketing, Product, And Sales Around Buyer Value To Propel Growth: A panel that provides practical tips for driving alignment and releasing each team’s potential and strategies for calibrating to and innovating on buyer value, led by analysts and experts at Forrester.

• Beyond Alignment: How Sales And Marketing Leaders Integrate For Success: This session will explore how organizations integrate processes, technologies, teams, and practices to deliver a compelling buying experience

• Lifecycle Revenue Marketing Is The Future Of B2B Growth: This session will outline buyer trends that are having the most impact on B2B marketing such as buyers being more self-guided or more prone to extending their purchasing processes, and identify LRM strategies that can help surface revenue opportunities out of customer adoption, loyalty, and advocacy initiatives.

• Product-Led Growth: Right Fit, Right Approach For Your Organization? A session that helps marketers learn best principles, principles, practices, examples, metrics, and fit assessment, as well as next steps for product, marketing, sales, and customer success leaders.

In-person attendees also have the opportunity to take part in specialized pre-event sessions and workshops such as the ForrWomen Leadership Program which helps attendees learn how to help advance women leaders in their organizations.

📋 Case studies from globally leading brands and executives

Get first-hand knowledge from industry leaders - valuable insights into the strategies, tactics, and approaches employed by them that you can apply to your own marketing efforts, helping them drive growth and overcome obstacles.

Here are a few intriguing case studies on the Summit agenda:

• Calendly: Smith.ai: How to Transform MQLs into Sales Meetings, Instantly: Today’s buyers hold the power, wanting to self-serve and resist salespeople until they’re ready. You’ll hear how Smith.ai’s sales team is giving buyers more control with a customer-first routing strategy to drive a 70% conversion rate from MQLs to meetings booked.

• 6sense: How to Do Frictionless, Revenue-Generating ABM: Learn how Twilio Segment built a collaborative partnership between marketing and sales, using 6sense’s intent and keyword signals. By focusing outbound campaigns on in-market buyers, the Segment GTM team booked 75+ meetings within one week of launch.

• Mindtickle: Breakdown the silos to win together: How to implement a business pivot on a global scale: Hear from Jegen Kalimuthu, Global Sales Enablement at LinkedIn on how to tackle a global business transformation cross-functionally. Instead of finger-pointing and throwing in the towel, learn how enablement, marketing, sales leadership, and sales ops all play a role in implementing global change.

✨ Hear straight from the A-listers of B2B marketing

The line-up this year is incredible. Here are just a few of the speakers you can look forward to interacting with:

• Dara Treseder CMO, Autodesk
• Cheryl Cook SVP, Global Partner Marketing, Dell
• Cindy Matos VP of Transformation and Governance, IBM
• Katherine Chambers VP of Revenue Marketing, Cart.com
• Jeanne Quinn Director, Partner Engagement & Thought Leadership, Cisco
• Principal Product Manager, Bayer
• Gail Moody-Byrd Vice President, Marketing, LinkedIn Sales Solutions, LinkedIn

🪄Find solution providers for your marketing, sales, and product needs

Whether you are transforming your entire digital customer journey or need help boosting your marketing or commerce experiences, you can find exactly the solutions you need at the Summit.

🤝 Connect with peers, experts and Forrester analysts

There are plenty of opportunities both structured and unstructured during the Summit to meet and connect with professionals like yourself. 

During breaks, you can hit the show floor to connect with colleagues and peers. 

But there are also plenty of networking activities built into the event agenda: breakfast boardrooms, invite-only dinners (e.g. an executive leadership exchange), as well as facilitated ‘birds of a feather’ small group discussions during which you can connect with peers facing similar challenges. 

These group discussions in particular are great for focused, facilitated discussions on specific initiatives you are working on.​ And as a bonus - Forrester analysts and executive partners will be on hand to provide expert perspectives. 

‍The takeaway

B2B marketing right now is all about needing to be strategic, sensing buyer needs, and knowing the right tactics that will resonate with buyers and sellers. At Forrester's B2B Summit North America 2023, you’ll get the data and insight you need to know exactly how to do this, and stay one step ahead in the dynamic world of B2B marketing.

Organizations invest time, effort, and money into hosting events for many purposes, including fundraising, networking, and marketing. At the event’s end, you’ll naturally want to determine if it was successful and if you met your goals. You can do this by establishing key metrics to evaluate your event.

To help you better understand the impact of your event, this guide will cover the following topics:

• 3 types of event impact metrics to evaluate
• Driving impact with your event: 3 tips

Keep in mind that your organization is unique—what another organization considers an impactful event may not be impactful for you. Consider these metrics through the lens of your organization’s size, audience, and outcomes from past events. 

3 types of metrics to evaluate events

Let’s dive into the different types of metrics your organization can use to analyze your event’s impact.

1. Financial event metrics

For most organizations, financial metrics are the most obvious way to evaluate the impact of an event. Return on investment (ROI) is the most important finance-related metric, but you’ll need to know these metrics to calculate it:

• Event costs: This will include all expenses and funds put towards organizing and hosting the event.

• Leads generated: Events can generate leads that you can further nurture and convert into a customer.

To calculate your ROI, divide the revenue generated by leads from your event by the total amount of expenses. This tells you how efficiently you allocated your funds, and organizations should aim to have as high an ROI as possible.

These metrics can provide a clear-cut answer as to whether your event was a financial success. However, other metrics are needed to determine why your event had the impact that it did. 

2. Event attendance metrics

Aside from financial metrics, you can also look at attendance-related metrics to evaluate your event’s impact. These data points provide insight into your marketing, the makeup of your target audience, and your overall ability to cultivate a loyal and engaged audience. Record and reflect on event attendance metrics such as:

• Number of attendees: The number of people who attend your event indicates how successful your marketing and promotional efforts were.

• Attendee demographics: Compare the demographics of event attendees to that of your target audience. Ask yourself if you’re attracting your ideal attendees, and if not, how you can change your marketing strategy for future events.

• Attendance over time: Consider similar events you have hosted in the past and compare the number of attendees for those events versus your most recent event. Consistent audience retention indicates your events are high-quality, as guests who attended a previous event feel motivated to attend your next one as well. 

Aside from overall event attendance, also assess the attendee-related metrics for specific activities featured at your event. For example, if your organization works in the digital marketing vertical and hosted several informational panels, compare the number and demographics of attendees across panels to identify what types of content are most interesting to your target audience.

3. Event engagement metrics

Alongside financial and attendance metrics, event engagement metrics provide unique insight into the impact of your event. Unlike the aforementioned metrics, however, event engagement is less of a quantitative measure and more qualitative, making it difficult to measure. To better quantify your event engagement, examine these metrics:

• Conversions: Assess how many attendees continue to engage with the organization after the event. Continued engagement might mean that they subscribe to your email newsletter, or that they become a customer or member.

• Satisfaction: Ask your supporters to rate their overall satisfaction and satisfaction with various event aspects and activities to get a general understanding of how engaged and happy they were with the event.

One of the best ways to evaluate how engaged attendees were with your event is to ask them for their opinion. At the event’s close, send an email thanking attendees for their participation, and include a survey that they can take to provide their feedback. Stress to them that this information will help you create a better event experience in the future.

HOW TO GET BETTER FEEDBACK: Click here to learn how Alex Temple, Senior Corporate Relations Manager at Explori designs feedback loops for B2B Events.

Driving impact with your event: 3 tips

Now that you know what metrics to examine, use the following tips to improve your event and drive conversions.

1. Set a clear goal

When planning your event, start by determining its purpose. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish by gathering your attendees together and how that will benefit your organization in the long run. For example, if you’re an advocacy group, bringing attendees together can help you spread awareness about your cause. Or, if you’re a business promoting a new product, your event’s purpose might be to lead more people down the marketing funnel.

When setting your goal, keep in mind that it should be specific, measurable, and relevant to your organization’s overall objectives. Ensure that it’s attainable, and align all parts of your event with it, including event format and target audience.

2. Promote your event

To boost attendee turnout, you’ll need to market and promote your event well in advance. Build anticipation and give guests the time to clear their schedules and make preparations for attending by creating and sending promotional materials through these channels:

• Your website
• Direct mail
• Email
• Text
• Social media
• Flyers

To reach the largest number of interested individuals, use multiple marketing channels. Choose channels that your target audience frequents. For example, if your organization has an active Instagram account with many followers, post an image inviting them to attend your next bikeathon.

3. Incorporate technology to enhance the experience

Incorporating technology into your organization’s event can result in a more engaged audience and an improved guest experience. You can make attendees’ lives more convenient by allowing mobile check-in and sending them text reminders in the days leading up to your event. If your event is convention-style, consider creating a mobile app that attendees can download to easily track the schedule and activities they’re interested in.

Aside from making processes more convenient for attendees, you can also use technology to augment your activities. For example, if you’re hosting a Q&A session with industry professionals, have a screen displaying real-time social media engagement and encourage attendees to post questions that the professionals can answer. Additionally, use live streaming technology to organize hybrid and virtual events, increasing participation from individuals that may not be able to attend in person.

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Maximizing your event’s impact begins with assessing your existing data. Consider what insights that information gives you, and use it to alter and improve upon your future events. After every event, sit down with the rest of your team and discuss key takeaways and improvements. Learn what type of events best fit specific purposes, and you’ll see the desired impact in your organization’s events.

We get it; planning a large-scale B2B conference can be intimidating. There are lots of moving parts involved; coordination with teams, sourcing speakers, setting up your event, promoting your event - we can go on and on.

The challenges of planning and hosting an event of this scale will always be present, but the good news is you can overcome and deal with them better if you have a tested approach to guide you on ground.

That’s exactly why we spoke to Varun Singh, Head of Marketing, Rocketlane to get some on-ground insights on what it takes to pull off a successful large-scale B2B conference. For context, Rocketlane recently concluded hosting the world’s first customer onboarding conference, Propel ‘23 - with 3,500+ virtual attendees.

Here are some really interesting tips that emerged from that conversation.

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‍How to build an agenda for a conference of this scale

One of the challenges marketers face while planning a big event is around what topics to cover. This becomes even more complex when your attendees are from different profiles as you need to ensure that every attendee finds value in your event. 

When we asked Varun about how he went about creating an agenda for Propel ‘23, he said that narrowing the scope of the conference (customer onboarding, implement and post-sales for example) helped Rocketlane deliver more focused content to attendees. It also enabled them to create a mix of dedicated sessions for each profile, while still providing a few sessions of common interest.

Here’s a glimpse of the agenda from Propel ‘23:

How to align all the moving parts and collaborate internally

When it comes to pulling off a global conference, it truly takes a village. Event marketers have to collaborate with different internal functions to fulfil tasks and sub-tasks, which is an event in itself!

When we asked Varun how much internal collaboration was needed for Propel ‘23, he said:

“Our design team took care of all the speaker presentations and landing pages, and our web development team focused on having the event site up and ready. Our dedicated Ops person ensured data from event landing pages seamlessly integrated with CRM tools, and our content team handled copies for landing pages, emails and social posts. Our support team would drive registrations to any prospect who would chat with them. Also, our CSM team would recommend Propel 23’ to our existing customers - so it was a combined effort - all working towards one common goal.”

How to repurpose your conference content 

Any large-scale event is like a goldmine of fresh insights, fresh perspectives and expert-driven content that deserves to be extracted, repurposed and promoted. While most marketers are onboard with repurposing as a content strategy, they often face logistical challenges when it comes to exporting and editing event content, which often delays the publishing process, rendering the content a bit cold.

We asked Varun about his plan around repurposing content from Propel ‘23 - here’s what he shared.

“The video recordings were made live within 4 working days from the event on our website. Talking about repurposing these videos, we’ve already come up with cheat sheets based on conversations from tracks that were focused on specific sub-topics, and we gate these cheat sheets on our site. Also, we publish an Idea Book that compiles snippets from various sessions. Thirdly, we have different blog summaries based on each session from the event.”

How to collect and implement feedback 

For B2B conferences, especially ones that have future editions, feedback plays a monumental role in the growth of the conference as a brand - it’s the only way you know what your attendees loved and what they didn’t. 

But the trick with event feedback is that it needs to be collected while the impact of the event is still hot in the attendee’s mind. Here’s some insight into how Rocketlane does it:

“With feedback, you can have a combination of quantitative and qualitative questions. Some open-ended ones and some very direct ones. Once you get all of that, you decode how to use it to plan a better conference the next year. For example, in Propel 2022, we had sessions one after the other. When we observed the feedback on this, we made incremental changes to the 2023 editions by ensuring we have networking breaks planned between sessions - all these inputs only come from feedback.”

You can watch our full conversation with Varun Singh right here.

Hope you find these tips useful - now go own your next B2B conference!

ChatGPT. 

It needs no introduction because over the past few months it’s all anyone has heard about.

‍

But the noise is understandable.

The chatbot’s ability to write complex text - academic, journalistic, and programming, among others - in a human, friendly and intelligent way is unrivaled, leading Bill Gates to call it the most revolutionary tech in decades. 

Indeed, prompted to write a blurb about this very article, ChatGPT responded:

Pretty good… if a tad full of itself.

But how useful is ChatGPT really for B2B event marketing?

While many have praised the chatbot’s ability to answer questions, write essays, summarize documents and write software, others have criticized it for providing responses that are somewhat stilted, and basic. In which case, are event marketers better off just relying on their own skills? Or is this chatbot a marketer’s new favorite colleague?

As they say ‘Seeing is believing’, so we worked with ChatGPT on the standard roster of B2B event marketing activities - all your basics like finding an event venue, finding speakers, putting together a calendar of events, promotional material etc - to see if it lives up to the hype.

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‍Challenge #1: Cutting down time to source event venues

Usually, finding venues for events - whether a conference, round table or even a simple dinner requires lots of research.

“I spent so much time on Google trying to find a venue for a networking mixer in Vegas,” comments B2B event marketing specialist, Rishabh Bora. “It was extremely challenging for me as I was not familiar with the city at all - let alone the country - and so the time I put into coming up with even a shortlist of places took days because I had to first locate places and then vet them as per my budget and other criteria.” 

✅ How ChatGPT can help: With a simple prompt, ChatGPT can give you a list of venues appropriate for your event goals and budget. 

The prompt:

The output:

Evaluation: That’s a pretty good starting point that can save you hours on Google.

And this can be used to source event speakers too

ChatGPT can be also used similarly to source speakers for your event using a prompt like ‘What international speakers can I invite to talk at this event?

Key to curating a good list is the different criterion you want the chatbot to apply when coming up with a list of names - like domain expertise in X topic, for instance. Click here for other criteria you should consider too.

Time saved: 2-5 hours at the least

Verdict: Go for it

Challenge #2: Create event titles and descriptions within 1 minute

Catchy titles can help boost the registration rates for your conferences or webinars (see Rocketlane’s fantastically-named sessions for Propel '22) but it’s not easy to come up with these for B2B marketing events, especially when you have to factor in things like character count. 

✅ How ChatGPT can help: If you’ve ever spent agonizing hours trying to be witty or creative to no avail, ChatGPT can help kick start brainstorming.

The prompt:

The output:

Evaluation: The suggestions are straightforward and succinct, and the chatbot even uses alliteration to make the title catchy. At the least it’ll help you realize what you do and don’t want from the title. And the more detailed your prompt is, the better refined the ChatGPT copy will be.

And you can use it to generate event descriptions as well.

Evaluation: That’s a pretty solid description. It covers the broad strokes of what can be expected at the webinar, and uses industry jargon ‘traps, gadgets, rockets’ etc. With more information in the prompt about specific challenges or goals, the description can be further improved. 

Time saved: 2-5 hours at the least, depending on the creativity/nuance of your prompts

Verdict: Definitely helpful

Challenge #3: Help plan an event program

Event marketers usually plan for 6 months worth of events ahead of time to account for event format, types and size. But where do you start planning your B2B event marketing calendar? You may have a rough idea of wanting to do a few webinars and then perhaps a conference at the end of Q3, but aren’t quite sure how to put a plan in place.

✅ How ChatGPT can help: Even using a basic prompt, the chatbot can help you understand the different types of events you can plan for your audience to keep them engaged throughout the year. 

Chat GPT prompt and output:

‍Evaluation: We’re not going to lie, this is actually pretty impressive.

ChatGPT has planned a great mix of different event types, with each addressing a goal or pain point of the target audience. It serves as a good jumping-off point for your planning.

But as mentioned before, the more nuanced the prompt, the better ChatGPT’s output will be. So for instance, a B2B event marketing calendar for pipeline engagement will look entirely different to that of one aimed at customer engagement.

Time saved: Half a day 

Verdict: It’s not replacing you… as yet

Challenge #4: Write the best copy you’ve ever written for event SM promos

Unfortunately, B2B gets a bad rap for being boring, and by extension its events as well. That’s why spending a little extra time and brainpower to come up with creative and fun ways to come up with different ways to promote your event can make all the difference in driving registrations.

‍✅ How ChatGPT can help: Using just a straightforward prompt can help get the ball rolling.

The prompt:

The output:

‍Evaluation: Not bad at all.

And you can use it to write social copy for the post ideas it has come up with.

Chat GPT prompt and output:

‍Evaluation: It’s good copy (especially the disclaimer at the end!). And it gets the job done also because at this point, it has a lot of context about what you’re looking for. ChatGPT remembers the thread of your dialogue, using previous questions and answers to inform its next responses. 

And you can further refine the copy as per the social media channel you’re going to post on - for instance:

The prompt:

The output:

🔥🔥🔥🔥

And then why not ask ChatGPT to plan a calendar for promotion to boot. 

Chat GPT prompt and output:

Evaluation: No notes for this, just applause.

Clearly the chatbot can help streamline all your social media activities within a couple of minutes.

‍And you can take a similar approach with email marketing

In a similar way, use ChatGPT to write your promotional emails, registration confirmations, and reminder emails with the following prompts:

• Can you write an email invitation to Wile E Coyotes highlighting why this is a must-attend webinar?
• Can you write a last-chance to register email?
• Can you write an email reminding webinar registrants that the webinar starts in 1 hour.
• Can you write an email thanking attendees and letting them know the event’s content is now available on-demand?

Time saved: An entire day

Verdict: So fantastic you may be inspired to name your first-born after ChatGPT

‍Challenge #5: Act as real-time customer support on event page/app

A chatbot for event marketing on your landing page or mobile event app is indispensable because it helps your visitors get answers quickly and easily - whether they’re looking for directions to the venue or suggestions on which session they should attend. It helps to humanize your event and brand. And it frees up you and your team to focus on other tasks.

‍✅ How ChatGPT can help: It can help cut down time for you to put the questions and answers together - and add some personality.

The prompt and output:

Evaluation: It’s done a decent job, but the questions and answers are quite basic. 

You could probably get more from the ChatBot by first sharing a more full-fledged description of the event, and then prompting it for Q&A’s. And it’ll be up to event marketers to manually add a touch of brand personality or humor.

Time saved: 1-2 hours

‍Verdict: Very helpful

Final verdict: A friend indeed to those in need

Credit where credit is deserved: ChatGPT for event marketing delivers the goods more often than not. It cuts down time spent on research and writing, provides at least a framework of content that you can improve, and in general, speeds up your efficiency. 

This is especially effective if you combine the powers of ChatGPT and event automation - the combination of which (eg. getting ChatGPT to write your emails and then using the copy in automated email workflows), should cut your work in half. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how the tool can be integrated into events in real-time which opens up even more opportunities for its use.

But don’t worry event marketers, the ChatBot won’t be replacing you - at least not just yet. 

When the chatbot does result in lackluster responses, it can only be improved by you refining the prompt or providing more complete information to the chatbot. And it’s important to note that there is still a chance that it will create false or inaccurate information so will need a human marketer to check and approve everything it produces.

In the end, it’s a partnership between you as the event marketer and the AI. As with all friendships, you get out of it what you give.

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Other B2B event marketing tasks that you can use ChatGPT for:

• Attendee surveys
• Putting together event agendas
• Writing scripts for hosts 
• Create scripts for videos
• Creating promotional posts about/for your speakers
• Post-event landing page copy and promotions

Heard your customers or marketing peers talk about ‘deminars’ and wondered if you misheard the word ‘seminars’? 

The good news is, your hearing is just fine! 

Deminars are becoming increasingly popular among event marketers for their ability to convert audiences in real-time. But how? And are they the same as any other webinar?...

We’ll answer all that in this blog post.

But let’s start from the beginning?

‍What is a Deminar even?!!

‍

(And no, just in case you’re wondering, it isn’t a Demon + Gnar crossbreed, it’s a demo + webinar mashup)

Simply put, a deminar is a product demo that dresses itself in the form and style of a webinar. It allows you to combine the heft of a product-focused demo with the interactive and collaborative experience of a webinar. 

How are deminars different from the webinars we know and love?

While webinars are great for generating leads at the top of the funnel, deminars are a powerful tool for engaging prospects at the bottom of the funnel and converting them into customers.

In a deminar, you can demonstrate your product or service while having a real-time conversation with your prospects, which makes it an ideal format for driving conversions and closing deals.

So when your event mix combines webinars and deminars, you’re essentially creating a predictable pipeline that guides prospects through the entire buying cycle, from generating the lead to closing the deal. Booyah!

Why are deminars becoming popular?

As per this Forbes article on the ever-evolving B2B buyer process, nearly 60% of buyers prefer conducting their own research instead of communicating with sales representatives.

And typically, when buyers do their own research, their only options other than a demo call is reading your website or watching a video you have up; neither of these is interactive.

This is where a deminars serves as a bridge - it provides event marketers with a platform to influence high-intent prospects to make a purchasing decision in an open, interactive ‘show, don’t tell’ fashion. 

‍Highly recommended: To get first-hand experience of how a deminar looks and feels, check out Zuddl’s Product tour - it’s free!

So now that we’ve warmed up to the idea of deminars, let’s look at three great ways to use them to achieve business objectives.

Three effective ways to use deminars:

The Launchpad: 

Deminars are an excellent tool for product launches because they allow businesses to showcase their new offerings in a way that is interactive, engaging, and memorable.

Instead of simply talking about your product, you can demonstrate its features and benefits in real-time, answer questions, and provide additional context that can help potential customers see the value of what you're offering. 

Plus, by offering a fun and engaging experience, you'll increase the likelihood that attendees will share their experience with others and help spread the word about your launch.

Mind the Gap: 

As an event marketer, one of your goals is likely to establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. Deminars can be a great way to achieve this by providing valuable insights and education to potential customers. 

By showcasing your expertise and sharing your knowledge, you'll be able to build trust and credibility with your audience, which can help differentiate your brand from others in your space. Additionally, by focusing on education and thought leadership, you may be able to attract a wider audience beyond your current customer base, which can help drive growth over time.

The Onboarding Express: 

If you're looking for ways to improve customer retention and satisfaction, Deminars can be a powerful tool for onboarding and training. By offering personalized training sessions, you can help customers feel more confident in their ability to use your product or service, which can lead to increased adoption and usage over time. 

Additionally, by offering ongoing support through deminars, you can help customers feel more connected to your brand and more likely to continue using your product or service in the long-term.

The event marketing sous chef you didn’t know you need

Deminars bring a lot to the table - they have the potential to help you chop up your competition, season your event mix with the right messaging, and sauté new ideas to fill up the gaps in your event marketing program. 

Now, that’s an enviable platter of benefits.

As technology and member preferences change, your association might be experimenting with a variety of different event formats. 

Whether you’re mainly hosting virtual events or sticking to in-person functions, it can be hard to find the right mix that balances your association’s needs and resources with your members’ individual preferences. How do you align your traditional events and fundraising goals with new members who may only want to attend virtually?

In this article, we’re going to give you tips on how to strike the right balance of hybrid, online, and in-person events that takes everyone at your association into account. 

Survey your members often

Your events are for your members, so you should always start by consulting them and asking for their feedback.

Start by sending out post-event surveys to attendees. Then, work in periodic surveys for all of your members. You can include these surveys in your regular newsletter, up to once per quarter. 

In these quarterly surveys, ask your members a variety of questions about their general event preferences, such as: 

• What was your favorite event last year?
• What events would you like to attend in the future?
• How many virtual and in-person events did you attend this year?
• How can we improve accessibility at our events / make it easier for you to attend?
• Which event format do you prefer most: virtual, hybrid, or in-person?
• What is your objective when you attend our events?

Once you gather this data, you can use it to improve your events and find the right mix of event types to incorporate into your regular schedule. For example, if you’re hosting a charity auction and your guests prefer more hybrid events with the option to attend either in-person or virtually, you can use this data to explore options for mobile bidding software that will allow all guests to bid on items, regardless of their location. 

Weigh the benefits of each format

As you plan each individual event, evaluate the pros and cons of different formats, then select the format that will be most effective for that event. Start with a few of the most common benefits:

• In-person: With in-person events, you can build community with members, have face-to-face relationship building, and more easily create an environment where members can make connections with each other.
• Hybrid: Hybrid events add flexibility and accessibility for those who can’t attend in person, and the added virtual elements make events more engaging.
• Virtual: Virtual events will give you a wider reach and allow anyone to attend no matter where they are. These types of events are also less expensive because you need fewer resources to host them.

Again, you will need to decide which types of events will benefit your audience the most. If you have an association full of business owners who are scattered across a large geographic area, virtual events may garner more attendance and engagement. If you need a meeting of the minds to boost creative decision-making, an in-person event may be best.

Create a balanced calendar

Use your members’ preferences as a guide for hosting the right events, then schedule them intentionally to create a balanced calendar.

Space out different types and formats of events throughout the year. For example, maybe you host a hybrid auction in April and schedule an in-person fun run in September, then add in a micro event during the busy holiday season. When scheduling in-person and hybrid events, keep weather and event space availability in mind. 

Finally, make sure to align your event calendar with your marketing and fundraising campaign calendars. For example, schedule a celebratory event in person to round out your year-end campaign efforts. You can also host a livestreamed virtual event on Giving Tuesday to garner donations.

Use software to make hosting all events easier

No matter what ratio of in-person to virtual events you decide on for your association, the right technology can improve all of your events. 

Here are a few examples of online platforms that can elevate any event:

• Auction software: With the right auction software, you can raise more money, communicate with your guests via text, and even create an event landing page that matches your association’s branding.
• Pledge fundraising platforms: These platforms allow you to easily collect pledges for donations for any type of event. Even if your event is fully in-person, managing pledges online streamlines giving and makes the event more hassle-free for everyone.
• Online donation forms: Simply the donation process for all events with forms that are easy to fill out from a phone or laptop. Embed the form on your association’s website, then link to it in all promotional and follow-up communications for the event.

You can use the advancement of technology and smartphones to increase your event engagement and fundraising participation. Evaluate your association’s needs and budget to determine which software would be most beneficial to invest in, then incorporate it into your overall event strategy to see longstanding results.

The right blend will drive higher event ROI

When using these tips to create a balanced event calendar, keep your budget, resources, and past experiences in mind. Remember that no one format is a silver bullet. Instead, you can use various elements from each one of these tips to create a unique event mix to fit your specific needs—all while still addressing the desires of your members and meeting your association’s goals.

Don't blame us if you notice a 'spring' in our step...

Because we've just been showered with over 60 G2 badges across 8 categories in G2's Spring 2023 awards.

Yep, yep. G2 recently released its Grid® Report for Spring 2023, and here are key highlights from our latest haul.

Leader

Categories: Webinar and Virtual Event Platform

Products featured in the Leader quadrant of the Grid® Report are highly rated by G2 users and boast significant satisfaction and market presence scores.

High performer

Categories: Audience Response, Event Networking and Matchmaking, Event Marketing, Mobile Event Apps, Event Management Platforms, Event Registration & Ticketing

The High Performer quadrant in the Grid® Report showcases products with excellent customer satisfaction scores and relatively low market presence compared to other products in the same category.

Easiest to use

Categories: Webinar, Event Management Platform, Event Registration & Ticketing

This is awarded to the product ranked as the most user-friendly in the Usability Index received the highest rating for ease of use within its category.

Here are other noteworthy wins:

- Easiest setup - Webinar, Event Management Platforms, Event Registration & Ticketing

- Best support (mid-market) - Audience Response, Webinar, Event Management Platform

- Easiest To Do Business With (Enterprise)

These badges are a reflection of our customers’ trust, and we’re all the more motivated to simplify B2B events and deliver delight continually! 💪

Ever felt like you're playing a game of marketing ping-pong with your sales team at a B2B event, but the ball keeps bouncing off in different directions? We feel you! Collaboration can be difficult, but it's also extremely important.

As per our 2022 survey on B2B eent trends, 58% of B2B marketers use pipeline generation to measure event success, so it’s clear that sales-marketing collaboration will play a pivotal role in driving revenue through B2B events. 

So how do we remove the obstacles that prevent us from aligning seamlessly with sales? The first step is to have an actionable plan.

Today, we’ll look at specific steps event marketers can take to ensure they better align with their sales counterparts at every stage of a B2B event.

Before the event:

The first thing you’d want to do is to align sales in the event strategy phase itself. Asking the right questions in your before-event huddle is crucial:

• What metrics will determine the success of this event?
• What is your target number of high-intent leads that you hope to convert into closed sales during or after the event?
• What methods will you use to gauge your success in advancing deals?
• What kind of return on investment is being looked at?

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During the event:

Once the event unfolds, the focus should be on gaining a detailed understanding of the behavior of your attendees during the event. This includes analyzing the specific questions they ask during sessions and their reactions to in-session polls.

With proper context to each attendee’s journey, sales can tailor relationship building efforts in a relevant manner. 

‍For example, you can provide top priority contacts with links to personal breakout rooms where you can respond to their questions and discuss their preferred topics.

Take me to the complete during-event checklist

After your event: 

The phrase ‘strike while the iron’s hot’ has never been more relevant to events! It’s crucial to follow-up with your prospects while the impact of the event is still in their minds; anything after this sweet spot is a shot in the dark! When sales and marketing have a shared understanding of event performance, both teams can work together to prioritize leads and quickly follow up on the most promising opportunities.  empowering sales with quick follow-up event content is key here, so plan your giveaways ahead of time, such as

• An email with the recording of your event + inviting feedback 
• A relevant ebook or report that your sales team can use to add more value to their outreach 

Just so you don't miss a single step, we've created an actionable checklist to track all your alignment activities.

... and that's about it for now.

Try implementing these steps for your upcoming events; you'll definitely notice the difference! By aligning better with your sales team, you can not only bring better returns with every B2B event but also ensure that the messaging and positioning of your company is consistent, which is necessary to build trust and credibility with potential customers.

Also read: How event technology can influence sales-marketing collaboration

For professionals working remotely, communities are all the rage. They are trusted inner circles that help them grow, connect, interact and upskill. 

But what separates a thriving online community from the rest?

Events.

A variety of community events can play a huge role not only in engaging members but also in connecting professionals and building relationships.

To understand this from an insider’s perspective, we recently spoke to Asher Mathew, CEO & co-founder, Partnership Leaders. Asher runs a community that’s dedicated to providing a space for (yes, you guessed it) partnership professionals to come together, share and gain insights, upskill and grow.

Here are the four top takeaways from the conversation:

Have a game plan

For starters, you’ll need a marketing function to manage and run your community’s event needs. Once you have your marketing team in place, it helps to get the pulse of what your members are talking about or interested in learning. 

Here’s how Asher describes his event strategy for Partnership Leaders:

“We would take the top conversations that are happening inside of PL and would say, okay I think people would want to listen to about this and so we would just run a webinar or event on the topic.”

From a quarterly perspective, Partnership Leaders’ event programs are typically broken into:

• Month one: Do a event that is crowdsourced 
• Month two: Do another event that was crowdsourced
• Month three: we would do a much larger event and bring thought leaders from outside onto a virtual event to talk about the same two topics.

‍The best time to start running events is now

For those starting off with creating a community, is there a perfect time to consider hosting a webinar or virtual event? 

Asher suggests the sooner the better, simply because of the power that events hold in getting people together.

“When you run an event, you can connect people on a panel, and then there's another relationship that those people form, so events really help you promote people's brands”, says Asher.

Co-creation is the way to go

To truly run events that make a difference to your community members or promise value to prospective members, it pays to understand what they want. This is where it can be a great idea to, let’s say, involve your members while you’re conceptualizing your topics and sessions and get real-time inputs as you put your event together.

Asher highly recommends this approach for anyone looking to engage and grow their community with events. 

“Our upcoming conference, Catalyst, is being built with its attendees - so the 150 or so people that have bought tickets already are participating in building the content for the conference! it's just a very different way of building something and making sure that you ensure value because the people are on the journey with you.”

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Measure event success from different angles

Any event’s success is tied to its goals. For communities, events are run to engage and nurture existing members as well as to acquire new ones. When we asked Asher how he measures the success of events at Partnership Leaders, he suggested looking at events as products.

“You really need to look at event as a product and say well what is the output of the event? Yes it is about attracting new prospects and converting them into customers but the customer success view of an event is to promote people's brands, connect them at a different level and help them tell their story so that they can be viewed as a human who has rich experiences.” 

He then adds that you can gauge your event’s success from these angles:

• From a customer acquisition perspective, look at how much your database has increased in terms of new sign ups, post your event

• From a customer success perspective, track how many members attended your event, how many times have they attended your events in a year - this will help you with renewals.

So, go ahead and consider experimenting with four strategies outlined here. By running successful events, you’ll not only help grow your community but also deepen your relationship with your existing members. 

Also, it doesn’t hurt to listen to your community's feedback and adjust your approach accordingly to ensure your events continue to meet their needs and expectations!

We’ve already written about the many events in 2023 that marketers would be interested to attend, but of the many, Pavilion’s  in-person CMO Summit is one to highlight. 

What is Pavilion?

Pavilion is a community-powered learning platform for high-growth professionals such as CEOs, GTM leaders and their teams. The company is known for its learning suite of solutions such as the structured training in Pavilion University, private, moderated peer groups and in-person events, which all aim to help current and future leaders unlock and achieve their professional potential.

When is their CMO Summit?

March 23, 2023

Where is it?

San Francisco, CA

And why should you attend it?

You’ll get a front-row seat to learn from leaders who have succeeded in driving results for their teams. We love that it’s no-nonsense, and straight-to-the-point. This one’s a hidden gem.

Let’s dive into what you can expect from the event.

🎯🔑Expert-led sessions with leaders from Hubspot and Gong

When you attend the Summit, you’ll be in the same room from some of the most knowledgeable minds in the industry, learning strategies and getting advice from bigwigs at top Saas companies like RedHat, Postal, Demandbase, and 6sense. These expert-led educational sessions cover topics like using benchmarking data to build your budget, calculating ROI on marketing efforts, and aligning sales and marketing.

You’ll learn from Kipp Bodnar, CMO at Hubspot, about what he’s learned as part of the team that has grown HubSpot to an $800M company? And from 6sense CMO, Latane Conant about how she (and therefore you) is thinking about budget and CFO alignment, pipeline creation trends and how to adjust in a tough economic climate.

Plus, you’ll hear directly from these leaders too:

• Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist, Gong
• Kyle Coleman, SVP Marketing, Clari
• Will Allred Co-Founder, Lavender
• Stephanie Robotham Value Accelerator Operating Advisor,
  Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Who’d want to miss out on this? Not us, that’s for sure.

🔍📈Deep-dive panels and roundtables

The CMO Summit’s panels enable you to get different perspectives from industry experts about a topic - it’s essentially access to complimentary consulting, and it’s a huge value. The learnings are further augmented by moderated roundtable discussions with peers.

Here are a couple of panels that we’re looking forward to:

• How data is fueling results in modern marketing organizations
  In the era of big data, the CMOs that have the biggest impact will be those who embrace the power of analytics. This panel will explore how marketers are using data to get ahead.

• Positioning to WIN in an Era of SaaS Rationalization
  At a time when buyers are cutting their SaaS spend, this panel will dig deeper into how leading SaaS marketers are using positioning to stand out and drive pipeline.

🤝 Opportunities to network with CMOs + VPs from top brands

At the CMO Summit, you’ll have plenty of chances to connect and network with marketing and demand generation leaders from around the world; there are breaks scheduled during the day as well as a networking happy hour you can look forward to. Additionally, there’s a VIP and All Access Attendee Dinner at the end of the day that you could be invited to attend.

The takeaway

With the industry continuing to evolve at a rapid pace, practitioners must keep pace for their businesses to stay relevant. At Pavilion’s CMO Summit, you’ll be able to learn how to win today’s race whilst running tomorrow’s through insights and advice you can’t get anywhere else.

In the world of B2B events, success hinges on much more than simply gathering people in a room. As per our trends report, today’s attendees are hyper-focused on finding tactical value at an event. Hence, the key to making these events truly transformative lies in the feedback loops you design.

In this article, Alex Temple, Senior Corporate Relations Manager at Explori and also a PADI-certified diving instructor will help us ‘dive’ into the nitty gritty of all things feedback.

This is a must-read if you’re looking to design feedback loops that can unlock the full potential of your events.

Let your event objective be your guide

One of the key factors to designing a solid feedback loop is to identify the goal behind your event. Why are you having the event? What do you want to help your attendees achieve through it?

Once you answer these questions, your approach to designing feedback will be more focused and aligned to your event.

“So I think the first thing would be to think about your objectives, design your questions around how we can understand how people have met the objectives that we want them to meet and then designing the survey from there and cutting out things that don't actually matter.” says Alex.

Analyze your event metrics from a holistic point of view

While popular customer experience metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) are important to track, they need to be viewed with context. Firstly, getting an idea of the current benchmark can help you better understand your NPS. Secondly, it helps to dig into the score and see how many attendees have voted for a particular score - this will help you better improve your events.

Alex illustrates this point with a good example. “So let's have a look at the people who scored six, let's have a look at their comments and if we can bump them up next year into your seven and eight, you know, and your sevens and eights and nines and tens, then all of a sudden you've got this massive switch swing upwards as a positive NPS.”

Talking about having a more complete understand of feedback, he states, “Use NPS as part of a suite of metrics that measure every aspect or different aspects of the event experience and then kind of bring those together so that you can actually look at it from a holistic viewpoint.”

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How the 5-step feedback loop methodology can help you get started

For event marketers who are thinking of incorporating feedback into their event strategy, a great place to start is by following the feedback loop methodology, which Alex breaks into five clear steps.

‍Want better feedback? Always close the loop

When it comes to collecting feedback from attendees, involving them in the process of building their experience can have a significant impact on the quality and honesty of the feedback received. By giving them a sense of ownership in the process, attendees are more likely to provide thoughtful and insightful feedback that can help improve the overall event experience.

To this end, Alex stresses the importance of closing the loop with your audience. “The way to drive response rate and drive engagement with surveys and feedback is to complete that feedback loop.  Once you have decided that you're going to make a change based on what your audience said, tell your audience that that's what you're going to do, don't hide from it.”

So as you see, measuring your events isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have! By showing the value of our events, B2B marketers can secure more budget, create better experiences, and propel businesses forward. 

Prefer to consume your content via audio? Head to our podcast episode with Alex!

When Fast Company published a piece by Elizabeth Segran asking if we can ‘finally kill off cheap, disposable conference swag?’, it really struck a nerve.

The promotional products industry body (up in arms) issued a statement challenging the piece’s thesis that people throw away most of the free goodies they receive at events. Twitterati angrily tweeted that the piece was “really out of touch with the industry of giveaways.” And other industry voices chimed in saying that everyone loves promotional products, and that they get the job done.

But Segran’s got a point. 

It’s not that swag should be altogether done away with, only that which is cheap and disposable. Think about it: how many times have you thrown away a free badge or paperweight given to you? The point is that companies need to create merchandise that is so fantastic that they’ll keep your business in the minds of other conference attendees long after the event is over.

However, that’s far easier said than done, especially with challenges around cost and considerations around sustainability in the mix. So we asked Vishal Krishna, Zuddl Designer Extraordinaire, who designed Zuddl’s swag kit for IMEX, for tips on how to create your most memorable swag kit yet.

1. General vs. specific purpose

“The more specific the goals you have in mind when designing your swag kit, the better its effectiveness”, says Vishal. 

In other words, all marketers have the same overarching goals when it comes to swag - namely, increase your brand visibility, awareness + recall, and amplifying lead gen efforts. But when evaluating event swag ideas, you need to unpack your big-picture goals into more specific goals. This will make it that much more actionable.

For instance, ask yourselves:

• Do you want your brand to drive immediate impact (give attendees something they can use or wear immediately at the conference) or more long-term (something that they can take back and use at the office everyday)?

• Do you want to be remembered for swag that is completely unique to that of everyone else, or just want to ensure that you’re able to hand something to visitors to your booth?

• Do you want to give away something to remember you by, or create an experience that keeps them at your booth longer (like a swag spin-the-wheel)?

The answers to these questions will help you shape your swag kit items.

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2. Make Mario Kondo’s mantra your own: items must be useful, durable and/or beautiful

You can’t just think of anything, stamp your logo on it and then call it a day. “Ideally, you want the gifts you’re giving attendees to add some value to their lives, or at the least make their day-to-day easier”, points out Vishal.

Examples of useful, branded swag include:

• Tote bags: Can be extremely effective in driving short and long-term awareness, as attendees can use the bags to carry swag from other businesses at the conference, and use it well after the event ends - maybe for groceries, or for use on your commute. Protip: Don’t put a date on your bag, unless it’s worthy of memorializing.

• Mobile charges or power banks: There’s nothing worse than your phone suddenly dying on you, and especially on a day that requires you to be using it to take down notes or the numbers of new leads or partners. That’s why a mobile charger or powerbank will be happily received and definitely be used for years.

• Water bottles: Reusable bottles are a great option as attendees are bound to use it after the event, either taking it to the office or to the gym, promoting your brand to anyone who sees it.

• Wireless earbuds: Small and high-value — this is something that attendees will want to hold on to.'

• Seasonal items: Attendees are bound to pick up and use items that are practical, and relevant to the conference location. For instance, if it’s a winter conference, some warm scarves would be a nice touch, or sunscreen or flip flops at a summer conference.
  
  As these will all probably make the flight home to attendee’s homes or offices and (hopefully) serve as a reminder of your existence around them for months and years on end, you’ll be getting an incredible amount of mileage from this seemingly benign top-of-the-funnel activity investment.
  
  In fact, 89% of consumers can recall the brand on a promotional item they received within two years. To quote, Rob Clark, Sr. Director, Insights, Intelligence & Measurement at Proof Strategies Inc, here’s why durable swag matters so much:

3. Choose items that are highly visible

“There’s no point in making items like stationary (think paper pads, diaries) because they’ll probably just be hoarded and never see the light of day”, says Vishal.

So ideally, your swag items need to be ones that come into contact with/or are seen by a lot of people on a daily basis. Your visibility doesn’t end with the campaign, and keeps going for as long as your products last and are used. It increases your reach and repeats exposure, boosting brand awareness.

Umbrellas, daily-use cosmetics, and stickers are a great example of this type of swag.

4. Apparel can be a hit or a miss

Tshirt, sweatshirts and sweatpants can seem like a great option to include in your swag kit because they can be worn in many different contexts outside of the event and because by wearing them, attendees act as walking billboards. “However, anything that requires you to customize items based on gender and size can become too complicated very quickly”, says Vishal. Here’s why:

• Issues with fit - Today, there’s no one-size-fits-all. If your carefully ordered t-shirts arrive and you find that they don’t fit recipients the way you thought it might, it’s a waste of time, money and effort. A promotional t-shirt that doesn’t get worn isn’t really promoting anything.

• Ordering the right number of sizes is tricky - You might assume that you can just order the same number of small, medium and large sizes but this can cause issues. You might quickly run out of popular sizes, which would mean that some attendees would have to pick from sizes that don’t fit, or don’t receive a t-shirt at all. Or you could be left with a large number of leftover sizes.

5. Make them ergonomic OR go virtual

“Don't’ go for large items,” Vishal warns. Not only will this be a logistical nightmare for you (as you’ll have to oversee shipping/delivery from place of production to the venue), but also for attendees; no one wants to lug around heavy and cumbersome pieces of merch for hours. 

Ideally you want to choose items that are easy to ship and easy to carry. If items are too heavy, too large, or weirdly shaped, they’ll probably be ditched at the venue, hotel room or airport.

You can also opt to give away a virtual swag kit with goodies such as gift cards/vouchers or masterclasses/ebooks/whitepapers/ and other exclusive content - like for instance, in Zuddl's case it would be our brand new ebook 'The Guide To Before-Event Marketing: Basics, Best Practices, Blunders' which is packed with insights from industry experts, proven strategies, free checklists etc. to help you solve all your challenges, from sourcing event speakers quickly to choosing which format is right foryour next event (#shamelessplug).

While it might not seem as exciting as something tangible, virtual merchandise comes with a lot of advantages:

1. No logistical nightmares 
2. It’s a data goldmine as you can easily track when attendees access the bag or used a gift in it such as gift coupons
3. It’s more sustainable
4. It lets you deliver a more personalized experience (see point 6 of this piece)
5. You can be more creative with the types of gifts you can give. For example, you could give experiences around wellness (gift cards to yoga and fitness classes, discounts to gym memberships) or philanthropy (donations to a relevant charity).

‍

6.Go green if possible

More than 60% of consumers in the U.S. want businesses to improve societal and environmental issues (“Millennial and Gen-Z consumers are far more socially conscious than generations that came before” writes Segran in her piece). You can set yourself apart and make a powerful impact by prioritizing intentionality and sustainability in your branded merchandise.

To this end, virtual swag options like the ones we listed before are a good option to be more sustainable.  Alternatively, check to see if you can opt for your items to be made from biodegradable, recyclable or renewable materials. Since many companies still rely on cheap, plastic promotional products, it can be quite simple to stand out from your competitors.

You will need to make a decision about how much you want to invest in your products. Eco-friendly swag can also benefit your business, but it is often more expensive than standard items.

7. And personalize if possible

Everyone loves feeling special, so it’s no surprise that anything personalized leads to better outcomes (90% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that provide tailored experiences). But often companies decide to avoid this route as they think it involves a lot of extra effort. It doesn’t need to be. Here are two simple ways to personalize your swag:

• ‍Let attendees build their own kit: Offering attendees the opportunity to personalize their swag kit can result in big dividends. For example, Postal’s Field Marketing team created branded t-shirt shaped cards that had a QR code on them. When scanned, attendees could access a collection of items that could be customized, such as a tote bag or t-shirt, and which would be sent directly to their addresses.

The effort to personalize paid off, with the gambit delivering 7 opportunities and creating $155k in pipeline for Postal’s sales team.

Here’s another example:

• Personalize it for them:
  Use registration forms creatively, and insert a few leading questions to help you identify what branded products the attendee will most likely use and benefit from. This could be “How stressful is using 5 different tools to market and run your event?”  If they mark this as ‘high’, include some calming tea or a stress ball in their kit. If they mark this as ‘low’, then give them a branded Rubix cube because they’re already a master of solving complex problems.‍

8. There’s nothing like a little intrigue to get people to come to your booth

Most companies will give away free stuff, so that alone is not enough to stand out (if that’s your aim from your swag). Try and find something that is unique and creates a memorable brand moment.

Here’s a great example of a creative conference giveaway:

When attendees at a Marketingprofs event reached the venue, they received a swag bag filled with promotional information about exhibition booths in the hall.  

Directive Consulting, a B2B search marketing agency, used that opportunity in an extremely creative way. They gave attendees an exclusive key that could open a safe at their booth which had an  Apple Watch to be won. Naturally, this prompted attendees to go to the booth, resulting in way more traffic than if they had simply given away a brochure. 

It was a genius tactic, because it recreates the same thrill of opening a gift on Christmas morning, or opening a parcel from Amazon. Something attendees won’t forget.

9. Be a careful buyer

While it’s important that you don’t skimp on quality, it’s also essential that you shop around for the best deal. The last thing you want to do is settle for a vendor that doesn’t have your brand color, or won’t send you samples before you make a bulk purchase. 

Resources: Use our swag vendor evaluation checklist to make the right choice.

10. And an even more cautious printer

Now that you’ve got a better idea of what types of items you can put together for your swag kit, we’ll leave you with just a word of caution about what to get printed onto them. “Just stamping your logo onto products won’t do”, says Vishal. “People don’t want to be walking billboards, and they won’t wear products with logos unless the brand is aspirational or a luxury brand. So therefore, you need to incorporate a lifestyle element into your design, or make it relatable in some way, like using a pop-culture reference.”

No one in the conference has swagger like us

With hundreds of businesses competing for attention at a conference, a well-designed swag kit can act as a silver bullet. A single piece of merchandise can generate tens of thousands of impressions, drive heavy booth traffic, and can result in booked meetings as well as a huge increase in opportunity value. It just requires more than choosing any item and slapping your logo on it.The more thoughtfulness you show in creating a useful or fun experience, the further it will take you with attendees. 

Resources: Use our swag vendor evaluation checklist to make the right choice.

Event tech today is nowhere near where it was even 6 months ago — because the industry itself is constantly evolving, and goal posts are continually shifting. Zoom fatigue might have been the primary challenge a year ago, but today it’s creating demand (as per 62% of marketers), and it’ll be something else a few months down the road.

Our Co-founder and CTO, Vedha Sayyaparaju joined other panelists at a recent discussion hosted by NXUnite to speak about High tech, high impact: Event Technology for modern associations and mission-driven businesses. Panelists discussed challenges around tech, and offered insight and advice. Here are the three top takeaways from the talk:

1. Let the goals of your event determine what features you need to look for in an event platform

There’s so much tech nowadays that being able to choose from what’s available can be overwhelming. Start by analyzing your event goals, as this will help you zoom in on where and how technology can help. And this then becomes what you need to look for in the platforms you evaluate, the panelists recommend.

For instance, perhaps your registration is too cumbersome so you would look for platforms that could help with that. “Look at where your inefficiencies are - where are you spending so much time on low return or high risk” said speaker Nikki Bell, Co-Founder at Fundraising Everywhere.

2. But don’t feel pressured to use all the features available on the platform you choose

Echoing an earlier point: there’s so much tech available, and as each platform is always promoting its suite of features, people can feel pressured to use every single feature that is available to them. But this is a mistake.

“You don’t need to use everything,” cautioned Vedha. “All the features on the platform you’re using may not be a fit for the goal of your event or for its agenda. So you need to really first figure out what is the experience you want to curate and then choose features that enable that.”

3. You don’t have to go it alone. Lean on the event community for help

“Be bold”, urged the panelists. Having to navigate the modern event landscape can be scary - the industry is changing as are audiences, but organizers shouldn’t let this discourage them, and can lean on the event community for help. Here’s how:

• Ask peers for advice: “People are more forthcoming nowadays about their experience hosting events'', Vedha said.” They are more willing to share tactics - what worked and what didn’t.” Your peers in the community are therefore a great resource to turn to, and happy to share what they learned over the past few years. (Click here to join our online community for event professionals!)

• Work with experienced partners: Working with a company that has worked in turn with many others in the event space can be helpful. “They’ve already seen others through [event hosting] journeys, and can help guide you,” Vedha said. “They can tell you what worked best, and what mistakes to avoid making.”

• You don’t have to invent the wheel: Attend as many other virtual events as you can and look to ones you enjoyed for inspiration, Vedha recommended. “It’s okay to see what you like at those events and pick up ideas from there. You don’t need to be the first to try something entirely new.”

Want to hear more?

Watch a video recording of the entire panel here!

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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We’re firmly in the ‘you can never have too much of a good thing’ camp, especially when it comes to events - and marketing conferences in particular.  

Getting together with marketing peers and experts, learning from each other, and making useful professional connections can be energizing, exciting, and dare we say it ‘fun’?) It’s why we’ve put together a list of top B2B marketing conferences that one can attend in 2023. 

But let’s be honest. The list we’ve put together will only grow longer and longer. 

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However, there’s only so many marketing conferences you can attend in a year before your manager looks askance at your time off requests and your expenditure slips. So how, out of hundreds of events, do you choose the ones that will be the best value for your time and money?

The ones that help you prove ROI to your managers (ie. those that help you achieve your goals within your budget).

Here’s how to figure this out/what to take into account when making a case to management:‍

1.  Your goals

Why do you want to attend this conference? Is it to drive brand awareness? To drive pipeline for your sales team? To get insights and new ideas in your field, and upskill? The answer will determine what type of audience you want to reach and interact with whilst attending the conference.

To this end, do not hesitate to email conference organizers for any information they can share about the attendee profile - industry, company size and location for example, or any other factors that are important to your ICP. At a minimum, ask for a previous year’s attendee list.

2. Location, location, location

In 2022, the event ecosystem evolved to see a co-existence of all formats, so this year you’ll find marketing conferences in a variety of shapes, sizes and formats. For example, while Salesforce’s Dreamforce will be held in-person at San Francisco this year, Adobe’s Summit will be hybrid, with attendees able to join virtually or at the venue in Las Vegas.

So the essential question a la Hamlet is: to travel or not to travel.

Pros: An in-person B2B marketing conference is great for marketers who are hungry to feel part of a crowd, to socialize, collaborate and network via spontaneous watercooler conversations - and thrive from it. Yes, most things can be accomplished virtually, but there is still no substitute for some in-person intangible experiences: a new relationship forged over a drink at a bar near the venue, or a level of trust that’s built from a casual conversation about sports teams or Netflix shows and a handshake for instance. 

Cons: However, putting people on planes is not cheap. And spending that extra dollar for fuel, hotels, food, and drink at the event all adds up. (Plus, for eco-conscious organizations, there’s the environmental cost of transportation to reckon with). Consider whether that amount would be better spent attending a conference or marketing summit that have virtual components.

3. Opportunity cost

Very simply, this is the marketer’s equivalence of FOMO. If you don’t go to the marketing conferences you’ve picked out, what connections or partnerships would be lost? Or what knowledge or skill set would you miss out on? 

For instance, in this age of AI and ChatGPT, marketers who don’t already know how best to leverage these tools are already a step behind the competition. Wouldn’t it be invaluable to hear experts share their successes and cautionary tales? Keep in mind that the average impact for a single cost-saving improvement idea is around $31,043.

It’s not always just a question of, “Is this event worth the money” but also “What would be the qualitative cost to your team? or “Which option gives me the comparative advantage?” which leads us neatly to our next point.

4. Competitors and competitive advantages

Checking to see whether your competitors, or other successful companies that you may look up to attended the marketing conference last year, and whether they were able to drive engagement from it can help you better understand the potential ROI for your business. 

5. Speaking opportunities

If you plan to attend a marketing summit as an attendee, well and good. If you can attend as a speaker, even better. To this end, check the conference website to see if they’ve put out a call for speakers, or send organizers an email explaining your interest leading a session or joining a panel.

This contributes to ROI in many ways:

1. You can establish yourself and your business as an expert in the industry 
2. You can reach cross sections of people who are likely to use your products or services an increase brand awareness.
3. It's a great PR opportunity
4. While compensation for speaking at conferences varies, at the least organizers will usually waive attendance fee. As they say, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.

6. Exhibiting and sponsorship

Check to see what the exhibition and sponsorship package prices are for any conferences you plan to go to as an attendee. If you’re going to fly halfway around the world to attend the conference, you might as well make the most out of it.

Exhibiting

Pros: Exhibiting enables you to increase exposure and connect with prospects on a personal level by letting them experience the product firsthand. 

Cons: However, it’s expensive. Booths are priced as per size and placement so the better options can be pricey, and you’ll also have to pay for add-ons like an internet connection at the booth (yep!). And you need to factor in the costs required for booth design such as banners, standees and swag. These add up, so you should figure them out in advance.

‍Sponsoring

Pros: Based on the sponsorship opportunities available - eg. gift drops at attendee hotel rooms, branding at venue touchpoints, sponsored sessions - you’ll be able to reach and connect with the audience in a way you normally would not be able to. 

Additionally, as a sponsor you usually will receive an attendee mailing list aka the motherlode. 

Cons: There is no guaranteed return on investments because of the complexity involved in attribution; the results of sponsorship are more tenuous than the effect of an ad campaign. The conference audience may or may not remember your brand after the event, and consequently may not follow up on a CTA from an email or a phone call.

7. How much content can you create by attending

You’ve got to be able to squeeze every drop of ROI you can.

So evaluate what kinds of content you can generate from going to the conference, for instance can you write a blog post recapping your experience and learnings from the event (we did this after attending IMEX 2022 - read our piece here). Whilst at the event, can you interview some of the speakers or other leaders of companies attending the conference for your podcast?

The more opportunities you identify to create content from the event that can be used to generate awareness, traffic and pull leads into your funnel, the more compelling the argument to attend.

A short recap/TLDR

As you’ve seen, when evaluating which conferences to attend this year, you’ll need to check the expenses vs. the benefits of attending. While some factors are qualitative and some quantitative, when you get down to the brass tacks, it all comes down to how much pipeline (or how many opportunities) you should be able to generate, and therefore how much you can afford to spend.

The factors that we think should go into your decision-making is not exhaustive, but it's a good start.

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

In today's fast-paced business environment, events play a critical role in driving brand awareness, lead generation, and customer engagement. However, with so many different types of events available, it can be challenging to understand how to effectively leverage them to drive marketing success. 

In this post, we'll explore 5 ways to map your events to your marketing funnel to ensure that they are aligned with your overall business goals and objectives by channelling expert insights from seasoned event marketer, Kelsey Taylor, who recently joined us for a webinar as part of our Event Heroes series!

1. Let your event goal dictate your format

One important factor that will help you determine your event format is the objective of your event, says Kelsey. In other words, defining the desired outcome of the event will inform you about which format will help you achieve it best.

“If you're launching a new product or have new features to share, a webinar either pre-recorded or live is a great way to deliver this message especially to your customers.”

2. Use the crawl-walk-run approach to mixing event formats

When asked about whether there’s an ideal stage at which companies should consider mixing up their event formats, Kelsey recommended starting with simple, low-stakes events, and gradually increasing the complexity and scale of events over time. This can help organizations to build the necessary skills and infrastructure to successfully execute larger, more complex events in the future. 

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“You can look at what’s working really well across your marketing functions, and where you see places where you can insert something different and test things out.”

3. Think long-term when it comes to attendee experience

When asked about how to create attendees who will want to continually engage with your brand, Kelsey’s pertinent advice was to think beyond just one event and rather view each event as part of a larger audience-building process.

“Continuing to think strategically and take into consideration and take good care of your attendees no matter what they attend will build that obsessive brand for your events.“

4. Your average deal size can help you determine your event budget

While there is no rule of thumb when it comes to setting your event budget in stone, Kelsey recommends using your average deal size as an indicator while formulating your event budget.

“If we're going to have 10 people at an event and an average deal size of let's say ten thousand dollars, we need to have at least double that in the room to make it worth it.”

5. Ensure your event content is actionable

While tracing the evolution of event needs, Kelsey highlighted that the bar for events is much higher compared to pre-COVID times, as attendees have limited time to offer to events, and that they’ll only look for events that give them tactical value.

“We want to ensure that we're delivering valuable actionable insights that they can take back to their teams and implement immediately, again no matter the format. 

There isn't really anything worse than attending an event and really not finding any value in it!”

Want to catch the full conversation? Click here!

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

As a B2B marketer, staying up-to-date with the latest strategies and best practices is essential to your success. Now, a classic way to do this is by reading renowned books that have helped many a B2B marketer (scroll down to see our top picks!)

But since books may not be everybody’s go-to medium to learn these days, we’ve also curated some super-insightful podcasts that you can listen to no matter where you are! 

So without further ado, let’s get right to it.

 The B2B bookworm’s definitive wishlist:

For our list of must-read books for every B2B marketer, we’ve put together a good mix of thought leadership, actionable takeaways and a generous serving of inspiration. So if you’ve kept your reading habit alive in this digital age, firstly, we salute you! 

Set the mood, put on your reading light and zone out from the rest of the world with any of these valuable reads:

1. "Predictable Revenue" by Aaron Ross: This book provides a step-by-step guide to building a predictable and scalable B2B sales process. It covers topics such as developing a targeted prospect list, creating a sales script, and using outbound sales to drive revenue.

2. "The Marketing Performance Blueprint" by Paul Roetzer: The great thing about this book is that it readily offers a framework for improving marketing performance and driving results. It covers topics such as setting marketing goals, measuring success, and creating a culture of continuous improvement.

3. "The Challenger Sale" by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson: This book focuses on the importance of challenging the status quo and teaching customers something new in the B2B sales process. It offers strategies for creating value and differentiating yourself from the competition.

4. "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott: Talk about a true classic in the field of B2B marketing and PR! This book covers the fundamental shift that has occurred in how businesses market and communicate with their audience. Scott provides practical advice on how to use the internet and social media to reach and engage with customers in a more authentic and effective way.

5. “Unleash Possible: A Marketing Playbook that Drives B2B Sales” by Samantha Stone: In this read, Samantha doesn’t just tell you what you need to do in order to facilitate high-growth marketing in a complex selling environment, but also tells you how you can do it. If partnering with sales to get the right results is on top of your priority list (and it should be), this is an important read!

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Plug into these podcasts

As of December 2022, podcasts had approximately 424 million listeners worldwide! And it’s no surprise - in this world where convenience is highly regarded, podcasts have the unique ability to permeate into all kinds of daily activity - you can consume podcast content when you’re travelling, on your morning jog, during your drive to work or even when you’re in bed!

Here are the shows that made it to our list:

1. "The B2B Marketing Show": Tune in to this show to listen to a wide range of B2B marketing topics, including content marketing, lead generation, and sales enablement.
2. "B2B Growth Show": This podcast is a gem if you’re looking for interviews with B2B marketing experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who share their insights on how to grow a B2B business. The hosts cover a wide range of topics, including content marketing, lead generation, sales, and customer acquisition.
3. "The B2B Revenue Executive Experience": Geared towards B2B sales and marketing professionals, this show features interviews with executives who share their experiences and insights on how to drive revenue growth. The show covers topics such as lead generation, sales enablement, customer experience, and more.
4. "The B2B Mix Show": This podcast is designed for B2B marketers and features interviews with industry experts and thought leaders who share their insights on the latest trends and best practices in B2B marketing. The hosts cover a wide range of topics, including content marketing, lead generation, social media, and more.
5. Backstage with Zuddl: Last but not the least, we have our own podcast on B2B events that we totally recommend. Since events are going to be a core part of driving revenue in 2023, we highly recommend you tune into our show to get on-ground insights from marketing leaders in the event industry. To start with, check out our super-popular episode with special guest Emily Kramer, co-founder of MKT1.

So there you have it, folks! Whether you prefer to learn through reading or listening, these books and podcasts offer valuable insights and strategies for B2B marketers looking to stay ahead of the game!

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

2023. This new year brings B2B marketers the opportunity to be better and do better than last year.  This means that over the next 365 days, you can:

• catch up on everything you avoided learning in 2022
• sharpen your skills
• learn from the smartest people in the industry

There are a variety of ways to do this based on your learning style - you can read articles or LinkedIn threads online, listen to a podcast or attend some of the best B2B marketing events throughout the year. The perks? Based on the format of the event, it’s highly probable that you won’t have to travel, you can eschew awkward small talk, no one can tell if you’re wearing PJs whilst attending, and you’ll come away with insights and skills that create a competitive advantage in the modern digital climate.

While there are plenty of b2b events in 2023 you could attend, we’ve whittled the list down to those we think are worth your time and attention.

<p><a href="#jan-b2b" >January 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#feb-b2b" >February 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#march-b2b" >March 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#april-b2b" >April 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#may-b2b" >May 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#june-b2b" >June 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#july-b2b" >July 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#aug-b2b" >August 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#sep-b2b" >September 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#oct-b2b" >October 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#nov-b2b" >November 2023 events</a></p>

<p><a href="#dec-b2b" >December 2023 events</a></p>

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<span id="jan-b2b"><h2>JANUARY</h2></span>

‍Lead Generation World

When: Jan 8-10

Event type: In-person - San Diego

Why attend: The first recommendation in our event calendar is Lead Generation World. This b2b event brings together practitioners and experts in the field to help advertisers and lead buyers successfully navigate the lead generation ecosystem.

Attendees can expect to receive highly targeted and insightful content alongside exclusive networking opportunities with companies that can support their efforts.

<span id="feb-b2b"><h2>FEBRUARY</h2></span>

Global Virtual Martech Summit: Conceptualising the Future of MarTech

When: February 27 - March 1

Event type: In-person - Scottsdale, Arizona

Why attend: The three day b2b event features 80+ sessions and 20+ case studies around ABM, content strategy, demand generation, sales enablement and more, giving marketers practical hands-on insight into a variety of use-cases, and encouragement on what can be achieved.

This year, attendees can learn from inspirational marketing leaders such as:

• Arthur Castillo, Head of Dark Social & Evangelism at Chili Piper
• Carl Ferreira, Director of Sales at Refine Labs
• Dan Cafiero Senior Program Manager, ABM and Paid Media at Seagate
• Justin Keller VP Revenue Marketing at Drift

All signs point to a highly educational and value-driven experience, that should be one of the top among the b2b events in 2023 you’d want to attend.

<span id="march-b2b"><h2>MARCH</h2></span>

Social Media Marketing World

When: March 13-15

Event type: In-person - San Diego, CA

‍Why attend: As its name suggests, this event is targeted towards digital marketers and social media professionals looking to discover the best insider secrets and the latest trends, and to learn strategies and tools that will help grow their business. Here’s a glimpse of some of the sessions that will be held, and the speakers leading the discussions:

• Organic social marketing: How to Use LinkedIn Content to Achieve Meaningful Business Growth - Instructor: Daniel Kading

• Paid social marketing: The Short-Form Video Sales Letter: How to Sell More With Instagram and Facebook Ads - Instructor: Allie Bloyd

• Content marketing: Mastering YouTube Audience Development: Tips From the Pros - Instructor: Derral Eves

• Social strategy: How to Use AI Tools to Greatly Improve Your Marketing - Instructor: Paul Roetzer

It’s a b2b event where content marketers will find tactical, no-fluff information that you're not going to learn anywhere else in the world.

Adobe Summit

When: March 21-23, 2023

Event type: Hybrid - Las Vegas and virtual

Why attend: Adobe’s conference made it onto our b2b events to attend in 2022 article, and our events in 2023 list would be incomplete without it. The 3-day conference empowers attendees to discover the latest trends with more than 200 sessions and hands-on labs across 11 tracks, from juggernaut speakers across industries. 

There’s something for all stripes of B2B marketers this year, from content marketers to commerce practitioners:

Attendees will have the ​​chance to connect directly with peers and leaders from the world’s top brands. 2023’s speakers have yet to be announced, but previous speakers include:

• Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe
• Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
• John Donahoe, President and CEO of NIKE
• Deborah Wahl, Global CMO at General Motors
  

Bonus: Adobe also hosts a pre-conference two days before the Summit kicks off, during which you can learn more about Adobe Experience Cloud solutions.

We love the tracks’ focus and exciting speakers - it really doesn’t get better than that.

CMO Summit

When: March 23

Event type: In-person - San Francisco, CA

Why attend: The Summit by Pavilion aims to help marketers learn the newest strategies and best practices they need to know in order to drive revenue through marketing efforts. 

Attendees can expect:

• Expert-led educational sessions, covering topics like using benchmarking data to build your budget, calculating ROI on marketing efforts, aligning sales and marketing

• Hands-on workshops to help you understand your approach to brand building

• Opportunities to network with CMOs and VPs of Marketing and Demand Generation from around the world

By attending this b2b event, you’ll get a front-row seat to learn from leaders who have succeeded in driving results for their teams. We love that it’s no-nonsense, and straight-to-the-point. This one’s a hidden gem.

<span id="april-b2b"><h2>APRIL</h2></span>

The Gathering Marketing Summit

When: April 26-29

Event type: Hybrid - In-person at Banff, Canada, and there’s a Gathering Global Online Pass available to let attendees experience content on-demand from home

Why attend: Whilst there are many reasons to attend this Summit (not least its name, location or intriguingly designed event page), at number one would be how it is billed: a safe space for business and marketing professionals to unite for inspiration, application and celebration.

Attendees are in for 3 days of 20+ workshops, keynotes and intimate Q&As from 50+ thought leaders and 12 award-winning brands.

<span id="may-b2b"><h2>MAY</h2></span>

Strategic Marketing 2023 - Reuters Events

When: May 8–9

Event type: San Diego, USA

Why attend: The conference aims to be a global platform to inspire and empower marketing leaders to map the digital DNA of your consumer, foster brand loyalty and community, and unlock innovation.

And who better to learn from than this roster of A-listers from the industry!

• Shannon Watkins, CMO, Jordan Brand at Nike 
• Kellyn Smith Kenny, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at AT&T 
• Adrian Fung, Global CMO at eBay
• Sophie Bambuck, CMO of The North Face 
• Chris Brandt, CMO of Chipotle 
• David Skena, Global Chief Brand Officer of Krispy Kreme 
• Michelle Ganslem, VP, Global Insights and Analytics of McDonald’s

The event focuses on 4 key themes: Strategic Leadership and Growth, Brand Loyalty, Community, and Purpose, Engaging Content and Innovative Storytelling and Data Connectivity & Creativity. Each theme features insightful sessions that guarantee attendees leave with valuable insights. Here’s an example:

With delivering value at the heart of all activities and sessions at the event, Strategic Marketing 2023 doesn’t fail to impress. Definitely one of the top B2B marketing events in 2023 you won’t want to miss.

Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference

When: May 16 - 17

Event type: In-person - Las Vegas, NV

Why attend: At Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference 2023, sales leaders will gain unique actionable insights, practical tools and innovative guidance to exceed revenue targets despite the unrelenting uncertainties caused by inflation, talent scarcity and supply chain disruptions.

The event’s agenda tracks are carefully curated to this end, with each directly addressing topical challenges and goals faced by chief sales officers, sales operations leaders, and sales enablement leaders. Here’s a snapshot of the tracks and some of the sessions offered.

Track A: Reinventing Sales Strategies to Drive Growth

• Gartner Opening Keynote: Prioritizing the Human Touch: Connecting the Buyer, Seller and Sales Leader of The Future
• From No to Yes. Getting CFOs to Green Light Your Proposals in a Recession
• CSO Circle Roundtable: If You Build It, They Will Come: Commercial Coalition Around A Single Source Of Data Truth

Track B: Enabling the Commercial Organization of Tomorrow

• Be Choosy in Selecting a Sales Training Provider: The Must-Haves
• Making the Shift From Sales Enablement to Revenue Enablement
• Ask the Expert: How Can I Make Sense Out of Sense Making?

Track C: Revolutionizing Sales Operations for Greater Scope and Impact

• Winning Over Sales Ops Stakeholders... Even the Difficult Ones
• Look Under the Hood: 4 Levers to Developing High Quality Pipeline
• Ask the Expert: Artificial Intelligence & Future of Sales Compensation: The Possibilities to Be Prepared

Track D: Optimizing Revenue Technology to Boost Engagement

• Ask the Expert: How to Design a PRM Stack to Power Up Your Channel Partners
• 3 Strategic Technology Trends for CSOs to Watch
• Roundtable: RevTech Group Therapy - Share Your Horror Stories and Celebrate Your Wins With Revenue Technology Adoption

There’s also built-in time to network and learn from experts, thanks to:

• Roundtables where you can join sales executive peers from leading organizations to discuss relevant topics inspired by the latest research.
• The CSO Circle wherein you can join a cohort of vetted, senior sales leaders to enhance your leadership and business skills during these exclusive and interactive sessions.
• Workshops in which you solve current issues and develop new skills with your peers during these intensive and educational group exercises.

This one’s a must-attend.

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Gainsight Pulse

When: May 17 - 18

Event type: In-person: San Francisco

Why attend: Pulse is the world's largest gathering of Customer Success, Product, and Community professionals. It brings together business leaders and practitioners every year to share ideas, strategize best practices, and build relationships with the larger community. Over the last 10 years, Pulse has been home to more than 5,500 in-person attendees and more than 20k virtual attendees spanning six continents.

Accordingly, there’s something for everyone at Gainsight. Here’s a snapshot of the agenda:

Speakers this year include:

• Bart Hammond, Chief Customer Officer from Drift
• Christina Kosmowski, Chief Executive Officer of LogicMonitor, and
• Ryan Neu, Co-Founder & CEO of Vendr amongst others.

Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo 2023: Marketing’s New Directive: Reprioritize, Rethink, Realign

When: May 22 – 24

Event type: In-person - Denver, CO

Why attend: The Gartner Marketing Symposium is a gathering for marketing leaders to advance their thinking as strategic leaders and learn cutting-edge marketing practices to drive efficient growth.

The 2023 agenda is filled with tracks for CMOs and marketing executives, customer experience and loyalty leaders, marketing operations and analytics leaders, as well as digital marketing leaders. Here’s a glimpse of what to expect:

Sessions will be led by the world’s leading marketing experts. 

While this year’s line-up is still being finalized, if it’s anything like 2022’s roster (Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO, Accenture, General David H. Petraeus, Director, CIA (2011-2012), Nicole Malachowski, First Woman Thunderbird Pilot, and Mike Krzyzewski, Head Men's Basketball Coach, Duke University (1980 – 2022), attendees are in for a very exclusive experience.

The Ascent San Francisco Summit

When: May 23-24

Event type: In-person - San Francisco

‍Why attend: If you’re a CEO, CFO, CMO, CRO, VP or Director of a $20M-to-$1BN company, then this event is for you. Join 1,000+ business leaders for a bespoke networking and learning experience in which you’ll deep dive into the specific topics and challenges you’re facing today at work.

And just to give you an idea of who you’ll be meeting and interacting with - these are the companies that attended last year.

There are some really interesting sessions that you’ll be able to attend. A few of our favourites from the agenda:

• How to Craft a Value Proposition That Resonates in an Uncertain Macroenvironment led by Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing Officer - Freshworks
• Listen UP!: How To Tune in to Customers & Turn Down the Noise by Karen Mangia Vice President, Customer & Market Insights - Salesforce
• How Sales Teams are Turning to AI to Protect Revenue and Drive Efficiencies Amidst Economic Uncertainty by Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist - Gong

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Customer Marketing Summit

When: May 24 - 25

Event type: Las Vegas

Why attend: Whether you’re a beginner or the leader of your team, you’ll leave with the insight you need to elevate your role through a three-pronged approach:

• Learn via interactive sessions that support you with the tactics, methods and strategies you need to know

• Discover tech solutions that can amplify your efforts and effectiveness

• Join a community to form genuine connections and create valuable relationships.

We love this holistic approach, especially since as an attendee, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with professionals from the world’s largest companies and most exciting startups such as Slack, Square, Adobe, Cisco, Ebay, Hubspot, Stripe, Amazon, Google, Deliveroo, Meta and Salesforce.

Sign us up!

‍B2B Marketing Leaders Forum APAC

When: 24-25 

Event type: In-person - Sydney, Australia

Why attend: This is APAC's largest B2B marketing conference focused on pipeline, revenue, growth, brand, leadership and personal career advancement! 600+ B2B CMOs and marketing leaders will gather to discuss their roles as business leaders driving revenue and growth while ensuring they personally stay relevant as modern marketers.

There are an incredible 70 speakers lined up this year. Here’s just a few:

And there’s an incredible variety of tracks and sessions on offer such as 

• GTM Strategy and Leadership
• Martech Audit, ROI & Optimisation
• Growing Brand with Demand
• Marketing with Small Budgets, Resources & Teams
• AI
• Programs to engage with the C-Suite
• Attribution reporting ROI

There’s so many incredible sessions on offer - marketers attending this event will be spoiled for choice.

SaaStock USA

When: May 31 - June 2

Event type: In-person - Austin, Texas

Why attend: SaaStock is a conference for SaaS founders on the journey to $10M+ ARR and beyond, and the event bills itself as gathering ‘the highest concentration of SaaS decision makers, with 68% of all attendees in leadership roles.’ This makes it the perfect environment for SaaS founders and their teams to grow their network, and build valuable connections.

60+ speakers have been carefully hand-picked because they’re proven to be world-class leaders, trendsetters and disruptors in SaaS. The lineup this year includes:

• Nathan Latka Founder & CEO, Founderpath
• Chris Walker CEO, Refine Labs
• Meghan Keaney Anderson VP Marketing, Jasper
• Noah Kagan Co-founder & Chief Sumo, AppSumo
• Godard Abel Co-founder & CEO, G2
• Scott Ernst, CEO, Drift
• Stevie Case, CRO, Vanta

We'd go to listen to these speakers alone.

<span id="june-b2b"><h2>JUNE</h2></span>

B2B Summit North America - Forrester

When: June 5-7

Event type: Hybrid: In-person at Austin,TX,  and Virtual

Why attend: Forrester’s B2B Summit empowers professionals with the information and insight they need to make bolder, smarter decisions in a turbulent 2023 landscape. The B2B event is laser-focused on giving marketing professionals actionable insights that they can put to use immediately to improve the bottom-line. 

To this end, the event has more than 100 role-based sessions aligned to the priorities of B2B marketing and sales executives and leaders in ABM, sales enablement, product marketing, digital demand, channel marketing etc. 

Speakers include:

• Dara Treseder CMO, Autodesk
• Bob Safian Advisor and Podcast Host, The Flux Group
• Cheryl Cook, Senior Vice President Global Partner Marketing, Dell Technologies, and
• Cindy Matos, VP of Transformation and Governance, IBM

Get everything you need to know about B2B marketing in 2023 in one go.

‍SaaStr Europa 2023

When: June 6-7

Event type: In-person - London, England

Why attend: : With 10,000+ SaaS executives, founders, and VCs all gathering for 100+ workshops and sessions 1,000 brain dates and mentorship sessions,Meet-A-VC 1:1 meetings, etc. it's clear that SaaStr is the B2B event to attend for anyone who works in SaaS.

This year’s speaker lineup includes:

And even a glimpse at the agenda will convince you of its value. We love the following sessions:

• Customer Centricity: Founder Secrets to Hitting Hypergrowth with Vanta
• 3 Crucial Steps to Successfully Hiring Your First Head of Sales with Greenhouse and Growth by Design’. ‘The Most Important Marketing Lessons Learned from Zapier and HubSpot with Zapier's CMO
• From 2 Weeks of Runway to a $1.5B Valuation: The Founder Playbook with Loom's CEO
  
  ‍And that’s just Day 1!

This one’s a definite ‘yes’ when you’re trying to decide which b2b events in 2023 you should attend.

Collision Conference

When: June 26 - 29

Event type: Toronto, Canada

Why attend: Called ‘The Olympics of Tech” by Politico, Collision brings together the people and companies redefining the global tech industry for 3 days of networking, learning, lead generation, and exposure.

They've got a great and diverse speaker roster this year as well:

• Adam Selipsky, CEO, Amazon Web Services
• Michelle, Co-founder, President and COO of Cloudflare
• David Singleton, CTO, Stripe
• Dave Rogenmoser Co-founder & CEO Jasper
• ​​Max Lytvyn Co-founder Grammarly

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<span id="july-b2b"><h2>JULY</h2></span>

TBA

<span id="aug-b2b"><h2>AUGUST</h2></span>

MozCon

When: August 7-9

Event type: In-person - Seattle, WA

Why attend: MozCon bills itself as ‘Not Your Typical Marketing Conference’ and one look at their three-day event agenda will convince you to sign right up. Each day is filled with a great mix of activities - non-stuffy networking sessions, breaks for meals, and expert sessions delivered by the best and brightest in SEO, search marketing, mobile, conversion optimization, local search, and more. Here’s a quick glance:

Catalyst

When: August 21 - 23

Event type: In-person - Denver, Colorado

‍Why attend: At the world's leading partnerships conference, attendees can expect interactive and insightful content, unrivaled networking opportunities, and actionable takeaways to achieve your goals. This one’s a hidden gem.

Just take a look at all the companies that attended last year:

And this year, there are some terrific speakers lined up including:

• Aditya Basu, Partner Programs, Adobe
• Adrienne Coburn, Director, Partner Programs, Oyster
• Brianna Chapman, Strategic Partnerships, Ryder Ecommerce by Whiplash
• Tim Tsao, Head of Programs, Stripe

<span id="sep-b2b"><h2>SEPTEMBER</h2></span>

INBOUND 2023

When: September 5-8

Event type: In-person - Boston, MA

Why attend: Forbes called Hubspot’s annual event ‘Inbound’, “A must-attend event for agency owners and marketing professionals”, and for good reason. The event is one of the world's largest marketing conferences, with 26,000+ attendees from 110 countries taking part. 

The three day event always has tracks for Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, HubSpot Academy, and RevOps, with each featuring workshops by industry experts, fun activities, and opportunities to network. 

And the event always pulls in the biggest names in the world. Past speakers have included: Barack Obama, Viola Davis, and Dr. Jane Goodall. 

With speakers like these and session topics that cater to all types of B2B marketers, the conference is truly a value-driven source of knowledge and inspiration. 

SaaStr Annual 2023

When: September 6-8

Event type: In-person - SF Bay Area

Why attend: SaaStr, as everyone one in the B2B marketing world knows, is the world's largest SaaS community event on the planet, bringing together cloud and SaaS professionals from around the globe to learn from the top founders, VCs and execs in SaaS. From the CEOs of Slack and Zoom, to the founders of Datadog and Atlassian, to break-out leaders from Calendly to Flexport, everyone who's anyone comes to SaaStr.

In 2022, the event drew 10,101 attendees across 3+ days. 

12,750 mentorship connections were made. 

1,931 Braindates and mentorship sessions were hosted. 

There were 324 VCs in and 457 Founders in the Meet-a-VC Program. 

Plus, everyone let loose at a party hosted by DJ Duke Dumont! 

2023 looks to take things up a notch with more speakers, workshops, Braindates and more. 

Content

• 50+ hours of actional content and tactical takeaways 
• 300+ speakers from leading SaaS and Cloud companies

Networking

• 1,000+ 1:1s via Braindate 
• 100s of interactive, expert-led roundtables capped at 20 to ensure speaker & audience conversation 
• Dozens of workshops: deep-dives from up & coming leaders in SaaS

Funding

• Get funded at SaaStr Annual through our yearly Meet a VC program 
• Meet fellow founders and execs at your company stage
•  Pitch your startup live at our new pitch stage

Well-worth your time.

Dreamforce

‍When: September 12–14

Event type: In-person - San Francisco

Why attend: Salesforce's massive event pulls in tens of thousands of attendees every year to a temporary “national forest” in San Francisco. And it's no surprise why. Dreamforce always features a speaker lineup of heavy-hitters and A-listers. Just look at 2022's roster:

Furthermore, with 1000+ sessions to choose from, there's no doubt you will be able to learn from some of the brightest minds and biggest thought leaders in your industry. According to a survey conducted by Salesforce, 87% of Dreamforce attendees learned something that helped to accelerate company growth, while 86% solved an organizational challenge with learnings from the event. You can't argue with those results!

We've put together a quick but concise breakdown of everything you can expect at the conference this year. Click here to read.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

When: September 19 - 21

Event type: In-person - San Francisco

Why attend: Join thousands of the most motivated and ambitious founders, investors and tech builders for a 3-day conference focused on breaking technology news and developments  driven by big-name thought leaders. 

The three main takeaways from attending:

• Make connections that count: Whether you want to meet founders or investors, get advice or find your next gig, you’ll find the right people here.

• Tee up your tech stack: Learn what you need to know and grow in your industry.

• Hear directly from seasoned founders: Learn their best practices, how-tos, actionable tips and takeaways to help you avoid pitfalls as you build your own founder roadmap.

This year features 6 new intriguing tracks:

1. Sustainability Stage -  Discover emerging technologies that transform the way we engage with our environment, impact society and how we move from place to place.

2. Fintech Stage - Learn about the technology that is powering new ways of capturing and distributing value and wealth.

3. AI Stage  - Dig into the science behind the deep tech, the products it powers and the ethical, social and legal challenges that come with it.

4. Security Stage -  Gain the keys to protecting sensitive information and thwarting hackers intent on unlocking details of your business and your life.

5. Hardware Stage - Learn the mechanics and code behind the machines that enable us to get things done smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

6. SaaS Stage - Uncover Software-as-a-Service tools that reveal insights, power productivity and allow creativity and efficiency to blossom within your organization.

We’d sign up for this alone!

But it gets better. Here’s whom you can expect to learn from at the event:

We're excited for this one.

Outreach Women in Sales Summit

When: September 19 - 21

Event type: In-person - Napa, CA

Why attend: This Summit hosted by Outreach (the leading sales execution platform helping revenue organizations create and close more pipeline) aims to help you build your network of women sales leaders and allies, energize your body and mind, and develop actionable strategies to attract and grow more women in B2B sales.

It’s got a fantastic line-up of speakers! Venus Williams for one.

You can also look forward to hearing from:

• Mary Shea VP, Global Innovation Evangelist, Outreach
• Hang Black, VP Global Revenue Enablement GTM at Juniper Networks
• Jennifer Van Buskirk Executive Vice President and General Manager of Mid-Markets at AT&T Business
• Timothy Hudson, Global Vice President of Sales Excellence, Honeywell

And their agenda is packed with actionable, insightful sessions. Here’s just a few that we liked:

• Breakout: Take Agency of Your Adversity
  Inclusion does not ensure equality. Be clear on whether an invitation to the room is to serve, to sit, or to speak. Now is the time to stand.

• Panel: How Culture Impacts Outcomes (Personally, Professionally, Organizationally)
  ‍Building culture benefits everyone, but it's not for the faint of heart. Our panel of sales executives talks about what it takes to create and maintain a strong culture in today’s environment.

• Code Pink: It's Time to Create Sales Cultures Where Women Thrive 
  ‍It’s time to get more intentional about creating sales cultures that work for women. Get advice backed by research on how to create an environment where women sellers not only want to join, but will stay and thrive.

Definitely worth your time.

Product Marketing Summit

When: September 21 - 23

Event type: In-person - San Francisco

Why attend: PMM peers can come together for 2 days of networking, knowledge-sharing, keynotes, roundtables, and more. As an attendee, you will learn how to:

• Supercharge your go-to-market strategy
• Nail your product-market fit, understanding key personas and utilizing segmentation
• Measure PMMs impact and proving value across your org amongst other topics.

Speaker snapshot

‍Here are some of the hand-selected PMM experts you'll be learning from:

• Jon Rooney, Vice President of Product Marketing, Unity
• Tim Bowman, Head of Competitive Intelligence, Asana
• Julien Sauvage, Vice President Corporate & Product Marketing, Clari
• Julian Clarke, Director & Head of Product Marketing, Lattice
• Ted Fernandez, Global Head of Product Marketing, TikTok
• Ben Rawnsley-Johnson, Head of Product Marketing, Atlassian

A fantastic line-up.

You won't want to miss this.

<span id="oct-b2b"><h2>OCTOBER</h2></span

MarketingProfs B2B Forum

When: October 4-6

Event type: Virtual, and in-person at Boston

Why attend: B2B Forum is the ultimate destination for marketers to discover how to drive growth, elevate brand reputation, prove ROI, and stay ahead of the ever-changing marketing curve. You can look forward to tactical sessions, inspirational keynotes, and immeasurable connections. 

There’s something for all stripes of marketers. Some of the sessions that caught our eye:

• Using Content Marketing and SEO to Fill Your Pipeline
• Demand Gen: Score, Plan, Convert
• Email Marketing Rules: Modernize Email and Build Relationships
• Managing the People Who Manage the Machines

And our favourite: ‘Your Customer Is a Flamingo: Understanding the Many Routes They Take and the Content That Serves Them on Their Journey’

They've got a great lineup as well, including:

And to top it all, there's plenty of fun shenanigans in store as well - we're not joking, there's literally a section in the Program named specifically for this. Besides a 'Welcome Home' party, you can go on a Boston Photo Walk, attend a Dine & Doodle activity, and attend a 'B2B Carnival of Connections'. Not going to lie, we'd attend for these reasons alone.

SaaStock Europe (Dublin)

When: 16-19 October

Event type: In-person - Dublin

Why attend: Lauded as “the best SaaS Conference for founders, execs and investors in Europe, period”, this three day-event aims to help drive back-to-back, meaningful conversations with fellow SaaS founders, future customers, or 400+ investors to fund your SaaS.

It also aims to deliver unrivalled, actionable content through carefully picked 150+ speakers. 

This year's lineup features:

• Victor Riparbelli, the Co-founder and CEO of Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video creation platform for enterprises
• Denise Hemke, Chief Product Officer at Checkr, which powers the fastest, fairest background checks for businesses of all sizes
• Meghan Keaney Anderson, VP of Marketing at Jasper, anAI writing tool designed to aid content creation.
• Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel.

Sessions are carefully curated under tracks such as 'Accelerate Stage', 'Bootstrap Stage', 'Growth Stage', 'Founders toolkit', 'Sales Excellence' etc so that the content you can consume is hyper contextualized to you. We saw plenty of sessions we'd love to catch, including:

• How to Effectively Market With Little to No Budget presented by Angeley Mullins CCO, Resourcify (we're expecting this to be a packed house)

• Structure. Strategy. Standards: How To Change the Way Your Team Operates in an AI World presented by Meghan Keaney Anderson, VP of Marketing at Jasper (especially pertinent with AI's growing omnipresence)

• Product is King, PLG Trifecta is King Kong presented by Pietro Bezza , the Co-founder & Managing Partner, Connect Ventures (not going to lie,we'd sign up for this session based on the title alone)

• Work Smarter, Live Smarter - How Unicorn Founders View The Ultimate Work/Life Balance For Success presented by Matt Cretzman Founder & CEO, Stormbreaker Digital and Tony Jamous Co-founder & CEO, Oyster ( a useful session no matter your profile).

2023 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference

When: October 24 – 27

Event type: Hybrid: In-person at Florida, and Virtual 

Why attend: This B2B marketing conference showcases the creative thinking and inspirational strategies that the world’s top CMOs and leading brands have implemented to meet and exceed their customer needs, drive growth, and inspire change. Indeed, its slogan this year is 'Force for Growth. Force for Good'.

The conference is known for its lineup of speakers and this year's roster follows that trend with a fantastic roster that spans marketing leaders from Crayola, The Coca-Cola Company, Mastercard, Hilton and to top it all, Jon Bon Jovi 🤯. Here's a list of heavy-hitters you can expect at the conference - shortened for the sake of brevity:

• Brad Audet, Chief Marketing Officer, Mazda North American Operations
• Bryan Bachner, Managing Director APAC & the Americas, FC Barcelona
• Adrienne Hayes, VP Marketing Global Devices & Services, Google
• Christy Hoskins, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, La-Z-Boy Inc.
• Marissa Jarratt, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer, 7-Eleven, Inc.
• Jocelyn Johnson, CMO, Girl Scouts of the USA
• Jon Bovi, Musician Extraordinaire
• Victoria Lozano, Executive Vice President of Marketing, Crayola
• Eli Lehrer Executive, Vice President & Head of Programming, The HISTORY® Channel
• Shakir Moin, Chief of Marketing, Coca-Cola North America, The Coca-Cola Company

The conference agenda is peppered with sessions curated to help you drive immediate impact at work (such as 'The internet is broken. Let's fix it', 'Merging Purpose-driven marketing with Gen Z data', and 'Are B2B and B2C Marketing and Brand Evolution really different?').

And did we mention that Bon Jovi will be performing?

Ambition Sales Summit

When: Late October 

Event type: Nashville, TN

Why attend: This one-day event is designed for any current sales leader looking to maximize their knowledge of revenue performance tactics and tools. Sessions are dedicated to inspirational-yet-practical knowledge sharing with thought leaders, and unparalleled networking with practitioners who will solve tomorrow’s sales challenges today. The conference is stacked with speakers from the biggest enterprise companies and smartest startups including Zoom, T-Mobile, Cisco, the Atlanta Braves, ADP, and more.

There's so much valuable content to absorb at the conference, and we particularly like the sessions focus on step-by-step actionable insights that can be put to use right away, such as:

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<span id="nov-b2b"><h2>NOVEMBER</h2></span>

Surf & Sales

When: November 27 - December 1

Event type: In-person - Playa Grande, Costa Rica

‍Why attend: Sales and revenue leaders, or anyone who wants to level up their sales or leadership game, build real, lasting relationships with other successful leaders in the industry can look forward to a week of reflection, learning, and growth - not to mention, surfing - in Costa Rica!

Days start with surfing lessons (tailored to your ability level) followed by daily sales workshops, trainings, and peer-led seminars with topics including sales management, recruiting, scaling and more.

Here are some sessions from earlier editions of the event to give you an idea of what you can expect:

- Intro to NEAT and Addiction Selling Models; Coaching: How to Self-Correct without Self-Destructing

- Enlisting Sales Ops to Take Sales to the Next Level

- How to Scale: Leading Through Change and Building Big Things, and more.

Packages are all inclusive of lodging, transportation, meals, surf instruction, 1-on-1 Coaching Sessions.

Check back soon for the full agenda and information on speakers.

<span id="dec-b2b"><h2>DECEMBER</h2></span>

AWS re:Invent

When: Nov 27 - Dec 1

Event type: In-person - Las Vegas, NV

Why attend: AWS re:Invent bills itself as “the most transformative event in tech”, inviting its global computing community to “get inspired and rethink what's possible”. It’s been around for the past 10 years, with each consecutive edition upping the ante with hard-hitting keynotes, new service announcements, fun, and inspiration.

Attendees can expect the latest news and developments in databases, analytics, machine learning, storage, etc. You can follow all the key announcements, and get a peek at the newest cloud technologies. There will be bootcamps designed to expand your understanding of AWS services and Breakout sessions, organized by experience level and led by AWS experts. At the Expo, you’ll be able to see interactive demos, and at AWS Builder Labs, devs can experience AWS in a live sandbox environment.

The breadth and depth of learning at the conference is unparalleled. Sessions are available on AI/ML, Cloud Operations, Security, Compliance, & Identity, Databases and Front-End Web & Mobile to name a few; they're curated to deliver value to those at different stages in their learning journey (beginner to expert), specific to job role and industry. Which all means that you're sure to find sessions extremely relevant to you.

Here are a couple of sessions that caught our eye:

• A Netflix story: AI performance engineering for optimization on Intel (sponsored by Intel)
• Adding AWS backbone to your network
• Are you well-architected?
• Build a serverless ordering system with toy brick
• Bot management and account takeover prevention: To block or not?
• Use generative AI to name your pet after your favorite song
• Using data to prevent heart disease and sudden cardiac death

We'll wager it's impossible to come away from the conference without uplevelling your skill or insight - albeit in areas you might not have been expecting!

Click here for a look at all the sessions available here, and book early to take advantage of reserved seating.

And there will also be AWS Builder Labs, a re:Invent Expo hall features more than 100 AWS Partner booths where you can find solutions to meet your business needs, networking opportunities with their PeerTalk platform, and a re:Invent Rec Center where you can play, and experience AWS sports collaborations like:

And what's Vegas without a show? Celebrate the final night at the annual re:Play party with exciting food catered by the infamous Wolfgang Puck, live music and all the classic re:Play activities guests have grown to love, like dodgeball and button mash.

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About Zuddl: Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

IMEX is one of the largest gatherings for event people across the globe. Thousands of event planners, producers, Professional Conference Organizers (PCOs), Destination Management Companies (DMCs) and event tech people from across the world gather at IMEX to find partners, figure out the next big thing in event management and check out the latest in tech powering events. IMEX America 2022, held in Las Vegas, was Zuddl’s first trade show event as sponsor participants.

Here are some of the highlights from IMEX America 2022:

1. The event was organized at the Mandalay Bay Convention center. That is a whopping 2.1 million square feet of meeting and event space. To give you a sense of the size of the venue, TWO mega events were running in parallel - IMEX America, and ExpCon Reality - both with thousands of attendees, and it didn’t feel like we were in each other's way.
2. Large trade shows like the IMEX take months of planning, organizing and strategizing before they come to life. This was evident in a mostly incident-free four days, which is a remarkable feat anyway you look at it.
3. We were averaging about 18,000 steps a day exploring the event. Even though we had a booth to manage, we wanted to seek inspiration for our events down the line. There’s always an opportunity to learn and grow.
4. IMEX America saw about 12,000 attendees, out of which a majority, say 60%, were destinations. So you could literally walk down from Boston to Puerto Rico to Canada, in the same aisle!
5. Another 30 percent were hotels and venues that wanted to be the destination of choice for buyers.
6. The remainder were event tech vendors, like Zuddl, with tools and platforms that support event execution. 

Who is the IMEX for?

I'm glad you asked. 

When you participate in a third party event, your goals could be one of two broad things - brand awareness and/or generating leads. Or you could be at an event just to meet your existing customers. Either way, choosing the right event is crucial to get a positive ROI.

At IMEX America, you will meet a lot of event planners, and associations. So if event planners and associations are your ICP, IMEX is the place to be. You’ll be meeting independent event organizers as well as large event consulting organizations. Between them, they run events of any scale - from a 100 attendee get-togethers to over 15000 attendee concerts!

Another fantastic takeaway from IMEX was the hundreds of event destinations to choose from. If you are tasked with shortlisting venues for your next in-person or hybrid event, then you’ll find a lot of options to consider at IMEX. 

With a lot of event tech vendors in attendance, IMEX also offered a wide array of tools and platforms for buyers to run their events. From face detection technology to audience engagement, and badge printing vendors to event hosting platforms - they were all in attendance.

How to get the best out of IMEX?

Now with over 12,000 registered attendees, hundreds of hosted buyers, and tons of exhibitors, it can be a really overwhelming three days if meetings and activities are not planned out well in advance. We did our homework, and knew exactly what to expect. Even then, we weren’t able to cover as much as we would have liked. 

Here are some tips to help you make the most of IMEX (or any large conference for that matter):

Book meetings way in advance

And by that I mean as early as four weeks before the conference begins. IMEX had a portal for buyers to contact vendors, and for vendors to run campaigns, which isn’t the best out there, but it was still something. Since IMEX is a buyer-first conference, it made sense for buyers to reach out to vendors. And each hosted buyer group had definite meeting targets to meet, so you could be sure that meetings would not be ghosted.  

Book your booth in advance ‍

Most booth sponsors lock in their booths as soon as the event is announced. This helps them secure the best possible location for their budget. And at events, it is all about location location location! 

Follow up quickly

Make it a priority to follow up with booth visitors and leads as soon as possible after the event. The likelihood of them remembering the conversation drops significantly as time passes by. 

Create memorable giveaways

‍You will be long remembered for brilliant swag than a run-of-the-mill pen. Don’t get me wrong - pens are great, but how many conference swag pens can someone have? We took these brilliant water bottles/sippers, stickers, buttons and tote bags that flew off our shelves faster than we could restock. Now someone’s child somewhere knows of Zuddl (or Zoodle :P)

Zuddl X  IMEX America 2022 1

Wear comfortable shoes

I cannot stress this enough. I saw people changing into sneakers by the second half of the first day. These convention centers are huge, and you will need to walk from one part to the other. Comfortable feet make for comfortable days.

So there you have it folks. Hope this helps you drive more value from your events. 

See you at IMEX (or some other event!) soon!

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Recommended read: Here's a sneak peek of event trends in 2023 as per our latest report.

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

At the risk of sounding cliche, we’d say humans are resilient. Consider the pandemic. Things were extremely difficult for everyone, and that too on all fronts. Lives, jobs, mental health… so much was at risk.

And yet during these trying times people found many ways to bounce back. Perhaps one of the best ways to combat the ills of the pandemic was building and growing communities. The situation during the pandemic made community more necessary than it's ever been. 

People who were out of jobs and needed a place that allowed them to go to help them find jobs found communities the perfect shelter. Communities helped them find empathy for what they were going through and helped them learn, for example, how to secure a job in the harsh climate. It may sound ironic, but the pandemic might have been the perfect storm.

Kishore C S, Content Lead at Zuddl, and Jared Robin, co-founder RevGenius, sat down for a fireside chat to discuss how communities have evolved, how people and business organizations leverage communities, and how communities can help engage customers in order to drive long-term growth.

Psst... if you'd rather listen to a podcast about this topic, click here.

The beginning of communities

In a wider sense of the word, communities evolved as something that’d support you, something outside of work. You had communities in schools, you had the church, you had sororities… And then there are meetup groups, there are events, and there are groups that border on being a community. 

They were also shaped to be a business model, in the way events and communities brought people together. It’s just that the bridge for leveraging community for your job and your professional life has doubled down the past few years. 

Thankfully, the digital revolution has made communities more far-reaching and more accessible than ever. That was clearly visible during and after the  pandemic. 

The first advantage of communities

On social media platforms people seem to do more selling than supporting.There’s nothing wrong with selling. Everyone lives by selling something, as the 19th century author Robert Louis Stevenson observed. But when selling is the predominant activity, other factors and questions about trust come into picture.

Community as a whole has been around probably since the beginning of time, the beginning of our lives. But the way they have entered business activities is very recent. And there’s a lot of reasons why communities are fast becoming important for organizations of all sorts. But the first advantage communities hold is that of trust.

People trust others more in communities than on social platforms. It’s like people are more eager to give when engaging communities. And the goal of being active in communities isn’t to drive leads further down the sales funnel. It’s more about helping them with their current needs. 

For instance, RevGenius may have a hundred people who have signed up to get into SAS sales. There will be cohorts, where we could take 50 people for a month and get them into software sales. And it’s all based on the spirit of helping - like these people won’t be paying anything. 

So communities have come to be identified with the goal of helping people at zero cost, or at a very low cost sometimes.

The widening reach and scope of community events

If you have any experience with communities, you’d have clearly observed two things. One, the reach of communities is growing rapidly, thanks to the digital space. And two, communities are growing in scope; business organizations are also leveraging them internally. 

With the pandemic behind us, we can look forward to in-person events that would strengthen the communities. All through, the focus is still to help community members. So if there were hybrid or digital events, the idea is to give more people around the world access to the community.

Communities within remote businesses 

Let’s see how lots of companies are approaching building communities through events. Initially, the companies were trying to improve their understanding of the virtual world, especially to see whether things were easy to adopt for everybody. 

1. Better quality: Companies have already seen enough evidence that adoption is not an issue. So now businesses are looking for better production quality at their events. They don’t want events to look like just another (boring) meeting. They want a different level of involvement and engagement as well.

2. More focus: At their own end, companies are also taking care that they keep things interesting, focused, and relevant. They are making sure the topics interest the audience. Outcomes are now at the center of these events. And ‘interactive’ is the operative word here.

3. Micro events: Companies are looking to not only get more focus but are also trying to drive productivity at the departmental level. Micro events involving communities leads to more intent, more engagement. Even big conferences are trying to be more subtle, more personal, and more engaged. 

How being interactive helps communities

You don’t always need to have a huge headcount; a smaller but more engaged group can be more effective too. Imagine you’re doing a hybrid workshop over Zuddl. The participants are women who are in institutional or B2B sales. And because Zuddl is built for making hybrid events interactive, everyone is super engaged and active - basically going great.

Then a saleswoman (let’s call her Irene) asks a question. Her job is to sell to hospitals. Because it’s the healthcare industry, with the insurance industry overlapping, there are lots of restrictions and policy guidelines on what she can do and what she can’t. And because it’s a unique, industry-specific situation Irene is describing, the resource-person has only so many things to say. 

In absence of interactivity, Irene’s questions would go unanswered, or at least under-answered. That’d have left her unsatisfied - not a good thing for events.

But the platform’s ability to get everyone engaged and interact leads to a better outcome. The other participants know what’s being discussed. So everyone begins to dig deeper. They begin sharing their experiences from different industries, thereby trying to build a wider paradigm. 

Soon, the underlying commonalities between different sales situations begin to emerge. Irene is able to connect the dots by uncovering the deeper connections between the different things the other participants are sharing. The overall quality of the discussion improves, with the result that Irene has found a very good answer to her question.

Community as the new influencer

Better understanding begins with better questions. And when you ask questions to people who’re close, they’ll first look at the use case and offer better answers. For instance, field marketers, who’ve been close to your customers for years, are able to niche down to the nitty-gritty in their answers. The people that look at everything best understand their community or their audience or their prospects or their customers the best.  

It kinds of adds up in the way we make decisions in our daily lives. We always check with our inner circle first. A community kind of works as our extended inner circle, where the trust is the same, like as you trust your brother or your best friend. 

Extend it a little. Suppose you’re traveling to some place and you’re looking to learn where you can find the best wi-fi. You’d likely head to Slack or some place where you’d see groups knowing and discussing this. And you can be sure you’ll have the right information. That’s like leveraging people in influencing type of capacities through the community.

The future of communities

Communities  are the future

The way people are engaging in communities, the way events are shaping up and getting interactive - all this is shaping communities in a very unique way. In fact, we believe that the trends point to something interesting: communities are going to be more massive, and yet more micro. 

That means the sizes of communities will continue to expand. But would that hurt the purpose of communities, namely that of helping community members? Thanks to the digital capabilities of platforms, the focus is not getting blurred. People can still reach out on a one-to-one basis and seek and offer help to very specific issues.

You’ll also see communities becoming more empowering. People will have a bigger say in the direction in which their communities are headed. That augurs well not just for businesses but also for not-for-profits and social movements. For example, communities can solve lots of social challenges. Or there could be communities that could solve the problems of individuals.

Speaking of communities, have you checked out Hybrid State of Mind? It's the place to be if you're looking for expert advice, dope insights and a whole lot of other news and views from the event industry.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

Today, we're throwing it back to when Emily Kramer (Cofounder MKT-1) and Ketan Pandit (Head of Marketing, Zuddl) sat down for a fireside chat to discuss the fuel and engine concept and how to pair them right to get the perfect marketing function. 

We've handpicked the highlights of their session in this article; you're welcome!

The growing complexity of marketing

Marketing, especially tech marketing, has grown complex over the years. A number of market-focused tactics have changed. Technology platforms have grown to be a great better, in that they can tell you, with a great deal of accuracy, which ad platforms work better for you. Even a number of marketing roles and titles have widened or altered beyond recognition.

And yet, lots of things about marketing have remained consistent. The foundation of marketing has not, and cannot, change. While marketing is increasingly finding a seat at the revenue table, its primary purpose and mission hasn’t changed. 

With that context, it becomes both interesting and challenging for marketers to build stronger teams that, in turn, can shape the marketing function.

Fuel and Engine in marketing

If you take away all the jargon from marketing and strip it down to its most essential form, you will find the fuel and engine concept in marketing expresses everything that marketing is and needs.

The fuel is the ‘what’ part of marketing. All the content you have developed, all the messages you have crafted, all the creatives your teams churn out… everything that goes out to your audience is the fuel.

The engine is the ‘how’ part of the marketing. All the channels that you use, all the distribution vehicles you deploy to get the message across, all the platforms you leverage, … all of these are a part of your marketing engine.

In brief, fuel is the all the assets you create while engine is your distribution arm.

The most common marketing problems to overcome

No marketing teams are perfect, no matter how large and resource-rich the organization or how experienced the team members. The three most common patterns or problems that marketing teams face are:

1. All fuel and no engine

This is where you have made a whole bunch of content, you have perfected the words after having spent a lot of time. But unfortunately, that content isn’t getting to anyone because you’re not focused on distribution.

The key problem: You have the ‘what’ but are missing on the ‘how’.

2. All engine and no fuel

The website is ready for conversion flows and everything is optimized but the messaging is almost entirely absent. No matter what stage your website visitor is at, you hit them with the same message. You ignore other things and only put the request-demo message in the loop.

The key problem: You have the ‘how’ ready but the ‘what’ isn’t in place.

3. Wrong engine, wrong fuel

You have a great engine, but unfortunately it’s meant for a different business model, not yours. The messaging is neat and all ready, you’re sending it through the wrong engine.

The key problem: There’s a clear mismatch between your fuel and your engine.

What marketing needs to focus on

Sales is focused on crushing revenue goals month after month, quarter after quarter. But what does marketing do?

Sure, marketing needs to be supporting the sales function in achieving the short-term revenue goals. But in addition to that, marketing should be able to build for long-term growth. And that’s done in a variety of ways. 

It could be through the following five actions:

1. Building the brand: Your customers know and trust you, and recall your brand so well that they will continue buying even if you’ve dropped your paid promotion budget.
2. Creating customer evangelist: It could be through UGC (User Generated Content) or finding and highlighting customers who are keen to share their positive experience with your brand.
3. Going beyond numbers: Your marketing teams should have at least a few goals that are not number-based. Instead, make sure they’re building the fuel for the future.
4. Always be experimenting: If you aren’t constantly running experiments on your homepage all the time, you’re wasting the traffic. Your marketing teams need the experiments and their learnings to keep improving their strategy. 
5. Studying all kinds of results: Some of your experiments won’t have great results, but you can learn from them all the same. Learn even from the traffic that doesn’t convert.

The definitive solution: Building your marketing team

It is evident that what worked for some other company won’t work for yours. That’s because all organizations are different. So one thing to do is to build a framework that will work for you.

More importantly, build the right team and you can prevent or overcome all sorts of marketing challenges. So how do you build a marketing team?

The conventional approach - the T-shaped person

Traditionally, people would suggest you hire a T-shaped person.

A T-shaped person is someone who is great in one area and has general knowledge across all the rest of the areas. Startups often do this - they get someone that’s really deep in one area, but doesn’t have much breadth. 

A better approach - hire the π-shaped person 

Times are changing, and you want your hiring strategy to change accordingly. 

A π shaped person is someone who is an expert in one area, and pretty competent in another area. And he has a good general knowledge across all the rest of the areas. Think of a product marketer who also can write well. Basically, you should be looking for a person with skill overlaps.

What about hiring contractors and freelancers?

Sometimes it’s easier to hire for your own teams, and at other times it makes more sense to have a contractor or an agency.

But how do you make a choice between hiring a full-timer and hiring an agency?

Sure, you can outsource a number of people or agencies for lots of tasks. But even after you’ve signed up with the best agency, how do you make sure they deliver the right quality?

An important thing to remember is that contractors and freelancers, no matter how good, will only be as good as you can manage them and guide them. They aren’t going to be great if they’re not given guidance and context for the company. 

So this is the crux: Activities that require deep expertise are best left to contractors if you’re not going to need that on a regular basis. Contractors have been working on the same thing over and over again, for a long, long time. Also, for work that’s done in spikes, i.e. at irregular intervals should be outsourced.

And with the remote working model widely accepted, it’s easier for people to work from where they want. That brings in a lot of different kinds of people you probably wouldn’t have been able to hire earlier.

As for your own teams, be really clear on goals upfront. When you’re building a startup, you want people to know what they’re working toward. 

Psst... More of a listener than a reader? Listen to Emily and Ketan's conversation here.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

If you’ve been following our webinars, you’ll know that we recently featured Dave Dabbah, CMO, Robocorp on a fireside chat about marketing, events and beyond. In case you missed it, you can always watch it on demand here or listen to this podcast that captures the essence of the conversation.

Tell you what, let us spoil you silly by telling you the best parts of our conversation with Dave Dabbah in this blog. It can’t get easier, can it?

Here are four lessons you can take away from our webinar with Dave Dabbah:

‍Let your passion and curiosity fuel you

According to Dave, it's important for marketers to let curiosity and passion drive their work. He gives his own experience as a kid to illustrate this point.

“Back in the day, my friends would get copies of Sports Illustrated while I was getting copies of Ad Age and Media Week as a child. It was fascinating, you know, cuz like you'd be reading about products and then, two months later you'd actually see the television spot, you’d feel like you had some, some inside sort of knowledge about what was happening with brand development even at a young age.”

Don’t be afraid to explore different avenues

Dave also highlights the usefulness of having worked in different roles before taking up a marketing role, highlighting how knowledge and experience in other functions can add a lot of value to storytelling.

“Having had a bit of a sales background and a business development background, sort of coming into the Silicon Valley, I felt like that really benefited me, um, a lot. And, and one of the things I tell young marketers today who are just graduating from college, is this; don't be afraid to go into sales, for, for a couple years, you know, experience what the sales people are experiencing. And that will make you a, a far better, especially B2B marketer.”

Don’t go for a one-size-fits-all approach

Some of you may already know this, but what Dave says about distinguishing the marketing needs of a big corporation from a B2B startup is worth reading multiple times.

“B2B marketing is significantly harder than marketing a consumer brand. Those are, you know, sort of two different things, entirely. A lot of what we've seen with some of the really successful big brands in the Silicon Valley and the enterprise software space over the years is [that] they end up using a lot of consumer marketing tactics to put their brands into the marketplace. 

And, that's great, when you are, you know, IBM and you have, a hundred million, television budget for a 12 month period, but when you are a startup in the B2B space, how do you really get your brand message out in an effective way? I think, you know, over, over the years, that's something I've gotten, you know, pretty good at, um, trying to figure out.”

‍Repurposing content is the way forward

As he talks about getting back to doing events, Dave makes a great case for repurposing content as a long-term marketing strategy.

“When we got back to events during the pandemic, we were not just spending money on the event, you know, before the event or during the event, but also actually getting content out of the event that could be repurposed and reused, down the road.”

Want more of these marketing gems? Go watch the webinar on-demand now. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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It’s time to plan your next virtual event. But as expectations evolve and technology improves, how can you make sure to drive the success of your event through a holistic strategy, defined goals and most importantly - measure what you’ve achieved?‍

Why this event?

The reasons for hosting an event go beyond budget and convenience. As the frequency and scalability of virtual events become more prominent, it’s vital that you define both the goals of your event and build a virtual event strategy to reach them. The first step? Start with your why.

You need to be able to articulate why you are holding any particular virtual event, which will help in defining the overall goal of the event for both your company and your attendees. So, what is your why? Most can be categorized in one of the following areas. 

•  Generate demand‍

From demand for a product or service or more information on a specific topic, drive attendees who are engaged, who may have watched a webinar or read a blog already, and are looking for more information on what is being presented.

•  Build awareness

From brand awareness to awareness around a specific product or service the aim is to get in front of your target audience. Maybe the event is a product launch. For attendees this is an opportunity to more closely align with your brand or learn specific details and even increase awareness on an offering you have that may fit their needs. Drift built awareness with their target audiences by hosting the Rev Growth Summit virtually, bringing together leaders and executives across sales and marketing, providing keynotes and courses.

• Increase thought leadership

From experts sharing their vision on the state of a niche segment, or detailed explanations on a technical topic – educate your industry. The opportunities are endless, but this is an opportunity to educate and elevate key figures in parallel with your brand. G2 hosted REACH 2020 virtually, bringing together thought leaders across sales, marketing, customer success, operations, and product from a variety of companies, including their own to share their strategies, expertise and playbooks.

• Customer, partner and employee engagement, education and retention

Education is one of the most valuable opportunities for a brand to connect directly with their most closely aligned audiences – partners, customers and employees. From trainings and educational sessions to retention driven events, continued engagement with these audiences is imperative.

Once you’ve decided on your why, and overall goal, how do you better specify that goal, make it SMART and define KPIs to keep you on track?

First, align these goals with your business goals. Be specific, make sure it’s measurable and achievable along with having a timeframe to accomplish it.

In fine tuning your overall goal you will want to further specify exactly what you are aiming to achieve, and how. This also means better defining the type of event along with your audience so you can more clearly specify your goals and ultimately measure success with KPIs that you set, and finally - build your strategy. ‍

Defining your needs and deciding your goals often means hosting multiple events to achieve different goals or different audiences so you can deliver the highest level of value possible. NASSCOM, the premier trade body for the tech industry, has leveraged this strategy to great effect, having hosted a variety of virtual events over the last year, building on the success of each. Here's Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the most recent conference, the NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum.

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If you are hosting an event to generate demand around a product, is it for industry contacts, customers or both? Or if you’re looking to increase thought leadership who will your attendees be? Be clear on who your audience is and make sure you understand what the goals of your attendees will be.

For example, when WhiteHat Jr. hosted a Creator Summit for young students from around the world, they wanted to create an exciting and impactful learning experience for them.  Because children get more easily distracted, the company needed to design a thrilling virtual venue that was colourful and exciting, which was achieved through their Lobby.

The company also organized interactive virtual sessions between leaders in coding, math, and space, with engagement tools that encourage them to ask questions, share opinions and get involved.

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There will always be a multitude of possibilities for your event goal and event format such as increasing thought leadership via an industry panel or partner education via a live learning course – thus in deciding which type, it’s important to prioritize what will help in achieving the clear goal set forth for the event. 

Building your strategy

Goals are imperative to build your road map and strategy for an event. Without setting goals, it is difficult to define whether the event, means and channels utilized drove beneficial outcomes for your organization. The key is to have a strong vision and simultaneously make sure that you do right by your audience.

In building your event strategy there are multiple components that are vital to executing a successful event and achieving your overall goal. This includes content, promotion, engagement and technology.

• Content plan. Who is participating in the event, when will the content be created and when will it be shared prior, during and after the event?

• Promotional plan. Where are you promoting, communicating and distributing information for your event? How frequently?

• Engagement plan. How will you engage your audience, drive networking and create a memorable and unique experience?

• Technology. What platform will you be using to host and deliver your event effectively and reliably?

Further defining your goals with data

Once you specify the efforts you will focus on as the core of your strategy to drive towards your overall goal, it’s important to finalize the KPIs that will help you measure success and understand your progress. The most successful events set clear goals and build a path in which steps can be taken to achieve them.

With this, it’s important to understand event data and utilize it properly. The metrics used can vary widely as different events and audiences will require varying priorities of what is important to measure. Deciding on KPIs in advance of your event will help you in digesting the data, because without clear direction and intent it is difficult to sort through and prioritize the appropriate data. There are typically four key areas to measure.

• Promotional Data‍

This includes information on performance of promotions across email, social and websites prior, during and after the event.

• Registration data

This includes how many people registered, sources of registrations, who registered, specific audiences that registered and more.

• Engagement Data

This includes participation in sessions, polls, networking, chat, questions and more.

•  Attendee Data

This includes information on attendees’ activities within the event, duration of attendance, attendance rate, demographics and more.

At the end of an event, it’s important to holistically evaluate it in its entirety – and reviewing data and comparing against your KPIs will help you to define your level of success in driving toward your overall goal. By taking attendee, engagement and registration data you can build a picture to understand the stage and relationship each person in your audience has with your brand in relation to your overall goal, and even use lead scoring for each.

While virtual events require different strategies and goals than in-person events and other marketing channels – to find success you ultimately will still aim to entertain, engage and educate your audience.

Interested in learning more on setting goals for your next event? Join a demo with our team here.

Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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