The 3rd Annual Big List of Marketo Marketing Nation Networking Opportunities and Parties + More

Okay, so it's almost here.  We're less than a week away from Marketo's annual conference.  Crazy that it's in Vegas.  I'm excited that it will be back in San Fran next year, but looking forward to connecting with my prior coworkers, the current Marketo team, thought leaders, and friends at the event.  

Also, it's just cool to see what Marketo User Summit has become. When we created it in September 2009, we had 250 customers at Marketo, and about half were in attendance.  We hosted it in the Marriott in San Mateo, because registration was so much larger than expected causing us to relocate from a Salesforce meeting room we had booked.  Marketing greats like Jason Stewart, Jenny Coupe, Alex Pelletier, Andrew Spoeth, and Chris Newton were there as well as sponsors including Reachforce, Pedowitz Group, Tippit (Hey Craig), Data.com, and Enquiro.  Weeks before the show we released Marketo Sales Insight AND only one month prior we launched the first Marketo Definitive Guide (lead nurturing).  

So, every year I comb through my email invites and put together a list of parties and such.  And the list is here.  But I thought I would give some context to how I came up with this list.  First, I put everything about the event into an email folder - and today I hit 100 emails about the event.  Mostly notes asking me for meetings.  Here is a summary of the activities I found in the list, as well as prizes, cool content, and more.  

Before you continue reading, can you help my session at the Marketo summit by completing this 1 minute survey.

Oh, and check out my session:

Marketing and the C-Suite - Marketing Your Marketing to Gain Support and Recognition
May 10th at 2:00pm
Location: Room 314/315

Here are the list of parties:

• Mambo Party – May 9, 7pm, Pearl, MGM

• Welcome Reception – May 9, 5-7pm, Expo Hall, MGM

• Marketo Happy Hour – May 10, 5:30-7pm, MGM, Expo Hall, MGM

• Summer Anthem Party by Everstring– May 10, 7pm, Wet Republic, MGM Grand  <-- DJ Jazzy Jeff is playing here!!!

• Champagne Splash Party – May 10, 9pm-1am, Lily Bar & Lounge, Bellagio

• First Class Party – May 10, 7pm-9pm, Chandelier Bar, Cosmopolitan

• Cocktails and Chill VIP Party – May 10, 6-9pm, Centrifuge, MGM Grand Hotel

• Pre-Marketo Chill Party – May 11, 7pm-9pm, Minus 5* Ice Bar, Shoppes at Mandalay Place

• Old School Vegas Meets New School Marketing – May 11th, 6-8pm, MGMSkylofts

• Marketing Nation Party – May 11th, 9pm-12am, Hakkasan, MGM

• And, if you really want to go through the hassle, do a demo with Socedo and they'll let you know where their happy hour is.  

There are lots of other private events, so make sure to reach out to any sponsor in which you have interest and let them know you're coming.  I'll be hanging at a number of non-published events with Engagio, Everstring, Captora, Radius, and more, but outside of Marketo's and Everstring's I'm unlikely to do the bigger parties.  I'm sticking to the MGM - and I assume many others are, too.  You can share in this strategy, or venture out to some of the other events which will likely be less crowded because they are a bit out of the way.  

BIG NOTE - The one can't miss event during the show, outside of the Marketo keynote, is the Everstring Summer Anthem party.  Trust me on this. Really. And it's a huge event, so everyone should be able to get in (nothing is worse than standing in line for forever and not even getting in the door!)  

I also couldn't believe how many companies were promoting their prize giveaways.  It seems like this is the way to drive marketers to your booth, meetings, or for pre-reg.  Some of the prizes I've noticed: 

• LeadMD – Poker Run game with $10K in prizes
• Engagio – Hydration Station at their booth, including a cool water bottle
• Hoosh – Win a Helicopter Ride (note- I did this and it didn’t work so maybe skip?)
• BlueBird Strategies – Chance to win $400 when stopping at their booth
• Perkuto – VR cardboard viewer for meeting or at the booth
• Mintigo – Chance to win a Nixplay Edge 8” Wifi Cloud Photo Frame
• Spiceworks – Connect 4 game to win – not sure of prize, but who doesn’t love Connect 4?
• Spiceworks – Tweet or Instagram a photo at their booth for a chance to win an unnamed prize
• Multiple including Bizible – Suite Upgrade at MGM SkyLOFT
• atEvent – Chance to win an Amazon Echo at their booth
• Lattice - Take a photo with #MKTGNerds at their booth for a chance to win a prize
• ReadyTalk – They’ll have a prize wheel in booth
• Conversica – Hourly prize giveaway at the booth
• Engagio Sky High Sweepstakes (now expired)
• Multiple including SnapApp – Win a VIP Experience (now expired)

Marketo's communications have been pretty great - and have included confirmations of attendance, a T-minus 19 days email, emails about reg and the live stream, and about 25 emails telling me my session content was late (but damn they were nice about it) and giving me tips for a great presentation.

Pretty much every vendor sent out an email asking for a meeting.  There were variations calling a meeting a coaching session, or just asking me to visit a booth or see a session.  Lots of companies sent notes like this including: Get Smart Content, Elevate, Pedowitz group, Attend, Lattice, Uberflip, Invoca, Bluebird SalesPredict, LookBookHQ, Mintigo, On24, Kwanzoo, atEvent, Openprise, Perkuto, Inxpo, LeadMD, NewsCred, Televerde, ReadyTalk and more.  Let them know if you want to chat.  

Didn't get enough here?  A couple other articles, infographics and posts worth checking out about the event...

• Everstring's ultimate guide to the summit 
• Marketo Summit LookBook with Expo Guide and Tips
• A tutorial about how to use the summit app
• An infographic about the vendors at the event
• And a really great blog post about the event via RevEngineInsider

See you at the show - and let me know if you want to connect.