How B2B CMOs are addressing, improving event ROI

CMOs wear many hats when it comes to events - sponsor, producer, attendee and more. And as in-person events big and small road back, B2B marketing leaders are thinking long and hard about how/where they deserve to be in their go-to-market mix.

Last Friday's CMO Coffee Talk sessions focused on the future of events - in person and virtual, local/regional as well as national/global.

The notes below reflect real-time thinking around impact, format, ROI calculations and much more.

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Sales is leaning in. Big time

We are leaning in, but less traditional; investing in hosted activity at the event vs larger booth presence

Yes! My parent company is an events company and its booming.

Glad that shaking hands is back, TBH.? Missed that.

hugs too

The only lasting change from Covid is political division and lack of trust in in science. Yes I’m cheerful.

Sponsoring golf events at a larger tradeshow or event has always worked for me, and sending reps/myself to play with them and get conversations going

When budgets are tight tho and other channels bring a better ROI, it’s tough to continue to allocate the huge dollars to events

We are also leaning into smaller locally hosted events - especially for clients.

Hearing digital conversions have been dismal for most B2B SaaS as of late. in turn many are pivoting more to events to fill the gap. Could just be shuffling the deck chairs in what is a tough economic environment.

We are leaning back in for sure. Several big trade shows, but in a very stable way. We are finding small local road shows that include a round table work.

We did a ping pong event and it was a huge success. People showed up with their own paddles!! ??♀?

Computational scientists

Cool! What are they like? Typically Introverted?

Introverts, nerds, NOT the people I thought would be taking up 4 ping pong tables at all times of the night

Use Uber and Lyft certificates and celebrity guest cisos for dinner events in NY and SF. We filled the room almost over capacity using that in cyber

love this, we use this for dinners and it's a great way to get a check of who accepted the uber cert to understand who's gonna show up

GDS — Boo!

We get value out of the 1:1 meetings with one producer. Others - no

The shoptalk meetings have been great for us

Agree about iqpc!

In terms of retail / cog / brands in martech, Shoptalk 1-1s are incredible. Bigger events that are great are NRF, Groceryshop, eTail. There are also some smaller events that specifically tailor 1-1 meetings with execs at target brands, may be worth experimenting there.

Its interesting how incentivizing as part of events (expensive dinners, gifts, swag etc) is accepted/common place but incentivizing for booking meetings in digital is frowned upon ??♂?

I had to go to the CEO of GDS to get removed for their lists.

They are scum. GDS etc

I do like the idea of matchmaking at events - sort of raising hands for certain tech to connect attendees/vendors or paint point discussions between wider groups, but haven’t seen it executed well (and seldom)

Gds ugh

Customized nikes are cool

Nikes worked for us at RSA and BHAT in cyber

Plus 6S event swag is pure ??.? My wife always grabs anything I get from y’all.

Generating meeting beforehand — KEY!!

create a space people want to be at

the experience

Our event campaigns start months ahead content wise

Sharing a recent LinkedIn post about event from Shea Cole that I like:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7196128370441474048/

also not limiting attendance to the conference list - who else in that metro area is in our ICP and should be at our space? even if not attending the conference

Please shoot me if another founder mentions GDS to me

Re: reporting, it took some work to educate our CFO on when to expect results (pipeline) from in person events; we have started doing 30 day / 90 day / 6 month updates on event ROI

So true! We saw that with NRF in retail tech through the pandemic - it’s tough to survive through that

One thing we see from large events is that they show up a year later as the first touch.? The last-touch, which is what we mostly talk about might be a demo request, or qualified chat, or whatever.? But the large event gets them into orbit.

Same! Our highest ROI events are relatively small 150-350 - that were in that category initially and gaining ground and become the must attend (MAICON).

But we don’t need the events because we have this group

Is there a number that you target.. e.g., 5X cost within 90?

My recommendation to everyone when thinking about who is your buyer - keep in mind the CIO/CRO may not be the only buyer. I’m seeing more and more the CMO being the person involved in the buying decision depending on the platform

Or you have to be there because of a “partnership” like folks who have to do it with AWS and they kind of “make you” sponsor

36 minutes in and no one has mentioned Gartner events.? I’m shocked.

“Proof of life” shows — LOVE THAT

we target ENT and commit to $3K/ENT opp’ty, so we have to deliver against that for every $ spent at an event

it's 10x for us. 90 days out

And if you want to do anything at AWS re:invent within a 5 mile radius of the venue you have to sponsor or they will shut it down

Thats exactly how AWS works which stinks

Thanks! 10X would be amazing :)

Those breakfasts were the best back in the day!

There's a major trade association that runs a huge show that all of our competitors go to. Everybody spends $1M+ to pull off amazing booths. Just in the last two years we've decided to pull out and put that money towards attending smaller shows. Guess what? The association is annoyed with us, but our customers love seeing us in more/different places.

Is this an event?? A community?? Little of both?

Are there any interesting applications of AI at Events that any of you are executing or have heard of?

the challenge is most businesses won’t have the patience to build the long term community built here

—> great point… it’s about COMMUNITY… and Community is about ENGAGEMENT!

+1 Ian! CMO Coffee is the best and most consistent weekly event. Community, knowledge, networking, sharing, insights, HUMOR, giveback, etc...

Agree. The hard part is keeping it a community first, with zero commercial expectations. Most communities are ruined by “but where is the ROI”. And, paradoxically, by not focusing on it, you find it.

Agree, it takes a lot of time and effort, and belief in it to bridge the time to see value, AND the ability to attribute value

18:22 — suddenly I feel WAY below average.

We think about micro events within the main industry event - booth presentations / small meetings , customer meetings , dinners with themes , content pre / post event , social media show flow etc

I love Interprefy! I’ve seen them at events because it provides live CC on massive screens. Helpful for hearing impaired, and also grabs attention for people who are not directly sitting in the session especially at an open-floor speaking session.

his point reminds me that we’re focused highly on ROI of events, specifically as it relates to sales. As it relates to larger campaigns, I agree that the event is a piece of something bigger, but also that events have other value too - media relations, analyst relations, partnerships, industry education, there’s much more value than just revenue

I was at an event for marketers and my name tag had cMO on it.? It gave me a small taste of what’s like to be a CISO at RSA or Black Hat.? I was inundated with vendors who wanted to talk - and all I wanted to do was network and learn.

Hearhear. We got feedback from an event recently where our target audience would turn their badge the other way around because they felt hunted - there were too many vendors going after them…

post-COVID, the bar for leaving our house for anything is just higher!?

Most people fail because the Event is the FIRST tactic within the event – should be about the midpoint… and begin with outreach to all the constituencies that could reasonably come out?

Agree totally - cars vs planes?

BIG BIG thing - agendas…?

NOT just production value – but that is a big part of it?

BE BRIEF…? I built my own data on executive’s attention span at conferences… it’s 18:22!???

TIGHT – a minute between speakers is too long… participants lose focus

Matt said in his post “who’s in the room matters” → YES!??

The participants expect to get value not only from the people “on the stage” - but rather from everyone in the room!?

I have noticed especially Fortune 500 execs just feel they get no value from being in the room with the 500 person, sub $1B org… they have different problems at a different scale?

(shudder - most of us will hate this) —> We have to STOP the connection between paying for sponsorship and getting the registration list.??

There.? I said it.??

I honestly don’t know how this is still legal under the new aggressive privacy laws like California?

→ need to change this to a world where the target attendee “SWIPES RIGHT” because they want to talk with the vendor…

I have been doing a sort of listening tur in my space… cybersecurity execs, so talked to liek 35 CISOs over the past month…? they have mostly all agreed that the idea that if there are n # of sponsors at an event, they know they will get n# of phone calls the very next day with a rudimentary “when can we schedule a demo?” pitch that is? totally disconnected!

Aw, man.? Has anyone sponsored Money 20/20??? So expensive, and so many big names spending big dollars… I once Rana happy hour and was up against a competitor’s happy hour that had Jay Z headlining!!

how do you calculate the 10x return? Is it based on net new opportunities? What about acceleration or customer retention?

Putting a chatbot on a panel presentation is something I’d like to try :-)

Didn’t IBM do this with Watson?

which AI are you using to drive those meetings?

Or am I thinking when Watson was on Jeopardy?

I have seen some orgs using an AI Quiz Generator… to give participants a test after the presentation, this was mainly for those that were giving CPEs or the like

https://www.revisely.com/quiz-generator

6sense Conversational Email!

Wynter is fantastic. Peep nailed it with that one.

Seems like there are a few strategies: do it but be awesome (Club6), do it but be different (Wynter). Just don’t be boring and do the same thing everyone else does. It’s almost like differentiation matters in marketing!

Prioritized marketing ai institute for my team this year - to learn new skills . Forrester was very stale and academic

CISOs want to network with each other.

I like the idea of 1x1 for an account experience

Trap the attendees’ attention on those boats!

Captive audience!!

BDRs + SEs

NEED to have THE PERSON who will do the follow-up be AT the event!!!

I think everyone really wants to network with each other at events. Seems like these days that's where more learning happens than from any speaking sessions. Figure out what everyone else is doing to overcome similar challenges.

And comp BDRs on meetings they set in the booth.

You guys want a great idea for getting convos? If anyone has a conference in Vegas (specifically like the Sands Expo), then book a time to get Vitamin B12 drips that the hotel does. Man the convos there I think would be great because you finish that feeling like a million bucks and they would attribute that to your brand. Plus you are all sitting there so you just kinda shoot the shit.

Also a self driven demo (we us Navatic) so people who are shy can play with product.

We sell super technical product so we staff them with solution consultants who can talk about the product. No BDRs, and few AEs.

Um, the BDRs want to go because they’re generally young and outgoing — they want the party!!

I’m gonna sound old school here, but I’ll send BDRs over AEs any day. I don’t want to hear about how much time you spent with your seven-figure prospect from Megacorp. I want tons of conversations to follow up on.

I went to an event where some person took me and some folks down to the bars on dirty 6th in Austin. Was definitely an “experience” ??

Great conversation! Now I just need the budget for event s again ??

Also, BDRs are more likely to have a cold conversation than an AE

I apologize for the trashy condition of the southern suburb of Pflugerville

I'm in Houston - we were without power for 4 nights. My silver lining is having power and AC for the long weekend.

I’ve tried out two different event types recently. One where it was 30 minute talks and 10 minutes of discussion in small tables following. The other had 10 minute talks and 20 minutes of discussion in small tables. The first never got past the surface level conversation, it was hard for folks to make meaningful connections. However, the second method helped the company drive meaningful conversations to move upsells and new deals forward as well as let the attendees build meaningful connections, it was quite an interesting comparison

Frose recipe:? Frozen rose wine, 1/2 cup vodka, 4 Tbs strawberry syrup.? Blend and garnish with a mint leaf.

My silver lining is that my intern finally graduated and went full-time. One week in, she's crushing it already and it's a huge relief for me.

I had my final round interview for a new job - it went well so almost there. Good vibes would be appreciated!!

I got to meet my client after one year of working with her!

Have a wonderful Memorial day!

Rebrand will be a great topic

And when is the time to bring in Gartner and AI in to your rebrand ??

Love this community

Def feels like things are picking up

On the topic of events, is there a plan to have a CMO track at Breakthrough again this year?

reducing sponsored events - doubling down on smaller events and owned events

Cautiously funding

We are doubling down on events

Increasing f2f activities.? We participate in a few key industry events.

are booths the next thing thats dead?

cant find raise hand but (against my personal belief system) events are actually working for us -mid market cyber player, we choose events fairly carefully

We are increasing our investment in our Owned events, relative to industry.? I will +1 her strategy on "down on booth, up on experiences"

What budget allocation are people making to events? I’m putting 25% of my budget into trade shows, webinars, etc.

Events are critical to Marketing and I have been working with them since 1994! First permanent job after grad school- accounting, registration, on-site.? Online still very important and on-site very important too.? Events is an area where processes are ripe for improvement and I've enjoyed working with Events staff and leadership for years. Processes need to be optimized. Zoom has very nice integrations that fit into Marketing automation platforms.? I have a cert with Zoom and the training is very easy to complete.

a big issue I would like to see marketers focus on and demand for is the sustainability surrounding big event.

Scheduled speaking presentations at a small “theatre” section with stage and seating ??

We're using the same tactic? - works so well and sales loves the immediate impact on pipe.

how do you deal w/ ppl who cannot take gifts?

are airpods under $75? ha

Ahhh… The ipod / ipad give-away era at events. It was such a golden era. ??

IMO, to do a real virtual event, it has to go far beyond Zoom, and be on a real virtual event platform.

I am using Engagez for the Digital Engagement Summit: https://digitalengagementsummit.com/#lct_last=lobby&lct=entrance

Would love a recommendation for tools to manage event meeting calendar and schedule. That detail devil continues to be a challenge.

Idea - Sending SMS messages to remind folks of their meetings has been helpful for me.

size of exhibition hall was lower, number of exhibitors was lower

How are people handling contact lists from events? Taking the company / title lists and enriching with tech? Enrriching with outsourced labor? Buying lists from someone? (**eek**)

100% agree with quality not quantity

we get the account list and enrich with contacts ourselves

would love to hear metrics and benchmarks on event ROI - calls, MQLs, influenced revenue?

agreed, benchmarks wld be great. 2024

Would love to hear how marketing teams are successfully partnering with sales to drive pre arranged meetings.

our metric is 10x sourced pipeline in 90 days for all events except for our customer conference, where there might be more upsell/retention metrics

I like 6sense's 10X ROI requirement for events.? That's primarily net-new with a sprinkling of upsells.

the aversion to booths seems to be prevalent in the revtech space... but other industries, hasn't quite hit yet right?

Would love a content piece on all the crazy suggestions given when asking customer/prospect on where they want the event to be.

I’ve seen the same things as MJ. Our owned events perform well, and they need to be very content oriented NOT salesy. Our events are 2-3 day long events though.

the formula was, I wanted the cashflow and willingly accepted a project mgmt rate @$85/hr. After 5 weeks working with my client, they agreed I’m delivering a LOT more than “project mgmt”.? So, because they have a lot of integrity and doing well revenue wise, they were willing to adjust my rate.?

Ii think I’m lucky, because I know another client who doesn’t care about what’s fair.? That company forced my friend to accept $5K/month FULL TIME and going to the office M-F.? My friend accepted, because he’s got a 12 yr old and must have income, any income.

That client is borderline violating labor law.? i.e, you can’t force a contractor to come in to the office and dictating what they do.

we literally run the math of how many meetings we need to hit 10x. i can say less than 3 wks out from forrester summit and we are at 8x already

so is that 10X measured on pipeline or closed-won?

thats so impressive. need a 6s playbook -- i bet the club helps a lot

Patent CISO Society is great - love Jason.? I am chatting with him later today

closed won wld be NICE

For the fractional here, what percentage of cash/equity (if at all) do you find yourself willing to take?

yes, majority comes from the Club6 and ancillary events vs booth

same. it's a 2.5 day conference and this year we are adding on a pre-event workshop provided by the industry association. Hoping that will help drive even more attendees to our event.

He's the best! We have a dinner next week and he is hosting it in Atlanta.

100% - Smaller, regional, and industry focused shows for the win!

Agreed — speaking is a must-have. Not just the “5 minute vendor slot”

Agree. The issue with the associations is that they hey low-level practitioners vs execs.

Totally agree with you Neal. I would ensure that my speaking slots are in the morning ideally before the first networking slot.

do vendor presentations really work?? don’t folks expect that is a sales pitch versus educational

fox in the hen house!

Often — up to you to make it a real interesting/educational session vs a pitch.

10x pipe gen on our spend at the event

Yes - speaking is a big help - especially if the presentation is full of educational type content.

Support my workload and new biz pipeline

For the fractional CMOs here, what percentage of cash/equity (if at all) do you find yourself willing to take in negotiations with companies?

Most often, even when vendors think they have a “thought leadership” presentation, it’s still kind of a sales pitch

IMO has to add value, be educational - cannot be salesy, can backfire

I had great luck with Millennium Alliance CISO Summits. Two of our Sr. Execs meeting with CISOs/Execs with problems to solve.

sure, but i have always found having a customer or partner present along with the vendor is much better

yes. we aren’t allowed to choose tome slot at these events, but we do see that early morn, or ideally right before a break (where attendees naturally go straight to the vendor floor) are the most effective

usergems does a great job here - always share tactical abm advice - including using their product - but you gain so much value from the whole preso you dont mind

Totally agree, it’s all in the follow up. Was having that very convo with my team this morn. Rocking up to an event and doing nothing after just doesn’t work.

If you include a case study / partner with a customer, these sessions work well. This will drive your cost up as you have to cover for the extra ticket and T&E.

It's a good point. I was chatting with them yesterday and told them we get a 50/50 mix so they are considering a session that would be valuable to execs as well as practitioner focused. Luckily they are open to being creative to make this a success.

i never do a vendor pitch, it is always thought leadership oriented.

The reps are on their phones in the booth the whole time then complain that there were no conversations

??? - booth prep is so important

I had the opposite experience. The people that were promised for 1:1 meetings either didn’t show up or had little / no interest in us. They appeared to be simply showing up because they promised.

Can take it to the next level. Having folks wear the shirts I think isn’t enough.

Events are great for getting competitive intel too

Or, even better, just talking to each other

100% learning value of high-paced, repeat, in-person conversations with ICPs

we also run very specific demos at the booth

So true, I watch marketing leaders sit in the expo hall and do email instead of interacting IN the sessions and learning from the content!

and have SCs staffing the booth to run them

So, they are super-important.

I have found the most success when being overly vocal about goals set (to set expectations among stakeholders and those involved in events). Goals could be: lead gen, relationship building, thought leadership, awareness/perception, team building, or a combination of those. Not every event will do all of those things well. We just need to make sure we think there’s a good ROI against the goal(s). The awareness/perception has been very hard to measure, but can be critical.

Sales alignment is KEY to success.? We have agreement on goals and pipeline targets before we commit to a field/owned event.

Interesting! I had some big new logo wins as a direct result.

We spent a lot more on events (40ish% and I've very uncomfortable with that - working on adjustments).

one tactic i have used is targeting speakers who fit my ICP and invite them to a “speakers dinner” at a very nice restaurant - they can meet other speakers and network there

Same. But I honestly think that was an ICP mismatch. Our CRO has had great experiences with them in past lives.

I had to pull back on events 100% previously to convince my sales leader at the time to put up 50% of the cost from his budget and commit to sales pull through & prebooking

Events can’t just be marketing, there has to be? solid cooperation pre, during, and post with sales

I feel like I’m on target with the spend, but the ROI is still squishy - I see a lot of pipeline influence, but it is hard to prove ROI. Events in enterprise marketing tend to be just one touch in a journey.

Our BDR team has been run by Head of Sales and doesn’t have a good system for taking Marketing Events and guidance to maximize event value by pre-booking meetings etc. Any documentation for explaining this motion and optimizing would be ah-mazing!

Totally agree. Sales cherry pick the few hot ones and it is hard to get them to followup on the rest

Yeah, that’s pain.? As CMO, I always try to be the one that owns that team… I would call them LDRs.

Follow-up timing is key. If you are not on the phone to booth leads within 1-2 days, you’ve missed it. The bulk of our post event meetings come on the first 5 days with a substantial drop off after that. That means data needs to be processed, imported, cadences/sequences pre-written. The second aspect is following back up with non-converting leads 4-6 months later. We just started from our December event and are already booking meetings with those leads that didn’t convert in December.

'go big or go home'

Leads are a perishable commodity

BUT - they often define “hot” as large orgs they would really like to be in touch with…? needs to be the attendees who have “swiped right”

“Speed to Lead”

Triage on "Leads" post-event is an critical step. Help your sales team focus on what matters most.

Does booth size matter? I would argue it does. It needs to be big enough to look like you’re a legitimate player vs your competition.

It depends on the event itself.

Size always matters #sorry

It’s the motion of the commotion.

there are some that are all “lounge” and relationship driven…. Trade shows vs others.

That’s where I’d argue the cyclical nature comes into play. You don’t need a huge booth every year at every event. Cadence it out by events each year - having a speaker on the main stage, or hosting curated workshops can be as “impressive” looking imo

What is the name of the software mentioned

Jifflenow

https://www.cvent.com/en/event-marketing-management/cvent-jifflenow

They’re all in the hotel bars. Time to advertise there!

Just a call out... for our event, we used Whova and I have gotten so many compliments on the experience. Great value for your dollar vs some of the expensive apps.

Is anyone geotagging event locations during event dates, to leverage for post event targeted ads?

CISOs = whisky. 3 years from now it will be edibles or micro dosing sponsorships.

Only get to go if you book x meetings

Yeah but did they have CHANDELIERS?

3 years from now you'll be trying to figure out how to woo the robots? ??

Two other vendors did similar things at RSA. Chainguard rented out a museum around the corner, and GitHub / Endor labs rented out a restaurant across the street

Offer coolant for the GPUs and you're golden!

All this is sounding very expensive. What are some rules of thumbs on what and how to evaluate events. Anyone tracking event spend to actual closed revenue, instead of pipe gen?

?It's straight out of Apple's playbook...

AND? - not paying RSAC their “blood money” extortion!

When I managed RSA while leading marketing for SonicWall, we crushed it.? But the whole focus was on awareness, meeting with press, analysts, putting the new CEO in front of partners, and making sure our booth traffic was over the top.? And we executed!? It took a lot my personal attention to detail.? I hand picked the presenters, the folks who did the demos, we rehearsed the presentation and demos, we had goals, and we crushed it

Exec-suite meeting rooms "Best Practice" - allow buffer time between meetings to air the room. Those suites can get pretty stinky. ??

sure if you can afford a hotel. but this strategy will ultimately break the ‘subsidy’ game and drive up cost for other RSA participants. i think they are better served to do both, it’s hardly a cost issue for them.

Does anyone else do owned, multi-day events?

Did you just call your customers sheep????

Wolf of Wall Street!

Good thing we don't record these!

Another suite tip I learned this year at RSA. Our “suite” ended up being a hotel room with couch, so I enlisted our Marriott unobtanium status AE to complain, and we ended up with a 30+th floor HUGE sweet with an amazing view

What a great point and hadn't thought of that. We have a big space 7500 sq ft on an upcoming event and are actually building a state-of-the-art meeting room with F&B on-premises. Will remember the air freshener!

I think I want to refer to the tchotchki-crowd, rubber-duck crowd from now on. I liked that sound bite

yep! Ours is called LogicON. :)

HxGN LIVE Global for Hexagon

How many folks in here were at RSA? We skipped it this year.

We eliminated traditional events years ago. Focused on niche content, smaller gatherings, and heavy on PR. Not for all but we increased leads by 50% by using this plan. Increased sales. And even better, built more trust with sales bc we weren’t wasting their time on bad leads. But brand and thought leadership must be made up in other areas.

We do several over the year and have a flagship event, Beyond….coming in 15 days

Club6 was an awesome experience. But I do have to say the Wifi WAS choppy. Just saying! ??

IMHO, the execs I want to be in front of don’t care about AirPods, iPads, or whatever

I want to be her when I grow up, you’ve got it on lock lady

I believe the quality of contacts for the “steak dinner” is going down precipitously…

its the team!!

For those who setup customer meetings before the events, do you actually pay the cost of attending the event (hotel, airfare, etc.)?? Is that part of your event budget?

I found when doing Martech events, when we did a party, when I had my SDRs message those registrants to come demo at a booth or suite or what not, the hit rate was INSANELY high. We even had a gift for the good ones. But it drove a good portion of revenue out of the events.

No. Only if we get people to come to speak on panels

I’d put money in the parties

They can't come if you don't invite them -- which is to say it's up to us to stay focused on who we want to attend.

How do you approach keeping sales accountable for the follow up?

I think there is a huge mismatch between what attendees and sponsors want out of events and conferences and what conferences offer. I think smaller/high value attendees and educational content is a win-win

MJ disinvite them from future events if they don’t do their f’n jobs

No. Only if it is our own owned experience and we have a target list of high value customers or prospects. Then we set a budget aside for sales and cS to use to get the right people to our own event.

Uber gift certificate ??

Reacted to "MJ disinvite them fr..." with ??

Need sales bought in from before the launch

Agree totally - cars vs planes - regional/local gatherings are what drives real opportunities.

BIG BIG thing - agendas…?

NOT just production value – but that is a big part of it?

BE BRIEF…? I built my own data on executive’s attention span at conferences… it’s 18:22!???

TIGHT – a minute between speakers is too long… participants lose focus

Several people mentioned this, but the value you can offer is access to other leaders, CEOs, etc. People will pay for that.

he said in his post “who’s in the room matters” → YES!??

The participants expect to get value not only from the people “on the stage” - but rather from everyone in the room!?

I have noticed especially Fortune 500 execs just feel they get no value from being in the room with the 500 person, sub $1B org… they have different problems at a different scale

sales begs to do events but then when follow up comes up.. I get some excuses that they ran out of time or other deals came up.

GREAT IDEA!!!? Let’s create a list by City/convention center.

That’s why I had them put up budget & cosign on goals

I would love to know a good spot near Javits

Boston —> LOBSTA ROLL

The worst event place is McCormick Place in Chicago it’s so far from everything ugh, but the venue is HUGE.

Once the managers / CSO were involved they took care of cracking the whip

Yep, - just got back from the huge event manning a booth there.

The Hilton is attached to McCormick. I have done great added value content there in the past.

I was by Javits yesterday. The best thing they have done is have the 7 train go Hudson Yards rather than walking 5 avenues like before and hope you don’t get robbed. ??

There are some great spots in the south loop area, but a little outside the precise neighborhood

For the folks doing the bigger shows -- do you film anything - perhaps customers w/testimonials - or other types on content that you can leverage on social media during and after the event?

Just came back from Gartner CFO where are tried many things to drive engagement. Dinner or Breakfast had very very low attendance. Hard to get people out after a long day and a reception.

We had a ton of advertising, wrapped Ubers as well. Offered free uber rides to the airport in our Pigment cars where we were running a video/snippet of a webinar :)

Some companies came to see us at the booth because they saw our Uber Cars :)

…..and a bunch of the restaurants near the conference centers went out of business during covid

important for dedicated Events team to work very closely with Marketing ops if both functions and departments exist.? Operations people are very good at working on orderly marketing plans that have tight deadlines that can be planned in advance.? I was lucky to work on the marketing for huge conferences - and we planned the messaging and journeys almost a year in advance each year.??? It was fun to work at the actual conference and see the attendees and speakers.

It sounds like she has this as part of the BDR responsibilities, yes?

Reminds me of the Mountain Climber game on the Price is Right! (Dating myself but it is still on TV and one of the games)

My husband is a headshot photographer and one of his most popular event sponsorships (6 years and still going strong), is a 20x20 next to the sponsor’s booth for headshots. The line is always long and you have a captive audience. People always love hanging out watching, it creates buzz and goodwill. Since it’s a high-value giveaway, you get a lot of social media amplification as well.

ops doing digital follow up for sure, BDRs calling

I always get the booth next to the Photo Booth for this reason

+1 to regional AND peer-to-peer exchanges -- breakfasts + dinners.

I’ve had success with engagement and lead gen by releasing a proprietary research report based on a survey done prior to the event -- ‘get your free copy at the booth.’ It's a TON of work and not the most scaleable approach but that one was special, related to an important product launch and the event’s audience was spot on. We also did a bunch of PR and social at and post so the event was just one component. Sales (and Product) loved it.

There were some questions earlier in the chat for virtual / webinars - this is probably the opposite of a best practice but I've found high quality content people want + LIVE ONLY no recording gets sky high attendance rates

Can we get folks who have beefs (thinking people versus companies or versus each other) on stage and have a rap battle type back and forth?

Happy Memorial Day.? Thankful to all who gave the ultimate sacrifice.? Freedom isn’t free.