Name: How to Design Waitlist-Worthy Experiences
Uploaded: 2025-06-04T19:30:05.688Z
Duration: 1 h 29 min 28 s
Description: How to Design Waitlist-Worthy Experiences

Transcript for "How to Design Waitlist-Worthy Experiences": Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar. I'm James Hickey, editor at Demand Gen Report, and I'm incredibly excited to be introducing and listening in on today's session sponsored by Goldcast Events, titled, Camp Architects, how to design waitlist worthy experiences. Goldcast Events Sydney Duvall will guide a panel featuring Databricks Jessica Hopp and SentinelOne's Beth Bethany Murphy. For those of you who may be new to Demand Gen Report, welcome. DGR is an online media company publishing daily news, a weekly email newsletter, special reports, original research, demanding views from industry experts like the three talented panel panelists that will be speaking today, and a rich menu of additional resources, including webinars like this one. If you haven't already done so, join the more than 75,000 subscribers to our to our weekly newsletter by signing up to the demand gen report today. During and after today's session, please follow along and share your thoughts and feedback on x Twitter and LinkedIn. And as you can see, all of our links and handles are on your screen. Before we begin, I wanna tell you that the twenty twenty six b two b marketing exchange West is on the move. Next year, we're bringing the b two b marketing magic to a brand new location, Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California from March. Get ready for fresh insights, expanded networking opportunities, and an inspiring setting to take your marketing strategies to that next level. We can't wait to see you in California next year, so make sure to sign up for the b two b marketing exchange west updates to be the first to know when registration opens. And with all that out of the way, I will hand over the proceedings to Cindy. Thanks so much for that intro, James. And I just wanna say thank you to our partners, Overhat Demand Gen report. Before we officially jump in, I'm gonna go over some housekeeping items. So welcome back to those who joined us for part one of the, b two b marketer survival guide. This is part two focused on events. Before we jump in, I wanna let everybody know that we are very encouraged to share your comments and engage in the chat. We actually have some wonderful prizes that we will be raffling out, based all on participation. Drop your questions in the Q and A tab. If you don't want, to ask it with your name on it, there is the option to ask it anonymously, so please do so. We welcome all questions. We will be answering those, following the panel discussion at the end of, towards the end of the webinar. And then, yes, for everyone wondering, we are recording this session. It will be available after the event. You will also get an email, within twenty four hours with the link, but you can also jump back in with the link, that you're using to tune in here. And then be sure to check out the docs tab for helpful resources. So a little bit about today, we're gonna talk about tips for keeping your audience engaged before, during, and after the event. I know we're about to head into a busy fall event season, and so I'm so excited to pick, our speakers' brains here. They've all created some wonderful events, over the past few years. I'm excited to hear more about that. We also get the inside scoop on creating wait list worthy experiences that drive registration. I think for all the event marketers here, we all know, the challenge of trying to fill the room and get people signed up, let alone getting people show up. And then, of course, how do you, you know, convert those registrations into deals. Right? So we'll also learn how to build excitement and hype for your for your event from day one, and lastly, build your reputation as an event architect that gets people talking and attending. I'm gonna run through the the giveaways even though, they're probably a highlight for me here, but, the first step is a s'more leads, please, package. So we have custom s'mores kit, with a tabletop s'more maker. How you can win that? Attend live. So everyone who's tuning in live, you're already opted in for that. Please answer the polls that you'll see, and then submit your q and a. We also have an event survival pack, my personal favorite, red light mask, super super goop set, and a foot mask, and then lastly, fireside fuel kit, espresso machine, custom mug, and a snack box. And with that, I'm going to introduce my speakers. So Jess Hopp over at Databricks. I'm gonna pass it over you in a second, Jess, to talk a little about yourself, and then Bethany as well, over at SentinelOne. And for those of us who worked with 6¢, we probably remember Bethany from six cents as well. So thank you so much to you both for joining. Chelsea, unfortunately, was not feeling well today, and so we will have to have her back for a future one. I'm gonna go ahead and can we stop sharing for a second? There we go. Yeah. So, Jess, I'll I'll start with you. I'll give you yield the floor to you to just talk through a little bit about your experience. I think I also offered up the opportunity for everyone to talk about an event that they are super, super proud of. On my radar for, various events. I think you guys caught my eye both either from working directly or on LinkedIn. And so, we'll start with you. Jess Flores, you wanna start? Thank you. Thank you. So excited to be here. I love seeing all the chat and the folks who are tuning in. So I'm based in Dallas, Texas. So if y'all are a Texan out there, hello. And, yes, I am the content event content manager, at Databricks. So so excited we have our, data and AI summit coming up here next week. So we're all heads down. So that's a really exciting one to be working on. And I've worked on other events, for Salesforce doing Dreamforce and the world tours, Tableau conference, and, working with Pinterest on their Pinterest presents events. So those have been really fun. My passion is really about connecting, the operation side of content to the storytelling of content on stage. So I think there's a beautiful marriage there that needs to happen, with the operations, and the storytelling. So that's what I love to do. Awesome. Thanks, Jess. Bethany, wanna do a beef brief intro? Sure. Hi, everyone. Bethany Murphy. I just, about two months ago joined, Central One heading up our global strategic events. Like Cindy said, I was most recently at 6¢, for three years and created some really cool event experiences in my time there. I have over twenty years of experience doing events, mostly in the in the b to b tech space. The cybersecurity world is a is a new world for me, but, really excited to be, the essential one. I haven't worked on events as big as Jess. I was gonna highlight a a cool kind of unique event that I did at 6¢, and I think it kind of flows well into the conversation that we're gonna have. But, essentially, for years, at Forrester b to b summit, it was our big one of our big third party events. We would host a party every year. And it was a fun party, and we'd have lines out the door. But when we really looked at what, ROI we were driving from the event, it was, like, pretty pretty low. Right? And so we said, okay. Let's be more strategic. Let's make the best use of our money. And we cut our budget by over 50% and created this really unique event that we called Bubbles Boots and Bourbon. So we bought out a boot shop in Austin. We had a lobster truck with caviar and champagne and bourbon, and we gave people a very generous gift card to go shopping to buy a pair of boots. And we drove, like, 20 x ROI from the event versus two x from our party. But it was a really good way to, again, get, like, the right people instead of, like, getting butts in seats. It was about getting the right butts, in the seats. So, just a good example about how you can be strategic, and spend your dollars in the in the right way targeting the right people. Awesome. Thank you so much, Bethany. Before we jump into some questions that I've prepped, I'm curious. I'm always from event an event marketer standpoint, what's been the coolest piece of swag that you guys have seen out at shows either that you've given away or that you've received or that you've seen other people give away? This is always always intriguing to me what people say. So hard. I really like, like, the personalized swag. So I've done a lot of, like, laser engraving or embroidery or something that allows people to customize. And at Sixense, we were really good about creating or giving away, like, non branded swag, but we would use teal, which was our color. Right? So we would do a lot of teal swag, but it wasn't necessarily, like didn't have a big Sixense logo on it. So, I always appreciate the, you know, nonobnoxiously branded swag. How about you, Jess? Gosh. I feel like we're talking about food a lot on this caller sheet or on this webinar. But, yeah, I think, like, one of the most memorable it's probably more of an activation, but it it was you could go and get a, a cappuccino cappuccino. And they took a picture on your face, and it was like the foam was your face. And I'm like, that is so cool. But then you have, like, the swag that Bethany was talking about that it's like you can use it every every day, but it had my initials on it. So it was a cowgirl hat. Like, it had a little cowboy on it, and my initials were engraved on the side. And they did it all on-site, so I thought that was really cool. That is really cool. We recently had, an event. It was part of our mind share series if ever if anyone's, was there for the virtual component of it. But for our field event, we actually have these AI, note takers. So it's, like, the size of, like, a credit card, and they're called quad. But we ended those out to attendees, and we had a laser engraving or inscription so you can put your initials or your name onto it. But that's been, the coolest thing I've seen. Obviously, selfish plug, it was for our event, but, that kudos to our CMO, Kelly, who kind of she's always forward leaning on the AI front, and so she was able to bring that in. Alright. Thank you for participating in my fun little swag question. I'm gonna go ahead and jump in, to some of the other questions. I wanna encourage the audience, please submit your q and a. We are gonna take them. We have some brilliant minds on the call, and so take advantage of getting their insight. So first question I have is, how do you tap into your audience's mindset to design events that truly resonate and drive early excitement? I think, there is no shortage of events, at least, on our front. So, like, what kinds of tips do you guys have? What kind of things are you thinking about to ensure that you stand out and that people people are, you know, asking for an invite versus you're begging them to attend. Yeah. I I mean, just from, like, you know, an attendee perspective, I think it's always meeting people where they're at. So I've heard so many things about, like, virtual's dead or, you know, like, people aren't investing in virtual events, but I really I'm seeing the opposite, at least for, like, tech conferences, just meeting people where they're at, whether they can be in person, which, of course, we want to drive reg and have people be on-site. But we also wanna meet people where they're at, virtually. And so that could look like a hybrid streaming of the event to to bring the event to the audience or the attendee. And then, you know, the follow-up and the customer journey after the event, really matters. Yeah. I I love that. I mean, I think, you know, events really shouldn't just be a moment in time. Right? Like, you wanna make sure that you're you have a a preplan, you're on-site, and then you're you're following up, and I think that's super important. But for me, like, it's it's about creating the FOMO. We actually just did a party at RSA called FOMO, and we had Marshmallow as our DJ. And so we, we promoted it, and we basically put everyone on a wait list. So we didn't allow anyone in. We put everyone to wait list. It was somewhat difficult to manage it behind the scenes on how we were working with sales and getting people off the wait list. But it did create love the love the, the gifts. It did create this, like, people didn't wanna miss that. Right? Like, it created FOMO, and everyone wanted to come. And so I think, you know, it's it's harder now more than ever to get people to attend in person events. So I think you wanna make sure that you're marketing the event around the value to the attendees. Right? Like, what are they gonna get out of it? What's in it for them? And I know we talked about swag, but maybe it's, like, cool swag for the first fifty people that register and attend. But I think it's always important when you're marketing an event, especially a virtual event also. Like, you're not just driving registrations, but you're converting to attendance. Right? Like, it's nice to get the registrations, but you actually wanna make sure that you're getting the people to show up. So, which is which is again hard. It's hard. I'm curious because you both, I think, have kind of marketed to different audiences. Certainly, Bethany, I know you moving from Sixcents, to SentinelOne now. How are you are you approaching the audiences differently? Just because I know marketers, I myself am a marketer in this space. I know we are a certain way, and I have to believe that, you know, the technical audience is a different way. So I'm I'm curious if there's things you considered, either one of you, you know, move moving marketing to another audience versus the one you're used to. Yeah. I mean, I think for for me, I'm so new here, so I'm I'm still learning. But I think at Sixense, it was really fun because we were marketing to marketers. Right? And and we were able to have a lot of fun with the brand, in general. So the brand team gave us a lot of liberties, on-site at events to kind of play with again, like the pops of teal and, and our branding and our design and decor. Cybersecurity is different. Right? So I'm still kinda learning, still kinda learning. It's definitely, like, a little bit more serious, I would say, than than, you know, than how we we marketed at Sixcents. But I think, again, it's like, know who you're marketing to. That's super important. Right? What is your ICP? Who are you trying to get to your events? And then market accordingly. Yeah. I I'm noticing, you know, being in tech, the tech conference world, content is queen or king, however you wanna look at that. And so folks who really want to, you know, leverage their knowledge, go to these big conferences for the FOMO, what Bethany was saying, because they don't wanna miss out on, you know, being there and learning and, connecting with one another or meeting, you know, like, AI CEOs. You know? Like, I think there's so much value in being in person. So that's really what we're seeing as far as, like, content goes, that there's no slowing down of people consuming really high quality content. Awesome. Thank you both. The the next question we have is around, community, right, and activating, you know, other folks outside of your own brand. And so the question is, what role does cross functional collaboration, so internally, or community engagement play into making your event stand out? Yeah. I can start on this one. I think internally, cross functional collaboration is super important. Like, I I always say, like, events teams cannot be successful, without really the support of the entire organization. And I think it's our job as event leaders to really foster that, alignment and communication, and collaboration with product marketing, with sales, with PR, with customer success, and really ensure that the event is aligned to the broader business goals, because that's how you're gonna drive ROI, from your event is ensuring that you're aligned, with the rest of the business. And then I think from an external perspective on the community side, you know, when you involve customers, partners, and advocates in your events, it it makes them much more meaningful and not just led by marketing. Right? Like, customers wanna hear from customers about how they're successful using your products. And so I think the more that you can bring in those advocates, right, have a customer advisory board and bring those people in to speak at your events. We were just talking about, we have Black Hat coming up in August, and how are we gonna tell our customer stories on-site. So we're gonna incorporate customer videos and testimonials in our booth. I think that's super important. I'll be a plus one to everything that Bethany said, especially internally. And I'm seeing in the comments, like, you can't be successful if you are not cross collaborating. Like, there's no way that they can stand alone. And just from my personal experience, I and I've talked about this on, you know, LinkedIn posts before, but I think that from from my vantage point, whenever I saw a gap, I jumped in. I supported it. I helped. You know, whether somebody asked me or not, I think it's a really strong leadership skill that folks can have, especially in events. It's like, if you see a gap, if you see, like, a miscommunication or something happening, own it and just, like, run with it and move forward with it, because people are gonna notice that. So I think that's a a really big internal thing that I've learned. Yeah. And external, I mean, that's where, you know, talking about Dreamforce, that that is a whole community in itself. It's a little ecosystem of trailblazers and folks who are so committed to the product and to the people who are designing it and the input that they can give. So when they get in person, it's just, like, amplified, and they are all so excited and, love to be able to be with one another. So, yeah, I think there's so much to be said to have it be, community driven, and I know that's a buzzword. But it's so true that taking feedback or surveys or creating, you know, a Slack community or or doing something is just so valuable because you have everything that they need right there, and then you can act on it and implement it versus, you know, trying to reverse engineer it. I love that. I'm gonna drill down because I've experienced this in the past life. So, you know, for events, oftentimes, driving registration is a team sport, and I think you can be very easily caught up in a like, you know, everyone needs to sell x amount of tickets. And then depending on who's on the receiving end, they're like, that's not my job. Right? I work in this function, which it doesn't include selling tickets. So, do you either of you have tips on how to approach that? Any learning lessons? I'm sure you've had a ton, going through the events of your magnitude. Like, how do you communicate that it's a team sport, but also you you need help. Right? Like, you need everyone to kinda pitch in and sell tickets, if you will. What what thoughts do you have on that? Yeah. I mean, it's hard. Right? I think, you, you know, you first of all, it needs to come from the top down. Right? I think that needs to start with executive alignment, and it really needs to be a top down, like, the chief revenue officer saying to sales, like, this is your job, actually. Part of your job is is selling. Right? To the customer success team, from the, you know, the customer success lead, like, this is part right? We need to get our customers there. This is a user conference. This is part of your job. I do think that, the more you build trust within the organization and the more that you can show that your events are driving impact to the business, the more successful you're going to be. Because not to say salespeople are all about them, but sometimes. Right? And so I think if you could say, like, look, this will help you. Like, get your prospects to this event. We see that, you know, 90% of prospects that come to an event convert into customers. Right? Get use data, and show that your events really can drive outcomes, and that will certainly help you in in helping to drive, registrations cross functionally. Because, again, like events, you know, marketing sending Marketo emails isn't gonna fill up with the conference. Like, you need your internal just to be helping doing direct outreach and, it needs to be, like, a multi pronged approach. Yeah. Full contact sport. And it like, Bethany said, it's like, you have to get the buy in and the trust. So it shouldn't just start with, hey. Everyone needs to sell X amount of tickets. It should be, like, a process of, you know, getting your sales team to maybe have input on content or input on customers that are gonna be on-site or, you know, give them a role in ownership so that they'll feel like they have ownership in going out and talking about the events. And I know sales can be a scary word for us marketers or event people, because it's like, oh, I don't wanna sell anything. But you're actually just, like, amplifying your messaging. You know? It's if you have a really strong message, then that's, like, sales in itself. And, I think it it's it can be a learning process for a lot of people and get them out of their comfort zone, which is good. I I advocate that. Yeah. I think, internal selling, can't be echoed enough in this. So, Bethany, did I I think you're about to jump in. Yeah. Yeah. I was just gonna say, like, I I think you have to start somewhere. Right? So if you're if you're trying to you have a user conference and it's in its infancy, right, you're gonna have to give away a lot of free tickets likely to get. So I think setting expectations, building your revenue plan to account for the fact that you're gonna discount, that you're likely gonna give away free tickets, like, is super important just to set expectations, from the onset as well. You're gonna get ton questions of, like, Bethany, how many free tickets should I be giving away? What percentage is the worst? I'm like, no free tickets for you. I mean, also when you said, like, you know, marketing sending out Marketo emails isn't gonna be the answer. It's like, soft flashes of past lives where it's like, how many more emails can we send out? Like, is too is one of the day too many? Oh my gosh. I I do wanna ask you both about you both talk touched on, like, the external piece of bringing the community in. Obviously, Salesforce has a huge community, so does 6¢ at this point. Are there outside of, like, customers, are you both working with how how do you find let's say, like, if you're starting from ground zero and customers are limited. Right? Or if you're just starting a program from scratch, what other tips would you recommend in order to, like, involve folks outside of your company? Because I think that's part of the challenge too is, like, you obviously care of the company, but that's that's part of the problem. Right? It's like it feels self serving. And so how should we think about bringing in other folks in the space? I know influencer has been a hot topic in b two b as well. Advocates, curious of your thoughts. Yeah. I mean, I think it goes back to the your goals or outcomes that you hope to drive. So just bringing in influencers to bring in influencers might not get you the results that you hope for. But, if you have a strategy and a plan around that, I think, you know, that's that's always a plus. But, yeah, I I don't know. I go back to I go back to strategy a lot because it just helps drive a lot of things with events because when you get down to it, you know, three months out, six weeks out, two weeks out, people just throw a lot of stuff at you as an event person. Like, oh, why can't we do this? Why can't we do this? And so going back to the strategy is just, like, my default. Like, does this align with where we wanna grow, what we wanna do? Okay. If it does, then let's bring in thought leaders or let's bring in influencers or, you know, let's tag in other CEOs to help us, you know, bring bring in that, credibility. So I think that's that's a good place to start for new events, at least, that I've worked on from ground zero. And you also can't compare yourself to a Dreamforce. You know, I think that that gets, speaking from experience, that gets, executives a little worried when they're comparing event to an event, you know, apples to oranges. So those are kind of like bumper bowling guidelines that I subscribe to. Yeah. I I love that. I think, I mean, also, even if your your company doesn't have, like, an advocacy program yet or a customer advisory board, like, work with go to your CS leader and work with the CS team just to identify, like, a couple customers that are willing to do testimonials or something on your behalf. Right? I think executives can be really helpful too. Like, likely, your executive team has a lot of relationships, so use those relationships. Like, we did at Sixense a lot of, LinkedIn outreach, like, directly from our executives to ask folks to book meetings on-site at events. Right? Like, there's ways to leverage, your internal teams to help you, drive that as well. Love that. Let's move on to the next top topic that I know we we've talked about throughout this conversation, but, authenticity and brand storytelling. I think this ties in a lot with what you're saying, Jess, around the strategy. So how are you both approaching that through the lens of events? Right? I think sometimes when we talk about brand storytelling, it immediately goes to, like, the content team. Jess, you're uniquely positioned to answer this for sure. So I'll rephrase the question. How do you ensure authenticity and brand storytelling shine through in your event strategy? Yeah. It's I mean, for for my experience, it's been working cross functionally because you can't create a brand or a story in a silo. So working with your sales team, working with your marketing team, your comms team, your community if you have one, your executive leadership. Like, what are we trying to say, and how are we trying to say it, and what types of ways are we trying to say it? Because especially in the world of content, you know, you have, keynotes, you have breakouts, you have, you know, quick lightning talks, you have fireside chats. Like, how are we trying to tell our story? Do we want it, captured through video? Do we just want, you know, physical speakers? So I think there's a lot that you can do with content, but it's like, what are we try what's our outcome that we're trying to drive towards? Do we want, you know, a ratio of customer to, you know, PM storytelling? Do we want them merged together? So I think there's a lot of different ways that brand can definitely enhances an event. And And I also like to think of events as, like, little mini businesses in themselves. Like, you really need to have, like, a charter or some sort of mission statement to help ground you and ground your content that lives beyond your business. So, like, to me, an event is like a branch off of a marketing campaign or maybe it's driving that, but having that, you know, source of truth with some sort of business plan for your event will really help. So I'm just, like, such a huge strategy strategy fan. Yeah. That's great, Jess. I I I was gonna go more on, like, the brand side. So, my take was let the brand voice guide the experience. So I think from from the signage to the speakers, like, every element of your event should really reflect your brand and the personality of your brand. So if your brand is bold and sleek and tech forward, like, your event should feel like that. Right? And I think that shows up through your venue selection, your visual design, your music, your evening events, like, your swag. Right? Like, everything you should feel the brand, like, through your events. Right? And so I think it's it's really a close partnership between the brand and creative team and the events team to, like, bring, again, along with the content. Right? Everything should work together to create that, attendee journey. And even in this conversation, like, brand means something different to Bethany and I. Or, like, you know, like, I'm just so content focused, and that's just one aspect of the entire event. And I also wanna add in, like, a lot of events are built around, like, agencies and contractors and and folks consulting that aren't a part of your whole business or brand. So you also have to kinda, like, teach them as you're doing it. So that's, like, a whole other component, of event building. I won't ask you both what brand means to you because I'm not sure we have enough time tonight. But I do conversation. Jess, I think I will I'll start with you on this one, because you talked a bit about, like, the hybrid piece of the components of events. I'm curious and then, obviously, you said on the the content you lean content here. Where does content repurposing fit into your event strategy? Oh my gosh. What a big question. Yeah. It's definitely it it's a hot topic. And I think it's a hot topic not only from repurposing, but, like, access. So, like, from a content perspective, how much time do you give folks to, like, view on demand? You know, what is content gated versus not? Is keynote shown versus not? Especially when it comes to, like, a virtual hybrid. So it's it's definitely a bigger conversation, but I always lean back to the strategy. Who do we wanna target? What is our customer journey path? Like, once we gate it, then what? Like, what is the, domino effect? How are we capturing those viewers, and what are we saying to them after the fact? Because, you know, the businesses that I work in, you know, there's so many departments. And so it goes back to, okay, we need to work with our comms team and our marketing team, probably executive team to, like, craft that customer journey. So, yeah, I I think it's a bigger question. And then so that's on-site, and then you have your repurposing after the fact. So how are you working with your social teams? What message are you telling virtually and online? And how are you gearing yourself up for 2026? That's I think that's also another thing that people are like, oh, but I need to get through this. It's like, no. It actually carves a path for your next event. And you want people to have FOMO like Bethany was seeing, but you also need to direct that energy to have them save the date for the next event or, you know, the next thing that you're doing. So it's part of a a bigger plan and a bigger strategy to repurpose content and how you're gonna do that. Yeah. I think I would just add, you know, like I said before, like, events really shouldn't just be a moment in time. So how do you totally take all that you know, it takes a lot of time and energy and a lot of people to bring content to an event. Right? And so it's kind of a shame if you just use it once and then you never it never sees the light of day again. I think easier said than done. Right? You really have to think about like, at Sixense, we had a great online community. So we would put all of the content into the community. And and, again, not every session. Right? Like, we wanna keep some of it. Mhmm. We can put all the keynotes in there. Some of the breakouts, but, I think it's it's, again, thinking about what do people want, how do you wanna give it to them, don't give them too much because, again, we wanna drive in person attendance to our events as well. Mhmm. Yeah. But, you know, it certainly shouldn't be use it once and and never never see it again because it's just a lot of resources go into creating content as we all know. Do either of you have a a rule of thumb or some type of framework where because, like, naturally, the question is how often or how long should be we be reusing it. And, you know, on one end of it, you can go and, like, film content for every event, and then you have this whole library. Right? And so half the question is, like, which events do you select to, like, repurpose? And then secondly, what's a good rule of thumb for, like that was that was a good repurposing. I'm curious if either of you have have thought have thought that experience have an answer to that. It's a great question, and I'm gonna come back at it with I think it depends, which is such a cop out. Like, you can't say strategy. Oh, okay. Yes. I will not say that. I'll say it depends. But, yeah, it just depends because then it goes to your sales team who uses it for a lot of, like, lead gen and outreach. So at least on the tech side, usually, conferences are the, launching point of new products, new features, new something. So it should give you a couple months' worth of lead generation, until your next product launch or feature, acquisition, anything comes into play. That's kind of how I see it. Yeah. I think for you know, we really only do it, I would say, for, like, our tier one events because, again, it takes Mhmm. Money to like, you want a cool swizzle video that's, like, thousands of dollars to get a videographer to come on-site and do that. Right? So, like, we can't do it for every event. But I think, you know, pick those, like, big rock tier one events, and focus your efforts there. And I would say three or so months. Right? Maybe six months, but at some point, like, the content becomes outdated. You've moved on. The product has changed. You've got you've done another release. Right. It does have limited, limited usage. So I would say six months max. I would agree. I would agree. Ninety days. I I it's funny. I think I've been reading lately people talking about just content, that, like, good content. Just it can be relevant at any point in time, and so just, like, recycling it and figuring out ways to use content and not even having to reference, like, this was from the conference two years ago because the message more than likely ends because, you know, some things just just are true. Right? So that's been something interesting that kind of on the gold side, we're thinking through things just because I think we especially in events, you operate on such a time based. Right? Like, it happens. It's over. But when you flip it and you start to think through from, like, a content perspective and even, like, videos that you capture, you know, a customer talking about how great you know, how they were able to do x or y with your product is is gonna like, whether it's two or three years from now. I'm against like, things change, like, so fast. Right? And so it's, like, our local changes. The message like, things just change. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I agree. Last question I'll post to you before we open it up. So I'll I'll just ping the audience and remind everyone we're gonna take, questions from you all, so please submit them in the q and a. But for my panelists to close out this panel discussion, what is one piece of advice that you would give to marketers looking to turn their next event from meh to must attend? Stephanie, do you wanna go first? It's a good question. I think, just ensuring that you make the events memorable. Right? Like, prior prioritize the attendee experience, create something that people will talk about after, not just during. And I think my favorite way to do that is create surprise and delight moments, throughout the events that really show thoughtfulness, creativity, and again, like, bring you back to the brand. Right? And and that can be, again, in forms of evening events. Like, at Sixense, we would throw, like, a legendary party at the end of our user conference and the attendees, like, we would theme it and we would send out a lookbook and people would get really, really into, like, we did an eighties, nineties theme last year. And people literally went on Amazon and bought, like, eighties track suits. So, like, every attendee was decked out, just super excited for it. And they walked away remembering that night. Right? And Mhmm. And so I think, again, with so many events out there, like, you want to create brand affinity with your events, and you wanna make sure that they're they're memorable. Mhmm. Attendee experience is for sure top of mind for me. You know, like, how can you just make the process from preregistering preregistering online to registering in person, you know, the whole check-in process, your hotel process, getting on-site. You know, like, I think there's just a whole operation side that I know is very unsung hero. But the the best events that I've been to have just felt really seamless on those things that feel simple, but actually take a ton of manpower and a ton of lift. And, yes, you know, we love all this the activations and everything, but I'm just such an operations active, advocate that I I feel you, operations people, marketing operations, that that's really where the the customer experience comes in and doesn't, you know, always come top of mind for people. So shout out to them. I I so appreciate that call, Jess, because I think those are things you, like, you notice when it, like, feels disjointed. But when you don't feel disjointed, you're not sitting there going, oh my gosh. That was so smooth, this whole event. Right? And so It was so I know. Life of an event person. Right? But, operations people, you have my heart. Event tech people, you have my heart. So I know. It's like something goes wrong and people won't you can't stop hearing about it. Everything goes great and it's, like, connected. That's that's how it should be. Alright. Well, thank you for for participating in this panel discussion. We are now gonna move into q and a. Again, reminder to everyone, please submit your questions in the q and a tab. And, also, please vote, on the questions you definitely want answered. I see one that just has clearly more votes than the other one, so I'll start with this one. Carissa has a question. AI has already begun to revolutionize how we produce events. I'm curious, you all are how how you all are leveraging AI or automation workflows, if at all, to improve efficiency. If so, what tools have been your secret sauce? That's great. Yeah. This is a great question. Yeah. I feel like, right now, I'm not using any specific tools aside from ChatGPT, which has become my best friend. But I do feel like they're they're definitely, like, Sparks, I think, is one of them. That's, PCMA's tool. Like, they're they're definitely ours to Mhmm. AI, event tools out out there that are on my list, to look at. But when I when we when I was at Sixense, part of the technology was, conversational email, and it was an AI agent, that would help with, targeted outreach. So we could basically send emails through the agent, on behalf of, like, our CRO basically saying, like, hey. I'm gonna be at this event. Come meet with me. And then the agent would respond and route accordingly, and it was a huge like, we would convert so many more meetings using that than we would, again, via, like, a Marketo email or, like, our standard web page. So I think there's there's certainly so much opportunity out there, and SentinelOne just launched, I think, twenty hours of AI training that I've yet to find the time to do. But, it is on my ever growing to do list, because I think it's important that that we're all staying up to date, and utilizing it as much as possible because it is clearly a huge time saver. Good idea. I agree, Chad. GPT is my best friend. I ask it a lot of things. But one tool that I really have found to be so beneficial because we get asked questions over and over and over, you know, like with reg or, you know, how can I find my hotel confirmation number? You know, just, like, really soul sucking questions that even people get asked over and over. And so I'm not sponsored. No one's telling me to say this, but I love the box that we that we use called Glean, g l d a n. And so that's one way to just, like, help help our teams just not feel like you have to answer a question the same 50 times. So that bot will, like, search through and answer the question for the person asking it. So it's super helpful. Awesome. Thank you. Yep. Mhmm. Use that too internally. Yeah. I wish we could use service because it's like I know. Getting there. I know. That's the next phase, right, to to train it. Next question we have is any from Phoebe. Any tips or tricks to help drive attendance for virtual events? I don't know. How about the folks at Goldcast? Do you guys do a ton of virtual events? We do a lot of virtual events. Yeah. That would be great. It's like it's, of course, important to focus on registrations, But my opinion, more, important to focus on converting those to attendance. Right? So I think in Goldcast, you guys do cool stuff like this more giveaway. Right? Like, you gotta give people something. Unfortunately, it's just kinda the way it's just kinda the way the way it is. Yeah. Giveaways. Those are always and it made me hungry looking at the s'mores giveaway. But, yeah, I I also think, you know, driving engagement or reg for virtual attendees, that kind of and, like, strategy strategy. But, are you pulling in your execs to share online? You know, like, how are you leveraging not only the company's audience, but are you leveraging the folks who are kind of, like, tentacle out to the company? So the execs, any, you know, thought leaders, influencers, other customers. So just, yeah, using all of your resources. That's what I found to be helpful. For sure. And then on behalf of the folks at Goldcast Events, I will also jump in and answer this. Yeah. So, obviously, we do giveaways. Really, though, our giveaways, in small part is to drive registration, but more so it's to drive engagement because we really want people, you know, participating. How often are you logging on to webinar and, like, multitasking? Right? So that's really the more of our the giveaway strategy. Speakers, we leverage speakers and have them promote the event as well. Influencer marketing is part of our strategy, and so, we have influencers that we feel have the reach for our target audience. And so we will use them occasionally depending on the type of event. You you might have seen them post actually for this series. You know, we mentioned that it's a team sport, and so definitely, using the company as a whole. Right? Each of us as individuals, it can only impact so much, but, collectively, the algorithm, I'm sure, does a ton of things when we all start posting, similar things. And then, what else can I say? Yeah. I think promoting the content. Right? Like, having content that is top of mind, trending, addressing real problems. Right? Like, part of the reason why we have this event is that we ourselves are Goldcast Events is experiencing, you know, event fatigue, and there are challenges when you have you're dealing with so many events getting people to register. And so having a topic like that when we are going into event season, is helpful and naturally lends itself to drive registrations. And then lastly, I cannot forget, partnering with folks like Demand Gen Report. So they are our promotional partner here as well, and so they have reach. And, so, periodically, we'll work with partners as well to, have access to a bigger database, bigger than our organic paid audience, and our email database. Okay. Someone you see a comment. I think I saw it flickered up earlier that someone signed up because they saw Kyle Lacy's post on it. So, yeah, that's that's part of our influencer marketing strategy, there. Let's see. The next question I see in the queue Okay. What's your top tip getting the sales team involved in driving reg to these events? I mean, again, I think it was back to using data and proving that your events are gonna drive business impact. Right? Like, for sales, they wanna see a prospect convert to a customer. Right? They wanna see upsell, renewal. And so I think it's really important to spend some time, create that, you know, that post event recap that's always like, alright. We're ready to move on to the next event. Right? But really take the time to show this is how much pipeline you source, do you influence? These are the meetings booked. This is the closed one business. Right? Like, this is what will help you in driving sales and and customer success to, to help you. And I think someone said on the chat, like, spiffs never hurt. Right? People sales love a spiff. Mhmm. It's gonna probably get you all the way there, but, they're certainly helpful as well. Awesome. The last question I'll pose before I welcome James back onto the stage. So, you know, driving registration in the spirit of having a wait list. Someone specifically wants to know what's your, I guess, let me reframe. What have you found is the best time line for driving registration? And I'm sure it depends on the events. So I will ask you both, in general, how are you thinking through timeline for promoting an event, especially relative to all the other events you may have? What's a bare minimum you must have this much time, and then what's a general try to promote it this time? Gosh. Yeah. I think, you know, my brain goes to pre COVID, post COVID. They're the you know, how you marketed and promoted was just so different pre COVID, and now living in a post COVID world. We've just been noticing that and just world events that people are waiting until, you know, the last three, two weeks to register, which is really scary as as an event marketer because we you're just trying to pull all these levers and figure out, you know, what works. But I I also think in your event portfolio, looking at how many small events you have leading up to a larger event needs to really, you know, be viewed and see, are we cannibalizing our audiences? Do we have too many smaller, you know, like, just regional events or, virtual events that could take away from our registrations for our our bigger conferences. So I think that's something to really keep in mind as well. But, yeah, for larger conferences, I mean, ten eight, ten weeks out, we're really pushing all of the promotion. And it even goes back even further, you know, like, when CFP launches in my world in content when, you know, your call for speakers or call for proposals happen, and that was, like, way back in January. So there it's just, like, always promoting promoting, on our side, but the real push, I think, is, like yeah. Six to eight weeks out. Yeah. I think I echo a lot of what Jess said. I think it it depends on the type of event. Right? Like, I would say for a virtual event, you're not probably promoting more than three, four weeks out because you just don't need to. Right? I think for a user conference, like, depending on the size, like, four to six months, I would say. I feel like I'm I'm trying desperately to launch mine in the next couple weeks, and our conference is early November. Mhmm. Hence, we would we would end the event in October, and we would launch registration for the following year in, like, December, because we felt like people, a lot of times, had budget left at the end of the year that they were looking to spend. Right? That was, like, use it or lose it. So we would launch, like, an early early bird pricing, like, ten or so months out, and we would drive hundreds of registrations pretty soon after launch. So that strategy works. Here, I'm not able to do that. I wasn't here that far in advance, and now I'm like, okay. Let's see if I can get everything ready. But, I think it it does depend. But the more time, generally, I would say, the better, especially for a for a larger event. But people will register two to three weeks in advance. They just won't. I yeah. I feel like I've noticed early bird, and then maybe when general opens and then a lot, like, probably when you're closer to the event. Right? Depending on who the event is, how many tickets, how many spots you have left. So it's it's that's always a tough one where where you're like, you no. A lot of people register when we get closer, and then you're watching your dashboard and your registration goal isn't where it's at. And you're like, but they're coming. I promise. They're just gonna do it later. Yeah. I've been seeing a lot of a lot of it, in in some of the networks that I'm in, and I think it's just been a trend. And I think it's, like, the economic uncertainty. Right? There's just so many things that, that are causing people to register late, but it's it's a little scary for us. Yeah. Well, thank you both so much for joining us today. I have really enjoyed this conversation and, and just I'm so excited to repurpose the content from this. I will if there's if there's anything is there anything that you guys wanna mention? I know, Jess, you have an event coming up. Bethany, I think you have a probably plenty of events coming up. I don't know, if there's anything you'd like to mention before we formally close out. Yes. We so Databricks has the data and AI summit coming up. So I'll be in San Francisco. If anyone's gonna be there, let me know. Hit me up over on LinkedIn. But I also wanna give a little shout out to, Spark, which is a group that I cofounded for women who are in event marketing, and it's just like a support system for women in tech marketing, to help through some of these questions and, you know, like, am I doing things right or just having, like, a human to talk to. So that's something that we're we're forming. Awesome. Thanks, John. How about you, Bethany? No. Just thanks everybody for for your time. I hope you found it valuable. And if you have any questions or anything, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm probably a hundred messages behind in my LinkedIn right now, but that's okay. We'll get there. Awesome. Well, our IP for your one zero one plus messages to come off of this. It'll happen. Thank you both. If Do you guys have my work email or just my LinkedIn email? That's okay. I mean, it's one or the other. We just can't have all things, you know, like, unfortunately. We just gotta give. If if you all enjoyed this event, please tune in tomorrow. We have part three of, the survival series with Alex Wren from LinkedIn talking about content that sparks conversation. But with that, thank you, Jess, Bethany. Feel free to hop off stage. I'm gonna hand things over to James. Thanks again to Cindy, Jessica, and Bethany, as well as our partners at Goldcast for such a great session as always. And I have to say, as part of a team that produces conferences, podcasts, and webinars, the conversation about different teams working together and the use of content pre and post show that can help create FOMO really struck home to me and something I'm gonna definitely keep in mind moving forward as our shows come along in our webinars. And I wanna make sure to thank you, our attendees, for taking the time to join us today. We'll have this session ready for on demand viewing very shortly. You'll find an email in your inbox when it's ready to go. Thanks again every everyone, and take care. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Goldcast Summer Camp, where marketers who aren't serious about video first strategy go to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams ideate, create, repurpose, and distribute video content that fail. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, all led by marketing trailblazers who earned their stripes in the wild. Sharpen your skills, build campfire connections, and swap stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Goldcast Summer Camp, where marketers who are serious about video first strategy go to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams' ideas create, repurpose, and distribute video content at scale. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, all led by marketing trailblazers who've earned their stripes in the wild. Sharpen your skills, build campfire connections, and flop stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Goldcast Summer Camp, where marketers who aren't serious about video first strategy so to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams ideate, create, repurpose, and distribute video content that fail. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, All led by marketing trailblazers who earned their stripes in the wild. Sharpen your skills, build campfire connections, and swap stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Gold Cap Summer Camp, where marketers who aren't serious about video first strategy go to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams ideate, create, repurpose, and distribute video content at scale. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, All led by marketing trailblazers who earned their sprites in the wild. Shop in your skills, build campfire connections, and plop stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Gold Cap Summer Camp, where marketers who are serious about video first strategy so to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams ideas, create, repurpose, and distribute video content that fail. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, all led by marketing trailblazers who earned their stripes in the wild. Shoppe in your skills, build campfire connections, and flop stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends. Summer break is here. Time for freedom, discovery, and, of course, camp. Welcome to Gold Cap Summer Camp, where marketers who are serious about video first strategy go to earn their merit badges. Escape the old marketing playbook. Over four jam packed days, you'll explore how modern teams ideas create, repurpose, and distribute video content that fail. Check out daily keynotes, tactical sessions, and a few surprises, all led by marketing trailblazers who've earned their stripes in the wild. Sharpen your skills, build campfire connections, and flop stories with the boldest minds in marketing. Plan your spot, earn your badge, and don't miss the campfire before summer ends.