November 6, 2025 • 18 mins
In this special episode of Sales Pipeline Radio from the Innovation Pavilion at Cvent CONNECT 2025, Matt spoke with Kate Hammitt, VP of Marketing at Cvent, and Alyssa Peltier, Director, Market Strategy & Insights at Cvent Consulting.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Alright.
Welcome back to Cvent CONNECT.
We are on the third flooroutside the Innovation Pavilion.
This is our last recording of the day.
It's been a long couple days,
Thank God.
They're already serving alcoholdownstairs, as part of the
session we got James Van Der Beekcoming on stage at some point.
Okay.
So we done wrap it up.
So yeah.
Can we wrap this up because we gotta go.
Something about my life.
Alright, so we're gonna talk today.
(00:35):
We're gonna talk about, event led growth.
This was something we talkedabout on stage Kate earlier today.
So we have here Kate Hammitt, VPof Marketing at Cvent, and Alyssa
Peltier, the Director of MarketingStrategy Insights at Cvent Consulting.
My very important first question, Ithink I'm gonna start with Alyssa.
Oh gosh.
What is it like, What, what is it like?
At Lane Stadium when the first couplebars of Enter Sandman start, and
(00:58):
everyone is jumping up and down, likedo you get chills every single time?
Yeah.
That is, that is an experience for sure.
I highly recommend it.
And honestly, I was there whenMetallica actually played live.
You were there?
Oh...
Not recently.
It was in 20-, 2011
When they, when theydid the entrance live.
Wow.
When they did, oh yeah.
They were there, they performed live.
It is really cool.
(01:19):
So, yeah, I mean, your heart'sracing, you're jumping in the
stands, they're all metal.
So it's like,
alright, so, so
highly recommend it.
So for context, Alyssais a Virginia Tech alum.
I am.
So, college football , when they enter,they play Enter Sandman and they play
that intro, and, as soon as they hitthe drop, the entire team explodes out
of the, oh, I'm getting chills right now.
I almost need to tellyou that I married a Hoo.
(01:41):
So I married a man who wentto UVA, not only went to UVA,
but is in Charlottesville, butalso I'm sitting next to...
I was just gonna say, let's,let's embrace the Cavaliers here.
Maybe not for football, but forall the Olympic and sport...
All the sports thatpeople don't care about.
That's fantastic.
We're really, really good at is thatmy husband tries to claim that Enter
(02:03):
Sandman is every team's football song.
And I was like, no, sir. If you lookit up on the Googles and AI, 'cause
that's all we've been talking about now.
They're gonna tell you it'sVirginia Tech's entrance.
Yeah.
Not true.
So, so Metallica played a fullon concert like just a couple
months ago at Lane Stadium.
And all you can see on YouTube nowis they played it at the end, right?
And they, as they start that, Imean, it was a seismic activity.
(02:24):
At Lane Stadium when the entirestadium jumping up and down
for, I'm still getting chills.
It's just amazing.
All right, so
we'll
give that,
yeah, well catch up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, uh, alright, having fun here onour last episode of this podcast.
I guess we should talka little bit about work.
We'll get back to you.
College football.
I, well
They're related.
I see the threads already coming together.
(02:45):
We've talked so much this weekabout building amazing experiences.
Yeah.
And a lot of who I've been talkingto, you know, they don't, they're
not just event planners anymore.
They are experience builders.
They're community connectors.
I don't know.
I can use all the words.
I'm probably like gonna fall shorton them, but, you know, they're,
this is a creative industry.
Whether you identify as a planner,whether you identify as a marketer.
(03:05):
Ultimately the outcomeis an amazing experience.
And so I think like at somepoint in time somebody was
like, Metallica, Enter Sandman.
We're playing at the entrance.
And the opening, I don't know what yearthat was 'cause I wasn't there for it.
But that's an amazing experience.
And like you can feel it like,oh, the hairs are sticking up.
That's what the peopledo here at Cvent CONNECT.
Or have the power to do, some do itbetter than others, but like, I think
(03:28):
that's ultimately what this is about.
Well, everyone here's beentalking about that, right?
And I think like, you know,you're saying like, Hey, let's
talk about the Hoo's as well.
And, and there's something aboutwhere you went to school, right?
And let's stay with football for a second.
Like, if you're a fan of aprofessional team, like that's fine.
Maybe you grew up in that town,it's something that's part of you,
but you are part of that school.
You attended that school, sothere's an identity there.
(03:49):
That is a deeper thing.
And I think that that canexist at a conference.
Like if you can find an event, whetherit's a big conference like this or a
smaller event, when you look at how manyhugs versus handshakes happen in the room.
It's sort of a sign of what kindof community you are building.
Yeah, I love this.
I love it.
It's so true.
I mean that's whatwe're feeling right now.
Like you can tack on.
(04:10):
Yeah, I mean I think it alwaysmade me laugh when people would
talk about like the dawn of hybridevents and when you think about like
sporting events, I'm like, we'vebeen doing this for a very long time.
Spoiler, remember when you grew upwatching the Olympics and there were
people there and there were peoplewatching on tv... hybrid event.
We've been doing this for a while.
But, yeah, I think that like culture bill,I mean that's the essence of the art.
(04:32):
I think where we're trying togo from an event perspective
is getting more of the science.
And marrying those two.
And that is, you know, reallywhere the magic happens.
Well, I mean, we're kind of talkingabout event led growth without having
to talk about event led growth, right?
I think, you know, at thisevent last couple days, you've
got an event technology companymarketing to event planners.
(04:52):
About marketing.
So there's a few levels of meta there.
Like that's hard for a lot of reasons,in part because the people coming
here, they've been to a few events.
They're probably verycritical about events.
They're noticing the details of anevent more than sort of an average
event attendee would be includingthe event experience, which is a
large part of what Cvent sells.
Does that feel like, is that intimidating?
(05:14):
Does that feel like a high bar, or doesthat feel like we're just gonna let
our flag fly and do what we do well.
What do you think?
I will say, and this is comingfrom having formally sat on
the meetings and events team.
It is an incrediblyhigh bar for this group.
And I think our head of events,who also happens to be host on
our Great Events podcast by Cvent,holds yourself to that standard.
(05:36):
It's like, I can't disappoint this group.
We have to make sure that we're buildingan incredible experience and that we're
one-upping ourselves every single year.
That's easier said than done.
It's not that easy to be innovativeevery single year and there are budget
constraints and there are, you know,it's, it's not that easy, but I do
think that Cvent, it does continue toinnovate in its event experiences, but
yeah, there's still room for growth.
(05:58):
I think every time you're lookingat like, what's the next best thing?
And having gone to CONNECTs earlyin our history at Cvent, and
then, you know, being a part ofSplash and coming back to Cvent.
So this is my first CONNECT in sometime, and seeing, you know, how
everything has evolved along with what,you know, the industry needs, like,
it's also been about, more networkingor different types of experiences
(06:22):
and how that's evolved over time.
So even if something's working in2025, you're not gonna see it in 2027.
And I'll just like doubledown on that because, audience
centricity is everything.
I know, like in the corporatespace, we always talk about customer
centricity, but in an event space,your audience is the customer.
The customer is the audience.
Being ruthless and scrutinizingevery detail for that audience.
(06:45):
I think that's why plannersget a bad rap because they're
like, we're feedback obsessed.
But it's because it's insights.
Because that's reallyunderstanding your audience.
That's a focus group foryou for every single year.
And so treating your event as thatkind of test pool year over year, over
year, and starts to get that scientificmindset in it, like you're talking about.
Well, you have to keep raisingthe bar 'cause the bar keeps
(07:05):
getting raised in general.
Like you said, like, Hey, we'vebeen doing hybrid events forever.
Yeah.
It's 1984.
I'm watching the Olympics onTV from Los Angeles and they
happen to also be happening live.
But that's it, right?
There's no recordings.
And you watch it or you miss it.
Now all of a sudden there'sinteraction, there's social, right?
There's engagementamong community members.
You've got the opportunityto say, you like judo.
They like judo.
Yeah.
Let's have a judo conversationhappen that the snowboarding
(07:27):
people may not care about.
Right?
And so the segmentation and the engagementopportunity has gotten far more complex.
But I would argue far richer likethe opportunity and the advantage
you have, if you can lean into thatopportunity as a brand, facilitating
and organizing and producing andenabling that experience is powerful.
Well, and think about, is there anyother channel where you can do that
(07:48):
in marketing that you have thatlike true intense moment together?
I don't know.
Is there.
Not really.
I mean, no one says like, oh my gosh,this is my eighth year reading, like
your report, you know, but here...
I got that white paper.
I do, like, one annual report.
Okay.
There might be some random outlier who'slike, I am so obsessed with this report.
(08:08):
I've read it every year for 10 years.
But like you see the pride ofour attendees here being like,
this is my eighth CONNECT.
Or this is my first CONNECT andlet's celebrate you and let's
find a place for all those things.
But you know, no oneremembers the digital piece.
Well, and we talk about that in thecontext of event led growth, right?
How like these are moments that cankind of compress the sales cycle.
(08:28):
They can kind of compress andaccelerate the customer experience and
the customer journey, whatever stagethat they're progressing to, right?
Maybe from, Hey, I was just a customerto, now I'm like a raving fan.
I'm obsessed with this brand.
I need to do more with them.
Whatever it is, the events havethat velocity associated with
them that I don't think any othertactic or channel in our mix has.
(08:49):
We got our last episode here at CventCONNECT with close teammates and bitter
rivals, Alyssa Peltier and Kate Hammitt.
One is a Hoo, the other isa, I'm still trying to figure
out what is a Hokie exactly.
No idea.
No idea.
I do know there's like a little, that'sgonna be a sound bite that everyone's,
So it's a cartoon turkey,ladies and gentleman.
A cartoon turkey.
(09:09):
I don't even know.
You ask anybody who went to Virginia Techsay, what is a Hokie, that doesn't matter.
Wrong question.
Yeah, let's move on.
It doesn't matter.
There's like a turkeyfoot that comes to mind.
There's a Turkey foot involved.
Even so, I'm gonna follow this analogyagain for a minute too, because like,
so I grew up in California, I movedto Washington to go to University of
Washington, and I assumed that WashingtonState was gonna be our bitter rival.
And in some ways, yeah, it is.
But there's still a community element.
(09:31):
There's a lot of people inSeattle that went to Washington
or went to Washington State.
There's still a community element.
We grew up here, we went to schools here.
And so even when you're bitterrivals, there's still an
opportunity to have community.
So I think about people, I get10,000 people at this conference.
There's a lot of competitors here,people that compete with each other,
but even amongst competitors, anopportunity to share and learn
(09:52):
from each other and get better.
It's connection at the end of it, right?
What's the common denominator.
Competition can be thatdenominator in that scenario.
So I think that that not only buildscommunity, but it builds the connection
amongst frenemies, if you will.
We're not frenemies.
If you're listening to this,they're not hugging at all.
They're sharpening knives.
(10:13):
This will get interesting later.
The two eyes.
Shank the Hokie.
Okay.
We'll play that.
That sounded wrong.
We're gonna keep going.
I wanna talk about, so wheneveryou do an event like this,
like this is a big production.
It takes a long time to pull together.
It's very expensive.
And I don't know if in your organization,but like in a lot of companies we work
with, they complain and complain andcomplain about how much time and effort
(10:34):
and distraction is up until you have it.
And then you get there andyou're like, this was amazing.
We need to do this like everyother week or something.
Welcome to my inner monologue...
10 days.
Why?
Why are we doing this?
Yeah.
Facetiously, I love events so much.
And then...
But then you get here, and this happens.
And one of the worst things youcan do is leave here and start
planning for the next event, right?
And not capitalize on all thegoodwill you created here.
(10:57):
Goats, kittens, James Van DerBeek, all of it matters, right?
And so when you think about this as not agrowth by events, but event led growth.
Where event is the catalystevent is the center point.
What are the things that, for peoplelistening to this that are doing
their own events, big or small, likehow do you continue that momentum,
that human experience, and thatspark when we're not here anymore?
(11:18):
Yeah.
And I think it's, I mean, just from thecontent piece like that must live on.
And we have so manydistribution channels now.
That, you know, the humanconnection, I think can live on
in certain ways by keeping up yourevent programs, and giving those
opportunities for handshakes and hugs.
(11:38):
But I think the fatal mistake of events,at least that I've been a part of like
over the years, is not squeezing the juicefrom those interactions and doing those
follow ups and being really thoughtfulabout what you learned at the event.
About your attendees and putting thatinto action and following up with content
that, you know, reiterates that value.
(12:00):
And I like to start withthe end game in mind.
Like, why did you build thatevent in the first place?
And how is it connectedto a broader strategy?
So it isn't a, okay, now how doI make all of this content work?
It's already assumed.
I built this event because it's beenplugged into something behind me, right?
Right.
It's like part of this journey, thesenurtures, this campaigns experiences.
(12:23):
However it is manifesting,but that omnichannel marketing
is really important in this.
And I think events are part of that.
They aren't just a moment.
Capture.
Produce.
Push.
We are pushing because theywere aligned to something before
the event even took place.
And I wanna mention something, you know?
Toot your horn, actually.
'Cause I felt like thiswas really powerful moment.
(12:45):
On Monday we had marketingleaders around the table.
There were about 12 of us.
And talking about, what our kind of hopesand dreams were for incorporating AI
and how we're gonna handle the future.
And we all sort of made a pactaround the table, like, okay, we're
doing this next year, so you know, ayear from now we're gonna be where.
And Alyssa had everybody kind of goaround and share that around the table.
(13:07):
And we had created such a communitywithin, you know, the exercises and
the conversation that we are all likegonna hold each other accountable.
So it's like, okay, what are yougonna say for a year from now?
All right.
And then we're gonna check in.
And that was a really cool momentfor me it was very authentic.
And it was certainly teed upby, you know, your event design.
(13:29):
But that I think is reallylike when the magic happens
in events and you can do that.
It doesn't, you know, have tobe just a small bespoke group,
but you can give that magic.
And kind of like next year, we'regonna circle up and see where we're at.
Yeah.
You can connect the dots forthe group already, right.
It's like whether that's a content piecethat you're following up with or a next
event, the next touch point, how youcontinue the relationship that you formed.
(13:52):
Yeah.
And just slide that registration form.
Yeah.
And into the inbox.
Another contract.
We'll give you a ride to theairport if you sign this right now.
So if part of having that greatevent experiences is feeling
part of something, right.
Feeling like you're cominghere and I'm not alone.
I may have to do this myself at mycompany, but there's 10,000 other people
here that face these same challenges.
(14:12):
Feeling like you're partof something bigger.
If that's a big piece of thesebeing successful when I take
this outside of the event.
There's other channels and formatsthat I can use to continue that bond.
Right.
I think about even like, youknow, CMO Coffee Talk, right?
The CMO group that you're a part of,Kate, that we've done physical in person
meetups, but I think a key part ofthat is not just people that are CMOs,
but it's the person in the CMO role.
(14:34):
It's the person behind it and thechallenges they face, and as we all
move on in our career journey and lifejourneys, to be able to talk about how
we do this well at work, but also talkabout and care about each other as people.
That is a uniquely human element.
Right.
That I think is very hardto do purely in a Zoom call.
Very hard to do purely in a Slack channel.
And being able to get together andprioritize in-person events, but think
(14:56):
about the multi-channel multisensorynature of enabling that for people.
That means integration of channels.
It means integration ofteams across an organization.
A lot easier said than done,but incredibly powerful.
And I think we're talking about,yeah, why events work, right?
We're talking about authenticity andvulnerability, which are things that
are increasingly becoming scarce,in the current climate, right?
(15:16):
Like I've probably spent three days justgabbing about AI, which I was like, eh,
kind of like luke warm on on Sunday at9:00 PM, and by 9:00 AM this morning
I talked to my husband for an hour anda half and I was like, AI, everything.
Like all things everywhere.
I felt the burst of energy thisweek and feel very ignited in my
(15:39):
career, in my learning and developin my own learning and development.
You don't do that usually whenyou're staffing an event, right?
I felt the exchange of information.
If you were doing this remote andfor those that you know, maybe
listen to this, maybe, you were theevent or maybe you were watching
online, totally different experience.
If you're watching us on Zoom, you're notgetting it the way you are in the room.
If you're in the room, like you maybe on your laptop, but you don't
(16:00):
have the same, like if you're sittingin your office or home office,
everything else is distraction.
You can't tell me you're not multitasking.
So you're not gettingthat, whatever it is.
It's just not the same.
No, I feel like, you have to bein the seat and, feel the feelings
and be in the cold conference room.
Yeah.
And, I think that, as we continue toget more saturated with digital channels
and digital noise, as more companiessay we could do it faster, easier.
(16:21):
And just do it all digitally.
There'll be plenty of companiesthat forego that experience.
And as I told someone else in that seatearlier today, like I really hope my
competitors lean in on that strategy.
Because I don't think it's gonna workas well, I think they're gonna miss an
opportunity to create a real connection.
Between them and the customer,between them and their prospects and
customers amongst each other thatgive their brand the credit for that.
We talked about that yesterday inour open forum discussion we talked
(16:43):
about in the executive marketerexchange about, you know, a perfect
example of that is LinkedIn right now.
We're just being bombarded with whatis very, very easily fake messages.
You're seeing just liketrash content, honestly.
Em dash, emojis...
Emojis.
Yeah.
So we're discerning as humans.
Yeah.
Like we don't give ourselves enoughcredit, but I do think that we are
discerning, and again, it's the testamentto why the human component in your
(17:07):
marketing strategy is so impactful.
And it's shared pain too.
I mean, I think that's why like, thecommunity stuff that, where I met
Matt, is been so powerful becauseyou're identifying, you're finding
that community, you're sharing thosepains, you have promises for the future.
And so I think we're all like aroundAI, like there's a lot of shared pain
of how do we, how do we harness this?
(17:28):
How do we avoid risk?
How do we make the most of, youknow, and we're really on the
precipice of a new way of working.
So that's kind of a shared pain,but also a very exciting promise.
So I feel like.
I don't have, you know, lastyear's CONNECT to compare to.
But it's particularly exciting aswe're, you know, looking into a future
that's just gonna be totally differentthan what we've experienced so far.
(17:49):
Which is so exciting.
Yeah.
Exciting, scary.
Yeah.
All the things.
All the things everywhere, all at once.
Yeah.
It's a journey.
There's no destination.
We just keep moving forward.
The rules keep changing.
The technology keeps changing,but, we'll make it work.
Well, Alyssa and Kate, thanksso much for joining us.
Thank you.
Thanks, Matt.
Enjoy the goats.
Enjoy the kittens.
Enjoy the party tonight.
Thanks so much.
It's been a good couple days.
Thanks Matt.
Alright.
Welcome back to Cvent CONNECT.
We are on the third flooroutside the Innovation Pavilion.
This is our last recording of the day.
It's been a long couple days,
Thank God.
They're already serving alcoholdownstairs, as part of the
session we got James Van Der Beekcoming on stage at some point.
Okay.
So we done wrap it up.
So yeah.
Can we wrap this up because we gotta go.
Something about my life.
Alright, so we're gonna talk today.
(00:35):
We're gonna talk about, event led growth.
This was something we talkedabout on stage Kate earlier today.
So we have here Kate Hammitt, VPof Marketing at Cvent, and Alyssa
Peltier, the Director of MarketingStrategy Insights at Cvent Consulting.
My very important first question, Ithink I'm gonna start with Alyssa.
Oh gosh.
What is it like, What, what is it like?
At Lane Stadium when the first couplebars of Enter Sandman start, and
(00:58):
everyone is jumping up and down, likedo you get chills every single time?
Yeah.
That is, that is an experience for sure.
I highly recommend it.
And honestly, I was there whenMetallica actually played live.
You were there?
Oh...
Not recently.
It was in 20-, 2011
When they, when theydid the entrance live.
Wow.
When they did, oh yeah.
They were there, they performed live.
It is really cool.
(01:19):
So, yeah, I mean, your heart'sracing, you're jumping in the
stands, they're all metal.
So it's like,
alright, so, so
highly recommend it.
So for context, Alyssais a Virginia Tech alum.
I am.
So, college football , when they enter,they play Enter Sandman and they play
that intro, and, as soon as they hitthe drop, the entire team explodes out
of the, oh, I'm getting chills right now.
I almost need to tellyou that I married a Hoo.
(01:41):
So I married a man who wentto UVA, not only went to UVA,
but is in Charlottesville, butalso I'm sitting next to...
I was just gonna say, let's,let's embrace the Cavaliers here.
Maybe not for football, but forall the Olympic and sport...
All the sports thatpeople don't care about.
That's fantastic.
We're really, really good at is thatmy husband tries to claim that Enter
(02:03):
Sandman is every team's football song.
And I was like, no, sir. If you lookit up on the Googles and AI, 'cause
that's all we've been talking about now.
They're gonna tell you it'sVirginia Tech's entrance.
Yeah.
Not true.
So, so Metallica played a fullon concert like just a couple
months ago at Lane Stadium.
And all you can see on YouTube nowis they played it at the end, right?
And they, as they start that, Imean, it was a seismic activity.
(02:24):
At Lane Stadium when the entirestadium jumping up and down
for, I'm still getting chills.
It's just amazing.
All right, so
we'll
give that,
yeah, well catch up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, uh, alright, having fun here onour last episode of this podcast.
I guess we should talka little bit about work.
We'll get back to you.
College football.
I, well
They're related.
I see the threads already coming together.
(02:45):
We've talked so much this weekabout building amazing experiences.
Yeah.
And a lot of who I've been talkingto, you know, they don't, they're
not just event planners anymore.
They are experience builders.
They're community connectors.
I don't know.
I can use all the words.
I'm probably like gonna fall shorton them, but, you know, they're,
this is a creative industry.
Whether you identify as a planner,whether you identify as a marketer.
(03:05):
Ultimately the outcomeis an amazing experience.
And so I think like at somepoint in time somebody was
like, Metallica, Enter Sandman.
We're playing at the entrance.
And the opening, I don't know what yearthat was 'cause I wasn't there for it.
But that's an amazing experience.
And like you can feel it like,oh, the hairs are sticking up.
That's what the peopledo here at Cvent CONNECT.
Or have the power to do, some do itbetter than others, but like, I think
(03:28):
that's ultimately what this is about.
Well, everyone here's beentalking about that, right?
And I think like, you know,you're saying like, Hey, let's
talk about the Hoo's as well.
And, and there's something aboutwhere you went to school, right?
And let's stay with football for a second.
Like, if you're a fan of aprofessional team, like that's fine.
Maybe you grew up in that town,it's something that's part of you,
but you are part of that school.
You attended that school, sothere's an identity there.
(03:49):
That is a deeper thing.
And I think that that canexist at a conference.
Like if you can find an event, whetherit's a big conference like this or a
smaller event, when you look at how manyhugs versus handshakes happen in the room.
It's sort of a sign of what kindof community you are building.
Yeah, I love this.
I love it.
It's so true.
I mean that's whatwe're feeling right now.
Like you can tack on.
(04:10):
Yeah, I mean I think it alwaysmade me laugh when people would
talk about like the dawn of hybridevents and when you think about like
sporting events, I'm like, we'vebeen doing this for a very long time.
Spoiler, remember when you grew upwatching the Olympics and there were
people there and there were peoplewatching on tv... hybrid event.
We've been doing this for a while.
But, yeah, I think that like culture bill,I mean that's the essence of the art.
(04:32):
I think where we're trying togo from an event perspective
is getting more of the science.
And marrying those two.
And that is, you know, reallywhere the magic happens.
Well, I mean, we're kind of talkingabout event led growth without having
to talk about event led growth, right?
I think, you know, at thisevent last couple days, you've
got an event technology companymarketing to event planners.
(04:52):
About marketing.
So there's a few levels of meta there.
Like that's hard for a lot of reasons,in part because the people coming
here, they've been to a few events.
They're probably verycritical about events.
They're noticing the details of anevent more than sort of an average
event attendee would be includingthe event experience, which is a
large part of what Cvent sells.
Does that feel like, is that intimidating?
(05:14):
Does that feel like a high bar, or doesthat feel like we're just gonna let
our flag fly and do what we do well.
What do you think?
I will say, and this is comingfrom having formally sat on
the meetings and events team.
It is an incrediblyhigh bar for this group.
And I think our head of events,who also happens to be host on
our Great Events podcast by Cvent,holds yourself to that standard.
(05:36):
It's like, I can't disappoint this group.
We have to make sure that we're buildingan incredible experience and that we're
one-upping ourselves every single year.
That's easier said than done.
It's not that easy to be innovativeevery single year and there are budget
constraints and there are, you know,it's, it's not that easy, but I do
think that Cvent, it does continue toinnovate in its event experiences, but
yeah, there's still room for growth.
(05:58):
I think every time you're lookingat like, what's the next best thing?
And having gone to CONNECTs earlyin our history at Cvent, and
then, you know, being a part ofSplash and coming back to Cvent.
So this is my first CONNECT in sometime, and seeing, you know, how
everything has evolved along with what,you know, the industry needs, like,
it's also been about, more networkingor different types of experiences
(06:22):
and how that's evolved over time.
So even if something's working in2025, you're not gonna see it in 2027.
And I'll just like doubledown on that because, audience
centricity is everything.
I know, like in the corporatespace, we always talk about customer
centricity, but in an event space,your audience is the customer.
The customer is the audience.
Being ruthless and scrutinizingevery detail for that audience.
(06:45):
I think that's why plannersget a bad rap because they're
like, we're feedback obsessed.
But it's because it's insights.
Because that's reallyunderstanding your audience.
That's a focus group foryou for every single year.
And so treating your event as thatkind of test pool year over year, over
year, and starts to get that scientificmindset in it, like you're talking about.
Well, you have to keep raisingthe bar 'cause the bar keeps
(07:05):
getting raised in general.
Like you said, like, Hey, we'vebeen doing hybrid events forever.
Yeah.
It's 1984.
I'm watching the Olympics onTV from Los Angeles and they
happen to also be happening live.
But that's it, right?
There's no recordings.
And you watch it or you miss it.
Now all of a sudden there'sinteraction, there's social, right?
There's engagementamong community members.
You've got the opportunityto say, you like judo.
They like judo.
Yeah.
Let's have a judo conversationhappen that the snowboarding
(07:27):
people may not care about.
Right?
And so the segmentation and the engagementopportunity has gotten far more complex.
But I would argue far richer likethe opportunity and the advantage
you have, if you can lean into thatopportunity as a brand, facilitating
and organizing and producing andenabling that experience is powerful.
Well, and think about, is there anyother channel where you can do that
(07:48):
in marketing that you have thatlike true intense moment together?
I don't know.
Is there.
Not really.
I mean, no one says like, oh my gosh,this is my eighth year reading, like
your report, you know, but here...
I got that white paper.
I do, like, one annual report.
Okay.
There might be some random outlier who'slike, I am so obsessed with this report.
(08:08):
I've read it every year for 10 years.
But like you see the pride ofour attendees here being like,
this is my eighth CONNECT.
Or this is my first CONNECT andlet's celebrate you and let's
find a place for all those things.
But you know, no oneremembers the digital piece.
Well, and we talk about that in thecontext of event led growth, right?
How like these are moments that cankind of compress the sales cycle.
(08:28):
They can kind of compress andaccelerate the customer experience and
the customer journey, whatever stagethat they're progressing to, right?
Maybe from, Hey, I was just a customerto, now I'm like a raving fan.
I'm obsessed with this brand.
I need to do more with them.
Whatever it is, the events havethat velocity associated with
them that I don't think any othertactic or channel in our mix has.
(08:49):
We got our last episode here at CventCONNECT with close teammates and bitter
rivals, Alyssa Peltier and Kate Hammitt.
One is a Hoo, the other isa, I'm still trying to figure
out what is a Hokie exactly.
No idea.
No idea.
I do know there's like a little, that'sgonna be a sound bite that everyone's,
So it's a cartoon turkey,ladies and gentleman.
A cartoon turkey.
(09:09):
I don't even know.
You ask anybody who went to Virginia Techsay, what is a Hokie, that doesn't matter.
Wrong question.
Yeah, let's move on.
It doesn't matter.
There's like a turkeyfoot that comes to mind.
There's a Turkey foot involved.
Even so, I'm gonna follow this analogyagain for a minute too, because like,
so I grew up in California, I movedto Washington to go to University of
Washington, and I assumed that WashingtonState was gonna be our bitter rival.
And in some ways, yeah, it is.
But there's still a community element.
(09:31):
There's a lot of people inSeattle that went to Washington
or went to Washington State.
There's still a community element.
We grew up here, we went to schools here.
And so even when you're bitterrivals, there's still an
opportunity to have community.
So I think about people, I get10,000 people at this conference.
There's a lot of competitors here,people that compete with each other,
but even amongst competitors, anopportunity to share and learn
(09:52):
from each other and get better.
It's connection at the end of it, right?
What's the common denominator.
Competition can be thatdenominator in that scenario.
So I think that that not only buildscommunity, but it builds the connection
amongst frenemies, if you will.
We're not frenemies.
If you're listening to this,they're not hugging at all.
They're sharpening knives.
(10:13):
This will get interesting later.
The two eyes.
Shank the Hokie.
Okay.
We'll play that.
That sounded wrong.
We're gonna keep going.
I wanna talk about, so wheneveryou do an event like this,
like this is a big production.
It takes a long time to pull together.
It's very expensive.
And I don't know if in your organization,but like in a lot of companies we work
with, they complain and complain andcomplain about how much time and effort
(10:34):
and distraction is up until you have it.
And then you get there andyou're like, this was amazing.
We need to do this like everyother week or something.
Welcome to my inner monologue...
10 days.
Why?
Why are we doing this?
Yeah.
Facetiously, I love events so much.
And then...
But then you get here, and this happens.
And one of the worst things youcan do is leave here and start
planning for the next event, right?
And not capitalize on all thegoodwill you created here.
(10:57):
Goats, kittens, James Van DerBeek, all of it matters, right?
And so when you think about this as not agrowth by events, but event led growth.
Where event is the catalystevent is the center point.
What are the things that, for peoplelistening to this that are doing
their own events, big or small, likehow do you continue that momentum,
that human experience, and thatspark when we're not here anymore?
(11:18):
Yeah.
And I think it's, I mean, just from thecontent piece like that must live on.
And we have so manydistribution channels now.
That, you know, the humanconnection, I think can live on
in certain ways by keeping up yourevent programs, and giving those
opportunities for handshakes and hugs.
(11:38):
But I think the fatal mistake of events,at least that I've been a part of like
over the years, is not squeezing the juicefrom those interactions and doing those
follow ups and being really thoughtfulabout what you learned at the event.
About your attendees and putting thatinto action and following up with content
that, you know, reiterates that value.
(12:00):
And I like to start withthe end game in mind.
Like, why did you build thatevent in the first place?
And how is it connectedto a broader strategy?
So it isn't a, okay, now how doI make all of this content work?
It's already assumed.
I built this event because it's beenplugged into something behind me, right?
Right.
It's like part of this journey, thesenurtures, this campaigns experiences.
(12:23):
However it is manifesting,but that omnichannel marketing
is really important in this.
And I think events are part of that.
They aren't just a moment.
Capture.
Produce.
Push.
We are pushing because theywere aligned to something before
the event even took place.
And I wanna mention something, you know?
Toot your horn, actually.
'Cause I felt like thiswas really powerful moment.
(12:45):
On Monday we had marketingleaders around the table.
There were about 12 of us.
And talking about, what our kind of hopesand dreams were for incorporating AI
and how we're gonna handle the future.
And we all sort of made a pactaround the table, like, okay, we're
doing this next year, so you know, ayear from now we're gonna be where.
And Alyssa had everybody kind of goaround and share that around the table.
(13:07):
And we had created such a communitywithin, you know, the exercises and
the conversation that we are all likegonna hold each other accountable.
So it's like, okay, what are yougonna say for a year from now?
All right.
And then we're gonna check in.
And that was a really cool momentfor me it was very authentic.
And it was certainly teed upby, you know, your event design.
(13:29):
But that I think is reallylike when the magic happens
in events and you can do that.
It doesn't, you know, have tobe just a small bespoke group,
but you can give that magic.
And kind of like next year, we'regonna circle up and see where we're at.
Yeah.
You can connect the dots forthe group already, right.
It's like whether that's a content piecethat you're following up with or a next
event, the next touch point, how youcontinue the relationship that you formed.
(13:52):
Yeah.
And just slide that registration form.
Yeah.
And into the inbox.
Another contract.
We'll give you a ride to theairport if you sign this right now.
So if part of having that greatevent experiences is feeling
part of something, right.
Feeling like you're cominghere and I'm not alone.
I may have to do this myself at mycompany, but there's 10,000 other people
here that face these same challenges.
(14:12):
Feeling like you're partof something bigger.
If that's a big piece of thesebeing successful when I take
this outside of the event.
There's other channels and formatsthat I can use to continue that bond.
Right.
I think about even like, youknow, CMO Coffee Talk, right?
The CMO group that you're a part of,Kate, that we've done physical in person
meetups, but I think a key part ofthat is not just people that are CMOs,
but it's the person in the CMO role.
(14:34):
It's the person behind it and thechallenges they face, and as we all
move on in our career journey and lifejourneys, to be able to talk about how
we do this well at work, but also talkabout and care about each other as people.
That is a uniquely human element.
Right.
That I think is very hardto do purely in a Zoom call.
Very hard to do purely in a Slack channel.
And being able to get together andprioritize in-person events, but think
(14:56):
about the multi-channel multisensorynature of enabling that for people.
That means integration of channels.
It means integration ofteams across an organization.
A lot easier said than done,but incredibly powerful.
And I think we're talking about,yeah, why events work, right?
We're talking about authenticity andvulnerability, which are things that
are increasingly becoming scarce,in the current climate, right?
(15:16):
Like I've probably spent three days justgabbing about AI, which I was like, eh,
kind of like luke warm on on Sunday at9:00 PM, and by 9:00 AM this morning
I talked to my husband for an hour anda half and I was like, AI, everything.
Like all things everywhere.
I felt the burst of energy thisweek and feel very ignited in my
(15:39):
career, in my learning and developin my own learning and development.
You don't do that usually whenyou're staffing an event, right?
I felt the exchange of information.
If you were doing this remote andfor those that you know, maybe
listen to this, maybe, you were theevent or maybe you were watching
online, totally different experience.
If you're watching us on Zoom, you're notgetting it the way you are in the room.
If you're in the room, like you maybe on your laptop, but you don't
(16:00):
have the same, like if you're sittingin your office or home office,
everything else is distraction.
You can't tell me you're not multitasking.
So you're not gettingthat, whatever it is.
It's just not the same.
No, I feel like, you have to bein the seat and, feel the feelings
and be in the cold conference room.
Yeah.
And, I think that, as we continue toget more saturated with digital channels
and digital noise, as more companiessay we could do it faster, easier.
(16:21):
And just do it all digitally.
There'll be plenty of companiesthat forego that experience.
And as I told someone else in that seatearlier today, like I really hope my
competitors lean in on that strategy.
Because I don't think it's gonna workas well, I think they're gonna miss an
opportunity to create a real connection.
Between them and the customer,between them and their prospects and
customers amongst each other thatgive their brand the credit for that.
We talked about that yesterday inour open forum discussion we talked
(16:43):
about in the executive marketerexchange about, you know, a perfect
example of that is LinkedIn right now.
We're just being bombarded with whatis very, very easily fake messages.
You're seeing just liketrash content, honestly.
Em dash, emojis...
Emojis.
Yeah.
So we're discerning as humans.
Yeah.
Like we don't give ourselves enoughcredit, but I do think that we are
discerning, and again, it's the testamentto why the human component in your
(17:07):
marketing strategy is so impactful.
And it's shared pain too.
I mean, I think that's why like, thecommunity stuff that, where I met
Matt, is been so powerful becauseyou're identifying, you're finding
that community, you're sharing thosepains, you have promises for the future.
And so I think we're all like aroundAI, like there's a lot of shared pain
of how do we, how do we harness this?
(17:28):
How do we avoid risk?
How do we make the most of, youknow, and we're really on the
precipice of a new way of working.
So that's kind of a shared pain,but also a very exciting promise.
So I feel like.
I don't have, you know, lastyear's CONNECT to compare to.
But it's particularly exciting aswe're, you know, looking into a future
that's just gonna be totally differentthan what we've experienced so far.
(17:49):
Which is so exciting.
Yeah.
Exciting, scary.
Yeah.
All the things.
All the things everywhere, all at once.
Yeah.
It's a journey.
There's no destination.
We just keep moving forward.
The rules keep changing.
The technology keeps changing,but, we'll make it work.
Well, Alyssa and Kate, thanksso much for joining us.
Thank you.
Thanks, Matt.
Enjoy the goats.
Enjoy the kittens.
Enjoy the party tonight.
Thanks so much.
It's been a good couple days.
Thanks Matt.
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