| In-person events have always been valuable marketing opportunities, but their success was hard to measure and they occurred infrequently. Now, with the rise of digitization, organizations can extend audience engagement before, during, and after events, creating more measurable experiences. Digital marketers are playing a larger role in capturing in-person audience insights, gaining a clearer understanding of attendee interests. In this session, discover the latest trends in blending physical and digital experiences at events, including how people consume content and information. Digital marketing professionals can capitalize on this newly-digitized channel to create personalized, engaging experiences that drive business growth. By leveraging the power of events, digital marketers can build personal connections with attendees that drive revenue and achieve digital transformation goals.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:01):
It's funny, I used to try to tell this story because
when you infuse tech intoanything you do, it becomes
digital, right. And when I firststarted doing demand gen for
Cvent, I would try to tell thestory because I've been a
hardcore b2b, digital and demandmarketer for most of my career.
(00:21):
And I used to say, this offlinechannel is now an offline
channel. And it was challengingconversation, people weren't
quite ready to have thatconversation. But the pandemic
really accelerated the appetitefor that. And we're going to
talk about how this can berelatable to you and your jobs
today. So I really appreciatebeing here. I flew down from
(00:43):
Portland, I'm VP of demand gen,I'm working mom, my husband and
I live in Portland with twogirls and three dogs and a bunch
of chickens. So it's fun for meto come to LA, although I was
very excited to come, we've hadan exceptionally wet and cold
(01:04):
rainy spring in the PacificNorthwest, and I thought I was
gonna come to the sun. And whenI landed last night, it was
raining and cold. And I waslike, missing out on that. But
really what I want to start thischat about in a little bit, why
I told you some of my personalinformation is because what we
all are trying to do, we've beenhearing about it all day as
marketers is really to getpeople's attention so that they
(01:29):
interact and have an engagementwith your brand, or your
organization or you. Andengagement really is just a
fancy word for that interaction.
And it's what we look for asmarketers to see if what we're
doing is working or not, we putmessages out in the space. And
then we're like, did somebody dosomething. And this is a short
list of types of things we lookfor to see if our messages and
(01:53):
our tactics are hitting or not,you could probably shout out
several more. That isn't here.
But really, that's the name ofthe game. And what we're doing.
Right we put our we put ourmessages out and channels and
tactics hoping somebody willcatch and the outcome of
(02:14):
engagement, Carter, and 2020. Hesaid, Here's what engagement
engagement does for you. Boostbrand experience, increases
customer loyalty and trustprovides valuable customer
feedback and insight. And justimproves overall customer
(02:35):
experience. It's the language ofour relationship with the people
that we're trying to connectwith. Right. So let's talk about
how in person events sort offits in this broader story. We
will get to the digital stufffirst. But events are an
important part of most people'smarketing strategy, right most
(02:58):
organizations marketingstrategy, in fact, most of our
organizations are spending atleast 20% of their programs,
dollars in live events for allthese reasons that are listed
here. But mostly because they'rereally good at creating a lot of
engagement in a short amount oftime. And they're really good
(03:19):
way to create first partyinterest and information. And
they accelerate relationships.
And if you're gonna b2b Thattranslates into sales and
bookings and revenue. So, and weknow events are really
impactful. I like to do thiscompare comparison, especially
when I talk to other marketingmarketers and digital marketers,
(03:40):
because this is again, goingback to our translation of
engagement. If you think aboutthat in touch points, someone
does a search interacts with awebsite or a blog post or a
podcast, right, and you mightgenerate 123 touch points
throughout the course of thatinteraction, an email, maybe you
get into one to five, if you'rereally good at creating a
(04:03):
journey, and next offer andcreate a bingeable experience,
right? But a live event, evenjust a half day or a lunch can
create 1020 You get intoconference land, you're talking
about hundreds and 1000s oftouch points. But the challenge
is marketers, you know, it's waymore expensive to create these
(04:25):
kinds of engagements. Andthey're gated and appointment of
time as a start a date and anend. And historically, it's been
hard to create and get thatengagement out of that really
deep engagement for a limitedamount of time. We're thinking
about long lastingrelationships, that kind of we
start to think about that pointin time thing as one piece, one
(04:47):
engagement interaction, eventhough there's a ton of
opportunity to drive so manythings within the context of the
event. So the pan Demakaccelerated. The digitisation
that story I used to try to tellin 2018, about infusing tech
into your event, making surethat you understand your
(05:11):
attendees journey when they'reon site, what content they're
consuming, who they're whatpartners and sponsors that are
interacting with. The pandemicaccelerated that because all our
events went online. And all of asudden we did everybody started
to think about the eventlandscape as a journey that
became a digital interaction orvirtual interaction. So that
thought process as we've comeback to in person has
(05:35):
accelerated the way we thinkabout things. We just recently,
actually we did the originalstudy, that's what this data is
from with Forrester Research onwhat the impact of the pandemic
had, on the way people thinkabout events. We just refreshed
it and just released it. Butthis is based on the old data.
So 77 76% of respondents said,we increased reach in attendance
(05:58):
with our event programs. 59%said, the ability to repurpose
and support events acrossdifferent locations was a game
changer in the way they thinkabout events and extending
engagement. 57% said there was abetter ability to collect data
about attendees interests, andcontent consumption. So this is
(06:21):
the heart of that collectingfirst party intent information.
And then finally, 57% said, theability to extend event duration
beyond the original broadcastdates. So I kind of harken to
that at the beginning. But thisis what we used to think about
(06:43):
events, right? This is theoffline channel point in time.
And this is the kind ofengagement that we were
hopefully creating. But weprobably couldn't track very
much of it. And we probablyweren't aware of very much of
it. And now we have a lot morevisibility into what's happening
there. But we also want to talkabout all of the engagement that
(07:06):
we can build before the event.
And after the event, to reallystart to think of events as an
offer, and an experience, and anengagement builder that fits
into the journeys andrelationships that we're trying
to create people in all ourmarketing channels and tactics.
(07:26):
Because we know this journey, ifwe get that first interaction,
and we start to create thatengagement, we can very quickly
build a picture of interestsabout our audience members, at
the contact level and individuallevel, as well as at the account
level. Going back to that youcan do it really quickly. Right?
(07:49):
This, this is the power ofevents and why organizations
invest. And then if you thinkabout outside of just one event,
you think about all thedifferent event types. Now we
have a lot of formats. Andtypes, because people are
deploying virtual in a lot ofways for all the reasons that we
talked about and hybrid can seehow many event opportunities and
(08:11):
engagement opportunities livethroughout a customer journey.
And how when we start to thinkabout all these in interaction
with all other tactics we do, wecan really start to reap the
benefit of the end reward ofevents as an engagement channel.
So let's talk about digitalcoming alongside and how we
actually bust out of that pointin time. In that point in time
(08:37):
when we have the eventhistorically. So I have some
trends I want to go through.
It's nice because the panel justcover a few trends. We'll talk a
little bit more about some ofthose. So this slide I took from
a deck, excuse my I have a 2022stat I did the second q4, but in
2022, roughly 82% I think itactually landed just shy of 85%
(09:02):
of all internet traffic wasvideo. We've had an explosion of
video, you heard the paneltalking about it and largely
because of things like tick tockand the pandemic.
Video gives us a uniqueopportunity to connect with our
(09:24):
audiences. Tick tock inparticular is entertainment
based and we heard about thefungibility of that and how to
connect. But there's a tonhappening all over the place.
How do you want to learn aboutthings? How do you want to do
things I was with my family upon the ski hill recently and we
snowboard all day and we rodethe shuttle back to the parking
(09:45):
lot and we got to the car andthe battery on the key fob was
dead. So I've got two kids underthe age of eight who are tired,
it's cold. And I was like whatare we gonna do? I was getting
dark and I just Googled, How doI open my GMC Acadia card or if
(10:05):
my key fob battery's dead, andfirst thing that popped up was
YouTube video of somebodyshowing how to do it. So we
broke into our car, it was supereasy. So it could have turned
into a very uncomfortableuncomplicated evening, we were
able to resolve very quickly,and we wouldn't have been able
to consume that informationthrough a written like, think
about if there was like a pagefrom the owner's manual or
(10:26):
something that we were trying tolike, decipher on our phones, or
how to do it. So the power ofinformation coming through video
is so impactful on connectingand life changing. The other
thing that we're seeing in videois the way we consume, not just
short format, but how we watchTV. Right, these platforms that
(10:51):
give us the opportunity to havea hub of sorts, we're no longer
tied to a guide. And whensomething is being broadcast, we
can watch whenever we want in ahub environment, that gives us
recommendations based on what welike we're addicted to I was so
sad recently, I fold laundrywhile I watch TV, that's my TV
(11:12):
watching time. Sometimes I'll goa few weeks before I fold the
laundry. So I have a good chunkof time. Usually, I was so
excited to watch TED lasso. AndI got through one episode and I
was like, what they're doing onea week. That's really, it's
messing with my mojo. But we'reused to that ability now, to
(11:34):
watch what you want to watch.
When we want to watch it the waywe want to watch it. In this hub
experience that creates apersonalized interaction for us,
I have a different profile thanmy husband and my kids. So I get
bridgerton Not Star Trekrecommendations. Right? I like
that. So let's talk about how wecan translate this trend into an
(11:58):
event lifecycle evolution. Soduring is that little time
during the event, we think abouthow we can start to leverage
video before the event. When youbuild your speaker session, once
you've released that, get yourspeakers to record little videos
(12:20):
that you can put on your eventwebsite that promote their
session and speakers and pushthat out as part of your
promotion, you can build a lotof interaction and engagement
that way. Don't just stop there,but it wants people engage
recommend other content, we havetons of content at our disposal,
right but elongate even thoseinteractions point people
(12:40):
towards other things. When youdeliver information about what
to expect at the event, or whatto do do it in video format.
Don't send an email that's theKnow Before You Go with all the
steps, record a quick video. Putthat in your event website and
promote it through yourchannels. So people have
consumed that information in theway we like to consume info.
(13:03):
After the event, serve up ondemand videos, right? If you've
recorded your event content,don't let it die with the event
I like if you've heard me speakbefore I often talk about the
Thanksgiving of that effect.
It's one of my it's always beenone of my biggest annoyances
(13:24):
with event as a marketer, we putso much effort and to the
content for the event and youspend weeks and months and years
and Thanksgiving you spend dayspreparing your menu and your
food, everybody sits down and soare in about 15 minutes. Same
thing would feel like all thispre work, have the day of the
(13:44):
event and then the content oftendies. Right unless you can
figure out ways to repurpose itand having the ability and now
that we record like we'rerecording right now, recording
every session gives us theopportunity to cut up that video
content, use it different waysstream out the whole session
live but then also use therecording and follow up. So
(14:06):
serving up those on demandvideos post event whether you're
doing virtual in person orhybrid really important. And
then hopefully your eventwebsite has the ability to show
show that hub environment sothat you can show those videos
alongside of other non eventrelated videos you can create
bingeable content experiences intime for your audience so that
(14:29):
they can relive what they sawthe at the event but also get
exposed to other videos that youoffer. And then that just gives
you deeper insights andinterests you can serve up the
next best thing and the nextevolution of the journey. Second
trend is online connectivityreally becoming mainstream.
(14:50):
Before the pandemic pandemic wereally we probably weren't that
I zoomed all day for work. i Wework in a remote environment but
I didn't do anything personallyEat online, maybe maybe I would
have like a video chat withsomeone. But it was mostly
driven by my kids. But if youthink about I hardly talk on the
phone. Now if it's not a videocall, I want to see the person
(15:12):
I'm interacting with. When Imake those connections, we do
everything online, we dateonline, we have meetings, both
work and non. I have a book clubthat meets online. So we've
really gotten comfortable withconnecting with each other in
the digital and virtual space. Iasked my team to pull them
(15:36):
totally there. So if you want toroll your eyes, you can. But
there also is, you know,increasing appetite for the
metaverse and our willingness tocreate avatars and live in a
virtual life. Even though someof us are probably still
skeptics, but this is happeningmore and more. So all of that is
just supporting that. It'sreally good idea. One of the
(16:01):
main reasons we go to events,and in person events in
particular is to network. So howdo we think he thinks about
enabling those networkingopportunities and those
networking interactions in oursame lifecycle here before the
event, give your event attendeesopportunities to schedule
appointments with people theywant to meet with both before
(16:23):
and during and after the event.
Encourage people to message withexhibitors get your exhibitors
and sponsors to createopportunities where they can
meet. pre event online eventshave prep conversations about
what they want to talk aboutduring the course of the event.
You can host actual networkingfunctions, birds of a feather
common interest groups to helpget people comfortable,
(16:47):
especially as we look at, youknow, younger generations of
people, there's a ton of anxietyabout going to events, and
meeting people you don't knowand interacting and networking
and facilitating these pre eventnetworking opportunities that
are virtual, really help peoplefeel like they have a friend
that they're gonna go meet whenthey get to the event or not
(17:08):
feel so alone and isolated whenthey come in to large groups of
people that they don't know. Andthen really push people this
actually set up their conferenceprofiles and female power the
tech for this event. And I wasjust a mobile app. And really,
the only people who have theirprofiles in the app filled out
are the speakers. But don't missthe opportunity. If it's your
(17:29):
organization who's hosting theevent, or if it's an event
you're attending, don't missthat opportunity and to set up
your online profile, so you canactually see who's going to be
there and who you might want toconnect with helps make all of
these things work more smoothly.
And helps power the networkingout here. But then post event.
(17:53):
Right, similar situation forcontinuing to foster the
community, you've probably met alot of people here today that
you hope to continue to networkwith. And, you know, he may send
the person on LinkedIn Connect.
But how often do we actually endup continuing these
conversations at scale that wemake. So creating and fostering
(18:14):
that community is a reallyimportant part of the digital
journey that we're creatingwithin the context of our
events, encouraging people tochat with each other through the
app, direct message and then AInetworking capability. So that
profile information that's anapp understanding what people
are interacting with and doingduring the course of the event
(18:36):
then can set up for youraudience's recommendations for
who they should be connectingwith that maybe they aren't
already Okay, the third trend ismy favorite digital enhancements
been embrace more often I laughat this a lot because we used to
(18:58):
use QR codes a ton and nobodyever really interacted I used to
say QR codes are dead likeWhatsApp because it was before
your phone camera would actuallydo it right you had to download
a special app deal er but welike again all menus going to
this way like we use QR codesfor everything now. It's part of
(19:20):
our everyday life and we're usedto it and it makes things better
I'm glad I like it when I don'thave to touch the Menu that all
those other people have beentouching your smartwatch and on
mine on today because I handledistraction when I'm up here
buzzing but it our watches aretraining to have us do our life
better, right mine alerts me tobreathe. When it's when I own it
(19:43):
knows I'm feeling stressed outor when I need to take a quiet
moment. Also lets me know Idon't have enough steps in my
day or that I need to stand upor that I need to take a moment
and meditate. We're used tothis. My favorite is usually I
work from home Melotte now, letsme know when I need to leave for
an appointment that's in my, ifI don't leave, I'm gonna be late
(20:04):
because it knows, right thetraffic and where I need to go.
And then another fun one, Idon't know how widespread this
is. But there are stores andboutiques now where they don't
put all the clothes out. Theyhave a rack that lets you touch
and feel and see the garment.
But then you use a interactivescreen to create the dressing
(20:27):
room that you want. You say whatsize and what color of the thing
you want. And then the clothesget brought to the dressing room
and you can try on, and which isreally cool. And I hope it takes
off. very personalizedexperience. So how do we think
about this third trend. And thisthird one really incorporates a
(20:48):
lot of the other things that Ijust talked about. But if we
think about our timeline, thinkabout how some of these things
that we've highlighted, right?
If we if we release, afterregistration opens, if we
release our event, website andour hub, where we store and
how's our session and videos anddigital information, make sure
(21:11):
you release that well in advanceof your event. And same thing
with a mobile app. So thatpeople can actually start to
network, see what's happening,drive those engagement points.
And then afterwards, make sureyou're loading up you're
thinking about that post eventexperience and fueling your
(21:31):
site's with video, and otherinteractive. Some of the other
interactive points that we'vetalked about today, people want
these enhancements are learningto depend on so we should
fulfill that experience andreally enhance our attendees
journeys way we can. So trendsand in impact to cover it. So I
(21:54):
covered a lot of information toillustrate, you have a good
takeaways, the explosion ofvideo, right you can see give
people the video, they want it.
And so figure out how to bothinfuse videos non related to
your event as well as the videosthat get produced and the
(22:14):
content that gets producedwithin the context of your event
throughout not just your event,life cycles and journeys, but
all your digital marketingopportunities, online
connectivity, help peopleinteract and find their
communities outside of just thein person or virtual event gates
of the timeline. And thenfinally enrich that experience
(22:40):
with things that that actuallyenhanced the experience outside
of just in the point of time inthe event. How do you do all
this, this is just my quick pluglike event technology is really
what fuels the path of how to doa lot of these things when we
drive engagement, not justduring the event. But we set up
(23:03):
tools that serve up, capturethat engagement and then
recommend it gives us theopportunity to first capture
that engagement and then convertthat engagement into other
things that impact our business.
And then ultimately it gives usthe data that we need to
actually prove the ROI of thespend that we're investing. And
(23:23):
then just a final plug for theevent. Like I said we powered
the technology for this eventand a quick summary of what our
tech does to help stand up andenable the types of journeys
that I'm talking about today. Sowith that I will take some
(23:43):
questions stand you allthey know I'm between them and
snacks. Yeah.
(24:15):
Overwhelming. Thanks so much forhaving me here. I really
appreciate it.
It's funny, I used to try to tell this story because
when you infuse tech intoanything you do, it becomes
digital, right. And when I firststarted doing demand gen for
Cvent, I would try to tell thestory because I've been a
hardcore b2b, digital and demandmarketer for most of my career.
(00:21):
And I used to say, this offlinechannel is now an offline
channel. And it was challengingconversation, people weren't
quite ready to have thatconversation. But the pandemic
really accelerated the appetitefor that. And we're going to
talk about how this can berelatable to you and your jobs
today. So I really appreciatebeing here. I flew down from
(00:43):
Portland, I'm VP of demand gen,I'm working mom, my husband and
I live in Portland with twogirls and three dogs and a bunch
of chickens. So it's fun for meto come to LA, although I was
very excited to come, we've hadan exceptionally wet and cold
(01:04):
rainy spring in the PacificNorthwest, and I thought I was
gonna come to the sun. And whenI landed last night, it was
raining and cold. And I waslike, missing out on that. But
really what I want to start thischat about in a little bit, why
I told you some of my personalinformation is because what we
all are trying to do, we've beenhearing about it all day as
marketers is really to getpeople's attention so that they
(01:29):
interact and have an engagementwith your brand, or your
organization or you. Andengagement really is just a
fancy word for that interaction.
And it's what we look for asmarketers to see if what we're
doing is working or not, we putmessages out in the space. And
then we're like, did somebody dosomething. And this is a short
list of types of things we lookfor to see if our messages and
(01:53):
our tactics are hitting or not,you could probably shout out
several more. That isn't here.
But really, that's the name ofthe game. And what we're doing.
Right we put our we put ourmessages out and channels and
tactics hoping somebody willcatch and the outcome of
(02:14):
engagement, Carter, and 2020. Hesaid, Here's what engagement
engagement does for you. Boostbrand experience, increases
customer loyalty and trustprovides valuable customer
feedback and insight. And justimproves overall customer
(02:35):
experience. It's the language ofour relationship with the people
that we're trying to connectwith. Right. So let's talk about
how in person events sort offits in this broader story. We
will get to the digital stufffirst. But events are an
important part of most people'smarketing strategy, right most
(02:58):
organizations marketingstrategy, in fact, most of our
organizations are spending atleast 20% of their programs,
dollars in live events for allthese reasons that are listed
here. But mostly because they'rereally good at creating a lot of
engagement in a short amount oftime. And they're really good
(03:19):
way to create first partyinterest and information. And
they accelerate relationships.
And if you're gonna b2b Thattranslates into sales and
bookings and revenue. So, and weknow events are really
impactful. I like to do thiscompare comparison, especially
when I talk to other marketingmarketers and digital marketers,
(03:40):
because this is again, goingback to our translation of
engagement. If you think aboutthat in touch points, someone
does a search interacts with awebsite or a blog post or a
podcast, right, and you mightgenerate 123 touch points
throughout the course of thatinteraction, an email, maybe you
get into one to five, if you'rereally good at creating a
(04:03):
journey, and next offer andcreate a bingeable experience,
right? But a live event, evenjust a half day or a lunch can
create 1020 You get intoconference land, you're talking
about hundreds and 1000s oftouch points. But the challenge
is marketers, you know, it's waymore expensive to create these
(04:25):
kinds of engagements. Andthey're gated and appointment of
time as a start a date and anend. And historically, it's been
hard to create and get thatengagement out of that really
deep engagement for a limitedamount of time. We're thinking
about long lastingrelationships, that kind of we
start to think about that pointin time thing as one piece, one
(04:47):
engagement interaction, eventhough there's a ton of
opportunity to drive so manythings within the context of the
event. So the pan Demakaccelerated. The digitisation
that story I used to try to tellin 2018, about infusing tech
into your event, making surethat you understand your
(05:11):
attendees journey when they'reon site, what content they're
consuming, who they're whatpartners and sponsors that are
interacting with. The pandemicaccelerated that because all our
events went online. And all of asudden we did everybody started
to think about the eventlandscape as a journey that
became a digital interaction orvirtual interaction. So that
thought process as we've comeback to in person has
(05:35):
accelerated the way we thinkabout things. We just recently,
actually we did the originalstudy, that's what this data is
from with Forrester Research onwhat the impact of the pandemic
had, on the way people thinkabout events. We just refreshed
it and just released it. Butthis is based on the old data.
So 77 76% of respondents said,we increased reach in attendance
(05:58):
with our event programs. 59%said, the ability to repurpose
and support events acrossdifferent locations was a game
changer in the way they thinkabout events and extending
engagement. 57% said there was abetter ability to collect data
about attendees interests, andcontent consumption. So this is
(06:21):
the heart of that collectingfirst party intent information.
And then finally, 57% said, theability to extend event duration
beyond the original broadcastdates. So I kind of harken to
that at the beginning. But thisis what we used to think about
(06:43):
events, right? This is theoffline channel point in time.
And this is the kind ofengagement that we were
hopefully creating. But weprobably couldn't track very
much of it. And we probablyweren't aware of very much of
it. And now we have a lot morevisibility into what's happening
there. But we also want to talkabout all of the engagement that
(07:06):
we can build before the event.
And after the event, to reallystart to think of events as an
offer, and an experience, and anengagement builder that fits
into the journeys andrelationships that we're trying
to create people in all ourmarketing channels and tactics.
(07:26):
Because we know this journey, ifwe get that first interaction,
and we start to create thatengagement, we can very quickly
build a picture of interestsabout our audience members, at
the contact level and individuallevel, as well as at the account
level. Going back to that youcan do it really quickly. Right?
(07:49):
This, this is the power ofevents and why organizations
invest. And then if you thinkabout outside of just one event,
you think about all thedifferent event types. Now we
have a lot of formats. Andtypes, because people are
deploying virtual in a lot ofways for all the reasons that we
talked about and hybrid can seehow many event opportunities and
(08:11):
engagement opportunities livethroughout a customer journey.
And how when we start to thinkabout all these in interaction
with all other tactics we do, wecan really start to reap the
benefit of the end reward ofevents as an engagement channel.
So let's talk about digitalcoming alongside and how we
actually bust out of that pointin time. In that point in time
(08:37):
when we have the eventhistorically. So I have some
trends I want to go through.
It's nice because the panel justcover a few trends. We'll talk a
little bit more about some ofthose. So this slide I took from
a deck, excuse my I have a 2022stat I did the second q4, but in
2022, roughly 82% I think itactually landed just shy of 85%
(09:02):
of all internet traffic wasvideo. We've had an explosion of
video, you heard the paneltalking about it and largely
because of things like tick tockand the pandemic.
Video gives us a uniqueopportunity to connect with our
(09:24):
audiences. Tick tock inparticular is entertainment
based and we heard about thefungibility of that and how to
connect. But there's a tonhappening all over the place.
How do you want to learn aboutthings? How do you want to do
things I was with my family upon the ski hill recently and we
snowboard all day and we rodethe shuttle back to the parking
(09:45):
lot and we got to the car andthe battery on the key fob was
dead. So I've got two kids underthe age of eight who are tired,
it's cold. And I was like whatare we gonna do? I was getting
dark and I just Googled, How doI open my GMC Acadia card or if
(10:05):
my key fob battery's dead, andfirst thing that popped up was
YouTube video of somebodyshowing how to do it. So we
broke into our car, it was supereasy. So it could have turned
into a very uncomfortableuncomplicated evening, we were
able to resolve very quickly,and we wouldn't have been able
to consume that informationthrough a written like, think
about if there was like a pagefrom the owner's manual or
(10:26):
something that we were trying tolike, decipher on our phones, or
how to do it. So the power ofinformation coming through video
is so impactful on connectingand life changing. The other
thing that we're seeing in videois the way we consume, not just
short format, but how we watchTV. Right, these platforms that
(10:51):
give us the opportunity to havea hub of sorts, we're no longer
tied to a guide. And whensomething is being broadcast, we
can watch whenever we want in ahub environment, that gives us
recommendations based on what welike we're addicted to I was so
sad recently, I fold laundrywhile I watch TV, that's my TV
(11:12):
watching time. Sometimes I'll goa few weeks before I fold the
laundry. So I have a good chunkof time. Usually, I was so
excited to watch TED lasso. AndI got through one episode and I
was like, what they're doing onea week. That's really, it's
messing with my mojo. But we'reused to that ability now, to
(11:34):
watch what you want to watch.
When we want to watch it the waywe want to watch it. In this hub
experience that creates apersonalized interaction for us,
I have a different profile thanmy husband and my kids. So I get
bridgerton Not Star Trekrecommendations. Right? I like
that. So let's talk about how wecan translate this trend into an
(11:58):
event lifecycle evolution. Soduring is that little time
during the event, we think abouthow we can start to leverage
video before the event. When youbuild your speaker session, once
you've released that, get yourspeakers to record little videos
(12:20):
that you can put on your eventwebsite that promote their
session and speakers and pushthat out as part of your
promotion, you can build a lotof interaction and engagement
that way. Don't just stop there,but it wants people engage
recommend other content, we havetons of content at our disposal,
right but elongate even thoseinteractions point people
(12:40):
towards other things. When youdeliver information about what
to expect at the event, or whatto do do it in video format.
Don't send an email that's theKnow Before You Go with all the
steps, record a quick video. Putthat in your event website and
promote it through yourchannels. So people have
consumed that information in theway we like to consume info.
(13:03):
After the event, serve up ondemand videos, right? If you've
recorded your event content,don't let it die with the event
I like if you've heard me speakbefore I often talk about the
Thanksgiving of that effect.
It's one of my it's always beenone of my biggest annoyances
(13:24):
with event as a marketer, we putso much effort and to the
content for the event and youspend weeks and months and years
and Thanksgiving you spend dayspreparing your menu and your
food, everybody sits down and soare in about 15 minutes. Same
thing would feel like all thispre work, have the day of the
(13:44):
event and then the content oftendies. Right unless you can
figure out ways to repurpose itand having the ability and now
that we record like we'rerecording right now, recording
every session gives us theopportunity to cut up that video
content, use it different waysstream out the whole session
live but then also use therecording and follow up. So
(14:06):
serving up those on demandvideos post event whether you're
doing virtual in person orhybrid really important. And
then hopefully your eventwebsite has the ability to show
show that hub environment sothat you can show those videos
alongside of other non eventrelated videos you can create
bingeable content experiences intime for your audience so that
(14:29):
they can relive what they sawthe at the event but also get
exposed to other videos that youoffer. And then that just gives
you deeper insights andinterests you can serve up the
next best thing and the nextevolution of the journey. Second
trend is online connectivityreally becoming mainstream.
(14:50):
Before the pandemic pandemic wereally we probably weren't that
I zoomed all day for work. i Wework in a remote environment but
I didn't do anything personallyEat online, maybe maybe I would
have like a video chat withsomeone. But it was mostly
driven by my kids. But if youthink about I hardly talk on the
phone. Now if it's not a videocall, I want to see the person
(15:12):
I'm interacting with. When Imake those connections, we do
everything online, we dateonline, we have meetings, both
work and non. I have a book clubthat meets online. So we've
really gotten comfortable withconnecting with each other in
the digital and virtual space. Iasked my team to pull them
(15:36):
totally there. So if you want toroll your eyes, you can. But
there also is, you know,increasing appetite for the
metaverse and our willingness tocreate avatars and live in a
virtual life. Even though someof us are probably still
skeptics, but this is happeningmore and more. So all of that is
just supporting that. It'sreally good idea. One of the
(16:01):
main reasons we go to events,and in person events in
particular is to network. So howdo we think he thinks about
enabling those networkingopportunities and those
networking interactions in oursame lifecycle here before the
event, give your event attendeesopportunities to schedule
appointments with people theywant to meet with both before
(16:23):
and during and after the event.
Encourage people to message withexhibitors get your exhibitors
and sponsors to createopportunities where they can
meet. pre event online eventshave prep conversations about
what they want to talk aboutduring the course of the event.
You can host actual networkingfunctions, birds of a feather
common interest groups to helpget people comfortable,
(16:47):
especially as we look at, youknow, younger generations of
people, there's a ton of anxietyabout going to events, and
meeting people you don't knowand interacting and networking
and facilitating these pre eventnetworking opportunities that
are virtual, really help peoplefeel like they have a friend
that they're gonna go meet whenthey get to the event or not
(17:08):
feel so alone and isolated whenthey come in to large groups of
people that they don't know. Andthen really push people this
actually set up their conferenceprofiles and female power the
tech for this event. And I wasjust a mobile app. And really,
the only people who have theirprofiles in the app filled out
are the speakers. But don't missthe opportunity. If it's your
(17:29):
organization who's hosting theevent, or if it's an event
you're attending, don't missthat opportunity and to set up
your online profile, so you canactually see who's going to be
there and who you might want toconnect with helps make all of
these things work more smoothly.
And helps power the networkingout here. But then post event.
(17:53):
Right, similar situation forcontinuing to foster the
community, you've probably met alot of people here today that
you hope to continue to networkwith. And, you know, he may send
the person on LinkedIn Connect.
But how often do we actually endup continuing these
conversations at scale that wemake. So creating and fostering
(18:14):
that community is a reallyimportant part of the digital
journey that we're creatingwithin the context of our
events, encouraging people tochat with each other through the
app, direct message and then AInetworking capability. So that
profile information that's anapp understanding what people
are interacting with and doingduring the course of the event
(18:36):
then can set up for youraudience's recommendations for
who they should be connectingwith that maybe they aren't
already Okay, the third trend ismy favorite digital enhancements
been embrace more often I laughat this a lot because we used to
(18:58):
use QR codes a ton and nobodyever really interacted I used to
say QR codes are dead likeWhatsApp because it was before
your phone camera would actuallydo it right you had to download
a special app deal er but welike again all menus going to
this way like we use QR codesfor everything now. It's part of
(19:20):
our everyday life and we're usedto it and it makes things better
I'm glad I like it when I don'thave to touch the Menu that all
those other people have beentouching your smartwatch and on
mine on today because I handledistraction when I'm up here
buzzing but it our watches aretraining to have us do our life
better, right mine alerts me tobreathe. When it's when I own it
(19:43):
knows I'm feeling stressed outor when I need to take a quiet
moment. Also lets me know Idon't have enough steps in my
day or that I need to stand upor that I need to take a moment
and meditate. We're used tothis. My favorite is usually I
work from home Melotte now, letsme know when I need to leave for
an appointment that's in my, ifI don't leave, I'm gonna be late
(20:04):
because it knows, right thetraffic and where I need to go.
And then another fun one, Idon't know how widespread this
is. But there are stores andboutiques now where they don't
put all the clothes out. Theyhave a rack that lets you touch
and feel and see the garment.
But then you use a interactivescreen to create the dressing
(20:27):
room that you want. You say whatsize and what color of the thing
you want. And then the clothesget brought to the dressing room
and you can try on, and which isreally cool. And I hope it takes
off. very personalizedexperience. So how do we think
about this third trend. And thisthird one really incorporates a
(20:48):
lot of the other things that Ijust talked about. But if we
think about our timeline, thinkabout how some of these things
that we've highlighted, right?
If we if we release, afterregistration opens, if we
release our event, website andour hub, where we store and
how's our session and videos anddigital information, make sure
(21:11):
you release that well in advanceof your event. And same thing
with a mobile app. So thatpeople can actually start to
network, see what's happening,drive those engagement points.
And then afterwards, make sureyou're loading up you're
thinking about that post eventexperience and fueling your
(21:31):
site's with video, and otherinteractive. Some of the other
interactive points that we'vetalked about today, people want
these enhancements are learningto depend on so we should
fulfill that experience andreally enhance our attendees
journeys way we can. So trendsand in impact to cover it. So I
(21:54):
covered a lot of information toillustrate, you have a good
takeaways, the explosion ofvideo, right you can see give
people the video, they want it.
And so figure out how to bothinfuse videos non related to
your event as well as the videosthat get produced and the
(22:14):
content that gets producedwithin the context of your event
throughout not just your event,life cycles and journeys, but
all your digital marketingopportunities, online
connectivity, help peopleinteract and find their
communities outside of just thein person or virtual event gates
of the timeline. And thenfinally enrich that experience
(22:40):
with things that that actuallyenhanced the experience outside
of just in the point of time inthe event. How do you do all
this, this is just my quick pluglike event technology is really
what fuels the path of how to doa lot of these things when we
drive engagement, not justduring the event. But we set up
(23:03):
tools that serve up, capturethat engagement and then
recommend it gives us theopportunity to first capture
that engagement and then convertthat engagement into other
things that impact our business.
And then ultimately it gives usthe data that we need to
actually prove the ROI of thespend that we're investing. And
(23:23):
then just a final plug for theevent. Like I said we powered
the technology for this eventand a quick summary of what our
tech does to help stand up andenable the types of journeys
that I'm talking about today. Sowith that I will take some
(23:43):
questions stand you allthey know I'm between them and
snacks. Yeah.
(24:15):
Overwhelming. Thanks so much forhaving me here. I really
appreciate it.
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