December 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Get the guide to Connection First Events
We dig into how to keep people engaged from invite to closing song by changing the energy every 20 minutes, setting the tone early, and building memory anchors that stick. Kelly shares creative examples from retreats and executive dinners plus a lightweight way to tap her team’s strategy.
• 20-minute rule to prevent attention decay
• simple swaps from panels to hot seats
• pre-event cadence and first-timer check-ins
• curated intros and executive guest dossiers
• orchestration of energy across long agendas
• team-building that blends constraint and play
• memory anchors tied to venue and audience
• scalable support via the Little Black Book
• links to Kelly’s site and LinkedIn
Make sure to follow Kelly on LinkedIn. Visit clandestine-events.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more
with less.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics at work.
Ready to scale smarter?
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
Tiny Marketing.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
I'm Kelly Troya, Chief Astonishment Officer at
Clandestine Events andExperiences.
We design high trust experiencesfor teams who can't afford
another forgettable offsite ordinner.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
Today we are going to talk about how to make your
events more memorable and keeppeople engaged.
And what we're talking about canapply to virtual events if
you're hosting even a relativelyshort webinar all the way to
in-person off-sites with yourteam.
(01:47):
But I want to keep it relativelyhigh level so anybody who's
listening to this today canapply what we're talking about.
And the reason that I connectedwith you in the first place for
this specific conversation wasyou posted on LinkedIn about
this 20-minute rule that it wasthe easiest way to keep people
(02:11):
engaged in your event.
Cause you know how people go toan event and then eventually
they're like looking at theirwatches, they're ready to go
home.
So can you explain your20-minute rule?
SPEAKER_00 (02:24):
So the idea of the 20-minute rule is basically to
mix things up every 20 minutes.
And it doesn't necessarily haveto be something huge.
Uh, it just needs to uh havesome sort of, you know, change
in the energy a little bit.
Um, so it can be moving fromcocktails to appetizers, it can
(02:49):
be switching the entertainmentup, it can be switching up a
little bit of the content, itcan be moving from um a panel
discussion to some sort ofnetworking.
It's the idea is to make achange every 20 minutes because
you really want to keep themhooked and have them wondering
(03:10):
uh what's next.
Like you said, I mean, my um theway that I judge a lot of my the
success of my events is reallyhow many people are left at the
end of it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:21):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's the most that's kind of
how I do it too.
Cause if I'm hosting amastermind or a workshop or
something, how many peoplestayed to the end where I had to
like literally kick them off?
Like, we're done now.
For real.
You can go on that great.
I love that.
Like that's a route, the thattells me it was successful.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Yeah, that's a perfect example.
I will say there's been a coupleof events that we've done where
the client will come up to usand ask us for an additional
hour.
And I think that's like, youknow, that's like the very dust
that I'm like, okay, we weknocked this one out of the
park.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Yes, for real.
So I'm just gonna apply that20-minute rule real quick to
like a way you could do it for avirtual workshop as an example.
So if you were to apply it tothat, it could be like 20
minutes of content and then like10 minutes of a hot seat where
you pull people in from theaudience and you can work
(04:19):
through exactly what you justtaught them for their specific
situation before you switch tothe next topic.
But that'll keep people engagedand things have shimmied a
little bit because now they'reno longer sitting as a passive
audience.
They're invited to get on thestage.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's a great example.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
Okay, so now that we know this 20-minute rule, let's
talk about how you can set thetone early for an event.
SPEAKER_00 (04:50):
So for me, um I like I consider setting the tone as
soon as somebody accepts theinvitation.
So that's even before they showup.
Um and and then as you lead upto it, I think it's really
helpful to remind people.
I've noticed that the eventsthat I am attending, the ones
(05:14):
that I appreciate the most arethe ones that are like, hey, by
the way, this is coming up.
Um, there's one in particularthat I'm thinking of where they
asked me to speak at theconference.
And what I loved was that theywould send a reminder to me
every, you know, couple ofweeks.
And they also reminded me of thelocation, the date, the time,
(05:38):
and the topic.
Um, because I'm sure, Sarah, inparticular, I know you speak
quite a bit.
It's always nice to be like, oh,that's right.
I have that's the topic that I'mcovering on this one, because it
might be different on adifferent one.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
So um that happens to me all the time because I
have a few different topics thatI run through.
And I'm like, which one was thisone?
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
So I think um, in terms ofsetting the tone early, it's
that, and then maintaining uh uhsome level of a cadence of
communication um until you knowit's actual showtime and all the
way up and through, like thatone that I gave as an example
was the first time that I hadbeen to that particular
(06:27):
conference, and they actuallyhad like a newbies check-in
where all the newbies gottogether, and I just thought
that was a really greatapproach.
SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
I went to a conference, it was two years ago
now.
Um, but it was the first time Iwas going to that event.
I knew no one.
I was going solo, and they had aan event for all first timers
that and I ended up meeting somegood friends.
We hung out all weekend and wentlike party hot to all the little
(06:57):
ancillary events together.
But I was yeah, I think that'sawesome.
SPEAKER_00 (07:02):
That's such a great example, and I think that's
really helpful for um forintroverts too.
You know, it gets them into asmaller little community that
they're able to connect with.
And in a lot of cases, just toyour point, they end up kind of
um surfing the show together.
SPEAKER_01 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah.
I definitely like tow the lineon extrovert and introvert.
But when I'm in a like a giantconference like that, it pulls
the introvert out of me forsure, because it's just
overwhelming.
So so grateful to have that.
Um I'm I'm in the same boat,yeah, right there.
(07:44):
Um, that reminded me though.
So one of my friends, EricMelkor, he runs a lot of like
local networking events.
Yeah.
I think he calls them likecocktail parties, but he's
inviting people that he he'snever met before to them.
But something that he does thatI really liked is he sends out
(08:04):
emails like once a weekintroducing people who will be
there, just like the guests thatwill be there to the rest of the
room.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So you get a little taste of whoyou're gonna be meeting, and you
can almost make a list like, allright, I want to connect with
this person and this person.
Yeah.
That's the point of a networkingevent.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
Yeah, that's that's great.
One of the other things thatI've been working on is
executive dinners.
And we actually have um a guestdossier.
It's almost like an executivebriefing that we put together
for individual attendee.
And it has this is for corporateclients.
We'll actually have like awrite-up about each individual
(08:47):
that's attending in order forthe host to have some um
context.
So smart.
Right.
It's it's sort of like a cheatsheet for each guest that's
attending.
And in the perfect world, we'llhave some information that's
relative to them personally,where they went to school, um,
obviously where they work, maybewhere they live, even a little
(09:10):
bit of information about whetherthey have kids or not.
Um, and then stuff related tothe business and how the
business connects to um thehost.
Like, are there pressure pointsor triggers that can help you
basically close a deal orsomething like that?
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
That's so smart.
So, everybody who's listening,Kelly is honestly this the
perfect storm.
Like, she's so creative.
If you don't follow her onLinkedIn yet, follow her on
LinkedIn because you can get ataste of how she makes these
events full-on experiences thatyou won't forget.
But then she thinks of shit likethis.
(09:49):
It's diabolical, it's sostricting Jack mixed in with the
creativity.
She just blows my mind.
Thank you.
Okay, so we're setting the tone.
And then the next thing we haveon our list is to engineer the
energy.
So, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:08):
Yeah, so it in terms of engineering the energy, uh,
this is in particular for eventsthat are uh fairly long.
A three-hour event, I think, youknow, you you're you've got a
good good um flow going.
But for something that isthroughout the course of the
day, you've got a lot of stuffthat's happening.
And you really want to, I I lookat myself almost as like a um a
(10:33):
conductor of an orchestra whereyou you can't have it, you just
can't slam a ton of content inthere the entire time.
You know, you really need togive people moments to reflect,
internalize, use the restroom,things like that.
Because I think, you know, wetry to tell people we we have
(10:54):
this entire day managed for you.
Some of the moments we reallywant you to be paying attention.
So if you would, you know, keepyour phone down, keep your
laptop closed, focus on theinformation because we are going
to give you some time toyourself where you can think
about what you've learned andalso catch up on emails, as I
(11:15):
mentioned, use the restroom andthings like that.
So we really try to manage thatflow throughout the course of
the day.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Yeah.
So uh Kelly also manages offsites, which that's so helpful
because they're so long andhaving that cadence.
And I don't know if you do thisalready, but retreats could use
that Kelly treatment alsobecause they are intense.
They could, they're like threedays at a time, and sometimes
(11:44):
they just can be overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00 (11:46):
Yeah.
That was we just did one in umOregon last month, and um, and
that was for the tech companythat I mentioned to you.
And, you know, we tried tomanage the entire day so that
there were some moments wherethey obviously were um
altogether in session, and thenother moments where they were
team building and doing somelike fun experiences that were
(12:10):
very unusual, particularlybecause this team is
international.
So there were people from thePhilippines there and Spain.
So in a lot of cases, these theyhadn't even like spent any time
in a room together.
So it was really great.
It was almost like they were uhon vacation but also working.
SPEAKER_01 (12:26):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's can you give us anyexamples of the that you did or
are you not allowed?
SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
Yeah, of course.
So um one of the things thatthey did together was they were
given a um a uh gosh, what isit?
Uh like box, um a roll of tape,um, a a uh like scissor, and I'm
(12:55):
trying to think of the others,like a tube.
And the tube was also made outof paper.
So those were all that they weregiven, and they had to basically
create a boat that went from oneend of the pool to the other
end, and somebody had to get inthe boat.
It sounds fun, actually.
(13:17):
So they had to think about okay,how are we gonna get from point
A to point B as quickly aspossible?
Because obviously anything madeof paper is going to sink
eventually.
Yeah.
Um, so they used a lot of thetape to wrap it around, and and
then they had to like get downfrom point A to point B the
(13:37):
fastest.
So it was fun to see, you know,there were eight teams and they
all kind of uh collaborated witheach other in order to figure
out how they would put that, um,put that together.
So that was one thing that wedid with them, which was really
fun.
They went horseback riding, andthen the other thing that we did
that was awesome was they did umglow in the dark pickleball at
(13:57):
night with a DJ, which wasreally super fun.
SPEAKER_01 (14:01):
They had so much fun.
SPEAKER_00 (14:02):
Yeah, it was it was it was great.
It looked so cool.
SPEAKER_01 (14:06):
Uh yeah, I bet the photos and videos were awesome.
Yeah, it really was.
SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
I got some high fives for that one, so I bet.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
See, she comes up with the most creative thing.
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Okay.
The last thing we're talkingabout is creating memory
anchors.
So tell me all about that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:27):
Yeah, well, I think the pickleball is a great
example of a memory anchor.
You want something that peopleare going to, you know, like
something that's going to stickwith them.
And I really do think that theuh both of those examples were
great.
The pickleball, they just it wasperfect for that group.
And I think that's that'severything that we think about a
lot.
(14:47):
It it's a younger team.
Uh, I am not sure the plumbingsupply people would appreciate
glow in the dark pickleball asmuch as, which nothing wrong,
you know, just two totallydifferent um demographics,
right?
Yeah.
So you really have to kind ofthink about your audience um and
not expect one thing to work forevery group, essentially.
(15:11):
Um, the other thing that we'vedone in the past that worked
really well with the memoryanchor was um we for our medical
device company, they were doingtheir event at a uh place called
the music box in San Diego.
And the music box also functionsas a recording studio.
(15:31):
So our concept for them was tobuy a bunch of old used records
and um get custom labels madewith a description of the
medical device, and we put thoselabels onto the record so it
actually looked like it was partof the record, and we put one in
(15:53):
every seat so it was like acharger at the table.
Yes, I remember seeing thosephotos, and I thought that is
being brilliant.
And the CEO absolutely loved theconcept.
He grabbed one of them, jumpedup on stage, and was like uh
connecting the the creativityback to their medical device,
(16:15):
which had just recently gottenapproved.
Um, so I mean, you know, liketalk about talk about a perfect
memory anchor for us.
And he was able to basicallyconnect the dots for us and you
know explain to people becausenot everyone gets it, you know.
Some people will be like, okay,whatever.
But um, but for folks who do getit, it, you know, like really
(16:37):
packs a punch.
And that was great because atthe end there were a number of
people that were asking us ifthey could take the record home
with them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
So yeah, yeah.
That one, that one really stoodout to me as a music lover.
I was like, that's so, that's soI would take it home.
I would take it home for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (16:55):
Yeah, it was it was pretty cool.
And the the uh we didn't put thelabel on both sides, so people
were able to look at the the Bside and see um what the record
actually was.
I I wonder because they wereused and they were super cheap
too, which was also awesome.
I love using like old um stuffthat most people wouldn't even
(17:16):
think of because I think theywere like a dollar a a record.
SPEAKER_01 (17:19):
That is good.
Records are so expensive.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
We have a record player at my house, and it's
like nowadays they are, butthese were like these were like
these literally were like youknow, trash records, really.
SPEAKER_01 (17:32):
Yeah.
Decoration.
Yeah.
Is there anything else that youwant to touch on before we wrap
up?
SPEAKER_00 (17:44):
Well, um, I mentioned to you before we
started recording that I am alsoworking on something called the
Little Black Book.
And um, the little black book isactually uh almost like
clandestine events inmicroversion, and it's intended
(18:05):
for individuals, really tinyteams.
And the concept is you don'tnecessarily need clandestine on
site, but you kind of want totap into our brain power and our
strategic thinking.
So with the Little Black Book,you basically get a certain
(18:25):
level of access to clandestine,whether it's destination-based
or itinerary-based orconcierge-based.
Um, and you can uh basicallyreach out to us and we will help
you plan your next um excursion,basically.
SPEAKER_01 (18:45):
Yes.
So you can use the little blackbook, but if they wanted more
support, is that an option forthem?
SPEAKER_00 (18:54):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, it's essentially like anon-ramp.
So um the lowest version is moreDIY, do it yourself, and then it
just kind of step ladders up.
Um, you know, so it's reallyintended to be pretty
approachable at a variety ofprice points.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
Excellent.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
Um wait, before before we wrapup, make sure to follow Kelly on
LinkedIn.
I think that's where you're mostactive, right?
Yes, yeah.
And you'll get a taste of all ofher events.
She shares the coolest photos.
(19:36):
Yeah.
And um, is there anywhere elsethat they should go to find out
more about you?
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
Yeah.
So if you visitclandestine-events.com slash
tiny T-I-N-Y, you'll get alittle um taste.
And uh I'll have some, you know,pixie dust in there just for the
tiny marketing podcastlisteners.
Awesome.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Of course.
All right, I'm gonna have thatlink in the show notes so you
can grab it, um, along withKelly's LinkedIn profile.
So go follow her there.
Thank you for joining me.
I'm gonna steal all this andmake it apply for virtual
events.
Thanks, Sarah.
It's good to see you too.
(20:24):
You too.
Bye, hun.
You love all things tinymarketing.
Head down to the show notes pageand sign up for the wait list to
join the tiny marketing club,where you get to work one on one
with me with trainings,feedback, and pop up coaching
that will help you scale yourmarketing.
(20:47):
as a B2B service business.
So I'll see you over in theclub.
Podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more
with less.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics at work.
Ready to scale smarter?
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
Tiny Marketing.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
I'm Kelly Troya, Chief Astonishment Officer at
Clandestine Events andExperiences.
We design high trust experiencesfor teams who can't afford
another forgettable offsite ordinner.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
Today we are going to talk about how to make your
events more memorable and keeppeople engaged.
And what we're talking about canapply to virtual events if
you're hosting even a relativelyshort webinar all the way to
in-person off-sites with yourteam.
(01:47):
But I want to keep it relativelyhigh level so anybody who's
listening to this today canapply what we're talking about.
And the reason that I connectedwith you in the first place for
this specific conversation wasyou posted on LinkedIn about
this 20-minute rule that it wasthe easiest way to keep people
(02:11):
engaged in your event.
Cause you know how people go toan event and then eventually
they're like looking at theirwatches, they're ready to go
home.
So can you explain your20-minute rule?
SPEAKER_00 (02:24):
So the idea of the 20-minute rule is basically to
mix things up every 20 minutes.
And it doesn't necessarily haveto be something huge.
Uh, it just needs to uh havesome sort of, you know, change
in the energy a little bit.
Um, so it can be moving fromcocktails to appetizers, it can
(02:49):
be switching the entertainmentup, it can be switching up a
little bit of the content, itcan be moving from um a panel
discussion to some sort ofnetworking.
It's the idea is to make achange every 20 minutes because
you really want to keep themhooked and have them wondering
(03:10):
uh what's next.
Like you said, I mean, my um theway that I judge a lot of my the
success of my events is reallyhow many people are left at the
end of it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:21):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's the most that's kind of
how I do it too.
Cause if I'm hosting amastermind or a workshop or
something, how many peoplestayed to the end where I had to
like literally kick them off?
Like, we're done now.
For real.
You can go on that great.
I love that.
Like that's a route, the thattells me it was successful.
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Yeah, that's a perfect example.
I will say there's been a coupleof events that we've done where
the client will come up to usand ask us for an additional
hour.
And I think that's like, youknow, that's like the very dust
that I'm like, okay, we weknocked this one out of the
park.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Yes, for real.
So I'm just gonna apply that20-minute rule real quick to
like a way you could do it for avirtual workshop as an example.
So if you were to apply it tothat, it could be like 20
minutes of content and then like10 minutes of a hot seat where
you pull people in from theaudience and you can work
(04:19):
through exactly what you justtaught them for their specific
situation before you switch tothe next topic.
But that'll keep people engagedand things have shimmied a
little bit because now they'reno longer sitting as a passive
audience.
They're invited to get on thestage.
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's a great example.
SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
Okay, so now that we know this 20-minute rule, let's
talk about how you can set thetone early for an event.
SPEAKER_00 (04:50):
So for me, um I like I consider setting the tone as
soon as somebody accepts theinvitation.
So that's even before they showup.
Um and and then as you lead upto it, I think it's really
helpful to remind people.
I've noticed that the eventsthat I am attending, the ones
(05:14):
that I appreciate the most arethe ones that are like, hey, by
the way, this is coming up.
Um, there's one in particularthat I'm thinking of where they
asked me to speak at theconference.
And what I loved was that theywould send a reminder to me
every, you know, couple ofweeks.
And they also reminded me of thelocation, the date, the time,
(05:38):
and the topic.
Um, because I'm sure, Sarah, inparticular, I know you speak
quite a bit.
It's always nice to be like, oh,that's right.
I have that's the topic that I'mcovering on this one, because it
might be different on adifferent one.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
So um that happens to me all the time because I
have a few different topics thatI run through.
And I'm like, which one was thisone?
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
So I think um, in terms ofsetting the tone early, it's
that, and then maintaining uh uhsome level of a cadence of
communication um until you knowit's actual showtime and all the
way up and through, like thatone that I gave as an example
was the first time that I hadbeen to that particular
(06:27):
conference, and they actuallyhad like a newbies check-in
where all the newbies gottogether, and I just thought
that was a really greatapproach.
SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
I went to a conference, it was two years ago
now.
Um, but it was the first time Iwas going to that event.
I knew no one.
I was going solo, and they had aan event for all first timers
that and I ended up meeting somegood friends.
We hung out all weekend and wentlike party hot to all the little
(06:57):
ancillary events together.
But I was yeah, I think that'sawesome.
SPEAKER_00 (07:02):
That's such a great example, and I think that's
really helpful for um forintroverts too.
You know, it gets them into asmaller little community that
they're able to connect with.
And in a lot of cases, just toyour point, they end up kind of
um surfing the show together.
SPEAKER_01 (07:21):
Yeah, yeah.
I definitely like tow the lineon extrovert and introvert.
But when I'm in a like a giantconference like that, it pulls
the introvert out of me forsure, because it's just
overwhelming.
So so grateful to have that.
Um I'm I'm in the same boat,yeah, right there.
(07:44):
Um, that reminded me though.
So one of my friends, EricMelkor, he runs a lot of like
local networking events.
Yeah.
I think he calls them likecocktail parties, but he's
inviting people that he he'snever met before to them.
But something that he does thatI really liked is he sends out
(08:04):
emails like once a weekintroducing people who will be
there, just like the guests thatwill be there to the rest of the
room.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So you get a little taste of whoyou're gonna be meeting, and you
can almost make a list like, allright, I want to connect with
this person and this person.
Yeah.
That's the point of a networkingevent.
SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
Yeah, that's that's great.
One of the other things thatI've been working on is
executive dinners.
And we actually have um a guestdossier.
It's almost like an executivebriefing that we put together
for individual attendee.
And it has this is for corporateclients.
We'll actually have like awrite-up about each individual
(08:47):
that's attending in order forthe host to have some um
context.
So smart.
Right.
It's it's sort of like a cheatsheet for each guest that's
attending.
And in the perfect world, we'llhave some information that's
relative to them personally,where they went to school, um,
obviously where they work, maybewhere they live, even a little
(09:10):
bit of information about whetherthey have kids or not.
Um, and then stuff related tothe business and how the
business connects to um thehost.
Like, are there pressure pointsor triggers that can help you
basically close a deal orsomething like that?
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
That's so smart.
So, everybody who's listening,Kelly is honestly this the
perfect storm.
Like, she's so creative.
If you don't follow her onLinkedIn yet, follow her on
LinkedIn because you can get ataste of how she makes these
events full-on experiences thatyou won't forget.
But then she thinks of shit likethis.
(09:49):
It's diabolical, it's sostricting Jack mixed in with the
creativity.
She just blows my mind.
Thank you.
Okay, so we're setting the tone.
And then the next thing we haveon our list is to engineer the
energy.
So, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:08):
Yeah, so it in terms of engineering the energy, uh,
this is in particular for eventsthat are uh fairly long.
A three-hour event, I think, youknow, you you're you've got a
good good um flow going.
But for something that isthroughout the course of the
day, you've got a lot of stuffthat's happening.
And you really want to, I I lookat myself almost as like a um a
(10:33):
conductor of an orchestra whereyou you can't have it, you just
can't slam a ton of content inthere the entire time.
You know, you really need togive people moments to reflect,
internalize, use the restroom,things like that.
Because I think, you know, wetry to tell people we we have
(10:54):
this entire day managed for you.
Some of the moments we reallywant you to be paying attention.
So if you would, you know, keepyour phone down, keep your
laptop closed, focus on theinformation because we are going
to give you some time toyourself where you can think
about what you've learned andalso catch up on emails, as I
(11:15):
mentioned, use the restroom andthings like that.
So we really try to manage thatflow throughout the course of
the day.
SPEAKER_01 (11:21):
Yeah.
So uh Kelly also manages offsites, which that's so helpful
because they're so long andhaving that cadence.
And I don't know if you do thisalready, but retreats could use
that Kelly treatment alsobecause they are intense.
They could, they're like threedays at a time, and sometimes
(11:44):
they just can be overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00 (11:46):
Yeah.
That was we just did one in umOregon last month, and um, and
that was for the tech companythat I mentioned to you.
And, you know, we tried tomanage the entire day so that
there were some moments wherethey obviously were um
altogether in session, and thenother moments where they were
team building and doing somelike fun experiences that were
(12:10):
very unusual, particularlybecause this team is
international.
So there were people from thePhilippines there and Spain.
So in a lot of cases, these theyhadn't even like spent any time
in a room together.
So it was really great.
It was almost like they were uhon vacation but also working.
SPEAKER_01 (12:26):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's can you give us anyexamples of the that you did or
are you not allowed?
SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
Yeah, of course.
So um one of the things thatthey did together was they were
given a um a uh gosh, what isit?
Uh like box, um a roll of tape,um, a a uh like scissor, and I'm
(12:55):
trying to think of the others,like a tube.
And the tube was also made outof paper.
So those were all that they weregiven, and they had to basically
create a boat that went from oneend of the pool to the other
end, and somebody had to get inthe boat.
It sounds fun, actually.
(13:17):
So they had to think about okay,how are we gonna get from point
A to point B as quickly aspossible?
Because obviously anything madeof paper is going to sink
eventually.
Yeah.
Um, so they used a lot of thetape to wrap it around, and and
then they had to like get downfrom point A to point B the
(13:37):
fastest.
So it was fun to see, you know,there were eight teams and they
all kind of uh collaborated witheach other in order to figure
out how they would put that, um,put that together.
So that was one thing that wedid with them, which was really
fun.
They went horseback riding, andthen the other thing that we did
that was awesome was they did umglow in the dark pickleball at
(13:57):
night with a DJ, which wasreally super fun.
SPEAKER_01 (14:01):
They had so much fun.
SPEAKER_00 (14:02):
Yeah, it was it was it was great.
It looked so cool.
SPEAKER_01 (14:06):
Uh yeah, I bet the photos and videos were awesome.
Yeah, it really was.
SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
I got some high fives for that one, so I bet.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
See, she comes up with the most creative thing.
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Okay.
The last thing we're talkingabout is creating memory
anchors.
So tell me all about that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:27):
Yeah, well, I think the pickleball is a great
example of a memory anchor.
You want something that peopleare going to, you know, like
something that's going to stickwith them.
And I really do think that theuh both of those examples were
great.
The pickleball, they just it wasperfect for that group.
And I think that's that'severything that we think about a
lot.
(14:47):
It it's a younger team.
Uh, I am not sure the plumbingsupply people would appreciate
glow in the dark pickleball asmuch as, which nothing wrong,
you know, just two totallydifferent um demographics,
right?
Yeah.
So you really have to kind ofthink about your audience um and
not expect one thing to work forevery group, essentially.
(15:11):
Um, the other thing that we'vedone in the past that worked
really well with the memoryanchor was um we for our medical
device company, they were doingtheir event at a uh place called
the music box in San Diego.
And the music box also functionsas a recording studio.
(15:31):
So our concept for them was tobuy a bunch of old used records
and um get custom labels madewith a description of the
medical device, and we put thoselabels onto the record so it
actually looked like it was partof the record, and we put one in
(15:53):
every seat so it was like acharger at the table.
Yes, I remember seeing thosephotos, and I thought that is
being brilliant.
And the CEO absolutely loved theconcept.
He grabbed one of them, jumpedup on stage, and was like uh
connecting the the creativityback to their medical device,
(16:15):
which had just recently gottenapproved.
Um, so I mean, you know, liketalk about talk about a perfect
memory anchor for us.
And he was able to basicallyconnect the dots for us and you
know explain to people becausenot everyone gets it, you know.
Some people will be like, okay,whatever.
But um, but for folks who do getit, it, you know, like really
(16:37):
packs a punch.
And that was great because atthe end there were a number of
people that were asking us ifthey could take the record home
with them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
So yeah, yeah.
That one, that one really stoodout to me as a music lover.
I was like, that's so, that's soI would take it home.
I would take it home for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (16:55):
Yeah, it was it was pretty cool.
And the the uh we didn't put thelabel on both sides, so people
were able to look at the the Bside and see um what the record
actually was.
I I wonder because they wereused and they were super cheap
too, which was also awesome.
I love using like old um stuffthat most people wouldn't even
(17:16):
think of because I think theywere like a dollar a a record.
SPEAKER_01 (17:19):
That is good.
Records are so expensive.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
We have a record player at my house, and it's
like nowadays they are, butthese were like these were like
these literally were like youknow, trash records, really.
SPEAKER_01 (17:32):
Yeah.
Decoration.
Yeah.
Is there anything else that youwant to touch on before we wrap
up?
SPEAKER_00 (17:44):
Well, um, I mentioned to you before we
started recording that I am alsoworking on something called the
Little Black Book.
And um, the little black book isactually uh almost like
clandestine events inmicroversion, and it's intended
(18:05):
for individuals, really tinyteams.
And the concept is you don'tnecessarily need clandestine on
site, but you kind of want totap into our brain power and our
strategic thinking.
So with the Little Black Book,you basically get a certain
(18:25):
level of access to clandestine,whether it's destination-based
or itinerary-based orconcierge-based.
Um, and you can uh basicallyreach out to us and we will help
you plan your next um excursion,basically.
SPEAKER_01 (18:45):
Yes.
So you can use the little blackbook, but if they wanted more
support, is that an option forthem?
SPEAKER_00 (18:54):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, it's essentially like anon-ramp.
So um the lowest version is moreDIY, do it yourself, and then it
just kind of step ladders up.
Um, you know, so it's reallyintended to be pretty
approachable at a variety ofprice points.
SPEAKER_01 (19:13):
Excellent.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
Um wait, before before we wrapup, make sure to follow Kelly on
LinkedIn.
I think that's where you're mostactive, right?
Yes, yeah.
And you'll get a taste of all ofher events.
She shares the coolest photos.
(19:36):
Yeah.
And um, is there anywhere elsethat they should go to find out
more about you?
SPEAKER_00 (19:42):
Yeah.
So if you visitclandestine-events.com slash
tiny T-I-N-Y, you'll get alittle um taste.
And uh I'll have some, you know,pixie dust in there just for the
tiny marketing podcastlisteners.
Awesome.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Of course.
All right, I'm gonna have thatlink in the show notes so you
can grab it, um, along withKelly's LinkedIn profile.
So go follow her there.
Thank you for joining me.
I'm gonna steal all this andmake it apply for virtual
events.
Thanks, Sarah.
It's good to see you too.
(20:24):
You too.
Bye, hun.
You love all things tinymarketing.
Head down to the show notes pageand sign up for the wait list to
join the tiny marketing club,where you get to work one on one
with me with trainings,feedback, and pop up coaching
that will help you scale yourmarketing.
(20:47):
as a B2B service business.
So I'll see you over in theclub.
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