Turning Every Event Into A Growth Engine

There is blank led growth. You know, part of the reason why we wanted to make sure event led growth had a spot in that mix. It hasn’t always been that way in the sense that, you know, it’s event led growth or events are treated as a proper marketing channel. This is Revenue Makers, the podcast by Sixense investigating successful revenue strategies that pushed companies ahead. Hey, Simas. Do you like a good event? I love it. I thrive on it. They don’t let us out much. But when they do, the events are especially in kind of in our world of, you know, b to b marketing can be pretty great in sixth sense, not to pat ourselves on the back. We do some pretty fantastic events. But this is all about today’s conversation on event led growth, which people might roll their eyes and be like, oh, another blank led growth category. But I think it’s important to talk about we have companies that do events and then companies that do events. And this is all talking to Kate Hammond, who’s the CMO of Splash, who’s a event tech platform, actually was acquired by Cvent, and talking about how do you bring your event strategy up a couple notches, whether it’s product led growth or digital or whatever it may be, that same rigor, that same process, that same data to events? It is all about a strategy. And I know event led growth has been out there for a while, but it really is having a resurgence. I think post COVID, I think in this world of AI and agents, people are really craving a face to face personal connection. And Kate has been in events her entire career, and she’s got some fantastic tips on how to uplevel your events, how to be thinking about it, how to be planning for them, how to use the data to create really exceptional experiences. I mean, it’s kind of a master class. Yeah. So let’s dive in. Let’s do it. Kate, thanks so much for jumping on. And I’m looking forward to talking about something human because we talk a lot about not human things lately. So The robots. And, actually, Sima is not even here. This is the Sima bot. It’s my digital twin. Yeah. The other I think I real Sima is on the beach somewhere, hopefully Yeah. For her sake. But, anyway, we were gonna talk about event led growth and events as a whole. And you have a you sit in a unique position at Cvent. Can you talk a little bit about kind of your path in events because you’ve been doing it for more than a few hours, I think. Right? Yeah. Just a few. Yeah. I started in events. First career, first job out of college was at the USGA putting on the US Open, Women’s Open, Senior Open. I started as a paralegal and realized quite quickly that that was not as interesting as the marketing work being done. And that started a career thread of events, and we’ve all used events throughout our career. And since then, I’ve seen how, you know, events can can drive results and, you know, really is a pivotal part of the go to market strategy. But my roots are at the core. Fun, cool sports marketing events, and now doing events of of all different types along the way. So it’s been a great journey. You’ve been in it from the beginning, but what what has stayed constant? Because so much has changed. Personally, I love events because it feels like game day. I was an athlete through college, and I feel like leading up to the event, there’s so much preparation. And, you know, it feels like it’s the one marketing channel that you really feel like you put a fine point on it. You hit the top of the mountain. You have the experience. And it certainly doesn’t end there as we know. You know, making sure that that moment in time isn’t the only time that you’re using that content and getting that forward momentum. But it does feel very gratifying to, you know, have completed an event and have that human experience. And so that I’ve always loved that part of events and feeling like there’s a culmination. And, you know, I think when you’re doing it, you know, in the right way, it really does feel like, you know, a performance or an athletic achievement. And you’re able to, you know, capture that momentum and lead into the next one. That mindset around events is something that I feel like makes it exciting and kinda stand out from other go to market strategy. We’re probably titling this episode event led growth, and there’s obviously, like, blank led growth across everything. What it seems to and we talked a little bit before we started recording was, like, there’s a certain level of rigor both from just the event, the plan, the outcome, the measurement, all those different things that when you’re talking about event led growth, there’s a lot of, like, the intangibles, the event, the experience, and all those things you can’t measure. But there’s a lot of data and there’s a lot of discipline that a lot of organizations miss, right, to tote our own horn. We sixth sense, you know, we go pretty hardcore on events, and they’re pretty they’re pretty great and, you know, that’s one of the things that we’re known for, which sets the bar high, and I become a bit of an event snob. There’s a difference between an event led growth strategy and an organization or something that just puts on an event. Can you talk a little bit about maybe we just define event led growth as a thing, and then we could maybe dive into some of the things around it. It’s interesting. You know, there’s there is blank led growth. You know, part of the reason why we wanted to make sure event led growth had a spot in that mix. It hasn’t always been that way in the sense that, you know, it’s event led growth or events are treated as a proper marketing channel. And I think, ultimately, event led growth you know, if you take a step back around what you’re trying to drive, it’s, you know, revenue, it’s expansion. If your growth metric is around customer engagement, we have a lot of customer marketers or community marketers or digital marketers that are trying to drive, you know, top of funnel brand awareness. Event led growth outcomes can take on, you know, whatever that corporate strategy dictates. But it’s using events really as a proper marketing channel and not necessarily in an ad hoc way. You mentioned obviously the rich data you can get from events, and not everybody is doing that. Sometimes, especially for events for whatever reason, it’s let’s pull this administrative skill set and, you know, this marketer that’s doing product marketing or something else and putting them together to launch an event. And you can do that. We’ve all, as marketers, duct taped things together and had great outcomes. But I think over time, when you’re trying to scale those those results and outcomes that, you know, align with your strategy, you have to have that practitioner in place or you have to have those, whether it’s technologies, people, subject matter expertise in order to make sure that that value is coming through in your event and you’re accomplishing what you’re doing. So the TLDR would be not ad hoc without a strategy, but aligned with, you know, the strategy and outcomes with the ability to scale programmatically. And ideally, the events are an extension of what you’re doing across your go to market anyway. Right? It should be rooted in data from early preparation to the actual event through to then the follow through. And when we were talking before we actually started to record, you you were mentioning, you know, it’s not just about on the day of, all the things around it. Do you have a couple of tips, even just a couple of tangibles on what makes a great event post follow-up that is missed so often post event? For those marketers listening who say, oh, gosh. After the event’s over, we say, was it good? And you’re wondering, okay. And you’re pulling anecdotes and trying to just get, you know, attendee feedback. We need to be looking at pipeline metrics and, as I said, aligned with strategy. So there are some events where you’re trying to just get the mind share of your ICP and and that target persona, and it doesn’t matter if they’re a customer or a prospect. In market, you wanna make sure that they’re getting your thought leadership. So from that perspective, metrics would be, you know, number of registrants, number of attendees, how long they stayed. If you’re looking from a customer marketing perspective, a lot of times, the guiding metric for me is product adoption and usage from that. Are they educated and empowered? And are we giving, you know, these workshops or whatever events to customers that are really making them better at the platform? And then, of course, when we’re looking at typically in person dinners, which might be middle of funnel or, you know, bottom of funnel, How are we bringing them through to the purchase stage? How are we creating those deeper relationships and partnerships so that we’re closing the business? We’re doing so in a timely fashion. And we do see events accelerating those those stages quite a bit that, you know, meeting face to face and having that human relationship propels the prospect through the purchase phase, which is great. With all that in your mind, what makes a good event? What makes a good event, I think are a couple things. I mean, ROI, obviously. Are you achieving your your goals? Are you setting your goals beforehand to know what they are? And then are you achieving them? Of course. Also, you know, what makes a good event is content that lives on and content that’s able to be pushed into other marketing channels and sharing your message. I always think of events as the hub of what we do from a content perspective, and all things disperse through and distribute through channels from our events. And whether that’s, you know, a customer story or thought leadership, I think a good event, you know, generates that type of content and is able to live on through other channels. When you think about when you’re building an event or sort of putting together a plan, how do you approach the content creation? Because I think there’s so much that goes into the experience of the event, you know, what’s happening there. And I think sometimes, because again, I think we’ve probably all been to events where you’re like, the food’s good and there’s good people, but, like, somebody stands up and they’re like, hey. And maybe they show a slide or two. Like, what’s your process there for, like, the content creation? Because, again, it could be something that’s already created, but a lot of times it’s entirely net new. Like, you’re trying to get across something, but it’s important enough to make it in person. The driver, you know, for our customers and us and Sixense as well. I mean, it’s what does the attendee want and need from the event? What’s gonna justify that opportunity cost that they have leaving their business? The t and e ask, you know, the time away from family. What value are we giving that attendee? So for in person events, I think there has to be, you know, a peer to peer audience curation element, especially today when we’re so pressed on t and e that if we’re gonna watch a presentation, we can do it online. But how are you gonna take that content that you’re presenting and make it interactive both for stickiness factor and then to make, you know, good use of time? We’re seeing more trends towards, you know, those kind of intimate, curated, personalized events, with our customers and, you know, what’s working ourselves. And that’s what people seem to be craving. That’s what I’m craving myself. So an end of one, but wanting to get more out of the experience. It’s always nice to feel pampered and appreciated and have these cool experiences. And that’s always a fun extra. But I think at the core, it’s how are you creating those connections that are gonna last and either make the information stick or those relationships lit on. You talked about trends. How are you seeing clients of yours or customers shift and change and allocate their budget towards events? How are people thinking about that now in terms of an investment? I ask because I think we’re seeing a bit of a resurgence on the event side given the AI ness of everything, you know, everything being so technical and in the cloud and so much of a focus is on efficiency and what can the robots do, that people are really craving a peer to peer connection. And that’s changed how companies around us are even thinking about events, how they’re investing in events. What sort of trends are you seeing? Our best customers and most successful customers are are thinking about events throughout the funnel and playing with formats there. So, you know, there is a there is a place for, you know, the webinar, the on demand event, the in person dinner, the workshop. And our customers are thinking about it, you know, throughout the bow tie and then also through the lens of their corporate strategy. But I would say that trade shows used to be, as an example, hey. We get a booth. We show up. People walk by. You know, ROI is what it is. And now it’s not just setting up meetings, but how do I thoughtfully track those meetings? How do I have a separate space, a separate experience, an ancillary or sidecarving? People have all sorts of, you know, ways of describing those events around the trade show. You know, making sure that you are tracking that as a a part of your trade show experience. And then also the serendipity in the hallway. Are the people from your organization who are going to the trade show armed with the ability to quickly collect information or around the connections that they’ve made, whether it’s in the hallway or at a session, in making sure that that follow-up gets into the mix and and that sort of opportunity that’s created outside of the rooms and outside of the typical formats and lead scanning opportunities. And that gets into your CRM, and you’re treating that connection as appropriately as you would with others. And so that holistic view, I think, is really important. And now with such a push towards profitable efficient growth And, you know, the macroeconomic climate, when you show up at a trade show, you need to make sure that you’re squeezing everything out of that conference, out of that opportunity. And so our most successful clients are doing that and thinking about, you know, holistic events, and they’re thinking about holistic funnel. Given you’re sitting where you’re sitting. Right? Working in an event technology company. You probably talk to a lot of customers. You see a lot of events. Anything you’ve seen that’s either wildly creative or different or any shift and and maybe, again, like, events are core, and we talk about face to face interaction being so maybe there’s nothing crazy happening right now. But if you’re seeing anything creative or different that might be emerging recently? I have seen more, like, wait list curation and audience creation. The tooling to do this, it’s tricky to do, you know, with the spreadsheet. But more and more, you know, matching matching those marketers that are facing the same challenges and using firmographic demographic or, you know, first party data to connect that and connect those dots. And so I think that it’s the ability to really work the data beyond just, okay, this is an enterprise company, but understanding, you know, your ICP on a very deep level and then making the event experience extra personalized for them using the data that you’ve already captured. And so that’s, I think, a level of sophistication that a lot of us wanna get to, especially in this, you know, kind of personalized world. We’re all expecting that extra personalization, and we’re seeing that with events, with networking opportunities, and the ability to, you know, use AI on the back end to really analyze what could be and have an extra, you know, sidecar data analyst to match up your audience and understand where where there might be gems at that particular event and putting putting people together or serving up, you know, certain sessions that you may not at first think of, you know, and kinda having a concierge type of experience. We do that a lot in sixth sense. You know, whether it’s very early on in planning, looking to see which accounts are even researching the specific event that you’re planning for. Right? It’s a great way to find an additional audience. So throw that keyword into the platform, something like a specific summit or specific conference, and then looking to see which companies are researching that. And then using that cohort to understand what pain points are they researching in general. Right? And and that helps drive sessions. That helps drive additional, you know, maybe birds of a feather experiences that you can curate on-site. So I I love everything you’re saying around just being so intentional with what you’re creating, this experience. Because to your point, there is a opportunity cost of time and money and, you know, what is most valuable for folks who are gonna be heading to a physical event in particular that you wanna make sure that it is relevant and meaningful and that they wanna come back. It’s amazing the response when you get to that level of personalization. And it’s just the thoughtfulness, really. I mean, people get excited about a lot of activations. We just did cookie printing at, you know, Forrester b two b, and it was it was a smash. People loved it. I’m more on the on the business side of events than the creative side. So I’m always sort of, you know, wowed by these different experiences and fun things that we we get to do. And I think everybody’s upping the ante every single time to think of the next, cool activation. But it’s amazing that just the thoughtfulness and intention as you were saying. Like, that’s truly the wow factor. And and that takes, you know, the the data to a whole new level. Do you have any favorite events or even maybe events that you would love to eventually go to that you haven’t yet? Yeah. I have never been to South by. And I feel like as an event person, it’s almost embarrassing that I have not set foot at South by. We actually have a group going to Cannes in a couple weeks, which is always an incredible event for our customers. And there are activations, I mean, especially the location alone. You’re just already set up for success, but those are two that I really need to to hit at one point. And I think you really see the incredible creativity come out. Those are probably the, you know, b to b wise, my my favorite. And then, you know, the Olympics. I need to get to LA. So Not Burning Man? Not Burning Man. Burning Man is also a a great one. I feel like you need to you need to be able to, you know, weather the elements. I am not a I am not a dry heat type of type of gal. But I I actually I know someone that went to that, and they sent me a picture, and it literally looked like they were in the movie Dune. Like, I don’t know what they were wearing. I was like, what is going on? It does not look like I don’t know. Anyway, if an event professional is listening, like, alright. I’m doing events, but they’re like, what would be your advice to sort of, like, look at your strategy and what are some things to look at that maybe you could help to uplevel? Whether it’s the experience, whether it’s how you’re measuring, whether it’s your goals. Like, where would you start? Yeah. I think when you’re looking at, where does your buyer’s journey need help? Are you seeing a stall in a certain stage? Are you looking and saying, like, we just don’t have enough prospects understand, like, what we do or what problems we solve. You know, we don’t have that brand awareness. So I would say, like, look at the gaps first. A lot of times people will just say, let’s just do events because it’s fun to do one, and it’ll be great. I always, you know, advise to look at the gaps first, and that might be a gap in post sale. You’re seeing a lot of churn and your customers don’t have that, you know, connection and partnership. That’s often a a great place to start too if you’re, looking at, you know, starting to scale an event program, wanting to build that muscle, understanding how to, you know, delight your customers and and make sure that they feel true partnership and relationship with you is a great starting point. Kate, we have a question that we ask every guest on the podcast. What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve been asked to do in your career? So I’ve been at Cvent before. I was the CMO of Splash, and we were new we newly acquired by Cvent this past year. But in my previous chapter at Cvent, which was earlier in my career, I was at Cvent for nine years. We were really struggling as an events team understanding where we could go and host events. And, of course, this is, like, two thousand five era. So it was, hey. Why don’t why don’t you build a a database of global venues that, like, our planners can use? And so we set off on that journey, and I was, leading the charge to build the Cvent supplier network, which is now part of, like, our hospitality cloud. And none of the hotels wanted to, you know, hand over files of all of their properties. So it was an incredible journey to build this this database with a lot of elbow grease and conversations, and it’s amazing to see how it’s evolved. So that had a lot of good and bad as a part of it. I’m sure. Nice. And a lot of travel. And a lot of travel. Yes. A lot of travel, a lot of research, but good research. So fun research. I love that it still lives on. Yes. Very much thriving. So it’s interesting to see how AI is really augmenting that product. It’s, you know, a very, very capable tool now. Kate, appreciate it. Always good to to talk about human things. So as we started the beginning, so we end with it. So Yeah. Thanks so much. I think there were some great actionable, insights here as we love actionable insights. So Thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to be with you guys today. You’ve been listening to Revenue Makers. Do you have a revenue project you were asked to execute that had wild success? Share your story with us at six cents dot com slash revenue, and we might just ask you to come on the show. And if you don’t wanna miss the next episode, be sure to follow along on your favorite podcast app.