What's up everyone?

Katie and Chris brought the fire. I don't know about you, but I have been a field marketer for the last twelve years. And this event maturity model would have blown my mind years ago, so I'm excited for everyone to be able to take advantage of that. And I'm excited for this session.

Introducing Stephanie and Steph

I have two amazing people with me. I have Stephanie and it's Steph. I'll I'll get to them in a second. But before we do that, I wanna set the table.

Let's be honest. We've been to many, many events. I'm sure. We've done events. We've been to them in creating a seamless registration experience and using attendee insights to improve events is so important in today's world.

People's time is valuable and making it so it's easier on them is something that should be table stakes today, but it's not. So we're gonna talk about what you're gonna learn today. We're gonna really discuss some tactics that will help you progress through that first stage from the maturity model. So with that, I'm gonna introduce Stephanie and Steph.

Stephanie, why don't you give a quick, you know, thirty seconds who you are, what you do, and then we'll move over to Steph.

Stephanie's Event Strategy Journey

Sounds good. Hi. Hi, everybody. It's Stephanie Ordoveza. I head up our B2B event strategy and team here at Guild.

I actually started my career in college sports, and that's where I was, like, first introduced to the world of events in a very different way. But then after spending about a decade or so in corporate events in the software industry, hosting all sorts of global events, small medium, large, I moved to Guild about a year ago. In fact, tomorrow is my one-year anniversary there. So time flies.

But it's been an awesome journey, and I'm I'm excited to chat more.

Amazing. Steph, what about yourself?

Steph's Journey to Event Marketing

Yeah. I also had an interesting background to find my way here, mostly in the bartending space. I feel like a lot of event marketers have that fertility industry in their background.

Moved into marketing, ended up doing experiential for B2C companies at an agency and then moved in house, have tried to leave event marketing three times now, because I've also been a chief of staff and I keep coming back for more. So maybe I'm here to say now that we have a maturity model that I can show all of our executives.

I love that. Yeah. I actually, I came up as a, yeah, I went to school for sports management, so I can relate to the sports side. Wasn't a bartender.

But, I was in sales before I was in marketing. So I feel like I've walked those shoes as well.

Using Data to Shape Event Experience

So I'm excited to dive into this. So we a couple different questions. And, I'm really interested on your your thoughts, your insights. I think both of you can really tackle this from a few different angles here. So the first thing I wanna dive into is how do you use the data on your attendees to help shape the event experience? Because I'm sure you know, between the two of you, you've done lots and lots of events over the years.

So Stephanie, I'm gonna throw it over to you first and just kind of you I wanna understand like what you're doing today.
How do you see registrations improving things like that?

Yeah. And I think, I mean, even with the event maturity model, I mean, the way we use data here at Guild is very different than how I used it at other companies. Right? I think depending on where your events sit in the entire go to market strategy.
But overall, you know, I think events are such a pivotal part of that that, like, events are how people see and feel your brand, right? So it's so important to be able to use the data to make sure that you're building experiences that feel relevant to those people.

So at my previous company, we would use all sorts of data, whether it be in registration itself, asking things like you know, what industry are you a part of, like, getting more ideas around the demographics, the persona, what are some topics of interests that they're looking to see at events, and using that time to get that sort of data so that you're really creating programming and content that's relevant.

And then also using that for all of your communications to those people, whether it be a pre event, on-site post event.
It's it was just like a a source for us to make sure that we were making events that felt like they were relevant to people. So one, they commit to coming back to they they feel like their voices are heard before they get there.

And then also feeling like they got their own kind of like personalized journey as well. Like, get invited, as you guys know, I mean, we're in the events industry, but we get invited to so many different things with such a limited amount of time to do that, that the more bespoke you can make these sorts of experiences, especially as you are talking about to, like, higher-level folks and trying to build that into revenue, it's just so important that you're using these data points in any area that you can to just really make sure that you're hitting the right, you know, the right pieces.

Stephanie's Approach to Using Data

Yep. Absolutely. And, Step, what about you? I mean, I know Zoom info does a ton of events and, you know, definitely a large company. So what are you using from a data standpoint to help kinda shape those event experiences?

Using Data for Event Content at Zoominfo

We use Zoominfo.

Already had to had to say it.

But from an actual like how to shape our content perspective, My number one thing is, and I think we're gonna get a little bit more into this is just actually talking to the people like who are the boots on the ground, the people talking to our customers, the people selling to our customers.

So there's a lot of that.

In 2023, a lot really kind of came to us. We connected with sales, senior leadership. They said these are the things that people are starting talk about this is where people's heads are at. So for example, when we did a very VP plus targeted, event, series.
It was focused around solving that problem for these people. So, the goal for me and my team is if we get these people in a room and if we get them to show up, we wanna help them solve a problem while they're there and they walk away feeling like they know something new or something that they can work towards, after the session. And we also made those sessions we try to do this in all of our events as interactive as possible, whether it be through a pulling function, like we just did, or, is like live q and a, because then you get, okay, like, maybe we need to take it a step further.

If this person's asking about this, luckily they're comfortable to ask for it, but this could be a more widespread problem and it was funny. Some of them ended up feeling like a safe space for CMOs.

So I really love collecting that feedback live in action, and connecting with sales leaders to hear, like, what they're hearing out on out on the streets.

Love that. That's fantastic. Now I'm curious on both of your angles here.

Leveraging Trends and Feedback for Future Events

Do you do you look when when you're looking at trends, from from this data? How are you using the trends that you're seeing? Not only the trends that are out there, whether they're positive or negative, but comments of the events that you're doing, say, if it's a virtual event or whatnot, how are you leveraging those from like a survey perspective to be able to fine tune future events Steph, I'll throw it over to you first.

Yeah. Stephanie is definitely stronger. On this one, I would say, that collecting pre registration data is not something I've, really dove into until being asked to do this. Now it's like top of mind, right, to speak on this webinar.

For us, a lot of times what we're doing is utilizing our own data and saying, okay, you know, we know we want this to be targeting to the VP plus audience because that's what the content is, and we know we wanna target finance companies. So we we kind of make the assumption whereas I really love this approach and this is what I want to try moving forward in 2024 as to, like, really asking in advance okay. Before we get on this call, like, what specifically are you struggling with or do you wanna talk about in leading more into that? Which I think Stephanie already does, in a really cool way.

Amazing. Yeah. And Steph, actually, going back to you because I you you talked about bespoke event experiences. I'm a huge believer in that as well. What are the questions that you asked during registration to kind of create a more bespoke event experience?

Creating Bespoke Event Experiences

Do you mean Stephanie?

Stephanie. Sorry.

This is what's gonna happen with the two Stephanie on the panel, you know?

I think it's a mix driving. It's it's a mixture of, you know, what kind of topics are of interest? We try to guide some of it because we also don't wanna set expectations and feel like we can do it all. And the reality is we can only do so much.

But, and then the second piece also is I think you you kind of led to this in your and earlier in the question around surveys is like post event and during the event itself, we try to do a lot of, like, real time, like, feedback, kind of what stuff Steph was talking about. But, like, looking at some of the NPS scores, reading through the really genuine commentary that people leave of, like, what resonated, what really didn't work out well, and using those as areas where you can pivot, like, really double down on the things that worked really well for your next event, knowing that you know, like, people really love that.

But then also looking for those areas of improvement by, like, listening to your attendees. Like, I've made, like, the simplest changes, which seem so silly. Like, for example, like dietary restrictions, which is, like, the bane of probably all event planners' existence is, like, trying to figure out how to, like, make meals a thing. But being able to, like, pivot, like, based on different attendees, like, personal experiences, like, can mean so much.

Sometimes I've gotten, like, the most, like, the best feedback from, like, wow. You guys really adjusted that based on what I said, and I felt myself seen at my at your next event, and it really like makes a difference with not just how people feel at events, how they feel about your brand, how they experience kind of like the working relationship that you have, that hopefully that has, like, a kind of longer term effect of how that person then connects with your team and hopefully leads revenue in the It seems like a very simple thing, but taking the time to hear those surveys and, like, take them to heart to then really affect your planning motion, and bring that back also to your internal stakeholders.

We had we don't just, like, leave all of the survey feedback within the internal events team. We share it with our sales teams our product teams, all of the go to market strategy holders, so they know and really understand the audience and have that sort of historical context that is helpful for conversations just like outside of events as well.

Love that. That's people first right there for anyone listening. It's, putting people at the center of every interaction experience.

Engaging Attendees and Sales Teams

So we actually had a bunch of questions that come in. I wanna kind of infuse some of these throughout the conversation. So one of the questions that we got was What are the best ways to get people to sign up for my event?

Stephanie, I'll I'll throw it over to you first. Just keep things moving from the bespoke event experience piece.

Yeah. I mean, that's tough. Right? There there's like so many things people can sign up for.

I think really it's it's really finding the time, I mean, there's that personal kind of touch I think makes a huge difference. Right? Like, we can send all the emails and, you know, invites as we can and bring in, like, the top guest speakers, I mean, depending on budgets. Right?

I think where it really makes a difference is when you have a true partnership with yours on the boots, folks and having salespeople really make those warm connections, warm invitations, help people see what's in it for them to come to your event feel special for coming is where those sign ups start to mean more, and hopefully they have great experiences that they wanna keep coming back. I think that's one that's worked for us.

And it just, like, adds a little bit of, like, a more, like, a stronger connection than just seeing, like, another invite come through and via email.

Yep. Absolutely. And step, I'm gonna throw one over to you. How do you get your field teams to rally with you for your flagship event?

Oh, or how about any event?

I think for I actually have notes. I could literally talk about this for an hour. Obviously, I will not. I think we have like five minutes left. So happy to connect with people offline as I'm sure Stephanie and Nick are too, but for me, this is gonna sound so simple at the very utmost. You have to make them feel like they're involved in the process.

Sales always has something to say. I love salespeople. My dad's a salesperson, you know, half of my family are salespeople, but they love to say things. And they love to be a part of the process.

And guess what? They are the ones talking to the customers the most. So the best information you can get from them is you know, like, basically take anything from them. If you have Chorus, which is something like, is part of Zoominfo, pull go in and pull some meetings with some of our biggest customers and see what they're talking about.

See what they're asking about.

Show that you're doing the work to help support them in getting into their goals. Understand their goals. Make sure that you know what their goals are so that when you go to them and say, hey, we have this coming up. We need your help getting people there.

I know your goals are x y and z. This person has a potential ACV of x y and z. Guess what? If we can get them there, that could help either accelerate that deal or close that deal.

So anything like that to kinda help move through that use that data to help craft the content kind of looping back to that, first piece. And then if they have those target account lists, make sure you're really personalizing for that. Stephanie talked about making it a very personal touch.

You can do that in a scalable way and have it be successful.

It that has been probably the biggest one of the biggest things we discovered in 2023 as we tried all these different ways and then as in addition to all those things really drilled down, pull upcoming renewals, pull at risk customers, pull new potential customers, pair those people with legacy customers, and hand these to sales on a silver platter and say, hey, like, in addition to your target accounts, here are your upcoming renewals.

And guess what? That's, you know, two months after this this upcoming event, have them come in person meet with our CEO What do you think? Basically, give them everything they need to be successful, and then in turn you'll be successful.

That's fantastic. It's like it's, you know, I love the idea of, like, partnering with, you know, boots on the ground team members to maximize the impact for the right events. And you're using the data to make it a more impactful event, which is creating a great experience for everyone.

There was another question. There's a couple questions that came in there under the same lens from a survey perspective.

Challenges with Survey Responses

Stephanie, I'm gonna toss it to you. It's What methods are people using to actually get those survey responses? One thing my team is struggling with since COVID is actually getting responses to digital surveys.

So, Stephanie, I'll do I don't know if you have any thoughts there.

I think one thing that we try to do because survey information is so important to us was when a speaker was at towards like the end of their their their talk, they would, like, flash up a QR code right then and there and really speak to it and talk about the importance of getting that feedback then.

We weren't getting a lot of traction with, like, the post-event email and saying, hey, folks, click this link, you know, people have already moved on and, like, so catching them in that moment was huge and making it super easy, really quick surveys too. Like, you don't want anything that's gonna take anything longer than maybe three to five minutes at most. Like, a quick NPS score sort of rating commentary and maybe two more questions, but we try to keep it simple and let the, like, speaker really talk about how important it was to get that feedback. And I think we try to make an too. So people didn't feel like they were just doing surveys just for the sake of doing surveys.

So I think quick, easy make it really relevant in that moment so you get them in a captive audience. And then in some of our in person events, we used our mobile app to do that as well. So, like, within the session, people saw, like, the two questions and it was just, like, a really quick thing.

Love that. Fantastic. Well, unfortunately, we are out of time. I know we could go about this forever.

Stephanie and Steph. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm excited though because our next segment's all about setting goals beyond the event. Wanna bring up my good friend, Patrick Kalie.

He's gonna kick off setting goals beyond the event. They're gonna deep dive into goals. And that go beyond just the number of registrations or heads in a room. So thank you everyone for spending time.

We appreciate it.