The Power of Events: Driving Growth in B2B Marketing Strategies

1. How have shifting business and consumer behaviors changed the way organizations approach events and travel?

In B2B GTM, where I’ve spent the majority of my 20+ year career, the shifts we see are usually in response to external factors. How is our market changing? How do we keep our Events relevant to the audiences we care about? How are economic conditions impacting my attendee’s ability to travel? And more recently, how does the political climate contribute to this uncertainty? All too often Events are among the first things to be cut when the economy softens, and so organizers are in a constant battle to innovate while also maintaining budget (and staff!). Event attendees, whether in a B2B or B2C setting, are still humans first, and would-be attendees are more discerning than ever with their money and their time. No doubt these are challenging times, but it’s certainly no time to wilt under the pressure. We must remind ourselves that Events offer unique value that can’t be replicated in another channel. Recent research on B2B Events budgets shows they are holding firm and tracking to a 10+ year average. So it’s important to acknowledge the power that our attendees hold, and the need to innovate, but also to remain steadfast about the impact that an effective Events program brings to our organizations.

2. What are some common mistakes companies make when designing their meetings and travel programs, and how can they be avoided?

It seems cliche to say that ‘strategy is critical to event success’, but we see it all the time where Event objectives are poorly defined, too generic, or simply not in line with what business stakeholders expect from the program investments. The onus is squarely on event leaders to better align Event objectives for any with core business goals. Most B2B Events have the potential to impact several different objectives simultaneously, sometimes cloudying the picture of what could be the standout objective. To deal with this, I’m an advocate for an ‘Audience first’ approach - starting with a specific Audience segment and building the event experience to optimize around only a handful of essential objectives for that audience. Narrow in focus but deep in impact.

3. How should organizations integrate meetings and events into their broader go-to-market (GTM) strategy? 

The ‘portfolio’ concept has become more mainstream in recent years and I’m an advocate for this approach. A portfolio strategy considers the various types of Events that are possible as a ‘portfolio of experiences’ to cover a spectrum of business objectives - creating brand awareness, launching a new product,  collaborating with partners or suppliers, deepening customer relationships, closing new business, etc. With a range of possibilities, we can be very intentional about how to use each type of experience to do a very specific job with a very concrete objective. As a channel, Events should also be combined with other channels or tactics in the construct of a campaign. So in some ways Events stand alone because of the unique value they deliver, but in most ways they are part of an integrated GTM strategy.

4. How can organizations use data and insights from meetings and events to improve marketing and sales outcomes?

Building on the idea that each type of event experience has a specific job to do with a very concrete objective - every objective should ultimately align with the corresponding metrics and KPIs that best measure each objective (awareness, demand, deal velocity, product adoption, etc.). These are performance measures that are not specific to only Events, but to every channel or tactic in our arsenal. This approach lets us understand the performance of the Events channel relative to other channels, but it also positions Events to contribute to the core outcomes we expect sales and marketing investments to drive. 

5. How can companies leverage events as a demand generation and customer acquisition tool? 

Setting aside the ‘demand gen vs. lead gen’ debate, Events can be an extremely effective means of creating or capturing demand. The notion of ‘Event led growth’ also stems from this - by its very nature, what is so unique about the Events channel, and in particular live Events, is that we create the opportunity for buyer and seller to interact in a very meaningful way, in a very short span of time, and oftentimes at a reasonable scale. In the face of challenging market conditions, economic uncertainty, and political unrest, this should bolster even the faint of heart to trust in the power of events.