Office Hours: Instantly Upgrade Your Events and Webinars

And we're live.

Yeah. Hey,

look at us, Amanda. Back in the saddle.

How's your summer going?

It's pretty good.

Yeah, it was really, really fun having you out to Seattle. It was kind of amazing.

That was so much fun.

You know, it's funny. I didn't I didn't even get to see your shed.

Oh, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. We just

worked inside. Uh, and having him meet Casey was great. I'm so glad that he's kerogginly, but I think he he's also like surprisingly charming.

He really is.

Yeah.

The nicest.

I think you're both kind of the same.

You both have that like I'm grumpy, but also really kind.

How do you How are you not grumpy, Rand?

Uh, I mean, do you want the real answer?

I do. I'm curious. How do you stay not grumpy?

Well, I think it's just a um it's like an act of willpower. Uh because and and default because my my dad growing up was

always very grumpy and not in a kind on the inside type of way. And so,

um I don't know. I just sort of trained myself to be I'm never going to be like that. And here we are.

that. And here we are.

I think uh children are often reactions to their parents. So

yeah, I think that's true.

Yeah, that's where that that lives. Uh

and people are loving your shirt right now.

Oh, thanks. Yeah, I I'm wearing I'm wearing fun pants, too, but I'm not sure if I can show them. Maybe I can jump.

I think you should just stand on your table.

Yeah, I guess I could try and What do we What do we have like two minutes until the five minute mark and everybody shows up?

I don't know. Uh let's see.

Yeah, people are still coming in.

No, there's no way to do it. They're

They're like They're fun like camoy pants. They're from that um Descendant

pants. They're from that um Descendant of Thieves company, which I actually think does absolutely genius marketing.

I think there are some of the best um sort of men's fashion marketers out there, which is hard to do. They have

this very uh custom custom feeling approach, even all the even though all the clothing is off the rack.

Yeah.

Uh and their their packaging is ingenious. Uh the way they do email

ingenious. Uh the way they do email marketing is really clever.

Um, it's got a little a little hint of, what would I say? Maybe more,

um, edgy masculinity than I would traditionally go for, but they also make, I mean, they make obviously

quite, you know, feminineish garb, too.

So, um, I I like their stuff a lot. I

think it's a great brand.

I want to go to their store in New York someday, but haven't been able to yet.

What is the name of the brand again?

It's called Descendant of Thieves. Um,

and their website's pretty cool, too.

So, they do um they have they have a really clever copywriting team. I'm quite impressed by

copywriting team. I'm quite impressed by uh by that as well. And then yeah, the packaging is just just great. Like when

things arrive, you kind of feel like you've uncovered something secret and special. It almost has that uh I don't

special. It almost has that uh I don't know what to call it, like a 1960s spy, you know, envelope inside envelope with

like secret, you know, labeling.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, it's uh it's good stuff. I don't I don't know how active they are on social media. I haven't followed them there,

media. I haven't followed them there, but they're they're sort of traditional e-commerce campaign is impressive. I I

should study it more and maybe try and figure out uh what else I could learn from them.

Yeah. And maybe they'll send you clothes if you give them, you know, some Spark Toro insights.

Oh, and the problem is I my sizing is just the worst.

I'm so I'm so weirdly tiny. Nobody

Nobody sends me small stuff because they're like, "Oh, Rand, he looks like a normalsized human being man." He's not.

I'm I'm I'm very very tiny. I'm a

quarter inch shorter than the average American male and my shoulders are like one quarter the size. So most men I don't know what it is.

My husband's quite short. He um

That's true. Yeah.

Ian and I could probably trade clothing, but that's about that's about it. I did

really well in Japan.

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Sometimes Asian sizes are, you know smaller.

Great. Works great for me. I was like I'm a I'm a medium in Japan. This is

amazing.

It's a good feeling.

You know, that's funny. I think I'm like a medium or large in the Philippines.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Even though I'm 5 foot one.

So, Amanda, I I'm really curious, especially since we're having this event about uh event marketing.

Yes.

And Oh, man. Sorry, there's a uh plane going over my head.

I'm curious, would you tell us a little about your MCON experience because you just went to your first in-person marketing conference, right?

Yes. So, one, it was my first ever marketing conference. Like, I'd never

marketing conference. Like, I'd never been to one. Um, I don't know. It just

never occurred to me to go. Like, I just didn't You've been to lots of them virtually, just not in person.

Been to a lot of virtual ones. This is

my first in-person one. Um, it was a lot of fun. It was, you know, overall it was

of fun. It was, you know, overall it was actually a very nice reminder of how big the marketing world is, but also how small it is. Like it was just very refreshing to meet a bunch of friends

who I had, you know, just met online like Ross Simmons was there and so I met him for the first time in person and that was lovely. Uh Ari Jabali. Um of

course Elena Solis who like I like almost fainted. I was like oh my god

almost fainted. I was like oh my god it's her. Um well my microphone is being

it's her. Um well my microphone is being weird.

Oh yeah I'm getting that too actually.

won't know why there's Yeah, you're coming through my left speaker.

I don't know why it's like that. And

there are no settings that I can change here.

Yeah.

So, that's going to be how it is. And

I'm sorry. Um,

it's cool. I will I will be stereo for both of us.

Okay, good.

I don't know why. I mean,

we'll have to we'll have to figure it out.

Uh, and then what else about Moscon? One

last kind of thing. Um

I guess one thing I really like both as a speaker and as an attendee is that there are only mainstage sessions.

I really like that.

Um I think it's tough when you know those uh traditionally conferences have multiple tracks where maybe there's like an SEO track and there's a growth marketing track or whatever that might

be could be you know and in any industry. Um, a challenge that I've had

industry. Um, a challenge that I've had as an event organizer has been, well, how do you divide these? How do you decide on the tracks? How do you divide people up? But then also, how do you

people up? But then also, how do you kind of sell people on it? Like, it's a little I I mean, in my opinion, I think it's really hard to ask a speaker to

speak at your event and then say, "Oh, we're going to have a thousand attendees, but you're going to be in a breakout session with three other competing tracks." And then if you're a

competing tracks." And then if you're a speaker, you kind of do the math of like, okay, so maybe 300 people will attend. Uh that's nice, but it's also a

attend. Uh that's nice, but it's also a big ask, right? Speaker has to put together their slides, practice, all that stuff.

I I spent a lot of my early career speaking to rooms of 25 to 100 people um in breakout sessions and sharing the stage with like three or four other speakers. So

speakers. So yeah, I mean, I'm going to actually talk about this in the presentation. Uh, so there's a good warm-up, but I when I designed MozCon, I specifically wanted exactly

the experience you're describing.

Um, and that was uh that was part of why I was like, I want I want single track.

I want everyone to be a keynote. I want

every speaker who gets up there to feel like this is the opportunity of a lifetime. They're in front of a thousand

lifetime. They're in front of a thousand people. I want that stage to feel like

people. I want that stage to feel like you are at, you know, TED or speaking to the United Nations or, you know, I want this to feel like a big experience. And

I think that reflects back to the audience as well. Um,

and yeah, one of the challenges I have, I don't think this can happen virtually.

I I I really don't. I don't think there's a way. I mean, we have regularly Spark Toro hours, right, which you're you're all listening to right now joining. Um, and we're about to kick

joining. Um, and we're about to kick off, but but we regularly get between 500 and a,000 folks here.

And I I love the energy in the comments and the chat, but it's the opposite feeling. It feels intimate and sort of

feeling. It feels intimate and sort of warm and, you know, you get like Amanda and I's personality. You get the personality of a lot of folks in the comments. You can kind of see people in

comments. You can kind of see people in I see Lisa in there, right? Who I've

seen a few times, which is lovely. And

like that's a that's a wonderful thing, but it's a totally different experience.

It doesn't have that, you know, oh my god, you know, concert hall, massive stage, huge production.

This clearly cost a million dollars to put on. That kind of thing.

put on. That kind of thing.

Totally. And and in this case, like people are in our homes, right? People

see the the mess behind me. Um, every people will see that I'm wearing camo leggings.

Camo camo.

Never wear this at an actual conference.

Yeah.

All right. Well, Amanda, we have got uh some seriously cool content. I actually

put together an entirely new talk just for this event. This is the first time I'm uh doing this one and should be a great one. All right, I'm

going to move move this over to here and let's see. How about we share screen?

let's see. How about we share screen?

Oh, Amanda. Um, the two questions we always get a get asked, what what are those two questions?

The first question is, will will we receive the recording? Yes, I will personally sell it to you. No, we

the replay will be available on this page as soon as it's done, as soon as we wrap up. And then uh Crowdcast will send

wrap up. And then uh Crowdcast will send you an email with the slides along with maybe an update on the next office hours. Um so keep an eye out for that

hours. Um so keep an eye out for that email. Usually we'll come later today or

email. Usually we'll come later today or tomorrow, but yeah, the replay will be available instantly.

Awesome. And what is our hashtag on Twitter?

And our hashtag is sparkro hours. So, if

you want to follow along, share notes with Twitter or, you know, wherever you post on social media, you can use Spark Toro hours.

Yep. We check it out on LinkedIn, too.

Yeah.

Sweet. All right. Click here to close message. Hide this guy. So, my goal

message. Hide this guy. So, my goal today uh is to help build better

events of all kinds. digital, virtual,

uh, live, in person, recorded, all of that stuff for your audiences. And to do that, we need to gain a deep understanding of what works for those audiences. Um, I want to be clear, I'm

audiences. Um, I want to be clear, I'm not a professional event manager, but I have run many events of many kinds and and built several uh over my career and obviously spoken and participated

primarily in the marketing universe, but um thankfully I've I've had lots of opportunities to speak outside of that in in sort of government and NGO stuff and uh in a number of industry events

too. So,

too. So, let's uh kick it off. All right. So I

think this is this is one of the frustrating things that you have to deal with as an event marketer um or an event creator of any kind which is supply and demand do not match in this

field. So this is a search for digital

field. So this is a search for digital marketing events um and and digital marketing conferences and then marketing events which is right this is search demand for actual events. This one is

searching search demand for learning how to market events. So event marketing and and marketing events and uh yeah that's that's tough. What about uh what about

that's tough. What about uh what about webinars? Webinars on marketing or SEO

webinars? Webinars on marketing or SEO or sales or CRM or emotional intelligence or anything you can think of. The demand my friends unfortunately

of. The demand my friends unfortunately is not there. There are not people seeking out the thing that we are all creating whether that's webinars or live streams or inerson conferences.

It's just it's just hard right. It it

really is tough to be in this field. You

have to generate demand. You can't just serve existing demand by being present in these places. And even more infuriating than the demand side is the

supply side is huge. It doesn't matter what region you're in. You can search for uh Google's got this nice event search engine. Now, if you search for an

search engine. Now, if you search for an event in your area, uh, or any other area, you will see massive numbers of both offline and online events, all

competing for your time, usually multiple per day. If you scroll down here, you'll see tons of them. Uh, just

in July and August, just in the Seattle area, just focused on digital marketing.

That's that is hard. And so, you know, if we're going to do well at this, right, we need great answers to questions like why why should

someone pay money or sacrifice their time to attend this event? What is in it for them? Uh this is obviously a

for them? Uh this is obviously a question we have to answer with every edition of office hours that we do. Why

this event instead of hundreds of other options out there? These have to be ludicrously clear as well as having great answers, right? You can have great

answers that are hidden and then people won't know about them. The only way you're going to do this successfully is if you actually sell and market the answers to these questions publicly. And

then the third one, of course, really tough, is how are you going to reach the right audiences with those messages with the pitch for your event. So, this is what I'm going to spend some time on

diving into today. I I I made a um a little chart just to sort of illustrate what I think works well for for those of you who are doing in-person events or or considering them for the future for next

year. Um and and those of you doing

year. Um and and those of you doing virtual still, which obviously we are, this is sort of how I think about it. If

it's small and in person, it's all about the networking. It is really about who

the networking. It is really about who is coming. Can I meet them? I want to

is coming. Can I meet them? I want to spend time with them. Do they want to spend time with me? And this is why I think the invitation set and the the focus around the event experience uh and

the quality of the networking that you're enabling is crucial. If it's

virtual and small, it's the opposite.

This is all about content. It is not some folks are trying to do virtual networking stuff. I think during COVID

networking stuff. I think during COVID there was an opportunity. I I suspect that window is is really closing. I

haven't seen those be as successful since. uh if you're large and in person,

since. uh if you're large and in person, it's a little bit less networking. In

fact, I would argue that it's maybe half and half. It's networking, but it's also

and half. It's networking, but it's also the experience of a combination of education and entertainment. And and

that's why I'm saying like edutainment.

If you think about very large events that you might go to, a Dreamforce or an um an inbound um you know back in the day the the giant uh SCES conferences um

CES right in Vegas. Those types of things are really the Yeah, I'm there to learn a little and to have a great experience. The travel is part of it.

experience. The travel is part of it.

And finally, large and virtual. Oh,

sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, no. There's that that's a great point about the networking and edita edutainment sort of aspect of large events just that maybe it's it's like

they're so massive that I don't know that people really truly expect to just do a ton of great brand new networking.

I feel like it's more the type of event where you're like where you reach out to your peers in the industry or your existing friends and you say hey are you attending inbound let's like let's go together or like let's watch Obama together.

Yes. Um, and then you go for that whole the experience as a whole.

Yeah. Like half the reason I went to Dreamforce in San Francisco years ago is because Bill Clinton was speaking there and Gerald Dean was like, "Oh, I I would really like to see him speak. That

sounds really interesting." We we went with some friends uh industry friends and yeah had a I mean Bill Clinton is a very problematic human being but a

fascinatingly talented speaker and ludicrously charismatic. Even even

ludicrously charismatic. Even even though he didn't prepare, it was obvious he had done no preparation.

Oh wow.

He said as much and then he just got up there and was like, "Oh my god, I am hanging on your every word." I see how you got elected even in I think he was the the governor of Arkansas, right?

Like that's not a state where you expect to do well. Um and then and then large and

do well. Um and then and then large and virtual which is something actually uh we we're we're about to announce Amanda and I are about to announce uh Spark Toro's first ever virtual conference

which we hope in years to come will actually turn into a um a full scale event. We don't have a name yet or all

event. We don't have a name yet or all the details but this is something we're working on.

Sorry, spoiler alert.

Spoiler alert. Yes. Yeah. No name,

nothing to pitch quite yet, but we will have it soon. But in my opinion, these these large virtual conferences when I've seen them be successful and I participated in a few, they are kind of

a 50/50, not edutainment networking, but content and hype. So people essentially get excited about it because other people are excited about it. And you

have to create that excitement through primarily content uh content, speakers, kind of the the the hype of the event, the positioning of the event.

Okay. So, let's try and spend some time in those.

I do want to jump in actually. I'm

curious. People think in the chat.

What do people actually think about networking opportunities for virtual events?

I don't disagree with you, but I want to see if anyone has any reactions here to like do you would you like to see some kind of creative

virtual way to network online uh during an event or no? Like do you I mean like Rand and I think that it is really mostly about the content, right? You got

to have great content. Um what's

interesting about to me about virtual events is that attendees are uniquely positioned to take notes because you're already on your computer. So I think you

want awesome content.

But the networking, I don't know. What

do people think? So let's look in the chat.

That's fair. I will I will not bias with my opinion yet.

Okay.

But uh you know I'm just going to say that Erin and I share share some thoughts.

Yeah.

All right. So So I I'm going to ask uh try and answer these two questions. Um

Oh man, look at you all just jumping in with your with your answers. I really

Amanda, we have the we have the kindest friends in our audience. It's just

great. So let's try and do those two first two questions. What's in it for my audience? Why this event? I think this

audience? Why this event? I think this this is the hardest thing. It doesn't

matter webinars, virtual events, live streams, a a podcast, a YouTube recording, um a a small networking event, right? Like I know a lot of

event, right? Like I know a lot of agencies do that. So, what what is it that makes for a great event? Um and

I've been talking to a number of event organizers around this and trying to research it, talking to folks that I really like and respect in this field.

And basically these four, you can fit almost every other sub item that you might think of under these four.

Programming, right? Right. So, format,

speakers, content focus, sponsorships, the postevent follow-up, the logistics.

Um, virtual is has their own logistics, right? That's certainly like the

right? That's certainly like the software and and timing and all that kind of stuff. And then in person has tons more. The audience that you

tons more. The audience that you attract. So, that includes kind of the

attract. So, that includes kind of the size of event you're trying to do, diversity uh and inclusiveness and diversity of of all the kinds out there, right? I I mean in terms of diversity of

right? I I mean in terms of diversity of the um uh job titles and roles, diversity of where they're coming from geographically, diversity obviously of uh you know whatever ethnicity and

gender and and um all those other things too and then management which is kind of the event tech um or onsite on-site or

offline sorry on-site or online uh health safety etc etc issues and there there's kind of three jobs here sometimes I suspect fact many of you who

are doing events for your companies or doing them for your clients companies uh you are doing all three of these but when we you know when you're running a big event like when we ran BonCon um it

was sort of three jobs so my job was the strategy choosing the right audience to serve and the event positioning in in fact in a way that's still sort of what I'm doing at Spark Toro with things like

office hours and this upcoming conference right I mean Amanda and I are tag teaming on both of these but the organ organizer's job, right? So, this

would be like, you know, for MCON, it was someone like Charlene, but you know, event organizers, the folks who put those together, it's really creating that product and events are a product.

You can everything that you can think of that you might do for a software product or a physical real world product, you do those same types of things, design, creation, marketing, thoughtfulness in

the event itself. And then finally, the marketer's job, which is to promote that event to the right audiences with the right message in the places they already

pay attention. The I mean, you can kind

pay attention. The I mean, you can kind of take this slide and say like, "All right, that's the job. That's what I have to do." It is much easier said than done. But if you don't get one of these

done. But if you don't get one of these right, like if you just start marketing an event and you don't have the strategy and you don't have the right product and it doesn't all align, you're going to be in a very bad place, friends. And I have

seen a lot of events. I have been to and spoken at a lot of events that did not nail this. And so there was mis

nail this. And so there was mis expectations from you know the organizers. There were mis expectations

organizers. There were mis expectations from the speakers. There are missed expectations from the audience. It was

really clear when that through line exists from all of these you you can do amazing things. It's not it won't

amazing things. It's not it won't guarantee it but but it will enable it.

So, let's let's imagine that we're in the uh packaging design universe, which many folks are like, "Oh my god, that's a boring industry." Like packaging design, it's it's a relatively small

niche industry. I was helping a

niche industry. I was helping a Spiratoral customer who's who's in this field and um uh specifically in the EU, and it was like, "Okay, well, let let's

do a an event for packaging design professionals.

This is a terrible strategy.

Awful. This is not a strategy that it contains none of the aspects. And so if you hear this, right, if you say to your boss or your client or your team, hey, tell me what kind of, you know, what's

our event strategy? Well, we want to be the best event for XYZ professionals.

Awful. Why? Why is this so bad? This

audience is way too broad.

Packaging design professionals, it's it's even though it's a niche audience, it is too broad for a starting event. If

this was a 10-year-old conference and event or what event series and it had been running for forever and had 100,000 people already paying attention to it and on the email list and you know a thousand attendees every year, fine,

right? Then it's still not a strategy,

right? Then it's still not a strategy, but the audience is okay. Otherwise, if

you are starting out with an event, if you only have a few hundred people in your audience so far for that event, this audience is way too broad. Best is

entirely subjective. It's meaningless.

It's like saying create great content.

Like, stop. That is I I hate that phrase. It there's no less meaningful

phrase. It there's no less meaningful phrase in the marketing universe than create great content. Ah, kills me.

Pointless. And finally, there's no unique value proposition here or any competitive advantage. There's nothing

competitive advantage. There's nothing saying as compared to other people who make event uh you know events for packaging design professionals, we are going to

fill in the blank. Where is that? It's

totally missing. not a strategy. All

right, here we go. If we were going to plan a theoretical event in the packaging field, like say we were trying to compete with someone like the

American Packaging Summit, which look, I no offense, the if you go into the subpages, the stuff that they do and talk about is way cooler than what's on

this page. So, but but because the

this page. So, but but because the American Packaging Summit has been around for decades and has uh built up an audience, all they really have to say

is we're doing our event again. And

this, I think, is one of the primary biasing challenges. Folks will look at

biasing challenges. Folks will look at successful events and then say, "Oh, well, they do it this way, so therefore probably I can copy that." And you

cannot because the brand reputation that they've built from the history of growing the event is such a powerful driver of next year's event, right?

It's, oh well, four years ago, you know, I went to the American Packaging Summit and I met my future boss and that's how I got this job. So, I'm going to go every year for forever. And you multiply

that times 10 years and you know 50,000 people who've been to the event, completely different story. So this is this is what I I might do if we were if we were trying to build this and this is

Amanda what you and I have been doing right with the Spark Toro event that's coming up.

So this is way too textheavy dense slide right but I'm I'm just going to show you kind of the thought process here but right it's it so you'd say we're going to prioritize our audience subgroups. So

we're looking at SMBs and new entrance to the field. That's who matters. We are

looking less at people who have lots of experience in the field or people who are outside of our field. We are looking less at serving uh sponsors and and promoters which many events do, right?

Many events are primarily designed for sponsors and then it's the audience is the product for them and it's it's uh it's built around them. You want to make the positioning crystal clear. by

positioning, right? I really mean go read April Dunford's obviously awesome, but also uh you want to say something like we are the gold standard in X for

Y. So tactical education focused online

Y. So tactical education focused online events for packaging design professionals. Okay, good. A narrow

professionals. Okay, good. A narrow

audience, narrow focus. That's what

we're going to be the absolute best at.

We're not trying to be everything to everyone. So it's not the entire

everyone. So it's not the entire packaging design field. It's only only the pros in that field and then uh tactical education focused very different from we want to be

enterainment focused right it so you can think of something like um you know sparro hours versus a an inbound two completely different things to

serving similarish audiences but not uh very different positioning and then you want to show why people should choose this event over the other ones right so single day of content content with

exactly what pros need to know for the year ahead, delivered by the best in the business at a low price. Okay. All

right. Now, we have a strategy, right?

Now, we we are all on the same page about who we're targeting, why we're targeting them, how we're going to reach them. This is this is like how I'd build

them. This is this is like how I'd build a strategy. I'm not saying this is the

a strategy. I'm not saying this is the perfect one for a packaging design professional who's who's building an event series, but this is how I would think about it rather than write this.

Don't don't do that. All right.

So uh in terms of event organization when we get to this process there's sort of these three semi-over overlapping I've tried to illustrate the semi-overlap programming management and logistics like that's what an event

organizer is is working on and oftentimes I think you get lost in the my job is to organize the event and you forget about the goal which the

goals are twofold it's engagement engagement is the value that attendees get during and just after the event and I say attendees But I also mean um you know whatever speakers and staff and and

people are participating in the event from the the logistic side too. So don't

don't ignore them. I think when you serve audiences well you tend to serve whatever speakers and presenters well but just note that. And resonance

resonance is essentially what tells you this event won't just be successful one time. It is building a brand for the

time. It is building a brand for the future. This event now has be is

future. This event now has be is becoming memorable, high status and amplified in terms of its reach. It's

the kind of event where people will say, "Did you go to it? Will you go next year? Did you hear about it?" Versus,

year? Did you hear about it?" Versus,

you know, sort of the the quiet under the radar events. This is ludicrously hard with virtual. Generally much easier with in person.

Um, I think that's just a a state of how human beings are rather than a, you know, something you can totally control with marketing. Um, so

with marketing. Um, so I sorry, I want to like Yeah. Yeah, please.

Yeah. Yeah, please.

I'm I'm interested in the high status thing because I do think that is important and I think people want to feel high status, special, whatever when they attend an event. I'm curious how we

engineer that for a virtual event, you So I think there's a let's see um the easiest way I can say it is if I

were doing it in our field the high status comes from I shared the virtual stage with other high status well-known people even though I myself was not

necessarily high status well-known andor I um participated in an event where it was clear that the

you know there was a a projection of high status onto the people who were part of the event. There was special things that they got access to, right?

Maybe it's maybe it's like, oh, they got these free access to an early version of some new tool or system. They got

invited to something else. They got a they got something physical delivered to their house that made them feel special for the day. They Right.

Um, sales folks do tend to do this really well because they make their target feel high status and special. Um,

and yes, like Norman said, exclusivity if it's invite only, like you have to you you can't just sign up, you have to get invited, that that does it, too.

That does it too. Although I wonder for virtual events if then it's is it high status that you need to go for or is it or is it specialness because it's a little bit different because one thing

I think these are two yeah they're both they're different s different ways to achieve resonance. So high status is one

achieve resonance. So high status is one way and then kind of the edutainment, you know, big production um or or like this is a really big

event. Lots and lots of people attend

event. Lots and lots of people attend it. Lots of people talk about it. It

it. Lots of people talk about it. It

gets tons of play on social, all that kind of stuff. Everybody's, you know, whatever slides and videos get clipped from it.

That u that also makes it a a special event or high resonance. Anyway,

Mhm.

Um, when it comes to engagement, I I'm not going to blather on about this and I am not an expert in it. So, uh, I do actually really like this article from Hopin. I thought they did, uh, one of

Hopin. I thought they did, uh, one of the best jobs, possibly the best job out there of of recent pieces I've seen about engagement that you can earn

through events. The sad news is when it

through events. The sad news is when it comes to resonance, I for whatever reason, I feel I trolled through like all of Google's results. I've been

looking for years for someone who's written something good about this. I

have never found a single article that I like enough to recommend to you on how to make events memorable after the fact.

If someone who's on this webinar would like to write that piece and be like, "Oh, I got you, Rand." Like, please.

Yeah, hit me up. Like, that would that would be great. I'd love to share something with folks. I do have a a few quick pieces of advice on this from the from the high level strategy stuff. My

best advice, right, basically get someone you trust who doesn't work for you or or the event to go talk to your attendees about your event versus

others.

I when I ran Moscon, I never got honest feedback. Not in person anyway, right? I

feedback. Not in person anyway, right? I

could hear through the grapevine. I

could talk to people who talked to people, but I could not get honest feedback. And I suspect the same is true

feedback. And I suspect the same is true with Spark Tours. Like as lovely and honest as I believe all of you who are listening to this presentation right now are, I suspect you would give a

different answer to someone who is not me or Amanda than you would give to me.

And that's just because human beings are wired to be kind to each other, which is wonderful. Like, and I never want that

wonderful. Like, and I never want that to stop. But it also means it's really

to stop. But it also means it's really tough to get on varnish feedback. So I

would go talk to those other folks and they will tell you what resonated and didn't and why they remember it and what's memorable and they'll tell you about other events all of that. Uh

resonance friends it's different in different industries. You cannot I I

different industries. You cannot I I shouldn't say you cannot sometimes you can but you shouldn't try shouldn't assume that you can copy and paste a great marketing event into real estate

or travel or packaging design or the inverse. So if you've seen something

inverse. So if you've seen something that works really well, you can take inspiration from it, but it is not a copy and paste process. I've been to plenty of events that have tried to do that. Um, you know, they've taken the

that. Um, you know, they've taken the the travel world. I went to an event.

Um, was it TEX? Maybe it was something else. travel event that I went to in

else. travel event that I went to in Vancouver a few years ago and they were sort of trying to replicate the experience of a big conference that they had done that the organizers had put

together in another field which I think was um like it was the food and beverage industry and even though you'd think there'd be overlap it it did not go well was not great there were lots of things

that were awkward about it they tried to do a million breakouts which does work well in food and beverage because people are so specific to the things they're interested in but less So in travel uh and finally number three new is really

powerful brand is also extremely powerful and the third one is stories. So if your event

tells a new story from or about a brand that people already know and like recall which is what leads to resonance goes way up. This is that that would that

way up. This is that that would that would be where I'd suggest.

Okay. How you gonna reach that right audience? This is the third question.

audience? This is the third question.

Last one. So I um Amanda and I sort of put put together this this giant layout.

Um I'm not going to go through every one of these, but you can kind of use it as a oh when I'm marketing my event online or offline, small or big, there's your existing audience. That's people like

existing audience. That's people like who's on your email list already, who already follows you on social, who already is reading your blog, etc., etc. There's digital advertising.

Unless you are unless you have a very large budget um or a lot of money to blow for some reason, uh I I am

not a huge fan of this for most events.

Uh there are exceptions, but most events I'm not. If you're, you know, if you're

I'm not. If you're, you know, if you're trying to sell out a Bruce Springsteen concert, which I don't think there's any demand side problems there, it's supply, uh, then, you know, digital advertising might work, but, you know, if you're

trying to sell whatever, a real estate conference to real estate professionals, right? Or the packaging example, like

right? Or the packaging example, like I'm sure there are a lot of uh or a handful of trade publications where it is worth getting a full page ad for your event.

Yeah, totally. Totally. Right.

Especially if you would prefer to just pay rather than do the kind of creative how could we work together thing, which you can do both, right?

Yeah.

Do a sponsorship and do Yeah. Yeah,

that's a good point. Uh other people's audiences. So, speaking of trade

audiences. So, speaking of trade publications, you you can find folks who are influential on social in this field. You

can you can go find uh email lists that reach them. You can find speakers

reach them. You can find speakers channels, right? they're, you know,

channels, right? they're, you know, reach out to your speakers and be like, "Hey, here's something for whatever Twitter, your YouTube, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your Tik Tok, your etc.,

etc." Uh, other events, especially um online events, if you are doing in real life stuff, promoting your in real life thing by being part of online events,

not a bad way to go. And last but not least, PR and media. Um, there's lots of options here as well. So, you you've got

a big set of options. Your job as an event marketer, right, is kind of choose which one of these to invest in, prioritize them, figure out what's going to work for you in your field with your

audience. Uh, I am going to give the

audience. Uh, I am going to give the same advice that I give around a lot of content marketing stuff in the event marketing field, which is to not assume

customers of your product. and event

attendees are the same. Many folks do this, especially those of you in B2B.

Um, we have this problem where we think of our audience as people who are going to buy our product. That's not the audience. Event audience falls into the

audience. Event audience falls into the these these four groups. Current

customers, people who bought from you already. Potential customers, people who

already. Potential customers, people who you know hope hopefully will buy your product or service. The amplifiers,

those sources of influence, and then the broader community, that's your potential attendees.

in in the in the event world, right? And

they may be people who consume content or, you know, follow sources but are not actually influential themselves and would never buy your product or service.

And so, you're not used to speaking to them and reaching them, this this gets a little tougher, right? If you ignore these people, put all your energy into those, uh, you're going to have a tough time with event marketing. At least

you're not going to reach the audience who could.

Yeah. or like this to me is also the difference between a user conference and a bigger conference, right? The

difference between a user conference like what I think I think Slack has one, the Frontiers Conference, they still have that. That's their user conference,

have that. That's their user conference, but and that's fine, right? That that

that is specifically for customers or potential c customers of the software.

But then you have like a dream force or inbound where it's for the potential amplifiers and the broader community. A

lot of value in that. And then when you think about, you know, influential tech conferences, those are the ones that you think about.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I

mean, so what's really interesting, so Shane um in the comments is is saying like, I really remember the events where I came home with new ideas I could put to use.

And I have a weird I have a weird theory that many people remember those events where they got new tactics, new tools,

new tips much less than the ones where where they were edutained and then as you point out Shane had great networking.

That that's not to say it's just that resonance is harder with tactical tips and useful actionable content than it is with I saw Bill Clinton speak. I saw

Obama speak. I saw, you know, whatever Dwayne the Rock Johnson was at one of, you know, like that kind of thing. It's

just a it's different, right? There's

there's the the memorability aspect and then the um I got professional value from the event and those those don't always overlap. So, just just be aware.

always overlap. So, just just be aware.

I think this is really how this is why inbound is 20,000 people and you know, Moscon got to 2,000 people uh before before co anyway. So, uh, audience for

events, I I like to visualize this stuff, right? So, you've got those

stuff, right? So, you've got those potential attendees and current attendees and amplifiers.

And mo the event marketing that works the best is targeted at these folks.

Like, it's those amplifiers and attendees. And then the if you're trying

attendees. And then the if you're trying to maximize attendance, you want to go after the whole industry.

So, just stuff to think about as you're choosing those those tactics from that big list of that big board that we put together for you. um in terms of audience research. So understanding

audience research. So understanding customers, right? Those conversations,

customers, right? Those conversations, it it can help most with obviously the the audience itself and then um uh finding the relevant one, figuring out

demographics and behaviors and attitudes and analyzing competition, right?

Looking at who else has been successful, figuring out what they've done well, why it's worked for them, and then programming uh also. So, a number of

event uh organizers in including um my friend Charlene who uh who who uh I think is running MCON again now. Uh she

she started at Moz years ago and that was um her first event now. She runs

tons and tons of events in all sorts of fields. But getting right speakers,

fields. But getting right speakers, right, choosing right topics, getting that positioning correct, all of that sort of programming stuff. Audience

research is invaluable for this. It

gives you data instead of just opinions.

And the way I would go about this, uh, hi Charlene. A, I'm so honored you're on

hi Charlene. A, I'm so honored you're on this call. Uh, the way I would go about

this call. Uh, the way I would go about this is, and actually Charlene is great at this. Um, oh, look, there's a picture

at this. Um, oh, look, there's a picture of her. What timing

of her. What timing uh is to start with the interviews, right? So, I would talk to individuals,

right? So, I would talk to individuals, right? So, I Hey, Troy. Right. Troy runs

right? So, I Hey, Troy. Right. Troy runs

this agency Mavericks thing. um it's a it's a small virtual event. They they do a very uh good job of of bringing agency owners together, right? Like what's

worked well or partly for your series, right? So talking to other organizers of

right? So talking to other organizers of other events, they're often very happy to share their experiences with you.

Talking to my friend Will, right? Like

hey, what do you think are important topics in the field right now? You know,

hey Charlene, what are the best events that and and sessions and speakers that you've seen recently? Like what got really high ratings? It's these kinds of questions. You can uh do that through

questions. You can uh do that through networking. You can also do it um

networking. You can also do it um through emails or or outreach on social, those kinds of things. You'll get good answers. I am shocked at how willing

answers. I am shocked at how willing people are to I think there's just like a camaraderie among event organizers and marketers that everybody wants everyone's events to do well. I kind of

love that about our field. Uh I would then take the answers that you get and before you assume they're correct, try and validate them with surveys. I'm

showing some informal ones on Twitter here, which is not necessarily the best, but um also I like to use Type form for sending out surveys, putting them on your website, right? Um you can use

whatchamacallit. If you want, you can

whatchamacallit. If you want, you can try survey monkey audience or Qualrixs or something like that for a large scale. They're expensive, but I'm a

scale. They're expensive, but I'm a little nervous about the respondents that you get. I think it's better if you can target it to the industry that you're after and you know whatever the

job titles and roles or types of people you're going after. If I were running San Diego Comic-Con, maybe then I would think about using Qualrixs or or Survey Monkey audience or something broad like

that. Uh on-site works fine too. Uh I

that. Uh on-site works fine too. Uh I

think this can work really well if you already have a smaller event series and you're leading up to a big one. So this

might be something that we would do on Spark Tour around office hours leading up to our like bigger conference, right?

is you put kind of a you know a type form that happens after or during the the process that you're in on the website that that works great too. Uh,

and if you have emails, you can ask directly. You can even grab, you know,

directly. You can even grab, you know, 500 of your contacts, put it in a BCC, send it out, get onetoone responses.

Might take a while to reply, but this is a process that we've done at Spark Toro.

I've done a few times and yeah, it's been pretty helpful for us. So, what

this gives you is audience attributes.

How do people describe themselves? What

do they talk about and have interest in?

Who do they pay attention to? uh what

are speakers and content and events that they liked in the past and you can use that data for all those things that we talked about the competitive research you know what um uh what other hashtags

do people use that I participate in who do they follow on social right so if I'm in that packaging design industry I can see that people who use the hashtag

packaging follow these sources and essentially this is exactly the places that I'd want to work with to broadcast the event this is where I want to do my

PR advertising sponsorships co-arketing, whatever I'm doing, all my my outreach because these people will reach a high percentage of the people that I need to reach.

And this is also kind of a you know, if I this is I've done the filter to individuals instead of organizations uh up in the filters of Spark Toro. And

this is essentially showing me people whose profiles include packaging design.

What do they engage with most? who

specifically did they engage with most?

And yes, right, like Jessica, Eric, Joanne, Debbie, that's probably who I want to invite to at least participate or amplify. Maybe they're my speakers,

or amplify. Maybe they're my speakers, too. Uh maybe they're my my creators for

too. Uh maybe they're my my creators for the event of some kind. Maybe they're on my advisory board for the event.

Whatever it is that this is essentially saying, these are the most followed people by these types of professionals in this field. That's what I'm going after. Uh, and what I like about this

after. Uh, and what I like about this approach, you don't have to use Spark Toro, right? You could troll through it

Toro, right? You could troll through it manually on LinkedIn or Twitter. Um, or

or use a tool like Follower Wonk, right?

Uh, which is which is great for sort of Twitter bio searching. Twitter's own

search is terrible. Uh, you get data about the whole market, not just the people that you reach and know, which which is great. Um, so I I like

this because it lets you sort of market beyond those just, you know, running ads or the existing lists that you've got.

You can kind of reach the broader field.

All right. Spark Toro Fest. This is one of our naming convention ideas, Rich. So

you're you're not on there or or you're not wrong there. Uh, all right. So event

marketing flywheel kind of works like this. If you've seen people in event

this. If you've seen people in event marketing industry do it, this is probably quite familiar. You you go find sources that reach the audience. you try

and provide some value that earns their attention. Wow them, right? And bring

attention. Wow them, right? And bring

them to your event page. So you you are doing essentially marketing with the event page being the call to action that you're driving everyone toward. That can

be what what's frustrating is a lot of CMOs and event marketers will be tasked with I need to prove that this source sent it over here, which you you shouldn't worry about. You should not do

if you're a guest on someone's YouTube channel. If you mention their uh your

channel. If you mention their uh your your event on their podcast, you'll never see that analytics. Like it's it nearly impossible to track unless you do time series stuff and there's a live

broadcast, but I would ignore that. I

would not worry about the attribution. I

would worry about getting the message to the right people. Um and the idea is that you're turning other people's audiences into your audience. I think

this is how slowly but surely you build up a great event.

All right. Uh the idea when you're doing this outreach, when you're finding these sources, Amanda, you and I talk about this all the time. I think I build this slide for like every kind of marketing I

think of because it's just it's just how great marketing gets done. I want this person or publication source to amplify my event to talk about what we're doing here. What could I do that would get

here. What could I do that would get them to do that? What what's the thing, right? What's the thing that's going to

right? What's the thing that's going to trigger that action? Could I invite them to speak or send a speaker? Could I be a guest on their podcast? Could I be one of their webinar speakers? Could I

sponsor their email newsletter? Could I

publish research they'd cover? Run a

joint survey with them. Get quoted in one of their article. Like, this is the stuff, right? That's the that's the meat

stuff, right? That's the that's the meat of the um the work. And this is this is not easy. But because so few people

not easy. But because so few people invest in this and most people just throw money at Google and Facebook, it's less competitive. It's also way high

less competitive. It's also way high higher ROI.

Um, so we are a little low on time. I

have a story I was I was going to talk a little bit about the the story of building Moscon and and how we did that specifically um talking a little bit about the kind

of resonance that was built up through doing things differently which I can do uh and I'd like to but I would also love to do some hands-on examples for folks.

Uh Amanda and I would love to help you out if your company is planning to run a mastermind group, a concert, a trade show, a training seminar, a live stream,

whatever. If you in the comments want to

whatever. If you in the comments want to tell us three things, like what kind of event you're trying to build, who it's for, and your primary goals, right?

Right. So may maybe you're trying to actually make money from the event like okay that's that's one that's a very different goal from we're trying to do lead genen for our product or we're trying to build our audience over time

and build our brand over time. You know

um when we talk about we've mentioned them a few times but HubSpot's inbound.

I mean you could see in their financials they they lose millions of dollars a year running that event. Like four to7 million dollars a year they lose running that event. Maybe even more than that.

that event. Maybe even more than that.

Why? Why would they lose money on an event every year? It's because they think of it as an advertising and brand building expense. And I would argue it's

building expense. And I would argue it's a superb one, but super different goal than, hey, we're going to run Sparro office hours or the packaging design

folks are going to have a live stream about, you know, uh, an award show for the latest packaging design um, professionals. Really, really different.

professionals. Really, really different.

So, if you'd like to share these with us, go for it uh in the comments. And in

the meantime, uh yeah, I'll give you a little give you a little story time. Um so, I I don't know that probably not a lot of folks

know this. So, you know, Mozcon um

know this. So, you know, Mozcon um before I left the company was about Yeah, it was around 2,000 attendees. It was a live event every

attendees. It was a live event every year in person at the um here here in Seattle uh where where I started the company and when I got into the industry

one one of the first things that I was doing was going to a lot of uh a few conference series right so search engine strategies which was owned by Google's

now um liaison search leaison Danny Sullivan back when he was like industry side uh and I think he sold told that show, that show kept going. He started a new series called SMX. So, I was going

to a lot of those events and others in the field. Um, some regional ones, too,

the field. Um, some regional ones, too, SCMPDX in Portland and a bunch of others. And those events were

others. And those events were 24 white dudes on stage, sometimes one woman. Um, usually panels, right? So

woman. Um, usually panels, right? So

you'd you'd have panels of three or four people who'd present for 12 minutes on a particular topic in the in the search marketing field. Um and they'd be in

marketing field. Um and they'd be in breakout rooms. Then there'd be a maybe a keynote oftentimes from someone at Google or Yahoo or Microsoft search um

because those were still big back in the day. And then a big trade show floor

day. And then a big trade show floor with a lot of um booths where people were were selling things to each other.

So old school conferences, right? If you

think of like what did 20th century American conferences and events look like, this was quite similar. In fact,

the only event I ever went to in the '9s was a dental conference for for professional dentists and orthodontists.

And this, you know, those early events were like this. When we made MozCon, the very first Moscon was one speaker, me,

uh, it was about 250 attendees.

um because I had dropped out of the University of Washington, but like I applied to their alumni thing to get special discounted rate on using one of their classrooms for the event and it

was uh me for seven hours talking about SEO. So like every session was just Rand

SEO. So like every session was just Rand is going to present on keyword research.

Now Rand on link building, you know, whatever it was. Um but that event grew up uh and the first the first year that we had speakers other than me was was

like year two the event was growing. It

was almost all marketed through the blog. So you know it was essentially

blog. So you know it was essentially content marketing that turned into this and the um there were two innovations that at

the time were relatively unique. One was

everybody on one stage right? So

everybody has a keynote spot. there is

no keynote or everyone's a keynote. And

two, there's not 24 white dudes. So when

I when I first started making it, I was like, we absolutely even year one, I think we had to have I was like, we have to have 50/50 gender balance. And then

that expanded into, hey, we have to have more kinds of diversity and representation. Like it cannot all be

representation. Like it cannot all be straight people. It can't all be white

straight people. It can't all be white people. It can't all be right. And

people. It can't all be right. And

eventually what became very cool was when we when we would put together the programming for the event in the in the last few years because you know probably the last

five years I ran it from say 2013 to 18 we didn't have to do it like we we didn't have to do any sort of quotas or like hey how are we doing because our

speaker selection was already from such a diverse set of people that it was just natural that when we were like okay well we want someone on email marketing all right this person we want someone on content Well, this person, we want someone on, you know, CRO. Well, this

person, we got to the diversity that we wanted without having to enforce or or or, you know, actively work on it, which was super cool. Um,

cool. Um, that is super cool.

And I can tell you that it had lots of push back. So, today, you know, a

push back. So, today, you know, a diverse event is not that surprising or revolutionary, but and it wasn't surprising or revolutionary. It was just there were lots of people who were

either some degree of uncomfortable with it or thought it was unnecessary.

So I remember talking to I won't out who it is but like a close friend who makes who who builds another conference who was like the quota thing doesn't feel right to me. Like I don't think I don't

think it's right to enforce a quota. It

feels unnatural and awkward like you know whatever it is. how would people feel if they knew they were selected just because of their gender identity or or you know their whatever eth ethnic

background or those kinds of things and I was like they're they're not that's not how it works. But regardless uh what I love was a few years into Moscon working this way that same person came

back to me was like okay I'm sold like I see it I get it. Uh it does two things for you that's really powerful. One is

when you do that you the quality of speakers goes up because you don't realize what you're ignoring and missing. You you don't see when you

missing. You you don't see when you don't expand your your set you don't see what you're missing. So our audience ratings for speakers rose every year for

like 10 years in a row. And second, lots of people want to see people like them on stage and they will not go to events

that don't feature anyone like them.

And so, you know, you could see I remember talking to a guy who who now has an extraordinary reputation, right?

But he was like, "Shit, I did not realize until I saw Will Reynolds speak that you could be in marketing and be black and be a speaker." Like that was

something that never I thought it was a thing for like white dudes.

Yes. There you go. Right. Like if you don't see yourself represented, you don't know that you could potentially do that thing. I think this is true for for

that thing. I think this is true for for folks of all kinds, right? like as soon as I see a Jewish quarterback in the NFL, which will never happen, um you know, then I'll be like, "Hey, look at

that schmoolley. Way to go. Throw that

that schmoolley. Way to go. Throw that

ball." Um

you have your opportunity.

Yeah, that's I I might have missed I might have aged out at this point. Um I

think I'm I think I'm Tom Brady's age, so that's not going to work. Uh all

right, so I uh I thought I'd share that and then Yeah, let's uh let's hear from some other folks. Yeah,

absolutely true about diversity and inclusion in in events. Um I would imagine that as people see more of themselves within the speaker panel then they start to they start to reach out

and say hey can I apply to be a speaker next year.

Totally.

Yeah. Absolutely. And also they buy tickets.

Like it look it's good for like the universe and the world and you know ethically and all those kinds of things.

It's also good for your bottom line.

Mhm.

It's kind of nice that these things work together.

Cool. We have uh we have some good examples out there.

Yes. Let's see. Some people are asking about uh in-person digital. So, Andrew asked about um in-person digital marketing

meetup in our home market to build partnerships with referral sources and invite clients or potential clients to speak and share their knowledge.

Oo, I like that a lot. Yeah. So, I would Andrew in your shoes, I would start with the um essentially you're trying to

serve those clients and potential clients. And so I would do I would start

clients. And so I would do I would start that interview and survey process with them, right? That's the yes, they're

them, right? That's the yes, they're also your speakers, but they're who you're trying to serve. And so I would ask them about their goals. Who do they want to get in front of? Like who would they hope would be in there? And then

I'd be really cautious. I think it could be tough to build a very large event kind depending on the size of your home market, right? If we're talking about

market, right? If we're talking about like whatever LA or New York City, maybe it's easier. But if you're in Seattle or

it's easier. But if you're in Seattle or Cleveland or, you know, u Vancouver, BC or something like that, it's it's going to be a more limited set. Uh, and so I

would just I would try to book a venue that feels full when you have even a small group of people in it because you want the energy in the room. This is one of the things that event organizers

sometimes really screw up. Charlene and

I have talked about it many times. If

you have a room for 500 and you fill it up with 300 people, there's there's like this deadness, right? It's just it's kind of there's like empty chairs and empty space and it feels like, oh man,

do they have trouble selling or whatever. And if you instead have a room

whatever. And if you instead have a room for 300 and there's 300 people in there, that energy is completely different. And

the same thing is true with 25 or 50. So

just I would I would optimize accordingly. Um, and I try and serve

accordingly. Um, and I try and serve those clients and potential clients with the audience they want to reach, you know, if they h whatever. If it's really all about like them wanting to show off to their boss and their team, how do you

get those people to the event? If it is, hey, I want to reach my own customers.

Okay, how do we get them to the event?

Do we have to market through and with them? It's it's all that kind of stuff.

them? It's it's all that kind of stuff.

And then for the programming, I would just I would have someone who is um pretty tough on speakers to coach them

and help them build their slide decks.

Uh this was something many years for Moscon um and even for for search love and other events I helped with where I would be like, "Sure, I will look at your deck." Amanda can Amanda can attest

your deck." Amanda can Amanda can attest that I am um hopefully fair but a little harsh. Yeah,

it's it's appreciated, but and I think I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of

don't know. I feel like there's a lot of mixed um mixed sentiment on um speakers needing to um provide their slides in advance for feedback. I know

some people really hate it. Some

speakers really hate it. I mean, I personally like it. I mean, I might I might be like, "Oh man, I got to do this early." But that's not a reflection of

early." But that's not a reflection of of how I feel about the event. That's

more of like, shoot, I got to do this.

But I always appreciate the feedback because I see it as like, well, if I'm going to be on your stage, I better do a good job. Like that that benefits both of us. So,

abs. Absolutely. I I think there's also like this um aspect of this is frustrating but true, which is some speakers, if the event

organizer has seen them many times and kind of knows that they're going to do a great job and whatever, you don't have to worry about it. And if

there's newer folks, it's much more important. Um, and that comes through in

important. Um, and that comes through in the audience, right? Like what you don't want, you don't want to have an audience walk away from any of the speakers and be like, "Gh, that was not great or didn't

measure up to the level of the other people at the event or the the other talks at the event." Um, you you don't have to slide into someone else's style.

don't even have to be great on stage if your content and the stories that you tell and the you know the information is incredibly useful and the thing that people want

presented in the in a way they expect that you're going to do well even if you are a nervous person even if you're whatever sort of um natural charisma

isn't all the way up there I've seen great results for for speakers so uh should we Two more examples and then wrap up.

Let's do it.

Okay. Patricio asks or says he'd like to do a uh training or webinar for tech CEOs with the goal to introduce them to how branding can improve their business

and serve as lead genen.

Oo, that is a good one, Patricio. Funny

story. I um yesterday morning in Seattle I was invited to speak at an event um which I did for for a local venture capital firm that basically invited all their C portfolio CEOs. Um I've done

those a few times for various ones. In

fact, it was a huge huge builder for um Moz's very early consulting business. Uh

I spoke to the gosh what was the VC's name? Um I'm forgetting they they fund

name? Um I'm forgetting they they fund oh benchmark. they funded like eBay and

oh benchmark. they funded like eBay and um bunch of other really early like big tech companies. Uh

tech companies. Uh so I would I think it's very hard to get in front of tech CEOs to get them to

come to anything. Um it's just because they they generally speaking have whatever low bandwidth and also low belief in the ability of an event to

level them up. But they're very networking focused. So if you can do

networking focused. So if you can do things where you say, "Oh, these tech CEOs, what they want is to meet investors, to meet other tech CEOs, to learn from other people who've had lots

of success, like um I think one of the early things that got a bunch of tech CEOs to go to this GeekWire event years ago here in Seattle was they got Rich Barton, who who started Expedia and now

is the CEO at Zillow, to come and be the keynote speaker at this event." And so yeah, when I rolled up, I was tech CEO number like 200 of basically every tech

CEO in the city because we all wanted to see rich. If you can find those few

see rich. If you can find those few lynch pins uh whatever, you know, virtual or in person, I think uh you said, yeah, webinar. So I would go I would go virtual. If you can find a few

lynch pins who are like, oh yeah, they'll pull the rest of these folks with them because they really want to see those people. that that is probably um a great way to start that. And I

would I would ask right get on the phone with a dozen of them. Ask like, "Hey, if this person and this person are speaking, who would those be where you'd go, well, I can't miss it. I got to go."

I'd also I'd think about making it invite only and doing something kind of like make it feel high status.

Yeah. The exclusivity.

Yeah.

Uh Yeah. All right. Last one here and then we'll wrap up. Uh Melissa asks or Melissa's event is going to be a live conference uh for an association of tech

consultants. Intent is to recruit

consultants. Intent is to recruit additional members and cement existing members.

Oo, I feel like one really good opportunity is to engage the existing members as speakers. Um or at least some of them,

speakers. Um or at least some of them, right? to show to one to kind of show

right? to show to one to kind of show like hey the one of the value ads is you can be a speaker at our event. Um and

then it's also aspirational for additional new members.

Yeah, I like I like that too. So the

interesting thing about an an existing association is usually you can get the email list which is super powerful. I would use that email list to do my like interviews

and surveys. I might consider taking

and surveys. I might consider taking that email list over to clear bit full contact um people pipl and using their identity resolution to

turn those emails into you know LinkedIn profiles, Twitter profiles, etc. And then like looking at the content these folks consume and what they follow and read and all that kind of stuff. I'd

probably connect with a bunch of them on those platforms, right? So like if you reach out on LinkedIn and you say, "Oh, hey, you're part of this like technology association and so am I and we're putting together an event for folks and

like would you have five minutes to chat about that or like you know, would you be up to take this survey to see you you can start to get that almost uh the association itself feeling like they're

part of the programming and then they're going to want to go more which is helpful too, right? people

are attracted to things that they feel like they participated in the creation of.

So that'd be one of my tactics. I also

might I might be tempted to talk to the marketers for the association and see if they would be willing to sort of work with you budget-wise, timewise to kind of help with the amplification of that, too.

Yeah, because they're getting a lot out of it.

Yeah, that's great. Um, all right, we got to wrap up here. Um, thank you friends for joining. Thank you for your incredible participation in the chat and

everything. This is very helpful to us.

everything. This is very helpful to us.

It's enlightening to us. And then we're going to we're still going to go back and read through because there was some great feedback on events um networking and events, not not networking and

events. And um yeah.

events. And um yeah.

Yeah. And we should have some news about uh Spark Toro Fest or whatever we're actually going to call it quite soon. Uh

coming quite soon. And uh these slides and the presentation will be available on this Crowdcast page right after we're done. And then Amanda will get that

done. And then Amanda will get that email out to everyone. Amanda, thank you so much for your uh for your moderation even though uh you know your 2-year-old is is being a cretton today.

Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I had to tag out and give him some stickers because he went in the putty.

Yeah, that was his reward.

I mean, if only we all got stickers for that. I would have so many stickers.

that. I would have so many stickers.

All righty, friends. Thanks for joining us. Take care, everyone.

us. Take care, everyone.

Bye.

Bye.