The Participants
Smart Conversations
CORE PRINCIPLES • CHANGING INDUSTRY • EVENT DESIGN • COLLABORATION STRATEGIES • VIP EXPERIENCES
CORE PRINCIPLES
“Digital Marketers Beware! It’s Still the Human-to-Human Connection
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“You Can’t Fake Authenticity”
“We Are in the Renaissance of the Event Industry, With 25 Percent of Marketing Event-Related”
“Smart C.E.O.s Realize That Events Are Smart Power
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“Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication
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“Proven Facts: Events Are Critical for Strategy for Solving Business Problems”
“Data Is Helping Brands Achieve Intimacy and Life Beyond an Event
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“Organizers Need to Be Collaboration Artists
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“Be Your Own Undercover Boss and Live In Your Attendees’ Shoes”
“Events Are the High-Touch Part of Experiential Marketing—Not the Most Important”
“Events Need to Be Transformational Experiences Requiring Deep Audience Knowledge”
“C.E.O.s Now Accept Events as Important: Now They Need to Perform”
“Experienced by Few, Seen by Many: How to Collaborate to Extend an Event’s Reach and Value”
CHANGING INDUSTRY
“Challenging the Divide Between Meeting Planner, Event Marketing, and Experiential Design”
“The Festivalization of Events: Pairings Are Not Just for Food and Wine”
“Organizers Are Now Open to More Unexpected Outcomes When Events Are Co-Created With Participants”
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“The Coming Age of the ‘Cognitive Event’ Using A.I.”
“ Don’t Underestimate the Mergers and Acquisitions Taking Place Everywhere
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“Contact Is Now King: It’s Not Just the Experience But Who Is in the Room”
“The Rise of Internal Event Departments Is Unlocking Waves of Employee Pride”
“Influences Have More Power Than Ever: The Fashion Week Case Study”
“Story Sharing at Events as a True Scalable Personalization Moment”
“How Transmedia Storytelling Integrates Everything: Bud Light and Whatever, USA”
“What I learned from being a Mary kay lady”
“Mobile First, Even for B2B Events
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“Tent Poles and Personas Are a Key Part of Consumer Event Marketing
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“Being “in” the Experience Is the New Holy Grail”
“The Ultimate New Approach: Are You Creating Thunderclaps?
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EVENT DESIGN
“Emotional Impact Before, During, and After an Event”
“B2B Morphing Into Consumer Thinking: Concerts and Festivals Replacing Powerpoint at Business Events ”
“Engineering Behavioral Cues into Events Allows Participants to Co-Create Experiences”
“You Better Get the Details Right: We Are All Obsesed
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“Designing Events for Levels of Engagement: the Wader, the Swimmer, and the Diver
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COLLABORATION STRATEGIES
“When Designing on a Dime You Need to Get to Win-Win Partnerships”
“Getting Invoved Earlier at all Levels Is an Industry-Wide Challenge”
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“Setting Clear Objectives Between Teams Is a Major Challenge for the Entire Industry”
V.I.P. EXPERIENCES
“Is Great Customer Service the New V.I.P. Treatment?”
The Increased Power and Influence of “Statement Events” in the Digital Age
Over the past year, BizBash assembled a hand-selected group of 45 event pros in three separate luncheons to discuss the changing state of the live-gathering industry and the relevance and impact of “statement events.” These events can take on several forms and can include product launches, company signature customer-appreciation events, conferences, and major celebrations.
Brands and organizations are becoming smarter about events as they realize the potential for amplifying their message through social media and other digital amplification efforts.
Participants came from all aspects of the industry including marketing, events, meetings, conferences, and from all job types including producers, planners, PR strategists, and project managers. These on-the-record discussions took place in the middle of the dramatic 30,000-square-foot Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn overlooking the Williamsburg Bridge and the East River. Ovando Design created full tablescapes that literally set the table for dynamic discussions and the latest thinking of the new “morphing” event industry.
We are delivering the best of these conversations in what we call an “audio white paper.” The premise is that most people don’t read white papers carefully, so we are making ours available in whole—for listening in a car or at the gym—or in bite-size, shareable clips.
Here are some of the key takeaways.
Core Principles
Organizations at the highest levels recognize that the humanity of events is a critical part of mobilizing, motivating, and educating.
“Experienced by few and seen by many” is a core principle that has fueled the growth of event budgets since social media has become so prevalent.
Research, data, and science are empowering integrated teams of marketers and event organizers that turn attendees into brand advocates.
With participants exposed to a variety of experiences, event organizers need to make events more transformational—rather than simply experiential—forcing producers to have deeper knowledge of their audiences and attendees.
Changing Industry
The era of the festivalization of events is upon us. Consumer and social events are influencing business events, and vice versa. A “statement event” is no longer just one event but an envelope of many types of events. A conference can also have a concert component, a marketing promotion can be also a training event, a meeting can also be more of a party, training can be an experience rather than just a classroom endeavor.
The wisdom of the crowd is now being taken seriously by organizers. Organizers are open to co-creation of events with their participants using the latest technological and design-thinking advances.
The specialized nature and perceived value of experiential marketing and event, meeting, and conference planning is leading to an increased pace of mergers and acquisitions in the agency and experiential-marketing worlds.
Contact, or being in the right room with the right people, is now more important that content.
The launch of the iPhone in 2007 made every event attendee a media outlet and a storyteller. Big brands are creating events with the purpose of transmedia storytelling as a key strategy.
Understanding customer personas is now a key marketing and event baseline to connect with audiences.
Internal events are no longer afterthoughts. Organizations of all types are now spending considerable resources on mobilizing their internal events to build loyalty and pride that translates into positive outcomes.
Event Design
“Design thinking” is not just about decor or look and feel. It’s about bringing together content, context, and experience.
Effective event design engineers a series of cues that give people permission to interact and co-create an experience by stimulating conversations and storytelling.
Planning all levels of participation from all perspectives—from the totally engaged to the casual observer—adds a three-dimensional aspect to event design.
Collaboration Strategies
To create more impact, diverse organizations are pooling resources to create larger-scale events with more meaning and emotion.
A challenge is to bring in all stakeholders earlier to create profound outcomes with clearer objectives. With the concept of integrated marketing and the cross-pollination of ideas, the agency world is moving in the right direction. Agencies that used to specialize in one area are now expanding and collaborating with experiential experts as the morphing of the industry continues.
V.I.P. Experiences
Even though guests attend at every level, it’s a goal for everyone to feel like a V.I.P. Events can achieve this through the content, context, or experience that bonds the group.
Customer service is the new V.I.P. experience. Smart event organizers listen to the issues and make sure that the same problems are not repeated at future events.
Event Sponsors
