Event Marketer Spring 2022 - 61

F
or b-to-b event marketers today, work
is a complex balancing act. They are
charged with creating a fresh experience
for in-person attendees while delivering in
virtual. They have goals for both external and
internal stakeholders. They have to balance
health and safety with rich engagement. They
have to motivate an attendee base and a team
that's tired. And they have to consider-perhaps
now more than ever-how every decision
ultimately impacts the environment and the
increasingly sustainability-minded opinions
of attendees.
All of these contemporary dynamics at
play point to the intricate nature of strategic
b-to-b event marketing. And it's why each year
we seek out nominations to formulate a Dream
Team: a spotlight on the event marketers we'd
pick if we started our own brand, from the
intrepid trade show exhibit managers on up to
the global conference leaders.
What struck us about the honorees this
year was a nearly unanimous viewpoint that
there is great opportunity on the other side
of this pandemic if you're willing to seize it.
And at the top of the agenda for this solutionsdriven
breed is the role of hybrid.
Pre-pandemic, says Alex Sapiz, vp-global
events at Cisco, her team was experiencing
" tremendous " growth in its global customer
conferences. " Cisco Live events were really
blossoming in terms of scale and scope, " she
says. Post pandemic, the hybrid model is the
next big frontier.
" The lines between the more traditional
in-person event and your online experience
will blur a little bit and there will be more
flexibility in terms of format. Post pandemic,
it's all about figuring out the model, " she says.
" The future of events is about offering choice,
and I think that's our next responsibility-to
offer those choices through multiple channels. "
In the recovery, companies are acknowledging
the holes left behind by cancelled
in-person events, a fact that is giving many
event organizations a much needed confidence
boost.
" Pre-pandemic, we were recognizing
that our events were a really good place to
bring a lot of the motions within the organization
together, " says Sarah Reed, senior
director-global strategic events at Zendesk.
" That was one of the things, company-wide,
we really felt was missing during the pandemic.
The event was this place that we could rally
the entire organization around as well as our
entire ecosystem; a place of announcements
and ideas and networking. "
For a long time, marketing campaigns
often ran " in their own lane " and they had
" their own metrics to hit, their own budget,
and their own go-forward plan, " Reed says.
Events ran parallel to it. Now, the departments
are partners, and events are aligned with campaign
strategy more than ever.
" Between field marketing events and campaigns,
we're all operating under the same
motion and we've recognized how much
power is behind all of us having the same message
and all of us delivering similar content.
And our campaigns have never been more
successful, " she says.
But amid all this change and opportunity
is the human challenge. Several Dream Teamers
pointed to burnout, not just among their
team members but among their audiences.
" I don't think we knew how much fuel we
needed to conserve. We were driving around
without a gas gauge and not knowing how far
we needed our tank of gas to go, " says Debbie
Brewer, vp-strategic events at Salesforce. " It's
been very taxing for us as humans, but especially,
for those in the event industry. "
The event marketing industry is also coming
to grips with the fact that two years of
fewer events and greatly reduced travel actually
benefited the earth and that in returning
to business, the industry, with more corporate
support from the top down, is in a position to
make beautiful progress.
" I don't think any of us are going to come
back and do things they way we've always done
them. That's the opportunity, " says Jessica Iden,
associate director-event marketing at Boehringer
Ingelheim Animal Health. " I'm excited
to see what this space looks like in five years. "
And so are we. Congratulations to all our
honorees. -R.B.
Profiles By:
Rachel Boucher and
Andrea Zarczynski
eventmarketer.com
SPRING 2022 EVENT MARKETER
61
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Event Marketer Spring 2022

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