EMT #64 with Kayla Drake - Creative event strategies that drive pipeline, not just attendance

Trade shows remain one of the most effective channels for building relationships and generating pipeline—but a successful event program is about much more than having the biggest booth on the show floor.

In this episode of Event Marketer's Toolbox, hosts Chris Dunn and Brendon Hamlin welcome back Kayla Drake, field marketing advisor, speaker, and event career coach, for a practical discussion on how event marketers can create meaningful experiences that move business forward.

Building on her previous appearance, Kayla shares actionable strategies for thinking beyond the traditional exhibit booth. From wrapper events and hospitality activations to post-show follow-up and sales alignment, she explains how marketers can create experiences that generate stronger conversations, deeper relationships, and measurable revenue.

If you're looking for ideas that go beyond collecting badge scans and focus instead on creating real business opportunities, this episode delivers practical playbooks you can begin using at your very next event.

Bigger Lead Numbers Don't Always Mean Better Results

One of the central themes of the conversation is that event success shouldn't be measured by lead volume alone. While booths play an important role in brand awareness and demand generation, they're not always the best investment for every company or every event.

Kayla explains that, in many cases, meeting ten high-value target accounts can produce significantly more pipeline than collecting hundreds of cold leads. The key is understanding your objectives before committing to an event and designing experiences around your ideal customer profile (ICP), rather than simply maximizing traffic.

Think Beyond the Booth with "Wrapper Events"

One of Kayla's favorite strategies is creating experiences that complement a major trade show rather than relying solely on the exhibit floor.

She shares examples of:

• Coffee shop buyouts
• Executive dinners
• Wellness activations
• Hospitality lounges
• Partner events
• Off-site networking experiences

These "wrapper events" create natural environments where conversations happen organically instead of immediately leading with a product pitch. The result is a more memorable experience for attendees and higher-quality meetings for sales teams.

The Real Work Begins After the Trade Show

A booth conversation is only the beginning.

Kayla emphasizes that follow-up is where most opportunities are won—or lost. She recommends uploading leads immediately, following up within days, and using content such as webinars, blogs, podcasts, and videos to continue nurturing prospects while the event is still fresh in their minds.

Instead of treating trade shows as one-time interactions, marketers should build a structured follow-up process that moves attendees toward meaningful sales conversations.

Align Marketing and Sales Around Target Accounts

Strong field marketing depends on close collaboration with sales.

Rather than planning events in isolation, Kayla encourages marketers to sit down with sales teams before an event and identify their highest-priority accounts. Together they can build personalized experiences for those customers—from booth demonstrations to executive dinners and additional marketing touches throughout the event week.

This account-based approach helps marketing directly support sales while creating measurable influence on pipeline and revenue.

Measure Success Through Pipeline, Not Just Attendance

Throughout the discussion, Kayla returns to one consistent message: event marketers should understand the numbers behind every event.

She walks through calculating expected ROI, setting realistic revenue goals, aligning sales follow-up expectations, and communicating results transparently. If an event isn't generating business, marketers shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge it and explore different approaches such as partnered events or wrapper events instead of repeating the same strategy year after year.

Investing in the Next Generation of Event Marketers

Toward the end of the episode, Kayla shares her next chapter: launching her own field marketing advisory and event career coaching business.

After more than 13 years building field marketing programs for companies including Apollo, StackAdapt, Udemy, and Autodesk, she's now focused on helping early- and mid-career event marketers develop the practical skills often missing from traditional career paths.

It's a fitting close to a conversation centered on sharing playbooks, building stronger event strategies, and helping the industry continue to grow.

One of the biggest themes from this episode is that successful event programs aren't built around collecting the most leads—they're built around creating the right conversations.

Kayla challenges event marketers to rethink how they measure success by focusing on pipeline, relationships, and thoughtful experiences that serve the right audience. Whether it's an executive dinner, a hospitality lounge, or simply a stronger follow-up strategy, the goal remains the same: create opportunities that help sales succeed and deliver measurable business results.

For anyone responsible for trade shows, field marketing, or experiential programs, this episode offers practical ideas that can be adapted immediately, regardless of company size or budget.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive 

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Transcript

Chris Dunn: [00:00:00] Hey, hello and welcome to the Event Marketer's Toolbox. This is Chris Dunn, and I am with Blue Hive, and I'm super excited. We've got another returning guest here today. We've got a returning co-host. Uh, so surrounded by friends- Right ... and, uh, super happy to have this conversation. Um, my buddy over here, Brendan Hamlin, from Hamlin Creative down in Asheville, North Carolina, sitting in the hot seat.

Chris Dunn: Uh, so hey, Brendan. How you doing, man? It's, uh, it's been a hot minute since we have, uh, worked together, but I'd love to hear a little bit about what you're doing, and, uh, and then you can introduce our friend Kayla. 

Brendon Hamlin: Yeah, sure. Thanks. It's great to be here. Happy to, to be back. Uh, yeah, it's been a crazy couple of months.

Brendon Hamlin: I'm, I'm actually not remembering when I was on last, so I guess we must've been doing a lot of stuff, so. Um, but yeah, I'm Brendan Hamlin. I run Hamlin Creative. We produce content for conferences and trade shows and, uh, activations, experiential, all the, all the world of events, uh, and, and everything that [00:01:00] happens, uh, in that space.

Brendon Hamlin: So it's a, it's a great place to be, um, and a great place to create content. So we love it. We love being in that sort of... It's frenetic, and there's lots of stuff going on. I gotta find the story, and, um, so it's a good time. But yeah, we've been doing a lot of, a lot of cool stuff. We just finished up a IndyCar race, uh, this past weekend in Nashville, which was really cool, and shooting a bunch of content there.

Brendon Hamlin: Nice. So, uh, but yeah, so now we're onto, onto the next thing. But, um, today we do... This is exciting for me because I think Kayla is the first repeat guest that I will get to, uh, to participate with. Not the first one on, on the Toolbox, but the first one for me. So Kayla- Mm ... it's great to have you back. Uh, and for those that didn't see the first episode, uh, introduce yourself.

Brendon Hamlin: Tell us about what you've been, what you've been up to since the last time we were together. 

Kayla Drake: Absolutely, and thanks for having me back, Brendan and Chris. I, I love getting to chat with you so much, I had to come back twice. Right. So just a- Absolutely ... a show of how fun this podcast is. Yeah. [00:02:00] Well, everyone listening, I'm Kayla Drake, so field marketing advisor, speaker, and event career coach.

Kayla Drake: And, uh, if you haven't heard of me before, I've spent the last 13 years building event and field marketing programs at B2B SaaS companies, most notably at Apollo, StackAdapt, Udemy, Autodesk. And throughout my career I've led everything from flagship conferences, executive dinners, to global field marketing strategy, ABM programs, customer roadshows, everything in between Now, if you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll know I'm just incredibly passionate about event marketing and the, and the event marketing community.

Kayla Drake: I love sharing ideas, mentoring fellow event marketers, and helping the future of event technology, 'cause we need lots of support, right? Um, otherwise, I'm just so excited to be part of the conversation. So Chris and Brendan, thanks for having me back. 

Chris Dunn: Welcome aboard. Well, Blue Hive, as, uh, as a lot of you guys know, we're, you know, primarily in the, in the trade show world.

Chris Dunn: Um, and bringing in event field marketing professionals like [00:03:00] Kayla and, and obviously Brendan, I love having, like, a different lens that, just looking at this, right? 'Cause if we consider oftentimes, you know, brands will use a trade show as kind of that nucleus piece, right? But it's not the only thing that they're doing.

Chris Dunn: So there's sidecar events, there's wrapper events, um, there's all these, you know, opportunities for brand activations around that perimeter. Um, and, you know, guys like, uh, Brendan and his, and his group, you know, specialize in creating content in those areas. So always super excited to, you know, have a real kind of 360 degree view of, of this event world, right?

Chris Dunn: Because there's so many different things that, that get labeled or, you know, monikered, uh, an event. It's, it's nice to kind of, you know, get our arms around the whole thing here. So I'm gonna start off. We've got some, uh, we've got some questions here. Our, uh, our fantastic producer, Juana, is on the big board.

Chris Dunn: She's from, uh, Fist Bump. They do a great job helping us, uh, run this program here. Um, and Juana helps, uh, do all the heavy lifting stuff and reaching out with Kayla, [00:04:00] working on that agenda. Um, so we're gonna have a great organic conversation. It's really just gonna kind of flow here, but I do have a couple of questions that I wanted to start off with.

Chris Dunn: So, um, our first topic here really is just, like, why more leads don't always mean more revenue. Like, what's going on with that disconnect right there? 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. That's a, that's a good one. Um, well, first I want to acknowledge the importance of a strong trade show strategy. Having a booth is so important for your brand awareness, and bringing in that lead generation is- pretty imperative for building your marketable database.

Kayla Drake: So that's not a miss in strategy by all means, by any means. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I really wanna emphasize the importance of it. That to be said, sometimes you don't have the budget for a $50,000 investment for the actual sponsorship, for the booth, for all, just one lead scanner quite frankly, and you want to be more creative.

Kayla Drake: There are other tactics that you can take to have a presence at that show so that that way the [00:05:00] leads that you are actually getting or the conversations that you're having with your current clients, your top prospects, you're actually seeing strong pipeline come out of it. So instead of getting a, a booth and maybe bringing in 1,000 cold leads, you're actually going to that show and you're meeting with your 10 top clients, and you are driving the pipeline with those accounts because those are key accounts that you need to be in front of.

Kayla Drake: So it's, it's just a different tactic, um- Mm-hmm ... but it means that you have a better outcome in your investment because you're just being more tactical. 

Chris Dunn: Right. Exactly. Mm-hmm. You know, a lot of our, um, our exhibitors will also do a speaking engagement or they'll, you know, they'll have some of these sidecar events.

Chris Dunn: And a- as you mentioned, kind of, you know, keeping... I- if you, if you're able to, you know, have a space, and even if it's not a, a large space, but having just kind of that meeting spot, right? Um, I know a lot of our, uh, a lot of our, uh, our brands will have a thought leadership, do a speaking- Mm-hmm ... condition, and folks are coming up to them after asking questions and so forth.

Chris Dunn: It's like- Yeah ... "Hey, just, you know, meet me back at the booth or, [00:06:00] or we can meet there." So it doesn't even have to be, you know, the, the most grandiose space necessarily. Obviously it needs to be on brand, it needs to do what it needs to do. But it gives you- Right ... just kind of that central location, that meeting spot to be able to point to versus saying like, "Let's, you know, go to Starbucks and wait in line with 4,700, you know, other people, you know, for a coffee."

Chris Dunn: Agree. It's just a, it's a little bit, you know, more of a, a professional play than that, which is, which is nice. Um- 

Kayla Drake: Yeah, I also think it's, it's an important, I always say this to a lot of the tech companies, your booth really is meant to be able to showcase your product, so it's really to show live demos.

Kayla Drake: Now you're not gonna give the full hour-long demo. You're maybe only gonna get five minutes of their time, but that's really what you want that booth for. Swag is great, the fun brand, the activation, some, you know, cornhole, something cheeky to get people to come over, that's awesome. But really it's then get them on the, the screen with your monitor showing the product and demoing it live, 'cause that's the best way to sell it.

Chris Dunn: Yeah, 100%. Now, now Brendan, your, your skillset [00:07:00] is, you know, capturing those moments, you know. Um, it, it's interesting. I, I was on a client call earlier today and they kind of pivoted. I, I did not recall this from earlier conversations, but they're like, "Oh, we're thinking about doing a podcast, you know, in the booth."

Chris Dunn: Um, and, and I launched immediately into my like, "Here's 10 benefits of why creating content on site really will, you know, blow your mind with everything that you can do from that." Um, so I was channeling my inner Mr. Hanlon, uh, as I was, as I was, uh, reaching all of that. Um, but obviously you guys, you know, touch a lot of things that are also kind of on the, on the, on the perimeter of, uh, brand acti- activations and so forth.

Chris Dunn: And Kayla, I think you mentioned this last time around, you know, also creating kind of that push and that pull between those spaces. So let's say we're doing a, a, a street team. You know, we're running around, we're, we're engaging, we're pouring cups of coffee and en- engaging in conversations, and maybe handing something to someone on the street and saying, "If you come to our booth, um, you can hand us this, uh, this, this coin, this little, you know, this card or [00:08:00] whatever, enter for a drawing or, you know, fast track your way to the, you know, the, a demo or enter for a, you know, for a prize or something to that effect."

Chris Dunn: So using all of those pieces in kind of a harmonious effort to try to create that, you know, ecosystem around, around the, the, the show itself and realize all of those benefits. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah, I... Oh yeah, Brendan, go ahead. 

Brendon Hamlin: Well, I was just gonna say that the one thing that, that, and I think we talked about this the last time, but just about how the, the movement of the, the, how the, how the acquisition of that lead can die on the vine kind of if the, if it isn't followed up with, and how the, the- Mm

Brendon Hamlin: content component of it can really support that. Um, so maybe you could, maybe you can refresh us a little bit about how that follow-up can, can really make that lead become much more substantive, I guess, than just that in that moment. Is that, [00:09:00] do, do you agree with that? 

Kayla Drake: Yeah, I would say m- my common phrase is the real work begins after the trade show.

Brendon Hamlin: Yeah. 

Kayla Drake: Um, I mean, just, uh, uh, from a simple numbers game, if you go to a booth y- or you go to a trade show and you have a booth, you might have 10% of the show's audience will stop by your booth. Meaning, like, if there's 1,000 people at the show, you might get 100 people to stop by your booth. Only about 20% of those leads are gonna be warm and hot leads, right?

Kayla Drake: But those are still leads that have opted in, and they stopped by, they got exposure to your brand, they got to talk to somebody. There's some kind of touch. Well, the week following that trade show, that's when they're all still hot. Mm-hmm. That's when you make your move. That's when you follow up and you say, "Hey, remember when you stopped by our booth?

Kayla Drake: By the way, here's a link to the latest blog post. Oh, by the way, we're having a webinar, make sure you register. Here's a link to it. Hey, remember that, that interview that I did really quickly with you on site at the booth? Here's the link to that recording. We're gonna show it live in our podcast next week."

Kayla Drake: And then that is the [00:10:00] signal to warm up that lead so then you can say, "And in the meantime, let's schedule time to go through our product. Let's schedule time so I can properly demo you, because I know we didn't have much time on the show floor." Yeah, yeah. And then you can drive them home from there. So you're using that activation to help continue to warm and nurture that lead, getting them to a real conversation to, to close.

Brendon Hamlin: Yeah. It's a, it's a great strategy. It just keeps it, keeps that conversation ... It's not like a one and done, it just keeps that conversation going. That's great. 

Kayla Drake: Exactly. Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. And I think that was, you know, one of the things that I really appreciated about Kayla's first, uh, visit with the toolbox was she really had kind of a, a list of, of actionable items as like, here's, here's my playbook, right?

Chris Dunn: Y- you're kind of an open book, um, with regards to, like, how you've done stuff in the past. Yeah. And I think that's obviously playing into maybe where you're gonna take your career in the future. Um, but being very open with like, here's all the things that, that I've done. Um, n- not to, not to, not from a, [00:11:00] a resume standpoint, but of like, here's the playbook of how, uh, we're gonna close out this event.

Chris Dunn: So if you're a field marketer, you're an event, you know, professional type of thing, here's kind of some of the, the things you wanna think about from a follow standpoint. We have a lot of conversations on the toolbox that are kind of grand, you know, big picture thinking and so forth, but the sc- the granular stuff is kind of where it's- Sure

Chris Dunn: happening, right? That's really what's gonna get the, get those next steps, uh, to get the conversations with the, with the clients. I, I don't know what the, what the real metrics are in the grand scheme of things, not necessarily in Kayla's world, 'cause I think she does a way better job than, than most of our, than most of the folks out there.

Chris Dunn: But I, I feel like, you know, 80% of the leads that are gained at a trade show oftentimes are, are lost. Um, whether they just never make it into the CRM, they, they make it in, but they don't have the proper information. So all of that stuff is super important and the, yeah, the follow through is, is obviously very critical.

Kayla Drake: Yeah, that's one thing that kind of drives me nuts, um- Yeah ... is all [00:12:00] those leads are important. You definitely need to make sure if you get 100 leads that are coming out of that trade show booth, you have them uploaded immediately, I mean within 24 hours of the event ending, into your Salesforce or your HubSpot and your, or your Marketo, and then synced to your Salesforce, attached to a campaign.

Kayla Drake: So those cold leads, they may not go anywhere immediately, say like 80 of those 100 leads like you mentioned are cold leads. Mm-hmm. You can nurture those over time. You can still have a plan of attack based on if they're the right ICP and, and based on their buying schedule and, and, uh, if you can get them on the phone, sure.

Kayla Drake: But in the meantime, those warm and hot leads, those 20 leads that were still really strong, and maybe they actually were hand raisers and booked a demo, make sure you're tracking it back to Salesforce so there's a paper trail to your incredible event campaign having been successful. And it may be a long-term game, right?

Kayla Drake: It may be a couple weeks later, a month later, depending on your average, uh, deal cycle. But- Mm-hmm ... you gotta make sure that you've, you've tracked that. [00:13:00] And, um, to your point, Chris, I think I, I love sharing my playbook, I love sharing ideas, uh, because I, we learn from each other. I found the best ideas that I've ever executed were actually an idea from someone else that suggested it to me.

Kayla Drake: And not even at events. Sometimes it could be like a product marketer or even a, a BDR that was like, "You know, have you ever thought about just doing this one little change?" And then a light bulb m- moment goes off and you're like, "Yes, that's a great idea. Okay, let's do it. Let's try it." If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, just be transparent about it, but if it does- Mm

Kayla Drake: you've just created something new as a team. And, uh, I'm a big fan of that, big fan of learning from my peers in the industry. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so just a reminder, this is a live event here, so any screw-ups that I make because I'm, I'm, uh, jet lagged and still on European time- ... will be fully, uh, tracked and recorded.

Chris Dunn: Um, but go ahead and drop, uh, drop your comments in the, in the chat. Um, go ahead and pepper us with anything you got. Uh, and, uh, we'll go from there. So, [00:14:00] uh- Yeah ... we got, we got a, a question in here from Chris Musgrave. Um, he's admitting that he's very old. Uh, I feel that big time, right? So he's, he's tired of the cheesy approaches of getting engagement and find them fatiguing.

Chris Dunn: Um, he thinks... H- his take is that, uh, perhaps, you know, we're reverting to some of the, the pitch man vibe of the past. Um, so I, I think that's a, a reasonable point, Chris, and I, um, I don't know e- exactly how to answer that other than to, um, think of when we exhibit, right? 'Cause we eat our own dog food. We go out and we do a couple of shows a year.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. We are very cognizant about building an activation that makes 100% sense, um, and teaches the attendee about, about how we can solve their problem, right? It's not, it's not like just kind of a chest bumping type of a thing where we're just proclaiming how great we are. We're making it all about them, about the attendee, and creating some sort of a, [00:15:00] um, a, a process that they can go through.

Chris Dunn: So whether it's kind of like a digital engagement or a tactile piece or something that gets them involved in thinking, touching, smelling, uh, activating all of the senses and so forth. So I agree. There's a lot of folks out there that I think are just reaching, and they are probably grabbing onto some kind of cheesy, you know, kind of old types of things that maybe had worked in the past or they were just, you know, kind of felt very kind of sales pitchy.

Chris Dunn: Um, so it, it is important that, uh, that you put a lot of thought into what those engagements are, whether they're on the trade show floor or, or part of that activation or, or whatever that event is that you're building the sidecar piece, right? But I, but I think oftentimes those wrapper events and the sidecar events tend to not be as pitchy, right?

Chris Dunn: If you, certainly if you do it right, whether it's a dinner or it's some sort of a, a speed dating thing or... Like Kayla, you've got some really great experience, um, over the past decade and a half, things that you've done. Are there some particular, um, examples that really kind of [00:16:00] stand out that you might wanna kinda shine a light on?

Kayla Drake: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know I'm a big fan of trade shows. Love having a good trade show booth, but to your point, sometimes you don't have the budget to have a booth, or maybe based on your ICP, it just doesn't make sense to invest that much. Mm-hmm. Because you don't need to build your marketable database.

Kayla Drake: You don't need 1,000 leads. But you do need- Absolutely ... to meet all your top clients that are there at that show during that week. Mm-hmm. Uh, so wrapper events are such a strong tactic. In a wrapper event, it's got many different names, ancillary event, add-on event, but basically it's a hosted event that you own that happens during the week of and at the city of that trade show location.

Kayla Drake: And I'm noticing that they are trending more and more in terms of even larger, more notable companies are switching to that tactic. Um, and so a few of them that I'm, I'm starting to see. I notice that it's, uh, kind of framed around like hospitality marketing, if you will. So rather than like- Simply having [00:17:00] a booth, the idea is to create a place where people want to spend time, uh, with meetings with their, you know, with that company they need to meet with, and become a...

Kayla Drake: Uh, just have an, have the meeting become a natural outcome rather than the sole purpose. Um, meaning full salon buyouts. I'm seeing coffee shop buyouts, ice cream buyouts. So these big brands are taking over an entire coffee shop and saying, "Hey, by the way, when you need a break from the show floor, stop by this X, Y, Z mom and pop coffee shop.

Kayla Drake: Coffee's on us. By the way, bring your laptop. Wi-Fi's free. If you need a break and you need a place to just go sit and get some work done, uh, without being bombarded by everybody, stop by our exclusive coffee shop. And in the meantime, if we can schedule time to meet separately from when you stop by, let's do that."

Kayla Drake: Uh, and I'm noticing that's becoming more and more popular. Um, also wellness events have really exploded big time in the last couple of years. So a lot of companies are sponsoring, like, the 5K [00:18:00] runs, the sunrise walk, yoga on the beach, um, or just really relaxing activations around, like, sound bath healing, cold plunge experiences, uh, chair massage lounges.

Kayla Drake: And what I think is really unique is what they're doing is acknowledging you do need to be at this trade show. It's just gonna be chaotic. You have to get through it. But what can you do to take a little break, regulate your nervous system, and enjoy some downtime? I'm not gonna pitch slap you while you're enjoying, like, the mon- massage chair lounge.

Kayla Drake: But let's schedule a time later, right? 'Cause I think to your point, Chris, is, uh, and the person that w- was in the chat, the biggest mistake that I see, uh, salespeople make is they pitch slap you. The second you walk up to the booth and they're immediately like, "Let me tell you about my product," that's gonna scare people away.

Kayla Drake: You're... I say this to my sales team all the time. You're not a used car salesman. You actually want to have a conversation. Wait till they take a step into your booth first, and then just ask questions to get to know them before you get to it. So I think having this unique activation around these [00:19:00] wrapper events and doing, like, this, this wellness activation is a very soft way of saying, "Let me save space for you to relax, and then if we can schedule a meeting organically, let's do it."

Kayla Drake: And then they come in more calm and refreshed, and the conversation feels, uh, less defensive and more open, open-ended Yeah. What about you, Brendan? What are you, what are you seeing? What are some of the trends you're noticing? 

Brendon Hamlin: Well, I see also that from a content point of view that you have these things that are outside of a traditional trade show floor, that experience.

Brendon Hamlin: And so, you know, I have a, a, a client that's interested in having us come out for an event, and they're looking at doing, uh, like, a ride-along at the racetrack nearby. And, you know, so that kind of stuff creates a totally different opportunity for content creation, still tying it back to the brand and to- Mm-hmm

Brendon Hamlin: why everybody's there. But it's not just the, you know, 20 by 20 spot that people- Yeah ... can come into. It's... And, and it, and [00:20:00] that's where you're... Like, if it's a, something like that that's a very high energy kind of, uh, opportunity, then you're gonna get, uh, a completely different reaction, uh, from a, from an attendee than, um, standing in, on the trade show floor.

Brendon Hamlin: So I think- Yeah ... they're, I think they're really exciting and a, and a, and just creates a new, you know, secondary opportunity to create, to create content and, and get people engaged. And then, you know, take that content and, and push it back to the people that were there because I think it, you know, to what we were talking about before, it just continues to strengthen that relationship between the brand or the company or the, um, organization and the, and the attendee.

Brendon Hamlin: So I, I'm a big fan. Yeah. I think it's great. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. I, I see a lot of, like... Uh, and I think Brendan, your, your team's really good about this. But live podcast studios- 

Brendon Hamlin: Mm-hmm ... 

Kayla Drake: are becoming more popular, especially in B2B. So you can record customer stories, you can have these fireside chats, [00:21:00] ind- industry interviews, but it's happening live.

Kayla Drake: So- Yeah ... not only is it live and you can have a fun interview moment with your client that gives them kind of a brand moment, personal brand moment, then it also highlights their organization. It builds that trust within your, um, your partnership with that, that client. But then it also s- they get to repurpose it, and they get to have fun doing it.

Kayla Drake: So they're more eager 'cause they get something out of it. Yeah. Um, that's becoming really popular. I l- really love participating in that, especially with the rise in social selling. You know, more and more marketing professionals, sales professionals, they're on LinkedIn, they're posting, they're sharing their insights.

Kayla Drake: I certainly do it myself. So having those opportunities at events where you can give them that platform, and they can, you know, continue to social sell, uh, is really powerful. I also am noticing, uh, pop-up brand houses are becoming a big trend. So then ra- rather than, you know, having a massive booth, companies are renting out, like, art galleries or penthouses or a quick Airbnb, [00:22:00] rooftops, and they'll host those live speaking sessions.

Kayla Drake: And they cr- they also create, like, a workspace so you can get Wi-Fi and you can get some work done, and then they can have those meetings with you, uh, at a fraction of the cost than it would be to have a, a booth sponsorship. So it's- Mm-hmm ... uh, creative ways to have a presence during that trade show week without breaking the bank.

Brendon Hamlin: Do, do you think- Right ... that's creating any sort of, um, a conflict between the event organizers that the- 

Chris Dunn: I can- Yeah ... I can actually speak to I can speak to that 'cause I, 

Brendon Hamlin: I've 

Chris Dunn: done a- Yeah ... little of that. Yeah. It's, it will- Of what, what's happening I mean, it's been, it's been going on for a while, but as Chris, um, as you guys are saying, and Chris Musgrave kind of piped in again, y- we're seeing a huge rise in, um, kind of the popularity of that.

Chris Dunn: Part of it is that, that the cost to, to exhibit have, you know, gone, let's say out, somewhat out of control. Um- Mm-hmm ... so people are looking for alternatives and, and cr- creating that kind of full [00:23:00] 360 around a show makes a lot of sense. Um- Yeah ... so one thing that I, that I do know, uh, a- and uh, I think RSA is a good example of it.

Chris Dunn: So that's a show that's always in San Francisco. They've started buying up all of the local real estate around there. Not, not, you know, f- not for, uh, eternity, um, or for long-term, but basically saying, "All right. Here's a restaurant that's, uh, Yerba Gardens. You know, we're gonna take this over. We're actually renting it out."

Chris Dunn: Um- Yeah ... so what they've, what they've done is they've recognized the trend, that there's less traffic maybe on the trade show floor, and that people are looking to kind of do all these. So they've started kind of casting a wider net. So the, the brands still, still... I, I guess it's good and bad, right? It's pro- maybe it's a little bit more expensive if you have to go through the show organization, but at the same time it's, it's a lot easier too, because then I'm not kind of, you know, going out and trying to do site visits at six different restaurants to try to figure out- Yeah

Chris Dunn: which one's gonna work for the 200 people that I'm planning to have in for these three hours. So RSA [00:24:00] has identified the fact that this has become popular, and they... their solution is like, "Well, we're just gonna own like within, you know, a half-mile radius around Moscone or whatever, and now anybody who wants to do a sidecar event has to kind of work through us."

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Is that the future of how things are gonna go? I, I don't 100% know, but I think that, uh, the show organiz- show organizers and GCs certainly need to ba- basically be able to take a step back and understand that, that the cost situation on the show floor has become somewhat unattainable, and people are seeking alternative ways to do this, um, and still, you know, make an impact without blowing the bank.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. I, I don't think it's, it's necessarily a, a bad thing, though. 'Cause sometimes you can partner with the show providers and do a sponsorship through them in these unique activations. Um- Mm-hmm ... the trade show Possible that's in, uh, Miami Beach in Florida, that was just a, a couple months ago, uh, they started to catch on to that too, that, you know, it's, it's helpful to have a, a trade show floor.

Kayla Drake: And depending on your ICP, maybe you just [00:25:00] need to have a booth. That works for you. Having that- 

Chris Dunn: Yeah ... 

Kayla Drake: huge lead volume is necessary, and that does grow your business. Mm-hmm. But if you're more enterprise, to your point, having those meetings are more crucial. So they notice that, um- A lot of companies were renting out yachts right there on the harbor next to the trade show floor, and then they were holding their meetings there.

Kayla Drake: So then Possible took over that entire, uh, harbor. And so they basically, same thing, they kind of rented all the yachts, and then you could rent the yacht through them. The price was a little bit higher, but not significantly different, and what made it nice is that you could still brand it yourself. Mm. Uh, so but because it was a part of the show program, they gave you a bit of advertising and promotion in return.

Kayla Drake: So they got, you know, traffic over there. They listed you in their, you know, their pr- show program. So it, it kind of helps each other. And I always say be creative too. One thing that I did when I was at Au- Autodesk, and I, uh, I give this credit to Michaela Alexander, a mentor of mine, [00:26:00] uh, my manager when I worked there.

Kayla Drake: Uh, she came up with this creative idea around this trade show called Women in Construction It was a conference that was gonna happen in San Francisco, and she's like, "I wanna find a way to get in front of the speakers." What if we go to Women in Construction and we say, "Hey, can we put on a sponsorship?

Kayla Drake: But I wanna do it with you guys, so it's a co-sponsorship." Mm-hmm. "We want to host the speakers' dinner, and it's gonna be the night before the, the trade show, and all the confirmed speakers are invited. Only the speakers." So it's, like, this sort of celebration of them. Mm. But it gave us access to those contacts, and then we were the primary sponsor of it.

Kayla Drake: They'd never done it before. It was super creative. And, and at that point in time it was so new, and they thought, "This is such a fun way to honor our speakers." They didn't charge us a sponsorship. They just said, "You pay for the cost of the dinner," which we would've anyways. Mm-hmm. And the next thing you know, we have 30 amazing, powerful C-suite speakers that are attending our dinner.

Kayla Drake: They all wanted to go- Mm ... 'cause they'd never done anything like it. We had a, we had, like, a 90% attendance rate, [00:27:00] and we were able to show our brand as this sort of more of a partner in the industry versus, um- Mm ... "Hey, we just are trying to get your information and sell to you." And, uh, it was a really clever way of going about it, so this kind of wrapper event, without needing to break the bank, again, on a sponsorship with a booth.

Kayla Drake: So I say get creative, you know? Uh- Yeah ... still have the booth when you need it, but, you know, you just get creative. Have fun with it. 

Brendon Hamlin: Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. No, that's perfect. So two things pivoting off of that. One is, um, Sarah, uh, LaJoy, uh, commented that she, uh, they've been co-hosting side events with partners. Uh, Kayla, I think it was maybe in the green room before we, uh, we kind of hopped on, uh, to record here.

Chris Dunn: But you were talking about, you know, if the lift is too heavy, then, then bring in partners. L- l- Yeah ... like, identify who else shares your same ICP, and kinda create a small coalition, right, that can share an expense. Everybody gets a benefit, and everybody also ends up, you know, splitting the tab, as it were.

Chris Dunn: Uh, so, so I think that's really cool, and you can feel [00:28:00] free to, uh, add to that. And then the other thing was, I know we're gonna talk, and maybe we can just revisit this, is the benefit of, of, of doing a, an executive dinner or something like that, because that's a very specific kind of play. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of ABM activity that kind of leads up to things like that.

Chris Dunn: But the benefits are just, you know, it's a shotgun approach. I'm sorry, it's a rifle approach, right, where you're specifically p- you know, maybe that's a bad illustration. It's a hard- It... We're, we're looking at very specific targets and s- and saying, "I really wanna talk to these folks," versus just spraying and trying to catch everybody, and seeing what sticks to the wall.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. Partnered events, such a smart tactic. Um, you know, I hadn't done it a lot in my, earlier in my career, and then when I joined Apollo, I was working with the community marketing team there and, um, they came up with this really creative tactic around ways we can bring in our partners and then also help split the cost.

Kayla Drake: So, uh, we did have our... We went to the one trade show inbound, w- uh, well HubSpot's inbound, which is now Unbound. [00:29:00] Uh, they rebranded, which thank you by the way. It's so much less confusing with that name the new name. Uh, one of my favorite trade shows, and we would have a, we would have a booth. That was necessary, right?

Kayla Drake: Building our brand- Yep ... bringing in that, that lead volume. Yeah. But then what we did is we hosted this happy hour event on the first night of the show, and we called it the Pantheon Event, right? 'Cause Apollo, we were kinda leaning into that, that brand. Yeah. And we would bring in five to six partners, and what we would do- Got it

Kayla Drake: is charge them a small sponsorship and it would be like, you know, a fraction of the cost, right? Um, a, a few thousand dollars for their investment. Okay. But you had multiple partners, and by the end of it, it ended up covering the cost of renting out this Trillium Brewery, which was the location we hosted it at.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. And of course, you know, we made sure all the attendees who registered, they were the right ICP. We, we would actually have a... We would gate keep the registration process, and we would share the lead list afterwards for anyone who opted in. So they got something out of it as a partner, naturally, and then we would have branding moments for them and, you know, we would make sure their [00:30:00] logo was on everything, on the step and repeat, on the website, et cetera.

Kayla Drake: And it was such a cost-effective way of having this big, grand buyout happy hour, but we weren't end up... We didn't have to end up paying for the cost of it, so we were actually net profit at the end of it. Because anybody that came to the event, any deals that we closed from that happy hour was just profit because the cost of the event was already covered.

Kayla Drake: And, uh, brilliant play, uh, but you can do that even on a smaller scale. Just host a dinner, bring in one or two sponsors, a- Mm ... a, uh, sorry, a partner who isn't a conflicting, um, you know, company, they don't have a conflicting product- Mm-hmm ... but they basically aid you in creating a, a product suite for your attendees, and you come in, you know, arm in arm as a partner, and then bam, you have a great event at a fraction of the cost.

Chris Dunn: Again, getting creative and, uh- Yeah ... 

Kayla Drake: and 

Chris Dunn: just, you know, kind of working on some, some different things. So for something like that, obviously there's a, there's pre-work. In that particular instance, um, that you did with [00:31:00] Apollo, uh, the hosted event at, uh, at Trillium, um, you guys were... You had... So can you walk us through maybe kind of the 90 days prior to the event?

Chris Dunn: Like, what does that kind of look like to set something up like that? Obviously there's a lift there, uh, but at the end of the day, you got a bunch of leads for no m- money spent. What does that front end look like, just briefly? 

Kayla Drake: Well, first of all, it's three months in advance, not 90 days, 'cause you want a lot of time.

Kayla Drake: Um, but no, I think it's, it's, um- Firstly, it's identifying, okay, what's the plan of attack? What's the event that you're wanting to host? We know it's a happy hour. We know we want it to be at Trillium. Mm-hmm. And then you're creating sort of, um, markers of success from there. So what's your out- desired outcome?

Kayla Drake: Okay, if this is the cost of the event, that means I wanna see three times closed won. So if the cost of the event, we'll say, I'll just throw a, a fictitious number around. Okay, it's $50,000 for the whole net, net cost of the event. 

Chris Dunn: Okay. 

Kayla Drake: Renting out the brewery, [00:32:00] uh, AV rental, the signage, everything in between, we'll say it's 50K.

Kayla Drake: That means I wanna see three times in a return on investment in closed won. So I need to see 150,000 in closed won. Ideally, 10X for open pipeline, so pipeline that you can generate well after the event. Knowing that, that sort of, sort of sets the marker of, okay, then how many people can we max out having there comfortably?

Kayla Drake: Okay. And in this case, I think Trillium could hold, hold up to, I think it was 500, uh, people could be in the room at a time. Okay, then we need to have at least 700, 1,000 people registered, and have a wait list. Okay. Right? Okay. And so from there, you kind of create the, the process from that point. Okay, we need to bring in- Yeah

Kayla Drake: how many, s- what's a realistic sponsorship that someone's willing to pay? Maybe it's $2,000, $5,000. Knowing that, how many sponsors can we bring in to cover at least the base cost of the event? And you're, it's just a numbers game, right? We're articulating out our goals from [00:33:00] there. And then communicate that to your sales team.

Kayla Drake: "Hey, we are gonna go to this event. We're expecting at least 700 leads. My goal for this event is to bring 150K in closed won." So knowing the average deal cycle, the average deal size at your organization can give you the idea of how many deals do we actually realistically need to close from this. And then- Mm-hmm

Kayla Drake: you set the sales motion in place for post-event. Okay, when those leads become available Thursday night or Friday morning, Monday, I want first touch out the door, and you get sales to commit, so that way that week following when those leads are hot, they're hitting the ground running, right? They're, they're making use of those leads and, and they're, uh, aiming to close.

Kayla Drake: So, um, like I said, it's just a numbers game, and then being really transparent hand-in-hand with your sales team. That's my tactic. Brendan, what do you think? 

Brendon Hamlin: Yeah. Well, I think you have, yeah, using a, a, a strategy that says, uh, that gets to them as quickly as possible is, is the way to go. And yeah, you, you have to, you have to work those numbers.[00:34:00] 

Brendon Hamlin: Uh- Mm-hmm ... you, it can't all just be creative conversations. It's gotta be, how do we get, how do we get, you know, heads in beds or butts in seats or whatever the analogy is- ... you know, so that you can then, you know, work the, uh, work the number. Um, one, so, so, uh, Chris- Um, use the shotgun rifle, uh, analogy I'll, I'll use, I'll use one that's more akin to my business, which is broadcasting versus narrow casting.

Brendon Hamlin: Um, and how do you build, uh, what's a, what's sort of the way to align your sales and your marketing towards those specific clients that you want to show up to those events? How do you, how do you kind of set that up and, and point your boat- Yeah ... the right direction? 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. The more ABM approach, count-based marketing approach, and that's kind of a different tactic, which is pretty crucial and very important I think for enterprise.

Kayla Drake: So Brendan, I would actually love to learn more on the creative side from you on that one [00:35:00] too. But I think when you are approaching, um, ABM, what you're thinking is I have a list of let's say five, maybe 10 top accounts with the highest potential for revenue. And usually with accounts that are at that big, um, especially on the enterprise side of the house, maybe they, it's gonna be like a half a million dollar investment, a million dollar investment.

Kayla Drake: It means there's gonna be an entire buying committee. So it's not gonna be one decision maker. It's probably gonna be like five to 10 people that are gonna decide if they want to partner with you, invest in, and lock in for an annual, you know, contract at your company. So you have to have marketing tactics, multiple marketing tactics and marketing channels to be able to get in front of all of those people in the buying committee.

Kayla Drake: So when you're at a trade show, that means that you might do something like Chris mentioned, like an executive dinner, where in some cases it could be that you get everybody in that buying committee at that one company, maybe [00:36:00] two max in for that executive dinner. 

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. 

Kayla Drake: And so you have an exclusive event for them, and perhaps you rent out a nice little penthouse or an Airbnb and you bring in a private chef.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. So they get to have a fun uni- it's not just another dinner, but they get to have a fun, unique experience, and then the trade for them is they get to network with other industry peers with similar titles. So it's not just, again, you don't come in and pitch slap, but you're just creating the stage for organic conversation and you're getting in front of them in a, in a unique way.

Kayla Drake: Something that, um, StackAdapt is really good about doing is because they're an ad tech platform, they would actually use their own platform at these shows. So they would start to use, um, uh, digital advertisements. They would, uh, get their ads running in front of their clients the weeks leading up to that trade show.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. Or digital out of home, or, you know, there'd be ads on Spotify, like you, creative ways that could get in front of that buying committee right before building up to the event, and then bam, they have the meeting scheduled. So they're sitting there thinking Spotify, uh, [00:37:00] is playing, you know, s- Spotify is saying information about me.

Kayla Drake: Oh, interesting. StackAdapt. Why is StackAdapt on my mind so much? Yeah. I'm so interestingly excited to see them when I'm there. Weird. You know, just this like sl- subtle build up, um, for that key account that you wanna get in front of 

Brendon Hamlin: Everything is listening to us all the time. It's so true. I, I have, I've been sort of beating the drum for a while that, um, the, the trade show spot or even at a conference or even at a m- maybe to a lesser extent an activation, but at a conference and trade shows, those are opportunities where a set is essentially already built for you.

Brendon Hamlin: And so if you s- if you know, okay, you have these X number of, of, uh, of key people that you want to target- Mm-hmm ... that follow up afterwards, you, you have a set sitting there that you could do all kinds of key targeted content for those, those key customers that can ta- carry, carry on [00:38:00] afterwards. That I think is, it's just not a fully explored opportunity yet, and maybe some people are doing it- Mm

Brendon Hamlin: but not, not to the extent that I think it, it really could be utilized with, uh, with that kind of a strategic front end to say, "This is all of the conversation we're gonna have with them ahead of time. This is the conversation we're gonna have while we're there." Yeah. "And this is the, the content that's gonna keep that conversation going afterwards."

Brendon Hamlin: I think that's a whole arc- Yeah ... that isn't fully, um, you know, realized yet, and I think that there's- Yeah ... some real exciting opportunities to, um, you know, expand in, in that space a little bit more with stuff like we do. So. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. 

Brendon Hamlin: That's 

Kayla Drake: my take. I call it, um... I had a, a mentor tell me, she used to say, "It's using the whole chicken."

Brendon Hamlin: Y- 

Kayla Drake: yeah, 

Brendon Hamlin: right. 

Kayla Drake: So event marketing is meant to, you know, a, a proper event campaign is meant to be a vehicle for all of marketing to touch. Yeah. So you can have multiple activations, like you said, before, during, and after. So it's not just, "Oh, we're gonna have a, a booth [00:39:00] at this trade show. Great. How many leads did we get?

Kayla Drake: The end." No. It's like- ... what was our social campaign? What was our, the, the blog that came out of it because of the amazing content, the webinar we were able to host the, the week following? Like, what else can you g- get, what else can you get out of it? And then also what all the, all the multi-touches that you can get in front of those clients.

Kayla Drake: And Chris, kind of going back to, to wrapper events too, something else that I, I've noticed a lot is these hospitality lounges. So a lot of companies are doing like, you know, I mentioned like coffee bar, ice cream bars, but they're doing like luxury living rooms, if you will. And I think, uh, CrowdStrike's like Falcon Lounge at the RCAC is a great example where they create like this off, off-floor lounge with like a custom scent bar and vinyl music and branded slippers and, um, it's just like a really fun, cheeky way of getting time with their top clients.

Kayla Drake: Uh, 6sense is actually a really good example. One of my favorite companies, they have an amazing ABM [00:40:00] platform and, uh, I'm not plugging them, I'm just really obsessed with the team. I think they put on some really cool, cool event experiences too. Um, but they do this thing called Club Six, and it's really evolved beyond just hosting like a happy hour.

Kayla Drake: They basically ask their prospects to spend all day at their unique activation and they, of this like offsite hospitality hub, and they'll have like a photo booth and jewelry making station, but they'll also mostly have like lounge seating and, you know, premium coffees and wifi and everything that you need.

Kayla Drake: And you just, you, you feel, it feels like, um Like a, a, a airport lounge, you know? Yeah. I was gonna say airport lounge. Where multiple airlines- Yeah ... like, that's what it feels like. It's, it's really this club experience. Okay. Uh, and it's just a really fun way of then getting the meetings with those clients that they need, and that's really, uh, what's the most important part that you're trying to get out of it, especially for enterprise.

Chris Dunn: Right. So, uh- Yeah ... in the comments here, I see LinkedIn user, but because we have, uh, Wanna working the [00:41:00] board, she's magical with, uh, information. Stacy, uh, Bouch- I just ... I'm back from France, so it's Stacy Bouchier or it's Bouchier. Hey, thank you. Um, sorry Stacy- Yeah ... if I muckled that. Uh, but, uh, she says the shift that, uh, she sees, uh, trade show organizers are finally understanding the need for quality one-on-one meetings, some organizers providing that matchmaking service.

Chris Dunn: Um, I'll take a smaller booth for a meaningful pre-scheduled one-on-ones. Um- Mm-hmm ... I saw, uh, Money20/20 do a great job of this, uh, building out basically a, a giant kinda speed dating s- space. And, um- Mm ... I, I, Unbound, Inbound also, uh, last time I went to a show here in Boston, they do an amazing job of keeping everybody on the trade show floor, um, by putting- Yeah

Chris Dunn: all of their breakout sessions and, and everything that you're looking to do. So we're talking a lot about, um, you know, expanding the show floor and doing things outside of the space, which is, which is great. At the same time, show organizers are, are, they're recognizing this, and they're, they're trying to figure out ways, um, to drive value for their exhibitors as well, who are spending an [00:42:00] awful lot of money and funding the entire- Yeah

Chris Dunn: event, right? Like, how do we get people eyeballs on our, on our brand? Um, recently did a small show in San Diego, and, uh, it was a convention, right? So the docs who were there, they're there for, um, they're there really for education. And, uh, I didn't stick around for the entire event, but, but there's a l- those, if those breakout sessions and those learnings are happening off of the show floor, there's a challenge with driving traffic onto the trade fo- floor.

Chris Dunn: Like, how do we, how did that, you know, how do you get people to go there after the exhibitors have spent a bunch of money to kind of make sure that their brand and their message is in front of their target market? So- Mm ... it's challenging kinda I think, you know, pushing each way. But at the end of the day, like you guys are all saying, is like that one-on-one meeting is really kind of that desired goal, right?

Chris Dunn: How do we get past the, the big, you know, giant broadca- broadcast? I love, I love that's a, that's a better visual, uh, Brendan, as a broadcast versus a narrowcast versus, um, the sh- the shotgun and the [00:43:00] rifle. Let's, we'll leave the- ... leave the gun analogy out- Right ... outside of what we're doing here. Uh, okay. Yeah So where are we here?

Chris Dunn: We are, we are 43 minutes in. We like to try to keep the toolbox at, uh, right about an hour. Um, so we're hitting on a lot of awesome, uh, topics here and some specifics. So if you guys have more questions, drop them into, into the chat. Um- Yeah ... but let's, uh, let's talk a... We have talked a little bit about aligning sales and marketing around those target accounts.

Chris Dunn: Um, but Kayla, you're again, super detailed with kind of that playbook. Um, anything else that you want to kind of add to that specific, uh, analogy or, or kind of, we know that that's a critical pain point for a lot of companies is getting sales and marketing on the same page. 

Kayla Drake: Absolutely. I think that one's the, the most crucial part.

Kayla Drake: So when you're getting ready to go to a trade show, the first thing you want to do is identify who on the sales team is going to be present, who's going to be attending, and maybe it'll be five of your sales team [00:44:00] members who are... The event's in Boston, so it's your East Coast sales team, we'll say, hypothetically.

Kayla Drake: And the first thing that you want to do, highly recommend, is if you do have a booth, schedule booth shifts. Make sure they're in four-hour blocks so you have dedicated time that they'll definitely be on the booth to support you. You don't want them there all day because they need to have some open blocks on their schedule for those client meetings.

Kayla Drake: Uh, but it just ensures that, okay, the, if you are dedicated to these four hours, your phone's put away, your laptop's put away. You're really standing at the booth putting in the work, right? And it's not just on- Yeah ... the event marketer to do it of scanning leads, but you can actually demo and talk, et cetera.

Kayla Drake: Now, outside of that, what you'll then want to do is sit down if you have the time. This is sometimes har- easier said than done. It can be kind of hard, as anyone knows, that when you are an event manager executing a trade show, it's so much work. It's so much work. So I say partner with your, if you have an ABM manager, do that.

Kayla Drake: If you have a marketing operations manager, whomever Maybe partner with them. But sit down with the sales team and say, [00:45:00] "Great, who are your top five to 10 accounts that you anticipate seeing there, that you wanna schedule meetings with, you're, you're really trying to get in front of?" Okay. Now let's create a tracker to say who is likely to attend from that account.

Kayla Drake: And if it's John Smith and Jane Smith from Candyland Company, great. Now, what are the different marketing touches that we can get them in front of? We have our booth, we have the coffee buyout. We're gonna do this executive dinner on the second night. You know, what are the different touches that we can create for them?

Kayla Drake: And then sometimes you can add on additional touches. Like, by the way, I'm gonna make a handful of dinner reservations throughout the week for if you want to take your client out to dinner, you can, but track each of those as individual campaigns in Salesforce as a marketing touch. So if you're footing the bill from the marketing budget, it's still tied back to you influence that pipeline.

Kayla Drake: But on a, a preset, a practical front, it is, okay, well, what can you tell me about this account? What do we know about John Smith at Candyland Company, and what are the [00:46:00] important parts of that account that we're trying to push along? Well, they're a current client. They're up for renewal. We're trying to get them to renew and expand.

Kayla Drake: Okay, well, what features can we show them while on the show floor to really get them bought in? And having that conversation so then you can work with the marketing team to aid them in that important conversation that they need to have while they're there. Because everything that you're doing as a field marketer is you are setting up your sales team to do what they do best and sell while in the field, right?

Kayla Drake: So you are aiding them in closing that deal. And, uh, that way you're working hand-in-hand with the sales team and you're being more tactical around those key accounts while you're at that trade show 

Chris Dunn: So not naming names necessarily, 'cause you've worked for a lot of great companies in the past, but do you find that, that integrating or really working, being a field marketer and working really closely with the sales team, does that come naturally?

Chris Dunn: Like have you entered, uh, a, a role maybe hopping on with a new company as it were, and found that that connection was broken? Because I hear a lot of, [00:47:00] uh, grumbling really from both sides with regards to like the, there's a disconnect between sales and marketing and like how do we, how do we repair that or fix it?

Chris Dunn: What you're talking about requires mutual, you know, respect and conversations back and forth, but I don't know that that's always the norm. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah, that's fair. I think, uh, there is a difference between an event marketer and a field marketer. Event marketer tends to do these larger scale events, a lot more trade shows.

Kayla Drake: Uh, they have larger territories. They may be the event marketer for all of North America. And there is a lot more brand awareness, thought leadership, uh, goals that they're trying to achieve. Whereas a field marketer is typically tied to specific, uh, sales regions. They tend to match the sales team. So you'll see a West Coast field marketer, East Coast, so, you know, Central field marketer, and then they're working very exclusively with those specific sales teams.

Kayla Drake: Okay. And then I find the relationship, which is why I love field marketing, because then those relationships are a lot closer because you're the West Coast field marketing manager, you're working with the [00:48:00] VP of West Coast sales. Okay. And the account executive for California, account executive for Washington, Oregon, et cetera, so you know them more on a personal level.

Kayla Drake: You know their key accounts. You have that time dedicated to really work hand-in-hand with them on the strategy. Okay. But I think it comes down to meet them where they're at. Understand what is the sales team's goal. Speak their language. You know, it's, it's, they wanna be successful too, right? And so when you throw a lot at them with the event, simplify it.

Kayla Drake: Take a lot of the work out, make it easy for them to participate, and just let them understand too, speak in your language, "Hey, if you track it in Salesforce, if there's a paper trail and I can prove ROI, I get more budget to do more of these events for you," right? Mm-hmm. So it, that's what goes hand-in-hand, is you just have to speak to each other versus saying, "Well, I, I sent you this email copy.

Kayla Drake: Why didn't you promote the event?" Well, they also got 50,000 requests for marketing, right? So how do they cut through the noise of all the asks for marketing? Right. And simplify it. Make it, make it very foolproof, [00:49:00] right? Because they have 1,000 things that they're trying to cover. They have a quota they're trying to hit.

Kayla Drake: It's very stressful, hence why I don't wanna do sales. Thank you so much. Never again. Quota is not my favorite. Uh, let them do it. I'll take care of all the, the heavy lifting with the event. You just show up, but here's what I do need of you. You gotta do your booth duty, and when the follow-up hits the, the event, after the event, what are you doing to promise me you're gonna get two touches out the door with these leads that are assigned to you that week following?

Kayla Drake: And just have that quid pro quo, quo relationship with sales. Mm-hmm. And I think that it's, is a little bit more beneficial, and it shows that you're just, you're trying to be a teammate. You, you want them to be successful. That's your goal too. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: That makes a lot of sense, 'cause at the end of the day, salespeople get paid for production.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Um, so helping them, you know, produce al- also helps. Like you said, you know, the more successful we are here, uh, the more budget we're gonna get in the future because we've proven the ROI on this particular event play. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. And I will say- All right ... one more [00:50:00] thing too, uh, kind of going back to the event marketing professionals.

Kayla Drake: I think what might help too, um, when you have that disconnect with sales, 'cause you are doing the bigger trade shows, you are bringing the bigger lead volume. Mm-hmm. Be really transparent with your events. So if you go to a trade show and you find that it is just not generating revenue, say that. It does not mean you failed.

Kayla Drake: It does not mean you didn't do a good job. You probably crushed it. You probably executed that event flawlessly. But if you leave and you're seeing, when you're tracking in Salesforce or however you're doing your report- 

Chris Dunn: Hmm ... 

Kayla Drake: man, two weeks after the show we didn't get any leads from this. Like, we, we haven't had a single demo booked.

Kayla Drake: Where are we going? Yeah. Why are we going to that show? Or do we need a booth? Is it time to do a partnered event? Is it time to do a wrapper event and just forego the booth- Hmm ... 'cause investment's not worth it. We need to be there, but how can we do it more tactically? So I'd say for the event marketer, just be really transparent about if an event is successful or not.

Kayla Drake: It's not a reflection of you, it's a reflection of the event. [00:51:00] 

Chris Dunn: Gotcha. No, that makes, makes a lot of sense. I would like to use our last nine minutes with talking a little bit about, um, we've talked about obviously your past and things that you've been doing. Um, I feel like you've shown the receipts on, uh, on all of the experience you've got, for sure.

Chris Dunn: Like Kayla definitely, uh, walks the walk, talks the talk. Uh, so you're, you're pivoting a bit. Um, tell us a little bit about some of the plans for, uh, what you got going on in the future. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah. Kayla's going solo. Woo. So I am switching into, yeah, woo-hoo, uh, field marketing advising. Naturally, uh, I wanna be involved, uh, in the community more and more, so being involved in the event and field marketing community, and being able to advise other, uh, field marketing teams on their strategy on building their teams, but also event tech.

Kayla Drake: I'm pretty vocal about how I feel about different event technology, and I like to talk about it, and I wanna be involved in those, um, amazing event tech, uh, startups and, and help 'em make sure that they're building a product towards the actual user. [00:52:00] But more importantly, I think the biggest pivot that I'm gonna be changing and, and moving into is launching my own event career coaching business.

Kayla Drake: So I'm gonna be coaching and mentoring other field and event marketers who are early to mid-career. They wanna know how to add these tactical strategies to their actual day-to-day work. Uh, maybe they're at a, a startup where the- they're the only event marketer, or their manager isn't an event marketer also, and they're just missing that component of training, because I think a lot of times event marketers fall into event marketing.

Kayla Drake: I don't know about, uh, uh, most of those listening, but that was the, my case. I didn't go to college for event marketing. I just stumbled into it and realized I loved it and then made a career out of it. Uh- Right ... but in the beginning, I didn't have anyone to teach me. So I wanna return the favor, and, uh, I'm gonna be full-fledged event career coaching and, and just helping to elevate the next generation of event field marketers in the industry.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: That's pretty damn exciting. 

Brendon Hamlin: That's awesome. 

Kayla Drake: That's [00:53:00] dope. 

Chris Dunn: I, I love it. I love it. You know, we're spending, um, a fair amount of time in our s- kind of section of the event industry, uh, on this future workforce development. So, um, you know, I fell into the industry 30 years ago. I was a sign and graphics guy.

Chris Dunn: I peeked in and saw a trade show for the very first time, and I was like, "What is this?" Like it's got all these things that I love. It's, you know, it's- it's big colorful graphics, and brand, and message architecture, and building, and it combined all these things, and I just kind of fell in love with the industry.

Chris Dunn: Um, I think that there's, you know, post-COVID, our side of the industry certainly, and events as a whole, uh, we lost a ton of people to COVID when there were no events. Um- Mm-hmm ... so, you know, we had a bunch of folks who've retired, and for whatever reason, just the way that the space is kind of mapped out, there's a lot more folks my age and Brandon's age than there are folks, you know, who are Kayla's age.

Chris Dunn: Um- Mm ... so I love the fact that you're really kind of focusing on people who are newer to their careers. So we're absolutely, [00:54:00] um, you know, all about kind of that future workforce development. We're trying to show people who have never considered the event world how freaking awesome it is and how cool it is.

Chris Dunn: Yes, it's stressful, but I mean, it's- it's combined so many different things, and it's different every single day, and it's, there's so much energy here, and there's a lot of great things about it. Um, I don't know, message for y- for, uh, obviously anybody who's coming across this particular podcast episode likely is involved with events in some fashion, but, um, I don't know, uh- uh, do you have thoughts on how we get the word out a little better a- about how cool our- our world is here and- and get more people, you know, to take notice of it and fall into it?

Kayla Drake: Well, I, I think first I want to acknowledge, I, I mostly am going to be, uh, mentoring, uh, professionals who are currently in- Mm-hmm ... uh, in the events industry, because I do want to see- Already. Yep ... more and more support, uh, around how they can tie their events to ROI, and, and being able [00:55:00] to speak to someone who knows their language, right?

Kayla Drake: Okay. Yep. And has been in the industry for a while. Um, but as far as getting into events, it's so much fun. Event- events is the best, right? It, it is such a, such a blast because I get to work with sales without the quota, I get to create new, fun, unique, creative activations, like these hospitality lounges or fun ways of getting people to come to the booth, and I'm involved in business but I get to travel the world.

Kayla Drake: Are you kidding me? I've got to travel my whole career and meet amazing people, and I get to tie business cre- with creativity, and I think that's such a blessing. So I want to see more creativity and more people coming into the events industry, because it was never going anywhere. I know they said during the pandemic, they, they said, "Oh, well it's, it's gonna be virtual now.

Kayla Drake: Everything's virtual." And then we all knew, no, this is just gonna be a pause. This is a billion-dollar industry. There's no way being in person's ever gonna go away. And it all, all it took was what? A year, two years, and people [00:56:00] were chomping at the bit to get back to in person. Even the introverts were like, "Please-"

Kayla Drake: let me talk to anybody other than my-" Let me out. Yeah. Other than my- Let me out ... you know, spouse and my dog. I need to talk to anybody else, uh, and be in person again, because there is an art behind having that person-to-person conversation that cannot be faked. Yeah. It cannot be, uh, staged through AI. You need to have a real organic conversation and build those relationships face to face.

Kayla Drake: And, uh, events is not going anywhere. We're just gonna get more creative. Mm-hmm. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. I love it. 

Brendon Hamlin: And might I just- That's- Can I just add onto that one thing- Please ... that I think is really interesting is just, uh, the, the three of us, like Chris, you're in the tangible building of physical spaces for, for brands, for event shows.

Brendon Hamlin: Mm-hmm. And Kayla, you're in that strategy space and pulling sales, marketing together to make it the most effective it can be, and we're, we're spinning content out of these places. So there's all kinds of different opportunities. There is a [00:57:00] spectrum of opportunity within events that- Mm-hmm ... you can find a niche that maybe is, you know, if you're an accountant, like there's a place for you in events, you know?

Brendon Hamlin: Or if you're a designer, there's a place for you in events, or a marketing person. Like there are all kinds of- Mm-hmm ... different opportunities, and I think events- 

Kayla Drake: Oh, 

Brendon Hamlin: yeah ... gets a little overshadowed and doesn't, the full, that full opportunity isn't nes- necessarily realized. So I think shows like this help to kinda just share out the, that there's a lot of cool people doing a lot of cool things in, in the event space.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. There's a whole community too, so- Yeah, yeah ... uh, join a lot of them. I'm, I'm an active member of Club ICHI, uh- Yeah ... Pinwheel Collective, um, Goldcast Event Marketers Club, and you can meet other like-minded event professionals from corporate events to event marketing to hospitality, field marketing, everything in between.

Kayla Drake: You could be on the production side of the house. You could be on the, like Brendan, on the creative side of the house, and, uh, you can find a role within events that's m- better matched to you and, and your passion. Yeah. [00:58:00] And the sky's the limit. I mean, there's so many different ways to approach and be a part of the events industry, and I welcome it.

Kayla Drake: Yeah. Join us. 

Chris Dunn: There we go. All right. Well, listen, let's cap this thing off. Uh, Kayla, leave us with like one or two little, you know, statements. We, we know that you are the field marketing rock star. You're going out on your own, which is so exciting. You're gonna be able to work with, uh, so many more people now, which is great.

Chris Dunn: So, um- Mm-hmm ... we're gonna touch on how to get ahold of you. But if, if, if there's any kind of little one or two little nuggets of wisdom that you wanna leave people with, or circle back, put a pin in something that we've already talked about but you wanna draw attention to it. 

Kayla Drake: Yeah, I mean, just to recap exactly what we talked about on this show itself.

Kayla Drake: Having a presence at a trade show is important, but you can also approach that show in a creative way. So get creative. Mm-hmm. Think of things that haven't been done before. Just remember what is your ICP and what is your ultimate goal, and then build around that. As far as me, uh, consider me the event career coach.

Kayla Drake: [00:59:00] And if you are interested in working together, you can just message me on LinkedIn to get started. I'm gonna share more information in the next couple of weeks as, uh, I get ready to roll out and launch. Uh, but just message me on LinkedIn if you want to schedule a coffee chat, brainstorm together. I wanna meet you.

Kayla Drake: I wanna hear what you have to say, what you think, and, uh, I can't wait to chat with you all more. And this was such a great show. It was so awesome cha- chatting with you guys. Yeah. Love it. This is why I came back. Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Fantastic. And so- Thank you all ... so this is the new, this is the soft launch. We can a- we can, I think, identify the fact that, uh, Kayla's, uh, solo career has been launched here on the Toolbox.

Chris Dunn: Woo-hoo. Yeah. Fantastic. Guys, thank you so much for joining me. This has been wonderful, a great conversation as always. Thanks everybody for, uh, joining in. And as always, uh, this gets recorded, and it will play forever here on LinkedIn, on YouTube- Oh ... and then it rolls out on Spotify, Apple Music, any place that you get your podcasts as well.

Chris Dunn: So this content will live forever, literally. Awesome. Um, even if we can't. [01:00:00] So thanks everybody. Happy eventing, and have a great rest of your week. 

Brendon Hamlin: Thanks. 

Chris Dunn: Bye.