Highlights from Clutch Events "Cutting Through The Noise" lunch

Last week I participated in a downtown San Francisco lunch organized by Australians (look closely at photo, there are wineglass-clinging koalas and yellow-lidded Vegemite jars) Clutch Events which specializes in bringing together professionals to engage about relevant, topical content. This crowd was tech industry field and event marketers, assembled to discuss how we "cut through the noise“ in our jobs. The Clutch team led a focused discussion of what’s interesting right now. It was very energetic and underscored how strategic, insightful and knowledgeable excellent event professionals are. A couple days later, I sat down to draft this post, figuring I might recall enough for a top-10 list of smart things that were said, and I got to 15 – sip some wisdom!

1. Pressure is rising to validate beneficial outcomes from investments of time, focus and resources in mobilizing for events
2. Demonstrate success by qualifying and quantifying new leads captured in the field, and progress of major deals  there
3. A CEO committed to event marketing can powerfully align entire companies in culture of great customer engagement
4. Focused work with expert agencies like Clutch, and engagement with peers (like the lunch we enjoyed), keeps professionals on top of fresh ideas and best practices
5. Know the cumulative potential business value of prospects and clients being assembled to assure validation of investments in field activities
6. It’s worth considering tendencies of work-from-home versus in-office among targets in a particular area to determine what sort of activity and venue are most likely to attract attendees
7. There’s growing interest in micro-events that are more intimate than something like tradeshow participation, setting up focused interaction and distinctive memories
8. AI can be productively used to start planning and promotion of events for early sense of where more professional consideration and efforts should get directed
9. Encourage supportive efforts from account rep.s by making their personal participation depend on success securing attendance by their customers
10. Getting colleagues to comprehend and follow the details that they need to know while on-site, including simply where to show up and how to get there, remains a challenge (There.App can help!)
11. Convenience can be the deciding factor when people have multiple party and activity options around major events – any sort of hassle related to getting there can reduce attendance no matter how fun, interesting or luxurious
12. Conversion of  RSVPs to to live attendance is every activity’s most anxious moment, so it’s important to smartly estimate likely yield, and take steps to maximize attendance by the most important prospects 
13. The more logistics are that are arranged the more certain it is to secure presence of the person being treated which can involve transportation and accommodation, and there was mention of once arranging a helicopter
14. Operations of an event aren’t fully complete until details and further planning gets documented and organized into CRM
15. With trends of less work hours spent directly with colleagues, and more day-to-day direct interaction by people with technologies instead of with each other, live activities with relevant people in enjoyable settings can really shine