Soapbox incoming... Dear marketers - If you’re hosting an event and your entire keynote stage is filled with your own executives and a handful of analysts, with zero customers... You don't just have a "programming" problem, you have a YOU problem. Your audience isn’t flying in or logging on to hear your executives repeat the company vision they’ve already seen in the press release or webinar. They want good stories. They want proof. They want to know: Does this THING actually work? Who's winning with it? What's possible for me? And nothing builds credibility faster than a customer sharing how they overcame a challenge, grew their business, or transformed their team with your product. Skip the customers, and here’s what you’re really signaling: >>> You don’t have champions willing to stand on stage with you. >>> You care more about control than authenticity. >>> You think thought leadership is something you declare, instead of something you earn. So, if your event strategy puts exec monologues over customer voices, I suggest rethinking not just the agenda, but your role as a marketer. Sincerely - A very concerned (and slightly exasperated) marketer.
Excellent timing as we start planning our annual conference!
IMO, SaaS event content managers lean too hard on the “with your product” angle. If a practitioner is on your stage, your product is already implied. What I want to hear is the decisions they made, their playbook, not just how the tool helped.
Wait what if the executive has paid to win some thought leader of the year award?
So true! I watched a small player turn an industry on its head. Instead of having an annual sales conference, they invited their customers to come together. Other than a few brief remarks from management the entire conference was customer sharing best practices. While competitors were still having flashy sales meetings with big name, entertainment, and breakout sessions with each of their product teams. this event grew attracting, not just their customers but every contractor in the industry After a few years, other manufacturers tried to copy the model, but they were late to the game and really didn’t understand what was driving the enthusiasm for this event. Their conferences is never caught on.
And this is how you make an event high impact! We value trust and truth as we get inundated with thought leadership content.
Louder for the people in the back 👏🏼
I'll take it a step further and say that this extends to the ENTIRE program. Your deep dives need customers, too, not just curated demos and hypothetical situations to show off new features. And also, every person with a fancy title does not need to be onstage. Pick the best speakers and pair them with customers who actually have credibility with the audience. THAT makes for a great line-up that's not just focused on the company doing a victory lap for themselves 👏
That’s why we had 4 fireside customer chats along with 4 panels for our summit this week. Goal was to ensure people left feeling like they learned and believed we offer things of value to them vs getting them to buy or take demos
it's amazing to me how many people are still trying to ::waves hands and gets execs on stage:: distract from products that don't actually work. marketing's job is to amplify outcomes, not cover up lack of them!
giving you permission to be real AF | founder | non-profit board president | keynote speaker
1wi worked for a $2B+ company a few years ago, and when I brought this criticism up to marketing they looked at me like I had three heads. to this day, every webinar, event, conference speaking gig is just people from the company blowing smoke up each others asses.