Know your audience [particularly if you want to be event famous for more than 15 minutes -Ed], says Questex chief commercial officer, Kate Spellman, subject of the second InGo Client Spotlight shared here with CMW:
What is your proudest achievement in event marketing so far?
The event experience just keeps getting better and better! But my biggest impact is the exceptional team at Questex that is focused on the event experience and event engagement, including activations, personalisation and one-to-one meetings. The group has the right focus areas for Questex growth, including Event Performance, Content Innovation, Marketing Performance, Customer Experience and Product Innovation.
This is a collaborative group that works with the vertical market teams to provide strategic support and specialist services to level up. They are focused on excellence. It’s what Questex calls our secret sauce.
They also vet our partners like InGo to keep us ahead of the curve and drive real results. We have been laser-focused on elevating engagement through experience and through delivering the right content, adding conferences to exhibits – exhibits to conferences through a playbook and it is working. Our events are growing, there is more personal engagement.
InGo gets the word out on the content; watching the results is pure magic. Examples include Digital Pharma East and The Hospitality Show.
Who is your Event Marketing hero?
It’s hard to point to just one person. It’s the collective innovation that has truly transformed the industry. Take SXSW and Roland Swenson, for example, or even going further back to PT Barnum, who had an incredible understanding of his audience and how to create for them.
Closer to home, there’s Jonathan Weiner, founder of @HLTH. Today, many are revolutionising the space through data, activations, and technology, creating a full 360-degree community experience. It’s definitely a space to watch.
What is the best piece of professional advice you’ve received?
Events only happen once a year, but you own the contacts and the community – find ways to extend it, activate it and monetise it. Know your audience.
Which InGo feature or tool has been most beneficial to your events?
I used InGo at Informa and now, at Questex, it allows your attendees to amplify your message socially letting their network know that they will be at your event. It works very well with speakers and getting the word out.
If you could describe your event marketing style in one word, what would it be?
Audience-centric focus on targeted messaging with engaging language and branding at every point. And add a dash of FOMO. We know a lot about our audience and we are getting smarter every day about leveraging our behavioural data for more personalised messaging.
The vast majority of our events are paid for and the fantastic retention on attendees is absolutely thanks to the Questex Show Directors and Questex Marketing and Finance Teams.
Which team achievement are you most proud of?
The collaborative spirit across Questex has elevated our event performance well into double digit growth. From a marketing perspective I am very proud of the work of the Customer Engagement team, elevating our branding, look and feel of all of the events and the Event Performance team.
What’s your go-to resource for staying on top of event marketing trends?
We use Teams to share interesting information we’ve all found – it’s the best curation tool and it comes in from different sources. To highlight one – InGo’s recent Client Spotlight answered by Julian Agostini chairman Mash Media was a fun and enlightening read we shared. We also lean on our own content and track what our attendees are consuming to offer them the right information at the right time.
Which recent event that you managed are you most proud of, and why?
Two events stand out in the last couple of months, the launch of an event in Asia for hotel investors solidifying Questex’s presence globally in this market now in the US, Europe and Asia and the shear growth of Digital Pharma East which is now one of Questex’s largest events. The activations at the event were beyond innovative and were selling right up to the last moment.
What’s your top tip for someone starting in Event Marketing?
Understand the need and the gap you are filling for the community. Understand what your attendees are asking for and the content your target attendees are consuming and the rest will be so much easier.
InGo is a US-based platform built for event marketers and its frictionless technology drives referrals and connectivity for event marketers.
