What AI Can’t Replace: Real Human Connection at Events

[00:00:00] Kate Hammitt: I think the fatal mistake of events is not squeezing the juice from those interactions, and doing those follow-ups, and being really thoughtful about what you learned at the event about your attendees, and putting that into action and following up with content that reiterates that value.

[00:00:18] Alyssa Peltier: Great events create great brands, but pulling off an event that engages, excites, and connects audiences? Well, that takes a village. And we're that village. My name is Alyssa.

[00:00:30] Rachel Andrews: I'm Rachel.

[00:00:31] Felicia Asiedu: And I'm Felicia.

[00:00:32] Alyssa Peltier: And you are listening to Great Events,

the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators,

and innovators in the world of events and marketing. Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Great Events, a podcast by Cvent. It's another Matt Heinz takeover week and in this week's episode, Matt had the chance to flip the script and put me in the hot seat alongside fellow Cventer and former Splash CMO, Kate Hammitt. In this episode, amongst the giggles, we also take some time to break down the rise of event-led growth,ELG, as we like to call it here at Cvent, as a core go-to-market motion,

and how organizations can turn their total event program into a growth engine. Matt, Kate, and myself explore what ELG is, why it's gaining traction, and what companies need to do to operationalize it for pipeline, retention, and expansion.

[00:01:26] Matt Heinz: All right, welcome back to Cvent CONNECT. We're going to talk about event-led growth. This was something we talked about on stage, Kate, earlier today. So we've had here Kate Hammitt, VP of Marketing at Cvent,

and Alyssa Peltier, the Director of Marketing Strategy Insights at Cvent Consulting. My very important first question,

I think I'm going to start with Alyssa. What is it like at Lane Stadium when the first couple bars of Enter Sandman start and everyone is jumping up and down? Do you get chills every single time?

[00:01:51] Alyssa Peltier: Yeah, that is an experience for sure. I highly recommend it. And honestly, I was there when Metallica actually played live. Not recently. It was in 2011.

[00:02:03] Matt Heinz: When they did the entrance live.

[00:02:05] Alyssa Peltier: Oh yeah, they were there. They performed live. It is really cool. So yeah, I mean, your heart's racing. You're jumping in the stands, they're all metal, so it's like...

[00:02:14] Matt Heinz: Alright-

[00:02:15] Alyssa Peltier: Highly recommend it.

[00:02:15] Matt Heinz: So for context, Alyssa is a Virginia Tech alum.

[00:02:18] Alyssa Peltier: I am.

[00:02:18] Matt Heinz: Virginia Tech is, you know, college football— when they enter, they play Enter Sandman and they play that intro and as soon as they hit the drop,

the entire team explodes out of the...

oh, I'm getting chills right now.

[00:02:30] Alyssa Peltier: I almost need to tell you that I married a Hoo. I married a man who went to UVA,

not only went to UVA, but is in Charlottesville. But also I'm sitting next to-

[00:02:40] Kate Hammitt: I was just going to say, let's embrace the Cavaliers here.

[00:02:43] Matt Heinz: I don't-

[00:02:44] Kate Hammitt: Maybe not for football, but for all the Olympic and sport.

[00:02:48] Matt Heinz: That's great.

[00:02:48] Kate Hammitt: All the sports that people don't care about.

[00:02:50] Matt Heinz: That's fantastic.

[00:02:50] Alyssa Peltier: The fun fact here now is that my husband tries to claim that Enter Sandman is every team's football song.

[00:02:56] Matt Heinz: Not true.

[00:02:56] Alyssa Peltier: I was like, no, sir.

If you look it up on the Googles and AI,

because that's all we've been talking about now,

they're going to tell you it's Virginia Tech's entrance.

[00:03:04] Matt Heinz: Yeah, not true. So Metallica played a full on concert just a couple months ago at Lane Stadium and all you can see on YouTube now is they played it at the end, right? And as they start that, it was a seismic activity at Lane Stadium when the entire stadium jumping up and down for... I'm still getting chills. It was amazing. Alright. We'll give you that.

[00:03:21] Alyssa Peltier: Yeah, well, catch up.

[00:03:22] Matt Heinz: Yeah, so, Alright, having fun here on our last episode of this podcast, I guess we should talk a little bit about work. We'll get back to college football.

[00:03:30] Alyssa Peltier: They're related. I see the threads already coming together.

[00:03:33] Matt Heinz: Go.

[00:03:34] Alyssa Peltier: We've talked so much this week about building amazing experiences and a lot of who I've been talking to,

they're not just event planners anymore. They are experienced builders, they're community connectors. I don't know. I can use all the words. I'm probably going to fall short on them. This is a creative industry, whether you identify as a planner, whether you identify as a marketer, ultimately the outcome is an amazing experience. And so, I think at some point in time somebody was like, Metallica, Enter Sandman,

we're playing at the entrance and the opening. I don't know what year that was because I wasn't there for it, but that's an amazing experience and you can feel it. I'm like, "Oh, the hairs are sticking up."

That's what the people do here at Cvent CONNECT,

or have the power to do. Some do it better than others,

but I think that's ultimately what this is about.

[00:04:18] Matt Heinz: Well, everyone here's been talking about that. And I think you're saying like, hey, let's talk about the Hoos as well. And there's something about where you went to school. And let's stay with football for a second. If you're a fan of a professional team, that's fine. Maybe you grew up in that town. It's something that's part of you,

but you are part of that school, you attended that school. So there's an identity there that is a deeper thing. And I think that can exist at a conference. If you can find an event, whether it's a big conference like this or a smaller event,

when you look at how many hugs versus handshakes happened in the room,

it's sort of a sign of what kind of community you are building.

[00:04:51] Alyssa Peltier: I love this. I love it. It's so true. That's what we're feeling right now.

[00:04:55] Kate Hammitt: Yeah, I think it always made me laugh when people would talk about the dawn of hybrid events and when you think about sporting event,

I'm like, "We've been doing this for a very long time."

And when you grew up watching the Olympics and there were people there,

and there were people watching on TV,

hybrid event.

We've been doing this for a while. But yeah, I think that culture bill...

I mean that's essence of the art. I think where we're trying to go,

from an event perspective, is getting more of the science and marrying those two. And that is really where the magic happens.

[00:05:26] Matt Heinz: Well, I mean, we're kind of talking about event-led growth without having to talk about event-led growth. I think at this event, last couple of days, you've got an event technology company marketing to event planners about marketing. So there's a few levels of meta there. That's hard for a lot of reasons. In part because the people coming here,

they've been to a few events. They're probably very critical about events. They're noticing the details of an event more than sort an average event attendee would be, including the event experience, which is a large part of what Cvent sells. Is that intimidating? Does that feel like a high bar or

does that feel like we're just going to let our flag fly and do what we do well?

[00:05:59] Alyssa Peltier: I will say, and this is coming from having formerly sat on the meetings and events team,

it is an incredibly high bar for this group. And I think our head of events,

who also happens to be host on our Great Events podcast by Cvent,

holds herself to that standard. It's like, I can't disappoint this group. We have to make sure that we're building an incredible experience and that we're one-upping ourselves every single year. That's easier said than done. It's not that easy to be innovative every single year, and there are budget constraints, and there are, you know, it's not that easy. But I do think that Cvent does continue to innovate in its event experiences. But yeah, there's still room for growth.

[00:06:34] Kate Hammitt: Yeah, I think every time you're looking at

"What's the next best thing?"

And having gone to CONNECTs early in our history at Cvent and then being a part of Splash

and coming back to Cvent, so this is my first CONNECT in some time and seeing how everything has evolved along with what the industry needs. It's also been about more networking or different types of experiences and how that's evolved over time. So even if something's working in 2025, you're not going to see it in 2027.

[00:07:05] Alyssa Peltier: I'll just double down on that because audience centricity is everything. I know in the corporate space we always talk about customer centricity,

but in an event space,

your audience is the customer. The customer is the audience. And so being ruthless and scrutinizing every detail for that audience,

I think that's why planners get a bad rap because they're like, we're feedback obsessed. But it's because it's insights,

because that's really understanding your audience. That's a focus group for you for every single year. And so, treating your event as that kind of test pool

year over year over year,

starts to get that scientific mindset in it,

like you're talking about.

[00:07:39] Matt Heinz: Well, you have to keep raising the bar because the bar keeps getting raised in general,

like you said, "Hey, we've been doing hybrid events forever."

It's 1984, I'm watching the Olympics on TV from Los Angeles, and they happen to also be happening live. But that's it, right? There's no recordings. You watch it or you miss it. Now all of a sudden there's interaction, there's social, right? There's engagement among community members. You've got the opportunity to say,

"You like judo? They like judo."

Let's have a judo conversation happen that the snowboarding people may not care about. And so the segmentation and the engagement opportunity has gotten far more complex. But I would argue far richer. Like the opportunity and the advantage you have,

if you can lean into that opportunity as a brand facilitating and organizing and producing and enabling that experience, is powerful.

[00:08:22] Alyssa Peltier: Well, and think about it, is there any other channel where you can do that in marketing? That you have that true intense moment together?

[00:08:30] Kate Hammitt: I don't know. Is there?

[00:08:31] Alyssa Peltier: Not really.

[00:08:32] Kate Hammitt: I mean, no one says like, "Oh my gosh, this is my eighth year reading your report."

[00:08:38] Alyssa Peltier: Oh my God, that white paper.

That one annual report.

[00:08:41] Kate Hammitt: There might be some random outlier who's like, "I am so obsessed with this report.

I've read it every year for 10 years."

But you see the pride of our attendees here being like, this is my eighth CONNECT,

or this is my first CONNECT and let's celebrate you

and let's find a place for all those things. But no one remembers the digital piece.

[00:08:58] Alyssa Peltier: Well, and we talk about that in the context of event-led growth, like how these are moments that can compress the sales cycle. They can compress and accelerate the customer experience and the customer journey, whatever stage that they're progressing to. Maybe from, "Hey, I was just a customer to now I'm a raving fan. I'm obsessed with this brand. I need to do more with them." Whatever it is, the events have that velocity associated with them that I don't think any other tactic or channel in our mix has.

[00:09:25] Matt Heinz: So I think about people. I get 10,000 people at this conference. There are a lot of competitors here. People that compete with each other, but even amongst competitors, an opportunity to share and learn from each other and get better.

[00:09:34] Alyssa Peltier: It's connection at the end of it. What's the common denominator? The competition can be that denominator in that scenario. So I think that not only builds community, but it builds the connection amongst frenemies, if you will. We're not frenemies.

[00:09:49] Matt Heinz: If you're listening to this, they're not hugging at all. They're sharpening knives. This will get interesting later.

[00:09:54] Alyssa Peltier: About to shank-

[00:09:55] Kate Hammitt: Meet the parents. The two eyes.

[00:09:58] Matt Heinz: Shank the hokey. That sounded wrong. We're going to keep going. And so, whenever you do an event like this, this is a big production. It takes a long time to pull together. It's very expensive. And I don't know if in your organization,

but in a lot of companies we work with,

they complain and complain and complain about how much time and effort and distraction is up until you have it. And then you get there and you're like, this was amazing. We need to do this every other week or something.

[00:10:20] Alyssa Peltier: Welcome to my inner monologue the last 10 days.

[00:10:23] Kate Hammitt: Why are we doing this to ourselves? Facetiously. 

[00:10:25] Alyssa Peltier: I love events.

[00:10:28] Matt Heinz: But then you get here, then this happens. And one of the worst things you can do is leave here and start planning for the next event,

and not capitalize on all the goodwill you created here. Goats, kittens,

James Van Der Beek, all of it matters. So when you think about this as not a growth by events, but event-led growth,

where event is the catalyst. Event is the center point. For people listening to this that are doing their own events, big or small, how do you continue that momentum,

that human experience and that spark when we're not here anymore?

[00:10:57] Kate Hammitt: Just from the content piece, that must live on. And we have so many distribution channels now that the human connection, I think, can live on in certain ways by keeping up your event programs and giving those opportunities for handshakes and hugs. But I think the fatal mistake of events at least that I've been a part of over the years, is not squeezing the juice from those interactions, and doing those follow-ups, and being really thoughtful about what you learned at the event about your attendees, and putting that into action, and following up with content that reiterates that value.

[00:11:36] Alyssa Peltier: And I like to start with the end game in mind. Why did you build that event in the first place? And how is it connected to a broader strategy? So it isn't a, "Okay, now how do I make all of this content work?" It's already assumed. I built this event because it's been plugged into something behind me. It's like part of this journey, these nurturers list, campaigns, experiences, however it is manifesting. But that omni-channel marketing is really important in this. And I think events are part of that. They aren't just a moment, capture, produce, push. It's we are pushing because they were aligned to something before the event even took place.

[00:12:14] Kate Hammitt: And I want to mention something, toot your horn actually, because I felt like this was really powerful moment. On Monday, we had marketing leaders around the table. There were about 12 of us and talking about what our kind of hopes and dreams were for incorporating AI,

and how we were going to handle the future. And we all sort of made a pact around the table like, "Okay, we're doing this next year.

So a year from now we're going to be where?"

And Alyssa had everybody go around and share that around the table. And we had created such a community within the exercises and the conversation,

that we were all going to hold each other accountable. So it's like, "Okay, what are you going to say for a year from now?"

"Alright, and then we're going to check in."

And that was a really cool moment for me.

It was very authentic. It was certainly teed up by your event design. But that I think is really when the magic happens in events. And you can do that. It doesn't have to be just a small bespoke group,

but you can give that magic and kind of like next year we're going to circle up and see where we're at.

[00:13:16] Alyssa Peltier: Yeah, you can connect the dots for the group already. It's like whether that's a content piece that you're following up with or a next event, the next touch point,

how do you continue the relationship that you formed?

[00:13:25] Kate Hammitt: And just slide that registration form. Another contract.

[00:13:32] Matt Heinz: We'll give you a ride to the airport if you sign this right now. So if part of having that great event experience is feeling part of something, feeling like you're coming here and I'm not alone. I may have to do this myself at my company, but there's 10,000 other people here that face these same challenges, feeling like you're part of something bigger. If that's a big piece of these being successful, when I take this outside of the event, there's other channels and formats that I can use to continue that bond. I think about even CMO coffee talk, right? The CMO group that you're a part of. We've done physical in-person meetups, but I think a key part of that is not just people that are CMOs, but it's the person in the CMO role.

It's the person behind it and the challenges they face. And as we all move on in our career journey and life journeys, to be able to talk about how we do this well at work, but also talk about and care about each other as people. That is a uniquely human element that I think is very hard to do purely in a Zoom call. Very hard to do purely in a Slack channel. And being able to get together and prioritize in-person events but think about the multi-channel, multi-sensory nature of enabling that for people. That means integration of channels, it means integration of teams across an organization. A lot easier said than done, but incredibly powerful if you can make it work.

[00:14:40] Alyssa Peltier: I think we're talking about why events work, right? We're talking about authenticity and vulnerability, which are things that are increasingly becoming scarce in the current climate. I've probably spent three days just gabbing about AI, which I was like kind of lukewarm on Sunday at 9:00 PM. And by 9:00 AM this morning, I talked to my husband for an hour and a half and I was like, AI everything, all things everywhere. I felt the burst of energy this week and feel very ignited in my career, in my learning, in my own learning and development. You don't do that usually when you're staffing an event, right?

[00:15:15] Kate Hammitt: No.

[00:15:15] Alyssa Peltier: I felt the exchange of information this CONNECT.

[00:15:18] Matt Heinz: If you were doing this remote, and for those that maybe listen to this, maybe you were at the event or maybe you were watching online, a totally different experience. If you're watching us on Zoom,

you're not getting it the way you are in the room. If you're in the room, you may be on your laptop, but you don't have the same, if you're sitting in your office or home office, everything else is distraction. You can't tell me you're not multitasking, so you're not getting that, whatever it is. It's just not the same.

[00:15:39] Kate Hammitt: No, I feel like you have to be in the seat and feel the feelings and be in the cold conference room.

[00:15:46] Matt Heinz: And I think that as we continue to get more saturated with digital channels and digital noise, there's more companies say we could do it faster, easier, and just do it all digitally. There'll be plenty of companies that forego that experience. And as I told someone else in that seat earlier today, I really hope my competitors lean in on that strategy

because I don't think it's going to work as well. I think they're going to miss an opportunity to create a real connection between them and the customer, between them and their prospects and customers amongst each other, that give their brand the credit for that.

[00:16:11] Alyssa Peltier: We talked about that yesterday in our open forum discussion. We talked about in the executive marketer exchange about, a perfect example of that is LinkedIn right now. We're just being bombarded with what is very, very easily fake messages. You're seeing just like trash content, honestly.

[00:16:26] Kate Hammitt: Em dash.

[00:16:27] Alyssa Peltier: Em dash.

[00:16:27] Kate Hammitt: Emojis.

[00:16:28] Alyssa Peltier: Emojis. Yeah. So we're discerning as humans. We don't give ourselves enough credit, but I do think that we are discerning. Again, it's the testament to why the human component in your marketing strategy is so impactful.

[00:16:39] Kate Hammitt: And it's shared pain too. I mean, I think that's why the community stuff that where I met Matt has been so powerful because you're identifying, you're finding that community, you're sharing those pains. You have promises for the future. And so I think we're all around AI,

there's a lot of shared pain of how do we harness this? How do we avoid risk? And we're really on the precipice of a new way of working. So that's kind of a shared pain, but also a very exciting promise. So I feel like I don't have last year's CONNECT to compare to, but it's particularly exciting as we're looking into a future that's just going to be totally different than what we've experienced so far, which is so exciting.

[00:17:19] Alyssa Peltier: Yeah. 

[00:17:20] Kate Hammitt: Yeah. 

[00:17:20] Alyssa Peltier: Exciting, scary. All the things everywhere, all at once.

[00:17:23] Kate Hammitt: Yeah.

[00:17:23] Matt Heinz: It's a journey. There's no destination. We just keep moving forward. The world keeps changing. The technology keeps changing, but we'll make it work. Well, Alyssa and Kate, thanks so much for joining us.

[00:17:32] Alyssa Peltier: Thank you.

[00:17:33] Kate Hammitt: Thanks, Matt.

[00:17:33] Matt Heinz: Enjoy the goats, enjoy the kittens. Enjoy the party tonight. Take a couple days. Thank you.

[00:17:38] Alyssa Peltier: Thanks, Matt. Thanks for hanging out with us on Great Events, a podcast by Cvent. If you've been enjoying our podcast, make sure to hit that subscribe button

so you never miss an episode.

[00:17:51] Rachel Andrews: And you can help fellow event professionals and marketers just like you discover

Great Events by leaving us a rating on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

[00:18:01] Felicia Asiedu: Stay connected with us on social media for behind the scenes content, updates, and some extra doses of inspiration.

[00:18:09] Rachel Andrews: Got a great story or an event to share? We want to hear from you. Find us on LinkedIn, send us a DM,

or drop us a note at greatevents@cvent.com.

[00:18:19] Felicia Asiedu: Big thanks to our amazing listeners, our guest speakers, and the incredible team behind the scenes. Remember, every great event begins with great people.

[00:18:28] Alyssa Peltier: And that's a wrap. Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.