What It Takes to Become a Strategic Event Leader

[00:00:00] Sara Ann Straw: Over the years, I've developed what's called the SAS Framework: Strategy. Alignment. Scale. And it's basically where you're asking the right questions so you can really make sure that you have that strategy of why you're doing what you're doing. But not even just for events. It can be across so many different areas of the business. So that way you become more valuable to your company, not just seen as the events person.

[00:00:24] 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.

[00:00:36] Rachel Andrews: I'm Rachel.

[00:00:37] Kelly Cheng: I'm Kelly.

[00:00:37] Felicia Asiedu: And I'm Felicia.

[00:00:39] 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.

[00:00:47] Kelly Cheng: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Great Events On the Road, a podcast by Cvent. I'm Kelly Cheng. I'm the head of marketing at Goldcast, a Cvent company. I'm here today with Sara Straw, who is the senior director of Corporate Events, Corporate Marketing?

[00:01:00] Sara Ann Straw: Corporate Events.

[00:01:01] Kelly Cheng: Corporate Events at Kong. Welcome, Sara.

[00:01:03] Sara Ann Straw: Thanks. And just to preface, not the dog toy company.

[00:01:06] Kelly Cheng: Yes. Sara, tell us a little bit about your background. Tell us a little about Kong. What is Kong, and what have you been doing? You've been there for seven months, I saw.

[00:01:13] Sara Ann Straw: Yes, I've been there since February. So I've been in the event marketing industry for 18 years now, everything from field events all the way through to customer executive and now flagship corporate programs. So a little bit of everything.

Kong is an AI connectivity company, so think: it's where APIs and AI meet in production. We really work with developers, engineers within that AI space. So it's a really cool, fun, innovative, and newer company that's really building and doing some groundbreaking work within the industry.

[00:01:44] Kelly Cheng: That's awesome. You guys service more of the enterprise motion?

[00:01:47] Sara Ann Straw: Yes. So we are very much more in the enterprise. We did just launch Kong for Startups, which is allowing more startups and founders to really build their portfolio within our Kong products and solutions so they can build their businesses more efficiently. So we're excited about this new venture, that's for sure.

[00:02:03] Kelly Cheng: Very cool. Well, we have so much to talk about today. Sara, tell us a little bit about the book that you just released.

[00:02:09] Sara Ann Straw: Oh, yeah. So, I just released The Experience Executive. It is a book that basically encapsulates my almost 20 years in this profession and how I've been able to pivot myself from being just that executor, which is a very important role. You're never just a "just," but I wanted to really gain more of a strategic seat at the business strategy table with our ELT and with those executive members.

And so a lot of people don't know where to start. You're always being asked to do more and just do, do, do. When do you pause and actually say, "Why are we doing all of this?" And so over the years, I've developed what's called the SAS Framework: Strategy. Alignment. Scale. It just so happens to also be my initials, Sara Ann Straw.

[00:02:54] Kelly Cheng: Love that.

[00:02:55] Sara Ann Straw: And it's basically where you're asking the right questions so you can really make sure that you have that strategy of why you're doing what you're doing. Then you're aligning the right people, and then you're scaling it across your program, but not even just for events. It can be across so many different areas of the business.

So that way you become more valuable to your company, not just seen as the events person. And so it's a book just kind of guiding event managers through that so they can get to that next phase in their career.

[00:03:21] Kelly Cheng: That's amazing. So, I'm really excited to check it out. I've learned that very few event marketers actually make it to a senior leadership position. Very few CMOs have an events background. It's because events, there's so much to do that it's hard to make time for the strategic thinking to get a seat at that table that we've been talking about, being in that room where decisions get made.

So I'm really excited to check it out because I think it's going to be huge for the community.

[00:03:48] Sara Ann Straw: I'm very proud of it. It's different. It's not just another event planning lesson book to teach you how to plan.

[00:03:53] Kelly Cheng: Do you have maybe a hot tip from it that you can pull out?

[00:03:55] Sara Ann Straw: I say don't be scared of AI. This is my biggest hot tip. So many of us are scared that AI is replacing our jobs. It is not. It is helping us make repeatable processes so we can focus on what matters, which is the strategy, the creativity, how we are making experiences that are going to leave our customers and prospects just feeling great about what we're doing and feeling like we are anticipating their needs and they matter.

So please don't be scared of AI. Embrace it. Because the more you embrace it, you become more valuable to the business and you don't have to worry as much. Those that don't embrace it, that's where they're going to fall behind.

[00:04:30] Kelly Cheng: Yeah, I do think that this very interesting time with AI transformation is actually to the benefit of event marketers in the event space because there's just so much noise out there, and events are really where humanity really shines that AI cannot replace. You can fake a click, but you can't fake being in this room.

[00:04:46] Sara Ann Straw: Exactly.

[00:04:47] Kelly Cheng: And so I just think that the value of the events and the people that put on the events and plan the events and strategize on the events, that is going to be just a much bigger value to any business.

[00:04:57] Sara Ann Straw: Totally. Completely agree.

[00:04:59] Kelly Cheng: Sara, tell me a little bit about what you're working on at Kong.

[00:05:01] Sara Ann Straw: So, my team takes care of our global corporate event portfolio. So think your larger strategic conferences, so AWS re:Invent, the Gartner Symposiums throughout the world, KubeCon. Those are some of our bigger flagship conferences that we sponsor that are coming up.

But then we also have Kong's API + AI Summit coming up in late September, early October in LA. It is where you are going to get those hands-on labs, a lot of really great sessions on where the market is going within AI and API connectivity. So we have some amazing sponsors like AWS and Google and all of the great tech companies out there. Lots of great sessions with our customers.

And then one of the most innovative things that I'm very proud of is our AI Innovation Zone. So think of a discovery place for children where they can get hands-on and play at those museums. It's that for adults with AI. So it's a lot of really fun stuff that AI is doing just so our developers and engineers can just have some fun, too, not just learn.

[00:05:58] Kelly Cheng: Very cool. Well, tell me about... You started at Kong seven months ago.

[00:06:02] Sara Ann Straw: Yes.

[00:06:02] Kelly Cheng: Tell me about that journey. Did you have a 30, 60, 90?

[00:06:05] Sara Ann Straw: Oh, yeah. So, I have my 90 days in any new role where you really come in and, over the course of those first 30 days, I think you need to focus on learning. Don't try to come in hot off the press and change everything. Come in, audit the program, ask the questions that maybe people who have been there a long time aren't necessarily too scared to ask, but don't feel comfortable asking. And that's the why.

I almost become a five-year-old again that's like, "Why? Why? Why?" And it's why are we doing these programs? Why are we doing these events if we don't have the data to back it or if they haven't been successful in a long time? So, I think you spend your first 30 days listening and learning. Don't try to change anything.

Then you take what you've listened to and learned, and in those next 30 days, you're applying it. How would you make things better? What are your recommendations and suggestions? And then by the end of those next 30 days, so at 60 days, that's when you should start implementing what you're able to do on a scaled level.

I'm not a fan of when new leaders come in and, hot off the press, they're letting people go, making org changes, moving things. That's not how it should be done. You need to listen and learn because you're going to find a lot of what is happening at that current company or position is happening because nobody has the voice. And you might be able to make changes with the team you have in place and with the tools you have in place in a very efficient way rather than cleaning up shop, if that makes sense.

[00:07:25] Kelly Cheng: That makes a lot of sense. I actually want to +1 on that because I've actually learned from experience, if you're a senior leader coming into a new organization, you have to go on that listening tour because if you come in without the context, the historical data, the context layer is so important, and you just start to make changes, you're going to make enemies everywhere. And you really need to start with a listening tour to find those partnerships to help you succeed as a team.

In many organizations, I think there is a pivot right now where it's becoming more integrated into the marketing space, but events have been an island for a long time. It's been a silo. Teams have been running on their own and kind of just chasing the big programs.

But I think moving into the theme of event-led growth, where events are treated more like any kind of growth program, like the way you treat digital, the way you treat your demand generation. Can you tell me a little bit about how you're thinking about event-led growth at Kong?

[00:08:18] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah. Listen, at the end of the day, I think events are one of those unique areas where that human element will always be there. And so as we're adopting AI and tools, one area that I'm really pushing toward for our growth is we need to keep these human experiences intact, and we need to make sure that we're creating those networking moments, those one-to-one peer connections, et cetera.

So as we're growing and as we're launching new products and as we're reaching new markets, it's how are we using events to do that for everyone? Engineers and developers are a big part of our market. Yes, you could do things online. They're techie. You can do webinars. You can do all this. But we're utilizing events to do road shows and bring smaller communities of developers together to network, meet each other, bounce ideas off each other, almost like a glorified meetup, if you will.

But then also, we're launching a new brand. We're trying to build trust in the market. We're launching a new mascot. And so it's how are we using the events to really bring that brand to life for our customers, prospects, et cetera, and bring our partners along for the ride.

So I think events are one of the most strategic ways you can do marketing at a company. And I think oftentimes we're just seen as this fun, nice-to-have, but we are definitely a must-have.

[00:09:38] Kelly Cheng: I completely agree. Tell me about your team. How do you structure your team? What size is the team?

[00:09:43] Sara Ann Straw: So, Kong is definitely different than where I have been in the past. So, I come from leading teams of... At my last role, it was a team of 22. I led all global events and regional marketing. So I had a team across four different continents. It was huge. I've taken a different pivot here at Kong, and I actually only have a team of one.

[00:10:03] Kelly Cheng: Wow.

[00:10:03] Sara Ann Straw: I know. 

It's my partner in crime. We're owning that corporate portfolio. However, the way it works is, we kind of almost dot with the field marketing. So we're that center of excellence that oversees the strategy of how we show up no matter where we are. And then we have the field teams that go out and do those more localized, regional, direct sales-focused events.

But yeah, it's definitely different. I'm used to things being a little bit more brought together. We're still a startup, so we're still growing and learning as an organization. So I'm sure so many changes will happen in the future. But it's been nice to almost get into the execution again. I haven't had to execute in probably 10 years.

[00:10:43] Kelly Cheng: Recently, Cvent had our CONNECT, and it was my very first CONNECT. It was so stressful. It was so challenging because I was on the ground, I was owning six sessions, and I didn't really realize what that meant until I was on site and I had to be at five different places at once. The execution, there's so much stress and energy, but the payoff is so big.

[00:11:01] Sara Ann Straw: It's so rewarding. But this is also why even when you are a strategic leader with 18 years' experience, there is still an execution element. So this is why I say all the time, and I'll stress it again, don't be scared of AI because you're able to automate those repetitive administrative processes so then you can focus on strategy, too. When you have to execute, you have to do both.

[00:11:24] Kelly Cheng: I actually have a point of view where I feel that, for leaders and executives, it's actually really important now to be hands-on. Marketing is getting rewritten. And if you don't know how your team is functioning and how it works, then how are you supposed to lead them?

[00:11:37] Sara Ann Straw: Oh, yeah.

[00:11:38] Kelly Cheng: So, I'm a huge believer of getting hands on the ground. Nothing is beneath me. I'll do anything with the team.

[00:11:44] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah, agreed.

[00:11:44] Kelly Cheng: This is the time for learning to actually figure out how we do this so then we can improve with the technology that's coming up in this space.

[00:11:51] Sara Ann Straw: Oh, yeah. I say every CMO, if you're a CMO, I hope you sat there and did a day in the life of every single member of your team because I think, in order to respect what your team is doing, you have to live in their shoes at one point. So you can respect what these people are doing that then will make you look good, and you should have that experience.

So personally, if I ever became a CMO one day, that would be one priority I would have in my first 90 days: do a day in the life of almost every person on my team.

[00:12:18] Kelly Cheng: For me, going to CONNECT and doing the event and being on the ground, I have a lot of customer empathy. A lot of our customers go through this on a daily standpoint. I'm like, "Wow, this is tough. This is really tough."

[00:12:29] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah. I always say we're like ducks. You see them just nicely floating on the water, and underneath, their legs are paddling like crazy because they're like... 

[00:12:37] Kelly Cheng: But we love it. And we always come back...

[00:12:40] Sara Ann Straw: I would be so bored in finance if all I was doing was sitting there in spreadsheets, crunching numbers. It's like, "Give me the chaos, give me the deadlines, give me the 20 different personalities I have to make happy, and I'm good to go."

[00:12:51] Kelly Cheng: Yeah. So, at CEMA here, I'm getting so much inspiration just by seeing all the content sessions, seeing how other brands are executing their brands through events. I'd love to hear more about what you found interesting from CEMA this week.

[00:13:05] Sara Ann Straw: What I took out of it is I attended a session yesterday with Sarah Reed, the woman who leads events at Workday, and then also Richard Steinau from Bellwether on how to become that strategic leader, which obviously resonates with me.

It's nice to get validation that you're doing it right because a lot of their hardships and a lot of the questions they ask are what I'm asking. And so sometimes I come to CEMA just for that validation that I'm not the only one.

And that's probably what I took out of this week the most so far: you come here because you realize while things might be happening at your business, you're not alone. You have this community of everyone who knows what you're going through. Tap into it.

And so it's the networking, it's the talking to everyone after their sessions, hearing what they're saying, and seeing that even these people you look at, like, "Wow, you've been doing this for so long and now this is where you are. You must have it."

[00:13:53] Kelly Cheng: No, they are going through exactly what you're going through. No one's figured it out, even though it may appear that way.

[00:13:58] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah. But everything's figureoutable.

[00:13:59] Kelly Cheng: Exactly. Very cool. Well, Sara, tell us where we can find your book.

[00:14:03] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah, so it's available on Amazon, soon to be Barnes & Noble as well. For CEMA members, you can order it directly through me at a little discounted rate. So if you check out my LinkedIn, I have a post there. It's out and about, and I'm just hoping people really enjoy it.

[00:14:17] Kelly Cheng: And then let's end with one hot take that you have about events in this upcoming year.

[00:14:22] Sara Ann Straw: I want people to start moving away from bigger is better, bigger booths, bigger stages, bigger... It's not always better. People want to leave feeling good. If they're going to make your event a priority to go to when there are a million events competing with you, they want to know that the investment was worth it and they left there with things they can take back to their jobs, but also just feeling good.

So, create those peer-to-peer experiences. Remove a half-hour slot of breakout sessions to give more networking. They want to hear from each other. Give them what they want. Anticipate their needs. Actually listen to your surveys that you have and implement them, and stay away from "bigger is better." Do it with intention because then you're going to see a world of difference in how your event performs.

[00:15:06] Kelly Cheng: I completely agree. People are looking for connection, networking. They can learn anywhere.

[00:15:10] Sara Ann Straw: Yeah.

[00:15:11] Kelly Cheng: They can learn literally from their phones, from YouTube. There's content everywhere for people to learn, but what they can't get is that networking, peer-to-peer connection. So, completely agree.

[00:15:20] Sara Ann Straw: Exactly.

[00:15:21] Kelly Cheng: Thank you so much for being here.

[00:15:22] Sara Ann Straw: Thanks for having me. This is really fun.

[00:15:23] Kelly Cheng: Thank you.

[00:15:27] Alyssa Peltier: 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.

[00:15:37] Felicia Asiedu: 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.

[00:15:46] Rachel Andrews: Stay connected with us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, updates, and some extra doses of inspiration.

[00:15:54] Felicia Asiedu: 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.

[00:16:04] Rachel Andrews: Big thanks to our amazing listeners, our guest speakers, and the incredible team behind the scenes. Remember, every great event begins with great people.

[00:16:14] Alyssa Peltier: And that's a wrap. Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.