It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through 2023! Between April and June, our events team executed 37 events across the globe in London, Egypt, NYC, LA, SF/Bay Area, Austin, and Napa, just to name a few. We broke a team record on June 7 when we hosted four events in one day in four different cities, both domestic and international. In this recap, we’ll share where we’ve been the past few months, what we’ve learned along the way, and look forward to where we are headed.
This quarter, SaaStr continued its Workshop Wednesday series, weekly live virtual webinars hosted by SaaStr and moderated & produced by our events team. We also led speaker management & prep for these events. If you haven’t yet, please check these out as the Workshop Wednesday community is strong! Speaking of, we also made it easy for you to create a winning webinar yourself!
Micro events have become our bread & butter these past few months more than ever. In this quarter alone, we executed 10+ micro events, ranging from happy hours to intimate dinners. In May, we helped organize an Egyptian Kite Surfing retreat for a select group of lucky adventurers! We continue to appreciate a new challenge and/or event format.
Where else have we been?
June 6-7: Cheerio! We were onsite in London for SaaStr Europa, a 4,000+ person event full of SaaS founders, VCs and execs. We managed 80+ speakers across five stages who presented on topics like Scaling, Retaining Top Talent, Product Market Fit, Bridging the Gap Between Sales & Tech Teams, and much more.
June 7-8: Tatari hosted dinners in Austin and SF, respectively. We managed the venue search and event logistics.
In late June, we were onsite in Napa to help a venture client host their annual meeting & team offsite. For this project, we managed registration for 300+ attendees, five hotel blocks and transportation. As well as website design and planning the one-day offsite which included breakout activities, a reception, music, and family-style dinner set in an olive-tree lined grove.
The events industry is always changing, and with this, we’re always learning.
Our biggest takeaways from the past 3 months:
You can expect AI to play a larger role than ever in events this year: We’ve all heard it—ChatGPT is one tool to keep an eye on as it relates to event content, slide decks, websites and more. Being in the know on this software will not only allow you to contribute when it’s inevitably brought up in conversation, but also streamline your agendas and content pieces.
Don’t underestimate the desire for multitasking: We’ve seen attendees get more and more comfortable bringing their laptops and phones into sessions to do work while listening to content. As long as it doesn’t disturb the session, we can’t see this trend disappearing anytime soon. Make sure you provide ample areas for attendees to charge up, plug in and take a call. If you want to steer away from multitasking attendees, we suggest making your event duration shorter or adding more breaks into your event agenda for catch-up time.
Make it as easy as possible for attendees to register for your event: This could mean QR codes, quick LinkedIn auto-fill options, or even just simplifying the form. Ask yourself: do you really need much more than name, email, company? The easier it is to register, the more RSVPs you will receive.
Lean into an event theme: No, we don’t exactly mean costumes (unless that’s your thing!), but theme-centered corporate events are quickly catching on. Allow your conference theme to be more than just an event name. Weave it into the event’s design & signage, F&B, branding or merchandise, and the event invitation.
This quarter, we had a chance to work with 90 marvelous speakers from companies like Rippling, Braze, Hashicorp, Vanta, Notion Capital, Loom, and so many more.
In all our projects, we continue to prioritize exposure for women and underrepresented speakers on stage. Thirty-three percent of the speakers we’ve worked with this year are from underrepresented groups and 42% are women. We look forward to continuing to work with our clients towards achieving at least 50% for both categories throughout the year.
In Q3, our events will be taking place in The Hamptons, NYC, Paris, LA, and Austin (and that’s just what we have on the books as of July!). Our team has grown with two new members, so we’re more prepared than ever to take it all on. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store!
Have an event you are looking to bring to life? We’d love to help.
