April showers bring May…events? From Napa to Chicago to Barcelona and a few cities in between, our events management team took on 15 events from April through June in Q2. These ranged from a full-scale in-person Annual Meeting, our first international event since 2019, intimate client dinners, Sales Kick-off, and sponsorship packages. This past quarter brought back the variety in our clients and event types we’ve all been missing—and we’re ready for even more!

In May, we traveled to Chicago for long-time client LiveRamp’s first Sales Kick-Off since the pandemic, where 350+ employees joined in-person and 200 more virtually. The theme “Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brilliant.” applied not only to their SKO, but also how our events team tackled our work in this past quarter. In early June, we arrived in Yountville for Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Annual General Meeting and company off-site. We managed 300+ attendees who enjoyed dinners and excursions, as well as tuning into content focused on Lightspeed’s funds and portfolio companies over the course of the 4-day event. Since May, we’ve also managed three partner dinners in Palo Alto and NYC for this client as well. 

Where else were we this quarter?

• We kicked off Q2 by understanding a new generation of workers through a webinar led by recurring client Wellness Coach. We continue to feel so grateful when we’re able to work with a company both on the speaking and events side of our business. Meraki Head of People and Communities Laura Dominguez was able to speak on this webinar as well. 

• In early April, we helped Zip manage two of their sponsorship packages at SIG and ProcureCon. We oversaw event vendors and booth designers, and managed the included speaking engagements. 

• Throughout the quarter, we helped recurring client Tatari with a few of their in-person client dinners in Beverly Hills, and three in Vegas. Additionally, we helped manage their sponsor booth at Pycon in Salt Lake City Utah.  

• We flew to Barcelona in early June for SaaStr’s first Europa event since the pandemic. We worked with 100+ speakers to put together two days of content on all things SaaS: how to scale your company’s growth across product, sales, people, funding, and beyond. 

• Though we didn’t fly to Europe for this one, we did help a long-time client bring their virtual EMEA event to life, focused on Smart Spaces Powered by Cloud-Based Technologies. We managed 8 speakers as well as the Hopin platform for this event. Then in June, we took on managing 65+ Innovation Forum meetings at the Cisco Live event in Las Vegas. 

We continue to enjoy playing a role in elevating the voices featured by our clients at their events. Here are just a few of the 170+ incredible speakers we had a chance to work with this past quarter: 

• Brad Moranchek, Sr. Director of Global Media, Kimberly-Clark Corporation 

• Daniella Harkins, SVP of Commercial Strategy and Excellence, LiveRamp

• Elaine Zhou, CTO, Change.org

• Eléonore Crespo, Co-CEO, Pigment

• Henry Schuck, Founder and CEO, Zoominfo

• Jennifer Pelino, EVP, Global Media, IRI

• J.R. Martinez, Army veteran, burn survivor, actor, New York Times best-selling author and Dancing with the Stars season 13 winner 

• Laura Urquizu, CEO and President, Red Points

• Laura Dominguez, Head of People and Communities, Meraki

• Nilaja Montgomery, Customer Success Manager, LiveRamp

• Scott Howe, CEO, LiveRamp

We always learn with every event—here’s what we’ve noticed this past quarter:

• With events and conferences in full swing, sponsor booth creation is in high demand. We always find activations are the best way to draw attendees into your sponsor booth to drive interaction.  You can never go wrong with providing creative snacks and drinks, a photobooth, games, or raffles at your booth!

• People are excited to travel for events again—this was the buzz heard round the world (literally) as we’ve been onsite this past quarter. Take advantage of the warmer months where you can still host pieces of your event outdoors. 

• Attendees’ preferences are varied. Make sure you’re accommodating for them by gathering a record of their dietary needs and ensuring you have something for everyone. Are your guests still not ready for hand-shaking? Let them know that is OK by providing different color lanyards based on their health & safety preferences. This will let attendees know what each other are comfortable with at your event. 

• Back-up plans are still needed due to COVID-19, travel guidelines and weather impacts. Make sure you have a plan B, C, and maybe even plan D in place when it comes to your speakers, venue, transportation arrangements, etc. If your event planners are good (and we are), attendees will never know if something had to change last minute.  

• Provide peace of mind to your attendees by requiring proof of vaccination, having onsite COVID testing available, or hosting as much of the event outside if weather permits. Even if you don’t want to make testing mandatory, providing it as an option is a win-win in a lot of ways. 

Our team closed out the quarter feeling energized and experienced after our involvement with eight different types of events out of the 15 we put on. We are so proud to lend our expertise and capabilities to each project—plus, we’re having some fun doing it! We’re proud to say 56% of the speakers we’ve worked with since 2022 began are underrepresented minorities (URM)—an initiative we continue to prioritize. 

Our hope in a return to (a new) normal continues to grow after seeing attendees’ zest at several in-person events this past quarter. We continue to be grateful for our work, clients, and partners who make it all possible. A busy Q3 lies ahead and we look forward to tackling it head-on!

Have an event you are looking to bring to life? We’d love to help! Email us at hello@credpr.com.