Sara Ann Straw
CMP, VEMM | Sr Strategic Events Manager F5
Board of Directors, CEMA
Adapting to change.
Bringing an event from outdoors to inside, adjusting a menu to accommodate an influx of vegetarian attendees, re-strategizing an event program from in-person to virtual to hybrid, as event professionals we are always having to think on our feet and adapt to the ever-changing industry we work in. So, when I decided to pack up my life after 13 years in NYC and move across the country to Scottsdale I thought “this will be easy.” And for the most part, it was. However, as with most events when one thing changes it causes a domino effect. And in my situation, it was no different.
Not only was I moving across the country but, I was ending an 11-year relationship and embarking on a new career venture. All these changes would have most people feeling overwhelmed, stressed, excited and pretty much every feeling out there. I was no different but, us event marketers are a different breed. I thrive when I have all these feelings rushing through me. Overwhelmed? Stressed? Excited? I feel this every time I break the norm and create a new and exciting way to bring an event to life. Adapting to change is what we do best
It is because of the talents we are born with and the skills we learn during our careers, that we have been able to navigate not only life but, our profession during all the changes that have been thrown at us over the past 20 months. So, this note is really one to say, I am proud of us. I am proud that we have been able to get through and continue to thrive during such unprecedented times. Whether it’s a big life change or the “pivoting” (I will never like that word) of the event programs we work so hard on…we are doing it and it deserves to be recognized.
So, cheers to you. Cheers to making this next chapter one for the record books. Cheers to continuing to being the amazing event professionals that we all are!
Thank you,
Sara
MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Allison Crooker
Director of Event Content, VMware
As Director of Event Content at VMware, Allison manages the development of the content hosted at VMware’s annual global conferences. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Allison brings 25+ years leading highly matrixed cross-functional teams of 20+ to build the vision and agenda of global events with tens of thousands of participants.
Over the years, Allison has led the sales strategy of hundreds of conferences across a variety of topics (e.g., AI/ML, Finance, Digital Infra) developing deep relationships with Fortune 500 C-Suite executives.
She has shaped industry trends by defining the strategic direction of thousands of sessions, ensuring the agenda is aligned with the company’s roadmap and strategy.
Her work has taken her all over the world and only has the continents of Africa and Antarctica to travel to complete her bucket list.
In her spare time, Allison enjoys the outdoors (camping, hiking, bike riding), the great indoors (spin, HIIT and yoga on-line classes), and being in fellowship with other believers in Jesus.
Matt Schrader
SVP, Head of Client Development
The XD Agency
As Head of Client Development, Matt is the tip of the spear at The XD Agency. An innovator and an industry leader, Matt focuses on driving revenue through the development and evolution of the agency’s sales strategy. Under his leadership, The XD Agency has won new clients including HBO, Canoo, LEGO, Waste Management, Samsung and Dell, while continuing to expand and strengthen relationships with existing clients like Porsche, Adult Swim, and Cisco.
Matt has been a positive, stabilizing force through the pandemic guiding the team to build a comprehensive suite of digital solutions for digital and hybrid events including Influencer, Social Media, and Digital Marketing services to bolster the XDA’s strategic, bold creative experiences.
Over his 20-year career, Matt has developed an impressive network, both across agencies and client partnerships. His ability to build and maintain relationships has been the foundation of his success.
Prior to joining The XD Agency in 2017, Matt served as Managing Director at INVNT and as Global Account Director at InVision Communications. Matt has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Samsung, Cisco, Dell, Novartis, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Matt graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he earned a degree in Political Science and Economics and was an All-American soccer player. When he is not on the road, Matt enjoys digging in the dirt and working on his Christmas Tree Farm.
Sponsor of the Month
Sands China plays an important role in supporting the SAR government in containing COVID-19 outbreak
It’s the closest neighboring city to mainland China, and as a historical Portuguese colony, Macao is used to seeing more than 100,000 visitors from China per day. But, remarkably, despite a population of 660,000 and an urban density that makes it a fertile breeding ground for COVID-19, the world’s biggest entertainment hub managed to avoid deaths from the virus and keep confirmed cases below 30 during its peak in 2020.
During the preliminary stages of COVID-19 prevention and control in 2020, the Macao SAR government made the historic announcement that all casinos were to be temporarily closed for 15 days starting at midnight on February 5, and we remained unafraid, even in the face of this sudden and unprecedented lockdown. Since the outbreak, we have fully supported and cooperated with the anti-pandemic and relief efforts of both the mainland and the SAR government. We have overcome hardships together with Macao citizens, and Sands China has given cash donations to both the mainland and local communities to help fight the pandemic. When faced with a deficit of pandemic prevention supplies, we tirelessly sourced the world to procure the necessary supplies for our Team Members and the local community. Our volunteer team and other Team Members provide care and delivered pandemic prevention supplies to disadvantaged groups, backing up their words with action; and our procurement team proactively provided support plans for local SMEs. For Team Members, we maintained our integrated resorts’ frontline services and took action to face all operational challenges. At the same time, we implemented a series of preventive measures to guarantee the health and safety of employees, who resolutely stayed at their posts, and we invested resources into fighting the pandemic with no consideration to the costs involved, so as to make full preparation of our recovery.
CEMA CONNECTS
There are still many unknowns about our event industry. When and how do we get back to in-person events? Some of your colleagues are doing just that, while many are planning an event strategy for 2022 and beyond. Now is the time to connect with CEMA members for ideas, learnings, and insights through our new web series, CEMA Connects.
CEMA Connects will be a series of informal online episodes where CEMA members will discuss event strategies, industry trends, data analysis, new technology, managing through a pandemic, inspiring a team (and yourself) and much more. There are no PPT presentations, just a little story telling and discussion. So come as you are!
Our first CEMA Connects episode will be in November. Look for an email invitation and then place a hold on your calendar as you won’t want to miss this. We will be holding monthly CEMA Connects sessions so look forward to more high-level event industry knowledge sharing.
CEMA SUMMIT In Review: The Art and Science of Transforming Events into Digital Experience
Panelists: Matt Mongoven, SVP, Brand Experience, Freeman; Kristen Koenig Director, Digital Channel Sales & Partnerships, Freeman; Megan Morrison, Sr. Program Manager, Event Strategy, CDW; Angie Smith, Atlassian; Moderator: Lisa Van Rosendale. SVP, Brand Experiences, Freeman
At this Ignite Session, a panel of seasoned event marketers from both brand and provider communities shared their insights on the art of strategy, understanding human behavior both live and online to align with brand goals and optimizing the science of data analytics.
(Photo credit: Two Dudes Photography)
The discussion kicked off with a shared recognition that event executives – both on the brand and solutions provider sides – have been looking for “lifelines” and ways to plan, design and create with minimal visibility into what is around the corner. It has been a year of scenario planning for all of us.
All agreed that a good way to address uncertainty in direction is to lean into key learnings from the past year. For example, digital events in 2020 were often virtual versions of live events with typical 30-60 and 90-minute sessions. Attendee data across multiple verticals and varying audience segments indicate that a disciplined approach to content delivers the best results. It also indicates that online participants prefer bite-sized, consumable content. They also want to curate their own experiences, which makes it critical to understand a comprehensive attendee journey.
The panel also discussed the pros and cons of developing customized solutions vs. going with a SaaS solution. The consensus was that it’s not an either-or decision, similarly to what we encounter with LIVE events where we decide what properties go to a Tier 1 event versus what goes to a Tier 2 event. The key is employing the solutions that offers the best opportunity to innovate, differentiate and scale – up and down. It’s important to be intentional and create an authentic experience – no matter how you do it.
There were scores of other great insights shared. Here are a few of the most memorable ones:
- Event experiences must consider the entire eco system including but not limited to: customers, partner community and co-workers – and the event content strategy and platform technology must enable connections among the three.
- Event participants have become far more sophisticated about platforms and have higher expectations for user experience (UX) and user interfaces (UI). It’s our job to design an easy-to-navigate user experience, they don’t want to do the work for us.
- Digital content – their audiences are free to roam the world.
- To break through platform noise, develop a platform review and matching service that can match platforms to customer needs and culture and use analytics (AI and ML) to eliminate evaluation bias.
- Content must be deliberate, intentional, and authentic. Having an engaging, relevant, timely message is essential. Production can keep the story dynamic and interesting, and we should be open to using different content delivery mechanisms, including non-human presentations.
- Multi-channel which was embraced a few years ago is no longer acceptable and LIVE/HYBRID events are now part of the Omnichannel strategy.
- We need to change the conversation from Covid to crisis resilience. More disruption will happen, so EMs must develop a strategy for “force majeure” scenarios.
Session participants were invited to help crowd source solutions to real challenges the panelists were facing. For example, to motivate digital event audiences to return to the event experiences post event, hold impromptu live fireside chats (like Clubhouse), offer creative or unique information incentives (e. g. Easter eggs or sneak peeks), or have surprise, live expert drop-ins on your on-demand platform.
Of course, the parting wisdom was that since we’re all looking at the hazy crystal ball, we should turn to the amazing CEMA community for insight, expertise, and support.
Behind the Scenes of Workiva, Part 2 Webinar
In this second episode of the series October 12th, Valerie Strehle, Director of Marketing, and Diana Cam, Senior Director of Partner Marketing, reviewed the successes from their recent global events especially Amplify in September. It’s worth your time to watch to hear the top 3 learnings on maximizing their investment, how their lightening sessions were successful, which sessions they prerecorded and why, and many other valuable lessons.
Upcoming Events
CEMA Summit in December is canceled but … let’s meet at PCMA Convening Leaders 22
We wanted to let you know that due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 risk, along with continued restrictions on travel among our event marketer members, we have decided to cancel our December CEMA Summit event in Las Vegas.
We had originally planned to have a second Summit event to allow more members to enjoy the incredible 2021 Summit experience (and it was really incredible!) At the time, we assumed that we’d all be moving comfortably out of the pandemic and both travel and distancing restrictions would be relaxed. While the trajectory seems to be going in the right direction, it’s not happening soon enough to warrant the risk or the cost.
While we’re disappointed that we won’t be able to be together in person for the rest of this year, all is not lost! We are planning on hosting 2-3 sessions and a reception for CEMA members only at the upcoming 2022 Convening Leaders (PCMA) which will be held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas Jan 9-12.
We are still working on the exact timing and the run of show so stay tuned for updates and information on how to register for the CL22 CEMA special events.
So save up those fabulous CEMA hugs for January and make plans to join us in Vegas!
Calling all Experts: Help Us Build the CEMA Knowledge Base
One of our core tenets as a member organization is generous knowledge and experience sharing. Over the years, we’ve worked to build a repository of expert content on the CEMA website with our CEMA Blog and Case Study/White paper section. See the most current white papers here. Last year, the pandemic put a hold on that activity, but we are ramping it back up in 2021.
We’re encouraging all CEMA members to become guest contributors this year. It’s a great way to promote your brand, your team and yourself, while helping inform and enlighten your fellow members.
We welcome content on just about any relevant event marketing topic, but one thing we really want to showcase is the creativity and innovation that’s taken place over the past 12 months to pivot successfully from in-person events to digital – and now, the road back to live events.
Topics include:
- Unique ideas and programs that are driving participation and engagement.
- Breakthrough strategies and programs that helped re-define participant experience in digital environments.
- Calculated risks that worked – and lessons learned from the ones that didn’t.
- Smart, creative approaches to architecting hybrid events
- Exciting technologies and services that are supporting event marketers as the landscape shifts.
- Trends, promising new approaches, best practices, tips, and advice.
- Thoughtful perspectives on “the next normal” – experience, engagement, security, balance, wellness, etc.
- New measurement models and how data is informing event ROI.
Content Specs:
- The ideal length is 300-500 words but we’re flexible. If a case or white paper is longer, we’ll post a summary on the CEMA site and link to the full document.
- A relevant and compelling image, chart or graph is always good.
- Of course, your name, title and if possible, a headshot.
Don’t let length, format or your bandwidth be an obstacle to sharing!
Send what you have to patrick.foarde@thegandalfgroup.com and we’ll work with you to get it published!
Don’t wait! Send your story today. We’re excited to share your great work!
CEMA Members in the News
Congratulations to Rachel Wimberly who was recently honored with the 2021 IAEE Woman of Achievement Award. Read all the details here.
Jimmy Ervin, Velocity and team won an Event Marketer Magazine Experience and Design Technology Award for Best Trade Show Experience announced in October at a ceremony in Chicago. They won for their Panasonic CES 2021 Digital Experience event. If you don’t know these awards, they are the experiential industry’s most prestigious awards with hundreds of entries from the top brands and agencies in the business. It involved a great collective effort from their partners and remarkable clients. Congratulations to Jimmy and the entire Velocity team.
Katie Hance is now the Sr. Field Marketing Manager SLED- Americas at Nutanix
Michelle Olmstead has taken Katie’s place as Marketing Manager at ControlUp
Keegan Hooks, now Sr. Director, Global Events Experience at Informatica
Chris Meyer is now CEO at Chris Meyer Global
Sara Straw joined the Strategic Events team at F5 as a Senior Strategic Events Manager
Welcome to New CEMA Members
Tara Gray, Prokeepers; Edward Perotti, Pure Storage; Kristen Hsu, Rev
Career Opportunities
Click here for job opportunities from a16z, Informatics and Salesforce!
- Full-Time Event Manager @ New Relic – Click Here
Interesting articles
20 compounding habits that lead to huge results
https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/20-compounding-habits-that-lead-to-huge-results
High performing teams need psychological safety—here’s how to create it
Adopt this Professor’s ’20 percent rule’ to put an end to your chronic stress
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/productivity-stress-burnout-cal-newport-20-percent-rule.html
You need an interview bucket list if you want to get hired
https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/you-need-an-interview-bucket-list-if-you-want-to-get-hired