What goes together better than coffee and events? We can't think of much! In our Coffee Corner series, we team up with 6sense and Qualified to discuss the latest marketing trends and best practices.

You may remember we kicked off the series discussing the power of video. Next, we used the second session to dive into the magic of intimate, personalized field events, which we'll be talking about today.

Our expert panel for the second event was comprised of:

• Kelly Cheng, Head of Marketing, Goldcast
• Sarah McConnell, VP of Demand Generation, Qualified
• Ernest Owusu, Sr. Director, Sales Development, 6sense

The cool thing about having both sales and demand gen in the room is that you get a more well-rounded take on B2B events and what makes them successful. We wasted no time diving into why orgs are betting on smaller field events to drive deeper connections with their audience members.

Read on to learn:

• Trend: Small field events > massive trade shows
• Small events boost pipeline acceleration
• Don't be discouraged if it takes a while for the sales team to get on board
• Using smaller events to multi-thread and move deals along
• Hosting small events at big trade shows
• 3 types of AI that B2B marketers can use
• Remember that AI takes time to get up to speed
• Join us next time to learn about CX

If you'd rather watch the entire convo play out, check out the replay below!

WATCH THE REPLAY

In our Event Marketers Club, we've noticed a lot of marketers buzzing about smaller field events and earmarking their budget toward that instead of bigger, third-party sponsored events like trade shows.

Have you noticed a similar shift in your industry?

At 6sense, Ernest has definitely seen the market lean toward bespoke-feeling events. His personal theory is that with all the automation and AI hitting the market, people value those relationship-oriented events more than they did before. (That said, there's still a time and place for those bigger events—they're not written out of the picture completely.)

As the person in charge of Qualified's event budget, Sarah's no stranger to small events. During the pandemic, Qualified launched Taste of Qualified, a series of virtual wine tasting events that did well and are still a part of the event lineup today.

When people began gathering in person again, Sarah realized that trade shows were packed. Everyone was stoked to be back in person, mingling with their peers. Registration and sponsorships skyrocketed, making these big events the place to be for B2B companies.

Now, that's leveled out a bit. Again, big events aren't going anywhere and Qualified does still invest in them, but the smaller, more intimate events are performing better right now.

Part of that is because as you return to the same trade shows year after year, you naturally run into the same people, which lowers the ROI on that event. When that happens, small events can be a natural pivot.

When Qualified was just striking out and trying to establish a name in the market, the big trade show events were super helpful for building their database and lead lists. Small events are almost the opposite—they're not going to be good at helping you get your name out in the market because folks who aren't familiar with you likely won't show up to begin with.

Where intimate events shine, though, is in pipeline acceleration. People who already have a connection to your brand and an existing relationship are more likely to come, and then (hopefully!) you've got a stellar value-add that will have them smiling during and after the event.

Smaller events allow you to hone in more strategically around a specific target, whether that's progressing an opportunity or targeting an individual persona.

Think about it: a dinner that you've curated to attract the executive suite of your target industry will bring in those busy professionals that are typically so hard to reach—and their attendance, in turn, will push more attendance from their peers. Sounds pretty dreamy, right?

It's crucial that you get the right people in the room for these intimate events—otherwise, the ROI won't be there.

Here are the top two things to keep in mind as you plan your intimate event:

1. Target the right ICPs. These are usually folks you have a relationship with already; it's hard to get new-to-you people to come to a small event.
2. Give people a reason to show up. This can be a swanky location people are dying to try or the draw of a room full of hot-shot peers that the attendee wants to meet. Either way, you want to make sure they're going to get something valuable out of attending the event.

When people know that they're going to meet like-minded people they admire from companies they respect, the hard work is already done for you. Your ICPs are going to be ready and willing to sign up!

Of course we always want help from the sales team when it comes to inviting prospects to events, but it may take time before sales is fully behind these small events.

When Sarah first launched Taste of Qualified, getting AEs to invite people was hard. They didn't trust the event or the value it could bring, so they were hesitant to push it to prospects. However, as each Taste of Qualified event proved that those events accelerated deals, AEs became more intrigued.

As marketers, part of our role is to monitor the data and present event-related analytics to the sales team in a way that shows them why events are worth their time. How do events benefit your sales team? How do they help them close deals? That's the info they need to start promoting your events.

The 6sense marketing team has done a lot of research and they know that in order to progress deals, they have to multi-thread, which means including multiple different stakeholders to make sure things are moving along.

So, instead of a salesperson only talking to the head decision maker, the team looks at other personas in other regions that might need to be looped into the convos for faster buy-in. You can think of multi-threading as bringing more people into the deal, and it might be a good strategy to try if you find it takes a long time to close deals.

Ernest has found that small events are also helpful when it comes to lost and stuck opportunities. Small events can re-engage prospects; when you've got thought leaders in the same room, that can motivate people in your audience who have been MIA to show up and pay attention!

At the moment, here's our playbook at Goldcast:

• We evaluate our target account lists each quarter and make updates as necessary.
• We invite key stakeholders to our digital field events.
• We host in-person VIP dinners on a quarterly basis for our target accounts.
• We have a small presence at third-party trade shows and may also host an event in the same city as the show.

This last one is a strategy employed by both Sarah and Ernest. Sarah's learned that it's helpful to have some presence on the show floors, but you don't have to spend a ton of money to make an impression.

Instead of having the biggest booth on the trade floor, experiment with having a small booth or even just sending your SDRs to network. Then, plan a creative meetup outside of the trade show for people who are in town.

Ernest books out a local restaurant near the annual Dreamforce conference. 6sense can drive customers there to this "hub" of sorts and get the value they would have wanted to get at Dreamforce—all without having to attend such an expensive, large-scale conference.

We've done this at Goldcast too, with great results. When the RSA conference was happening in San Francisco, we booked out a nail salon a couple of blocks away and invited all the marketers working booths to come get a free foot rub and a pedicure. There was an amazing turnout, and brand awareness shot through the roof!

You can also ask other companies to go in on this trade-show-adjacent event with you. If you choose strategically, not only does having partners help you save money, but it can also help you reach more people in your target audience.

This isn't directly related to small events, but it's on everyone's mind, so we might as well talk about it! Listen as Sarah breaks down a helpful framework for how B2B marketers can think about AI right now:

First, there are AI coaches. These are the ChatGPTS and Claudes of the world, where you give the tool an input and it provides an output. You can ask AI coaches to help you with marketing tasks, draft emails for you, or even give you event ideas while you're brainstorming.

Then, there are AI copilots. These tools help you do something better than you could on your own. 6sense's conversational emails are an example of that; the AI assistant sends out campaigns on behalf of certain 6sense team members, which allows BDRs and salespeople to focus on only the high-value contacts in the meantime.

The last category is AI workers, which can run pretty autonomously without human intervention. For example, Qualified has an AI SDR named Piper which will have full-on conversations with prospects after an event. Piper has the context of where someone came from and what they're looking for, which allows her to operate without human assistance.

AI is powerful, but you can't just expect it to come out the gate being totally on-brand and up to date with all of your brand knowledge. Think of it like a new hire: You would ease that person into their position and teach them what they need to know gradually. You wouldn't be upset if your new employee didn't know everything on day one!

It's a similar situation with AI.

You will need to give your AI tools the proper messaging and inputs so that it can start to learn about you and understand your company. You should also give it a feedback loop so that it can improve over time.

You might do best to think of AI as another team member you're managing; that can help you head off any frustration you feel when it takes longer than expected to get the results you want.

In August, we'll gather again for another Coffee Corner and talk about one of our favorite topics: creating a delightful customer experience. We hope to see you then! In the meantime, don't forget to check out the replay for even more insights than we covered here!

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