In this episode, Dominique Farrar, founder of the Paris-based wellness community Well in France, explains why curated, intimate gatherings outperform large-scale events built for reach. Drawing on more than 15 years building community at Yelp, Spendesk, and Quantive, including scaling a CFO network from 2,000 to 10,000 members at Spendesk, Farrar argues that curating who is in the room matters as much as curating the content. She describes niching Well in France down from a general wellness resource hub into a community for international women in Paris interested in wellness, and explains why she now treats depth, exclusivity, and intimacy as the real event differentiators. For event professionals weighing scale against relevance, this episode covers how to use AI for ideation without losing original creative thinking, and why word of mouth remains harder to measure but more valuable than paid acquisition.
Curated event design is having a moment, and Dominique Farrar has been building her business around it for the past two years. Farrar is the founder of Well in France, a Paris-based community and retreat business for international women interested in wellness, and she spent more than 15 years before that building community at Yelp, Spendesk, and Quantive, including scaling a CFO network from 2,000 to 10,000 members at Spendesk. She joins host Rachel Moore to talk about why bigger events are not automatically better events, and what event professionals can learn from watching people opt out of large, generic gatherings in favor of something smaller and harder to get into.
You'll hear how Farrar moved from a decade and a half in Bay Area tech startups to building a wellness business in Paris, and why she describes eight years in France as starting from scratch alongside her husband. She talks candidly about the gap between her professional life running community programs and her private obsession with wellness content, and how that tension eventually became the idea behind Well in France.
The heart of the conversation is Farrar's case for depth over reach. She has run events from 10 to 2,000 people, and she argues that as more events and communities compete for attention, the differentiator is no longer the biggest or most polished room. It is curation, of the content, the vibe, and most importantly, who is actually invited. She points to a shift she is watching in Paris, where people increasingly want the smaller, under the radar gathering rather than the big, well publicized one, and she shares how she applied that thinking to her own business by narrowing Well in France from a general wellness resource into a community specifically for international women in Paris.
You'll also get her take on AI in event design. Farrar uses AI tools regularly for brainstorming and research, but she is direct about the tradeoff: when everyone on an events team is prompting the same tools, the ideas start to look the same, and she argues real differentiation still requires stepping away from the screen and back into lived experience.
The conversation moves into practical territory too, including how Farrar thinks about paid acquisition versus word of mouth, why she considers word of mouth harder to measure but more valuable, and what she is watching for in 2027, from the rise of intimate supper clubs to brand-run retreats built around personal storytelling.
For enterprise event organizers managing programs at scale, this episode is a useful counterpoint to attendance-driven thinking. Farrar's experience suggests that a smaller, carefully curated guest list can build more brand affinity and stronger word of mouth than a larger audience ever could, which matters directly to how event teams justify budget, prioritize invitations, and measure success beyond headcount.
"I think it's one word. I think it's curation." — Dominique Farrar
"Curation, a lot of times we think of curating the vibe or the ambiance or the content, but I think a huge part of it as well is just curating who's in the room." — Dominique Farrar
"We're all kind of fishing in the same pool of ideas now." — Dominique Farrar
"The concept may attract people, but the vibe and the energy is what's gonna keep them there and keep them talking about it and evangelizing." — Dominique Farrar
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Host Rachel Moore introduces Dominique Farrar, founder of Well in France, and the two settle in for a conversation about curated event and community design.
Rachel Moore: Welcome to Event Experience by Bizzabo, the podcast where we bring the best and brightest event experience leaders together to share stories, tips, and lessons learned from creating some of the world's biggest events. I'm Rachel Moore, your podcast host. Our guest today takes us all the way to Paris. Dominique Farrar, creator of Well in France, shares her journey from the world of tech startups to wellness community building, all while emphasizing the importance of curation, intimacy, and authentic storytelling in event design. Discover how you can create meaningful, memorable experiences that stand out in a crowded landscape of event experiences.
Rachel: [00:01:00] Welcome back to a new episode of Event Experience by Bizzabo, everyone. I am your host, Rachel Moore, as always, and I am thrilled to describe to you our guest for today. She has over 15 years of experience at Yelp, Spendesk, and Quantive, all of which taught her that networking works when the room is designed and not just filled. She scaled a CFO network from 2,000 to 10,000 members at Spendesk and now runs Well in France, designing retreats and intimate brand experiences in Paris. If that doesn't sound lovely enough, just wait because I now get to introduce you to today's guest, Dominique Farrar. Thank you so much for joining us here on Event Experience. Welcome to the pod.
Dom: Thank you, Rachel. I'm so happy to be here
Rachel: I'm excited to have you here too. We were just talking a little offline too about we're joining, I'm joining from Denver, you're joining from Paris. Made the time difference work. But I always just like barely scratch the surface with my little intro of our guests, and so I will do what I [00:02:00] always do and toss it back to you briefly. But Dominique, tell us more about yourself, kinda your day-to-day, your life. You know, what's it like being in Paris, you know, people around you and things like that. But give us a little bit more sense about who you are, if you don't mind
Farrar walks through her community-building career at Yelp, Spendesk, and Quantive, and explains how a move to France led her to start Well in France.
Dom: Oh, sure. Well, as you can probably tell by my accent, I am a fake French person. I have a French name, Dominique, simply because my mom was a Francophile when I was born, and so I got a very French name. Um, And now I do have French citizenship, but that was all just through hard work. So I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. I spent most of my life and career out there. As you mentioned, I worked in startups such as Yelp, well, when it was a startup. I joined before it, it really blew up and IPO'd and all that. And then I worked in everything from VC community management to building a CFO community for a fintech here in France, building [00:03:00] a strategy execution community for a, a software company called Quantive. So my whole career has really been around community building because you can build community around anything which also comes with a lot of events, of course, which we'll talk about today. But eight years ago is when I moved from San Francisco to Paris with my husband, who is French. And honestly, we started from scratch. We both left our jobs, didn't know what we were gonna do out here. We just figured, you know, what's the worst that could happen? We'll spend a year or two in France and have great stories to tell. And I really wanted to give myself the opportunity to be open to anything career-wise, life-wise. But what ended up happening is that I, I fell back into tech, which was great to know that I could transfer all my skills from the US over to France, and worked in a very international company. But as I was getting older, I had my [00:04:00] second kid on the way, I was just feeling like my professional life and my personal life were very different. Like I was just a workaholic by day doing the tech hustle. In France, we call it metro, boulot, dodo, which basically means, like commute, work, sleep, commute, work, sleep. I was, like, in that cycle. But I was obsessed with all things wellness on the side. It was like my secret life. All my spare time I was spending, like, reading books, listening to podcasts just researching different things, and kind of just fantasizing about living this more, like, healthy life. But it just didn't seem possible with what my real life was, which was working full-time and raising, you know, one kid, two on the... another one on the way. So I always dreamed, like, if only I worked in wellness, then I could be healthy, if my work was wellness. And so about two years ago, I had [00:05:00] the chance to pursue that fantasy and create my own business and community around wellbeing here in France. And that's the teaser. We can talk about how that actually went, and if my theory was correct.
Rachel: I love that. Well, perfect. You should be a podcast host too, because like, not that you don't have enough going on, but I love that you laid it up perfectly and now all of us wanna know more. So this is really teeing up an excellent conversation. But thank you for that, for expanding on your intro. We're gonna get to know you a little bit better too through the next few questions.
Farrar shares her go-to event day shoes and her current reading list, then explains why she believes cultivating a unique perspective matters more than chasing information.
Rachel: Something I always ask all of our guests, because we are working in the event space, and usually since that involves being in person with people and there's many, many, many, many, many hours you're spending prepping and then being on the ground with people and stuff. So with that Dominique, what are your go-to on-the-ground event day shoes?
Dom: Oh, I love this question so much. It's so practical. And it got me thinking, like, I'm very anti-heels. I am always in flats no matter what.
Rachel: Mm-hmm.
Dom: I will avoid [00:06:00] heels at all costs even though they look better, they make you look more to- put together and all that. But the best flats I've found that I literally wore until they fell apart were the On Running Roger series white sneakers.
Rachel: Oh
Dom: Yeah. It has to be the Rogers
Rachel: Okay
Dom: and not the vegan leather, the real leather. No offense. But I mean, they're the shoes I could wear and I just forget I'm wearing shoes all day
Rachel: Ah, that is quite an endorsement when you're like, "I don't even realize I'm wearing shoes," you know that those are comfortable. Excellent recommendation. Thank you so much. We'll add that to the list for those of you who do just tune in for like, "I need new shoe recommendations," but wait, we've got more. And you already teed this up a little. I know you talked about, like, you like to read a lot, so I can almost anticipate what you're gonna say here, but listening to or reading or watching anything these days that you cannot put down?
Dom: I am always reading like three [00:07:00] different books at the same time. I am such a book nerd. My happiest place in the world is like in a bookstore preferably a used bookstore 'cause I love just like searching for treasures. So I am a nonfiction, like self-development, YouCor I think is what it's called now genre is my favorite. So I'm constantly reading like nerdy self-development books. Right now I'm reading one called Seat of the Soul. It's a really old-school like spirituality book. It's rumored to be the book that changed Oprah from being just like a news person to like a spirituality person. So I'm reading that. I love it. I'm reading this one here called Women Living Deliciously. Like I couldn't resist the cover. It's so fun, and it's really great. And then I'm revisiting a classic, Atomic Habits. This is the workbook, so I'm actually forcing myself to put some [00:08:00] of those concepts into practice because September is like the new year. It feels more like the new year to me than January, so I'm getting a head start
Rachel: Absolutely, yeah. And for those of you who might be just listening, we'll make sure we include those book links in the show notes too, because yeah, you might wanna go check 'em out and see the Deliciously the Women are Delish- Living Deliciously cover. So, it is quite something to see. And then last question for personal stuff, but uh, is there maybe a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events or wellness you found interesting lately, but it doesn't have to be related to events or wellness or work
Dom: Yeah, I saw something recently. It wasn't specifically about events, but it was around this idea of like nobody's looking for information anymore, they're looking for perspectives. And it really got me thinking about everything because I think no matter what type of work you do, it's very tempting to compare yourself to others, [00:09:00] to competitors, to try and keep up with e- what everyone else is doing. But I think what's more important is cultivating your own unique point of view on the work that you do and bringing that to the work. Otherwise, we're just like, we're just trying to play catch up and copycat all the time, and I don't think that's any way to make an impact or to stand out
Rachel: I, that's a, such an interesting thing you said too. I listen to podcasts. I listened to s- one this morning before even hosting this one with you. But similar observation someone said on that too. They were like, "We feel like, you know, it's an underrated thing to just go to the internet to get information," and maybe not to say, "Oh, but give me my opinion for the, for about this topic," or something. Instead, to actually just like, "Let me just go find some things out and then formulate my own perspective about it." So I love that you pointed that out, 'cause yeah, that's, that seems to be a theme for today. So now for everyone listening and watching this podcast, now it's your theme for today, is that you can remember, yeah, you know, let's shape your own perspectives and try to make that unique.
Farrar explains why smaller, harder-to-access gatherings are outperforming big, widely publicized events, and what that shift means for event planners.
Rachel: [00:10:00] But speaking of that, I'm segueing into the main part of our episode today, which is now let's talk to you about your experience and kinda what you're building and what you're observing, and mostly, again, th- these are all things that our audience of event professionals and planners can take away. So, excited to talk to you about events and community. And I, you know, I say the two words, events and community that might feel like two words that mean the same thing because that speaks to the meaningful gathering of human beings, right? That we're doing, accomplishing those two things. Community is certainly something our audience of event planners strive for in their events and activations. But I think you might have some thoughts about why depth is more important than reach. And all of us know the word reach 'cause we're trying to reach people and bring them into our events, and come here. But maybe the depth is more important when it comes to designing events, and I'd love... Could you share your approach and philosophy about that with us?
Dom: Yeah, definitely. I will say that in my [00:11:00] career I have hosted events from, you know, 10 to 2,000 people, so I know the allure of thinking that, like, bigger is better, and, you know, it's... It does look cool when you get to share, like, a huge room full of people, and everything looks so polished, and professional and official. I think in just the current place we're in the world, there's just an abundance of everything. We have... Anything we want is available to us, and any type of events and community are available to us too. And so I think that people are starting to realize that they have this plethora of options, and it's less about what is the biggest, most well-known, most flashy, popular thing. But now it's like what is the least known, best kept secret? I'm seeing a lot of that in Paris, where people don't want to just go to the big party or big event that everyone knows about. They wanna go to the secret side event, or the fringe event, or the invite-only thing. And I think now because everything is blasted everywhere on social media, online it's really cool to be in a group or in a, a space and experience that is kind of unknown, or at least under the radar. This is just a sense that I'm starting to get, and I'm still, like, figuring out how to articulate it. But a friend said to me recently, like, what did he say? It was like, "Unknown is the new something."
Rachel: The New Black or, but yeah, The New Thing, yeah
Dom: it's, yeah, it's the new thing people are after. So it's kind of this reverse marketing approach, and I think that, [00:13:00] like, to create something rare you have to be okay with it not being seen all over the place, but more talked about by people in their own circles
Rachel: That's fascinating 'cause yeah, I... There is that, you're absolutely speaking to that too, where it's like if people feel like, well, if I go to this thing or am part of this thing that maybe only a handful of people like me get to do it... That's, man, y'all that's an age-old thing. I mean, how many times have we been told like, oh, behind the scenes content that nobody gets to see is really attractive, or, you know, just those, those insights that maybe weren't on the main stage or the keynote, but now you get like the... and it's only for a few people. People strive for that kind of stuff. And then you're talking about like building it into like even the, you know, well, we- we're not gonna tell you what it is, you just need to come find out. And I know we're gonna talk a little bit more about this too, about you know, and you just mentioned it, like sometimes even just people talking about it adds that validity to it. Like, no, this is a real thing you wanna be [00:14:00] part of. But I love, that's really interesting and curious, and definitely kind of making some ideas pop off in my head about what people could be doing to draw more, more people in, into a meaningful way into these community gatherings.
Farrar and Rachel discuss the upside of using AI for brainstorming and research, and the risk of teams converging on the same ideas when everyone prompts the same tools.
Rachel: Quick side note, 'cause we, I feel like we always have to ask this question. the two dreaded vowels, AI Mm-hmm. that I'm going to bring up. How do you think AI is impacting event design? And we can go good, bad, mid here, but I j- like, you know, you t- we talk about that meaningfulness and the depth of humans being able to be in a networking event. But then, of course, we're all people trying to do a lot with a little. How does AI figure in or does it?
Dom: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it's definitely not a, a good or bad sort of thing because I have certainly experienced the benefits of using AI as an event planner, and I'm deep into a, a client project right now where half of my time is spent talking to Claude. So [00:15:00] I would say, like, on the upside, it's easier than ever to brainstorm ideas and then source solutions to those ideas
Rachel: Yeah
Dom: without, without having to spend all day on Google. Just like that's incredible. It's almost like having, you know, like a, an assistant. That's the idea, right? It's like, "Go find me this stuff. I don't have time to spend on it." So in terms of like taking ideas from like just an idea to execution, it shortens that timeline. But I also think we're all kind of fishing in the same pool of ideas now. And so again, it just becomes this race to like copy the latest cool idea, and the trends are just moving and changing so fast that I think, yeah, AI it creates a pressure to catch up, but then it sort of limits the amount of creativity we can [00:16:00] actually have. So I remember the days where you'd have an event concept, and you'd sit in a room with your team, and you'd brainstorm, and you'd have like an actual whiteboard, and you'd chat, and you'd have bad ideas and good ideas, and it was just part of the process. And now we do that with Claude, which is sharing, or whatever you use, and it's kind of servicing the same ideas to everyone. It's a closed loop. And so I think it's harder than ever to come up with something truly original unless you're willing to go back to the previous way of doing things or at least some kind of hybrid where it's like you use AI, but then you go and finish the idea yourself.
Rachel: This makes me think of... So I don't know if you're someone who does this, and maybe anyone listening is. I, I've been in this p- position, like you're, you are trying to be creative about something, and you kinda g- you're just like, "Okay, I'm hitting a wall. I'm not coming up with anything new." Maybe you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna go break away from my [00:17:00] desk, and maybe I'm gonna go take a walk around the block," you know, or walk for 20 minutes or go run an errand. Now, you're doing something with that. A- AI's not doing that. You're doing that. And so you're gonna go out and take that break, and you're gonna see and witness and experience things during that break. And this has happened to me, and it's probably happened to you and others, where it's like, and because you took that walk and you see something or you're thinking through something, and you might not be even thinking about anything that you're seeing in your environment, but that does help your brain pop off and say, "Hey, I just came up with that, a solve maybe for what I was just stuck with." But there's such value, like in what you were just talking about. Yes, AI is great for like, let me try to brainstorm some ideas, even have a back and forth, if you will, with your AI, favorite AI chat tool. But it, that's different than if you got that peop- the people in the room. And yes, that's grabbing people and taking time all together to do that. But yeah, I, it feels like there's gotta be a balance there, right? Where it's, you know, yes, use it for where it makes sense [00:18:00] and can help streamline and can help lift some of the stuff. But maybe, you know, f- if you're only relying on talking to Claude or your ChatGPT or whatever all day than instead of a h- other humans. Yeah, like you said, that closed loop can kinda, can restrict what you're able to come up with. And then like you said, we're all seeing the same kinda stuff. The same kinda things manifest in the things that people are doing.
Dom: Yeah. And it's funny now being on an events team where we're all using the same sort of AI tools, and then we'll all come back with, like, very similar ideas.
Rachel: Yep. "
Dom: No, no, no. We have to actually use our native creativity
Rachel: Yeah, our brains. We've got to use our brains.
Rachel Moore: We'll be right back with more event experience after the break.
Rachel Moore: Behind every great event organizer is software that makes managing the small stuff easy, so you can focus on crafting events that matter. From seamless registration and onsite solutions like the BizzaBox, to powerful dashboards and the Klik smart badge, [00:19:00] Bizzabo's Event Experience Operating System is your all-in-one solution to planning conferences that captivate and experiences that elevate. Visit bizzabo.com. That's B I Z Z A B O dot com to learn more.
Farrar argues that curation, exclusivity, and intimacy matter more than audience size, and shares how she niched Well in France down to a specific community.
Rachel Moore: We're back with Dominique Farrar to reveal what she thinks is the differentiator for event planners crafting events to stand out.
Rachel: Well, this leads us to getting into the how we craft these experiences. Now all of our listeners and viewers want to craft an experience that stands out from the rest. Getting right into the guts of this where it's like, this needs to be different from what anybody else is doing. So with that, what do you think the real event differentiator is today? You know, this is kind of the million-dollar question, right? Because it's like, well, what makes it different? What is the thing that is gonna make my event that I'm crafting different from everyone else's? What do you think that differentiator might be, in your opinion?
Dom: I think it's one [00:20:00] word. I think it's curation. Curation over scale and reach, like we talked about. So curation, a lot of times we think of curating the vibe or the ambiance or the content, but I think a huge part of it as well is just curating who's in the room, who's at the event, because people are very aware of the fact that their time and attention is extremely limited. So they need to know that an event is worth their time. And I think that we're really done with sort of generic networking, generic learning anything that's kind of vague and high level, maybe this is just my personal perspective, but is, I think, less valuable than something that's extremely specific or niche or just kind of a, a s- strange spin or angle on something that is a little bit [00:21:00] mainstream. So I think curation in the content, yes, but in having the right people there, so being okay with your event being smaller but ful- full of the most interesting, relevant people to whatever your audience is interested in. I think that's huge. I think, yeah, you can have a great event concept, but the people in the room are really what matter, and it's The concept may attract people, but the vibe and the, the energy is what's gonna keep them there and keep them talking about it and evangelizing. So curation is huge. Exclusivity. It's not just like, "Anyone can come. Sign up. The more the merrier." I think those days are done, at least for the type of person who is, yeah, just looking for a more specialized curated experience. Again, going back to having a unique point of view, I think, yeah, getting away from just copying generic formats and concepts that you've seen work, but creating your [00:22:00] own spin on it.
Rachel: Yeah
Dom: And we can talk about some examples, too. And then intimacy. These are all very related. You can tell I'm a fan of smaller events or at least events that can keep a sense of intimacy, even if it is in a larger setting. So those are ways I've seen that really help events differentiate and fill the room because they're not trying to just target anyone but the right people.
Rachel: ugh, that's so key too, instead of casting that really wide net. We've been seeing this too. It's interesting that you bring this up. Like I even think like, you know, I host the webinars as well for Bizzabo, and we're just talking about sponsor ROI and um, on the last one we were talking about this proliferation, seems like over the last year and a half maybe, of micro events, right? Way more of those. Way more of those very cultivated, like you, you were, you know, curated events where you all are only inviting a select group of people chosen specifically to be in that [00:23:00] room. I know they've got these busy events that they do that are like, you know, kind of more like a 20 to f- maybe 40 person gathering, and that's it off, you know, out and around in the circumference of a larger event. I would love to... You, you mentioned examples. Yeah, do you have anything you'd like to share about like how, where you've seen this work where like, yeah, we curated this instead of trying to shoot the moon, trying to like, get just a swath of people there. Instead we made sure we had the right people there.
Dom: Hmm. Yeah. Well, this obviously comes up a lot for me with retreats. I host two or three retreats a year as well in France, but I've also worked with corporate clients to host retreats for their customers and kind of their key stakeholders. And it's always about keeping it as intimate as possible and creating this sense of like, "I'm gonna get to know everyone who's there in a meaningful [00:24:00] way," instead of, "I'll, you know, say hello to everyone there," and it won't go any further, you know? So being able to actually forge relationships. Relationships are everything. It's the whole human experience. It's the whole career experience. So I think people are very aware of that, and any time that we as brands, as event curators can facilitate real relationships and meaningful, relevant relationships, it's hugely valuable
Rachel: Yeah. That makes such a lot of sense, too. I, like, I think of, too even if you're talking, like, a larger event, whenever they do those micro like, hey, they find a common thread that a few people might have. Like, maybe this is your first time at this event, or maybe you are someone who is a cat owner. I mean, it can literally be anything, but you really are helping people kind of find that group. And then, like you said, make it, you're designing it to where it's not just about, oh yeah, just meet [00:25:00] them, swap business cards, you know, and be on your merry way. But you're trying to foster an environment where it's like, well, yes, do that, but also sit and actually maybe you engage in, like, you know, whether it's an activity or just a, a space you create that they can now have some meaningful get to know you time. Because the longer they're able to talk to each other about that kind of stuff, whether it is about work or getting into personal life and things, they're going to remember each other after that. And then you do foster, like you said, that relationship that you talk about that being an ROI that they come away with is way, way more meaningful than just, "Oh yeah, I got a business card," or several, you know, of people that are gonna be meaningful to whatever we're trying to do from a business goal. But now that person's got that extra tie-in to those folks, right?
Dom: Yeah, and that creates huge brand affinity too, to know that a brand is actually helping take the work out of networking for you, and not just put the right people in the right [00:26:00] room, but create the right prompts and opportunities for connection. Like, it's huge. And just to share um, an example of my business building journey. So when I launched Well in France, I initially thought to go broad, because I think that's the temptation when you're first starting out. You're like, "Well, I've got nobody on my mailing list, on..." You know, "I've gotta just, I've gotta fill things up." And so at first I was like, "Okay, this is gonna be a resource hub for all things wellness in France." You know, pretty open-ended. And as time has gone on, I have continued to niche down to the point where now Well in France is a community for international women in Paris who are passionate about all things wellness. So the added layer there is it's not for just anyone, it's for international women living in France who also love wellness. So it's not an expat networking group, it's not a wellness [00:27:00] networking group, it's the two combined. So then when someone is that thing, it's like immediately they can self-identify and be like, "Oh my gosh, this is perfect for me."
Rachel: Love that. Well, and that, that makes a ton of sense. And gosh, as a marketer, we've all been there where you're like, "Why marketing to everyone?" And it's like, okay, no, you're not. No, you're not. There's a specific subset of a type of persona that is actually the thing you're marketing toward. Maybe two, but that's it. You know, and you've gotta really micro it down. And there's always that halo effect, right? Because you're still... and we're about to talk about that too, where it's like those, that very targeted group has a great experience. They are going to talk about it. They're going to share about it, you know, in their own like, you know, feeds and in their communities and circles. They're going to talk about it, which brings us to this next question.
Farrar breaks down how paid marketing fits into a broader engagement strategy, why word of mouth is harder to measure but more valuable, and what event trends she expects heading into 2027.
Rachel: Because all right. I don't live in a very quote unquote "smart home." We do not have a smart Rachel Moore. I know we're weird, but that's the way we roll. We don't have like a smart refrigerator. Our TV, I think, is a little bit [00:28:00] smart, though I have questions sometimes. But it feels like we can't even leave the house nowadays without... And, and of course, we have our phones, right? We cannot leave the house without getting bombarded by notifications, reminders, invitations all over the place. And then we do go outside, and they're everywhere too. And listen, event profs, talking to you out there we're always trying to do our all to gain attendees. We do want to get those notifications and things out there and remind them, "Come to my thing." So and obviously a lot of that can be paid where you're paying to target. We just talked about targeting. Paying to get those notifications and invitations in the eyeballs of the people we know we want at our event. I wanna ask you, is paid acquisition still the best way? Is it a good way? Or is there something we've... I feel like I'm kinda teasing you up because we've noticed this being a thread through our discussion today. Is there something a bit more grassroots people are preferring that isn't about just bombarding you money, let me send n- notifications to your screen?
Dom: [00:29:00] Hmm. Well, I'm not gonna pretend that paid marketing isn't helpful.
Rachel: Right.
Dom: And part of... It's part of, you know, the recipe. It's part of, I think, the whole, like, marketing mix.
Rachel: Yeah
Dom: But I think it's kind of a, a bonus because okay, you get those people in, but then how do you keep them engaged? Because it's one thing to build an audience, but it's another thing to get people to leave their house and come to your events. So that's just a completely different level of engagement they have to have with your brand. So yes, occasionally I'll do paid ads, boosted posts on Instagram, and I always get new followers, which is great. But then converting those people from eyeballs to physical people in a room, that takes building trust. And so of course, yes, get people through the door, get them into your sphere of influence, but then it's about keeping the right people there. And obviously, like, content is a great way to do that, where [00:30:00] you're constantly sharing your point of view. You're giving people glimpses into your world, whether that's your events or your community or the conversations that are going on. So I think, like, yes, paid acquisition is great to do as a step one, but then there's many steps after that are gonna get people to convert to an engaged event attendee.
Rachel: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We talked about this too, how much is that word of mouth that we've talked about? We, you know, hey, they're having an experience and they're sharing that and talking about that out there. how much do our event profs listening to this maybe need to say, "I need to think more about that aspect"?
Dom: Oh, yeah. I mean, I think we all know that the goal of a, a great event is that people have such an amazing experience that they go and talk about it unprompted. You know, organic marketing, word of mouth, like, I think that's a goal we all have. But I think what's harder is being okay [00:31:00] with the fact that word of mouth is not measurable,
Rachel: Yeah
Dom: you know, at least in the same way that our other channels are. So yes, maybe you have a form on your event RSVP that says, "How did you hear about us?" Friend. Okay, that's word of mouth. Cool. We can measure that a little bit, but it's really, like, the conversations that people are having in the office, around lunch tables, like, out on a jog with their friends or peers. Like, I think that's where a lot of the best marketing happens because it comes with way more legitimacy and trust when it's your brand, your experience is being evangelized by someone who isn't being paid to do it. But also it's just more economical, too.
Rachel: Yeah, sure is. Yeah and that's what we all want, right? We want people to be chattering about our event or our activation or whatever so much that i- it really is creating that buzz, being like, "Well, I wanna go to that. I didn't get invited. Can I be invited to the next one?" [00:32:00] Or tell me, you know, or joining a mailing list, say, "I wanna know when the next one is so I don't miss it," et cetera. But you're right. I was just, while you were saying that, I'm like, as a marketer, you know, I'm always of the mind, like, I ain't putting a link out there unless there's a UTM, some tags on there. And now I'm like, wouldn't it be great if we could put UTM tags on words? And then that gets me into a creepy, you know, technology craziness of a sci-fi that probably a world we don't want. So no, don't do that. But if, I still, I s- a girl can dream, you know? It'd be great to be able to track that stuff a little bit more robustly, but it is what it is right now. Yeah. If anyone out there has figured out how to do that yes, let's have you on this podcast too because we all want to know how.
Dom: I will say something cool I noticed recently, 'cause the tool I use for most of my community events is Luma. I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's a, like a much more beautiful Eventbrite, and just great UX on both sides. And something cool that I've noticed is if I have someone sign up, I have no idea where they came from, there's a little section that [00:33:00] says, "Referred by," and it's whoever, like, shared the link with them. they were logged in or I guess Luma probably has some kind of... Yeah, they can recognize the, what's it called? IP or whatever. It'll tell me which person, like, shared the event to them, and that's been really interesting
Rachel: That is cool. The more you'd wanna know that too. I think we've actually, there's been some I wanna say there's some tools out there I think we've interviewed even Rachel Stefan Snowball she's got on, and it's social-wise where, and it's one of those things of social application, but it can let you track even down to the person who's sharing this out and how people got there. So there are tools and, but again, that's digital pathway. The spoken words a little bit is more nebulous, so maybe someday somebody will sort that out. Speaking of someday, I say this with great begrudgingly, I can't even believe we're in August of 2026 already. Where does the time go? 2027 is less than a half a year away. Do you have any predictions [00:34:00] for what we might see in a new year of events as we, when we roll over into 2027?
Dom: Well, this won't be a surprise, but I think that more intimate events like supper clubs, th- they've really, like, blown up this past year, and I think that will continue. Currently, it's happening in, I guess, the more B2C space, but I think more businesses and brands are gonna start doing intimate events like that for their customers or prospects. I also think retreats I've seen picking up as well, also used to be kind of a personal life B2C thing. But I think some brands have been doing that really well, especially when it comes to retreats for like influencers in their space or partners, affiliates, people that they just wanna build a stronger relationship with. Retreats are an amazing way to do that 'cause you're kind of combining [00:35:00] vacation and work, business and pleasure. So, yeah. And also just amazing organic content always comes out of those. And again, I think like events built around stories. This is really maybe unexpected, but I think that's the one thing that AI is lacking, is stories from personal lived experience. And so I think people will start to seek out less information, knowledge, how to, because we can get that now at our fingertips, but real like personal stories. So, I've seen this picking up a little bit recently in that kind of personal space, but I think it's gonna seep over into the professional world as well. Just acknowledging like we're all still human at the end of the day when-- and stories are what resonate
Rachel: Exactly right. Well, I mean, [00:36:00] and that's what we're kind of doing on this podcast even. I mean, yes, I can get-- we're getting all of your insights about the industry work in events and things, but we also are hearing more about you and kind of what brought you to that, you know? And there there's important context there. And so, yes, absolutely. I love that. I hope we see more of this stuff because it is vastly more interesting and, you know, just really adds that, like you said, that very unique POV or take on those events.
Farrar closes with a modified Thoreau quote on staying open to life outside of work, and shares where listeners can follow Well in France.
Rachel: I have one final question for you. This is the easiest question of all. I figure we should end on that. Where can our listeners find and follow you and Well in France online?
Dom: Yeah, all the usual places. So, I am on LinkedIn, Dominique farrar. Well in France is wellinfrance.com, and we are on Instagram. I'm probably most active over there. So yeah, would be so happy to hear from anyone who listened to the episode and wants to chat
Rachel: Especially if you're visiting France as an [00:37:00] international woman who's into wellness, then
Dom: Exactly.
Rachel: it out. That's amazing.
Dom: are waiting for you
Rachel: Waiting for us. Awesome.
Rachel Moore: Dominique's skill up for us is inspired by a famous author with a light spin on his original words.
Dom: it's in the form of a quote. I believe it's Henry David Thoreau, and I'm gonna change it a little bit to be relevant to this audience, but the advice would be, "How vain it is to sit down to work when you have not stood up to live." The original quote is, "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live," but I think it applies to anything we're doing. Like you mentioned, we can sit there and just be, like, in a total tunnel staring at our screen, trying to solve a problem, trying to be creative. But the true source of creativity is out in [00:38:00] life, being open to the inspiration that's out there. So I would just say, yeah, don't forget to just get out and participate in life, in the human experience, because it's gonna make you better at your work, no matter what you're doing
Rachel Moore: Thanks again to Dominique Farrar for joining us on "Event Experience," and thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, we'd love to hear it. Connect with us on social and subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you're listening. Also, don't forget to share the show with your colleagues and friends. You'll find transcripts and key takeaways for each episode on bizzabo.com/podcast. On behalf of the team, thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of "Event Experience."
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