In this episode of the Event Experience podcast by Bizzabo, you'll get a taste of the full discussion from our webinar featuring leading event tech experts: Liz King Caruso, CEO of techsytalk; Angie Ahrens, director of global events at MRI Real Estate Software; and Clark Hager, senior director of sales engineering with Bizzabo.
Learn about the inefficiencies of outdated event tech and the benefits of consolidating to modern platforms (like Bizzabo OS), and explore the on-demand event to gain insights from the live Q&A with our panel of experts:
Angie Ahrens is a lifelong learner and event professional who has found her passion in leading teams to create impactful experiences as the Director of Global Events for MRI Real Estate Software. She thrives on collaboration, communication, and adaptability, all while embracing change and nurturing a strong team culture, both in her professional life and her personal adventures.
Clark Hager is a seasoned IT leader with over 15 years of experience, specializing in infrastructure and cloud solutions. As the Senior Director of Sales Engineering at Bizzabo, he excels in driving digital transformation, optimizing technology operations, and leading high-performing teams to deliver innovative and scalable software and hardware solutions.
Liz Caruso has helped businesses and thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual, & hybrid events through her expansive knowledge as an event tech expert. For over a decade, as the CEO of techsytalk, she has been recognized as a “techy” and has been named as a Top 5 Women in Event Tech.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:19] 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. In this episode, we're getting unstuck from outdated event tech stacks.
[00:00:40] Join us in a discussion with Liz King Caruso, CEO of techsytalk, Angie Ahrens, director of global events at MRI Real Estate Software, and Clark Hager, senior director of sales engineering with Bizzabo as we gather together to get real about event tech and the Bizzabo OS platform. This episode takes portions of our full webinar:
[00:01:02] Quit venting: the Hidden Costs of Sticking with Outdated Event Tech, which is available on demand at bizzabo.com/events. Let's get started.
[00:01:14] Welcome to Quit Venting: The Hidden Cost of Sticking with Outdated Event Tech. This webinar will be available on demand for your convenience.
[00:01:24] In this discussion, we're going to take on your event tech stack. Everyone go, Ooh, that's right. Everyone. No reason to be scared. We're all in this together. Our goal today is to identify common complaints and challenges that event teams experience in their legacy tech stacks, define the tech stack and the case for consolidating to the Bizzabo operating system, explain the essential core components and features required, and provide examples of companies who have seen success from making the switch.
[00:01:55] We're going to talk about those pesky duplicate systems -ugh, everybody cringe. Data gaps and inefficiencies that keep your tech stack and you from joining modern times and possibilities.
[00:02:08] We're also going to delve into the Bizzabo Event Experience Operating System and how you'll achieve better event ROI, streamlined operations, and enhanced event experiences.
[00:02:19] All right, without further ado, let's begin our journey with the tech stack taking center stage today. We're going to kick things off with some one to one time with a tech expert in the events industry. I am thrilled to welcome Liz Caruso. Liz has helped businesses and thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in person virtual and hybrid events through her expansive knowledge as an event tech expert for over a decade as the CEO of techsytalk.
[00:02:48] She has been recognized as a techie, been named as a top five women in event tech, and for wearing the comfiest black shoes she can find on event day. Liz, I'm so happy to have you as our techie today.
[00:03:02] Liz King Caruso: So excited to be here. This is going to be fun. I know I'm excited too. And it's always great to catch up with you as well.
[00:03:08] Rachel Moore: I know I posted on social today. I'm so ready to nerd out. So this is going to be awesome. But before we do that we want to check in with everyone here in the event. Let's talk about what's really going on. Tech stacks may be about the mechanisms and tools of our trade, but they sure can make us feel some kind of way, right?
[00:03:28] When it comes to the pieces and parts that frustrate you the most, what is your top pick for the biggest pain point? Is it the nickel and dime expenses of tech whenever you'll, Oh, I have to upgrade it issues or lack of tech support, maybe it's the silos between teams and the tools. Or maybe they're just difficult to use.
[00:03:48] I'd like to ask you, Liz, what's one of those pain points? Or maybe there was one not listed that do you hear about the most as far as a pain point?
[00:03:56] Liz King Caruso: I think maybe it covers some of these things, but it's also a little bit different is I think of the idea of piecing things together. So you might find great technology that you love, but then it doesn't really fit with something else that you're already using, or you find something new and it's clunky.
[00:04:14] And I also think planners are so busy. So the idea of taking any more time to integrate one more stinking system, it's their tech stack and it's all, we'll talk a lot. But. So many different, you know, you've got old stuff that you're stuck with. You've got new stuff you really want to try making that all work is, I think, a really big pain point for people.
[00:04:33] Rachel Moore: That's a really good point. And yeah, it just feels like time is such a commodity. If we all had like, if we all won the lottery and could just be paid to just dig in and nerd out and learn new tools and like figure out how they work, who wouldn't want that? But we don't live in that reality.
[00:04:47] But let's get into this. The phrase "tech stack" is pretty accurate. At least when we envision it in our minds, we imagine like a whole collection of tools from hardware to software and in our brains, they all stack and fit neatly together like Legos or something like that. But let's leave that image of imagination behind and enter the reality of today's tech stack.
[00:05:08] And Liz, I'd love to have you help us define this. From your experience, what are the crucial pieces of an effective event tech stack?
[00:05:17] Liz King Caruso: Well, I mean, I think the first thing that comes to mind for me and for all event organizers are things like registration and speaker management and marketing and all of that kind of stuff.
[00:05:25] But I, I think the base of it all that we have to keep in mind is, like Google or Outlook, the drives that you're using, the task management systems the communication systems, Asana, things like that, things that are not marketed specifically to event people only. They're marketed to general businesses and they are the tools that we use day in and day out.
[00:05:46] And so from there, then you've got to layer on all the event components. So the registration, the things that I mentioned before, but then you want really robust marketing tools, email and social marketing. There's so many components and of course, I guess my experience I should say comes mostly from the conference world.
[00:06:02] So that's like where I'm talking from. But lots of little pieces. And then of course you get to the event and then there's like the app. Or the virtual components, the engagement tools, there's, I mean, it's an endless world. Yeah. A lot of tools.
[00:06:18] Rachel Moore: Yeah. I would, and I would think too, I mean, gosh, you know, again, we kind of talked about people who are, who work in it and the frustrations they feel, but that communication part has to be a huge part of it.
[00:06:27] Right. I mean, gosh I know we're all communicating via chat and things like that here within BizzaboOS. But. But we're also, there's things out there like Slack and like you said Google or office or a mishmash of the two and things like that. But I mean, that's just one frontier. It does feel like, like you think about tech stack, it's not just a vertical, it's almost, it's very much more like a wide, like urban sprawl, if you will.
[00:06:52] Liz King Caruso: Yes, I would. It sounds so nice if it could just neatly stack like an apartment building in New York City, but it's definitely not that clean.
[00:07:00] Rachel Moore: Let's go back to magic and imagination. If you could wave a magic wand and have the ideal setup for my personnel and tech standpoints, we're not just talking about tech, but maybe even teams as well for an event tech stack, what would that look like?
[00:07:15] Liz King Caruso: Well, I think it's no surprise. Obviously, we're talking about Bizzabo. I think everything in one as much as possible is definitely helpful. Because obviously, you're not going out there and piecemealing. Like, I think this is the biggest event tech question of all time, you know. Little tools that are all very specialized, and you're going to piece them together or something that was kind of built from scratch and has everything in it.
[00:07:39] Which one is better? My experience over the last 15 years is that as long as the company is truly focused on what event planners need and is not just focused on being the biggest company in the market, all in one is definitely the best for a planner because they can kind of get and for the company and for the attendees and for the sponsors really not just for the planners but kind of end to end you can benefit from all of the tools and the integrations and the changes that they're always making. And then there's kind of that same lack of having to go out and resell your whole client on now we need an engagement tool and you got to go through that whole process again so I think that's part of it. And then Support is a really important component, obviously, and I think the team at your event tech partners all matters.
[00:08:29] Internally, the most streamlined team is the best team. It's not great to have. A thousand people on your team who are responsible for making sure that the technology works and simultaneously. You don't want 17 points of contact at support for the different tech companies that you're working with either. So I think once you've decided like we're gonna go with this set of companies or this one company from there, you've got to have a very streamlined team who actually knows technology and is for making these things happen and not having to drag down every single decision with a thousand people who have to approve. How are the speaker pictures going to look on the website? You know? So things like that, not so much the branding side, but just the tech piece of it, I think.
[00:09:16] Big teams make it very complicated.
[00:09:19] Rachel Moore: Yeah. And I know we're nerding out with Liz.
[00:09:21] She's with us for the rest of this event as well as we're about to bring on other panelists. First, we have Angie Ahrens. Angie is a lifelong learner and event professional who has found her passion in leading teams to create impactful experiences as the Director of Global Events for MRI Real Estate Software.
[00:09:41] She thrives on collaboration, communication, and adaptability all while embracing change and nurturing a strong team culture, both in her professional life and her personal adventures, which include travel, cooking, and a love for Disney- who doesn't, right? Her go to event day shoes are Zero Grand Cole Haan Oxfords, excellent choice.
[00:10:01] Angie, welcome to the discussion.
[00:10:03] Angie Ahrens: Hi, everyone.
[00:10:05] Rachel Moore: Thank you for joining us. And next up, we're bringing on Clark Hager. Clark is a seasoned IT leader with over 15 years of experience specializing in infrastructure and cloud solutions. As the Senior Director of Sales Engineering at Bizzabo, he excels in driving digital transformation, optimizing technology operations and leading high performing teams to deliver innovative and scalable software and hardware solutions.
[00:10:31] When Clark has a full day ahead of him, his shoes of choice are black high top Chucks. I can appreciate that Clark. Pleasure to see you as always.
[00:10:40] Clark Hager: Thank you. Thank you. I feel so basic with the Chucks.
[00:10:43] Rachel Moore: No. Hey, I have Chucks. Those are my go to. So anytime someone answers with Chucks, I'm always like my people.
[00:10:48] And now that we're all prepped, let's dig even deeper into the weeds or rather the wiring of tech stacks. If you've ever felt like you don't know what you don't know, you're about to know.
[00:10:58] In this next segment, Liz, we're going to kick things off with you in here. We're going to talk about something I'll admit I don't know much about but you do. Can you talk to us about the benefits of an open system for integrations?
[00:11:11] Liz King Caruso: I think it's about the ease of everything being connected At the most basic level. And I don't even think it's really that technical. It's just that if everything is built, is that it's very thoughtful and developed as for the most part, at least as far as I can tell internally, they kind of say like, Hey, we need more engagement tools. What would that look like?
[00:11:33] And they talk to planners and they build it. And so that is really helpful because first of all, it all works together. And so you're not having to export things and import things and do all these API integrations and things like that. But also it makes more sense together. You know, there's some really great, for example, just, engagement tools.
[00:11:55] They're just engagement tools. But when you bring them in and you integrate, sometimes you can't even use half of the functionality because it doesn't fit in with the other tools that you've chosen. And so you can really use them to their max capacity. And then just the idea also that Bizzabo and other tools where they're open and allow other companies to integrate kind of enhances that.
[00:12:14] Like there is some sense to not building everything from scratch. There might be an add-on that you want that is really helpful to have, but doesn't make sense internally from a corporate standpoint to build it yourself for whatever reason timeline, they're just not going to get to it or it's a little bit outside of where they want to be or whatever.
[00:12:32] But that open environment helps us to be able to add things that our clients might want that don't necessarily exist. I think the challenge with an open system is when everything is pieced together, but where there's kind of like a bulk of good tools that you can use, and then you can kind of enhance with one or two things that might help with translations or, you know, badging or something like that.
[00:12:55] I think that's where the open system is really helpful.
[00:12:58] And also instead of building with lots of tiny bricks, if you could find, you know, 10 bricks that fit together into this one and you can keep using that one component to build around, it makes it a lot easier too.
[00:13:10] Rachel Moore: Nice. I am going to take the next question to Angie. Knowing what, you know, now why was the Bizzabo OS the right decision for your team and company?
[00:13:20] Angie Ahrens: So first of all, I want to say that MRI is an open connected software company.
[00:13:26] So an open and connected system was very important registration -wise to us. And when I started here, they already used Bizzabo. So, I, in my head was like, okay, you have one year to prove it, figure it out. And so I'm a renewal person, which I think showcases a lot for the Bizzabo platform. That one year that I took to really kind of figure it out.
[00:13:46] It was what integrates well with this platform. You know, does it go into Salesforce? Does it go into Pardot? Can we do our project system with it? I have a global team, so it was really important for it to be a global platform as well. And be accessible, both mobile as well as on a laptop with any kind of connection that you're dealing with.
[00:14:06] So as we moved the event from South Africa to Australia, like, am I able to get the connections that I need to get the software that I need to get? And we were really able to streamline that process. So we operate within four different continents for our users conferences. And everything works very streamlined for what we need it.
[00:14:24] The other reason I found out it was what I needed was being a software company. We listen to our clients. Product feedback is key. So if something is not working, if something isn't what you want it to be, are they going to listen? Are they going to put it on the product list? Are they going to announce it at the next users conference?
[00:14:40] What does this look like? Right? Are they open to feedback? And I have seen the feedback I give actually come out in product form. So having your account manager take that feedback and bring it to the team has been crucially important to us because there's little tweaks in there, right? Like little things.
[00:14:55] And then I would say the 3rd thing is. Just can we use it? Like I have all different levels of event managers and I needed to be really easy and really intuitive as a platform.
[00:15:05] I also like the different levels that we can get with admin rights. So the events team all has access, but my marketing team has access to, but different levels. I don't need someone going in there and messing up my content. My agenda is, you know, we're all type A's. We like to have that control. But at the same time, we just don't have the bandwidth to do it all.
[00:15:24] So being able to really push it out to other people and seeing what they're doing, really kind of confirmed why the platform was good for what we did. And thus renewals happen, right? It's part of that process.
[00:15:37] Rachel Moore: Well, and Clark I'm going to pivot to a kind of a tangent question off of that, I'd love if you could speak a little bit how is that, how does that feel, especially as a sales engineer in that area, knowing that you're like, Hey, that's a great idea.
[00:15:48] Let's go make that happen for you. And then also for other clients, love to hear your thoughts on that.
[00:15:54] Clark Hager: I will say this is an unscripted question, Rachel. I've never worked with you before, but I was thinking when am I gonna like slide in on that topic? Because I think it's really important. I love hearing that from you, Angie.
[00:16:06] I've been with Bizzabo over seven years, maybe a little less than you've been working with us, Liz, but a long time. And I've seen this platform grow. I've seen the company grow and I've seen It's a joy to be able to interface with clients, be out in the market, be at events, understand what organizers companies are looking for, and then go back and work with the product and development teams and actually grow and transform the platform internally.
[00:16:34] It's one of my greatest desires as a technical solution oriented person and seeing it actually manifest. It's just a joy. So no, I think it's great. And it's really critical in a platform as a foundation for events.
[00:16:47] Rachel Moore: Yeah, how many of us wouldn't like to do that with the normal technology just sitting around us right now where you're like, I wish this would do this as well. And you just had someone saying, great idea. Let me go make that happen for you. Dreamscape right there.
[00:17:41] Rachel Moore: Let's carry on into our next segment. You know, we can say a lot about this webinar and about the Bizzabo OS, but one thing no one can say is that we're all talk because we're about to pull out the receipts and share the realities of how Bizzabo works in tech stacks, like yours, audience member who's thinking, okay, well, Angie's talked about, like she renewed and apparently she, you know, she saw the proof in the pudding that it worked the way it was supposed to, but maybe you're kind of wondering out there like, well, does that work in my environment?
[00:18:13] So Clark, I'm going to go to you again for your perspective. How do you compare the before and after of clients that you guide into using Bizzabo OS? Like what changes do they see in their results and outcomes before they incorporate her after?
[00:18:30] Clark Hager: Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, it's funny cause I'm a solutions person.
[00:18:35] That's inherent in my role and my title. And generally. Everyone's a fan of person bringing solutions. It's just generally true. You're looking for an IT person to know or whatever. Everybody's a fan of a solutions person, but when I'm helping people switch or start using the Bizzabo operating system in general, it's like, I have superpowers, like I'm a super solution person because not only am I bringing solutions, but the platform is as well and conversations shift from, how do we manage this software?
[00:19:05] How do we work for the software? How can we run these types of events? Look, we've got these events mostly on autopilot. Now we're running our different event formats. We're running them all through the event seamlessly. And so the conversation shifts to how are we going to get this amazing data that we're getting really in, in many cases for the first time into the hands of our executives.
[00:19:26] Our sales teams and into partner's hands. And then the Operating System portion of the Bizzabo platform and its extensibility starts to shine. So you think of getting data into third parties, Angie mentioned Pardot and some others, your systems of record, we're getting data in there real time, in real time, efficiently, accurately, and we're painting or helping paint that return on investment picture.
[00:19:50] And measuring that actual event impact across all these different stakeholder groups. So I think that's how the conversation shifts from like, how can I make this work to it's working. So how can I start to share this data and insights that we're gathering?
[00:20:06] Rachel Moore: Angie, this is a perfect segue over to you. I'd love you to describe your success with using Bizzabo OS and knowing, yes, it's working.
[00:20:13] Like, can you tap into that for a little bit, describe how it's working for you?
[00:20:17] Angie Ahrens: Yeah, I would say there's a couple of different victories that we've had in the past year and a half, maybe two years. I mean, it's been longer. Don't get me wrong, but like the ones I can think of was the our part integration.
[00:20:29] I mentioned it earlier. If you just think about all my victories around time, like, time is our biggest hurdle. Like, we have so much to do and little time to do it in. And previously, like, we were having a team member pull the list and upload them into. I mean, it's just a stupid step that you had to manual process and we're human.
[00:20:48] We have errors that happen. Like if you're not syncing the right systems, it is what it is within your fields. So having that sync to part out with just a game changer, I don't have sales constantly asking me for a list. Is it updated? Have we done it? Like, I mean, it's stakeholder management, right? It's all part of that process.
[00:21:06] I'm not having to make the graphs myself. The reporting has definitely beefed up in the past year or two, which has been really helpful. And just knowing that we can pull exactly what we need. And again, the access and management of the multiple team members, that their success and knowing how intuitive the platform is.
[00:21:24] I don't have to train anyone. And I'll say this as I just have a new coordinator in North America. And I just gave her the on demand training that Bizzabo has. And it was great. I didn't have to sit through and go through the platform with her because this training is there now. And I was like, when you're done watching these videos let's touch base.
[00:21:42] And she had no questions. It was like a beautiful process.
[00:21:44] Rachel Moore: Wow. Wow. Those are all the things. Liz, this goes right back to what we were talking about at the beginning. It's those pain points. It's the time. It's how people are feeling about it. I mean, and really this does, there's tech involved, absolutely.
[00:21:57] Anytime we can be like, you have what you need. You don't even need to slack me cause you already have it.
[00:22:02] Well, and Clark, I want to come back to you because we talked about building things. We talked about, you know, how things are designed to design well or not. I keep thinking like, you know, if we were to walk into a really beautiful building right now and we were like, Oh my gosh, it's like the best building I ever saw.
[00:22:16] And we didn't know we were standing right next to someone who helped build it. Yeah. I wonder if you're feeling that kind of way because you've just heard like for the last like 10 minutes solid. It's great. All these things are amazing. This is awesome. How are you feeling about that right now?
[00:22:29] Clark Hager: I feel great about it.
[00:22:31] It's kind of hilarious. It's a little surreal. I'm sitting here and I've had the opportunity to be alongside the product teams and development teams when we built most of the things that you're talking about. And I talk about them all the time and pitch their value.
[00:22:45] And I enable our internal teams. Hey, look, this is the strength and power of these things. And this is what you should be letting the world know and to hear these fabulous individuals say, look, we love these things and talk about it is it's just hilarious and delightful. And yeah, no, I'm charmed.
[00:23:02] I'm charmed. This has been a joy for me to sit here and listen to this live.
[00:23:06] Rachel Moore: Well, awesome. When you consider complicated tech stacks, what are your best practices for protecting company and attendee data across multiple applications? How do you minimize that risk? So, whoever wants to kind of jump on that first.
[00:23:24] Clark Hager: I could jump in first. I'll say you want to try to just use the Bizzabo Operating System.
[00:23:28] That's probably your best bet because as Liz outlined, we've got many of these tools built in. But you know, I think it's important to establish a proper flow, a data flow. Where is my system of record? Where's my ultimate source of truth? What's feeding into it? And almost like a flowchart, a diagram.
[00:23:49] Where's all the inputs of my data and where is it going? I think oftentimes organizers, architects, or whoever, start to kind of collect data and utilize all these different tools, and they don't really know how or which way they're gonna go. But just having a road map and ensuring that their data is making the least hops possible and straight to the source of truth is, Probably the best bet from my perspective.
[00:24:12] Rachel Moore: I see nodding. Everybody's agreeing. Liz,
[00:24:14] What about you?
[00:24:15] Liz King Caruso: I'm always nervous to talk about data and privacy. I just feel like it's a very complicated topic, but in general, I would say touch it as little as possible, put it somewhere that you can trust, that you know that the organization is doing their best. Don't be exporting and importing and exporting and importing and dragging it everywhere. That's just kind of the basic level but I think You want to be as cautious with touch points as possible.
[00:24:41] So, you know, if it's going from Bizzabo into Salesforce and from Salesforce and par dot, you know, that's one thing if you're importing lists, which I mean, so many planners are still doing that exporting as Angie was just saying, I got to give a list to my partner team. I got to give updated leads to our sponsors.
[00:24:57] We have to. You know, that I think is where you have some big trouble.
[00:25:02] Angie Ahrens: And I was just going to say the exact same thing, Liz. I think, you know, for us, we put it into part out before it goes in the Salesforce, not just because of the protection of the data, but also protection of our database, right? We want to make sure that it is clean, et cetera.
[00:25:15] So you have to look over not only protecting your clients and your attendees, but also your company. So, seeing least touch points as everyone is saying, and, but also what makes sense for your database as well.
[00:25:27] There's so much more, you can learn from the content in this webinar, but that's all the time we have for this episode. If you'd like to get the full discussion, including the Q and a featuring questions from event planners, just like you visit our website to access the on demand webinar. Thanks again to our panel of experts, Liz king, Angie errands, and Clark Hagar for joining us on event experience.
[00:25:49] 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 can find transcripts of each episode and key takeaways on visibo.com forward slash podcast. On behalf of the team.
[00:26:09] Thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of event experience. Once.
