In this episode of Event Experience by Bizzabo, host Rachel Moore interviews Jessica Connolly, Director of Global Events for Meltwater. They discuss Jessica's role in inheriting and enhancing Meltwater Summit, her emphasis on attendee engagement and satisfaction, and her strategies for creating memorable event experiences.
With over 20 years of experience in event execution and production, Jessica Connolly is the Director of Global Events for Meltwater. Her career spans the environmental, real estate, and tech industries.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:09] Rachel: 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.
[00:00:34] Rachel: The life of an event planner is full of twists and turns, and our journey today takes us on the road to Meltwater Summit and how Jessica Connolly, Director of Global Events for Meltwater, ultimately got her, her team, and her audience to the destination.
[00:00:50] Where are we headed? New York City. What are we talking about? Jessica's experience of inheriting Meltwater Summit, creating a playful space for learning and networking, and building trust with a "new-to-her" team. There's a lot to relate to in this specific event experience. Let's get started. Today's guest on the podcast has over 20 years of experience in event execution and production, and a career spanning environmental real estate and tech industries, which brings us to today where she is the director of global events from Meltwater.
[00:01:37] Whenever we can swing it, she's also my international flight buddy. Whenever we can try. Please welcome Jessica Connolly to the podcast. Jessica, welcome to my microphones.
[00:01:46] Jessica: Thank you, Rachel. Really excited to be here today. The 20 years, I'm wondering if I have to add on that extra five. Now I think it's been 25, maybe more. Just trying not to age.
[00:01:56] Rachel: Uh, I should be proud of it, right? It's a lot of years of doing this and under my belt. And I haven't quit the industry with all the stress and issues that come along with it.
[00:02:07] Jessica: I just love it. I think I love chaos.
[00:02:09] Rachel: Well, I think you are immediately identifying and helping our listeners identify with you. Cause all of them are probably like, yes, this is exactly, it's a huge reason why they're in the events industry. And it does. Twenty years goes by really quick. And to be honest, I just got that from checking your LinkedIn, which words can express, you know, all the things you've done is normal with that.
[00:02:27] So I won't let my words express that. I want to toss this back over to you.
[00:02:31] Rachel: Um, let's segue into some get to know you questions. Um, So when you are spending that full day, that full event day, you're on the ground, you're walking around, not only are you making sure all the details are good, but you're also asking people like what they think of the event, but those days, what are your go to shoes?
[00:02:47] Jessica: I'm now sneaker obsessed. I come from the age where we used to wear heels. I don't know what we were thinking and I did it. Like I would have heels on all day. I would probably take them off, like in a back room somewhere for a little bit, but then put them back on and walk around the floor. Sneaker obsessed, New Balance, Nike, Fascia, On, Way Babe is a new pair I just bought for myself as a special treat. those. But yeah, it's pretty much all sneakers all the time.
[00:03:17] Rachel: Nice. And thank goodness, that is the fashion, we're so glad.
[00:03:21] Jessica: Yes. And I don't care what I'm wearing. It just works with everything. It's the best. It's the most comfortable.
[00:03:26] Rachel: Awesome. Is there anything that you're listening to, watching, or reading these days that you can't put down and it doesn't have to be work related.
[00:03:32] Jessica: There's not a lot of work related there. There's not even much there because between work and I have two teenage boys that are extremely busy. I kind of slack there. I listen to Howard Stern most mornings. I've been doing that forever, like since my college days. So it's just something that has constantly been part of my life.
[00:03:51] I love Howard. I don't know what I'm going to do if he retires. It would be weird. The Bear is one of my TV obsessions and I'm trying to take this new season slow because I went through the first two seasons like that. And I'm frustrated with how we watch TV these days and that bulk and like, we watch so much so much and then it disappears for a year and a half and you don't even remember what happened.
[00:04:16] So trying to piece myself with this season of The Bear.
[00:04:20] Rachel: Awesome. Is there a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events that you might have found interesting lately?
[00:04:28] Jessica: and this is something I've noticed and have been seeing a lot lately in the past year is late registration. People used to sign up for events early. You could get your accounts. You knew who was coming. And now, with this specific event, it's two years and everyone has registered late. We sold out last year.
[00:04:49] And even those like this is the most important clients they have to come. I'm like, I don't know that I can actually let more people in the room, and know where for them to go. Kind of things were happening.
[00:05:01] So, trying to like, my skill that I want to do is, like, just learn a little bit more about late registration. How are we planning for it? I'm used to planning, like, just differently. So, I'm learning that a little bit myself.
[00:05:16] And then something that I always find myself going to Julius Solaris. He posts a lot and his posts promote a lot of engagement. So I always find myself in the comment sections of his posts because there's so many great event professionals in there.
[00:05:34] Like there's a lot of good stuff in his comments section. So that's kind of where I find myself going. Like he posts something and I'm like, okay, what's everyone is saying about this? Because I think that's where we're all talking.
[00:05:47] Rachel: Yeah, there you go. Well,
[00:05:48] uh, just expand out a little bit, what is your role at Meltwater? What are you doing as the global director of global events there?
[00:05:55] Jessica: So let me tell you a little bit about Meltwater first, for listeners who maybe haven't heard of Meltwater. I hadn't heard of Meltwater before I joined. So Meltwater has media and social intelligence tools. We do a lot of media monitoring, social media management, and we're providing research that's like monitoring your competitors, listening to your clients, consumers, and performing campaign research for you.
[00:06:19] So it's really cool. When I got introduced to the product, I was like, of course this exists. And how cool is it? And I know you kind of being almost in that industry yourself, like, I'm sure you have heard of Meltwater and the tools are really cool. And the service they provide. So I was hired, um, October of last year to do their summit events.
[00:06:41] For the first time they wanted to do a large scale customer events. They put it out there 1 year and they had 4000 people register. I think they were hoping for like 600. And they had 1000 register and they were just like, typical, we don't have an events person marketing team, like, everyone has a role in it.
[00:07:01] Can you do this? Can you do that? The whole team's stressed out because they're doing this. So that's when they decided we need a full time events person. The event is a success. The sales team loves it. The leadership team loves it. The board loves it. We want to keep doing this. So, lucky for me. I knew someone working at the company and got a phone call that they were looking for an events person.
[00:07:22] So, I'm brought in. I started October of last year. The contracts were already signed. It's like, here's the event. Here's what you're doing, and go for it. So, you know, it's a learning experience of okay, great. I can't change the venue. I can't change this. I think this is all wrong, but hey, here's what we're going with.
[00:07:42] And, we're going to make it work. But what gets me really excited too is this, the clients that we have. They're made up of PR, comms, digital marketers, social media managers. So they're like an exciting group of people to plan events for. And I like planning events for marketers. They get excited about all the little things that go into it.
[00:08:01] Like they'll notice like the pillows or the color palette of the brands, you know, and they don't have logos on them or anything, but they just kind of fit in with the, you know, it's kind of whimsical and fun and they document everything. They share pictures of everything. They're helping to grow the event.
[00:08:18] They're really excited about that. So it makes me be on top of my game because there's a little extra pressure there. I think for marketers or event professionals that you're putting events on to do that.
[00:08:28] Rachel: Oh, my gosh. If there's so much I can, uh, we're going to dig into this too, because you just gave a really great overview. And how much again, talk about relatability, because, first of all, I would be willing to bet that a lot of our listeners can totally relate with that experience of saying, Hey, I'm getting brought on maybe after the fact, maybe after realizing this is more than can be just spread out amongst an existing marketing team, you actually need a specialist, who can dig into this, you know, and really direct to this event.
[00:08:57] And get brought in and like you said, well, a lot of stuff's already kind of set up. So you've got to roll with what you've been given, uh, make the most of this one coming up. And of course, I don't know if just really quick, I want to ask you about that. Did that feel like giving you the freedom to then, after that event that, you only had so much control over how it was going to execute.
[00:09:20] But knowing you will have full control over how it goes in the future. What was kind of your mentality with that? Can you describe did that feel good or was it like nerve wracking or a mixed bag of both?
[00:09:30] Jessica: I thought it was going to be good to be able to say, hey, we did this little background, the event was held at The Glass House in New York City. Which is this big, beautiful open space on the West Side River. Um, it's a glass house, it's all glass windows, and there's so much natural light and great. It's very new and modern. All the technology is built in, which is amazing and helps with costs.
[00:09:53] But the flip side to that is, it's one space and there's only so much you can do with it. And the program that we want to have, where we want to have different workshops and breakouts, we want a separate place to go for lunch.
[00:10:05] So it didn't accommodate all of that. So when I first walked in and they said, here it is, here's the space, here's the program you want to run. Now you get to manage it. The first thing I said was, oh, you can't have this amount of people in the space to do this, but it was kind of 1 of these 2 baths.
[00:10:21] Okay. So we get there. We're on site. We see some of the issues that we knew going into it. Too many people to do exactly what we want to do. So, after we said, what can we do? And the one problem is we love the space. Like I said, it's beautiful. It's modern. It's open. It's so great. But the size of the event that we want to grow to and where our leadership team wants to take the events and what we from our education team want to actually provide to everyone. There's a conflict there.
[00:10:52] So in New York City, surprisingly, does not have a ton of event space that fits the size we're in. There's a lot of big spaces like the Javits Center, that's expensive, you have to build the whole thing out. I don't want to do all that. Then there's a lot of small great spaces like the Glass House or there's the hotels.
[00:11:13] And the hotels are like, you know, love them or hate them, there's good and bad with all of it. So what stressed me out was, okay, I want to move it. Where am I moving it to that is going to still have that intimate feeling, that modern feeling. And you know, I still have that. So we're in contract negotiation right now with the space.
[00:11:33] And I'm just still like, I'll probably sweat it until the day we get there on site. And I see all the branding up and say, okay, I feel confident, but also, yeah, it's a little nerve wracking to say, Hey, great job guys. I'm going to uplift and move your event over here because I think this is going to be better for what we want to do. It's a lot to take on.
[00:11:54] Rachel: That's exactly right. It's, I think, like, you can see this in movie tropes all the time too. We're like, Ooh, something's already set in play and motion. Oh, they can't do it. Let's have you step in. And, you know, you really, and, you know, obviously you can go either disastrous, and go magically or anywhere in between. But yeah, I would imagine, you know, especially when you talk about an event planner where we, and we've, we've talked about this on this podcast and, and even on a Bizzabo's webinars about all the thought and strategy that goes into event design.
[00:12:23] This isn't just about, Oh, I think it's a pretty space. I've always wanted, like, if we think about the sphere in Las Vegas, everyone might think, Oh, everyone wants to have their event there. And, you know, you might be like, well, no, it would not fit well with what we're trying to accomplish and the people.
[00:12:40] So yeah, being made to like, okay, this is what, where you have to do it. And constraining the kind of what you might envision would work best had to have been a bit of a challenge, but it's, it sounds like you accomplished it. And I want to, I want to dig into something you mentioned too, about where Meltwater leadership wants to take this event, Meltwater Summit.
[00:13:01] Can you talk a little bit about that? Like, what are the goals? It sounds like you mentioned that once they first started it, they realized it was awesome. All the teams at Meltwater are like, this is great. Let's keep doing this. What do they try to accomplish with Meltwater Summit? Like, what are they striving to do?
[00:13:15] Jessica: Sure. So, and it's, I've added my own goals along the way too, of things that they didn't think about, which is why they brought an event professional in, but you know, they're first off, they just want to elevate their brand. They want to promote their offerings. They have their client base.
[00:13:31] We have a very smart CEO. He knows that in person events, they're making connections. The sales team knows this. We can get people together. That's how sales are going to happen. So from a sales point of view, they're like, bring in thousands of people. We'll meet them all. We'll wow them all. It will be amazing and great.
[00:13:50] And then we have another part of our leadership team who's like, well, yes, but we want the right people in the room. Like, who are the buyers who's spending money? Because mine, we need pipeline. We need revenue. You know, that's the ultimate goal that we need from the events. When I come in from my perspective, I say, okay, this is all great.
[00:14:14] But we want an environment that is going to balance networking and learning,
[00:14:18] I'm not always thinking about the money, I have plans in place on how we can make revenue. But I'm like, I always look at the attendee journey, the attendee perspective. How are they, they're going to come back, they need to, you know, like the brands, they need to like the environment. And we need to make sure we're setting these things up for them.
[00:14:38] So when we get into this, like, let's grow. I have to balance them of, okay, we're have to grow in these different areas, not just more people in the room, not just the right people in the room, but giving them the right experience in the room.
[00:14:53] We have a lot of users. We have decision makers. Now we're two years into the events. And what the data is telling us is, well, you have more users there than decision makers. So now we can look back at the programming and say, Hey, we have to do a little bit more here for the users. We need some more workshops.
[00:15:11] We need some more hands on learning and training for them. There's a lot of users here versus just having decision makers or C level people in the room. And we know they're not sitting in sessions. They're there for meetings. They want to meet people. They want to meet the other executives.
[00:15:25] So there's almost, you know, you're planning all these mini events into one big event because you have all these different people in the room. So that's, to me, that's the growth. My head of sales, it's more people and revenue.
[00:15:37] Rachel: Yeah. You bring up a great point there. And look, we are kind of coming at this saying some brands, gosh, if we think about even brand people listening to this, who may be your brand does not do an event, its own organized event. Maybe you go partake, you go participate in trade shows or conferences, you know, you, you do have some kind of presence, but you're not the entity putting on an event.
[00:16:02] Thus, planning all the content, the activations, the space, even the catering and things like that, really giving that full experience. So it's interesting to think about. And I like that you talk to us a little bit too about, this is a relatively still new event, a new experience being designed and you're learning as you go, but you brought up something so important there.
[00:16:23] We do harp on it a lot and hopefully all event organizers and planners listening to this know how important it is, even if it's a brand new conference, is data. You really are looking at, well, who is showing up to this and planning accordingly. And I'll just add a little caveat here, a little disclaimer.
[00:16:39] I got to go to this event to Meltwater Summit this year, 2024. So, but we're listening to your experience about it. But knowing that you've got that whole space, like you said, very open concept, everyone's kind of mixed together, there was some ability to break out in things. And you're looking ahead to say, how can we keep accommodating the target audience we do want to hit, so that sales is happy.
[00:17:04] But also the end user experience of the actual tech product is happy because they're kind of getting this in person touch and feel of Meltwater while they're at this event. So I really think it's cool that you're not only looking at it, but you're helping the teams that you work with, look at that, that they may not have really realized they need to hone in on that more, right?
[00:17:25] Jessica: Exactly. And I think it's why, you know, companies out there that are doing an event and they don't have someone with event experience planning it for them, there are all these things that we're going to think about and bring up in planning meetings, that you probably just didn't think of because you don't know, you know, and that's fine.
[00:17:44] But I, you know, came in and, you know, hard coming in as a new person and saying, well, you didn't think of this or think about it this way. Let's, you know, you have four PowerPoint presentation sessions back to back. No one wants to sit in that, you know, just like really working with your teams and building that trust for them to agree with you.
[00:18:05] And I think what happened after this event, again, we thought it was a great success. Every event has their issues and we address those. But, overall, we thought it was a great success and I felt from my team, the trust to make the decision to say, Hey, now we have to move it. And now we have to accommodate this.
[00:18:24] So that's, you know, that feels really good to have that support from my team for them to give me that reinn to say, yeah, go ahead, we trust you, let's do it.
[00:18:34] Rachel: Ooh. And again, you're bringing up a great point too here. We're all used to going to, you know, okay, you get told that there's a potential job and you go interview for the job and, you know, they're trying you on, you're trying them on, and you kind of like, okay, we're coming in and we, we think this will work out.
[00:18:48] And then you hit the ground and you start proving yourself. You talk about being kind of thrown into that fire pretty quick here. You are, it's not like you were hired and then said, okay, we want you to begin planning this conference is brand new, and this is all you, you own it from start to finish.
[00:19:02] Instead, you did have that unique experience or maybe not unique based on what our listeners might think, but where you're coming in saying, okay, I kind of have to like take over what someone else already theorized and designed.
[00:19:12] But you're new to the team, you're new to the company and they're like, okay, we hired you go, and now you get, you know, you have Meltwater Summit that you execute. Knowing again, that some of these factors were not things that you planned, but you're working with what you got. It sounds like, I mean, I don't know, I'm just guessing. And Jessica, I do know you a little bit too, but it sounds like, you were kind of like, yes, I have proven myself because this was an awesome event and you all got to witness it firsthand, right?
[00:19:38] Jessica: Yes, and that's where we are now. We were not like that a year ago when I started. And I started, and it was like, okay, great. We are opening registration in two weeks. I said, okay, great, what's the website look like? Show me that. Oh, we haven't built that yet. Okay. No, they did it the year before in, you know, it all came off great and I said, okay, oh, I really have to hit the ground running.
[00:20:00] And along the way you face, like you said, new environment, new people, new personalities, you face a lot of, well, this is how we did it last year comments, which are never my favorites. You know, like, you're brought here for a reason, but again, I now feel like my team now has the confidence in me.
[00:20:20] They've seen it come together and that feels really good because it's a struggle to come in, and with any job, not just in the events industry, you know, coming into a new place, whether you replaced a person or you're starting a new role, it's learning those personalities and the people and who did what.
[00:20:35] And we always did it this way. Okay. Well, there's you know, two ways to tie your shoe, you can, and they'll stay tied. It will work. So it's, you know, let's try and trust each other. So I think, I feel a lot better going into the event this year than last year being new.
[00:20:52] Rachel: Well, event planners, all of you listening and Jessica, you know, this, there is such a visibility to whether you, you, uh, fail or succeed. Cause it's, it's immediate. You're like, you might see stuff later, but you know, the second, oops, that curtain cue went weird or that light didn't work or food dish didn't get brought out quickly, very quickly enough or something.
[00:21:14] It's all so immediate. But it is all about that experience you're designing and then just making it happen. So I'm really glad to hear. And of course I got to experience a little bit firsthand, that it was, it was amazing.
[00:21:25] We'll be right back with more event experience after the break.
[00:21:31] 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, 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.
[00:22:03] We're back with Jessica Connolly to discover how event space creates the right space for your audience.
[00:22:11] Rachel: I want to ask you, was there any particular activation or, uh, engagement opportunity for the audience that, that was at Meltwater that you think was particularly unique or proud of, or you think worked out really well?
[00:22:23] Jessica: I was thinking about this and I'm like, there wasn't just one thing. I think what I love coming back to this space and I know audience you weren't there, but I mentioned it's a big open room and we have the stage in the middle of the room and I've seen other events set up like this. And on the sides, we have like a lounge, we have a product hub area.
[00:22:42] We had the little activations, chalkboard wall, the flower photo booth and, you know, just other in food stations, like sprinkled in that would change. So what I liked about this, was just having the playfulness where things were in different areas, not everything was always there. Like, we had someone signing your name in calligraphy on your notebooks. She was just there one day. We had a donut station that was just there one morning.
[00:23:11] So it really gets people to kind of move around and check out the space versus just sitting here and doing this and not even knowing that other stuff is going on. They can be like, oh, where'd you get that? I want, and I do this at events too, like, where'd you get that piece of swag? I want that.
[00:23:28] Or there's popsicles? Where are those? Like, I want these kind of things. So I really just liked having that kind of like wherever you were, something was happening in the event space. And I think that was like the great about the big open space versus having a bunch of like cutout rooms.
[00:23:47] Rachel: And even if I hadn't experienced it myself, but you, you are touching on something, especially considering you've got this, uh, it's perfect for the audience of marketers, marketing and comms people. You talk about people who may be a little bit more tapped into the FOMO. We're the people who keep our pulse on trends.
[00:24:08] Can we jump on that? Is it too late? You know, we have to do things rapid turnaround, so we're still timely. You know, whether that's crisis comms, we all know the power of missing a moment. And the fact that you wired are that into the DNA of this experience where it's like, well, this is only here for this time.
[00:24:26] This is only you, you either go now or you miss it. One might think, Ooh, that makes it really frenetic, but it's a good frenetic because you're like, well, okay, I don't want to miss it. 'Cause you're right, you just see people walking around, like, I want to be part of that now. And super genius, I think in something certainly that people can borrow from to say, well, how do I keep people from getting bored? And that's a great way to do it is play it on that psychology.
[00:24:48] Jessica: Exactly. And I think, like I said, just having multiple different things around for the events. And I know a lot of events still are taking place in hotels. There's benefits to that. So, in hotels, you know, you're often in all these rooms or hallways, and it's just, you know, I always get to an event space and I walked the path of my attendees.
[00:25:09] Where are they walking? What should be on this wall? You know, do we have anything over here that we can just even if it's like a pop up photo booth thing. Even if it's just they take the photo with their own camera, it doesn't have to be all logins, send us your email and that you know. Just little touch points around the way. And I always get my inspiration from other events out there, you know. We don't, I don't work with an agency for this event.
[00:25:35] So I have to take my inspiration from all the other amazing events out there. Inbound, Money 2020, C2, like when people, when these events are happening, my social media is just flooded with all that stuff that's happening. And, you know, I just kind of use that for a lot of inspiration to, you know, say, what can I bring to my audience? This looks really cool. And it's a fun activation.
[00:26:02] Rachel: Yeah. And props to you too, for any event planner is doing that, even if you can't get to these other events, thank goodness for social media. If the events done a great job and obviously you can tell the audience is engaged and they're sharing, like, if it's going so far where they're like, I have to, I have to take a selfie or take a picture of this and share it on social media, you have achieved.
[00:26:22] Because my goodness, it's harder and harder to, it's almost like handing over an email transactionally. Like, you know, if we're on a website, I'm like, I don't want to give you my email, or I don't know about give me my mobile number. And same thing with saying, I don't know if I, do I want to take the moment or the minute it's going to take to like, do this selfie stage it, get it on my social, use the right hashtag, make sure I'm tagging accounts and stuff like that.
[00:26:44] I just feel like, and maybe you feel that too, where it's like the more and more that is becoming a fleeting achievement where we're able to make people stop that long and invest that time and actually sharing the event out on their feeds. So, you know, if they do it, it's gotta be, gotta be something good.
[00:27:01] Jessica: Exactly.
[00:27:01] Rachel: Well, cool. I want to ask you if there's any particular teams or team members that you want to shout out that this just really, you're like, Hey, that, especially considering, you know, two weeks after you join registration open and stuff.
[00:27:11] Anyone that you want to shout out that really helped make the event, amazing or easier to execute?
[00:27:17] Jessica: Absolutely. I have two big shout outs. First of all, I'm a team of two. It's me and I have a girl on my team and I've done smaller events with more people. It's a lot. And I'm sure most people listening are also part of a really tiny events team. But something about us. We're small, we're focused. We get it done.
[00:27:36] I make sure that we have at least 1 hour a week where we're just brainstorming and we're not even talking about tasks, like, just brainstorm all the ideas for this event for any other events, anything. Just want to make sure we have that openness to just talk the ideas. And then, you know, the rest of the week we're working. So Skylar on my team, huge help, amazing.
[00:27:57] And then my head of content and programs put the agenda together. I don't love program planning. I love the logistics side of it. I love the attendee experience side of it. But so in that role is essential. And I was lucky enough to work with someone who really understands who our audience is, who's attending the events, the content they want to hear. He was great at getting us some amazing speakers. So really like a central role, whoever is doing the program planning.
[00:28:26] Rachel: I hope you realize the restraint I've shown and not pointing out one big aspect of this event, which probably was a big draw for a lot of people was your keynote speaker.
[00:28:36] who was that?
[00:28:37] Jessica: Ryan Reynolds was our keynote speaker. And you know, we've went back and forth on like the big name celebrity. Do they have the draw? What was really interesting is we announced him and our uptick went up like a little, and we were like, oh, did we make a mistake? Should we not be doing. So we ended up selling out the space. But it was one of these where we think he's perfect because he does all of this marketing and social media.
[00:29:07] He's just a genius at it. I'm like, why are you even acting? I mean, that's great too, but you're really good over here.
[00:29:14] The audience loved him. I thought he gave a great talk. He was, I luckily got to meet him before he came on stage and he was really sweet and personable and sent my boys a little video because my boys are fans.
[00:29:27] And that was just great. So yeah, I've had good and bad celebrities I've worked with and he was one of the better ones, so. And he's speaking at Inbound, which I'm going to in a couple weeks, so.
[00:29:38] Rachel: I love that you'd mentioned about, picking the right celebrity. You and I have even had discussions on this, not on this podcast, but just in general, because it's like, it can really be easy to go for a famous name, just go, just get them. And maybe there's not a very clear correlation as to how that person ties into the theme or the topic or the audience of the event, right?
[00:29:59] Jessica: Yeah. And that was really important to us, that when we go to the celebrity group, they have to have a brand.
[00:30:05] And among those brands, not just like, oh, I, you know, put a social media post up about this, you know, whatever thing, like it really is their brand and they're involved in it.
[00:30:16] And we talked to another celebrity on our list and she actually wasn't really part of her brand, we found out, because we wanted her to come on with her chief strategy officer and do the interview together, and we found out they don't really have a relationship. And she doesn't really work on the brand,
[00:30:33] Rachel: Yeah.
[00:30:34] Jessica: we're like, oh, that's not what we're looking for.
[00:30:37] We want someone who's in their brand and can talk about that. That's our audience. So, it's interesting to find some of these tidbits out.
[00:30:46] Rachel: Well, I think the running theme in everything you're sharing about Meltwater Summit is you knew the audience, you understood the assignment, and you made sure you delivered an experience that the audience felt very comfortable in, felt like was crafted specifically for them from keynote speaker to, you know, kind of fleeting moments that could turn into FOMO or could become like a really great takeaway, that people take home with them. And just creating those memorable things and aspects to your event.
[00:31:16] Rachel: So, I have one last question. It's the easiest question of all, where can our listeners find and follow you online?
[00:31:21] Jessica: I'm on LinkedIn, Jessica Connolly. I'm on Instagram @ jvconnolly. I don't post much work stuff there. It's personal, but I'm travel pictures, we have a lot of that there. So
[00:31:32] Rachel: Cool. Well, we'll send people your way.
[00:31:34] Jessica's Skill Up Advice is about how event profs can trust their audience to tell them how it's going.
[00:31:50] Jessica: It's knowing your audience, it's really just knowing your audience, understanding who's attending your event and why they're attending. And I know we all struggle with getting people to respond to surveys and taking the surveys. It's so important.
[00:32:05] Jessica: I fill out surveys when I go and I'm very honest with it, and I appreciate the honesty because I'll take the harsh criticism. I know what goes wrong at my event. I can see it with my own eyes happening. I know it. I understand. So it doesn't offend me if someone else recognizes it too. What I do sometimes at events that I'm planning is I go around and start talking to people. I introduce myself and I say I'm the event organizer. I would love an honest piece of feedback.
[00:32:33] And you'd be surprised at the amount of people who will. I had this one girl, I started tape recording her and I'm like, Oh, okay. It was good and bad, but I'm like, okay, let, let's go. And so that has helped me a little bit, even, you know, cause you get some good, you get some constructive criticism. It's good to hear it all.
[00:32:53] And then the other thing about your audience is kind of knowing why they're there. Are they coming for content? Are they there just for networking? A lot of people go to events just to network.
[00:33:02] They're not sitting in all the content sessions. So let's, you know, make sure that we're having more, if that is your audience, make sure you have more network opportunities. Or places. Something I'm working on next year is having a lounge, a working lounge, because I noticed at this event, you saw in our lunch room, which is meant just for lunch. A lot of people were in there, they were working on their laptops, which you have to do. Sometimes when you go to an event.
[00:33:28] You don't totally have the full day to do, the event stuff, but they're also networking with each other. So, I really want to build a lab, a working lounge into the space. So, more to come on that, but yeah, just, you know, kind of knowing why your attendees are there is going to help you deliver a better experience for them.
[00:33:49] Rachel: Thanks again to Jessica Connolly for joining us on Event Experience, and thank you for listening.
[00:33:55] 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 bizzabo.com/podcast. On behalf of the team, thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of Event Experience.
