Event Preview: All About AllThingsRTC Presented by Agora.io

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This week the cred event management team will be onsite and part of the action as AllThingsRTC presented by Agora.io kicks off in Downtown San Francisco at the Parc 55 Hotel on June 13. We’re anticipating 350 attendees to make their way through our sponsor booths and two tracks of content throughout the day. One track will be technical, tailored for developers and engineers, and the other will be a use case track covering the current state and future of RTC implementation.

cred will be well represented both offstage and on as two of our very own speakers will be speaking on panels at the event. Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder and CEO of Mighteor, will sit on a panel about the power of real-time content and how it can shape our perceptions of the world. Shortly after, D Sharma, Founder of Meditation.Live, will be talking about the impact of real-time communication on the future of fitness and wellness through online video coaching.

Interested in attending? Join the cred team at AllThingsRTC by registering here with the promo code: CRED

If you can’t make it for the event, be sure to follow activity through the hashtag #AllThingsRTC19!

Roundup: RampUp on the Road 2019 Spring Shows

The spring stretch of RampUp on the Road shows have officially come to a close. We wrapped things up in DC last week at Nationals Park, home to the Washington Nationals, with a full day of engaging speakers, networking opportunities, and even a tour of the ballpark. The day began with attendees mingling over breakfast and registration in the large conference room—which was packed to the brim once we kicked off with content.

Fatemeh Khatibloo, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, opened the day, and provided an insightful look into the world of “Decentralized Digital Identity.” The audience was taken on a journey through behavioral advertising, identity resolution, and future of privacy-respecting marketing. Following Fatemeh’s presentation, one of our own speakers, Lucy Caldwell, Founder and Principal at Mockingbird Lab, moderated a session on “Achieving the Diversity Trifecta.” Speakers Anneka Gupta, President and Head of Product and Platforms at LiveRamp, and Justin Antoinpillai, Founder and CEO at WireWheel.io, joined Lucy onstage to discuss empathy and the role of diversity in leadership and policymaking.

After lunch, both content and audience divided into two tracks: New Wave Technology and Policy, and Building an Omnichannel Strategy. For the Policy track, attendees varied from those involved with data and consumer policy and regulation, as well as members of the advocacy/agency world. Panelists joined us from PwC, Google, Datavant, ANA, Mockingbird Lab and more. The evolving process of doing right by consumers was a constant theme during this track, with each session coming to a close through a dynamic Q & A discussion. During the Building an Omnichannel Strategy track, speakers from Macy’s, Under Armour, T-Mobile, DISH Media, and more took the stage to provide powerful real-life experience from which the audience could assimilate and apply to their own roles. Attendees of both tracks learned best practices to construct a better future by addressing the policy issues of the present.

Missed RampUp on the Road? Here’s a quick look at our 2019 spring roadshows!

• RampUp on the Road Columbus: April 9 - Discussed the importance of observing your marketing efforts through a consumer-first lens, as well as how beneficial it is to involve the entire team in the customer journey.

• RampUp on the Road Atlanta: April 11 - Jim Nail, keynote speaker in Atlanta and Principal Analyst at Forrester, spoke about using empathy to improve the customer relationship— a theme we saw throughout the entire spring roadshow lineup.

• RampUp on the Road Denver: May 14 - According to Jeff Smith, General Manager of Brand and Agencies at LiveRamp, it is the era of personalization. Focusing specifically on consumer-privacy uncertainty, the shift from target marketing to personalization is absolutely imperative.

• RampUp on the Road Seattle: May 16 - Keynote speaker Fatemeh Khatibloo, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, shed light on the key to maintaining customer loyalty: shifting from one-to-one marketing to one-to-moments marketing.

• RampUp on the Road DC: May 21 - Learned our differences shouldn’t go unnoticed. In order to invent a better future, policymaking groups and omnichannel strategy-focused agents can collaborate to solve the consumer-privacy issues of the present.

Diving Into In-Housing with MightyHive

Last week, the events team had the pleasure of coordinating an intimate dinner on behalf of MightyHive, a global leader in advanced marketing and advertising technologies, at Birdsong in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood. The event was well-timed to take place directly after AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O, where MightyHive was participating and held a presence with their booth.

The night began with cocktail hour and canapés, with guests happy to mingle and unwind after their considerable day at Programmatic. Before inviting everyone to take their seats, MightyHive President of the Americas Emily Del Greco presented welcome remarks and housekeeping notes. Once everyone took a seat in the warm and focused atmosphere of the first floor space, attendees listened to a fireside chat between Emily and Electronic Arts Global Head of Media Belinda Smith.

During the discussion, Belinda and Emily looked back at their careers to trade lessons they’ve learned over the combined 30+ years they share in sales, marketing, and strategy experience. They debated the rewards (increased transparency, control of data, faster execution) and risks (steep learning curve, talent, startup cost) associated with in-house marketing. They marveled at how far in-house agency penetration has come even just in the past 10 years. Toward the end of the chat, it was clear attendees were intrigued by Belinda and Emily’s experiences and hoped to dive deeper into their own in-housing exposure during the Q & A session.

Before heading upstairs for the five-course meal, Emily suggested, “Of course talent is just one component of in-housing—I welcome you to discuss other challenges and opportunities that you have found along the way. Support each other, learn from each other, and share your wisdom.”

After the fireside, more than 15 MightyHive Partners were treated to a delectable tasting menu featuring dishes inspired by the Pacific Northwest. Birdsong, a recent recipient of the coveted Michelin Star honor, appeared to have its service down to a science as evidenced by the harmonious presentation of each plate. Wild boar, aged duck with mustard greens and Sonoma lamb were just a few of the mouthwatering items that graced the menu for the night. Conversation flowed as smoothly as the grilled butter atop the Peruvian purple cornbread, and topics rotated between specific in-housing accounts to the process as a whole.

Guests walked away from the night with inspiration from fascinating speakers along with new tactics for their brands’ in-housing strategy. As a parting gift, MightyHive gave each attendee a branded smart home plug that guests seemed eager to get home and test out.

Looking for help with planning your next event? Connect with us at events@credpr.com.

Igniting Innovation at Equifax Spark

Last week, the events team headed south and joined Equifax for their first ever customer conference in Atlanta. More than 250 of Equifax’s customers and partners from financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies, including SunTrust, Bank of America, Cox, and CreditKarma, attended Spark to learn about the latest trends and industry insights in consumer credit.

In the spirit of sparking inspiration and innovation, Equifax Chief Data and Analytics Officer Prasanna Dhore opened the conference by sharing his personal journey as an immigrant and how he built his credit from zero over the decades. His talk highlighted the information asymmetry that can exist between credit consumers and financial institutions.

Day 1 of Spark continued with the announcement of a new strategic partnership between Equifax and FICO.  In today’s information age, Equifax and their partners have more data, technology, and analytics than ever before. More accurate customer views allow for smarter decisions for financial institutions and lenders, and more importantly, better credit access for consumers and a stronger economy for everyone. To accompany this philosophy, the  new partnership serves help lenders better understand their consumers.

The rest of the content followed the key themes of data, analytics, and identity. Notable sessions covered the significance of data indicators such as student loan history, employment trends, generational differences; new analytics technologies such as explainable AI that are powering tools to better understand and predict consumer habits and behavior; and the role of identity to combat fraud and mitigate risk.

Artists from the Sketch Effect were onsite to help capture all the key session points and spark-worthy ideas. Other conference highlights included:

• Equifax and Moody’s Economic Outlook session: A deep dive into current consumer trends and indicators for 2020

• Equifax’s Innovation Studio Expo: Hosted at the Infinity Club of SunTrust Park, data and analytic leaders demoed some of their latest cutting-edge tools and solutions

• Erik Qualman’s energizing keynote: Voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind J.K. Rowling, Erik offered a guide for leaders in the digital age  

After an eventful two days of thought-provoking content and demos, Spark left attendees feeling inspired and empowered to tackle the biggest challenges for our economy and consumer credit.

Interested in planning a customer conference like Spark? Let’s connect at events@credpr.com. See more of our event management here.

Brand Building @ Bowery’s Marketing Summit

This week we were on site with Bowery Capital for their first Leadership Summit of 2019, focused around the role of the marketer. Unlike most thought leadership events we manage, Bowery’s Summits focus on tactical lessons learned from not your industry, but your position, whether it be in marketing, talent, finance, or sales.

From branding to hiring techniques, we were inundated with tactical learnings from some of the best of the best marketers in SaaS. We've summarized our learnings on the day here:

It was clear marketers play a key role within their organization. With an infinite number of possibilities and strategies to experiment with, Clare Carr, VP of Marketing at Parse.ly, showed us how carefully planning your marketing and content strategy helps build a long term, successful plan. She also touched on the importance of pushing back when people try and get in the way of your focus for ‘quick-wins.’

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Tami McQueen, Co-Founder at 31South,  encouraged attendees to think outside the box and get creative when building your lead gen strategy. Thought leadership and branding through experiences proves to be much more powerful in amplifying the right leads.

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Overall, sessions throughout the day clearly conveyed an underlying tone of the importance of branding. Get your infrastructure set and align your team with your vision and mission, which will ultimately carries through to your messaging, website, sales efforts, and more.

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Hope to see you at a future Summit this year!

• People and Talent Summit on Thursday, June 20th

• Sales Summit on Thursday, October 17th

• Finance Summit on Thursday, November 21st

The Art & Science of Data at RampUp 2019

Last week, the cred events team pulled out all the stops at RampUp 2019 on Feb. 25-26 at the historic Fairmont Hotel here in San Francisco. LiveRamp’s flagship event kicks off a year of roadshows that will highlight the company’s presence around the country. This year, RampUp boasted 175 speakers reaching 2,500 attendees, making it one of the largest martech events in the country.

After a welcome reception on Feb. 24, the event transitioned into content the following morning with five pre-conference speaking tracks covering brands and agencies, B2B, data, technology, and TV. By the afternoon, RampUp was in full-swing with the main conference underway, featuring three tracks: Next-Generation Brand-Building, The Age of the Customer, Technology and Data Trends in Practice.

Across the two days, cred was thrilled to watch a few of our own speakers grace the stage. Ripple Senior Director of Audience Marketing Shanna Leonard kicked off the main conference content with a panel highlighting the shared practices between B2B and B2C marketers, while Strava Head of Communications Andrew Vontz chatted with Inc. SF Bureau Chief Jeff Bercovici about the challenges and opportunities of techlash and hyper-innovation. LiveRamp CMO Rebecca Stone moderated one of the most popular sessions addressing data integrity and transparency.

As the Fairmont buzzed with attendees, keynote speakers took the stage at the Masonic theater. This year’s keynotes featured brands such as Marketo, HP, Visa, Cars.com, McDonald’s, Quantcast, and Kimberly Clark, and we learned that customer centricity and utilization of the right data is top-of-mind for all of these marketers.

Going out with a bang, Oakland A’s Executive Vice President Billy Beane—and the subject of the best-selling book and Oscar-nominated movie Moneyball—gave the closing keynote and shared how he implemented a data-driven strategy at the Oakland A’s that has revolutionized their program and the entire baseball industry. The night came to a close with Billy signing books and baseballs at the RampUp closing reception and attendees celebrating at RampUp After Dark party at the Tonga Room.

Interested in attending a RampUp event near you? RampUp on the Road is kicking off the spring roadshow season with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, and DC this spring. Follow RampUp here for more info.

No Bull at No Fleece: Bullpen Capital Talks the State of VC

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On Dec. 12, Bullpen Capital hosted a new kind of venture capital conference, inviting 100 GPs from the Bay Area to discuss some of the most pressing topics in VC today. The conference, dubbed No Fleece Allowed, aimed to get everyone out of the closed door, portfolio-pitching mindset and into a collaborative discussion about what works in VC and what doesn’t.

To allow for this free-flowing, unbridled chat, the conference was kept off the record–no press, no social media, and anonymized stories. Breaking the typical conference mold, the room was arranged in two concentric circles of chairs to keep everyone engaged in the discussion with no place to hide behind a laptop or step away for a call.

Without microphones and without a stage, speakers sat together in a circle to kick off each session before the floor was opened to continue the conversation. To encourage everyone to add to the dialogue and keep the conference fun, participants voted on the MVP (Most Valuable Participant) of the day. The winner had the honor of taking a picture next to the six-foot winners trophy.

No Fleece Allowed would not have be complete without hosting an ugly fleece competition. Participants were invited to bring their ugliest fleece to compete, and the winner went home with bragging rights and a prized trophy photo opportunity.

One of the many highlights of the day was the closing session with Bill Gurley of Benchmark. Following the format set by the previous sessions and speakers, he was an open-book and addressed crowd-sourced topics in what turned into a dynamic Q&A with eager attendees.

As the day wrapped up, the discussion moved into a networking and cocktail hour where attendees took in Commonwealth Club’s picturesque views of the Bay Bridge and SF Ferry Building.

Bowery’s Sales Summit Closing the Year Strong

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Bowery Capital wrapped up its fourth and final thought leadership Summit for the year, closing out a quarterly Series bringing together similar roles beyond the CEO to learn from some of the biggest leaders in SaaS. One hundred attendees came together with a goal of learning tactical lessons from some of the most experienced executives in the space. CROs, Heads of Sales, and CEOs from Slack, Stripe, Yext, Bitly, and more discussed themes around hiring, culture, sales velocity, and what it takes to successfully scale.

One of the best parts about being onsite running these events is the having access to elite thought leaders and a front row seat to insights and content. Here are my top five tips I learned from these Sales Execs (in no particular order):

1. Slack’s motto when building a “freemium” model: Build a product people love (make them want to buy the product).

2. Lesson Learned from CEO of Bitly on scaling: Everybody is in sales. Recruit your allies. Nobody wins unless everybody wins.

3. Everyone is always trying to master email marketing: SalesLoft discovered ending with a colon (:) is 35 percent better than ending with a comma (,)—I personally prefer a dash!

4. Hiring Strategy (and applicable across not just sales teams): Your starting pitching pitcher (i.e your first hire) won’t be your closer.

5. Even if prospects aren’t ready to speak now, keep ‘em warm with insightful content:  Give them a reason to come back.