event marketing

Why trust is the deciding factor in whether I attend your conference

Monday, April 28th, 2025 by Adrian Segar

Do I trust you?

A woman about to enter a glowing teleportation pod.
If teleportation were free, would you still go?

I live in rural Vermont, so if I want to go to an in-person conference that isn’t close to me, I need to get on an airplane.

The closest airport to me is a two-hour drive. Unless the event is in the northeastern United States, I need a full day to get there and another to return, even longer if it’s abroad.

For me—and, I suspect, most attendees—getting there is one factor in choosing whether to attend. But it’s only one factor. As Seth Godin says:

“Getting to the conference in Santa Fe isn’t difficult. Someone will drive/fly you there. The hard part is deciding to go. And yet, it might take 8 hours to arrive.

If they invented teleportation and offered it for free, it would be very clear that where we went would simply depend on where we decided to go, not the mechanics, cost or time it took.”
—Seth Godin, At the speed of judgment

Even if we could remove all barriers of travel time, energy, and expense—even if you could snap your fingers and appear there instantly—many people still wouldn’t go.

Why? Because something else matters more.

Here are some obvious reasons people say yes (or no) to a conference:

  • Relevance of content
  • Potential personal and employer benefits
  • Opportunities for meaningful connection
  • Location
  • Cost
  • Time commitment
  • Sense of belonging or inclusion
  • Physical environment and experience design
  • Health and safety considerations
  • Employer support
  • Timing and life conflicts
  • Previous experience or word of mouth
  • Opportunities to contribute
  • Event marketing effectiveness

But one factor—quiet, powerful, and usually overlooked—can outweigh them all.

Trust.

If I don’t trust the people convening, designing, or running the event—if I don’t believe the experience will be welcoming, thoughtful, and aligned with my values—I’m not going.

If I suspect the event will be rigid, overly hierarchical, sales-driven, or soulless, no travel convenience, discount code, or high-profile keynote will convince me to show up.

And, if I believe I’ll feel like a passive object to be “delivered” content, rather than a human being invited to participate meaningfully, I’ll stay home and read a good book instead.

What kind of trust matters?

Attending a conference requires multiple kinds of trust. We often don’t articulate them, but they quietly shape our decision long before we hit “Register.”

  • Do I trust that I’ll be respected—not just tolerated?
    If I don’t see people like me in your program, if your language feels exclusive, if your agenda looks like it hasn’t changed in 10 years—I can’t trust that I’ll be seen, and my wants and needs will be met.
  • Do I trust that my time will be valued?
    Will the sessions invite participation, not just absorption? Will the breaks be long enough for real conversation? Will I be treated as a peer, not a lead?
  • Do I trust that the people there will be open, curious, and generous?
    One of the most reliable reasons I choose to attend a conference is because I’ve met someone who’s gone and said, “You’ll love the people there.”
  • Do I trust that the environment will help me thrive?
    This includes the design of the space, the facilitation style, and even the food and seating. Events that center human needs build trust before the first session even begins.
  • Do I trust the organizers to hold complexity?
    In a world full of nuance, competing needs, and uncertainty, I want to be in spaces led by people who don’t pretend everything is simple—or worse, try to sell certainty as a service.

How to build trust?

You don’t build trust with good intentions or glossy branding. Instead, you create it through design, invitation, and experience.

You build it when organizers:

  • Engage participants as co-creators, not just attendees
  • Tell the truth about what the event is, and what it isn’t.
  • Make the invisible visible—by explaining why things are structured the way they are.
  • Invite vulnerability and model it themselves.
  • Honor differences while creating spaces where people feel like they belong.

When I design and facilitate conferences, I spend just as much time thinking about how to establish trust as I do creating the event process.

Because without trust, nothing meaningful happens.

With it, almost anything can.

So… do I trust you?

That’s the real question every potential attendee is asking, whether they know it or not.

Before they register.

Before they book a flight.

And before they block out three days on their calendar.

They are deciding whether your event feels like a space where they can show up fully, safely, and meaningfully.

You may think you’re organizing a conference.

But you’re actually designing a trustworthy experience.

And the better you do that, the more likely I am to come.

Tags: , | Posted in Event design | 4 Comments »

Are NFTs the future of event marketing?

Monday, May 17th, 2021 by Adrian Segar

NFTs event marketing: photograph of a snake-oil salesman sitting at the front of a "wild-west" stagecoach covered with advertisementsThe TLDR version: in my opinion, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are not the future of event marketing. Read on to learn why.

Introduction

This post was prompted by a recent conversation in the private EventProfs Mastermind for Event Planners Facebook group. [You’ll need to be a member to read it.] Entrepreneur hustler Gary Vaynerchuk has launched a novel way to sell access to his future conferences and services: VeeFriends.

Mr. Vee is using a conventional reverse Dutch auction to sell 10,255 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that act like traditional tickets for events and services. NFTs are data stored in a digital ledger, aka blockchain, that cryptographically certify a digital asset to be unique.

Let’s be clear that digital assets linked to their NFT owners are not private. Anyone can view or make a copy of the digital asset. For example, anyone can view or download Beeple’s “The First 5000 Days” artwork, the NFT for which sold for $69.3 million on March 11, 2021.


The sole advantage of “owning” an NFT, then, is that you can prove to others you own it.

In addition, NFTs are typically purchased with cryptocurrency, adding an extra layer of complexity (at least for most of us) to the sales process.

What are the advantages of event marketing using NFTs?

Using NFTs to market access to events has a few, in my view dubious, advantages.

NFTs are flashy and hot

We already have perfectly good ways to buy and bid for things we want. Perhaps you’ve heard of “money”, and “auctions”? However, Mr. Vee is jazzing up his marketing with cryptocurrency and NFTs, and this has generated great publicity for him.

NFTs are (hopefully) hard to forge

Due to the way blockchain works, it’s thought to be hard to forge ownership of an NFT (though that hasn’t stopped people from trying). From the event marketing perspective, that means that using NFTs may make it harder to fake an entry credential or service access than when using conventional ticket security. But I’m not sure this is a big deal, except perhaps for very high-security events.

NFTs can provide control over the resale of event purchases

Like regular tickets, NFTs can be set to expire at a future date. You can also resell NFTs on NFT marketplaces. The original issuer of the NFT can keep track of resales and, if desired, extract a fee on resale. (For example, Mr. Vee’s NFTs can be resold, and Mr. Vee receives an additional 10% “royalty” when this occurs.) NFT issuers probably see this as an advantage, while resellers and repurchasers probably don’t.

What are the disadvantages of event marketing using NFTs?

Sustainability

Ethically, the biggest strike against using NFTs is that they are an incredibly energy-wasteful technology. NFT transactions involve minting, bidding, selling, and transferring a digital token. Because of the energy-intensive processes that blockchain uses, the transactions involved in creating and selling a single NFT consume large amounts of electricity, with associated carbon emissions.

For example:

There are arguments about how to accurately calculate the energy and climate effects of NFTs (and cryptocurrencies in general—bitcoin alone already consumes ~0.6% of global electricity consumption). In addition, people have proposed new crypto approaches to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Nevertheless, using NFTs to replace far simpler and less energy-wasteful traditional methods of proving ownership is hard to justify in the face of humankind’s climate emergency.

Over the past ten years, the meeting industry has become increasingly aware of the global effects of in-person meetings on energy and resource consumption. We need to continue to do our part by eschewing new, unnecessary ways to consume energy and emit carbon.

No added value to purchasers over existing channels

By incorporating NFTs into his business model, Mr. Vee adds nothing of value to what he’s doing, which is selling access to his conferences and person and networking with other fans.

Yes, Mr. Vee gets publicity and additional NFT resale income. And I’m sure his fans will suck it right up.

That’s great for him. But I see no upside for buyers.

Added, unnecessary, complexity

Purchasing NFTs requires the involvement of blockchain, and access to cryptocurrencies (currently, usually Ethereum).

Here’s what you have to do to purchase one of Mr Vee’s NFTs!

I’d prefer to use my credit card.

Conclusions

Last week, the value of most cryptocurrencies dropped ~10% in one day.

You may think I’ve been harsh on Mr. Vee’s enthusiasm for NFTs for event marketing. There are some who are harsher. For example, the well-known author Charlie Stross (I’m a fan) said:

“And about NFTs, the less said the better. Grift, 100% grift, and exploitation of artists as well. Oh, and it appears to be mostly used for money laundering. So fuck off and die if you own any, and especially if you thought pirating some of my work and turning it into NFTs would be a good way to milk the gullible.”
—Charlie Stross, Because I am bored …
(I recommend reading the whole article.)

And I haven’t the time or energy to go into what many believe are fundamental problems using cryptocurrency as money (e.g. 1, 2, 3).

Anyway.

These are my reasons why NFTs are not the future of event marketing. I’d love to hear why I’m wrong, or any other comments you’d like to share below!

Tags: , , , , , , , | Posted in Marketing, Meeting industry | 1 Comment »

Is paid influencer marketing ethical in the event industry?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2016 by Adrian Segar

paid influencer marketing: an illustration of a human silhouette flanked by a heart and a dollar sign

Is paid influencer marketing ethical in the meeting industry?

Paid influencer marketing is spreading to the event industry, and I doubt that it’s an ethical practice.

I receive a voice mail

Last week I received the following voice mail (identifying details bleeped; transcript below.)

“Hi Adrian, my name is _____, I work for an influence marketing agency _____, and I’m reaching out to you this afternoon about an opportunity with _____, who is one of our clients, and I know you are an influencer in the meeting/event/conference planning sphere which is the focus of this campaign with _____  and we’re just hoping to have you involved in this campaign: involves a blog post, some social posting, hopefully a visit to the property with a bit of filming. If you’re interested in more details I would love to chat with you; my phone number is _____. Thanks, and looking forward to talking to you soon; bye bye.”

I quickly learned that the agency called other event professionals with the same pitch. One of them, whom I’ll call InfluentialEventProf, forwarded me an email with more details of how the “opportunity” would work (identifying details replaced with generic terms):

An email pitch

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: 9/8/2016
Subj: Paid Campaign Opportunity: Complimentary Stay at Property Z

Hi InfluentialEventProf,

Hope this note finds you very well! Brand X’s Property in Somewhere, USA is a client of ours, and I am working on an influencer campaign to help promote Property Z’s event spaces as ideal venues for conferences and corporate meetings. Brand X would love to have you–a known industry expert on event/meeting planning–involved in this campaign!

We are inviting you to come for a complimentary stay to experience Property Z during a major Industry Sector S conference during TheseDates. Brand X would like you to review the visit and conference experience on your company’s blog and promote Property Z on social media. To give you a general idea of the campaign’s scope, here are some details regarding the influencer package and campaign components:

Influencer package:

One or two (1-2) complimentary nights at Property Z (dependent on your availability)

One (1) complimentary breakfast

One (1) complimentary dinner

$500 compensation

Complimentary parking

Campaign components:

One (1) post-stay blog post highlighting the Property Z as a venue for corporate conferences/meetings/events. Ideally, this blog post would be published both on your company’s blog and on your Linkedin page.

Two (2) real-time Twitter photo posts during your stay

Two (2) post-stay Twitter photo posts

(Use the hashtags of {3 PropertyZHashtags}, and any Property Z social channel handles on all relevant content.)

Would you be interested in participating? If so, I can send you more detailed information regarding these campaign components.

We are really hoping to work with you!

All the best,

YYY

Paid influencer marketing

This is classic paid influencer marketing via social media, a rapidly growing marketing trend since 2014. Celebrities receive big bucks to casually introduce positive experiences of brands into their social media feeds. Now sponsors ask event industry influencers to do the same thing.

Will Brand X require all resulting social media posts by InfluentialEventProf to include the word “Sponsored”? (Does “Sponsored” even fit into the resulting tweets?) Will the post-stay blog post include the information that Brand X  paid for the stay and meals and that Brand X paid the InfluentialEventProf a fee?

Even if InfluentialEventProf provides all this information, there is plenty of research that shows that such paid marketing biases influencers to be more positive about their review than they would have been otherwise. (See, for example: High bias found in Amazon reviews of low-cost or free samples, where the provision of free or low-cost products boosted ratings from the 54th percentile to the 94th percentile!)

So, is paid influencer marketing ethical?

I think such practices are ethically questionable. The CMP Standards of Ethical Conduct Statement and Policy includes the pledge “Never use my position for undue personal gain and to promptly disclose to appropriate parties all potential and actual conflicts of interest“, and I’d argue that what is being offered here is “undue personal gain”. In addition, any employee event professional should review their employer’s ethics policy. And consider these questions to0:

  • “In what way could you justify participation to your employer?”
  • “In what way could you justify participation to your clients?”
  • “Are there ways that this participation could influence site selection?”

What do you think?

[My thanks to InfluentialEventProf for permission given to reproduce the above email, and for suggestions that improved this post.]

Tags: , , , , , | Posted in Event professionals, Marketing | 11 Comments »

Event marketing—you can’t do it all yourself

Monday, March 17th, 2014 by Adrian Segar

Event marketing isn't something you can do all by yourself. Poster of a Barnum and Bailey Circus flier, featuring "The Balloon Horse Jupiter in his Sensational Ascension Act with a gorgeous Pyrotechnic Display at Every Performance of The Greatest Show on Earth". Courtesy of Old Metal AdvertisementsEvent marketing isn’t something you can do all by yourself.

I once consulted with a client who was new to meeting planning. Mike had bravely decided to create a new conference featuring his talents and those of over twenty friends and colleagues. This was a conventional format conference with a high amount of interactive and small group work.

Mike told me that the registration response had been poor to date. He was stressed out about reaching his break-even attendance goal, and wasn’t sleeping well. I asked him how he was doing his marketing.

“I’ve been doing it myself,” he said. “Most of the people who have registered so far are people who know me.”

“Mike,” I asked, “do your colleagues have their own circles of clients interested in attending this event?”

“Sure,” Mike said.

“That could be your answer,” I replied.

Problem solved

It turned out that if each of Mike’s co-presenters were able to register just half the number that Mike had personally registered, the conference would be at break-even. If they could simply match what he’d already done, the conference would be oversubscribed.

Mike’s colleagues were the perfect resource for marketing the event—they were as invested in its success as he was. He’d just not thought to ask them for help.

Creating a new event is almost always risky. This fuels the common sleep-disturbing worry that not enough people will want to attend. I have a rule of thumb, painfully acquired over many years. If I can’t find at least five other people who are excited about the event and willing to work equally hard to make it happen the event is very likely to be a flop. Even if you have many enthusiastic supporters, you need to involve them as much as possible in marketing the event through their personal connections and affiliations if you are to reach or, hopefully, exceed break-even attendance.

The most persuasive reason that people agree to pay significant money and time to attend a new event is that they trust the positive word of mouth of its worth from an active supporter involved with the organization or program. If you’re another courageous Mike out there (good for you!) be sure to engage every pertinent supporter as an active marketer at the earliest stages of promoting the event.

You might just sleep better at night.

Photo attribution: Flickr user wwarby

Tags: , , | Posted in Event design | No Comments »

Market your conference with an annotated schedule

Monday, September 23rd, 2013 by Adrian Segar

market conference schedule: photograph of a young girl holding a paper sign that says "Lemonade 50¢ each". Photo attribution: Flickr user stevendepolo

Here’s a creative way to market your conference — with an annotated schedule!

Right after my last post on marketing a new peer conference, organizational and leadership development consultant Judy Warriner Walke suggested an additional way to help communicate what happens at a conference—an annotated schedule.

I like this idea! Walking potential attendees through the flow of the event helps to clarify and demystify conference process. (Especially if people haven’t attended an event format like Conferences That Work before.) Want to try to market your conference with an annotated schedule? Here’s an example of what you can do, written for the October 2013 1st Annual Vermont Leadership Network Conference.

Want to better understand what will be happening at the 1st Annual Vermont Leadership Network Conference? Here’s an annotated schedule!

[Note: Some details are omitted here! For more information, visit About Peer Conferences.]

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Registration will be open between noon and 2 p.m.

At 2 pm, after a brief welcome and an explanation of conference ground rules, we’ll start with The Three Questions. The Three Questions provides a structured, safe way for you to learn about other participants early in the conference. During The Three Questions, you’ll:

  • discover topics of interest to explore;
  • get a sense of the depth of interest in these topics; and
  • find out who has experience and expertise that you want to connect with and explore further.

We’ll include frequent breaks and refreshments during the roundtable, ending around 4:30 p.m.

After an hour break, we’ll hold peer session sign-up during dinner. In peer session sign-up we’ll visually document our wishes and suggestions for the upcoming conference sessions. Then, we’ll determine which of the suggested peer session topics are popular and schedule the chosen sessions into a conference program. This is a short process that will be held during the dinner and subsequent socializing, with a small group subsequently using the resulting information to create Friday’s program. The result will be a Friday conference schedule that optimally matches desired topics with the resources of the group.

Friday, October 18

We’ll have time for four sets of (usually) one-hour concurrent sessions on Friday, with breaks between each and lunch served between sessions 3 and 4.

What might these sessions look like? They are typically informal: often facilitated discussions, presentations, panels, workshops, walks, etc. As an example, five years ago the class  of ’08 used this conference format for a reunion—here are the topics that were chosen (8 sessions in concurrent pairs):

Fun and team camaraderie in the workplace • Fundraising • The political process – running for office • The systematic development of informed consent • Am I doing what I want to be doing? • Technology – social networking & other applications • Getting Things Done • Appreciative Inquiry

Closing sessions

At 2:40 pm we’ll end with two facilitated closing sessions, a personal introspective and a group spective.

The personal introspective will give you a structured opportunity to think about what you have experienced at the conference, how your experiences may impact your life in the future, and what changes you may want to make as a result. After reflection, you’ll then have an opportunity to share your answers in small groups.

After a break, a group spective will start at 3:50 pm. The group spective will provide facilitated time for participants as a group to evaluate the conference. We’ll also suggest and begin to develop future initiatives for Vermont Leadership and the Snelling Center. We’ll use a variety of techniques to do this.

The conference will end at 5 p.m. All are welcome to stay and socialize with their classmates and new friends at a reception hosted by the Snelling Center immediately following the conference.

As you can see, participation on Thursday will make a big difference to your conference experience and your influence on its form and content. Please attend the whole event if at all possible!

Outline of the conference schedule

To summarize, here’s the outline of the conference schedule for Thursday and Friday.

Thursday, October 17, 2013
12:00 PM – 02:00 PM Registration
02:00 PM – 02:10 PM Welcome
02:10 PM – 03:10 PM The Three Questions
03:10 PM – 03:30 PM Break
03:30 PM – 04:30 PM The Three Questions continued
05:30 PM – 07:00 PM Dinner and peer session sign-up
07:00 PM – Informal chat, socializing, music, etc.
Friday, October 18
08:30 AM – 08:40 AM Morning news
08:40 AM – 09:40 AM Peer session 1
09:40 AM – 09:50 AM Break
09:50 AM – 10:50 AM Peer session 2
10:50 AM – 11:05 AM Break
11:05 AM – 12:05 AM Peer session 3
12:15 PM – 01:30 PM Lunch
01:30 PM – 02:30 PM Peer session 4
02:30 PM – 02:40 PM Break
02:40 PM – 03:40 PM Personal introspective
03:40 PM – 03:50 PM Break
03:50 PM – 05:00 PM Group spective
05:00 PM – Optional: class reunions, etc.

Notice that I’ve added a regular schedule at the end of the annotation, so attendees can still easily see when all sessions take place.

I like this way of marketing your conference with an annotated schedule. Familiarizing people with something different in advance is a great way of reducing the common resistance to trying something new. Thanks for the suggestion, Judy!

Photo attribution: Flickr user stevendepolo

Tags: , , | Posted in Marketing, Peer conference | No Comments »