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We sat down with Wendy Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer for Skyline Exhibits and BrandSync Events. We covered a lot of ground, including the importance of engagement, event strategy for younger workers, marketing to women, and more. Here's what Wendy had to say ...
Let’s begin by setting the stage within the marketing landscape. What are the challenges of connection in this era of remote work and digital interaction?
We have incredible video conferencing and collaboration technology at our disposal and know how to use it better than ever. Certainly better than we did when I first started doing webinars many years ago. A common wisdom that all leaders agree on is the importance of keeping all participants engaged by making eye contact with each person and reading their body language.
Whether I’m in person or remote, as a leader, it’s crucial that I lean in and make sure that everybody has a voice. In our modern work environment, I can tell whether participants are engaged by using the camera lens to make eye contact, observe body language, and notice whether they are actively taking notes. When I’m interacting on a virtual call, it’s my responsibility to communicate strategies, tactics, priorities, etc. I am a collaborative leader, and I seek out a diverse range of opinions, options, and approaches; it’s easier to do that when I know team members are actively participating.
Overall, connection is even more critical at this moment in time because you’ve got to work harder at it than you've ever had to before. It depends on everyone being fully engaged. As a participant, if you aren’t willing to tune in and be present with a full level of engagement, sometimes it’s better to simply decline the meeting.
Here’s something interesting that happened in our office recently. We had interns in the office over the summer, and like most of the workforce living near our location, they worked remotely. We gave them cool jobs like branding and marketing, and they even participated in naming our new events agency, BrandSync. When their internships were over at the end of the summer, they came into the office, and we sat down and asked them, “What was your favorite part of your time with us?”
We were surprised and delighted to learn that—out of all of these projects they worked on—their favorite was the one occasion when they had an opportunity to come to the office to sit in a room and work together. I think that speaks volumes.
How old were they?
19-20.
That makes sense when you consider that people who are mid- and late-career are building on a pre-pandemic foundation. They’ve already experienced those in-person connections in their work environments, while younger people don't have that foundation.
Exactly. In terms of event strategy, if you're targeting a younger generation of audience members, it's likewise critical to get them in a room interacting with each other. Because they came into the workforce during the pandemic or after the changes in the workforce brought about the pandemic, some of them may have never even sat in a conference room with other people before.
Then, you take it further and consider your audience and target market. Once again, you have this younger generation who may never have attended a live event. My approach is to gather these attendees into small groups where they can network. Once they are comfortable, we move them into a bigger setting.
No matter their age, you’ve got to get people together to work and spend time together in person so they can build meaningful connections. This is especially critical for younger people.
At one point, I was involved with a professional group called Chief that operates on a similar model. It connects and supports women executive leaders through small local, interest-based professional networking groups. Chief is all about creating connections through small communities.
When you build a successful event or experience, you’ve got to make sure you've built a community or a series of small communities where people are comfortable and can connect.
Decades of research has shown that women excel at collaboration. It makes sense that collaboration with other women would be part of your marketing strategy.
Yes, this is exactly what I find. Your marketing will be more effective if you tell your target audience that they will meet and connect with other women. When planning an event, we think, how do we bring women together? One good strategy is connecting women with common personal or professional interests. We create situations or experiences that they join, and from there, we gather them into small groups where they have round tables.
Who is your primary target audience?
My primary market is people working in events marketing departments, the majority of whom are women. Overall, the events industry is dominated by women between the ages of 25 and 45.
The events industry is a great industry if you're a woman because women are the majority, not the minority. It’s especially fantastic if you are a younger woman because there are so many different entry-level positions available from which you can build a career- and so many different paths available to you. You can start in an associate position as a marketer, an event producer, — or a myriad of other positions. From these roles, you can become a producer, branch into creative, or become the activation person. You can do strategy. You can do marketing. You have countless opportunities to grow and gain experience. Women flourish all the way up through C-suite roles. There’s much more fluidity than, for instance, the tech and the financial services industries.
Is this support for women within the events industry intentional?
Absolutely. The hot topic now is for mid- and late-career women to make sure we find a couple of younger, early-career women in our industry whom we mentor and bring forward. Monique Ruff-Bell, the head of conferences for TED Conferences, talks a lot about this. She emphasizes that it’s essential to both mentor young women by giving them advice and also sponsor them by helping open doors. I’ve consciously integrated this type of mentorship and sponsorship into my professional life.
There is an ethos in the event industry that supports, nurtures, and launches women. Young women are joining the events industry; they are thriving and rising in the ranks. I’m not just cheering that on. I want to be a part of it.
If the time is right, Let's Talk.
