Let's talk
Jim Thornton, Vice President of Sales at BrandSync Events, discusses community building, the value of listening, and BrandSync’s latest effort to bring people together.
What is BrandSync’s latest initiative?
BrandSync has recently partnered with BizBash to host a series of small community-building events called “SyncUps.” We held the first in Minneapolis last August at BizBash’s Connect Marketplace conference and the second in New York City in November as part of a BrandSync event called “FutureSync.” The third took place in New York City late in January.
SyncUps are inspired by the concept of the “Jeffersonian Dinner.” At these dinners, a particular topic is chosen in advance, and then, while guests enjoy their meal, they engage in a moderated discussion. Our dinners are a variation on this as we discuss several topics. But our goal is the same: to build community among our participants.
Will you describe the very first SyncUp in Minneapolis?
BrandSync hosted a dinner for approximately 45 event planners. BizBash curated the guestlist, drawing from the attendees at their Connect Marketplace conference. David Adler of Bizbash moderated and guided the conversation. The senior-level leaders represented various industries ranging from health care to pharmaceutical to legal, finance, technology, and social media. Having people from such a wide variety of industries made the night’s conversations extraordinarily interesting and dynamic.
What worked well?
The structure we chose allowed everyone present to participate in the conversation, not just be talked at. There’s a big difference between the two. The participants delved deep into many topics- such as what has changed in the event space post-pandemic and the effects of technology on experiential marketing—all challenges that senior-level people in our industry face.
Overall, the event validated our belief that this community of strangers wants to come together. They're interested in finding peer-to-peer networking opportunities to discuss common issues and learn how others approach these same challenges.
The evening was highly informative for us. We've got a lot of experience, but when all is said and done, we're just here to listen. And simply listening to the participants at that first SyncUp gave us great insight into our clients’ needs, concerns, and aspirations.
Were there any adjustments you decided to make after the first SyncUp?
The Minneapolis event worked well in many ways. It validated the concept of bringing people together to discuss various industry topics. Our meeting overall strategy was excellent, and the format worked very well to build a sense of community among the group members.
However, we realized that 45 people was too many. It was too challenging to facilitate the best possible peer-to-peer conversations with that large a group. We felt we could build a stronger community with a smaller group. We therefore decided we would downsize the number of attendees at the next dinner.
What was the second SyncUp like?
Three months later, we followed up with a SyncUp dinner in New York City at BrandUp’s “FutureSync” conference centered on the theme of AI. FutureSync featured outside speakers addressing the influence of AI and what it means both in a broad context and to our industry specifically.
This SyncUp was about half the size of the one in Minneapolis. BizBash helped us curate a select group of 18 senior-level people to share conversation in a much more intimate setting.
What worked well at this New York event?
Once again, all participants enjoyed a delicious meal while David Adler moderated.
We began by going around the table to let people share who they were, their backgrounds, their experiences, and what was happening with them in the workplace. Each person took whatever time they wanted—usually three or four minutes—to introduce themselves. There was a lot of back and forth. David continued guiding everyone to maintain a single conversation rather than letting the group break into multiple small conversations.
This initial ice-breaking part of the evening took longer than we expected; however, we decided to lean into that and allow it to flourish because building trust among the participants was critical to setting the stage for the discussions that would occur later. To that end, we spent a lot of time letting the community ask more follow-up questions, allowing them to get to know each other through networking conversations. It was all done in an open environment where everyone could listen, hear, participate, and join in.
Once we began dinner, there was more general networking, conversation, and drinks. After dinner, we segued into more curated conversation, where David introduced specific, prepared topics. David would throw a topic out to the table, and when someone had a response, and somebody else had a comment, he facilitated the conversation. The discussions got very involved and opened up a plethora of additional exchanges, questions, ideas, and approaches related to every subject David raised.
What are some highlights from what you discussed?
We covered more than ten topics, and there was a high energy level around them. Some of the more popular were “Doing more with less. Smaller Budgets, fewer resources, less experienced teams” and “Compressed schedules: getting the same volume of work completed in a shorter amount of time.” Another subject that resonated with attendees and generated a lot of buzz was “Content versus Sizzle: What do attendees want and value compared to what internal teams and leadership perceive they want?” What was surprising about this was the level of frustration that these senior planners and leaders had at times around this idea that we're not listening to what our attendees and clients want. We pretend we know what they want to hear, but we miss major opportunities. And we're struggling to get our internal and leadership teams to understand that we're missing these opportunities. We need to listen more carefully and curate our experiences, content, and messaging to our audiences, not to what we internally perceive they want to hear.
Our final discussion of the night was an important one. It centered around mentoring the next generation of talent. This is a significant challenge for leaders across all industries and certainly in the event and experiential space.
Most of the senior leaders in the room were 45 and up and reaching the second half of their careers. Right now, they're working with the next generation of talent, teams that are 30 and under, who are very talented, well-educated, sharp, and technologically advanced. There is a marked difference in how this younger generation operates and views the world. At times—for both groups—there is a disconnect when communicating and collaborating. It was helpful and constructive for the group to have conversations about how to lead, manage, get consensus, and get work done when you have a multi-generational workforce.
As the dinner in New York ended, many planners and participants said, “We didn't get enough time; there's so much more we have to talk about. There were many more conversations we wanted to have, and all these other topics came up that we never even got to talk about.”
So, on their own, without prompting on our side, the participants made a plan to get everyone together again, and they scheduled a follow-up meeting for January 31 to continue November’s conversations. Everyone jumped on board, and there was a 95% attendee response sign-up for the event. Before these dinners, we thought it would likely require our nurturing to keep the community together. But we were happily surprised that it happened organically without us.
And the January SyncUp?
The third SyncUp consisted of a cocktail party and a small, intimate dinner. The participants had already spent time getting to know each other in November, establishing themselves as a community. So, in January, they built off that excitement and quickly jumped back into conversation at dinner, which Matt Mongoven and I moderated. It was a highly productive, vibrant conversation. The participants left feeling invigorated and connected to one another. It was equally as satisfying for us because—in facilitating that conversation and listening to what the community had to say—we felt better equipped to help our clients achieve their objectives and goals.
What’s your big-picture takeaway about the value of these SyncUps—for both the participants and BrandSync?
As an industry, many of the events we go to are surface-driven. Everyone networks, we have some good conversations, and it's fun to reconnect with people. But having a community you can trust, one where you can get valuable insights, ideas, and feedback—that’s harder to find.
SyncUps fill that void. They are a space where you can share thoughts you may be reluctant to bring up in other environments, within different social groups, or even other networks or peer-to-peer groups. In these small communities we are creating, participants can have frank, honest, constructive conversations about the challenges they face without fear of judgment. Plus, they benefit from valuable feedback, ideas, and suggestions from colleagues who span a wide array of industries.
From our perspective, it gives us insight into what our clients and customers are facing and their struggles so that we can adapt our business to align with their needs and serve them better.
What are your plans for the future? Will you continue SyncUps?
We are thrilled with the power SyncUps have to create community among strangers and across industries. We saw firsthand that there was magic and energy when we gathered people to join in conversation and share their personal experiences, thoughts, and ideas. It unleashed people's desire to share, and we successfully facilitated that need.
Now, the onus is on us to preserve the magic for the community we established and to spark new communities and new conversations by creating SyncUps in other markets over the upcoming year, and that is exactly what we intend to do. The more we help build community, the more we consider it a huge mark of success for us as an agency.