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By Peter Micciche, CEO of Certain<\/em><\/p>\n The go-to-market teams behind orchestrating company events often\u00a0breathe a sigh of relief\u00a0as\u00a0soon as the first day of an event kicks off.\u00a0Focus\u00a0immediately\u00a0shifts to engaging with\u00a0the live crowd at the event.\u00a0and\u00a0all feel the energy events create.\u00a0This\u00a0moment\u00a0is precisely when the most impactful behind-the-scenes work should be in motion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Walk into any post-event\u00a0debrief,\u00a0and\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0hear the same metrics from years past. Teams\u00a0report\u00a0attendance, session ratings, and customer satisfaction or NPS scores.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Marketing is working as fast as possible to make sense of data from three different platforms.\u00a0RevOps\u00a0is trying to get\u00a0event\u00a0data properly aggregated into and labeled in the CRM. Sales\u00a0is\u00a0consumed by\u00a0the manual work of reviewing leads and trying to remember and record who is interested in what and why for\u00a0follow-ups\u00a0that will land.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The chaos is familiar, and unfortunately, much of the legacy event technology that is used today is a big part of the problem.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u00a0have the right team\u00a0to\u00a0execute. What you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have is a system that automatically gets\u00a0the\u00a0most\u00a0impactful\u00a0data to the right teams\u00a0at the moment\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0needed.\u00a0Prospects and customers are highly engaged and\u00a0ready\u00a0to\u00a0take action\u00a0in\u00a0the moment,\u00a0not a week later when\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0moved on.<\/p>\n Traditional event platforms were built for the world\u00a0AI\u00a0has just\u00a0left\u00a0behind. They were designed to handle registration forms, badge printing, and track attendance. These systems excel at the\u00a0logistic\u00a0basics of event management.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, they\u00a0miss the moments that matter most, when a customer or prospect\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0buying intent during a\u00a0critical\u00a0event\u00a0moment,\u00a0and your team can capitalize on the\u00a0opportunity to convert that intent into action. Not\u00a0acting on\u00a0this behavior as it happens is a major\u00a0fail.\u00a0<\/p>\n These signals are high-fidelity.\u00a0In-person engagement is a figurative and literal goldmine that\u00a0can\u00a0be capitalized\u00a0in\u00a0real\u00a0time.\u00a0Your go-to-market teams crave\u00a0this is the kind of intelligence. Legacy event platforms\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0handle this well, and they\u00a0cost you\u00a0an\u00a0opportunity to have a massive impact on\u00a0pipeline and revenue\u00a0outcomes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a0common knowledge that teams struggle to connect events to revenue.\u00a0While\u00a0Forrester\u2019s 2024 research shows that\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0event ROI ranks as the top priority for 95% of events teams, industry data reveals a persistent measurement gap: 82% of marketers cannot quantify the data received from attendee interactions at their corporate events.\u00a0<\/p>\n This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0an\u00a0attribution or\u00a0people\u00a0problem.\u00a0Marketers\u00a0and event teams are highly skilled\u00a0and thoughtful. The real problem is that existing technology\u00a0makes it\u00a0hard to use data effectively, resulting in\u00a0intelligence\u00a0gaps and\u00a0unreasonable delays. Instead of\u00a0action from\u00a0every great moment at an event,\u00a0the opportunity to strike disappears.\u00a0<\/p>\n B2B buying has changed dramatically, where buyers now complete 70% of their purchase journey before ever talking to sales.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Events have made a huge comeback as a critical marketing channel. They\u00a0are\u00a0one of the last places where buyers reveal themselves through behavior you can\u00a0observe\u00a0and measure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Engagement patterns, questions, pain points, and who they surround themselves with and interact with at the event\u00a0let us\u00a0observe\u00a0genuine interest in\u00a0real-time.\u00a0We\u00a0understand exactly where customers are\u00a0in\u00a0their buying journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n Buyers walk in with specific intent. When a buyer asks detailed questions about integration architecture or compliance requirements,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0not making small talk.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0evaluating if\u00a0your solution is a good fit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your sales team needs\u00a0buyer propensity\u00a0data\u00a0immediately.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Empower your sales team\u00a0to\u00a0act\u00a0in minutes, not days, knowing exactly what a prospect asked about,\u00a0which features are most desirable, and who else on their buying committee is engaging. This is\u00a0AI-powered event intelligence in action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Event Intelligence\u00a0recasts\u00a0the\u00a0event\u00a0tech value proposition.\u00a0Company revenue growth, product\u00a0engagement,\u00a0and customer success\u00a0are\u00a0the important metrics\u00a0for go-to-market teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n This rethinking can be packaged as a framework teams can practically use as they are evaluating what kinds of tools and solutions help events\u00a0accomplish\u00a0their goals and\u00a0objectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n Traditional event platforms capture attendance. AI-driven Event Intelligence\u00a0solutions\u00a0capture intent. When someone attends your event,\u00a0Event Intelligence\u00a0platforms\u00a0track:\u00a0<\/p>\n Each behavior reveals something about buying intent. A prospect downloading your implementation guide while asking about deployment timelines is different from someone scanning a badge for a prize draw. One shows purchase intent\u00a0and may be a great buying signal. The other is collecting\u00a0swag\u00a0and may have\u00a0a great\u00a0attendee experience without any interest in purchasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n AI-powered Event Intelligence platforms classify these signals automatically. They understand context, recognize patterns, and distinguish where the buyer is in their journey, from casual interest to active evaluation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Capturing buying signals has an outsized impact on the role of events for go-to-market teams. As\u00a0National Instruments, a Certain customer, shared, \u201cCertain allows us to bring global events into our overall go-to-market strategy, thanks to the strength of their integrations and ability to support all types of events.\u201d The result was\u00a086% faster lead follow-up time<\/strong>\u00a0after switching from event management to Event Intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n The way this plays out delivers outcomes. For example,\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0say a prospect downloads your enterprise security whitepaper at 10:15am. She asks detailed questions about scalability and\u00a0architecture\u00a0at your booth at 10:22am and then attends two relevant product sessions, one at 11am and one at 11:45am.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With Event Intelligence, your rep gets a Slack notification at 12:15pm with the full context that this is a high-intent, enterprise prospect, interested in security with a critical requirement around scalability. They know what sessions they attended, their pain points, that they are in active evaluation, and that they want to engage with a Solutions Architect. Your technology does the heavy lifting of\u00a0setting up\u00a0a meeting automatically during the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n Capturing buying signals is meaningless if they arrive too late. Traditional event platforms still rely on batch exports, which could\u00a0literally be\u00a0contact lists in CSV files that show up days later, after an event is already over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This process is no longer acceptable, especially knowing that prospects are 10x less likely to convert if follow-up takes more than five days.\u00a0A\u00a0MarketingProfs\u00a0study found that 74% of B2B marketers take four days or more to follow up with event leads\u00a0and only 2% follow up the same day. Event Intelligence platforms, in contrast, deliver signals in real-time and trigger action while the event is\u00a0still\u00a0happening.\u00a0Timing is everything.\u00a0Sales teams equipped with the right context and intelligence can actually move deals forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rockwell Automation,\u00a0which manages over 200 global conferences annually, described the impact of Event Intelligence with Certain in this way: \u201cCertain has helped raise the bar on what we track and how we act on it. We can now measure event impact with a level of precision we never had before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Large\u00a0enterprises run dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of events\u00a0worldwide,\u00a0and the requirements to effectively distribute data across this kind of scale are complex. Event Intelligence platforms are\u00a0scale\u00a0agnostic\u00a0and freely allow data to flow to and from their platform with ease to enable any type of\u00a0event program and\u00a0the\u00a0data\u00a0integration and workflow needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In addition,\u00a0event builds\u00a0need to be\u00a0repeatable\u00a0to move with the speed of business. Many legacy event platforms treat each event as\u00a0its\u00a0own independent project. Event Intelligence platforms\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think of events as\u00a0standalone. They understand how each event fits within the overall event portfolio,\u00a0enable\u00a0replication, and provide event intelligence at the portfolio level.\u00a0<\/p>\n Companies that manage hundreds of events annually, including roadshows, conferences, webinars, and customer summits,\u00a0must deploy\u00a0technology that answers questions about results like:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Legacy platforms\u00a0tell you your event had 1,042 attendees and who attended session A or B. But they\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0tell you if those attendees were solving a particular pain point or converted because of a specific value proposition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n AI-driven Event Intelligence platforms aggregate signals across your entire events portfolio. They\u00a0identify\u00a0patterns, enable predictive analytics, and show you which events and what content drives revenue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For decades, CMOs have struggled to prove event ROI. You know\u00a0that\u00a0events\u00a0deliver\u00a0relationships, engagement, and deals.\u00a0Your sales team knows\u00a0this\u00a0too. But\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0still hard to\u00a0tie\u00a0events to revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Event Intelligence changes the game entirely. Now you can confidently walk into your board meeting with data that shows, \u201cOur Q3 events generated $12 million in qualified pipeline.\u00a0Nearly a\u00a0third of it has advanced to the negotiation stage, and 10% of it converted in the quarter to closed won deals. Events are also our best channel for conversion. We\u2019re tracking this on a rolling basis and as of this month, event-sourced revenue has grown 47% year-over-year.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These are numbers the CFO cares about, and they can justify your event budget while\u00a0accomplishing\u00a0something even more valuable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And that is that Event Intelligence unites your entire go-to-market organization around shared outcomes. When everyone\u00a0operates\u00a0from the same intelligence, your entire go-to-market engine accelerates.\u00a0<\/p>\n As\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0evaluating event platforms, ask questions centered around the kinds of buying signals you can capture, the speed of data delivery, where data is integrated throughout your technology stack, and how events will scale for you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Questions we encourage teams to ask include:\u00a0<\/p>\n Other areas to explore\u00a0include:\u00a0<\/p>\n Signal Capture.<\/strong>\u00a0Which behavioral signals, including patterns about session engagement, content downloads, and booth\u00a0engagement\u00a0are tracked? Can the platform\u00a0identify\u00a0trends for your top accounts? What about repeat visitors and multi-person buying committees? Does it use AI to classify signal types? Can it distinguish between casual interest and active evaluation?\u00a0<\/p>\n Real-Time Delivery.<\/strong>\u00a0How long does it take from the time a signal is captured to get in front of sellers in your CRM? Does it integrate natively with Salesforce\u00a0and\u00a0Marketo? Does any workflow require manual exports? Can data capture trigger real-time next steps? Describe the flow of data in your overall system.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Portfolio Intelligence.<\/strong>\u00a0Can you aggregate data across multiple events and event types? Does it provide predictive analytics for ROI forecasting? Will it\u00a0identify\u00a0patterns across your\u00a0entire\u00a0events portfolio? Can it connect behavior to revenue?\u00a0<\/p>\n AI-Powered Personalization.<\/strong>\u00a0Will it recommend sessions based on attendee interests? Can it recommend which exhibitors to meet and who to network with? Does it use AI to automatically\u00a0identify\u00a0prospects with high intent?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While many organizations continue to measure events through satisfaction polls, the most advanced teams are gaining a competitive edge by using every engagement opportunity to understand\u00a0intent\u00a0to buy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deploying\u00a0an AI-driven approach to understanding intent is one of the lowest-hanging fruit opportunities to enact real AI transformation in marketing. At the same\u00a0time, it\u00a0immediately\u00a0drives\u00a0efficiency and better outcomes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The AI in event management market is experiencing explosive growth, with projections showing the market expanding from\u00a0$1.8 billion\u00a0in 2023 to over\u00a0$14 billion\u00a0by 2033. Organizations\u00a0leveraging\u00a0AI for event intelligence report significant improvements in lead qualification, follow-up timing, and attendee engagement, with personalized campaigns delivering up to 6x higher engagement.\u00a0Benefits also include\u00a0identifying\u00a0prospects with intent to\u00a0purchase\u00a0more\u00a0quickly, engaging buying committees more effectively, and closing deals faster while competitors run an outdated playbook.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every organization will\u00a0ultimately onboard\u00a0Event Intelligence as part of its AI transformation. The\u00a0question is simply around timing and whether\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0be part of leading the\u00a0transition,\u00a0or\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0be in the back playing catch-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n The shift from event management to Event Intelligence is happening now.\u00a0<\/p>\n Organizations making this transition early are seeing results that include faster sales cycles, higher conversion rates, and the ability to prove event ROI with actual revenue numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The key to working with any event technology is to ensure\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0truly using Event Intelligence to capture every buying signal, deliver them directly to your revenue teams in real-time, and connect event engagement directly to pipeline influence, acceleration, and closed-won deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n To learn more about how to reboot your event technology as an effective AI transformation initiative, get our latest report,\u00a0The Ultimate Guide to Event Buying Signals<\/strong><\/a>, which shares how CMOs and marketing teams\u00a0identify\u00a0and connect the right event buying signals to influenced, accelerated, and closed-won revenue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nWhen Data Arrives Late, Deals are Already Lost\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Events are Where Buyers\u00a0Emerge from the Shadows\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Rethinking What Event Technology Should\u00a0Deliver\u00a0<\/h3>\n
The First Pillar: Capture Buying Signals\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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The Second Pillar: Deliver Signals in Real-Time\u00a0<\/h3>\n
The Third and Final Pillar:\u00a0Orchestrate\u00a0at\u00a0Scale\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Intelligence\u00a0as\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0Source of\u00a0Differentiation\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Event Technology\u00a0Evaluation\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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Early Adopters are Gaining an Edge\u00a0<\/h3>\n
Making the Shift to Event Intelligence\u00a0<\/h3>\n