This episode features an interview with Alon Alroy, CMO of Bizzabo.

On this episode, Alon looks into the crystal ball to see the future of events and why experiences will be absolutely vital to delight customers. 
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 Key Takeaways

• Events will be making a comeback. However, they will never look the same and as marketers, we need to adapt to the times.
• The network effect of happy customers makes the job of marketing easier. Look through this lens with your marketing strategy.
• The future of events is going to be about experiences. Deliver world-class experiences for attendees, sponsors, speakers, and everything in between — your company wins. 

When you think about the future, the future is really not about event management software anymore. It's really about event experiences. People can consume content anywhere. People can get a Netflix-like experience in terms of, on-demand almost anywhere. So those who want to stay relevant, we need to evolve their offering to be focused on experiences, the attendee experience, the sponsor experience, the speaker experience, and the other experiences. So the future is really about experiences and this is what we have been experiencing as well. And this is what we have been demonstrating. To provide this immersive experience in which people feel connected, the rich transforming from attendees to participants.”

“In March 2020 a new era in events started, we call that the temporary-virtual-era, a transition era in which virtual events were the only option. Now, as we get into 2022, a new era is starting and that new era is the hybrid era in which we're really leveraging all of the benefits of virtual events in terms of increased reach and more data-driven approach and a more diversified audience. With the comeback of in-person events and for everyone who was doubting, whether in-person events would be back, they are coming back big time. We are already seeing tech conferences leading the charge and the number of in-person events already planned for 2022 is constantly increasing. And they're gonna come back better. So the future of events is, is hybrid. And the future of events is about choice and flexibility. And marketers will need to adapt to these new types of experiences.”

“So I lead our marketing organization and our customer organization, and I strongly believe that the best marketing in the world is just happy customers. And if you're able to really influence customers being happy, it means that you work in marketing everyday, specifically today in which customers have more power than before in which the buyer journey involves way more is leaning way more about what customers say and think than what your demand gen team is. On our blog or on our white papers, it means that we need to really lean on customers to drive marketing, word of mouth, et cetera.” 

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