The value of content, intimate, experiences and flexibility…These are just a few lessons from the pivot to virtual events in 2020-2021 that the Aerospike marketing team learned and are working to apply in 2022.

IDG’s Global Chief Revenue Officer Matt Yorke had the pleasure of speaking with two changemakers at Aerospike to discuss the evolving events landscape and how Aerospike has hit their stride with events in the past year.

Meet the Participants:

  • About Aerospike: A real-time data platform, Aerospike enables organizations to act instantly across billions of transactions while they reduce their server footprint by 80%.
  • Sherry Prescott-Willis, Head of Demand Generation
  • Deanne Martin, Senior Event Manager

Breaking through “Zoom Fatigue”

In the spring of 2020, the corporate world pivoted from traveling to in-person conferences to holding virtual events with recorded keynote speakers at a breakneck pace. Deanne Martin had just a few weeks to explore virtual platforms and pivot their annual user conference from in-person to virtual, and she did just that. She used lessons from that experience to build out a virtual event strategy that continued into 2021. “It was a big learning curve for me, but we adapted quite well. The adoption was really, really intense. Everybody wanted to get on videos and go to virtual events. Then things started to taper off. I’m sure you’ve heard of Zoom fatigue. Then you had to be a lot more creative on how you attract the right audiences to the right events.” And Aerospike did just that. With their Lunch and Learns, virtual booths, and adding a dynamic analyst as well as a celebrity chef to enhance the experience.

Engaging Content and The Importance of Networking

Sherry Prescott-Willis highlights the importance of engaging content within a virtual setting. To capture a virtual audience’s attention, you need to be concise and dynamic, because it is easier to be distracted at your desk than at a live event. Sherry shared “we learned that keynotes which would normally be an hour needed to be shortened and needed to be precise.” Similarly, to in-person events, Sherry and Deanne found that audiences like to connect with their peers attending the events. By utilizing a matchmaking tool the attendees network with people from similar industries and can discuss the content from Aerospike’s virtual sessions beyond the event.

Connecting with Coffee: A CIO Case Study

The perfect example of how innovative Aerospike’s approach to the everchanging events landscape has been over the last two years is their success following the CIO 100 Symposium. At the Symposium Aerospike had a virtual booth where interested attendees could stop by and learn more about the real time data platform. Aerospike also held a virtual session with an analyst as the featured speaker. But the engagement didn’t end at the event. Sherry and Deanne worked with their sales team to continue the conversation. With over 100 contacts made during the CIO 100 event they had a great opportunity to nurture these connections further. Partnering with their inside sales team, Aerospike reached out to every contact with a custom note thanking them for attending the event along with an opportunity to connect with coffee. They found this strategy to work well and following the Symposium, in fact their coffee chats with C-Level attendees led to Aerospike’s most successful week of bookings in their inside sales history. This approach was so successful they shared it with their APJ and EMEA teams and they are also seeing success.

Inspired to step up your event game? Click here to explore the Foundry 2022 Events.

About the CMO Perspectives Video Series:
The series spotlights industry-leading executives that are making a difference within the tech marketing landscape. Our host, Matt Yorke, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Foundry, dives into the latest marketing trends, providing peer insight for tech marketers.