Event Experience

Nani Shaffer (Senior Director of Demand Generation & Marketing Operations at Demandbase) shares how events fit into a larger ABM strategy, how to align event KPIs with goals, and why event teams should think like sales teams.

Nani Shaffer brings a decade of B2B Marketing experience across Marketing Operations, Product Marketing and Demand Generation. Nani is responsible for the measurement and optimization of the Marketing organization and oversees the strategy and execution of integrated programs.

Heather Odendaal (CEO of WNORTH) shares how her career in events led to the launch of WNORTH. We also discuss content, speakers, and scaling an event community from grassroots to a global brand.

Heather is the CEO of WNORTH, an event series for women on a path to executive leadership. Heather is an accomplished entrepreneur and event producer. She has worked on Canada’s most influential events including the Whistler Film Festival, Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival, and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Gianna Cardinale Gaudini (Global Director, Head of Events at SoftBank Vision Fund) shares her thoughts on building an events team, work-life balance, wine, and more.

Gianna is an award-winning Executive Event Producer and author of The Art of Event Planning with over 15 years of experience in the marketing and hospitality industry. Gianna is currently the Global Director, Head of Events for the SoftBank Vision Fund, and previously ran events for Google’s Events and Experience team for 9+ years.

Erin Flannery (Head of Events at Lattice) shares her thoughts on prioritizing budget within a growing event program, launching a user conference, sponsorship negotiation, feels vs. metrics, where direct mail can fit into a larger event marketing strategy, and much more.

As the first Events hire at Lattice, Erin built the events program from the ground up creating a full-scale program that includes sponsorships, dinners, workshops and Lattice’s inaugural conference—Resources for Humans Live.

Chris Duke (Senior Manager, Global Event Marketing at Rubrik) shares his thoughts on leading with empathy, working with agencies, launching a global field marketing campaign and a user conference, event exhibition strategy, working with agencies, and his final verdict on the latest entry in the Fast and Furious franchise.

Chris oversees Rubrik's global event program. Before joining Rubrik, Chris worked at brands like DC Shoes, Red Bull, and GoPro—granting him a unique B2C perspective on B2B marketing.

Trista Myers (Head of Events, Salesforce Ventures) shares a behind the scenes look at Dreamforce, how Salesforce Ventures creates executive experiences, tips for working with multiple event partners, baking recipes, and why you should never sell yourself short when interviewing for your next role.

Trista leads all global events for Salesforce Ventures. In 2018 she was selected for Event Marketer's list of 35 National Experiential Event Professionals under 35 for her work at AOL and on Dreamforce.

Monique Ruff-Bell (Events Director at Money20/20) discusses Cannes Lions, growing your career with mentors and sponsors, how to make big events feel small, supporting women in leadership, and singing karaoke around the globe.

Monique is the Event Director at Money 20/20 USA and VP of Events at its parent company Ascential plc. Monique’s responsibilities include setting the show vision and strategy with the Global President, plan execution, P&L management, and sales and marketing support and performance.

Andréa Long (Global Diversity Events Manager at Twilio) discusses Twilio's After Hours Events program, how employee resource groups can be a powerful catalyst for change, diversity and inclusion best practices, and weighted blankets.

Prior to Twilio, Andréa managed branding, marketing, and events on the recruiting team at Lyft, co-led Lyft's black employee resource group, and launched the company's first series of events celebrating Black History Month. She also co-founded Our Collective, a community resource group for professionals across Silicon Valley.

Helen Stoddard (Head of Global Events at Twitter) discusses what it takes to create buzzworthy events, why B2B and B2C events aren't really that different after all, and how events help drive Twitter's revenue strategy.

Helen owns Twitter's presence at large events like South by Southwest, Cannes, and CES. Prior to Twitter, Helen led events at Toys "R" Us and Nickelodeon, founded and managed her own event production company, and spent several years working on David Letterman's Tonight Show. #PinkSweats

Karen Merritt (Head of Owned and Operated Events, LinkedIn) shares a behind-the-scenes look at Talent Connect, how she and her team take a customer-centric approach to events, tips for creating networking opportunities, thoughts on segmenting audience data, and what marketers can learn from Disney Land.

At LinkedIn, Karen oversees the strategy and execution of roughly 200 proprietary events across the globe. Prior to LinkedIn, Karen had the opportunity to lead events at companies like Cisco and Splunk.