Great Events

Execution will always be part of the job, but event leaders who want to grow their influence need to think beyond logistics. 



In this episode, Kelly Cheng sits down with Sara Ann Straw, Senior Director of Corporate Events at Kong, to discuss her approach to building more strategic event programs. Drawing from her SAS Framework, Sara explains how asking better questions, creating intentional programs, and building stronger partnerships can help event teams drive greater impact across the business. 

What you'll learn:

• How event marketers can move from execution to strategic leadership
• Why AI creates more space for strategy and creativity
• How intentional networking can make events more valuable than scale alone

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Sara Ann Straw of Kong

(02:10) Moving from execution to strategic leadership

(03:55) Why event marketers should embrace AI

(05:59) The first 90 days at a new role

(07:50) Using events as a growth channel

(11:24) Why strategic leaders stay hands-on

(14:22) Bigger events are not always better

Better events do not always come from doing more. As expectations change, event teams are being pushed to rethink how they create value, where they focus their energy, and what actually makes an experience worth showing up for.



In this episode, Rachel Andrews sits down with Tavar James, VP of Marketing & Global Head of Events at Forrester, for a wide-ranging conversation on the changing role of event leaders. They explore the pressure to do more with AI, the importance of building experiences around the right audiences, and what it takes to grow into a leadership role without losing sight of the people behind the event.

What you'll learn:

• How a commercial mindset helps event leaders earn executive influence
• Why AI should accelerate event work without replacing human connection
• How to create more intentional events
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Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Tavar James of Forrester

(05:13) Finding the right role for AI in events

(07:58) Growing your scope beyond the title

(11:32) Why people want better, not more

(15:18) Rethinking forced networking

(16:41) Being intentional with your personal brand

Event professionals need to be fluent in marketing, operations, and finance. That range is what makes them qualified for leadership even if they don’t feel ready for it. 

In this episode, Rachel Andrews sits down with Angie Smith, Chief Executive Officer of InVision Communications, to discuss her unconventional career path and the lessons she learned along the way. Angie shares how community, curiosity, and overcoming self-doubt shaped her career. She also explains how AI can help event teams work smarter without replacing the human connection that drives great experiences.

What you'll learn:

• How curiosity and relationships can shape a successful events career
• When an agency partner makes more sense than a full-time employee
• How AI can improve event workflows without replacing human connection
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Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Angie Smith, CEO of InVision

(01:14) Building a career across the events industry

(05:52) Event pros already think like CEOs

(08:04) Should you hire an agency or increase headcount?

(11:42) Rethinking how AI creates value

(16:56) Hiring for curiosity over experience

Don’t underestimate the power of webinars. A well-built webinar program can create ongoing opportunities to educate audiences, build relationships, and support sales teams. 



In this episode, Felicia Asiedu sits down with Sarah Jordan Usher, Global Events and Field Marketing Manager at Mastercam, to discuss how they built a scalable webinar strategy from scratch. 

Sarah shares how Mastercam grew its webinar program from a brand-new initiative into a consistent channel for customer engagement. She covers how to create repeatable webinar processes, measure success beyond attendance, use audience insights to inform follow-up, and connect digital and in-person experiences across the customer journey. 

What you'll learn:

• How to build repeatable webinar programs that scale engagement
• Webinar success metrics beyond attendance numbers
• The importance of connecting webinars with broader event and field marketing programs

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Sarah Jordan Usher of Mastercam

(03:43) Understand your webinar audiences and goals

(06:31) Using field events to build brand connections

(09:09) How events build customer loyalty

(11:45) Measuring ROI and customer journey impact

(14:03) Building a repeatable webinar strategy

Great content isn't enough to wow audiences anymore. When every event can deliver a polished keynote, personalization becomes the real differentiator.



In this episode, Stephanie Sweetland sits down with Nigel Reeves, Senior Director of Event Operations at YPO, who runs over 500 events a year for 37,000 members worldwide. They discuss how member data should inform event design, how to use AI to move faster without losing the personal touch, and what it takes to get a whole team to adopt new tools.

What you'll learn:

• How to use data to create more personalized member experiences
• Ways AI can cut admin work for event planners
• Signals that indicate an event program has outgrown its process

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Nigel Reeves

(02:27) Moving beyond content to create connection

(06:08) Connecting event data across platforms

(07:44) Events for younger audiences

(08:47) Creating innovation teams for AI adoption

(11:43) Advice for navigating event evolution

A sold-out event does not always mean it’s successful.

Big registration numbers and packed rooms are nice, but those numbers alone don’t tell you whether an event achieved what it set out to do.

In this episode, Felicia Asiedu sits down with Mahoganey Jones, founder and CEO of Event Specialists, to discuss how event professionals can move beyond vanity metrics and focus on meaningful KPIs to measure performance. Mahoganey explains how she defines stronger event outcomes, evaluates the true impact of event content, and borrows ideas from other industries to create more strategic and memorable experiences.

What you'll learn:

• How to move beyond vanity metrics and measure event impact
• Why event goals should always connect to business outcomes
• How to use feedback loops to evaluate content effectiveness



Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Mahoganey Jones of Event Specialists

(01:23) Moving beyond registration numbers and vanity metrics

(04:08) Measuring the real impact of event content

(05:53) Using the start-stop-keep framework

(09:00) Meaningful event performance benchmarks

(10:27) Borrowing ideas from other industries

Planning an event is hard enough. Without the right processes in place, it's chaotic and nearly impossible to scale.

For the Wounded Warrior Project, building a stronger event program meant replacing fragmented processes with clear systems, defined responsibilities, and leadership support.

In this episode, Felicia Asiedu sits down with Paige Marg and Sarah Lutz from the Wounded Warrior Project to talk about how their team built a robust events program from the ground up. They explain how standardized workflows, a two-planner model, and better reporting improved efficiency, strengthened trust, and helped leadership recognize the full value of the events team.

What you'll learn:

• Why clear ownership reduces friction between teams
• How to build processes that flex as your event volume grows
• How to use past event data to justify future budget asks

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet the Wounded Warrior Project event team

(02:08) How events rebuild community and camaraderie

(04:08) Building processes for an event program

(08:59) How the two-planner model works

(11:09) Reporting event value to leadership

(13:35) Becoming strategic subject matter experts

Your event had 1,000 attendees. Great. But how many showed buying intent?

Attendance, booth traffic, and badge scans only tell part of the story.

In this episode, Stephanie Sweetland sits down with Nick Bennett from Reachdesk, to discuss how marketers can connect event engagement to pipeline and prove business impact. Nick explains why events work best when they are treated as part of an integrated growth strategy rather than a standalone tactic. He shares which intent signals matter most, how sales and marketing can improve follow-up, and where AI can simplify reporting and analysis.

What you'll learn:

• How to connect event engagement signals to pipeline
• Why badge scans shouldn’t automatically become MQLs
• How AI can simplify event reporting and analysis

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Nick Bennett from Reachdesk

(01:29) Why traditional event metrics fall short

(03:36) Identifying the strongest intent signals

(08:11) Nick’s event impact tracker

(10:21) Turning events into a growth engine

(15:00) Opportunities for gifting to create memorable experiences

Impact tracker: https://event-impact.lovable.app/

TED is so much more than just an events company. 

Globally, their audience trusts them to spread big ideas, spark important conversations, and create meaningful experiences. In this episode, Rachel Andrews sits down with Monique Ruff-Bell, Chief Program and Strategy Officer at TED Conferences.

Monique takes us behind the curtain of their global ecosystem and world-class event strategy. She discusses their human-centered approach, their dedication to long-term speaker development, and their strategy for building loyalty among younger audiences.

What you’ll learn:

• How to design experiences that build real emotional connection
• The importance of speaker curation, topic development, and script refinement
• Why you need to serve audience segments through different stages of life

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Monique Ruff-Bell from TED Conferences

(05:37) The framework behind TED's event design

(09:02) How to create content around hope and optimism

(10:47) TED's three flagship events

(16:28) How TED filters 22,000 speaker recommendations

(18:36) How AI helps content curation and event strategy

(23:08) Using events for a year-round digital and community strategy

(27:17) Where to draw inspiration from as event planners

Events are getting smaller and smaller in 2026.

It’s got a lot to do with AI. Audiences are skeptical, overloaded, and craving something authentic. Intimate gatherings, personalized experiences, and IRL events foster real connection.

In this episode, Felicia Asiedu and Rachel Andrews sit down with new Co-host and Goldcast CMO Kelly Cheng for a mid-year trend check-in. They discuss why building trust is more crucial than ever as AI quietly transforms the events industry. 

What you’ll learn:

• Why in-person events are crucial for building trust
• The importance of intentional venue selection and design
• How events are evolving into a performance-driven channel

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Welcome Kelly Cheng, new co-host at Great Events

(07:20) Trust as a differentiator in the age of AI

(17:05) The rise of micro events

(22:03) Why unique venues are trending

(24:40) Event-led growth in marketing

(30:47) Practical advice for teams overwhelmed by event measurement