The Event Tech Talk Show Podcast

Your exhibitors are already spending money on LinkedIn, Google and Meta. The question is whether that spend runs through your event, or around it.

In this episode of The Event Tech Talk Show, Adam Parry is joined by Beezar Sirini and Danis Nova, co-founders of Boost Express, the platform building co-branded advertising for trade shows and the companies that exhibit at them.

The conversation covers:

• What event-endorsed advertising actually is, and why it pulls from the digital marketing budget rather than the events budget
• The 57% conversion rate Boost is seeing on exhibitor sales calls, and why those calls average 17 minutes
• Why co-branded campaigns outperform exhibitors' own ads, with click-through rates of 1.16% against a LinkedIn benchmark of 0.4 to 0.6%
• How one health event generated 1.4 million impressions, 17,500 clicks and 18,000 qualified ICPs through exhibitor-funded campaigns in six months
• The shift from a three-day event relationship to a twelve-month one
• Where AI agents fit into the roadmap, and what that means for smaller exhibitors who have never run a paid campaign

If you organise an event, exhibit at one, or sell into either, this is a conversation about the budget pool sitting next to the one everyone already fights over.

Subscribe to The Event Tech Talk Show wherever you get your podcasts, and connect with Adam Parry on LinkedIn for more conversations with the founders shaping the event technology industry.

The conversation delves into the entrepreneurial journey of BBD Boom, the inherent drive of an entrepreneur, the evolution of business operations, the importance of company culture, the role of technology in business, AI and the productivity paradox, the impact of AI on work and productivity, the role of HubSpot in business growth, the future of SaaS platforms, and transitioning to HubSpot from Salesforce. The conversation covers the technical aspects of transitioning from Salesforce to HubSpot, the opportunity for process refinement and a fresh start, the personal journey and mental health challenges faced by an entrepreneur, and the specific challenges faced by male entrepreneurs. The discussion also emphasizes the importance of vulnerability, empathy, and community support in the business and personal context.

Takeaways

• Entrepreneurial Drive
• Technology and Culture
• AI and Productivity Data migration is the easiest technical aspect of transitioning from Salesforce to HubSpot.
• Transitioning to HubSpot provides an opportunity for a fresh start and process refinement.

Chapters

• 00:00 The Entrepreneurial Journey of BBD Boom
• 05:32 The Evolution of Business Operations
• 13:25 The Impact of AI on Work and Productivity
• 20:10 The Future of SaaS Platforms
• 27:28 Process Refinement and Fresh Start
• 35:06 Challenges Faced by Male Entrepreneurs

Recorded live on the show floor at International Confex, this episode features Margaret Reeves, Managing Director of RefTech - one of the most experienced voices in event registration and badging.

We cover why RefTech built their software to work entirely offline, the Print Pod innovation that had one client asking "where is everyone?" because queues had vanished completely, and why being service-led rather than software-led still matters in an industry increasingly obsessed with self-serve SaaS.

Margaret also shares her thoughts on data security, why RefTech became the first registration company to achieve ISO 27001 certification across the entire business, and the uncomfortable truth that organisers are still emailing sensitive data around as if GDPR never happened.

A grounded, honest conversation from someone who has seen it all and is still building.

Recorded live on the show floor at International Confex, this episode features Dan Robertson, Customer Success Manager at Jonas Event Technology - just five weeks into the role.

We talk about why Jonas have invested in a dedicated customer success function, what organisers consistently get wrong about registration (hint: it starts far too late), and why capturing attendee intent the moment a show closes is one of the smartest moves an organiser can make.

Dan also shares his take on the Jonas and Sitka partnership, why bringing data into one place is no longer a nice-to-have, and where AI fits into customer support without replacing the human moments that actually build loyalty. A refreshingly honest conversation from someone who's worked on both sides of the industry fence.

Recorded live on the show floor at International Confex, this episode features Jon Benjamin, CEO of ASP - the company behind the websites of some of the world's biggest trade shows.

We get into why the event website has been treated as an afterthought for too long, what it actually takes to optimise one for both SEO and AI-driven search, and why pouring money into PPC without measuring what happens next is one of the most common and costly mistakes in the industry.

Jon also shares why the shift to conversational AI search is the best thing that's happened to his business and what ASP are building next to help organisers turn exhibitor content into thousands of pages of discoverability.

If you run events and you're not thinking about your website as a year-round strategic asset, this one's for you.

Recorded live on the show floor at International Confex, this episode features Felicia, Marketing Director at Cvent, in a conversation about event-led growth and why intentionality is everything.

We cover why smaller, more intimate events are earning a bigger share of attention (if not always budget), how marketers and event planners need to work more closely together, and why the events industry has a blind spot when it comes to speaking the language of the people holding the purse strings.

Felicia also shares a brilliant story about a salesperson who brought a printer to IMEX and why that kind of preparation is exactly what separates average event programmes from exceptional ones.

Founder and CEO Fardad Zabetian discusses Kudo’s mission to make live events multilingual, blending professional interpreters with AI to deliver real-time translation, captioning, and glossary-driven accuracy across hybrid and in-person events.

They cover Kudo’s origins, the role of AI, partner and reseller strategies, running a distributed team, and the future of event tech focused on accessibility and high-quality attendee experiences.

In this episode Mark Waddington explains why he identifies as a founder more than a CEO and how that product-first mindset drove the evolution of StaffWise from a rough first version into a full workforce management platform.

Mark describes solving the core problem of poor communication between tech vendors and businesses, building client-driven features — onboarding, divisions, scheduling, payroll integrations, reporting and sustainability tracking — and expanding into retail execution with RetailWise.

He also discusses the company’s commitment to responsive human support, cautious use of AI, compliance and integrations by region, and how listening to customers shaped the roadmap and growth strategy.

Tony, Partnerships and Creative Director at Eventagrate, discusses his journey from CGI to experiential events, how the company uses AI, AR and data to make audiences part of the story, and the importance of solving real problems rather than chasing tech trends.

Highlights include hyper-personalization, accessibility, metaverse opportunities and a case study on the Riyadh Marathon featuring AR invitations and AI avatars.

Andrew Murphy, CEO of Conference Rentals, shares his path from audio engineering to leading a global events rental company and explains how they grew from a niche microphone supplier into a specialist in complex, multilingual events.

The episode covers interpretation technology (human vs AI), ensuring accessibility at events, challenges of global expansion and partner networks, and the importance of service, training, and choosing the right technology for high-profile conferences.