Explore every episode of the podcast EVENT ABOUT IT: Event Marketing, Strategy & Business Growth
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is Zero-Click Search the End of Event SEO? | 09 oct. 2026 | 00:48:50 | |
68% of US Google searches now end without a single click, which means event SEO as you learned it is quietly breaking. If your discovery plan still depends on getting somebody onto your website, that is a problem nobody has budgeted for. Laura Davidson ran a search agency for a decade and she is blunt about what is happening: the touchpoints have collapsed. Someone asks an AI, gets one answer, believes they have done thorough research, and registers. Her argument is that this is not new marketing at all. It is a return to something much older, and the event brands that already invested in being known are the ones it rewards. In this one:
If you are heading into budget season with a number you are not sure you can defend, start here. Mentioned in this episode
About the guest Laura Davidson spent 14 years running paid search and paid media for global trade shows before selling her agency to Freeman, which means she is watching the collapse of click-based measurement from inside the discipline it disrupts. She now leads digital at mdg. She has also produced her own events, which is why her advice sounds like someone who has been on both sides of the invoice. Connect with Laura Davidson and Tag Digital:
About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She’s the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| Should You Gate Your Event Agenda or Give It Away? | 02 oct. 2026 | 00:18:22 | |
Gating your agenda is one of the most common moves in B2B event strategy. According to today’s guest, it is also click bait. Laura Davidson has run more than 2,000 event campaigns a year across more than 40 countries, which means she has watched this exact decision play out at a scale almost nobody in this industry has access to. Her argument is that your agenda is the single most discoverable asset your event owns, and locking it behind a form costs you far more than the email addresses it collects. Especially now that buyers are asking an AI before they ask Google. Then we made her rule on seven more event marketing tactics most teams run on autopilot. In this one:
If you are building next year’s campaign plan right now, this is the 18 minutes that will change two line items in it. About the guest Laura Davidson has spent 14 years running paid media for some of the largest trade shows and conferences in the world, at a volume that means she has watched the same mistakes repeat across more than 40 countries. She built Tag Digital out of Glasgow with her husband, sold it to Freeman, and now leads digital at mdg. She is unusually willing to tell you which of your tactics are wasting money. Connect with Laura Davidson and Tag Digital:
About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She’s the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. In it, Laura breaks down what replaces the click now that 68% of searches end without one, and what actually decides whether your event gets funded. Send this episode to the demand gen lead who still thinks the agenda is a lead magnet. | |||
| Can You Vibe Code Your Way to Real Event Technology? | 25 sept. 2026 | 00:44:59 | |
The honest answer is no. And the person telling you that actually built it. Huong Nguyen spent 13 years running a multi-million dollar events agency before she started building Aletheia, an AI platform for event operations. She tried the vibe coding route first. She knows exactly where it breaks, what it costs when it does, and what the real gap is between a one-time AI workflow and a scalable event tech product. Her advice: do it for fun. Just do not do it for your actual program. That's one of six conversations in this Aftershow. We also got into how she built a seven-figure client roster for 10 years without a LinkedIn presence, a $500K contract she landed at 24 by working for free first, and what she now understands about event tech vendors that she didn't before she became one. In this one:
If you are currently evaluating event tech, thinking about building your own, or wondering whether being less visible is costing you business — this is the one. The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. About Huong Nguyen Huong Nguyen is the 2x CEO and founder of Shiloh Events and Aletheia, an AI-powered intelligence platform for event operations. She co-founded Zoomtopia and spent 13 years producing enterprise tech events for Zoom, Microsoft, Samsung, LG, Uber, and Google without ever building a personal brand. In 2023 she surfaced, started climbing, and started building. She is still doing all three. Connect with Huong: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mshuongnguyen/ Aletheia: https://aletheia.events/ Shiloh Events: https://shiloh-events.com/ About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics: Podcast: EventAboutItPodcast.com Newsletter (Step and Repeat): https://msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup Consulting and strategy: https://msquareddynamics.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp/ Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit TikTok: @eventaboutit The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| Should Your Event Team Report to Demand Gen Instead of Marketing? | 18 sept. 2026 | 00:21:34 | |
Most event teams are filed under marketing and measured on attendance. That's not a strategy problem. That's a reporting structure problem — and it's costing you pipeline. Huong Nguyen has produced enterprise tech events for 13 years: NASA to ServiceNow to co-founding Zoomtopia. She knows what events look like when they're treated as a logistics function, and she knows what they look like when they're wired into demand gen. The difference is not effort. It's where the team sits and what they're held accountable for. Plus: the vent nobody in the industry talks about out loud — what happens to your F&B and room block when your client has surprise layoffs and the hotel won't budge. And yes, she's the one who moved an entire conference to a parking lot overnight after the pipes burst mid-keynote. In this one:
If your event team is still reporting into a marketing org that measures success in badge scans, this is the conversation to send up the chain. Subscribe so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops — that's where Huong gets into what it actually cost to build Aletheia and what every planner thinking about vibe coding their own event tech needs to hear first. Send this to the event leader who's still trying to prove ROI in a marketing meeting instead of a demand gen one. About Huong Nguyen Huong Nguyen is the 2x CEO and founder of Shiloh Events — 13 years producing large-scale enterprise tech events for Zoom, Microsoft, Samsung, LG, Uber, and Google — and Aletheia, an AI-powered intelligence platform for event operations. She co-founded Zoomtopia, produced events for NASA, and grew Shiloh from zero to multi-million dollar revenue in three years. She named her company Shiloh, Hebrew for peace. She is now building the technology to deliver it. Connect with Huong: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mshuongnguyen/ Aletheia: https://aletheia.events/ Shiloh Events: https://shiloh-events.com/ About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics: Podcast: EventAboutItPodcast.com Newsletter (Step and Repeat): https://msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup Consulting and strategy: https://msquareddynamics.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp/ Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit TikTok: @eventaboutit Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. Next week Huong and Megan get into what it actually costs to build event tech from scratch — and why vibe coding isn't the shortcut planners think it is. Send this to the event leader who's still trying to prove ROI in a marketing meeting instead of a demand gen one. | |||
| Which Four Numbers Do Executives Actually Want From Your Event? | 11 sept. 2026 | 00:57:39 | |
Six hundred registrations is not an answer. The first thing a CRO wants to know is which logos are in the room, and most event leaders cannot answer that without asking for time to go look. This is not a recap of the main episode. This is the meeting that rewrote our guest's entire career, told in full. Sara Ann Straw walked in with a binder, a highlighter, and a registration count. She walked out with an $80 million pipeline target attached to her event and no idea how to hit it. What she did in the weeks after that meeting is the actual lesson, and it is more repeatable than it sounds. In this one:
There is also a Bravo break, a Bethenny Frankel story that got someone's father genuinely concerned, and a real debate about whether Montana deserves a Housewives franchise. If your next executive review is on the calendar and you are still building the deck around attendance, listen to the first ten minutes before you touch another slide. About the guest: Sara Ann Straw has spent nearly two decades building and rebuilding global event organizations at high-growth tech companies, usually by pulling field, partner, webinar, and corporate events under one roof. She learned to speak executive the hard way, in a meeting where she could not answer why her own company was investing in its own event. Her book, The Experienced Executive, is the version of that lesson she wishes someone had handed her at the start. Find Sara:
About Your Host: Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going: The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| The Event ROI Question Every CRO Asks and Nobody Preps For | 04 sept. 2026 | 00:25:21 | |
Most event teams are not badly run. They are badly wired. Three teams doing the same job in three different directions, and the event ROI conversation never actually happens because nobody owns it. This episode runs a live diagnostic on that wiring. Ten real decisions event teams make every week, sorted in real time into executor thinking or executive thinking, with a guest, Sara Ann Straw, who has walked into fractured global event organizations and rebuilt them from the inside. One of her calls is going to annoy you. She is also right about it. In this one:
If you are walking into budget season with a number you cannot defend, this is the one to start with. The diagnostic takes ten minutes and it will tell you something uncomfortable. About the guest: Sara Ann Straw has spent nearly two decades building and rebuilding global event organizations at high-growth tech companies, usually by pulling field, partner, webinar, and corporate events under one roof. She learned to speak executive the hard way, in a meeting where she could not answer why her own company was investing in its own event. Her book, The Experienced Executive, is the version of that lesson she wishes someone had handed her at the start. Find Sara:
About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. That one is the full story of the meeting where a CRO asked why the company was investing in its own event, and the answer was "because I was told to." Send this episode to the event leader on your team who is excellent at the wrong thing and has not been told yet. | |||
| Event Creator Programs: Are You Paying for Reach, Content, or Influence? | 21 août 2026 | 00:14:45 | |
Every event on the circuit is running some version of the same program right now. Comp the badge, comp the flight, comp the hotel, get content in return. Suddenly the registration list has "creators" on it, and almost nobody in the room agreed on what that word actually means, or what they're paying for when they use it. The quick answer: a content creator asks what to post this week. A thought leader asks what only they can say. An influencer asks whether their audience will buy what's being shared. Three different jobs, three different payoffs. Most hosted creator programs in the events industry never decide which one they're actually hiring for, and that's the expensive mistake this episode is built to fix. This is a solo episode, no guest this time, built around a distinction Megan couldn't stop thinking about after her own turn inside Cvent CONNECT's first hosted creator program. It pulls in growth executive Elena Verna's writing on the "operator" path versus borrowed authority, breaks down where creators, thought leaders, and influencers genuinely overlap, and then puts Megan's own campaign data on the table, including the one post that outperformed everything else in her lineup for reasons that had nothing to do with strategy. What you'll learn:
This episode connects directly back to event-led growth: how event budget decisions, event marketing ROI, and B2B event strategy actually hold up once real campaign data gets put next to the pitch. If you've ever approved, built, or been comped into an event creator program, this is the episode that tells you what you were really buying. About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going Subscribe to Event About It so you don't miss what's coming next. Send this episode to the marketing leader who just signed off on a creator or influencer program and still isn't sure what they're actually getting for it. | |||
| The Event Content Lifecycle Nobody Teaches You | 14 août 2026 | 00:47:11 | |
Everyone talks about the agenda. Almost nobody talks about what happens before the venue is even booked, or what happens to that content a full year after the show wraps. In this Aftershow, we get into the parts of event content strategy that don't make it into most conversations: how sponsored sessions actually get negotiated, why celebrity keynotes mostly fail, and the one connection that made an Olympic-themed keynote at Tableau Conference actually work. If you caught the main episode, you already know why Stephanie Wells is the person you call when your event has sessions but no strategy. In the Aftershow, we go past the headlines and into the operating system behind it. What You'll Learn:
Guest bio: Stephanie Wells has spent over 20 years building content strategy for Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, and Workday. She's a founding member of the Event Content Council and most recently spent two years inside hands-on training at Skillable. This fall she's launching Gold Heart Events, specializing in event content, strategy, and operations. Connect with Stephanie:
The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
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| Wi-Fi Disaster That Broke The Event Strategy | 07 août 2026 | 00:33:44 | |
Picture this: a dozen rooms, 200 attendees, a paid hands-on training session everyone showed up specifically for, and the Wi-Fi just... dies. Not for five minutes. For hours. Turns out the culprit wasn't the venue's internet at all, it was a stranger walking the floor with a pocket microwave sucking up bandwidth. This week's guest lived it, owned it in front of her entire leadership team, and turned it into one of the biggest lessons of her career. Stephanie Wells has spent 20+ years building the content strategy behind some of the biggest tech conferences on the planet, Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, Workday, to name a few. She's a founding member of the Event Content Council, just wrapped two years embedded inside the world of hands-on training, and this fall she's launching her own firm, Gold Heart Events. She's also the person you call when your event has sessions but no strategy, and this conversation is exactly why. What You'll Learn:
This episode covers the real mechanics of event content strategy: what belongs in scope, what gets cut, and why event ROI depends on decisions made months before anyone signs a venue contract. Stephanie makes the case that content should be first out the gate and last to leave, ahead of sponsors, ahead of venues, ahead of everything. Guest bio: Stephanie Wells has spent over 20 years building content strategy for Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, and Workday. She's a founding member of the Event Content Council and most recently spent two years inside hands-on training at Skillable. This fall she's launching Gold Heart Events, specializing in event content, strategy, and operations. Connect with Stephanie:
Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. We're going deeper into the full event content lifecycle, from venue contract to post-event report, plus where celebrity keynotes and sponsored sessions actually earn their spot on the agenda. Send this episode to the event planner still finalizing the agenda before anyone's touched the content strategy. Keep laughing, keep growing, and keep eventing about it. About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
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| Is Everything You Know About Gen Z at Events Wrong? | 31 juil. 2026 | 00:47:14 | |
The events industry keeps publishing research about Gen Z. Nobody thought to read it back to one. So Megan brought her assistant Sierra Siebulrud to Cvent CONNECT 2026 for her first-ever industry conference — and her first major conference of any kind — then sat her down and read out thirteen published Gen Z stats to her face. Some of them held up. Several of them did not. The ones that fell apart are the ones your agenda is probably built on. This is a different kind of Aftershow. So this is net-new: a fact check, a first-timer debrief, and a straight-answer session on the things everyone wants to ask a Gen Z and doesn't. What you'll learn:
Approximate chapters:
Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Plus: the purple badge moment, the acronym problem nobody in this industry will admit to, a Bravo detour involving a Montana wedding, and the fastest way an older colleague loses credibility with someone half their age. About Sierra Sierra Siebulrud is 27, Gen Z, and currently exploring what's next — checking out different industries before landing on her next opportunity. She came to Cvent CONNECT 2026 to help Megan and to find out whether the events industry is a fit for her. She left thinking it might be. Worth naming up front: Sierra shadowed Megan through the creator program, so this is one Gen Z's read from an unusually good seat, not a stand-in for every Gen Z attendee walking your show floor. About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Keep the Conversation Going The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at squareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup . Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| Trust is Broken. Cvent bet a billion it isn’t | 24 juil. 2026 | 00:17:13 | |
Cvent just bet a billion dollars that presence, not swag, not badges, not brochures, is the rarest signal left in B2B marketing. They're calling it the presence premium: in a world where AI can fake almost anything, showing up in person is the one thing it still can't. Megan Martin spent Cvent Connect 2026 in Nashville as one of only ten creators hand-picked for Cvent's first-ever hosted creator program, the first of its kind in the events industry. In this solo, no-guest edition of Event About It, she breaks down five takeaways almost nobody else is reporting on, and holds Cvent's own numbers up to the same scrutiny she'd apply to any client's data. What you'll learn:
Watch the real-time Field Notes recaps, recorded on-site in Nashville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZUgwx4w3vAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4g-k9G8Bk About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics Podcast: EventAboutItPodcast.com Newsletter (Step and Repeat): msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup Consulting and strategy: msquareddynamics.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp/ Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutitTikTok: @eventaboutit Subscribe to Event About It so you don't miss the two follow-ups coming next: the full story behind Cvent's creator program straight from Dara, the person who built it from scratch, and a first-timer's honest take on Cvent Connect from Megan's Gen Z assistant, at her very first industry conference. Send this one to the marketer who's about to walk into a budget meeting with a vendor's stat and no idea who paid for the research behind it. Keep laughing, keep growing, and keep eventing about it. | |||
| When Events Become a GTM Motion, Not Just Marketing | 17 juil. 2026 | 00:55:05 | |
Most event teams are organized under marketing. But what if that's the whole problem? Aleksandra Panyukhina has been building events as a go-to-market motion for twelve years — and the difference between how she operates and how most companies run events is not a small gap. This is the Aftershow — where the strategy goes deeper and the guardrails come off. We get into the architecture behind it all: how she thinks about event portfolio strategy, why she removed the word "events" from her job title, how the FLOW initiative at Pixelz works as a full GTM motion, and what event teams need to look like in five years if they want a seat at the table. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: • Why she removed the word "events" from her job title — and what that reveals about where event marketing's identity problem actually lives • The zone of genius framework for event and field marketers: why trying to own logistics AND strategy is the fastest path to being replaced at both • How the FLOW event portfolio actually works — and why the single non-negotiable rule is that every event has to be one the sales team asked for first • How to measure event attribution when deals have a 12-month sales cycle, why "pipeline in the room" is the metric that earns executive respect, and when the math on a trade show simply doesn't add up • What event teams that survive the next five years look like — and the patterns they've already stopped following ABOUT ALEKSANDRA: Aleksandra Panyukhina is the Experience Marketing Director at Pixelz, where she leads FLOW — an event-led growth portfolio combining owned flagship events, local meetups, community, a podcast, ABX strategy, and partner marketing under one umbrella. With twelve years building event programs across five continents, she has driven millions in pipeline and closed-won revenue by treating events not as a marketing function but as a core go-to-market motion. She is based in Prague and is, for the record, also a professional salsa dancer and teacher. Follow Aleksandra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apanyukhina/ The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. ABOUT YOUR HOST: Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. CONNECT WITH MEGAN AND M SQUARED DYNAMICS: • Podcast: EventAboutItPodcast.com • Newsletter (Step and Repeat): msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup • Consulting and strategy: msquareddynamics.com • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp/ • Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit • TikTok: @eventaboutit | |||
| How to Turn Event Data Into Buying Signals | 10 juil. 2026 | 00:27:13 | |
Most event teams are sitting on a goldmine of buyer intent data and handing sales a lead list instead. Aleksandra Panyukhina has spent twelve years figuring out how to close that gap — and today, she's putting it to the test. Aleksandra Panyukhina is the Experience Marketing Director at Pixelz, where she leads FLOW, one of the most intentional event-led growth motions in B2B marketing today. She has driven millions in pipeline and closed-won revenue across five continents — and she has a very specific framework for what event attendee behavior actually tells your sales team versus what it doesn't. We put her to the test with Signal or Noise — our game where she has to call it: is this behavioral intent signal worth acting on, or is it just noise? Then she vents about the targeting mistakes that are quietly embarrassing the event industry — including one she lived through personally. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: • What actually separates a behavioral intent signal from event noise — and why context is the only variable that changes the answer • Why a cold prospect who shows up to your event and stays all day is one of the strongest re-engagement signals in your pipeline • What it means in 2026 when an existing customer brings their CFO to your owned event without telling you — and why it's almost never just a coincidence • The event targeting mistake that's making your outreach look amateur — and the exact scenario Aleksandra experienced that proves it's still everywhere • Why "thanks for stopping by" emails are quietly eroding your brand credibility with people who were never at your event ABOUT ALEKSANDRA: Aleksandra Panyukhina is the Experience Marketing Director at Pixelz, where she leads FLOW — a strategic marketing initiative combining owned flagship events, a local meetup series, community, and a podcast under one umbrella. With twelve years of experience driving event-led growth programs across five continents, she has generated millions in pipeline and closed-won revenue through experiences that go well beyond logistics. She is also a professional salsa dancer and teacher, which means she understands better than most that in any good partnership, someone has to lead. Follow Aleksandra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apanyukhina/ Communities mentioned: Edge of Five — B2B marketing community Event Marketers Club — search LinkedIn Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. In the Aftershow, Aleksandra breaks down how she actually measures event attribution across a 12-month window, why she removed the word "events" from her job title, and what event teams that thrive in the next five years are already doing differently right now. Send this episode to the event marketer on your team who's been handing sales a lead list and calling it attribution. They need this one. ABOUT YOUR HOST: Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. CONNECT WITH MEGAN AND M SQUARED DYNAMICS: • Podcast: EventAboutItPodcast.com • Newsletter (Step and Repeat): msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup • Consulting and strategy: msquareddynamics.com • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp/ • Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit • TikTok: @eventaboutit | |||
| How to Innovate Without Inventing | 26 juin 2026 | 00:35:59 | |
Innovation isn't invention. It's the question you stopped letting yourself ask. That's the reframe Diana Kander brings to this Event About It Aftershow, and it changes the entire game for event marketers, sales leaders, and growth teams chasing the next big idea. In this deeper-than-the-main conversation, New York Times bestselling author Diana Kander joins host Megan Martin to translate her curiosity methodology into something an event-led growth strategy team can actually implement Monday morning. If you've felt the lukewarm warning signs in your role, watched your experiment runway stretch to a full fiscal year, or quietly accepted "we've always done it this way" as a strategic direction, this Aftershow is for you. What You'll Learn
About Diana Kander Diana Kander is a New York Times bestselling author of All In Startup, The Curiosity Muscle, and Get Curious and Grow. A serial entrepreneur and former senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, she's spent her career helping organizations turn curiosity from a corporate value into a daily habit. She came to the U.S. as a refugee from the Soviet Union at age eight, is a Georgetown-trained attorney, and is one of the most-booked innovation and curiosity keynote speakers in the country. Connect with Diana:
Diana and her husband Jason support Veterans Community Project, which builds tiny houses and wraparound services for homeless veterans. Learn more at veteranscommunityproject.org. About Your Host Keep Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
The best conversations start after the show ends, and the best ones keep going in your inbox. Subscribe to Event About It wherever you get your podcasts and sign up for the Step and Repeat newsletter at msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup. Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| 5 Event Strategy Problems Nobody's Naming | 19 juin 2026 | 00:13:29 | |
The events industry has a curiosity problem. Attendees changed. Buyers changed. Metrics changed. And most of us rebooked the same hotel. This week on Event About It, New York Times bestselling author and innovation keynote speaker Diana Kander joins host Megan Martin to diagnose five stagnant event strategy problems nobody in the industry is naming out loud, and the curiosity question that breaks each one open. If you're building an event-led growth strategy, leading a marketing team, or running B2B events that need to drive measurable pipeline, this is the diagnostic you didn't know you needed. What You'll Learn
About Diana Kander Diana Kander is a New York Times bestselling author of All In Startup and The Curiosity Muscle, with her new book Get Curious and Grow available now. She came to the U.S. as a refugee from the Soviet Union at age eight, became a Georgetown-trained attorney, founded around ten companies, served as a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, and is one of the most-booked innovation and curiosity keynote speakers in the country. Connect with Diana:
About Your Host Megan Martin is the founder of M Squared Dynamics, a consulting, facilitation, and content strategy firm helping event leaders, marketers, and sales teams turn live experiences into measurable business growth. She's the host and executive producer of Event About It, co-founder of Opportunity Hunters, and a two-time PCMA Visionary Award nominee (2022 winner). With nearly 20 years in the industry, Megan operates at the intersection of event strategy, marketing alignment, and behavioral intent signals, turning events from line items into pipeline drivers. Connect with Megan and M Squared Dynamics:
Keep the Conversation Going Subscribe to Event About It so the Aftershow lands in your feed the second it drops. Diana and Megan go deeper on why innovation isn't invention, the curiosity practice every leadership team should install tomorrow, and the three questions to actually ask the people who didn't come to your last event. Send this episode to the marketer, sales leader, or event strategist who keeps telling you their last event "went great." | |||
| AFTER SHOW: How to Measure Event ROI Without Faking It | 12 juin 2026 | 00:46:17 | |
Most event teams can't answer the most basic pipeline question. Steph Pennell built the framework. Here's the whole thing. She googled the domain mid-call. Bought it on the spot. A few months later she quit ZoomInfo, flew first class to the south of France with no plan, and came back ready to build something from scratch. This is the Aftershow. It goes deeper. Steph Pennell — The Event Critic — is back for the second half of her conversation with Megan Martin. This time they get into the actual frameworks: how to calculate revenue in the room, how to build a pre-event outreach matrix that segments by audience and relationship stage, how to get BDRs and SDRs to show up for your events, and how to speak the data language that finally makes sales care. Then they get honest about the stuff that doesn't usually make it into the strategy deck — leaving a toxic environment, building a business with no safety net, ADHD in the events industry, and why the F*ck You Fund is one of the most practical moves you can make whether you go out on your own or not. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: → The revenue in the room metric: how to break down ARR influenced, expansion pipeline, and net new revenue from a single event → Why most companies would restructure their entire event portfolio if they actually ran the attribution numbers → The outreach matrix: pre-event segmentation by audience type, seniority, and relationship stage — built to run at scale → How to work event registration into BDR and SDR quota so the whole go-to-market team shows up for your program → How to stop reporting attendance and start reporting pipeline — the switch that gets demand gen and finance off your back → What she actually looked at when she told a client to cut five events from their calendar → The F*ck You Fund: what it is, why it matters, and why you should be building yours right now CHAPTERS: 00:00 Welcome to the Aftershow 01:17 The Event Critic: How That Name Actually Happened 04:06 The Biggest Shock Going from B2C to B2B Events 07:28 Why Starting in Sales Made Her a Better Event Leader 11:05 How to Actually Unify Sales and Events (Not Just "Align Earlier") 14:03 Why BDRs and SDRs Are Your Secret Weapon for Event Registration 18:22 Revenue in the Room: The Metric That Changes the Conversation 22:29 The Outreach Matrix: How to Get the Right People in the Room 28:37 Post-Event Follow-Up by Segment 32:30 When You Know It's Time to Leave 34:46 ADHD, Human Design, and Honoring Your Energy 44:54 The F*ck You Fund Is a Business Strategy 46:00 Back of House: A 911 Line for Event Professionals 48:27 Until Next Time CONNECT WITH STEPH PENNELL: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theeventcritic/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bystephpennell/ Website: www.byingenue.com 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Subscribe to Event About It: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Submit a story or moment from the field: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Follow Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp Follow Megan on Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit ABOUT EVENT ABOUT IT: Event About It is the podcast for B2B event marketers, demand gen leaders, field marketers, and anyone who needs their events to do more than look good in the recap deck. Hosted by Megan Martin of M Squared Dynamics, each episode connects event strategy to pipeline influence, revenue, and event-led growth — with enough personality to make it worth your Friday commute. New episodes every Friday. Submit a story or moment from the field: www.eventaboutitpodcast.com #EventROI #EventMarketing #B2BEvents #EventStrategy #EventLedGrowth #DemandGeneration #FieldMarketing #GoToMarket #EventMeasurement #B2BMarketing | |||
| What Actually Drives Pipeline at B2B Events | 04 juin 2026 | 00:37:26 | |
Your event had 2,000 attendees, a standing ovation, and an open bar. Cool. But did it drive pipeline? The Event Critic has thoughts. Most B2B event recap decks look the same: great attendance, strong NPS, everybody had fun. What they rarely say is whether any of it moved the business forward. In this episode, Megan sits down with Steph Pennell — The Event Critic — to play Pipeline or Party, unpack what large-format trade shows keep getting wrong, and tell the story of an event where nobody touched the swag table, nobody played Dance Dance Revolution, and the client called it the best event of the year. If you've ever handed leadership a recap deck and quietly wondered whether it actually counted, this one is for you. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
CHAPTERS: 00:48 Meet Steph Pennell, The Event Critic 01:38 The Story Behind the Company Name Nobody Expected 04:55 Pipeline or Party: Real Scenarios, Real Verdicts 12:44 Vent of the Week: What's Actually Broken in B2B Events 25:41 The Event That Worked Because Nobody Used the Swag Table 33:50 The 60-40 Rule for Event Innovation 35:29 Where to Find Steph CONNECT WITH STEPH PENNELL: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theeventcritic/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bystephpennell/ Website: www.byingenue.com 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Subscribe to Event About It: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Submit a story or moment from the field: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Follow Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp Follow Megan on Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit About Event About It Event About It is the podcast at the intersection of events, marketing, and business growth — where we prove that live experiences aren't just logistics, they're a growth channel. Hosted by Megan Martin, founder of M Squared Dynamics and one of the leading voices in event-led growth strategy. New episodes every other Friday. #EventMarketing #B2BEvents #EventROI #EventStrategy #PipelineGeneration #EventLedGrowth #DemandGeneration #FieldMarketing #EventPlanning #B2BMarketing | |||
| After Show: Event ROI, Relationship Capital & Did She Actually Cancel Christmas? | 22 mai 2026 | 00:57:29 | |
Yes. She canceled Christmas. And she went to Waffle House instead of making Swedish pancakes. But before we get there — this aftershow is one of the most dense, useful, and occasionally unhinged episodes we've done. Christine Martin is back, and we go deep on the things that didn't fit in the main episode: speaker management truth bombs, post-event metrics that actually matter, a tax crash course event pros desperately need, road warrior travel hacks that will change how you pack, and the crowdsourced audience questions that somehow led to a story about AI agents auditing people's garage sales. Christine has attended, spoken at, and worked conferences and trade shows for 30+ years. She is a senior solutions consultant at Avalara, a road warrior with more flight miles than most event pros I know, and in this Mother's Day special — also my mom. Which means this aftershow goes places no other event podcast has gone. Including: the Christmas she canceled and the year she gave her work friends huckleberry jam and "bottle condoms" as Christmas gifts. There is real strategy in here, I promise. But there's also a story about an Indiana tax auditor who went on vacation, picked up a gift shop catalog, and triggered a full corporate audit. In this aftershow:
If you sponsor events, speak at them, plan them, or run a business that shows up at them — this is the aftershow you didn't know you needed. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Welcome to the Aftershow: Meet Christine Martin (for anyone just joining us) 01:00 — When Christine knew Megan was going to make a career in events 05:00 — Career pivots: pharmacist → Belize → communications → public administration → event industry 08:00 — The most useful things Megan learned from watching Christine work (and she actually gives Christine credit for them) 14:00 — Single mom on the road: when is it worth it, how to find balance, and the Sister Wives theory 22:00 — Road warrior travel hacks: the Paris-to-Mumbai story, hidden city ticketing, the double toiletry kit, bottle covers, and the travel power strip you need in your bag 30:00 — Speaker management secrets: what event teams get wrong, what makes Christine say yes to coming back, and why she hasn't seen session feedback in three years 42:00 — Post-event metrics that actually matter: 30/60/90 pipeline tracking, booth scan ROI, and why your event team should know the sales cycle length for the product they're supporting 55:00 — Tax 101 for event pros: registration fees and sales tax, VAT on international events, multi-state income tax exposure, 1099s for paid speakers, digital receipts, and the AI agents now used to audit garage sales 1:10:00 — Audience questions 1:30:00 — The Christmas she actually canceled (the full story, with context) 1:38:00 — Curiosity card: what would your home reveal about you? 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Subscribe to Event About It: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Submit a story or moment from the field: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Follow Christine Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-martin-9a02961/ Learn more about Avalara (tax compliance for event tech providers): https://www.avalara.com Follow Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp Follow Megan on Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit | |||
| Your Attendee Experience Is Being Graded By Someone Who Never Filled Out Your Survey | 15 mai 2026 | 00:24:35 | |
Your events are being graded in real time by attendees who will never fill out your feedback form, never tag you in a post, and never tell you what they actually thought. They'll just decide whether they're coming back. Today I brought one of them into the studio. Christine Martin has attended, spoken at, and worked trade shows and conferences for 30+ years — as a tax professional, a solutions consultant, a road warrior, and now as the woman on the other side of every event decision you've ever made. She's sat through your keynotes, walked your expo floors, stood in your speaker green rooms, and gone home deciding whether it was all worth signing off on again next year. She's also my mom. And for this Mother's Day special, she's finally on the record. This episode is for every event professional who says they design for the attendee — but has never actually asked one. Christine audits real event planning decisions in our game segment "Audit the Agenda," tells you exactly what she needs from event teams to succeed as a speaker, vents about the industry habits that have been driving her crazy for decades, and shares a memorable Vegas event story that I can only describe as... educational. No marketing spin. No industry politeness. Just 30 years of attendee experience, delivered directly. In this episode:
If you design events, sponsor them, speak at them, or approve the budget for them — this episode will change how you think about attendee experience. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Cold Open: "I've been in events since daycare" 01:04 — Guest Introduction: Meet Christine Martin 02:00 — The Marriott Headquarters Daycare Story (and the cover photo nobody saw coming) 03:45 — Game Segment: "Audit the Agenda" — a 30-year attendee audits your event planning decisions 17:00 — Vent of the Week: Hotel mix-ups, umbrella swag in the desert, and "Sally Events" 21:00 — Event About It: A Vegas party, a bush, and what actually drives people to your booth 24:00 — Episode Close + After Show Tease 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES Subscribe to Event About It: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Submit a story or moment from the field: https://eventaboutitpodcast.com Follow Christine Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-martin-9a02961/ Learn more about Avalara: https://www.avalara.com Follow Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp Follow Megan on Instagram: @m2dynamics and @eventaboutit About Event About It Event About It is the podcast at the intersection of events, marketing, and business growth — where we prove that live experiences aren't just logistics, they're a growth channel. Hosted by Megan Martin, founder of M Squared Dynamics and one of the leading voices in event-led growth strategy. New episodes every other Friday. #EventStrategy #AttendeeExperience #EventMarketing #EventROI #EventPlanning #EventIndustry #EventLedGrowth #TradeShowStrategy #EventPros #MeganMartin #EventAboutIt #MothersDaySpecial | |||
| The Business Side of Events Nobody Talks About with Stuart Ruff-Lyon | 08 mai 2026 | 00:45:31 | |
It was the last day of RISKWORLD 2023. The show had been the best one yet. Danica Patrick was about to take the stage for the closing keynote. Then Stuart Ruff-Lyon got pulled from the show floor and walked, without explanation, to a room where the Chief of Police of Atlanta was waiting. Two miles away, there was an active shooter on the loose. Four hotels on lockdown. Two shuttle routes stopped. Nine thousand attendees in the building. In this Dynamic Dialogue After Show, Megan Martin and Stuart Ruff-Lyon go through the whole story, minute by minute, from the walk down that hallway to the decision to cancel the finale, to what RIMS did publicly afterward that the entire events industry should study and copy. But this episode is bigger than one incident. It is the full behind-the-scenes career of the person who turned a 60-year-old conference into a global brand, survived a ransomware attack on the morning of a show, led his professional association through a pandemic as board chair, and now oversees events, sales, and marketing for one of the most recognized societies in the world. This is what it looks like to go wide from the inside. What You'll Learn:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Megan Martin: LinkedIn | msquareddynamics.com | @M2Dynamics on social media Connect with Stuart Ruff-Lyon: LinkedIn | RIMS.org Have an event story or a Vent of the Week worth sharing? Submit it at eventaboutitpodcast.com for a chance to be featured on a future episode. Until next time, stay curious. | |||
| When Hackers Hold Your Conference for Ransom with Stuart Ruff-Lyon | 05 mai 2026 | 00:22:00 | |
Everyone says celebrity keynotes are out. Data says audiences want practitioners, not personalities. So why is RISKWORLD, the world's largest gathering of global risk professionals, doubling down on names like Adam Grant and Michael Strahan? Because sometimes the data is right and your audience is the exception. And knowing the difference is exactly what separates an event operator from a Chief Commercial Officer. In this episode of Event About It, host Megan Martin sits down with Stuart Ruff-Lyon, Chief Commercial Officer at RIMS, the risk management society, to talk about what actually happens when you stop measuring the wrong things and start asking better questions of your event. They play The Debrief, a game where Stuart gives the one question every event leader should be asking in their post-show report but almost never does. From flat sponsor revenue to a 92% say-they'll-return survey rate, Stuart flips the script on the metrics this industry treats as wins. Plus, Stuart shares the story of the morning a hacker held every single PowerPoint and video from RISKWORLD's 150-session education program for ransom. The first day of the show. Before the first session opened. And yes, they got it all back. What You'll Learn:
Connect with Stuart Ruff-Lyon: LinkedIn | RIMS.org RISKWORLD 2026: May 3-6 | Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia Register and learn more Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Megan Martin: LinkedIn | msquareddynamics.com | @M2Dynamics on social media Got a Vent of the Week or an event story worth sharing? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to submit yours and get featured on a future episode. Don't miss the Dynamic Dialogue After Show with Stuart, where we go deeper on the RISKWORLD rebrand, the Atlanta active shooter incident, and what association event leaders say behind closed doors that never makes it into the conference presentation. Join the Squared Squad at eventaboutitpodcast.com for access to every After Show episode and exclusive bonus content. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who still thinks 92% say they'd attend again is a good metric. | |||
| Why "Great Exposure" Is the Biggest Lie in Events with Beth Nydick | 24 avr. 2026 | 00:38:53 | |
You asked your speaker to show up. They did. You offered them exposure. They smiled and said thank you. And then nothing happened for either of you. In this Dynamic Dialogue After Show, Megan Martin and media strategist Beth Nydick pull back the curtain on the unspoken agreement between event organizers and speakers that nobody is formalizing, the myth of exposure as compensation, and what it actually looks like to build a media strategy around your event that works for the other 362 days of the year. Beth brings her TV producer lens to the events industry and what she sees is not a logistics problem. It is a media problem. Events are the most powerful content machine in the world and most organizations have absolutely no plan for what happens after the carpet gets rolled up. They also get into BravoCon as the event strategy blueprint the B2B world refuses to study, why micro niche creators with 8,000 followers will outperform your celebrity keynote, and why the conversation you need to be having with your speakers starts the day they get booked, not the day they hit the stage. Plus a full Bravo break because they are both Bravo girls and they earned it. In this after show you will learn:
This episode is essential listening for event organizers, conference producers, event marketers, speakers, and anyone responsible for making events drive real business growth beyond the show floor. Connect with Beth Nydick Website: https://bethnydick.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethnydick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethnydick Beth's Mic to Millions System https://bethnydick.com Clean Cocktails: Righteous Recipes for the Modern Mixologist by Beth Nydick https://a.co/d/07IK3eQv BravoCon https://www.bravotv.com/bravocon Giggly Squad Podcast https://www.giggly.com CEO School on Prime Video https://www.amazon.com/CEO-School/dp/B0CXYZ Connect with Megan Martin Website: https://msquareddynamics.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/M2Dynamics https://www.instagram.com/EventAboutIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/MeganMartinCMP Subscribe to The Step and Repeat Newsletter https://msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup Got a vent or an event story worth sharing? Head to https://eventaboutitpodcast.com to submit yours for a chance to be featured in a future episode. Until next time. Stay Curious. | |||
| What No One Tells Speakers About Surviving the Stage with Beth Nydick | 17 avr. 2026 | 00:32:38 | |
What do you do when someone steals your mic, your camera, and your clicker right before you walk out to a standing room only crowd? You scream. Literally. In this episode of Event About It, host Megan Martin sits down with Beth Nydick, former TV producer turned media strategist and creator of the Mic to Millions system, to talk about what actually happens when event speakers show up prepared and the event is not. Beth takes us inside the most chaotic speaker moment of her career and what it taught her about performing under pressure, building audience connection in real time, and why the events industry is leaving its most powerful content asset completely untouched. They also play The Upfronts, a game where real event content strategies get pitched like TV season lineups and Beth decides what gets a full season pickup, what becomes a limited series, and what gets canceled before it ever airs. Spoiler: most of what your team is doing right now is getting canceled. In this episode you will learn:
This is a must listen for event professionals, conference organizers, event marketers, speakers, and anyone trying to make their event work harder than the three days it lives. Connect with Beth Nydick Website: https://bethnydick.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethnydick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethnydick Beth's Mic to Millions System https://bethnydick.com Clean Cocktails: Righteous Recipes for the Modern Mixologist by Beth Nydick https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Cocktails-Righteous-Recipes-Mixologist/dp/1624143059 Alt Summit https://altsummit.com Website: https://msquareddynamics.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/M2Dynamics https://www.instagram.com/EventAboutIt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/MeganMartinCMP Subscribe to The Step and Repeat Newsletter https://msquareddynamics.com/stepandrepeatsignup Got a vent or an event story worth sharing? Head to https://eventaboutitpodcast.com to submit yours for a chance to be featured in a future episode. Don't miss the Dynamic Dialogue After Show where Beth and Megan get into why great exposure is the biggest lie in events, what a real media strategy for your event looks like, and the thing nobody inside this industry has the guts to say out loud. Until next time. Keep growing, keep laughing, and keep eventing about it. | |||
| The Missing Link Between Event Content and Sponsor Renewals | 10 avr. 2026 | 00:43:55 | |
The Attribution Conversation Event Teams Need to Have with Their CMO Most event reports are a PDF nobody reads. What if your post-event data told you exactly which VP-level executives engaged with your sponsor's content — by name, by title, and by intent signal? In this Event About It Dynamic Dialogue After Show, Megan Martin and Florentin Ngabitsinze go deep on what event attribution actually looks like when it's done right — and why most organizations are measuring the wrong things, at the wrong time, with the wrong data. Florentin breaks down how his team at Uchop tracks identity-level engagement data — not vanity impressions, but real signals: who reposted, who shared internally, which executives engaged, and how that data connects directly to sponsor renewals and audience pipeline for the following year. They also unpack:
This is the conversation CMOs, event directors, and sponsorship teams need to have before they build next year's event strategy. 🎧 Find this episode and all after shows at Connect with Florentin Ngabitsinze: linkedin.com/in/florentin-ngabitsinze Learn more about Uchop: linkedin.com/company/uchop Connect with Megan Martin: msquareddynamics.com Join the Squared Squad at eventaboutitpodcast.com for access to bonus content, after show episodes, and the conversations that don't make the main stage. Until next time — stay curious. event attribution, sponsor ROI events, event measurement strategy, B2B event data, stakeholder activation, event content distribution, sponsor renewal data, identity-level engagement, event pipeline, UGC event strategy, event media strategy, conference ROI, event about it after show, Florentin Ngabitsinze, Uchop, event marketing metrics, CMO event strategy | |||
| The Real Reason Your Event Content Never Gets Used | 03 avr. 2026 | 00:13:52 | |
Why Your B2B Event Content Disappears — and What to Do Instead You spend months planning the event. You fill the room. You film everything. And then... it all just fades. In this episode of Event About It, host Megan Martin sits down with Florentin Ngabitsinze, co-founder of Uchop, to unpack one of the biggest missed opportunities in B2B event marketing: what happens to all that content after the lights go off. Florentin's team operates like a live sports studio inside B2B conferences — delivering real-time personalized video highlights to speakers, sponsors, and attendees before they've even left the building. The result? Sponsor renewals. Measurable attribution. And events that function like the media engines they were always meant to be. They play Applause or Attribution — a fast-paced game where every event tactic gets sorted into what actually drives business outcomes versus what just makes people clap. (Spoiler: the logo on the step-and-repeat wall did not fare well.) What You'll Learn:
Whether you're running a flagship conference or sponsoring a trade show, this episode reframes the event from a budget line to a media infrastructure investment. 🎧 Catch the After Show at eventaboutitpodcast.com — where Florentin and Megan go deeper on stakeholder activation, attribution models, and how identity-level engagement data is changing the renewal conversation. Connect with Florentin Ngabitsinze: linkedin.com/in/florentin-ngabitsinze Learn more about Uchop: linkedin.com/company/uchop Connect with Megan Martin: msquareddynamics.com Got an event vent or a story worth sharing? Submit it at eventaboutitpodcast.com and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, after shows, and exclusive guest access. Until next time — keep growing, keep laughing, and keep eventing about it. event content strategy, B2B event marketing, event ROI, sponsor attribution, real-time event content, event media engine, event content repurposing, sponsor renewal strategy, event video highlights, phygital events, stakeholder activation, event measurement, conference content strategy, B2B conference marketing, event about it podcast | |||
| 22 AFTER SHOW The Event Marketing Question CEOs Should Be Asking with Devin Bramhall | 27 mars 2026 | 00:21:16 | |
Why do CEOs keep asking for content that doesn’t work? In the Event About It after show, Megan Martin, CMP and Devin Bramhall go deeper into the leadership side of content and event strategy—specifically the questions executives ask that unintentionally lead teams into busywork instead of growth. This conversation reframes content not as a marketing output, but as a business decision—and challenges leaders to rethink how they evaluate success from events, campaigns, and marketing teams. In this after show, we explore:
This after show is essential listening for CEOs, CMOs, event leaders, and marketers who are accountable for growth—not just activity. 👉 Follow Event About It for more episodes and after shows:Megan Martin, CMP — https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp Subscribe and Review and Follow: EventAboutItPodcast.com Connect with the Guest: https://www.devinbramhall.com/ | |||
| 22 Why Event Content Fails (And What Actually Drives Growth) with Devin Bramhall | 20 mars 2026 | 00:21:26 | |
Why does event content fail to deliver real business growth—especially in B2B? In this episode of Event About It, host Megan Martin, CMP sits down with Devin Bramhall, a longtime B2B marketing leader, to unpack why so much event content misses the mark and why the issue isn’t volume, platforms, or distribution. It’s context. As brands invest more in events, activations, and content creation, many teams find themselves producing more assets—but seeing less impact. This conversation breaks down why “we need more content” has become the default ask, how that thinking disconnects events from growth, and what actually makes event marketing work. In this episode, we discuss:
If you’re responsible for event strategy, marketing performance, or growth—and you’re questioning why your content isn’t landing—this episode provides clarity, language, and a better framework to move forward. Subscribe and Review and Follow: EventAboutItPodcast.com 👉 Follow Event About It on LinkedIn: Megan Martin, CMP — https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmartincmp 🎧 Don’t miss the after show for a deeper conversation on leadership, content strategy, and the questions CEOs should be asking instead. Connect with the Guest: https://www.devinbramhall.com/ | |||
| 21 AFTER SHOW The Hidden Reason Trade Shows Underperform for B2B Teams with Martin Fretwell | 13 mars 2026 | 00:34:01 | |
Trade shows aren’t failing. Trade show strategy is. In this Event About It After Show, Megan Martin and Martin Fretwell go deeper — specifically into the world of B2B trade shows, booths, budgets, and why so many teams walk away feeling busy… but disappointed. This is the conversation that usually happens after the event:
Martin breaks down the hidden reason trade shows underperform, even when:
Spoiler: the problem isn’t foot traffic, badge scans, or booth design. In this after show, we unpack:
This episode is especially relevant for:
If you’ve ever walked off a show floor thinking,“Now what?” This episode answers that question. 🎙️ Host: Megan Martin 🎙️ Guest: Martin Fretwell 🔗 Learn more about Event Driven Growth: https://www.eventdrivengrowth.com 🔗 Listen to more After Shows: https://www.eventaboutitpodcast.com 🔗 Follow Megan Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/MeganMartinCMP 🔗 Follow Martin Fretwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dontfretguys/ 📣 Share this episode with the teammate who always says, “We just need one more trade show.” | |||
| 21 The Event Strategy Mistake Most B2B Teams Keep Repeating with Martin Fretwell | 06 mars 2026 | 00:23:39 | |
Most B2B companies are running events like one-night stands. They show up. They spend the budget. They tear down the booth. And then… they start from scratch all over again. In this episode of Event About It, Megan Martin sits down with Martin Fretwell, founder of Event Driven Growth, to unpack the single biggest event strategy mistake B2B teams keep repeating: treating events as isolated moments instead of compounding growth assets. This conversation challenges the way most organizations think about:
Martin explains why the best events don’t just perform once — they stack, making every future event easier, stronger, and more valuable. If you’ve ever said:
This episode is for you. In this episode, we cover:
This is a must-listen for:
🎙️ Host: Megan Martin 🎙️ Guest: Martin Fretwell, Founder of Event Driven Growth 🔗 Learn more about Martin: https://www.eventdrivengrowth.com 🔗 Explore the show: https://www.eventaboutitpodcast.com 🔗 Follow Megan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/MeganMartinCMP 📌 Subscribe, rate, and review if this episode made you rethink your event strategy. | |||
| 20 AFTER SHOW What Skills Gap Exists Between Events and Marketing? w/ Kati Quigley | 27 févr. 2026 | 00:36:33 | |
Do you have rungs or do you have range? This week on the Dynamic Dialogue After Show, host Megan Martin and the legendary Kati Quigley keep the mics hot after the meeting ends to discuss the "quiet power" required to lead in a very loud industry. This is the podcast for event led growth & strategy for sales, marketing, and event professionals. Kati pulls back the curtain on the "Introvert’s Advantage" in the events industry. While everyone else is fighting for the loudest voice in the room, Kati breaks down how quiet leadership, active listening, and "reading the room" became her secret weapons for event strategy. They discuss the vulnerability of moving into roles where you aren't the subject matter expert, the importance of treating partners with the same respect as executives, and the "Closed Door Truth" about what it really takes to lead a world-class team. Key Takeaways:
About the Guest: Kati Quigley is the Vice President of Portfolio and Brand Marketing at BMC Software. A veteran marketing leader and executive coach at heart, she has led global teams for Microsoft and Smartsheet and has spent her career proving that you don't have to be the loudest person in the room to be the most influential. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin https://msquareddynamics.com/ Connect with the Guest https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiquigley/ | |||
| 20 Why Going Wide Beats Climbing the Career Ladder w/ Kati Quigley | 20 févr. 2026 | 00:21:43 | |
Some people climb ladders and some people build rooms. Ultimately, real growth isn't about rungs—it's about range. This week on Event About It, host Megan Martin sits down with the powerhouse who didn't just climb the corporate ladder, she expanded the building: Kati Quigley. This is the podcast for event led growth & strategy for sales, marketing, and event professionals. Kati takes us through her legendary career evolution, from leading the charge at PCMA to building the first-ever Event Center of Excellence at Microsoft. We’re breaking down the high-stakes shift from association life to the corporate tech world, where events aren't just logistics—they are the ultimate leverage for marketing. Kati spills the tea on why your career shouldn't be a "ladder" but a "floor plan," and how she successfully transitioned from being "the event girl" to leading global event marketing for some of the biggest names in tech. Key Takeaways:
About the Guest: Kati Quigley is the Vice President of Portfolio and Brand Marketing at BMC Software. A veteran marketing leader and executive coach at heart, she has led global teams for Microsoft and Smartsheet and has spent her career proving that you don't have to be the loudest person in the room to be the most influential. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin https://msquareddynamics.com/ Connect with the Guest https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiquigley/ | |||
| 19 AFTER SHOW Why Loving Your Job Can Still Leave You Questioning Everything | 13 févr. 2026 | 00:50:30 | |
Have you built an identity around work you genuinely love — and still find yourself questioning "what’s next?" This week on the Dynamic Dialogue After Show, host Megan Martin and the ultimate “Trade Show Girly,” Carly Heideger, keep the mics hot after the show floor goes dark to spill the tea on the side of the industry the brochures don’t cover. This is the podcast for event led growth & strategy for sales, marketing, and event professionals. Carly breaks down the “Land Deck” lifestyle—the realization that being an event pro is essentially being a “yachtie” on Below Deck, just replace the ocean with a concrete convention center. We’re diving into the reality of event marketing at the senior level, including Carly’s secret weapon for professional development: a Goodreads goal of 30 books a year. They discuss navigating Imposter Syndrome, career transitions, leading revenue teams, and knowing when to prioritize "logos over ego" to fund the mission. Key Takeaways:
About the Guest: Carly Heideger is a veteran senior revenue leader and the self-proclaimed "Trade Show Girly" who has spent her career managing the high-pressure intersection of multi-million dollar sponsorship sales and complex event operations. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin https://msquareddynamics.com/ Connect with the Guest https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlyheideger/ | |||
| 19 The Truth About Event Revenue No One Puts in the Brochure | 06 févr. 2026 | 00:25:34 | |
Is your event contingency plan a real strategy or just a dusty file? This week on Event About It, host Megan Martin sits down with the ultimate "Trade Show Girly," Carly Heideger, to spill the tea on what happens when the hypothetical becomes a nightmare. This is the podcast for event led growth & strategy for sales, marketing and event professionals. Carly takes us inside a high-stakes aviation event in Geneva where active protestors didn't just stand outside—they forced a total event shutdown. We’re breaking down why every event organizer must read the security plan before the "Super Bowl" of their industry begins. From $80 million private jets to registration managers jumping over tables with bolt cutters during a flash flood, this episode is a masterclass in crisis management and operational input. We’re also getting real about the "Gen Alpha" paradox. Everyone in the events industry is asking what the next generation wants, but nobody is actually inviting them to the room to experience the current iteration. Are we overthinking innovation while gatekeeping the very people we’re trying to attract? Key Takeaways:
About the Guest: Carly Heideger is a veteran senior revenue leader and the self-proclaimed "Trade Show Girly" who has spent her career managing the high-pressure intersection of multi-million dollar sponsorship sales and complex event operations. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin https://msquareddynamics.com/ Connect with the Guest | |||
| 18 Overwhelmed by Event Trends? How to Decide What Actually Drives ROI | 19 déc. 2025 | 00:46:02 | |
AI in every session title. Wellness lounges next to espresso bars. Puppies that are cute … but don’t close deals. If you’re an event professional or event marketer trying to separate what’s trendy from what actually works, this live episode of Event About It is for you. Recorded in front of a studio audience at the Club Ichi Telethon, this episode is loud, unfiltered, and packed with real opinions from people who’ve seen events go very right — and very wrong. Together, we debate today’s biggest event trends, share real behind-the-scenes failures, and break down how smarter event strategy leads to stronger business growth. This is Event Growth Unfiltered — live. 🔥 In this episode, you’ll learn:
🎤 Live panel guests:
If you plan, market, or produce events — and want fewer gimmicks and better results — you’re in the right place. 🎧 Subscribe for weekly episodes focused on event marketing, event strategy, and business growth 👉 Your backstage pass to event success. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin | |||
| 17 How Do You Recover From Burnout in the Events Industry? w/Morgan Prewitt | 12 déc. 2025 | 00:51:56 | |
When you go from coordinating guest speakers with the secret service to a sabbatical on a farm, there's a LOT to unpack. This Dynamic Dialogue After Show feels like stepping out of the ballroom and into a deep exhale. Host Megan Martin and Morgan Prewitt, CMP go full truth-teller about bringing new ideas to events and how they've both learned that experience does not equal years. In the After Show:• Morgan’s post-DNC sabbatical • Farming, goats, and finding joy that isn’t tied to deadlines• How to create main-character confidence in events• Why women in events need strong mentors and the courage to say "no"• How to ditching stale event formats• And yes… the Secret Service moment that proves political events are their own Bravo franchise Guest Bio: Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 17 Is Five Hours Enough to Save A Show? w/Morgan Prewitt | 05 déc. 2025 | 00:26:43 | |
When your speakers go rogue and the weather tries to destroy your show, you need proof that even the best planners survive pure chaos with style. Host Megan Martin sits down with Morgan Prewitt, CMP, the calm-in-the-storm strategist behind major corporate, tech, and political programs. She’s here to break down the moments that would make any event pro clutch their headset. What you’ll learn in this episode: • You’ll hear some truly unhinged speaker “ideas” • Vent of the Week: events practicing faux sustainability • Why being transparent is the key to surviving any event disaster • How she rebuilt a full closing reception in under five hours (pizza included) • What sixteen hour days taught her about loving this industry Plus: An Event About It moment where Morgan proves no gig is ever as “handled” as your client thinks it is. Guest Bio: Morgan Prewitt, CMP is an accomplished event strategist known for leading large scale corporate, tech, and political programs with precision and heart. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 16 AFTER SHOW - Is Your Event Content Helping Attendees or Overwhelming Them? with Dr. Kristin Malek | 28 nov. 2025 | 00:42:00 | |
Ever feel like your event is perfectly planned but something still isn’t landing with your attendees? This Dynamic Dialogue After Show goes deeper into the psychology behind the why. Megan Martin and guest Dr. Kristin Malek unpack the brain science, behavior patterns, and real transformation strategies event planners desperately need. What You’ll Learn • Planning for the next generation who want events that matter • Practical ways to create safe learning environments • The real secret to building agendas that stack learning • Why rest is an amplifier for creativity and not a luxury • The one habit Dr. K would break in the events industry • The surprising place she says event design should begin: email campaigns Dr. Kristin explains why “the brain doesn’t care if you’re miserable, it cares if you’re familiar” and she reveals how curiosity and fear battle for the same real estate in your mind. Plus how knowing all this can be a game changer for your events. Guest Bio: Dr. Kristin Malek is an internationally known behavior change expert whose frameworks help leaders, planners, and creators rewire identity, spark momentum, and create transformation that lasts. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 16 What If Your Event Was Designed For the Brain, Not the Budget? with Dr. Kristin Malek | 21 nov. 2025 | 00:26:33 | |
Have you ever poured your soul into an event and still wondered… did anyone actually learn anything? If that question feels too real, this episode is a must listen. Megan Martin sits down with Dr. Kristin Malek, the architect of curiosity who mixes neuroscience with name badges to design events that shift hearts, minds, and behavior. From her Las Vegas executive director days to the moment she realized event agendas were “RSVPing no” to her brain, Dr. K comes in blazing with alliteration, improv energy, and lines like, “You cannot spreadsheet serotonin.” They play a round of Science or Schedule, where Megan tosses out industry dilemmas and Dr. Kristin fires back with gems including, “A ninety minute keynote is our parents lifetime,” and “Sending the PowerPoint is like sending a grocery list and calling it dinner.” What You’ll Learn: • Why adult attention spans tap out at twelve minutes • Why overstuffed agendas kill transformation • “You cannot hashtag oxytocin” and other truths about your event • A Lego story that changed a community • How good design thinking shapes experiences far beyond events And her Vent of the Week story about eight board members having emotional breakthroughs with Legos. Iconic. Guest Bio: Dr. Kristin Malek is an internationally recognized designer and educator specializing in mindset and behavior change, known for blending neuroscience, psychology, and experience design to create measurable transformation. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 15 AFTER SHOW - Do You Really Need a CMP to Level Up in the Events Industry? with Jessie Smith | 14 nov. 2025 | 00:26:21 | |
If you’ve ever wondered how your early event jobs shaped the way you plan today, this one’s for you. In this “Dynamic Dialogue After Show”, host Megan Martin and guest Jessie Smith rewind to where it all began. Starting on the venue side, learning the ropes from restaurant sales offices to full-scale corporate programs, and how those “learn-it-on-the-fly” lessons built a 20-year career in events for Jessie. Jessie opens up about what earning two degrees in event management really taught her, and how living at a slower pace has reshaped her approach to work, leadership, and burnout. From hospitality roots to managing high-stakes global programs, this “After Show” is a refreshing reminder that success looks different for everyone. It’s okay to define it on your own terms. 🔥 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
About the Guest: Jessie Smith is an Event Manager at Enterprise Events Group and a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Virtual Event Producer, and Event Strategist. She’s an industry enthusiast who brings heart, humor, and hands-on experience to every production she manages. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK”, it can be anonymous, and join the Squared Squad for bonus content! Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 15 What Happens When the Sprinklers Crash the Party? with Jessie Smith | 07 nov. 2025 | 00:19:50 | |
If you’ve ever had an event day spiral into chaos and somehow still pulled off magic, this one’s for you. Host Megan Martin sits down with Jessie Smith, Event Manager at Enterprise Events Group, who’s known for delivering high-stakes programs with poise, precision, and serious production chops. Together they laugh about the real life chaos of event planning like sprinklers going off in the middle of an event gala dinner and discuss why the post-COVID event timeline still gives planners nightmares. Plus, they play Run of Showdown. The rapid-fire game of planner instincts that’ll have you shouting your own answers out loud. What you'll learn in this episode:
About the Guest: Jessie Smith is an Event Manager at Enterprise Events Group, known for her ability to keep cool under pressure and execute global programs seamlessly. She’s a Certified Meeting Professional, Virtual Event Producer, Event Strategist, and lifelong events enthusiast. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK”, it can be anonymous, and join the Squared Squad for bonus content! Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 14 AFTER SHOW Is Your Event Too Safe to Succeed? with Marc Ghafoori | 31 oct. 2025 | 00:53:11 | |
If you’ve ever felt like running your business feels more like chasing cars than driving them, then you’ll relate to this episode. This week on the Event About It Dynamic Dialogue After Show, Megan Martin sits down with Marc Ghafoori, CEO and founder of AlphaTooth, for a real and raw conversation about entrepreneurship, innovation, and what it means to build something that lasts in the events world. They dive into the unglamorous side of starting up, the evolution of personal vs. business brands, and the power of advocacy in an industry that often operates behind the curtain. Marc shares what launching his company taught him about pivoting, self-discovery, and redefining success on his own terms. 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This After Show Episode:
It’s honest, insightful, and a must-listen for every event professional reimagining what leadership and innovation look like today. About the Guest: Marc Ghafoori is the CEO and founder of AlphaTooth, a creative strategy and production consultancy helping event organizations design smarter, bolder, more impactful experiences. With 15+ years in the events industry and a background in architecture, Marc is known for fusing design-thinking with advocacy to move the industry forward. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the Week”, it can be anonymous, and join the Squared Squad for bonus content! Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest | |||
| 14 Can You Survive an Event Move-Out When the Only Elevator Breaks? With Marc Ghafoori | 27 oct. 2025 | 00:28:39 | |
If you’ve ever felt like your event lineup is running on repeat, this episode is your wake-up call. Megan Martin sits down with Marc Ghafoori, a creative event strategist who’s built a career helping brands transform tired conference formats into experiences that actually inspire people to care. Together, they talk about the all-too-familiar chaos that happens when plans go sideways and how to bring the energy back when your keynote—or your client—loses the plot. From what makes a good event actually “good” to the creative burnout so many producers face, this episode gives the honest, funny, and sometimes painfully relatable truths about being the one everyone looks at when the lights flicker. They also play a round of Tooth or Dare, where Marc shares which event buzzwords make him cringe and the one industry peer he’d love to trade jobs with (spoiler: he might bend the rules on that one). 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Marc Ghafoori is an award-winning event strategist and creative producer known for turning traditional conferences into high-impact, story-driven experiences that connect audiences and brands. His work blends design, direction, and innovation to help clients deliver events that resonate long after the lights go down. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK”, it can be anonymous, and join the Squared Squad for bonus content! Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin https://msquareddynamics.com/ Connect with the Guest https://www.alphatooth.com/marc-ghafoori | |||
| 14 Can You Survive an Event Move-Out When the Only Elevator Breaks? With Marc Ghafoori | 27 oct. 2025 | 00:28:39 | |
If you’ve ever felt like your event lineup is running on repeat, this episode is your wake-up call. Megan Martin sits down with Marc Ghafoori, a creative event strategist who’s built a career helping brands transform tired conference formats into experiences that actually inspire people to care. Together, they talk about the all-too-familiar chaos that happens when plans go sideways and how to bring the energy back when your keynote—or your client—loses the plot. From what makes a good event actually “good” to the creative burnout so many producers face, this episode gives the honest, funny, and sometimes painfully relatable truths about being the one everyone looks at when the lights flicker. They also play a round of Tooth or Dare, where Marc shares which event buzzwords make him cringe and the one industry peer he’d love to trade jobs with (spoiler: he might bend the rules on that one). 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Marc Ghafoori is an award-winning event strategist and creative producer known for turning traditional conferences into high-impact, story-driven experiences that connect audiences and brands. His work blends design, direction, and innovation to help clients deliver events that resonate long after the lights go down. Have a Vent of the Week? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK”, it can be anonymous, and join the Squared Squad for bonus content! Connect with Us! Follow the show on social media @eventaboutit https://www.instagram.com/eventaboutit Work with Megan Martin Connect with the Guest https://www.alphatooth.com/marc-ghafoori | |||
| 13 AFTER SHOW Can You Deliver a VIP Event on a General Admission Budget? With Neen James | 10 oct. 2025 | 00:39:28 | |
Behind the disco-ball energy and champagne sparkle, Neen James is on a mission to prove that luxury is a mindset, not a price tag. In this After Show, Megan Martin and Neen James dig deeper into Exceptional Experiences. What does that mean? It means exploring how to create personalization at scale, giving attendees behind-the-scenes access, and how contagious confidence can elevate your event culture. They also swap stories about luxury hotel dogs, knife sommeliers, and why hot pink has become Neen’s ultimate power move in every boardroom. And of course, they get into guilty pleasures, leadership trends that need to die, and how event profs can protect their energy while showing up 100% for clients. 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This After Show:
About the Guest: Neen James is a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and author of three books including Exceptional Experiences. With boundless energy, sharp wit, and a signature pink style, she’s been called the “Energizer Bunny” of the speaking world and works with Fortune 500 leaders, associations, and even the FBI to help them elevate experiences and influence. Have your own “Vent of Week?” Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com and tell it to us so we can play it on an upcoming episode! Want to support the show? Share this episode with an event prof who would love to hear these tips. Follow on Instagram @EventAboutIt Connect with Megan HERE Connect with Neen HERE | |||
| 13 Would Your Speaker Survive a Fire Alarm Mid-Event? with Neen James | 03 oct. 2025 | 00:30:26 | |
If your attendee check-in feels more like standing in line at the DMV than stepping onto a red carpet, you NEED this episode. Host Megan Martin sits down with Neen James, leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and author of her brand-new book Exceptional Experiences. Neen is known for teaching the world that attention pays and that pink goes with everything. She spills her luxury mindset secrets for creating champagne moments that make attendees feel seen, heard, and valued. From turning service fails into brand-building opportunities to rethinking swag bags, registration emails, and lunch breaks, Neen shows event profs how to elevate everyday touchpoints into unforgettable experiences. 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Neen James is a leadership strategist, dynamic keynote speaker, and the author of Folding Time, Attention Pays, and Exceptional Experiences. She consults with Fortune 500 executives, sits on the board of the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce, and is known for helping leaders deliver experiences that drive revenue, results, and lasting connections. Want to hear more from the guest? Listen to the Dynamic Dialogue After Show dropping next week. Have a wild event story you want to share? Tell it to us at eventaboutitpodcast.com so we can play it on an upcoming episode. Connect with Megan Connect with Neen | |||
| 12 Can You Host a Symposium Without Power? Asking for 250 Guests. with Johnnie White | 19 sept. 2025 | 00:25:45 | |
What happens when your boardroom politics collide with your convention center ballroom chaos? Host Megan Martin sits down with Johnnie White to unpack how event pros can level up from managing logistics to shaping strategy in the C-suite. From translating data into decisions to treating annual conferences like mini organizations, this episode is packed with real-world lessons every planner should hear. You will learn why forecasting trends matters more than recycling playbooks, how to turn audience behavior into strategic insight, and what ROI really looks like when your board is watching. And yes—Johnnie spills on the infamous “symposium by candlelight” story and why handing out 10,000 tablets may not have been the best long-term plan. What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Johnnie White is the CEO of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, with more than 30 years in leadership and management roles across associations. He has served as PCMA Board Chair, is a board member of ASAE, and has taught at Georgetown University and Northern Virginia Community College. Claim your Eventeny Discount $500 off Pro Annual Plan HERE: https://product.eventeny.com/event-about-it What’s Your Vent of the Week? Head to www.eventaboutitpodcast.com to share it and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Share this episode with a fellow industry friend who needs to hear this! Connect with Megan HERE: Connect with Johnnie HERE: | |||
| 12 AFTER SHOW What Data Do CEOs Actually Care About from Event Planners? with Johnnie White | 19 sept. 2025 | 00:25:10 | |
What do CEOs really want from event professionals—and how do you stay sane when you’re the one delivering it? In this After Show, host Megan and Johnnie White dig into the unfiltered truth: why planners need to show up with strategy (not just logistics), what data leaders actually care about, and how to balance vision with daily operations. You’ll hear what Johnnie learned as the only man on the Association for Women in Events board, how a “brilliant” idea to give away 10,000 tablets backfired, and why storytelling with data is the ultimate skill for event pros who want a seat at the table. What You’ll Learn in This After Show:
About the Guest: Johnnie White is the CEO of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, with 30+ years of leadership across associations. He’s served as PCMA Board Chair, sits on the ASAE board, and is an award-winning association executive dedicated to elevating events and the professionals behind them Want More? Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content, guest Q&As, and our exclusive After Show. Share this with a fellow industry friend who needs to hear this! Connect with Megan HERE: Connect with Johnnie HERE: | |||
| 11 AFTER SHOW How Do You Survive the Chaos of On-Site Event Marketing? with Joe Federbush | 05 sept. 2025 | 00:27:58 | |
Behind every slick campaign is a lot of caffeine, chaos, and last-minute curveballs. In this After Show, Megan and Joe Federbush swap real stories about the behind-the-scenes moments that never make the case study slides. From awkward client requests to the stress of proving value in real time, Joe reveals how he keeps perspective when everything’s on the line. They also dive into the lighter side of the job—why some of the “worst” ideas can actually spark the best conversations, and how humor sometimes saves the day when spreadsheets can’t. What You’ll Learn in This After Show:
About the Guest: Joe Federbush is the President & Chief Strategist of EVOLIO Marketing, where he helps brands prove and improve the value of their event marketing investments. Known for his sharp insights and candid approach, Joe isn’t afraid to share what really happens when theory meets reality on the show floor. Connect with Joe https://www.linkedin.com/in/joefederbush Connect with Megan Head to eventaboutitpodcast.com to share YOUR “Vent of the WeeK” and join the Squared Squad for bonus content and guest Q&As. | |||
| 11 Was That a Safety Plan or a Seinfeld Episode? with Joe Federbush | 05 sept. 2025 | 00:27:58 | |
If you think flashy graphics and a catchy tagline are enough to sell out your event—you’re missing the mark. This week, Megan Martin sits down with Joe Federbush, President & Chief Strategist of EVOLIO Marketing, who’s been behind some of the most successful event marketing campaigns in the industry. Joe doesn’t just crunch numbers—he shows how data and creativity can work together to transform how we design, promote, and measure events. From winning over skeptical stakeholders to proving ROI that actually matters, Joe shares the behind-the-scenes truth about what makes event marketing tick. What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Joe Federbush is the President & Chief Strategist of EVOLIO Marketing, a leading agency helping brands maximize their event and experiential investments. With decades of experience in research, strategy, and creative marketing, Joe is known for helping clients move beyond surface-level metrics to campaigns that truly convert. Claim your Eventeny Discount $500 off Pro Annual Plan HERE: https://product.eventeny.com/event-about-it Connect with Joe https://www.linkedin.com/in/joefederbush Connect with Megan
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| 10 Did a Palm Tree Just Sink Our Event Activation? with Cat McDevitt | 15 août 2025 | 00:24:59 | |
If you think your event software is just there to sell tickets then you’re leaving serious growth (and sanity) on the table. This week, Host Megan Martin sits down with Cat McDevitt, VP of Marketing at Eventeny. She’s also a recognized speaker, strategist, and champion for event organizers who want less chaos and more control. From sponsorships that actually sell to the hidden ways your tech can save hours (and your team’s nerves), Cat reveals how smarter tools can take your event from “chaotic scramble” to “scalable success.” She also shares the trends she’s seeing across thousands of events on Eventeny’s platform—and the small tweaks that separate the good from the truly unforgettable. 🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
About the Guest: Cat McDevitt is the VP of Marketing at Eventeny, Board Chair for the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, and an Atlanta Business Chronicle “40 Under 40” honoree. She’s a sought-after speaker and strategist known for helping event organizers harness technology to streamline operations, boost revenue, and create memorable experiences—without burning out. Claim your Eventeny Discount $500 off Pro Annual Plan HERE: https://product.eventeny.com/event-about-it Got a hot take about something that went wrong at an event? Share it at eventaboutitpodcast.com for a chance to be featured in a future episode as the “Vent of the Week.” And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss the real talk and raw truths that can actually move our industry forward. Connect with Megan HERE Connect with Cat | |||