Ankush Gupta (0:14) Hi, I’m Ankush. I’m the founder of Eventible.com and the host of Building Awesome Events, a podcast for event marketers. Our guest today is the wonderful Noel Peterson, Senior Director of Global Event Experiences and Field Marketing at UserTesting. Lovely to have you here, Noelle. 

Noelle Peterson (0:30) Thank you for having me. 

Ankush Gupta (0:31) Let’s jump right in.

You know, we like to begin with a little bit of an origin story. So tell me, Noelle, transitioning from a background in law to spearheading major event strategies seems like a big leap. What sparked this change and how have your previous experiences shaped your approach to event marketing? 

Noelle Peterson (0:46) Yeah, so let’s jump into it.

So my journey into event marketing began with my studies in history and criminal justice. While preparing to go to law school, I worked at a litigation firm, but quickly realized that was not the right fit for me. So I then transitioned into financial services, specifically in investment management, where I had the opportunity to sit next to the marketing department.

I was intrigued by their work. So, I started volunteering for some side projects. Through those experiences, I discovered my passion for events and the direct impact that my work could have on attendees.

So this realization was incredibly rewarding and it motivated me to explore the field further. So I took the initiative to work with event professionals in the industry for mentorship and encouragement and that’s really how I smoothly transitioned into event marketing.

Ankush Gupta (1:42) That’s great. Noelle, tell me a little bit about your present role at UserTesting. So how is it sort of structured? What is the split between owned events, third party events or perhaps executive events? 

Noelle Peterson (1:54) Yeah, so our event strategy and portfolio is comprehensive, combining our own events, our key third party trade shows, our corporate events, we have partner initiatives and then our flagship customer conference, the Human Insights Summit.

So we use all these events to maximize our reach and our impact. Our responsibilities are to encompass a wide range of activities that aim to drive global adoption, retention, expansion, loyalty, and advocacy for the brand. And most importantly, showcasing our value and fostering meaningful connections with our customers, prospects and our partners.

Ankush Gupta (2:36) Yeah. And Noelle, for something like a third party portfolio, how do you really make decision, that these are the events that you’re planning to invest in this year? What are the variables that you use to really drive that investment? 

Noelle Peterson (2:47) So we kind of look at what the overall theme of that conference is. Is it the right audience? Is it the right brands? Do we have a thought leadership speaking opportunity that we can kind of share best practices? And then just look at that data and make the decision. Are we going to invest our budget, but our resources into that key trade show? 

Ankush Gupta (3:12) Great. Noelle, over the years, event marketing has undergone significant transformations. From your experience, what has been the biggest shift in event marketing since you started? What are you really seeing and how have you adapted to these changes? 

Noelle Peterson (3:22) The biggest shift I think we did a roller coaster from the pandemic with COVID. And the in-person events took a seat back and virtual was on the rise. And now that we are back in person is bigger than ever. And so, my advice is to invest more into those live events because people are craving that networking connections. And I would say more on the networking versus the content that’s actually given. I think the agenda has taken a second seat into getting those connections and making those memorable experiences. 

Ankush Gupta (4:01) That brings us really to understanding with UserTesting at the forefront of customer experience. How do you ensure that your events will not only deliver content, but also exemplify best practices in user experience? 

Noelle Peterson (4:11) Yeah. So it’s a little bit of everything, right? At UserTesting, we ensure our events deliver content and exemplify best practices in user experience through key strategic steps, right? So how do we achieve that? Leveraging our own platform. We use our own platform to gather insights before and after events, allowing us to tailor sessions, networking opportunities, amenities to meet specific needs. We’re creating personalized experiences. We’re creating engagement and valuable content. Having those user friendly platforms. Whether you’re purchasing for an event, giving a review, we’re making sure that those user friendly platforms smooth and ease. We focus on our events to be diverse, inclusive, accessible, sustainable, ensuring that everyone feels welcome.

I probably missed a few, but following these practices will really create engaging user friendly experiences that last a positive impression and foster long term connections. 

Ankush Gupta (5:13) And how would you measure for this Noelle, when you’re sitting back and trying to determine if the event was a success or how big of a success it was? Are there any specific indicators that you’re really going to look for? 

Noelle Peterson (5:26) For me, defining success for an event involves a combination of metrics. We aim to ensure that each event delivers value, fosters engagement actions and achieves our strategic objectives.

From a business and revenue perspective, a successful event is when it generates a significant amount of qualified leads who are generally interested in our offering and eager to explore our platform. And then the follow up efforts are highly effective by our revenue team, resulting to high conversion rates and tangible ROI for the event. In addition to revenue being generated on the marketing side of a successful event is that the attendees feel inspired, informed, excited about the possibilities that were presented, connections were made. And most importantly, the attendees are eager to continue the conversation with us. 

Ankush Gupta (6:20) That sounds reasonable, I think, Noelle. And let’s just jump back to a little bit, the pre-event marketing side. And given that we have so many channels today to reach out to the audience. Where do you think the maximum success for you has been coming from? Has it been digital, PPC, email, social in driving interest and attendance for your events? 

Noelle Peterson (6:41) I don’t think there’s no size fits all approach to ensuring you’re having the best experience for your attendees or even building a registration list.

We do a multichannel approach and we closely collaborate with various functions such as brand marketing, demand gen, digital marketing and the revenue team. So, we work together. We typically approach it by starting with defining the business goal and why having those clear objectives with the key stakeholders and establishing clear goals for the event, whether it’s lead gen, is it brand awareness or customer retention? We’re always trying to find the underlying reason on why we’re doing it. Working together collaboratively really ensures a successful event.

Ankush Gupta (7:29) It’s like a centralized demand gen team that you’re leaning on to help you with the audience acquisition? 

Noelle Peterson (7:34) Yes, absolutely.

Ankush Gupta (7:36) Noelle, for those thinking about switching to event marketing from another field, what is the one piece of advice you’d offer to smoothen that transition? 

Noelle Peterson (7:42) One piece of advice I’d offer to anyone considering to switching a role to event marketing from another field is to leverage your current background. This will allow you to bring a fresh perspective to the new role. For example, skills that I developed working in law have been beneficial to my position now. So negotiation, communication, creativity.

So my recommendation is for anybody thinking to go into event marketing is focus on your past experiences and your current skill sets and recognize how you can bring those values into your new role. And don’t focus on what might lack. And if you focus on your key skill sets, you’ll not only ease into transition, but you’ll bring a unique perspective that will enhance your effectiveness and creativity to that. 

Ankush Gupta (8:34) Absolutely. And for anyone listening in and considering what Noelle is like as a manager or as a future reporting manager, what is it really, Noelle, that you would look for in a potential hire? What are some of the skill sets or the mindset or the attitude that you look for? 

Noelle Peterson (8:50) Yeah. So motivation, you don’t have for me, like you don’t have to have like an extensive LinkedIn resume. What is your goals and motivation and creativity, attention to detail? You always have to do more with less with budget. How can you be creative? Those are the real skills I’m always looking for someone who’s a hand raiser. And I’m sure a lot of managers hate the phrase, that’s not my job. And so it’s like roll up your sleeves and everybody kind of get down and dirty and get the event done and successful. And that’s the candidate I’m always looking for. 

Ankush Gupta (9:25) Yeah. Fantastic. Noelle, reminds me of that show Succession. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. 

Noelle Peterson (9:30) Yes, I have.

Ankush Gupta (9:31) It’s where the patriarch of the family is addressing his entire crew and his kids and his senior management. And he’s like, I love all my employees equally, but especially the ones who get stuff done. I love them a little bit more.

Noelle Peterson (9:44) Totally. 

Ankush Gupta (9:45) So in that way, Noelle, would you like to give a shout out to someone you feel has been a mentor to you and has really helped you up the ante and learn so much more about event marketing? 

Noelle Peterson (9:54) Yeah, I actually have two mentors.

So Anna Fisher, she’s CMO of Spiff. She gave me my first event marketing job. She believed in me.

And my current boss, Paige Musto, she’s the VP of Corporate Events at User Testing. And she has really been a great mentor and letting my wings fly and trusting me, but also being there as a mentor and a guidance.

Ankush Gupta (10:23) So well done, Anna and Paige. I mean, good on you for letting Noelle fly in and be who she is. 

Noelle Peterson (10:31) Thank you.

Ankush Gupta (10:32) Noelle, we’ve almost come to the end of our short and crisp podcast today. And you know that we’re a conference platform and our goal is to help event marketers further their brands through the power of social proof.

What really has social proof meant to you? How important do you think it has been to the success of your conferences, your events in totality? 

Noelle Peterson (10:50) Social proof has been instrumental for event marketing in general, it helps establish trust and credibility. We like to showcase real customer testimonials and experience and endorsements. So to really enforce our brand reputation. Overall, social proof, influences decision making. For example, potential attendees are most likely to register events when they see a positive review or feedback from previous attendees, or they admire brands or thought leaders that are going to be present, this increases the registration numbers, the attendees will show up, engagement and participation at the event will create like a bandwagon effect. So if you’re not using social proof for your marketing efforts, you should. It’s a powerful tool for building trust, influencing decisions, driving engagement, enforcing brand reputation. It’s key to my marketing strategy success. 

Ankush Gupta (11:48) Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, Noelle, I think those are good words. And with that, we come to an end of today’s episode.

I hope you had fun listening to Noelle. And I think she had some good nuggets to share in there.

Keep listening to Building Awesome Events.

And thank you, Noelle. We’ll see you soon. 

Noelle Peterson (12:03) Thank you.