Alon is the Co-Founder of Bizzabo, the world's fastest growing event technology platform for hybrid, virtual and in-person events. Bizzabo is helping marketers and event organizers from world leading brands to promote, manage and maximize their professional events, to create memorable and impactful experiences. Alon has built Bizzabo's business operations from the ground up and is now overseeing its marketing, strategy, and customer success teams. Alon began his career in the Israeli Air Force, where he served as a team commander for 6 years. Prior to founding Bizzabo, Alon was a senior startups analyst at ISP Financials. He graduated with high honors from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, where he did his BA in Business and LLB in Law. He was selected to participate in the prestigious Zell Entrepreneurship program, and in New York's exclusive Venture Fellows Program.
This episode features an interview with Alon Alroy, Co-founder, CMO & CCO of Bizzabo, a hybrid events platform that has raised $195M and has acquired several companies to date. Alon is a distinguished marketing executive shaping the future of the martech industry.
On this episode, Alon provides a crystal ball into the future of events, why he believes experiences play a vital role in this future, and why everything as a marketer leads back to delighting your customers.
“When you think about the future, the future is really not about event management software anymore. It's really about event experiences. People can consume content anywhere. People can get a Netflix-like experience in terms of, on-demand almost anywhere. So those who want to stay relevant, we need to evolve their offering to be focused on experiences, the attendee experience, the sponsor experience, the speaker experience, and the other experiences. So the future is really about experiences and this is what we have been experiencing as well. And this is what we have been demonstrating. To provide this immersive experience in which people feel connected, the rich transforming from attendees to participants.”
“In March 2020 a new era in events started, we call that the temporary-virtual-era, a transition era in which virtual events were the only option. Now, as we get into 2022, a new era is starting and that new era is the hybrid era in which we're really leveraging all of the benefits of virtual events in terms of increased reach and more data-driven approach and a more diversified audience. With the comeback of in-person events and for everyone who was doubting, whether in-person events would be back, they are coming back big time. We are already seeing tech conferences leading the charge and the number of in-person events already planned for 2022 is constantly increasing. And they're gonna come back better. So the future of events is, is hybrid. And the future of events is about choice and flexibility. And marketers will need to adapt to these new types of experiences.”
“So I lead our marketing organization and our customer organization, and I strongly believe that the best marketing in the world is just happy customers. And if you're able to really influence customers being happy, it means that you work in marketing everyday, specifically today in which customers have more power than before in which the buyer journey involves way more is leaning way more about what customers say and think than what your demand gen team is. On our blog or on our white papers, it means that we need to really lean on customers to drive marketing, word of mouth, et cetera.”
Episode Timestamps:
*(2:00) - Alon’s first job in marketing
*(2:35) - What it means to be CMO of Bizzabo
*(4:02) - The latest happenings at Bizzabo
*(6:54) - How marketers should think about events for 2022
*(8:24) - Segment: The Trust Tree
*(11:00) - How Alon structures his marketing team
*(12:16) - Alon’s marketing strategy
*(16:26) - Segment: The Playbook
*(18:10) - The future of events
*(26:13) - Making experiences memorable
*(29:46) - How Alon views content, Bizzabo’s website, & event lifecycle
*(33:31) - Segment: The Dust-Up
*(35:36) - What’s going away in marketing
*(36:26) - Segment: Quick Hits
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