#announcements
Important info for Customer Marketers & Community members
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Hi y'all! Megan at Zoom here. I'm rushing to plan an in-person CAB meeting late March. One of the foreseeable challenges is how to actually get CAB members to attend in person :slightly_smiling_face:. Although we are offering to cover the travel costs for our CAB members, we know that budgets are constrained across the board, we're still asking for their time, and some will need to cover their own way due to compliance reasons. Would you be willing to share an example of invites you've sent to your CAB events? I'm curious about the language others use to get closer to that internal approval and doesn't look like a boondoggle event
@Amanda Peacock @Katlin Hess @Val Geisler @Rachel Ward @Daniel Palay @Alexie Glover I know these people (and several others) could have some advice for you, Megan.
(you can select "Customer Advisory Board" from the outline on the left side of the doc to skip other templates)
For those that need to cover their own way, I would work with their CSM (if you don't already have a relationship) to understand what their company and/or leadership's KPIs are so you can align the value of their attendance to something that the approver would see valuable (and, if possible, provide them with any "key numbers/statistical" data that might be of interested to executives if applicable to the objective of the CAB)
Fortunately you have the allure of your brand, so I would think the opportunity to influence Zoom company or product direction would be of value/exciting to your customers.
You could also provide them with a "get your manager/leader's buy-in" to attend template (something @Kaily Baskett is really great at).
OMG a new resource of templates!! oooh ty for sharing @Rachel Ward
Happy to chat more if you have any other questions.
@Megan Donaldson at Zoom happy to help! I can share our invite but I only have virtual ones right now so might not be as helpful
I love this community. @Rachel Ward this resource of templates is ammmaaaaaazing!
It's really the in-person, in 2 months time I'm struggling with. All my CAB meetings to date have been virtual, except a 1/2 hybrid CAB that was tied to our annual user conference.
A lot of our CAB members are already at the C-level, so I really need to sell the value that it is worth the commute, why it's better to attend in person (we have to offer a virtual option because we're Zoom), and make sure it would pass a CFO/budget check if need be.
My thoughts right now are to brand it as something more than a CAB meeting...i.e. annual CAB "summit", make a killer agenda focused on in-person collaborative activities and networking, and assign speaking or presentation roles to CAB members
@Kristine Kukich we had a great convo about CABs back in Dec...any more wisdom to share?
@Megan Donaldson at Zoom can you poll them ahead of time to see what dates/locations are best? that has helped me a lot with attendance in the past .. not only on their end but to set expectations with your internal team too. also can you tie in some experience for the evening event? more than just a cool speaker or happy hour but like something local to where you're doing it that they can't do at home?
@Kristine Kukich did host her first one 🙂
@Megan Donaldson at Zoom if this is the first time folks are meeting in person, steer into that skid. Don't make it about any one person presenting. Make them all do a re-introduction to themselves. What are their passions, what keeps them up at night, what makes them smile about their work and their teams. Build that community internally and in person and then they'll start want to talk more and wanting to do more of these things going forward.
We spent 1/2 of our first in person CAB meeting on introductions even though they had 'met' before.
Piggy backing on Daniel here, the majority of my c-level customers are looking for opportunities to get back into in person networking events, so leaning into that is likely going to serve you well
@Megan Donaldson at Zoom Our first virtual was a huge success! Our annual CAB summit (in person) is scheduled for March. Our numbers are much fewer, so I don't yet have the issues you do. Our CAB only has 7 members for this session. Our attendance rate in general is good, because we've only had one meeting. I am playing up the personal networking piece. It was HUGELY successful at the first meeting, and we do have new members joining this time. And I like the idea of seeing through a timeline what is different, so asking many of the same questions during the intro. Presentation-wise, bringing our C-Suite to spend some time talking about their plans in each of their spaces: sales, marketing, services and product. Saving product for the end, since that's what everyone wants to be a part of 😉
So much awesome conversation