#open-share

Thread

Megan Donaldson at Zoom March 23, 2023 at 06:51 PM

Small victory share! I just came back from 3 days in California for the first real in-person CAB meeting that my company has had since 2019 (I took over the CAB in 2021), and I'm riding such a high! This event was thrown together in less than two months and there are over a dozen things we could improve, but we managed to get 16 customers to join in person and create an amazing hybrid experience for 8 more CAB members to join over Zoom. See snapshot of feedback rolling in. Thank you to this CMA community for helping along the way as I had questions (in or outside of this channel), including <@U04CZANHKQS> <@U04D95AUMU4> <@U04D81RPJ12> and the fabulous people and dot connector <@U04B82TD07M> !! If anyone is in the throes of planning their own CAB event, please consider me a resource.

Katlin Hess March 23, 2023 at 06:55 PM

That is amazing!! AND love to see that feedback from customers, we're planning our first-ever in-person CAB for this fall and I'd love to pick your brain on what worked / what you would improve for next time!

Melissa Brown March 23, 2023 at 07:01 PM

Congratulations, what a success and in a fast timeframe! What would you say was your biggest success and biggest challenge with the hybrid model?

Mary Green (Owner CMAweekly) March 23, 2023 at 07:06 PM

OMG I love this, this is amazing, I’m so happy for you!!

Megan Donaldson at Zoom March 23, 2023 at 07:22 PM

@Melissa Brown Great quesiton!

Biggest success:
• Zoom's amazing event services team were really the masterminds behind the hybrid setup (they are for hire!)
• Designed it so that we had presenters/session leads and execs joining both in person and virtually to create a more equitable experience. Also created a chat group that all attendees were encouraged to participate in.
Biggest challenge:
• Making sure people showed up in person…especially with short notice and there being a virtual option. We really played up the value of being there in person: exec access, camaraderie outside the meeting, and invited them to bring a +1 for meals, hotel, & group activity (travel not covered). We also invited some new members last minute that we knew would be more likely to say yes because they were super strong advocates, lived locally, or had asked to join the CAB in the past.

Melissa Brown March 23, 2023 at 07:33 PM

@Megan Donaldson at Zoom That's wonderful, thanks for the info. In my experience, it is tricky riding the line of wanting more attendees (hence virtual) but seeking to get mostly in-person attendees (more time w/customers and more impactful experiences).

Thanks for sharing and congrats again!

Kristine Kukich March 23, 2023 at 07:36 PM

Woo hoo!!!! So happy for you, @Megan Donaldson at Zoom!

Alexie Glover March 23, 2023 at 08:22 PM

Congratulations! It's great to see so much feedback and even better to see it from some of your big brands publicly!!! Huge win for you and the CMA team at Zoom!

Rachel Ward March 23, 2023 at 09:40 PM

congrats!

Leslie Barrett March 23, 2023 at 09:53 PM

Yay! So happy you crushed it! Ride that high!

Ari Hoffman March 25, 2023 at 02:48 PM

@Megan Donaldson at Zoom love reading this, thanks for sharing :)