Event Planning Meeting Prep — Hannah & Ryan

Date: Feb 23, 2026 | Owner: Luke Scorziell

Meeting Goals

Build an event calendar for the next 3–6 months (March–August 2026)
Identify which events to attend vs. co-host vs. pitch to partners
Agree on an event planning process that prevents repeat of Mixpanel
Assign clear ownership so execution doesn’t fall entirely on Hannah

Mixpanel Event Retro — What We’re Learning From

Before planning forward, make sure Hannah and Ryan understand what went wrong. Reference this when setting up the process.

What broke down

Area	What happened	Root cause
Partner alignment	Mixpanel did their thing, we did ours. We never saw their emails or lead list.	No shared ops cadence with the partner. Assumed Kara was driving.
Lead list	Only ~3 RSVPs. Kara was off-boarding. Their list never materialized.	We counted on partner to fill the room. We owned 0 of the list.
Outreach timing	Invites went out too late.	Event was planned in reactive mode, not built into a calendar ahead of time.
Point person	No one was explicitly accountable end-to-end.	Luke was in onboarding/sales; Hannah was the de facto owner without being named.
Team capacity	Hannah was pushing execution mostly alone.	No upfront scope of who does what.
Cancellation protection	Venue wasn’t booked with cancellation policies in mind.	No checklist for booking logistics.

What worked

Robert’s personal contacts showed up (Aditya, Jake). His warm network is the most reliable fill.
The format concept (intimate dinner/happy hour) was right — nobody said the idea was wrong.
$1, 500 s p e n d \to$ 30K ROI at ShopTalk the year before shows events work when executed properly.

The honest summary for this meeting

We had the right idea, wrong execution. The fix isn’t a different event type — it’s a tighter process, earlier starts, and a lead list we own from day one.

Event Planning Process — The New Standard

Use this for every event going forward. Walk Hannah and Ryan through it so they can hold each other accountable.

Phase 1: Qualify (6+ weeks out)

Before committing to any event, answer these questions:

Strategic fit: Does this conference contain our ICP? (Agency leaders, heads of growth, retail data/marketing leaders)
Our role: Are we attending, hosting our own side event, or co-hosting with a partner?
Lead list: Can we build a target list of 50+ people attending this event before we commit to hosting anything? (This is now mandatory — we don’t plan an event without owning the list.)
Partner alignment (if co-hosting): Will they share their attendee list? What are they committed to? Get it in writing or in a message thread before planning begins.
Budget: Rough budget approved before any venue contact.
Point person: Named before anything else. One person owns this end-to-end.

Decision gate: If we can’t answer “yes” to lead list and point person, we don’t commit to hosting. We just attend.

Phase 2: Plan (4–6 weeks out)

Format decision: Dinner (15–25 people), happy hour (25–50), roundtable/workshop (10–15). Default to dinner when targeting senior buyers. Happy hour when volume matters more than depth.
Invite list draft: Point person builds list. Target: 3x the seats you want filled (if you want 20 people, build 60 contacts). Sources in priority order:
1. Robert/Uttam’s personal contacts at the conference
2. Conference portal/attendee list (ask partner or buy access)
3. Ryan’s signal-based scraping (LinkedIn, event app, etc.)
4. Outbound via existing sequences
Venue locked: Book with cancellation policy reviewed. Always ask: what’s refundable and under what terms?
Partner sync (if applicable): Weekly 30-min check-in with partner contact. Shared doc with list, RSVPs, and logistics.
Invite copy drafted: Hannah owns copy. Luma page + outbound message variants (LinkedIn DM, email).

Phase 3: Execute (2–4 weeks out)

Outreach begins: First wave of outreach goes out no later than 4 weeks before. If you’re not sending invites 4 weeks out, you’re late.
Follow-up wave: Second touch 2 weeks out to non-responders.
RSVP tracking: Shared sheet with name, company, source (who invited them), and status. Updated weekly.
Run-of-show: Simple doc: time, format, who’s talking and when, conversation starter if needed, post-event follow-up plan.
Day-of logistics: Venue confirmed, headcount locked, food/drink sorted.

Phase 4: Follow-Up (within 48 hours)

This is where deals get made — and where we dropped the ball before.

Personal follow-up from the person who talked to each guest (Robert, Luke, or Uttam — not a mass email).
Log every conversation: name, company, what you talked about, pain point surfaced, next step.
HubSpot updated same day or next morning.
2-week touch if no response to initial follow-up.

Ownership Model (going forward)

Role	Owner	What they own
Event strategy	Luke	Decide if/when we go, what the format and narrative should be
Lead list	Ryan	Pull ICP-matched contact list from conference attendees
Logistics + invite	Hannah	Venue, Luma, invite copy, RSVP tracking
Outreach	Luke + Hannah	Outbound messages, personal DMs from Robert/Luke/Uttam accounts
Follow-up	Luke (+ Robert if his contacts)	Post-event CRM logging and follow-up

Event Calendar — March to August 2026

Bring this draft into the meeting. Confirm dates, assign point person, and set a “commit or skip” decision for each.

Confirmed / Near-Term

Event	Date	Location	Our Role	ICP Fit	Priority	Point Person
Austin Happy Hour (Robert in town)	~Mar 5	Austin, TX	Host	Warm contacts, Aditya/Jake/Ava retarget	DO IT	Hannah
ShopTalk Vegas	Mar 23–26	Las Vegas, NV	Attend + side event	Retail heads of data/growth	High	Luke

To Evaluate (Decide in this meeting)

Event	Approx Date	Location	Our Role	ICP Fit	Decision Needed
[MAY ADD] Agency-focused marketing conference	TBD	TBD	Attend / host dinner	CMOs, agency leaders	Research needed
Snowflake Summit	Jun 2026	San Francisco	Attend + partner activation	Data leaders, Snowflake customers	Talk to Snowflake team
[MAY ADD] MeasureCamp / analytics events	Quarterly	Various	Attend	Heads of Growth, attribution pain	Research needed
[MAY ADD] Content Marketing World	Sep 2026	San Diego	TBD	CMOs, agency content leaders	Out of range but flag

ShopTalk — Key Decisions for This Meeting

ShopTalk is ~1 month out. It’s the most time-sensitive item.

Decisions to make today:

Are we hosting a side event or just attending?
If hosting: dinner for 15–20, or happy hour for 30+?
Who’s going? (Robert confirmed he knows the organizers; tickets are available)
Lead list: Can Ryan start building the attendee list this week from the ShopTalk app/portal?
Omni partner: Is Omni co-hosting or are we going solo?
If co-hosting with Omni: What do they commit to? (Attendee list, co-promotion, split cost?)

Reference: Shoptalk Vegas research doc already exists at ../events/shoptalk-vegas-omni-event-research.md — fill in the clarifying questions there before or in this meeting.

Robert’s context from the transcript:

“We got 2 clients out of ShopTalk last time… probably spent $1, 000 o n t h ee v e n tpl u s ai r f a r e ... R O I o f$ 30K or whatever. To me, this is definitely something I would run again.”

“You guys should really treat it as a true lead generation… it’s a sales strategy. We should take it seriously.”

What made ShopTalk work last time (according to Robert): Ryan built a list of 25 people, Robert went on-site with that spreadsheet, found all of them, and worked the floor. The event itself wasn’t the mechanism — the list was.

Questions to Work Through in the Meeting

On the event calendar

What’s our total budget for events this quarter? (Need Robert’s input before we commit to anything expensive.)
Are there any conferences specific to agencies (not retail) in the next 3 months? This is our hottest ICP right now.
For ShopTalk: are we co-hosting with Omni or going solo? What has the Omni contact said?
Can we build a recurring “Brainforge dinner” format that we run 1x per quarter in a major city where Robert/Uttam travel anyway? (LA, Austin, NYC, SF)

On the process

Hannah: What’s the one thing that would have made the Mixpanel event go differently if you’d had it?
Ryan: What would it take for you to own lead list building for every event — what do you need from us to do that well?
What’s the minimum viable event we could do with 2 weeks of lead time? (Happy hour, no venue rental, just a bar reservation.) This is our emergency playbook.

On partner events

What do we actually need from a partner to make co-hosting worth it? (Their attendee list + co-promo minimum.)
Should we approach Snowflake, Amplitude, or another tech partner about co-hosting something at their conference?

What to Walk Out of This Meeting With

Event calendar for March–August with each event marked as “GO / SKIP / RESEARCH MORE”
ShopTalk: go/no-go decision, format, point person, and Ryan starting list-building this week
Austin event (Mar 5): venue messaging sent, Luma drafted, invite copy ready to go by end of week
Agreed ownership model for future events (table above)
One-page event planning checklist that lives in the vault and gets pulled for every future event

Pre-Meeting Homework (Do before the call)

Luke:

Review ShopTalk research doc and fill in the clarifying questions
Pull up Robert’s message thread about Austin (Mar 5) — confirm date + venue ask to PeerSpace
Know Omni contact status: has she responded?

Hannah:

What’s the status of the PeerSpace refund or reschedule for Austin?
Do you have the Mixpanel lead list (the ~95 contacts) accessible? We’ll want to retarget these for Austin.
Pull 2–3 potential Austin venues in case PeerSpace doesn’t reschedule

Ryan:

Is the ShopTalk attendee portal accessible, or do we need Robert to request access?
What signal sources can you use to build a ShopTalk attendee list if we don’t have portal access? (LinkedIn, event hashtag, Luma RSVP page, etc.)

Created: 2026-02-23 | For: Hannah + Ryan event planning meeting | Owner: Luke Scorziell

Brainforge Knowledge

Explorer

event-planning-meeting-prep-2026-02-23