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Forbes / Events 2018

Under 30 Summit 2018

Built and scaled a 10,000+ attendee audience for the 2018 Under 30 Summit, managing a team of three and a ~$500K budget over six months.

Problem

A summit at that scale is an audience problem before it's an event problem. Ten thousand people don't show up on their own. Somebody has to build the acquisition engine and run it for six months straight. And this audience was global, so the usual channels only got you so far.

What I built

Audience acquisition

The acquisition program ran across paid media and events against a ~$500K budget with weekly pacing, for six months straight. I managed a team of three through it.

Under 30 Summit 2018 the audience program by the numbers Line Figure Budget ~$500K Duration 6 months, weekly pacing Team 3 Channels paid media, radio, out-of-home, startup hub International markets Nigeria, Ghana Attendees 10,000+
The audience program, by the numbers.

International, and the startup hub

The audience was global, so the usual channels only got you so far. Radio and out-of-home campaigns ran in Nigeria and Ghana. And the startup hub got built from scratch: positioning, programming, and sponsorship packaging.

A performer at the microphone on the summit's late-show stage, hat pulled low, under pink and orange stage lights
The late show at the 2019 summit in Detroit. The 2018 stage looked much the same.

Stack

paid media / radio / out-of-home / event ops

Outcome

10,000+ attendees, registrations that turned into people in seats. This was 2018, before any of the demand gen systems on this site existed. It's where the systems habit started.

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