Your event wasn't the problem.

Ask any event marketer to be honest, and they'll tell you exactly how they'd build a stronger show if they had the budget, the runway, and the right people in the room saying yes at the right time.

But shrinking resources, last minute executive pivots, and stakeholders who show up late with big opinions are quietly wrecking programs that were never broken to begin with.

This conversation echoes what senior leaders spent two days saying out loud at Event Marketing Congress 2026.

In this episode, Matt Kleinrock and Coty Adams get honest about:

✅ Why leadership keeps chasing the shiny object instead of sticking to a plan

✅ The sales and marketing gap nobody wants to name out loud

✅ Who actually owns event decisions and why the answer is usually nobody

It's the conversation event marketers wish they could have with their own leadership team.

Tune in live August 5 at 1 PM ET. Bring your own war stories, we're reading comments live.

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Connect With Us

Matt Kleinrock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-kleinrock-9613b22b/

Coty Adams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cotykadams/

Our Company: https://rockwayexhibits.com/

🚨 Register for the show here: https://tinyurl.com/EventMarketingRedefined

Customer events are not prospecting campaigns, so measuring them by leads alone misses their real business impact. The better questions are whether customers become more loyal, engage more deeply, and strengthen their relationship with your brand.

Inside this episode:

✅ The customer-event metrics that reveal more than attendance and satisfaction scores

✅ How attendee-versus-nonattendee comparisons can uncover revenue, retention, and participation trends

✅ Why host books, peer interaction, and voice-of-customer sessions lead to more meaningful connections

Ashley Claborn (Senior Manager, Events & Incentives at Lennox Residential HVAC) joins Matt to explain how customer feedback, attendee data, and thoughtful interactions can reveal an event’s influence on loyalty, retention, and business growth.

From comparing attendees with similar non-attendees to preparing internal teams with meaningful customer insights, this conversation offers a smarter way to define success.

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Connect with Ashley Claborn
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyclaborn/

Connect with Matt Kleinrock
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-kleinrock-9613b22b/
Company: https://rockwayexhibits.com/

🚨 Register for the show: https://tinyurl.com/EventMarketingRedefined

Your VP asks why events deserve more budget next year. You could defend every line item. Or ask for something else entirely.

Matt says fighting for more money is usually the wrong fight. Alignment first, results second, budget third. That reframe is what separates event marketers who get taken seriously from the ones stuck justifying their existence every cycle.

Part 2 of our summer Q&A series covers what event marketers actually lose sleep over: booth psychology, credibility with leadership, and which KPIs are real versus which just look good in a slide deck.

Still poolside. Still surprisingly tactical.

✅ What Matt actually watches on a show floor once the booth design stops holding his attention

✅ Why leading metrics tell you the story while you're still in it, lagging metrics only tell you the ending

✅ The one detail from post-show debriefs most teams skip: pairing the numbers with what sales actually felt in the room

Oh, and the hot dog versus hamburger debate. Some things matter as much as pipeline.

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Connect with Matt Kleinrock
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-kleinrock-9613b22b/
Company: https://rockwayexhibits.com/

🚨 Register for the show: https://tinyurl.com/EventMarketingRedefined