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Welcome to the go-to resource for event marketers. With each episode, we dive deep into the world of event marketing, bringing in industry leaders to discuss trends, strategies, and success stories. We're not just talking about creating trade show booths; we're exploring how to craft success stories that drive tangible results.
We believe trade shows and events are not just a cost of doing business but an essential sales and marketing strategy, and have the potential to propel your brand growth and significantly impact your bottom line.
We understand the industry can be complex, with challenges around under-resourced staff, budget allocation, and much more. That's why we're here—to provide guidance and expertise so you can do better, be better, and expand your career.
Join us on this journey to get results, grow your brand, and experience the revolution of event marketing!
“Event Marketing: Redefined'' is hosted by trade show and event marketing expert, Matt Kleinrock, CEO of Rockway Exhibits + Events.
199 Episodes
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Most event programs are built around visibility: booths, sponsorships, brand presence For years, that approach was considered the safest way to drive pipeline. But what if the deals you care about aren’t won on crowded show floors? And your highest-value buyers respond to something far more intentional? In this episode, Matt sits down with Bronwen Gregg, who leads event strategy from inside sales enablement, not marketing. After seeing diminishing returns from large trade shows, her team sh...
Most event teams are doing everything they’re supposed to do: booking the booth, training staff, showing up with the right materials. And yet, the results rarely match the effort. The issue usually isn’t poor execution. It’s that the event was never designed to drive revenue in the first place. In this episode, Matt and Coty break down the thinking behind the session they’ll be bringing to EXHIBITORLIVE 2026… and why so many event strategies stall long before pipeline is even possible. In...
The event didn’t start on the show floor. By the time Accelevents showed up with a 10×10 booth, much of the pre-show groundwork was already in motion—accounts targeted, meetings scheduled, and conversations planned. The result? 116 meetings driven by intentional strategy, not booth size or blind hope for foot traffic. In this live conversation, Matt is joined by Jonathan Kazarian, CEO of Accelevents, and Michael Burns, CRO, to walk through a real case study. They’ll break down the pr...
Have you ever looked at a big brand’s event partnerships and wondered what actually makes them work... beyond the logos and budgets? In this episode, Matt is joined again by Jon Wolff and Mandy Glenwright to take you inside how Lenovo thinks about event strategy through the lenses of partnerships, scale, and standing out in crowded environments. Hear them unpack: ✅ Why most partnerships default to logo placement and what differentiates the ones that feel genuinely collaborative ✅ How Leno...
Events are one of the few channels where sales and marketing can show up together, face-to-face, and create real trust. And yet, many event programs are still planned and measured like isolated moments. So it’s no surprise they struggle to earn long-term credibility. In our first live episode of 2026, Matt sits down with MacKenzie Grant (Senior Director of Marketing, Experiences at Enverus) to unpack what changes when events are designed as part of a broader go-to-market strategy—one that s...
Some products are easy to show on a show floor. AI isn’t one of them. When your product is abstract, powerful, and sometimes intimidating, the challenge isn’t just explaining what it does—it’s helping people feel why it matters. That’s where this conversation goes. In this episode, Matt sits down with Chelsea Sparrow, Go-To-Market Manager at Microsoft, to unpack how her team brings AI tools like Copilot to life at events where demos alone fall flat and trust has to be earned. Instead of de...
2025 was a loud year for event marketers—big wins, tough lessons, shifting expectations, and an industry that moved faster than anyone planned. So before we step into 2026, we’re slowing down to make sense of what actually mattered this year. In this year-end live show, Matt Kleinrock and Coty Adams look back at the themes, pressure points, and breakthroughs that kept resurfacing in conversations all year long. You’ll get a mix of reflection, clarity, and forward momentum, including: 🎁 The...
Event marketers have spent years being asked to execute flawlessly—booths built, shows staffed, leads scanned. But the conversations Matt Kleinrock and Coty Adams keep having tell a different story: execution alone is no longer enough. Strategy exists… it’s just not being consistently applied. This special compilation brings together the most defining moments from Matt and Coty’s conversations this year, centered on what actually moves events from a cost of doing business to a business-driv...
Last year’s “best of” episode became the most downloaded in the history of the show for one reason: it gave event marketers a framework that actually changed how they worked. 2025 took that conversation further. This special compilation pulls together the ideas Matt and Pablo hammered on all year—the ones that challenged how events are positioned inside organizations, how experiences are executed on the show floor, and why so many teams feel boxed in by budgets that don’t leave room for str...
Event marketers spent 2025 juggling pressure from every angle—proving impact, planning smarter, and building experiences grounded in what audiences actually want. With time shrinking, expectations rising, and noise everywhere, it became harder to know which strategies genuinely mattered and which ones were just… loud. This special Best-Of 2025 compilation brings together the episode moments that delivered clarity, direction, and results. These are the insights that resonated the most with e...
If you’ve ever been handed a booth brief with zero strategy … or chased down sales to follow up on hundreds of “leads” … or been asked to “do more shows next year” with the same budget, you know the pain. That old model? It’s broken. But the fix isn’t a bigger booth or a cooler activation. It’s a shift — away from chasing attention and toward driving revenue. In this episode, Justin Keys (Sr. Manager, Brand Marketing at Georgia-Pacific) joins Matt to break down how event marketers take bac...
The future of event marketing feels noisy—AI headlines, shifting attendee behavior, sustainability pressure, and a role that keeps expanding faster than the job description. Most event pros are expected to keep up, even as expectations rise and clarity doesn’t. Is AI a threat or a tool? Are hybrid experiences still relevant? What skills matter now? And how do marketers prepare when the answers keep changing? In another EXHIBITORLIVE 2025 compilation, Coty Adams and Mollie Stahl ask industry...
Every event marketer has a moment they’d go back and redo — a decision, a mindset, a chance to think bigger. At EXHIBITORLIVE 2025, Coty Adams and Mollie Stahl hit the floor to ask one powerful question: “What advice would you give your younger event-marketing self?” The answers were raw, funny, and surprisingly universal. From learning to breathe through chaos to embracing bold ideas, every story captured what it really takes to build a career in this industry and a life that thrives beyon...
Every brand wants the next big experiential idea. But too often, what gets delivered is safe, predictable, and easy to forget. Audiences are craving creativity. They want experiences that surprise them, move them, make them pause. And behind every “cool idea” that actually worked is a deeper story—why it mattered, how it connected, and what made it resonate long after the lights went down. But what if you’ve never walked through SXSW or experienced Cannes in person? What if you don’t have e...
Venue sourcing takes an enormous amount of time and most event marketers have even less of it than ever before. Between skyrocketing pricing, surprise fees, and increased pressure to deliver inclusive and sustainable experiences, venue sourcing is more complex than it’s ever been. Yet event pros are still expected to “just figure it out” on their own. In this episode, Michael Hudson shares 30+ years of sourcing expertise—debunking the biggest myths in venue sourcing and showing what to watch ...
Event marketers are some of the most capable professionals out there. They juggle strategy, logistics, leadership expectations, and ROI goals all at once. But the truth is, there’s only so much they can control. Leadership decisions, last-minute changes, and competing metrics often leave them reacting instead of leading. And that constant pressure? It’s what pushes even the best to the edge of burnout. In this episode, Princess Castleberry, CEO of Castleberry Global and creator of the Live,...
Every year at EXHIBITORLIVE, the conversations go deeper than booth design and swag trends. This year, the question that stopped people in their tracks was simple: “What’s the biggest challenge event marketers are facing right now?” And the answers said a lot. Event pros from every corner of the industry opened up about the real pressures behind the scenes. From proving ROI and fighting for executive buy-in, to balancing endless stakeholder opinions, to adapting to a new generation of atten...
Most exhibitors spend nearly half their budget just getting to the show floor—booth space, travel, shipping, services. By the time the event starts, there’s almost nothing left for strategy or measurement. That’s how event marketing gets stuck in the “cost of doing business” trap. The result? Overbooked schedules, flat ROI, and event teams that feel more like order takers than growth drivers. In this conversation, Matt Kleinrock and Pablo Gonzalez break down the numbers, the hidden ineffici...
Events don’t work like they used to. Back then, great speakers and flashy venues were enough. Today? Audiences expect connection, conversation, and clarity of purpose. But most event strategies still haven’t caught up. That’s why in this episode, Matt Kleinrock and Pablo Gonzalez go rapid-fire through the “new laws of events”—from connection over content, to why five-week registration windows change everything, to how matchmaking, negotiation, and follow-up drive real ROI. You’ll learn wha...
Event marketers talk about personalization a lot. We slap a name on a badge, segment an email list, and call it a day. But attendees want more than that. They want to feel seen: from the first invite, to the way a session is designed, to the follow-up that lands after the show. That’s the kind of personalization that creates loyalty, accelerates deals, and turns an event into something people don’t forget. That’s why on this episode, Jody Hall (Director, Global Event Management at Labcorp) ...
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