The group also shared what they were trying. Claude was already part of their work, and one marketer had built her own dashboard to work around reporting difficulties.
Event registration pages need more design flexibility
Marketers using Luma appreciated how quickly they could get an event live. When registration needs to open and there’s plenty else to do, a straightforward setup makes a difference.
But several wanted more control over how their pages looked. Brianna was among those who raised event registration page customization as a frustration. They could publish quickly, but getting the design to match what they had in mind was harder.
The ask was simple: keep the quick setup, and give marketers more room to make the page their own.
Post-event sales follow-up still falls to marketing
Ideally, sales sends invitations and follows up with the people who attend. In practice, some marketers in the group were doing that work themselves.
Erika described having a strong BDR team supporting outreach. Others were personally sending messages and chasing responses, adding outbound work to their event responsibilities.
That made sales support a meaningful difference between the teams represented. For some, there was a dedicated team to carry the conversation forward. For others, the event marketer was also responsible for getting a response.
A shared post-event follow-up process needs to account for who actually does the outreach. If marketing regularly takes it on, the plan should reflect that workload.
Event lead capture still ends in manual data transfers
Attendees discussed Vendelux’s badge scanning capabilities, with some testing it out. But collecting someone’s information at a booth was only part of the job.
Marketers described manually transferring data from booth scanners, and the discussion included an example of a $1,000 charge for API access. Getting contacts into the systems used for follow-up meant either more manual work or another expense.
There was interest in universal badge scanners that could work across events and connect more easily to the tools teams already use. The gap between event lead capture and getting that data into the CRM was still creating work after the event.
Using Claude to work around event reporting challenges
The conversation about AI for event marketers included a specific example from Erika: she had created a dashboard using Claude. The group also discussed MCP, which lets AI assistants connect with other tools.
Her dashboard example connected to a frustration others shared. Salesforce data wasn’t always accurate, and working with marketing operations to fix it could be difficult.
Building a dashboard gave her another way to work with the information, but it raised a question about how much reporting work event marketers are taking on themselves.
There’s also a distinction between making data easier to work with and fixing its accuracy. A dashboard can help marketers explore and present the information they have. The underlying Salesforce issues still need someone to resolve them.
Across these conversations, the workarounds had a cost: marketers were taking on outreach, data transfers, and reporting tasks to keep their events moving. Erika’s BDR support offered a useful example of what changes when some of that work has a dedicated owner.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Chicago and shared how this work actually gets done.
