“Trimble’s Insight conference aims to be the largest gathering of carriers in the transportation industry.”Justine Chrusciel, Event Marketing Manager, Trimble
Picture a person who works in the transportation industry.
Maybe your mind snapped to an air freight handler. Or a truck dispatcher? Perhaps a navigation software engineer.
In truth, there are hundreds of different roles, challenges, and solutions across the transportation vertical; and no matter who just popped up in your mind’s eye, you’re probably right.
Now picture putting an event together for all of them.
Instant headache? Yup.
But for Justine Chrusciel, Event Marketing Manager at Trimble, and the team that organizes their annual Insight conference, planning content for lots of personas is just the tip of the iceberg…
Objective
- Host a large-scale industry conference that retains the camaraderie and feeling of a more intimate gathering.
- Deliver content that is useful, actionable, and attractive to attendees in 20+ different transportation roles.
Creating Cohorts of Attendees
In in-person events, content matters a lot— but connection matters more.
Justine knew a goal for many of the Insight Conference’s attendees would be getting to know and learn from other professionals who shared their job functions, and who used the same tools and products as they did.
To facilitate great content that led to real community, the Trimble team used custom registration questions to segment their audience into focused cohorts. Registrants were asked to self-identify with:
- 18 Different Trimble products
- 14 Topics of Interest
- 10 Departments
- 8 Business Lines
- 7 Objectives for attending
Armed with this data, Justine and her team were enabled to design unique spaces and opportunities for each group to meet.
For instance, in the expo hall’s “Innovation Pavilion,” they set up dedicated areas for each cohort to gather. These spaces hosted joyful, fun activations, like ice cream socials, to disrupt and add moments of levity to the day’s agenda, and featured relevant Trimble team members to facilitate conversations and answer questions.
“Our attendees want to meet with people where they have common ground… Our audience was less interested in structured networking, so we created spaces for people to come together and meet naturally.”
This thoughtful setup meant every attendee left with new, meaningful connections relevant to their specific roles and functions— all powered by technology at scale.
200+ Sessions
With such a diverse audience, one-size-fits-all content wouldn’t serve anyone.
In order to accommodate the unique needs and challenges of each group, Trimble hosted 191 educational breakout sessions, including:
- 26 Leadership Series sessions
- 10 Hands-On Learning sessions
- 11 presentations from partners
“The goal is that there’s always something going on that an attendee would want to be a part of,” said Chrusciel.
And while 200+ sessions sounds great, it was clear that the Trimble team couldn’t expect attendees to sift through and find the ones that were most relevant to them.
With help from BW Events, the Trimble team created a system where attendees could sort sessions by topic, product, intended audience, and other tags.
Gathering insights throughout the process
It’s impossible to host an event that delights attendees without knowing who they are, what they care about, and what they’re hoping to gain.
The Trimble team used registration data to quickly identify which audience segments were most interested in the event, what topics they were eager to hear about, and which products they used or were considering.
“We really wanted to know who our customers are, who attended previous events, and just gather as much as we can to create the right experience for each attendee.”
This data allowed them to plan ahead, ensuring the right sessions were in the right spaces and that the event was perfectly positioned for their audience.
In addition to understanding who was attending, the team identified which promotional channels were driving the most registrations. Their “Insight Promoted Contest,” a program encouraging team members to drive event registrations, accounted for 49% of customer registrations.
This initiative not only identified and rewarded top performers but also doubled the number of registrations driven by team members compared to the previous year.
By knowing who their attendees are, what drives them to the events, and which promotional channels work best, the Trimble team can not only gather a large crowd of attendees, but also ensure their attendees get exactly what they’re coming for.
Conclusion
By leaning on data and creating personalized experiences for every attendee, the Trimble team was able to gather 1,211 attendees in-person, with an average Content Quality rating of 4.52/5.
With the data from 2023 in hand, the team can now use these insights to make the event even bigger and better in 2024 and beyond.
