Leading With Purpose: How Events Drive Business Forward with Stacey Fontenot

Stacey Fontenot [00:00:00]:

I think a lot about how can we drive this sense of community within our event that can move forward long after the event's over. That's what keeps me going back to different events every year is I'm like, "Oh, well, I'll see so-and-so." I'll network with my peers and really get some good tips and tricks. There's a lot of goodness when it comes to events overall and I feel like we're always just at the tipping point.

Alyssa Peltier [00:00:27]:

Great events create great brands, but pulling off an event that engages, excites and connects audiences, well, that takes a village and we're that village. My name is Alyssa.

Rachel Andrews [00:00:40]:

I'm Rachel.

Felicia Asiedu [00:00:41]:

And I'm Felicia.

Alyssa Peltier [00:00:42]:

And you are listening to Great Events, the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators and innovators in the world of events and marketing.

Felicia Asiedu [00:00:53]:

Hi, everyone. What has been going on in this wide, wide world of events? I'm Felicia, and today we have got a special episode for you. We are sitting down with our very own senior VP of marketing and my boss, our boss, Stacey Fontenot, to chat about her career, being a woman in leadership and of course, all things meetings and events.

Stacey Fontenot [00:01:16]:

Hi, everybody. I'm excited to be here.

Felicia Asiedu [00:01:20]:

Awesome. Awesome. I think we're just going to dive straight in. We know each other so well. As I say, you're our boss, so we want to get to know you and let everyone get to know you, Stacey. So why don't we start with you story? You've had a really good and impressive career journey. So what led you to marketing and eventually to see that?

Stacey Fontenot [00:01:39]:

Yeah. It's interesting. I had been in marketing probably over 30 years. I actually majored in marketing in college, so I knew I loved it from way back when. I love marketing because I think it's a great blend of data, the science and the art, and it allows me to stretch in so many different ways that I get to explore different sides of myself. For Cvent, I've been at Cvent for 10 years, which is kind of crazy. I joined Cvent because I wanted to stay in tech and be in software, but Cvent had this platform that I found to be really interesting. As a marketer, I had done events throughout my entire career and I could see how Cvent helped me improve my productivity overall. That's kind of why I took the first interview.. then once I interviewed, I was here for eight hours on my very first interview.

Rachel Andrews [00:02:38]:

Not surprising.

Stacey Fontenot [00:02:39]:

I know. I had 17 people, but fell in love with the company culture and the company overall, so here I am 10 years later.

Rachel Andrews [00:02:48]:

We interviewed for a long time, but trust me, when you're here, the people are amazing. We have to interview them to just make sure that they're amazing.

Felicia Asiedu [00:02:55]:

Do you know what, you have not a unique journey, but know when you said I knew and I studied it and I majored in it? That isn't that common. It's actually cool that you knew what you wanted to do and now you bossing it. This is so cool.

Stacey Fontenot [00:03:09]:

Yeah, crazy.

Felicia Asiedu [00:03:10]:

Yeah. But like I said, you're our boss. You're our leader. You have a particular leadership style which thank God, I abide with because it works for me, I tell you. So if you were looking back, are there any pivotal moments that you think shaped that leadership style?

Stacey Fontenot [00:03:25]:

I had one piece of advice from one of my former bosses. Her name's Sherri Gilligan, and I reported to her at Sprint Nextel. At that point, this is probably 20 years ago, and I was the director of field marketing for the northeast region, and so I was in charge of all the marketing that Sprint Nextel had. So I remember just talking to her about my roles, my responsibilities and framing out what that looked like and she stopped me in mid conversation and she said, "Stacey, don't think of yourself as the director of the marketing for the Northeast region. Think of yourself as the chief marketing officer for the Northeast region and I want you to rewrite your roles and responsibilities based on that."

That has stuck with me throughout my entire career journey, but it really helped reframe my entire thought about what I thought the role was and my responsibilities for that role. It allowed me to elevate to really own the business and not just think of myself, for instance, in this case as a marketing leader within a specific region, but to think of how am I going to drive market share with my sales teams, with my client services teams and it really broadened my perspective overall. I've had a lot of great mentors and leaders over the past, but that was the one thing that I think just was a turning point of my entire career.

Felicia Asiedu [00:05:03]:

So amazing.

Rachel Andrews [00:05:03]:

"Put yourself in my shoes. Let's think about things beyond where you are now and look to the future." I love that.

Felicia Asiedu [00:05:12]:

I mean, I can attest to the fact that you say it to me a lot. When you first started saying it, I just couldn't wrap my head around it, but over time, you keep reinforcing it, "Remember who you are. Remember you are the CMO of your region. Remember this, you are in control," and it really does change your perspective. You start acting differently because of it and thinking differently. Yeah.

Rachel Andrews [00:05:33]:

I have to ask, looking around where we are now, I can find very easily a lot of women leaders in my field who I look up to, you included. When you were coming up in the marketing world, I'm sure that wasn't always the case of looking around and finding someone in yourself everywhere. What has helped you navigate those challenges? Being a woman in the leadership field, it's hard to find other mentors that look like you, that talk like you, that act like you. Is there just glass on your shoulders all the time? What has helped you grow in your career? I know you've told me before you've found mentors no matter where you are, no matter if they're women or female in marketing leadership. Has that been just challenging for you growing up?

Stacey Fontenot [00:06:19]:

I've been in a lot of male-dominated industries. There really hasn't been a whole lot of women within my organization, whatever it was, that were at the top, and so I've had to learn to do different things. I think of it as two different things. I think of it as what are the characteristics as a woman in leadership do you need to have and then what actions do you need to take? Let me explain that a little bit. From a characteristics perspective, I think the thing that's helped me navigate things over my career has really been just this concept of adaptability no matter what situation I'm in to figure out, I know I can solve a specific problem if there's a challenge, but to figure out, okay, there's multiple solutions to get to that challenge and problem solve I think is a big thing of it.

I also think it's really important to be your authentic self. So when I was early in my career, I was probably about 25 at the time and I was in a global leadership program at a Fortune 100 company. They did a lot of analysis on this cohort of... We were in a class that went through this global leadership program. I will never forget it, somebody said to me, "Stacey, you're not showing up as your authentic self. It's almost like you have two separate sides of you," and I didn't know what that meant. They said, "Stacey, you're coming in and you're putting on your business suit. You're coming in and being super conservative. You're coming in being refined and almost you're holding yourself back." I'll never forget it because my personality is more lively and energetic, and I was presenting myself at work in a very different way. So once I learned to become my authentic self and to release that within the work environment, I became much more successful. I think that's really important.

The other things I think about are actions that you take. So being a women in leadership, when you don't have a lot of women perhaps at the top, you have to build your own network and your own alliances, and I think that is probably one of the most important things you can do no matter what stage. If you're young and just starting off your career or if you're like, "I've spent 30 years in marketing and I'm still relying on my network quite a bit, not only networks to help my career and make me a better leader, but networks to help inform and educate me and help me stay hopefully ahead of the trend on things," it's critical, but you could be a man or woman, it doesn't matter. Networks are important either way.

Rachel Andrews [00:09:10]:

Someone told me once, it was a personal board of directors that you need on your side or someone in your corner, and I was like, "I want my own personal board of directors. This is so fun."

Stacey Fontenot [00:09:20]:

And that's exactly what you need to do and you can kind of lean on things. I think it's really important to have a personal board of director and have different people based on different skill sets and perspectives because they can help you navigate different points in your career or even life and they can give you different points of views that maybe you haven't thought of.

Felicia Asiedu [00:09:42]:

I think it's great advice because we have a lot of young people that listen to our podcasts and they're often wondering, "Okay. How do I get started? How do I get going?" I can't relate to Stacey, she's a senior VP, but actually that advice you gave of having your networks, building your networks, building your board of directors, you are still using it now, so it's not like something they can't access when they're younger and still, "Who's in my network?" You might not know everything about AI that you build as another resource that you can bring onto your board and everyone can do that.

Stacey Fontenot [00:10:10]:

At Cvent CONNECT last year in the US, we had Jennifer Morgan who was our chairman at the board at the time of Cvent, and she was doing an interview and she said, "If you really wanted to talk someone maybe high up or whatever, just ask for 10 minutes of their time on something because most likely people are going to say yes to 10 minutes." Everybody can spend 10 minutes. Especially when you're growing your career, I would encourage you to do that. From my standpoint, it would be hard to say no to something like that.

Felicia Asiedu [00:10:43]:

Yeah. I mean, we are just talking about the board, but when you think about the team, you've looked after quite a large team here at Cvent, how do you think about that team structure and keep everyone aligned and motivated on the journey of what we're doing here?

Stacey Fontenot [00:10:56]:

Yeah. I've been so fortunate to work with so many amazing people. When I think about what's the most critical thing that I can do as a leader is to really start with the purpose or the why of why we're doing something and what impact is it going to make to the business. I think too often leaders ask for things then don't give you the context, and I think then it's just a transactional action versus you start to paint the vision of, "Hey, I'm looking to grow revenue," or "I'm looking to have the most amazing attendee experience because I really need to engage users here," or whatever it is, but we don't tend to really talk through that. I think if you start with the why and what you're trying to achieve, I think vision helps the other person or teams and it can really serve as a rallying cry.

Usually, when I do that, I find that the teams give me better ideas than I thought we could have done or outperformed based on just taking a step back and really taking time to walk through everything. So I think that's the thing that's probably most important, but then aligning to goals. Often, I find we have so many different stakeholders, for instance, in marketing that we work with and they all have different goals. I think one of the biggest things that an organization can do is align goals at a cross-functional level, but then from a marketing perspective, make sure the marketing teams are aligned on the goals because what does that do? That helps with prioritization, that helps with knowing the impact, that helps with knowing your personal value as to how you're contributing to those goals, and so I think that's really important overall.

Rachel Andrews [00:12:54]:

Executives need to make the people feel like at a 50,000 foot view, even if it's the smallest thing, the smallest blog, the smallest event, the smallest webinar. You're impacting the journey of a customer. You're impacting this and making them see even something so small, it's like, "You did such a good job." It goes so far just to say, "You did this thing." You know what, even just to thank you and you're really good at this, Stacey. You did this one thing that impacted this, people are like, "Oh my gosh, my role is very important doing this piece of marketing." It's this trickle down effect where everybody takes that piece of advice or, "Oh my gosh. So this one piece in the journey is part of what I impacted for everybody." It doesn't matter how small the task or how big the task, you always lean into, "Here's why it mattered and here is the journey that impacted on the way," and I think it's just great. It's like continue doing that as leaders because sometimes when you're in the cog, you don't see all the things that you're participating in to the greater picture.

Stacey Fontenot [00:14:04]:

Yeah, I think we spend so much time at work, people just want to feel valued and they want to know what they're working on matters and that you see them and that you see them taking the time to whatever it is, do a data analysis or planning sessions for an event or doing whatever it is. A little goes a long way. I've noticed that when I take the time and Slack somebody, it really has impact to our relationship, but it is hard as a leader. Sometimes you get so bogged on. All the action items you have to do, you forget how important that human element is and why it matters and it can really motivate a person. For me, I value recognition quite a bit and it gets me really excited and have an extra bounce in my step because of it. It matters and it matters to I think a lot of people.

Felicia Asiedu [00:14:56]:

Even those that say it doesn't, somewhere deep down, it really does. Even if it's not, "Hey, you, well done. You did a good job," But it's like those figures that that person produced really helped me to make a decision, it's the recognition of the work underneath it and the journey of the whys. So this is all leading a bit more into your leadership style, and I know that every time you start a year, you start with a word of the year. For our listeners, we know the word because you gave it to us, but for our listeners, could you tell them the word of the year for you?

Stacey Fontenot [00:15:26]:

Just as background, I've been doing this for 20-some years with my two best friends from college and having a word of the year helps shape what that year is going to be all about and what do you want it to be. So my word of the year is quest. So I'm trying to do everything personally and professionally to live up to that. Let me give you an example. So I happened to visit our India marketing team a couple of weeks ago. I tacked on a trip to Sri Lanka for a couple of days and I decided to live up to my word quest and try surfing for the first time. After wiping out about 20 times, I was able to stand up a couple times. So I was so proud of myself and it was doing something that I had never done before. It kind of was refreshing and I was like, "Gosh, I can reinvent and reimagine myself in multiple ways."

So that was great, but then it helps me professionally too. So thinking about, "Okay. What's my quest this year professionally? What do I want to do?" AI is something that I'm like, "I have to lean more into it because I don't want to be disrupted. I want to be the disruptor." So putting things in place that can help redefine whatever your word is really helps shape in my opinion that year for you, that journey that you want to have and it's really for me pretty powerful. Anyway, I have one word of the year. I've heard other people who they do a word of the month.

Felicia Asiedu [00:17:05]:

Yeah, I need a word of the day.

Stacey Fontenot [00:17:07]:

You do a word of the day?

Felicia Asiedu [00:17:09]:

No, I said I need a word of the day because my brain just can't comprehend a year-long word. It is kind of like, "Okay. What am I doing today?" Word of the day is finish.

Stacey Fontenot [00:17:19]:

Yeah, exactly. I know. What would your words be if you had a word?

Rachel Andrews [00:17:24]:

I picked one. I picked one. Mine was flourish because I feel like I always try for the next step, the next thing, and I'm like, "You just need to live where you are and continue flourishing in what you're doing." It's really hard for me. I do this to myself every year where I overplan myself and I'm like, "Okay. Next year I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to overplan. I'm not going to re-engineer what I'm doing every single day. I'm going to try to flourish where I am. Grow where you're planted, just grow, just be the person that you are where you are." Flourish is where I started the year, but I love that you've been doing this for so long, Stacey. I've seen people that have done this and this year I was like, "You know what, I'm going to do a word of the year." This is my first year doing a word of the year.

Stacey Fontenot [00:18:14]:

And you can grow in so many different ways. I love that word. All right. Felicia, what's yours?

Felicia Asiedu [00:18:18]:

My words are past the baton. The baton. I used your American terminology baton because a lot of what I want to be doing this year and I am doing and have been doing this year is trying to empower my team to rise, to be honest, and I'm finding such great joy out of it. I haven't reached any pinnacle of my career. I know I've got places to go, but I just don't feel like the focus of the year. I feel like the focus of the year is other people and helping them to do what they need to do to rise. I think this year I was like, "I don't have goals for myself," which was really scary.

Stacey Fontenot [00:18:58]:

Yeah. That's why this word of the year is so good because it frames up what do I want this year to be and have I lived up to that? Once you have that word of the year, then you just pick two or three things that you want to do and why it's so important. If you say this and now you've said this now, you guys, on a podcast, you're kind of held accountable to it to some degree.

Felicia Asiedu [00:19:22]:

Oh, yeah, I'm happy with that. All right. Let's get back on track, ladies. So we've been thinking about our industry a lot. I know Rachel and I both spoke with MPI about this Global Meeting Industry Day. What do you think? I mean, we working in an industry that we love. Come on, ladies, we have to admit it. Every time I'm interviewing someone they're like, "What do you love about Cvent?" I said that I'm marketing to myself basically. I'm doing events to people that do things that I do. I just love that. So when you're looking at this industry, where do you think it's headed, Stacey? Do you think is next for this industry that we all love working in?

Stacey Fontenot [00:19:56]:

So many different pieces that we could go into for the industry. The thing I think the most about it is, and we kind of did this as we were coming back out of the pandemic, it was like events were coming back and so that felt good, but now with AI, I think about how important events are in the midst of AI. We at Cvent always talk about the power of human connection. I think that more and more people are going to want to get together as the rise of AI continues to happen because it can give you information and data and it can do a lot of really good things for the industry at whole, but at the end of the day, events really help inspire and connect people and I think the power of events is going to continue to grow.

I know I'm in a lot of the marketer groups and things like that and all the marketers are talking about the rise of events and how they're leveraging events, whether it be small or large or whatnot. But when I think of events, I think of how it can drive engagement, how it can drive adoption, how it can drive culture of an entire community. I think that's going to be one of the most interesting pieces of it as we move forward. I think we're just at the very beginning. I also think the possibilities are endless. As a marketer, I think of how can I use AI to help me personalize events even more and speak to you one-on-one versus one-to-many or one-to-a segment of the population. Now we can with technology help curate things that are directly for this person and I think that's pretty powerful, and as a marketer, that's pretty exciting. I can almost tailor something directly to them and that's awesome.

Felicia Asiedu [00:21:50]:

Yeah, I remember standing on stage at the product roadmap and saying to the audience basically that attendees lie half the time because I was saying that they fit in all this information. Yeah, I'd go to the networking drinks. Yeah, I'd come to this thing and that. So you start doing your marketing and your event marketing based on that, and then actually you watch their behavior and they didn't go to the networking drinks. They went and hung around the water cooler at lunchtime and networked in the foyer. So it's that real behavior, and I love that the Cvent technology is developing to be like, "Let's just look at what you do rather than what you say you're going to do."

Stacey Fontenot [00:22:26]:

So that's what I love too. So getting back to that, marketing is a little bit of science and a little bit of art. At Cvent CONNECT, we get over a million different engagement touch points and just looking at the patterns and the information, I mean, that is so powerful to have all that information in your hands. That's what gets me motivated and excited because I'm like, "I can actually help people navigate and find solutions to their problems."

Rachel Andrews [00:22:54]:

Yeah, exactly. I've been saying this for years that attendees are selfish. I've been saying it because I'm selfish. When I go to an event, I only want to go to what I want to go to. Half the time I just want to be there to network with people like me, talk to them about their struggles. I'm like, "Why don't we just make that content for them? Make it fun to go to something. Hey, all your best friends will be here and we're going to talk about this." The different personas need to be in the right rooms. If you don't do that, Stacey, like you're saying, people won't come to your events, webinar. Insert any tactic into this line. It doesn't have to just be events. Everyone wants to know, "What's in it for me?" It's easier to do it now.

Stacey Fontenot [00:23:38]:

The other piece, when I think about as event organizers and as we're doing our own events, what's the responsibility? It's the responsibility to inspire and drive good content and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? But it's also there's this piece, and you just touched on it, Rachel, a little bit, but of driving community. I think a lot about how can we drive this sense of community within our event that can move forward long after the event's over. That's what keeps me going back to different events every year is I'm like, "Oh, well, I'll see so-and-so," or I'll network with my peers and really get some good tips and tricks and things across the board. But there's a lot of goodness when it comes to events overall, and I feel like we're always just at the tipping point.

Felicia Asiedu [00:24:30]:

Yeah. I love the fact that at the right at the top, you spoke about authenticity and bringing your authentic self. Actually, I feel like that's where we've landed in that you've told us that we're being shaped by a sense of authenticity. I think that coming back to being face-to-face, and that's where you do get the real reality of what's going on because AI and deepfake is driving a lot right now in social media land and sometimes the only way to get to know Sally, Bob and whoever else turned up is to actually be face-to-face at events.

Stacey Fontenot [00:25:03]:

Yeah. Events are building trust between people. I also think of it as events are building brand, right? They're a touch point to an organization's brand, and that customer experience and attendee experience, I think about that a lot. But again, just thinking about it the other day, and I was like, "God, with the rise of AI, what does that mean for events?" I think events play this unique role that no other marketing tactic can deliver on that is really that human connection. So we have a lot of work to do, ladies, to propel that forward.

Rachel Andrews [00:25:40]:

I think that's the unique thing about what we do. We bring so much business into the world. I love Reggie's saying of it's the biggest industry you've never heard of because it really is. It's an everyday life and we bring so much impact in business. That's why event-led growth and things like that, that you're hearing more and more in the market, it's the same thing. It's like how much money are you bringing into this to generate revenue or to generate community or insert whatever involvement you want to bring people together. It's part of the Meetings Industry Day, and it's part of that. It's part of hospitality coming together. It's part of going out to dinner with friends. It's the wedding industry. It's the corporate events. It's literally going out to lunch for a lunch meeting.

It's so many different things. It's hard to put a label on it. I really think that, you were just saying this, Stacey, bringing people face-to-face is never going to change. That is always going to be a core component of how we move forward, drive change. We move business forward and it's like a reminder to everybody that this is an important industry. The 50,000 foot view thing we were talking about, Stacey, it's like, "Gee, this one event helped do this. It helped the conversation move here."

Stacey Fontenot [00:27:02]:

When I think of all the different things that we can do from a marketing mix, events are so critical to everything that we're doing because it just drives impact, impact to ROI, impact to other things as well, and ultimately that's what I'm looking at. So when I think of this day is not only to celebrate this industry, but how this industry is driving other industries forward. So that to me is pretty powerful.

Rachel Andrews [00:27:30]:

I have to tell you a funny story really quick. I met someone at an industry event recently and I was like, "What kind of events do you plan?" She's like, "It's going to sound really weird, but I plan events for a lot of associations. But one of the associations is the National Association for Cheese and all these cheese makers come together." I was like, "Can you just say that one more time? You plan events for cheese." Then I talked to another person this same night and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I'm part of this association for cheese." I was like, "There are two cheese event I didn't know about? I need to be invited to."

Stacey Fontenot [00:28:05]:

We'll all go together.

Rachel Andrews [00:28:07]:

It goes to say there's an event for everything.

Felicia Asiedu [00:28:09]:

We had our celebrity host at CONNECT Europe last year. He was fascinated by all the people he went and met and he started talking to all these people across the conference and it was like, "There's a woman that does events for plastic." It is, but everything needs an event. You need to bring these people together to discuss what are we doing about the plastics and how are the cheeses going to progress? But again, bringing us some sanity into this conversation.

Stacey Fontenot [00:28:43]:

This podcast has taken a very different turn.

Felicia Asiedu [00:28:47]:

These are the best parts. As a marketing leader, I think recognizing that is the key. When we talk about event-led growth, it isn't, "Okay. Fine. We'll have an event. We'll get together." It's the strategy of where do events fit into your marketing plan so it doesn't just pop up, "Oh, we've got an event. We have to send salespeople." That's not going to be a successful event.

Stacey Fontenot [00:28:43]:

Yeah. And knowing that it's not just always like a lead-gen, is a lead-gen engine, but it's also there's so much more. Again, it's connecting that brand to a community as well.

Felicia Asiedu [00:28:47]:

This has been amazing. This is why we're running a bit long because it is been such a good chat, but I'm going to ask you a question that even I was thinking about myself. If you had one piece of career advice that you could give to your younger self, that budding 20-year-old, what would that piece of advice be?

Stacey Fontenot [00:29:41]:

I would say lean in. It may sound old school, but I look at my career as a bingo card. I did a lot of different kind of marketing. I did pricing. I did research. I did demand gen, product marketing. I remember early on in my career just saying yes to opportunities and I might have not known a lot about pricing before I did it that I learned and it was the best experience. So lean in because you'll find something. Even if you don't like it and if you don't want to do it long, you're going to learn something that will help you later in your career.

Felicia Asiedu [00:30:18]:

Yeah, love that. Rachel, I actually want to know about you. What are you telling your 22-year-old Rachel?

Rachel Andrews [00:30:23]:

I kind of agree with Stacey. I said yes to everything. I was like, "You want me to figure out how to lease a new office space? Great. You want me to build a piñata out of nothing?" I just said yes to so many things. I just did things that had nothing to do with what I was eventually going to do, but it led me to this path. I really like bringing people together and talking about stuff or I really like enacting change or I really like asking the question why. I wouldn't change anything about what I did growing up or coming into this position. I just stayed curious the whole time and I think that's the best way I could describe or give to younger folks. Just stay curious, ask questions.

Stacey Fontenot [00:31:10]:

Felicia, wait, what's yours?

Felicia Asiedu [00:31:12]:

I thought I had bosses that weren't on my side and maybe in some ways they weren't. I would tell my younger self, if my younger self would listen, you don't know everything yet. You don't know what you don't know yet. Though you are good, you are a little rock star in the making, make sure you recognize that you need to really pick something up. Pick up the goodness from whoever you are meeting because maybe they're not presenting well all the time and maybe they're having a bad day because I think I just wasn't as forgiving of that when I was younger. I think I was like, "But it should be like this," or "We should be going here," or "We should be doing that," or "I should be promoted."

I just had a lot of them in me and that was good. I actually think that tenaciousness helped me to get where I am or tenacity I should say, but I think I would tell, and I would still tell this younger generation now, take a beat, take a minute sometimes. Be a little bit forgiving, a little bit more understanding, especially with people that are older than you because when you get older life, be life in man. I think at 25 or however young, you don't know that. So have a bit of grace. That would be it. Yeah.

All right. I think we've exhausted people's earbuds. Hopefully they're okay with us, but where can we find you, Stacey? If people want to get in touch with you and be like, "Oh, I need some good advice. I need 10 minutes." Where can they find you?

Stacey Fontenot [00:32:42]:

LinkedIn.

Felicia Asiedu [00:32:43]:

Are you active?

Stacey Fontenot [00:32:45]:

I am active.

Felicia Asiedu [00:32:46]:

I will encourage the listeners, if you try and get hold of Stacey and she's not immediately with you, it's because she is a boss lady and she's got things to do, but she will try her best to get back to you.

Stacey Fontenot [00:32:56]:

I will.

Felicia Asiedu [00:32:57]:

Well, thank you so much for joining us. It's been amazing to have you.

Stacey Fontenot [00:33:01]:

Oh, thank you so much.

Alyssa Peltier [00:33:02]:

Thanks for hanging out with us on Great Events, a podcast by Cvent. If you've been enjoying our podcast, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

Rachel Andrews [00:33:15]:

And you can help fellow event professionals and marketers just like you discover great events by leaving us a rating on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

Felicia Asiedu [00:33:24]:

Stay connected with us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, updates and some extra doses of inspiration.

Rachel Andrews [00:33:31]:

Got a great story or an event to share? We want to hear from you. Find us on LinkedIn, send us a DM or drop us a note at greatevents@cvent.com.

Felicia Asiedu [00:33:42]:

Big thanks to our amazing listeners, our guest speakers, and the incredible team behind the scenes. Remember, every great event begins with great people.

Alyssa Peltier [00:33:51]:

And that's a wrap. Keep creating, keep innovating, and keep joining us as we redefine how to make events great.