Amanda Rothbard planned a breakfast event in London that started at 8 a.m. on a Monday — and people showed up. (Alexa, play “Just Another Manic Monday” by The Bangles.)
In her community lead role at Gamma, she’s also planned events in Seoul, New York, and São Paolo — but she doesn’t describe herself as an event planner.
Which means most of what she knows, she’s learned the hard way.
Meet the Master
Amanda Rothbard
Community lead, Gamma
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Surprising stat: Amanda over-accepts RSVPs by at least 50% — sometimes it’s as much as 80%.
Lesson 1: The room is the product.
Gamma’s London breakfast event could have ended up with more bagels than people, but Rothbard says they had around 80 attendees. And it was so popular that attendees were asking for another event before they even left that one.
The secret ingredient is pretty simple, actually: people. “We had Diana [Kimball Berlin] from Gamma, Ellen McCormack from Clay, and Nick Taylor from Granola — I couldn’t have thought of a better group of people for a stimulating conversation on AI and go-to-market.”
“You get some amazing panelists in the room,” she says, “and people will come.”
And anybody showing up to a Monday morning breakfast really wants to be there. “The folks that make a point to reach out and say, ‘I really want to be able to attend this workshop’ — generally those are the people who are going to show up and they're going to be really engaged. They want to make the time to actually connect on the product or connect with the team.”
You need the right people attending, but you also need the right people hosting.
Lesson 2: Bring your people.
One of Gamma’s values is “don’t be boring,” Rothbard says. If she’s planning an event that’s “a regular workshop or webinar, we’re always thinking about these moments of delight that we can give people.”
And nothing delights people like realizing the CEO is in the room.
“We have Grant [Lee], our CEO, showing up at these events, talking to people, and listening to their feedback. That’s been a really big part of any event we’re running, whether it’s a huge event or just a workshop.”
The value runs both ways, with the Gamma team getting feedback directly from users. "Sometimes that looks like, 'This has been a bug that's been bothering me for a while.' Or sometimes it looks like, 'I've run my whole business on Gamma.'"
Lesson 3: Don’t overprogram.
“I think of it like a goodie bag,” Rothbard tells me. “You come to the event and you walk away with a workflow that you can use in your role, whether it’s something with Gamma or a company we’re partnering with.”
It’s a lesson Rothbard learned through trial and error — she tells me about a two-hour workshop she did where an hour and a half of it was somebody speaking to the audience. “Some people were engaged and thought it was great,” she explains, “but the majority of the attendees probably would have liked a little more networking time and snacking time.”
Rothbard suggests keeping the content short. “If we’re doing a demo or a workshop, generally people have 30 - 45 minutes of really active engagement.” After that, she says, “bake in time for people to network and chat. If you go over an hour, especially for a workshop, people can lose interest.”
Lingering Questions
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION
With the exponential advancement of AI in the work sphere, what's a human skill you foresee ascending in value?
—Carmen Vicente, Content and social lead, Slate
THIS WEEK'S ANSWER
Rothbard says: I believe the ability to genuinely build relationships with other people will become more valuable. With AI taking over certain tasks I've noticed more of an emphasis on connecting with one another in-person.
NEXT WEEK'S LINGERING QUESTION
Rothbard asks: Where do you think AI helps marketers most today, and where does it still fall flat?
