118: Events Marketing and Data with Jonathan Kazarian The Business of Meetings

 
Today, we have the great pleasure of speaking with Jon Kazarian, the Founder, and CEO of Accelevents!
In this episode, we talk about data, entrepreneurship, marketing, the role of events in marketing, and opportunities for the future of our industry. 
We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation with Jon Kazarian today!
Bio:
Jonathan Kazarian is the Founder & CEO of Accelevents, a leading virtual and hybrid event management platform recently recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the top 200 fastest-growing private companies in America. 
As CEO, Jon focuses on leading the company’s vision of helping event organizers and marketing professionals transform their events through innovative technology solutions. 
As an industry thought leader, Jon actively publishes insights on the events landscape and frequently speaks at industry events such as EventMB’s Event Tech Innovation Summit, BizBash Live, and INBOUND. 
Jon also chairs the board for the Fall Formal fundraiser benefiting the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Outside of work, Jon has a passion for anything on-water — sailing, boating, scuba diving, and kiteboarding.
Jonathan’s journey
Jonathan started hosting events while in college. After finding out that his seventeen-year-old cousin had been diagnosed with cancer, he decided to host an event at the Boston Aquarium to raise some money to help her. He needed to sell 185 tickets to break even, and he sold 840! Going into that event, Jonathan knew that to raise the most money he could from running an auction and a raffle, he needed to do it digitally. However, he struggled to find an affordable and easy-to-use technical solution. After realizing that there was nothing available to make life easier, he and his team decided to build their own. It worked well! They got great feedback and raised about $65,000.
Launching a business 
They realized that they could offer their technology to other similar organizations, so they decided to launch a business around it. Initially, they focused on fundraising. 
Everything under one roof
Later, they learned that the organizers wanted to have everything, including ticketing and payment processing, in one place. So they began to focus more on for-profit events like festivals, conferences, and trade shows. They kept on growing and doubling, year after year, but they were still small, and Jonathan was still working full-time at another job. 
2020
Approaching 2020, Jonathan intended to go into the business full-time, but, unfortunately, the world shut down. They were a bootstrapped business, so when all the events got canceled, they ran out of money.
Virtual events 
Jonathan’s father invested $75,000 in the business. That allowed them to pivot and focus on virtual events. Things started to accelerate, and they closed out 2020 at 3.3-million dollars in revenue. That was ten times more than they had done in 2019!
Conferences
At that point, they began to focus solely on conferences. Their events ranged from hundreds of people to tens of thousands. 
Value
They ensured that everyone, including the organizers, exhibitors, and sponsors, was getting value. As a result of them focusing on the other stakeholders as part of the experience, those stakeholders naturally approached Jonathan’s company when it was time to host their events.
User experience
The mission of Accelevents is to make life easier for event organizers. Over the past year or so, they doubled down on their main product and focused mainly on the user experience.
The various elements
They provide all the technology needed for an organizer to host an online, hybrid, or in-person experience. They provide everything from badge printing to check-in to lead capture for exhibitors in the in-person world to the entire venue for the virtual experience.
Fundraising
They also have fundraising technology focused on auctions, raffles, fund-to-need, and text-to-give.
A feedback loop
They built a powerf