Trade shows and events are back! But most still miss the point. If you're not walking away with real relationships and revenue potential, you're doing it wrong. Hey there, I'm Kerry Curran—B2B Revenue Growth Executive Advisor, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast. In this episode, Pipeline in Person: How Relationship-First Events Drive Real ROI, we’re diving into how the smartest B2B brands are getting off the expo floor and into curated conversations that actually convert. I'm joined by Jon Whitfield, Chief Operating Officer at MediaPost, who has spent over 20 years perfecting the art of high-impact, face-to-face marketing. Jon isn’t just running another event company—he’s building a reputation for delivering summit experiences that sponsors rebook year after year because they drive pipeline, not just visibility. And here’s the surprising truth: smaller, niche gatherings with the right ratio of buyers to sponsors consistently outperform massive trade shows—if you get the format right. Jon breaks down why most conferences fail to deliver ROI—and how to fix it. We cover: The one customer value metric sponsors should use to justify their spend How curated experiences like golf, axe throwing, and roundtables deepen buyer trust What brand-side marketers actually want from events in a post-remote world And how to build stronger sponsor-attendee matchmaking and content alignment Picture this: instead of awkward badge scans, you're having real conversations over dinner, sharing challenges in closed-door roundtables, and walking away with warm leads who already know, like, and trust you. Stay to the end, where Jon shares his one non-negotiable rule for evaluating event ROI—and how to spot a conference worth investing in before you spend a dollar. If you're investing in events this year, this episode is your edge. Hit follow, drop a rating, and share it with your field marketing or partnerships lead—because pipeline starts before the pitch. Let’s go! Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:02.296): So welcome, Jon. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise. Jon Whitfield (00:07.832): Well, hello, Kerry. Thanks for having me on. My name is Jon Whitfield. I'm the Chief Operating Officer over at MediaPost. I've been there for a long time—I didn’t realize you could be at a place for as long as 22 years. Apparently, there are other places you can work. I didn’t know that. No one ever told me. I just learned that you can get other jobs at other places. Yeah, I’ve been at MediaPost for 22 years. I’ve seen a lot of things change over the years, and yeah, we’re thrilled just to still be kicking and doing our thing. Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:46.176): Excellent. Well, I know you've become the expert at events, and in my own experience with MediaPost, you’ve curated a really valuable experience for both brands, attendees, and sponsors. I want to dive into your expertise and help marketers and sponsors get more out of their conferences—and really think about what that investment looks like. We’re seeing more and more value put into face-to-face relationship-building and brand-building. Conferences offer that, right? Talk about how you've seen the industry evolve and what you're seeing today. Jon Whitfield (01:38.716): Yeah, I mean, it's funny. When I first started out in this business, you had real tentpole events—like the ad:techs and the SESs of the world—that had 300 exhibitors and thousands of attendees. These were real, large gatherings that happened several times a year. If you weren’t at those—whether as an exhibitor or an attendee—you kind of didn’t exist. It was like, “We’ve got to be there.” So in the early 2000s and through the first decade of the new millennium, those large shows were really commonplace and important. We participated not only as exhibitors but also by launching our own conference series called OMMA Global, which had a couple of thousand people, 150 exhibitors, and was a two-day, multi-track content event. It was a big lift. It wasn’t easy to put together or manage. But after five or six years of doing that, we realized it was really difficult to go back to our sponsor pool and guarantee them the ROI they were looking for. Because with large events, you're not really in control of the experience. You're kind of leaving it to chance: maybe someone good stops by a booth, maybe there's a follow-up, maybe someone connects at the cocktail party, maybe someone attends the sponsored presentation. Sometimes you get four people in the room, sometimes 50—you’re just not in control. Over time, we learned that the more control you have over the experience—and the more you're involved in it—the more satisfied everyone will be: sponsors, attendees, everyone. Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:28.800): Right. Jon Whitfield (04:15.984): Exactly. And so, we just evolved. You’ve still got the big tentpole events like CES that serve a purpose. But I don’t know many people in advertising or marketing who come back from CES saying, “I got a ton of business from that.” You want to be seen there, like at Cannes. These large shows are viable, but as a business, we found we couldn’t deliver on the experience we promised. That’s why we transitioned to smaller settings, like our Summit Series. Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:15.244): Yeah, and I’ve been to a number of your events as well as the big shows. I agree—both as a sponsor and as an attendee—with the smaller, more niche, intimate events, relationship-building becomes much more organic. You’re on the bus to dinner, at happy hour, or even horseback riding. There’s so much more opportunity to build meaningful relationships. Jon Whitfield (05:46.884): Yeah, in a smaller setting, you really get to know people. It's almost like dating. They’re testing you out, seeing how you are in different environments, and you’re a direct reflection of the business you're there to represent. When the event ends, they have a pretty good sense of, “Do I want to work with this person?” Or maybe, “That didn’t really work out.” You don’t get that level of intimacy when you're just scanning badges at a big conference. You’re not getting that. So we value time spent in different environments—not just in a conference room, but also on the bus, during a golf round, throwing axes, horseback riding, whatever it is. You really see people’s true selves in those environments, and that translates into better business relationships. At least, that’s what we think. Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:04.492): Yeah, no—and again, I’ve loved it. I often describe your events as almost like destination weddings. By the end of three days, you’re best friends with everyone. You’ve cultivated a really unique culture within your events, where the sponsors all get to know each other, and everyone’s been so willing to have conversations and learn from each other. Jon Whitfield (07:43.888): Absolutely. It’s something we’ve tinkered with for years. It’s never perfect. Things happen—weather, logistics—that can muddy things up. But if you have the basic formula down and you’ve tried it enough times, you can predict, “This is going to be a good one.” We’ve been doing our Email Summit for 19 years, twice a year. We’ve been doing our Performance Marketing Summit (formerly Search & Performance) for 19 years. These are tried-and-true programs. And I always ask our sponsors: What’s a customer worth to you? What do we need to do to deliver not just one, but two, three, four customers? We want to knock it out of the park. If a customer is worth more than their investment, that’s great—I can deliver that. But if the customer value is low and the investment is high, that’s a math problem. So we work backward from that. How do we get each supporter to a place of success? That’s how we approach it. Jon Whitfield (09:11.312): That’s great—because I can deliver that. But if they’re investing a ton and their customer value is very low, then there's a math problem, right? So it’s about figuring out how we get those individuals who support our events to a place of success. That’s how we approach it. We start kind of backward and move forward—and then do our best to deliver on the promise. Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:35.087): Yeah, no, that makes so much sense. And it's smart to think of it that way. Everyone needs ROI on their investments. So when you're talking to sponsors—say a new ad tech, martech, or agency reaches out and wants to sponsor—what are they usually looking for in a conference experience? Jon Whitfield (09:58.756): Well, it kind of depends on what the product is. Some of our sponsors have a more technical platform or need more time to explain their value—they might need a visual or demo. So they might want to sponsor a presentation where they get 10 minutes to show and educate everyone on who they are, what they do, and why they matter in the overall ecosystem. Others don’t need that much time. They’re like, “Here’s what we do, here are a few of our customers, and we’d like to sponsor the brewery tour,” or “Let’s take everyone on a cool boat ride.” It’s more about creating a memorable experience and attaching your name to something we’ve built—where all boats rise. You mentioned competitors—at our events, sponsors often become frenemies. They all understand they’re there for the same reason. So we keep it positive. Let’s all try to win. There’s no reason to make it awkward. So yeah, it really depends on what the sponsor is trying to achieve. We just recommend what we know works, based on years and years of doing these. Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:28.674): Yeah, and I like what you pointed out about branding and associating your brand with the audience. Especially in B2B, that’s such a challenge. So many brands I talk
