CHICAGO — Event marketers are looking to attract not only new audiences to events, but the right audiences that will provide the most value to stakeholders and the industry served. One way some events are achieving this is by utilizing the platform Vendelux to identify key target audiences.
Through the company’s platform that contains data from more than 250,000 B2B events, the Vendelux Partner Program provides event organizers with access to a community of marketers that represent billions of dollars in event sponsorship budget, as well as more than 10 million professionals who are event-goers.
After another successful edition of HLTH USA and a strong inaugural edition of HumanX, Trade Show Executive checked in with marketing leaders from these events to find out more about how they’re leveraging Vendelux and data to find the right audience base for their events.
HLTH
For the HLTH events portfolio, the impact of working with Vendelux has been both measurable and strategic. About 6% of HLTH’s attendees were acquired through Vendelux, and what stands out isn’t the sheer number — it’s the quality.
“A foundational element of all HLTH events, whether it’s HLTH USA, HLTH Europe or ViVE, is that we attract a very senior audience. We’re talking almost 60% VP level or above, with a heavy emphasis on the C-suite, key decision makers and senior influencers across the health ecosystem,” said Barry Edelman, Global Head of Marketing at HLTH, Inc. “What we found with the Vendelux-sourced attendees is that they absolutely met that bar. These weren’t casual participants; they were the people our sponsors and partners wanted to meet with.”
Vendelux can also be used to identify potential sponsors, helping organizers to see beyond their usual circle of companies by giving insights into which companies are actively sponsoring across the industry and other events.
“The experience was pretty seamless. Instead of spending hours researching who’s sponsoring where, our team had that information in one place,” Edelman said. “I’d say Vendelux has been a strong tool in broadening our sponsorship pipeline, helping us uncover opportunities we might not have found otherwise, and accelerating those first conversations with new partners.”
While the Vendelux platform provides organizers with potential attendees, exhibitors or sponsors, it is up to the organizers to put that information into action for sales and marketing.
On the sponsorship side of things, the sales team is able to go into conversations with more focus, helping to shorten the sales cycle and have meaningful conversations by understanding and prioritizing the companies that are most likely to see value in sponsoring HLTH or ViVE.
“On the attendee side, it fuels our marketing campaigns,” Edelman said. “We can segment and tailor our outreach so that the messaging really resonates with the individuals we know have a high likelihood of attending. It’s less about blasting out broad invitations and more about meeting people where they are with the right context, the right channels and the right value propositions.”
From a strategic impact perspective, Vendelux helped to validate that the HLTH team was making smarter, more data-driven decisions about where to focus its outreach efforts, and ultimately helped to elevate the overall experience at the event with a strong attendee mix and broad sponsor base.
The platform also helps the team to be more efficient without sacrificing quality by saving time on prospecting and targeting.
“One thing I’d highlight for other organizers is that the real value of Vendelux goes beyond just the data. Yes, you get access to great insights and predictive signals, but what really makes the difference is how it integrates into your overall go-to-market strategy,” Edelman said. “My advice to peers would be: Don’t think of it just as a database enhancement tool. Think of it as a strategic partner that, if you use it well, can sharpen your focus, expand your reach and ultimately raise the level of your events.”
HumanX
The team behind HumanX, an AI-focused event which launched in March in Las Vegas, leveraged Vendelux’s platform for its audience acquisition strategy after being introduced to the platform through connections at HLTH.
As a first-year event, the team at HumanX was focused on building their CRM and making sure it contained the right people to generate a successful inaugural edition.
“We leveraged Vendelux twofold. First, we used it to validate that the right people were in the room at other conferences,” said Kaitlin Mansour, Head of Marketing at HumanX. “Second, we used it to build contacts in our database. That combination gave us a solid ideal customer profile (ICP), and now we partner with Vendelux to consistently pull contacts that align with it.”
Now armed with a robust database of contacts, the HumanX team warms them through email and paid media channels and LinkedIn targeting.
“Search targeting has become our strongest channel, because we want to reach people who are actively seeking conferences and AI solutions,” Mansour said. “Engaging prospects across multiple channels allows us to confirm their interest in attending our AI conference and track their activity through LinkedIn ads and email sequences. This multi-touch approach has had a real impact on our conversion rates.”
Ultimately by leveraging Vendelux, HumanX saw just under 11% of their paid attendees being sourced directly from Vendelux, and 75% of all the event’s attendees were at the VP or higher level.
The team also leaned in on the platform for their sponsorship strategy too. By validating what companies would be ideal sponsors for the new event, the HumanX team was able to approach conversations with custom package options that reflected what they had done at other events and prioritized while on-site at other events.
“Our success ultimately came from having the right people in the room and the energy on-site reflected that,” Mansour added. “Everywhere you turned, attendees were having advanced conversations about the future of AI. That’s why we’re expanding our partnership with Vendelux this year. It’s been a strong, event-driven collaboration from the start, and continues to deliver.”
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