Annette Gregg, CMM, MBA, senior VP of experience for MPI, recently spoke with Colleen M. Connor, CMP (MPI San Diego Chapter), about how Cetera Financial Group managed to combine five smaller annual conferences into one larger event with a personal feel. Here, we learn how various stakeholders felt about the change and what worked/what didn’t.

AG: The financial field can be somewhat traditional, so how were all these changes received? What has been the reaction from your audience, internal stakeholders and team?

CC: It was a sensitive environment because these various conferences folded their identity into one national conference. Knowing this, we created the opportunity for internal key stakeholders to meet up in VIP areas with their former colleagues. For the events team, some of these design choices felt risky. We focused on the bigger vision and mission of creating a more unified company as we continue to grow. The majority of the attendees are happy with the overall experience but we still struggle with the “it’s too big” feeling. We want to continue to make the larger conference seem intimate and personalized for each attendee. 

AG: What didn’t work, and what did you learn from it?

CC: In 2018, attendee feedback showed they felt that it was a bit overwhelming and too big. They felt disconnected from their individual firm. What we learned is that they like to connect in the beginning with their individual community and then come together at the end as a community. For 2019, we created a firm “meet up” before the welcome reception for 45 mins for each individual broker dealer to connect with their old friends/colleagues and then enter the larger community (welcome reception) together and then closed the conference with individual broker dealer sessions.

AG: How do you measure success with Connect?

CC: Our NPS (net promoter score) increased by 14 points from 2018 to 2019—since we’ve only had two of these national conferences, this is a great measure of success for us. 

Level Up Your Experience Design

You can also join our online Experiential Marketers and Designers Community. And if you’re not an MPI member, learn more about joining and the value of belonging to this community.

If you’re ready to take the next step in experience design, enroll in one of our upcoming Event Design Certificate courses today.

Photo by Dean Stevenson.