Accelerate Business Growth with Effective Event Community Building

In today’s tricky economic climate, businesses need to get creative to continue growing. One under-the-radar tactic that can help your organization thrive in our challenging environment is using events to build community — and then leveraging that community to propel your business to the next level.

To help you learn more about the power of event communities and how you can go about building one of your own, we recently hosted a webinar, The Key to Accelerating Growth: Building Community through Events, featuring Alon Alroy, cofounder and CMO of Bizzabo, and Sam Jacobs, founder and CEO of Pavilion. Pavilion is an exclusive private community for go-to-market leaders in B2B tech that hosts a ton of intimate dinners and other gatherings, so Sam couldn’t be a better person to speak with on this topic.

Are you thinking about doubling down on your event strategy in 2025 and beyond? 

Keep reading to learn some of the high-level takeaways Alon and Sam shared about how events can supercharge growth and where you can watch the webinar in full.

Micro events deliver a ‘deep sense of connectedness’

When most people think about hosting an event, they tend to think of big industry conferences and trade shows. But in recent years, more and more event professionals have prioritized micro events — smaller gatherings like dinners and workshops that provide a more intimate, memorable experience — to great effect. 

According to Alon, that’s because organizations became accustomed to hosting their own virtual events during the pandemic and have largely decided to follow suit.

“After you got used to the benefits of it — owning the audience, owning the data, owning the experience, owning the follow-up — they became addicted to it a little bit,” he says. “The investment of bringing 10 to 20 people into a room is not that high if you have a captive audience that is there for a shared experience. So the ROI is definitely there. It’s just a very efficient way to meet your customers where they are without waiting for a big conference.” 

While large-scale events can certainly leave lasting impressions, these more exclusive micro-events can deliver even more chances to make deep, meaningful connections with peers.

“It’s an inimitable sense that you get from being in-person, of human connection and the energy that’s created from a common group, working on a common goal,” Sam explains. “It’s hard to describe, but you know when you feel it, and that’s fundamentally what enables everything else for me.” 

Growing the power of digital communities 10x with in-person events

While there are some strong digital-only communities — think Reddit — the biggest and strongest communities are those that have activated through events, according to Alon.

“It’s not a surprise that some of the leading B2B brands out there that over the years became category leaders like HubSpot … did that on the back of a very strong community that came to life through a large event and throughout a very powerful event program that gave that community a chance to meet in person, and then it’s like 10x’ing the power of community,” Alon says. “I’ve never experienced a strong community that did not have strong in-person elements as part of it.” 

For Sam, there’s an important distinction between a community and an audience.

“Community is what happens when participants talk to each other,” Sam says. “I’ve seen many conference organizers say that they run communities when really it’s just a bunch of people coming to a conference and then dispersing without any shared sense of vision or values. If we all listen to the same podcast, that doesn’t make us a community unless we all get together and start connecting with each other.” 

Salesforce isn’t Salesforce without Dreamforce

Events can be powerful tools for building loyal, profitable communities. Just ask billionaire Marc Benoiff, the founder of Salesforce.

When Benoiff was building Salesforce, he wanted to do more than build software. Benoiff wanted to create a set of values and then catalyze a community through a big event — and so Dreamforce, the company’s annual conference, was born.

“Dreamforce is a critical part of the Salesforce story,” Sam explains.

Currently, Salesforce boasts a $285 billion market cap; in 2024, an estimated 170,000 folks from around the world made it to Dreamforce. 

3 tips for hosting impactful micro events

Sam shared tips on how teams can organize more successful events, building stronger communities because of it.

Chief among them? Providing structure.

“Structure is necessary in all events,” he explains. “We’ve all been to a dinner where there’s no seating assignment; everybody sits down whenever, and everybody just starts talking. You’re not even sure if the event has formally started. The conversation was completely determined by whoever you happened to sit next to. What I would encourage everybody to understand is that if you’re going to run an event, people want structure. They want to know what they are supposed to do.”

As someone who’s hosted numerous dinners, Sam also had lots of advice about what you can do to plan similarly successful events:

• 1. Hire a moderator. And have that moderator lay out ground rules — like no crosstalk. This individual can also ensure no one is dominating the conversation. “This is the single biggest thing you can do to make an event actually fun.”
• 2. Turn down the music. We’ve all been in restaurants that have music blaring out of the speakers, making conversation difficult at best. No loud music and no crosstalk sets the stage for a productive conversation. “There’s one conversation at the table so that the entire table can have a group conversation, and it’s not 15 different people whispering to themselves,” Sam says. “So many times I’ve been at a dinner table where I’ve heard something interesting down at the other end of the table, but I can’t shift my attention.”

• 3. Create space for all voices. Making an event a positive experience for everyone starts with creating an inclusive environment where everyone belongs. To this end, Sam suggests intentionally creating room for everyone to talk at your event — including introverts. “In 100% of the experiences I’ve had, if you just give that person an open introduction and an invitation to speak, they come alive.” 

By following these guidelines, you bring structure to your event, making it easier for attendees to stay focused.

Since you’re reading these words, you’re interested in learning how to uplevel your event strategy to build a stronger community and, ultimately, generate more revenue.

But this post simply serves as the appetizer for the webinar. If you’re hungry for the entree, you’re going to need to watch the entire thing.
Luckily, you can check the webinar out on-demand at your own convenience at any time. When you’re ready to do that, go here.