Rev & Reach Episode 30 Transcript
“In-Person Events in a Virtual World”

Guest: Nicole Lapointe, GatherPointe | Host: Lori Jo Vest, PopSpeed Digital Marketing

Lori Jo Vest  (0:09)

Hello, everybody! Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Rev & Reach, where PopSpeed Digital Marketing pulls back the curtain and shares what we do to help our customers and clients get ROI from their digital marketing efforts. Today we’re going to dig into something that’s not digital, because all-digital-all-the-time might not be your best option. In-person events are still a really good thing, and I pulled some data before we started: 37% of in-person event marketers say in-person delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel, and trade shows specifically deliver about $20.98 for every $1 spent. Crazy, right? And 80% of organizations say they see a lot of ROI from virtual events too — so ROI might be measured differently depending on what you’re doing, but events and in-person connection are still really important in marketing. Today my guest is Nicole Lapointe from GatherPointe, and we’re going to talk about the value of getting together in person instead of doing everything virtual. So, hi Nicole — tell everybody about yourself.

Nicole Lapointe  (1:39)

Hi, thanks for having me. My name is Nicole Lapointe and I own GatherPointe. We’re a corporate event agency, and we help clients plan in-person events — that’s what we do. We like to say we’re an extension of the team, so the client can work on high-level things while we do the dirty work: logistics, speaker relations, sponsor relations. And we do it all with a smile and a white-glove attitude.

Lori Jo Vest  (2:12)

Love that. So, Nicole, in a world of Zoom, livestreams, and DMs, why do people still show up for live events?

Nicole Lapointe  (2:22)

I think COVID really terrified people. Live events aren’t getting budget cuts — budgets might get a little smaller, but nobody has actually cut the budget for live events. There are still plenty of trade shows, conferences, book launches, and everyone still wants to be in person. I think it happened because everyone thought, “Never again am I going to be so isolated from the world, unable to network or do face-to-face business.”

Lori Jo Vest  (3:04)

Yep. I like to say we’re biological beings pretending to be intellectual beings. As biological beings, we’re drawn to connection, and seeing each other in person is such a stronger connection than seeing each other on a computer.

Nicole Lapointe  (3:26)

I agree.

Lori Jo Vest  (3:27)

Huge, absolutely. I was on a call maybe 20 years ago — I’ll never forget it. The guy said, “Think about five people you talked to yesterday. Give me a list.” I was like, sure, whatever. But he made us actually write it, gave us five minutes. His point was: your list would most likely be 100% people you knew *in person* — not people you’d only talked to on the phone, not a vendor who sent you a proposal but you never met, but the person at the front desk, the security guard who said good morning. You remember those people. His point: as a sales rep, you can call people all day, but if you never meet them in person, you don’t make the same depth of connection.

Nicole Lapointe  (4:42)

Yeah.

Lori Jo Vest  (4:43)

And you’ll be a lot easier to forget. So true. It’s crazy. So virtual fatigue has really changed what people expect. What have you experienced since about 2022 on, in events, and how does it differ from the past?

Nicole Lapointe  (5:06)

A lot of times people used to come just to get “educated” — listen to the speaker, hear the next big idea. Now it’s different. You still plan a speaker, some learning content, but you also have to plan the networking, the VIP dinner — the moments where people can connect face to face with nothing else going on, just one-on-one conversations.

Lori Jo Vest  (5:46)

That makes sense — you’re not just going to a conference to pick up trends, you’re going to meet people in your industry. That’s been reprioritized.

Nicole Lapointe  (6:02)

Yeah.

Lori Jo Vest  (6:03)

So if an organization wants to plan an event to make some money or connect more closely with their audience, how do you know what your audience wants? Where do you start?

Nicole Lapointe  (6:20)

You put out feelers — there are always feelers for everything. That’s where we use virtual the most: social posts, hyping things up, quizzes, bringing people together on virtual platforms so we can start to formulate what people really want.

Lori Jo Vest  (6:54)

I’m going to veer off-script here — you have an event coming up for your own business. Tell us about it, and how did you decide what to do?

Nicole Lapointe  (7:08)

It’s a funny story. We’re doing a book retreat for women — we found that women want to get together and do more than just drinks or happy hour, and reading is huge right now across all genres. We picked one book, *Funny Story* by Emily Henry, and we’re calling it Blush Gathering, partnering with Lush Book Bundle. The idea is: “After that last page, the story doesn’t have to end here.” You sign up for the retreat, get the book ahead of time, and we build quirky moments throughout the retreat tied to the book — a wine tasting, etc. There’s no conference, no big learning component — just connectivity around something people love. We’re all passionate readers on our team, so it’s been fun meeting other readers online who are already saying, “Tell us when it is, we’ll be there.” We’ve already grown a community around it.

Lori Jo Vest  (8:37)

I love it. Did you know the Atlantic’s latest cover says “reading is dead”?

Nicole Lapointe  (8:45)

What? No.

Lori Jo Vest  (8:46)

I don’t believe it — I can’t read enough. And I like that this event isn’t necessarily tied to what your business does — it’s more about throwing an event to make a profit and build community.

Nicole Lapointe  (9:09)

Yes, pretty much.

Lori Jo Vest  (9:11)

How did you know it would work?

Nicole Lapointe  (9:14)

Honestly, it was my staff’s idea. I didn’t see the path to making money from it, so I said, “You guys run with it, and we’ll see if it has legs.” I was wrong — happily. It has legs. People kept coming back to us, we grew a huge Instagram following, and I realized my team was right. The proof for me was once we dug in and found an audience that was genuinely interested.

Lori Jo Vest  (9:53)

What’s the biggest mistake planners make when they assume they know their audience?

Nicole Lapointe  (10:00)

Not doing the research. For the book retreat, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. As a planner you think you know, so instead of looking at what the audience has actually said they want, you do what you *think* is beneficial for the industry or audience — I do this too sometimes. I think our industry has shifted, and we need to look at the actual key takeaways audiences and guests want.

Lori Jo Vest  (11:00)

I went to another event last weekend — Saturday morning, which you wouldn’t expect people to want, since that’s errand/relaxation time. But it was a deep conversation everyone loved: “So You Want to Write a Book,” five authors on a panel, and each table had a discussion question like “What’s your story that needs to be told?” or “What’s keeping you from telling your story?” There’s room for that kind of depth in any industry — bringing people together to talk about where the industry, or they personally, are headed. It doesn’t have to be a trade show. Fifteen years ago in sales, client appreciation parties were a DJ, dancing, prizes — not much depth. Now audiences expect deeper conversations. So — if a company wants to plan an event that makes a difference in the community *and* brings in money, how do you balance mission-driven goals with the P&L reality?

Nicole Lapointe  (12:41)

I’m a strong believer that if everyone’s working toward one mission and one goal, the money will come. It’s easy to get bogged down in “what will sponsors buy,” “what will the audience come for,” all the what-ifs. Instead, get a committee together that agrees on the mission and the goal, then figures out who knows whom — who could sponsor this, what funding is out there. Bringing like-minded people together around a shared mission — nine times out of ten, the money comes. It sounds crazy, but when everyone’s passionate about the cause, things line up.

Lori Jo Vest  (14:07)

I agree, and I want to give an example and ask how we could’ve scaled it. One of our clients is a nonprofit that helps grieving children. We did an event at a brewery — the nonprofit runs a summer grief camp, and each kid gets a package of goodies. The event was rock painting: we provided rocks and paint markers, the brewery gave us outdoor picnic-table space, we charged a door price, and sold wooden tokens redeemable for two of their beers — the brewery donated the beer, we kept the token sales. Small ticket price plus the venue’s in-kind support. It only raised about $2,500, but that sends two kids to camp for free. How would you scale something like that?

Nicole Lapointe  (15:41)

There are a lot of ways. I sometimes see nonprofits settle for “let’s make $2,500” — which matters — but if you think bigger, bigger happens. As a nonprofit you have a board full of people with talents, gifts, or corporate connections. Take a board member and do a meet-and-greet — people don’t usually get access to them — and charge a bigger ticket. Find a dinner partner, similar to the brewery but bigger scale, who’ll donate or give an at-cost dinner, and charge more. It’s a mindset — there’s so much we don’t know, and if you think bigger, the sky’s the limit. We forget that and settle for what’s easily achievable.

Lori Jo Vest  (17:04)

I call that “bake sale fundraising” — never gets you the big numbers. On a similar note, I heard of an agency running monthly dinners for 12 people, digging into deep conversations about mortality — not “people die and we’re sad,” but real feelings about it. It had a waiting list, because the conversations were so deep and meaty. The invitees were people with real donation capacity. You mentioned on our prep call why an event should have a mission — sometimes a pie-in-the-sky mission is the way to go. How does a mission change how you market or staff an event, and how do you create one?

Nicole Lapointe  (18:16)

When you have a mission statement and everyone’s running toward the same goal, everything gets easier — easier to sell, easier for people to want to be on board as guests, easier for every moving part (staff, speakers, attendees) to move in the same direction instead of working in silos. The event becomes succinct and more successful because everyone’s speaking the same language. It’s not an easy feat to write a tight, two-sentence mission statement — you can run it through ChatGPT, but really it takes your board or committee working through it so it makes sense across every part of the organization.

Lori Jo Vest  (19:54)

Can you give an example of an event mission statement?

Nicole Lapointe  (19:56)

Something like: “Creating meaningful experiences that inspire connection, spark innovation, and deliver measurable value for every attendee, partner, and stakeholder” — then you fill in the specific content or experience. It shifts slightly by event type: a client appreciation event might be “celebrating our clients to create memorable experiences that show our gratitude.” First you answer: what are we trying to achieve — networking? leadership? client appreciation? Then you boil that down into your talking points.

Lori Jo Vest  (20:58)

So the mission drives things like speaker selection?

Nicole Lapointe  (21:07)

Yes.

Lori Jo Vest  (21:08)

Speaking of speakers — it’s hard to know who to invite. Sometimes local names, sometimes a big draw. You shared some speaker bureau links with us — all these celebrities are in those bureaus now. How do you decide who to invite, or whether to have speakers at all?

Nicole Lapointe  (21:35)

It goes back to the mission statement, and the kind of event you want. If you want a big conference of 300–500 people, a big name is what gets shared and reshared on social — that’s one mission. Sometimes you don’t want that; you want it intimate, capped at 100, focused on content or what’s happening in your industry or community. It really depends on whether the budget is worth the trade-off — sometimes it’s not, because people are saturated with ways to connect. Twenty years ago you could know somebody who knew somebody and get a big name for a donation to their nonprofit. Now it’s “here’s his speaker bureau” — you can’t get around it. You just Google them and go through the bureau.

Lori Jo Vest  (23:39)

I always find the subject matter is so important too — what are we talking about, what will I take away, who’s in the room, who’s the keynote, what are they speaking to relative to your attendees, and making sure people leave with a strong feeling about your organization. What are the benefits of a free event versus a ticketed one, for a small business?

Nicole Lapointe  (24:16)

I’m a strong believer you should always put a value on a ticket, even just $25. If it’s free, people sign up thinking “maybe I’ll go,” don’t show, and don’t cancel — which makes it hard to plan headcount and food. Someone who invests even a small amount will actually show up, and you know they’re committed. And if they still don’t show, at least you have that $25 to put toward the no-show. For a bigger ticketed event — a gala, say — you need to cover costs, so it might be a $300–$500 ticket to make sure the nonprofit profits or you hit ROI on a big conference. But if you were going to do it free, charge $20 instead — you’ll know exactly who’s in the room and who’s actually committed.

Lori Jo Vest  (26:08)

I like it. On galas — I’ve heard both “galas are done” and “galas are back.” Which is it? I was at a black-tie event on the water recently, all outdoor receptions, 90 degrees, plus the air quality from the Canadian wildfire smoke — I could not face putting on a fancy dress in that heat.

Nicole Lapointe  (26:44)

Your air quality number…

Lori Jo Vest  (26:46)

Are galas done, or are galas back?

Nicole Lapointe  (26:48)

Galas now come with a twist. People aren’t into the “dress up” scene anymore, so there are gala-esque events — big-ticket, DJ, experiential elements, maybe on the water — but the invite says “cocktail casual” or “shabby chic” instead of black tie. People aren’t sure what that means exactly (capris and a nice blouse, in practice), but the components of a gala — and the price — are all still there. It’s the $400 sparkly floor-length dress that’s gone.

Lori Jo Vest  (28:07)

One of my favorite events in the last year was a celebrity lip-sync battle — they recruit news anchors, local celebrities, business owners (including a car dealership CEO), football alumni, and it’s a contest, so everyone puts on the biggest show. There’s a silent auction beforehand and a live auction after. This event raised $750,000 — almost double the year before. It surprised me, because you’d think organizations lose touch with their audience when everything’s virtual, but this one is deeply connected, and when you’re connected, your audience shows up and supports you. That’s a lot of what we wanted to cover today — any event marketing moves people overlook that you’d want to mention?

Nicole Lapointe  (29:21)

People think they can just throw an event — buy some food, put together a room, and people will come. They won’t. Your event will be more successful if you align with a professional who knows the industry — doesn’t have to be me, just someone who understands what you’re doing.

Lori Jo Vest  (29:54)

That’s not how it works anymore.

Nicole Lapointe  (29:56)

Right. And people want to know what they’re walking away with — that the money they paid was worth the value.

Lori Jo Vest  (30:13)

Worth showing up for. I’d add that hiring a professional is how you find out what people respond to, the right angle, the right mission, the right creative ideas — the ideas a planner brings that a business owner or fundraiser may never have thought of, and executing them well instead of chasing your tail and never catching up. I think a lot of events fail because the right people weren’t in the room for the planning.

Nicole Lapointe  (31:07)

Yeah.

Lori Jo Vest  (31:07)

So, Nicole — how can people find you and book you?

Nicole Lapointe  (31:17)

I’m on LinkedIn, or you can go to www.gatherpointe.com.

Lori Jo Vest  (31:28)

GatherPointe with an E at the end?

Nicole Lapointe  (31:30)

With an E — a little play on my last name.

Lori Jo Vest  (31:34)

I love that. Thank you so much for being here, Nicole, I really appreciate it. And if you’re watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe — help us spread the word and get this useful marketing information out there. We’ll be back in a couple weeks with another episode. Thanks so much!