How Data and AI Can Help You Choose the Right Conferences - with Melanie Samba

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Daniel Nestle: welcome, or
welcome back to the trending
communicator. I'm your host, Dan
Nestle.

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Don't you just love conferences?
I mean, to me, there's no better
way to learn about like what's
important or what you should be
paying attention to in your
field or industry. And if you're
a communicator or marketer,
conferences can be powerful
platform for reputation and
influence and business

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development or straight up
awareness. And yet, like me,
does just thinking about the
costs drive up your anxiety
straight through the roof,

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because it does for me, well,
you've got to decide

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where to spend your budget, and
where you get the most media
coverage and where you'll exert
the most influence, you know,
and where will your executives
and subject matter experts get
the most out of their time

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and then stand out among their
peers. It's tough to tough
order.

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There's so much to think about.
Got to think about attendees,
wider audiences content,
relevance, the opportunity, cost
of time, networking, value

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ROI. You know, it just crushes
the mind sometimes

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to think about where you're
going to put your money for
conferences. So why do many of
us choose these events based on
things like past experience, or
feelings

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FOMO, vanity, optics, peer
pressure, whatever it is,
there's got to be a better way.
Fortunately,

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my guest today is here to help a
leader in the field of
communications technology, aka
comtec, a member of the Fast
Company, executive board and
Forbes communication Council.
She's at the cutting edge of
applying a data driven AI
powered approach to choosing
conferences, and measuring their

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impact for your organization. A
lifelong communications pro with
a background in comms and
branding and pharma and
healthcare. A few years ago, she
left her career behind to start
her own tech company that
delivers intelligence and ROI
for every conference. She also
happens to be one of my

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classmates, in the PR week,
dashboard 25, class of 2023.
Please welcome to the show, a
truly trending communicator, the
CEO of Sproxxy, Melanie, samba,

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Melanie Samba: thank you so much
there, that was incredible.

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Daniel Nestle: You know, you
deserve it. You've had a heck of
a career. And now sproc. See,
and that's SPR o double x y for
those listeners Sproxxy is live
launched, and killing it, as far
as I've heard, I know, and what
a great platform. But really,
what a great solution to a
problem that I think so many

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have, but don't really realize
it. You know? We'll get into
that I think a little bit a lot
maybe during this during our
program here today. But, you
know, I haven't really done much
in the way of talking about
events and conferences. It's not
something I think that comes up
in in your typical everyday

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conversation when you're talking
comms, you know, you're talking
about you talking about media,
you're talking about, you know,
social media, you're talking
about, you know, coverage and
reputation, things like this.
And events sometimes falls under
marketing, sometimes it falls
under communications. But it is

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such an important channel for us
in our profession. So I wanted
to, you know, to talk to you a
little bit more about, you know,
conferences about why you chose
conferences, you know, why this
is the area of your, of your
purpose and mission for proxy.
And, you know, get into the cool
stuff that you're doing with

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tech and with AI and, and how
it's going to make everybody's
life who's who deals with the
problems I mentioned before, a
lot easier. And, you know,
that's kind of what I want to
draw from our conversation
today. Of course, send people
over to check Sproxxy out. But
first, you know,

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Mel, how did you

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get how did you get to where you
I mean, you start off in comps,
and you took a jump that so many
of us dream of admire or fear,
which is to go out on your own
start a company.

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So tell us the Melanie sama
story. Thank you. So

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Melanie Samba: I started off,
you know, I still am a corporate
comms executive. I've been doing
corporate comms and marketing
for over 20 years. I remember
one of my very first I guess,
opportunities I was graduating
and an author pretty much pulled
me aside he was releasing his
first book. He wanted to be

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positioned as a thought leader.
The focus was like money for
retirement. So he's targeting
the baby boomer generation. And
so I pretty much booked him at
every single conference that
Suze Orman was speaking at. That
was my strategy

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Daniel Nestle: to act in front
of Suze Orman. Yes.

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Melanie Samba: So when I
marketed him I pretty much was
like He spoke with at our next
tool, that was the way that I
marketed Helm. That was 20 years
ago. So I did not really run or
decide conferences was the the
alley I actually wanted to go
to, it was just one of the
additional things that I needed

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to do as a marketing and comms
professional on behalf of every
single organization or leader
that I worked with. It was a
strategy, it was a medium to me
just to get whatever message I
wanted to get out to whatever
targeted audience dive, I put in
my plan, for the end of the
year, it was just at that point

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of time, a medium that I was
using, as well along with media,
along with advertising and
everything else that we do as
comm professionals. So
throughout my career, as a part
of my accom strategy, I used to
have to always put together the
annual plan depending on what I
worked in house, and also an

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agency throughout the years. And
I also worked as a consultant
for individuals. And putting
together that plan, it consisted
of everything that we do as con
professionals, including
conferences, I began having
issues managing conferences,
because I did more than just set
up the speaking opportunity. As

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you know, as the cost
professional, you're also
writing the speeches, or putting
together the key messages, or
setting up the media conference,
or setting up any type of
meeting with whomever that's at
the conference with your leader
or even working on the potential
partnership opportunities. You

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know, like you're doing all
things, and I was using Excel
spreadsheets, you know, so at
first, it was just something
that I had to do with everyone.
And I still believe everyone
knows conferences is something
that you just have to do, like
you just got to win.

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Daniel Nestle: Yeah, you know,
certainly in our profession.
And, again, I use the term love
broadly, because it's it's
comms, it's marketing, more
calm, whatever. Yeah.

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You know, it's always part of
the kind of,

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you'd call it a medium writes,
it's one of the channels that
you're going to choose. It's,
it's, it's there for, like, Oh,
what are we going to do about
conferences. And, you know, I
think a lot of people don't
understand that, when you choose
to do a conference, or
participate in a conference, the

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amount of work that goes behind
that,

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you know, is, is just like it is
for

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any other initiative or project.
But like, compressed into a two
or three day period, you know,
where everybody and their cousin
is in one place. And you have
this kind of remarkable, unique
opportunity to do something. So
the pressure is on to do
something, you know, and and
it's such a, like, it's always

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a, it's always an also ran like
an afterthought for a lot of
companies like, oh, yeah, we got
to do conferences. So, you know,

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why do you think that is the
case that a lot of

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people in our in our world and a
lot of, I guess, you know, the
commercial sides of our
businesses that we work with,
think of conferences as, as this
kind of nice to have that can be
crossed off. If we start to run
short of budgets,

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Melanie Samba: I think from a
corporate cause, point of view,
is the case because as you know,
as a corporate cost leader,
you're always proving the value
of your row, to the commercial
team or the marketing team,
you're always proving why PR is
important, or why communication
strategy is important, is so

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with conferences as well with
Thought Leadership. That is
another it unfortunately,
because as a cost professional,
you always have to prove the
value of comps. It
unfortunately, is just under
that same umbrella, the market a
team and the sales development
team or business development

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team, they get the budget right
away, because they're going into
a conference for ourselves
specifically to for deal flow
that's happening at a conference
they're exhibiting they do get
the budget right away. However,
what what I found is most
organizations and non corporate
communication site they don't

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even know what the budget should
be. They have no idea what the
budget is. The CEO is always
asking why they're going
somewhere but they will put they
will go you know, depending on
who's at the event. And they're
also doing it for other
purposes. They're doing good for
brand awareness for eagle to rub

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elbows with other leaders in the
industry to make sure they are
seen as the thought leader in
the industry are a leader
specifically in their industry.
So they're going there. I think
with conferences, where the
misses every single department,
when you're thinking about a
larger organization, every

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single department is
participating in conference
isn't whether they're aligned or
a spokesperson for the
organization or not, they're
still representing their
company, when they go to an
event and are putting your
corporate, you know, whatever
your brand name is next to their

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name at the event. And what I,
when I was working with one
organization, it was a
pharmaceutical company, and I
had to work directly with our
chief legal officer. This is
really where the idea of spies
that came about is because they
tasked me with trying to be like
the person and pretty much

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approve every single individual
that was going to conferences,
you know, throughout the
organization, approve those DAGs
put together with the protocols
where because we we as
pharmaceutical, so there's
highly regulated, if you say the
wrong thing, you may, you know,
there may be a charge or a fee

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or something that you have to,
to pay. And so I had to beyond
just the leadership team, manage
and try to strategize on who was
representing us at whatever
conference making sure everyone
knew we're all one voice, we all
have to say the same messages,
we cannot say one thing, we
cannot reveal what's about to

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happen next, before the FDA
approves. You know, like,
there's so much that I had to do
with over 400 employees for this
pharmaceutical company, you
know, in the headquarters space,
it was overwhelming is still
doing it with Excel
spreadsheets. Yeah, you know,
that was the point where I felt

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like, there needed to be a
software. And to be honest, I
made a joke about it, I was with
my corporate comms team, I set a
software to handle this. And we
all laughed, and it wasn't like,
I was like, oh, I want to be a
software maker, I want to create
this company. It was just like,
This is too much. Like, there

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has to be a software that can
handle this, you know? And so,
after I said it was like, oh,
you know, what a software can
he'll do with it was like, you
know, the, the light bulb? Yeah,

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Daniel Nestle: you know, it's,
um, you identified what my, my
friend Mark Schaefer would call
a seam, right, like a, an
opening, or kind of a, a leading
edge to something, you know,
that that is going to be very,
you know, important in the
future that leads to the
whitespace. That, that you

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should, like, take be able to
take advantage of if you have
the right strategy and tools.
And, you know, I can, I can tell
you that everything you're
talking about, or especially,
all the drudgery around
conferences, again, people don't
see this and understand it, you
know, now, you brought up an

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important, I think, an important
distinction, which is that, you
know, in pharma in finance, in
highly regulated industries, you
know, it's a little bit of a
different ballgame, when you're
sending people to a conference
because you know, a lot of media
people or a lot of comms people,
you, you have an interview or

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set up or you have a an event or
an activity, have one
spokesperson write one or two,
right. But at a conference,
every attendee is essentially a
spokesperson, everyone, all the
salespeople who typically don't
really know or care about what
we do, you know, they have to
suddenly have these talking

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points. And it takes a little
bit of a internal cultural
mindset shift to make that
happen sometimes, but in not,
like, not every conferences is
equal, right? So when you're
dealing with those highly
regulated industries, there's a
lot a lot more that has to go
into prepping people to go

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versus like a trade show where,
you know, you're, you're out
there doing business
development. But it's, it's
fascinating, because

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you saw that need, you know, and
how,

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how many people actually ever
act on those things? Right. So
you took that jump, so how big
between the time that you had
that aha moment you found that
seam? How long was it before you
just before you're like, you
know what, there's, there's a
there there, I'm gonna go in
that direction.

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Melanie Samba: To be honest,
when I first had the idea, I
obviously I was doing well in my
career. There. There was not a
part of me that said, I want to
be a tech founder, one. That
wasn't really the future that I
had for myself. So originally,
to be honest, I was being
selfish with the guy Did I just

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needed something to prove to the
people that I was working with,
you know why they were going to
conferences, and why I was doing
a good job. So the first version
of sproxil was just for myself,
there was no name. It was just
let me provide the rationale to
my client to my leader on why
I'm selecting a certain

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conference to them. That is all
I needed. And so that was the
very first version as proxy.
However, while developing that
version of SP proxy, again, I
was not even planning on
productizing it the pandemic
ended up happening. Oh, yeah. So
remember that, once the pandemic
happened was interesting is one

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of my main clients laid me off.
They said, well, our leader is
not going to be going to
conferences, you know, because
the pandemic. And I'm like, What
do you mean, there's actually
going to be more events now
because of the pandemic. And the
only reason I knew that is
because back in 2008, this also

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because I've been doing it so
long. Back in 2008, when the
housing crisis happened, the
amount of conferences exploded,
at the same time, as the housing
crisis, like every single
publication started to host
events. You know, remember when
all the publications started
shutting down, and they started

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to switch from print to going
to? Yeah, that is what happened,
they started creating portfolios
or in programs around events.
And so I already knew that when
the pandemic happened, that
there was going to be an
explosion of events. And you

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Daniel Nestle: realize, I mean,
did you realize that, that at
the time that it would be this
whole new virtual angle to
events? Yeah, I

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Melanie Samba: knew that there
was going to be a virtual angle,
there was already remember,
there were already virtual
events happening, but no one
really was taking any virtual
events seriously, until the
pandemic happened. And then it
was like the need to just be in
the community with your peers

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and find out what's going on
because you're no longer in the
office. And also, the amount of
this actually doubled during the
pandemic, there's 1.8 million
industry events being hosted. I
also, you know, because I've
been in this role for a long
time and working with a lot of
different organizations on

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conference strategy, comm
strategy, I already knew what
the landscape was going to look
like, I already knew what
conference organizers they also,
because I've been in this bill,
contact me to find out what the
other conference is doing. You
know, and so I was able to find
out, like, you know, where it

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was originally one large event
that was happening, they would
now have it smaller and have
regional events, you know, so I
ended up finding out the
playbook on how every conference
organizer, big event was going
to manage the pandemic, they
broke up their events to virtual
now they have virtual hybrid in

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person, like, in different
regions, there are so many
different things happening.
Yeah. That did you point? Yeah.

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Daniel Nestle: Did you? Um, it
just, I'm just curious, like,
you,

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you seem to have, okay, for
those listeners out there.
Oftentimes,

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PR pros and communicators are
kind of like, judged a little
bit based on how many contacts
they have among the media. How
many contacts Do you have? Who
do you know if you ever go look
at job descriptions for like
Corp comms people, it's like,
you know, we want somebody who
comes with contacts in xx

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industry, in the media. And
while I have my own argument
with that, I, you know, because
the changing nature of digital
communications and certainly of
the media landscape, I shouldn't
be given as much weight as it
used to. But we can put that
aside. It sounds like you had a
very similar analogous kind of

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network among conference
organizers. Yeah. And I mean, I,
I can count on one hand and one
finger the number of people now
that I know who've done that. So
how long did it take you to
build that? And was it just was
it sheer force of will? Were you
were you reaching out? Were you
just going to conferences.

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Melanie Samba: I think it was
like Yannick Lee based off of my
role of pitching executives to
be on the stage or trying to
figure out what type of program
they were planning for the next
year. As far as my strategy on a
map, you know, manually when I
work with a brand, I will know a
whole year ahead of what the

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full next year is going to look
like for, you know, a conference
organizer like a Forbes or I'll
know every single thing before
they make it even public
knowledge because I was able to
build those relationships, and
even contribute to what the
program or what those events
could look like. Those relations

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just it's just like media is
developing the relationship just
like you in this actually, to be
honest with you is hand to hand
media and conference strategy is
hand in hand, you know, so what
I would do is build those
relationships out just as I
would with a reporter, that was
a part of my job, I'm going to

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meet them at in East Coast's
most of the publications, most
event organizers are based in
the New York or tri state area,
going to meet them for coffee,
just like you would with a
reporter. Introducing your
executive to that conference
organizer, or whoever that's
developed the content well

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before the conference, so that
they can actually take some of
the ideas from your executive
and insert it into their
program. So I did all of that.
Throughout my full career, and
that's led to the relationships
that I've been able to build,
tell

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Daniel Nestle: you, anybody who
thinks that salespeople have the
monopoly on building
relationships, and slowly like
kind of building up persuasion
so that they can achieve a
particular goal in their in
their case to a transaction of
some sort? You know, I think
they're really missing the boat.

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It's, there is so much
relationship building that goes
on, in, in our world here. Yeah,
and I think you've just you've
just laid out a really excellent
use case study of that. And that
must be one of the values. I
think that's that's driving this
proxy for sure. As the founder,
you know, I did, I did want to

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dig into something that you said
actually about, about
conferences themselves. And, you
know, I jump around what I do
need these conversations, I love
this. You know, you talked about
the need to be in a community.
And, you know, there's a lot of
motivations for being for for
participating in or paying for

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or sponsoring or just like kind
of speaking at a conference, but
that need to be part of a
community. I'm, I'm almost
ashamed. I didn't include that
in my upfront, you know,
introduction, because because it
is it is true, that is
extremely, extremely important.
And, and it is personally, when

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I make personal decisions about
going to specific conferences.
That might be the very first
thing that I think about, you
know, I go to a conference every
year or well, not every year.
But the last couple years, I've
been going to this very unique.
And it's kind of like an
unconference in some ways. It's

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only only 30 People go. But the
reason I go is not only to
learn, and understand what the
future of marketing and
communications is about, because
I think the room of people
there, they have incredible
insight. It's really because
that group of people of the 30,
maybe seven or eight are always

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repeaters. And it's

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just, it's just a great
community. Yes.

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So, you know, I think that can't
be underestimated. So do you
think, you know, there are other
like, well, not do you think,
what do you think are the other
real motivators for, for
choosing a conference or for,
you know, for participated for
participating in conferences,
and why are they so important?

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Melanie Samba: Well, I do want
to touch on the community part a
bit more, especially because of
the pandemic. And you know, I, I
am like the number one person to
say, I'm so tired of talking
about the epidemic. With, say,
post pandemic, if we're actually
there, I'm not sure if that's
the case. However, conferences

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are now the meeting spot, I
literally met my head of
corporate comms at a conference
in Portugal, I met her for the
first time. And we live maybe 30
minutes tops away from each
other. That's amazing. Yes. So
conferences, at this point of
time, coming out of the pandemic
is where you're meeting your

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peers. That's where you're
meeting everyone in your
industry that's, that knows,
like, what is going to happen
within the industry. That's
where you're meeting like, I
guess the thought leaders or
people that's pushing the
industry forward. If you're just
going for inspiration alone, you

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know, there are certain
conferences that you will select
to go to, then you will be
selecting conferences as a
corporate comms person on behalf
of your executives, based off of
the yacht So I guess still the
audience, the number one thing
that we need to reach is a
specific demographic or a

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specific audience base based off
of the corporate goals of the
brands that were working with.
And so that's dependent on like,
what they have planned for the
year, if they're releasing a
product in a certain market, or
they're just trying to target a
specific audience, the best
place to go is to conference to

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meet face to face with that.
Leader, or a customer or
potential partner, if we're me,
you know, I am very media, you
know, I really do focus on
media, the best place for me to
go to meet media is actually at
a conference, you know, they're
actually a little a little more
open and nicer, want to speak to

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me. When I'm at the conference,
they're looking for topics and
content, you know, they're there
for two or three days. So
they've blocked up this time to
speak with people at the
conference that they think have
a unique story. So that's the
best time to meet though.

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Daniel Nestle: Do you find that
do you find that is like just on
that media point for a second?
Do you find that,

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you know, well, we

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all know, trusted media has
plummeted. It's probably at the
worst point it's ever been in,
in my memory for sure. And,

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you know, as a result,

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it's one of the causative
factors for the decline in media
readership and in media
interaction. So you know, the
media businesses are closing
more and more. And there's fewer
reporters, there's fewer
journalists. Is that affecting
the conference circuit? Like, is
there? Are there fewer

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journalists at the conferences?
So it's harder to reach them? Or
how does that how How's that
looking?

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Melanie Samba: No, journalists
are definitely going to
conferences. That is they're
going there. They want to know
what's going on in certain
industries. Use using the
Portugal event that we went to
it was actually Web Summit,
there were over 2000 journalists
there, you know, so from all

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over the world, that is
basically like the place to go
to if you want to have 10 into
literally a strategy that I used
to do. Before launching Sprog
See, I worked with a CEO, and we
would go to a conference and set
up a room, contact every single
journalist there and do a round
table like discussion. So we

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could get like 20 different
articles post conference, like
those are the types of
strategies that I used to do
when I went to an event that is
where they are.

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Daniel Nestle: You know, we we,
many of us work in,

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let me just say less sexy
industries that that are that
are harder to to attract
attention. You know, and you
have internal stakeholders who
are you know, all about product
announcements and product
development, and no, maybe
tradeshow be great for that. But
to get the attention of

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journalists on a good day is
hard to get the attention of
journalists in a field in a at a
conference is certainly I think,
you know, of course more
focused. But even within that
conference, you're competing
with, you know, larger
companies, or more famous CEOs
or, you know, people who are the

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speakers on the on the, on the
stage versus, you know, just
being an attendee

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it's still a heavy lift. Right?

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Melanie Samba: I was, I would
say, look at the conference as a
campaign, just like you said, at
the top of this call, it is
really more of a campaign. So it
doesn't really matter to the
industry, how niche it is, if
you target a specific cop
conference, based off of the
audience that is there based off

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of what your corporate goals are
first, you know, get your
executive a speaking opportunity
there. At the same time, get the
full list of all media that's
going to be present. So to set
up the interview, as soon as he
gets off the stage. At the same
time, find out what competitors
or potential partners are in the

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room. So you can just literally
you're leveraging that
opportunity to do so much. And
so by the time you come back
from the conference, there is a
return. It's beyond just the
marketing person and the
salesperson best selling
product. It really is. I really
believe and it's probably

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because I'm biased. I am a
corporate comms person first.
Yeah, we are the ones that push
the brand. We position our
brand. Our CEO is trusted now
because He's on the stage by his
peers or whatever his messaging
is. We are pushing potential
partnerships, we are securing
media. We are even indirectly

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impacting sales there. You know,
conferences, it does materialize
into actual sales. And so when
you look at it from that point
of view from a marketing comms
professional point of view on a
brand level, there is a high
return back to your organization
based off of your conference
strategy. I

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Daniel Nestle: am I can't, I
couldn't agree more and in my
current role, but also in
previous lives, I suppose, you
know, I've seen, I've seen us do
it right. I've seen us do it
wrong. I've seen everything in
between. And, you know, there
are some conferences that are
just astoundingly good. Right,

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that you just go to and you
know, you know,

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but I would, I would imagine
that there are

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hundreds, if not more, you know,
maybe 1000s of smaller
conferences out there, that
could have as great an impact,
right on your organization. And
especially if you look at from a
cost benefit point of view,
right. I mean, we used to go and
when I was at, at at Mitsubishi
Heavy years ago, we used to go

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to ceraweek. And in Houston
every year, World's Biggest
Energy Conference.

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Very expensive. And

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first year, we just sent a small
delegation, but it was so but
every year the delegation grows
and grew. And you know, the
value of those conferences, just
you build a relationship with
the organizers. And eventually
now you're keynoting. And now
you're having people in the
sessions. And eventually, of

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course, you know, you have a
whole media strategy that goes
along with it. So massive
conference, big name, it was
totally, you know, visibly worth
it from, from the CEOs
perspective. And from the
business sides perspective, I
think that they have a little
bit more difficulty seeing that

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same value at smaller scale, or
less famous conferences, and
events. And look, I mean,
that's, I think, where we have
to go now with talking about,
you know, the state of
conferences and with with NS
proxy,

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you know, what,

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you've, you've also position
yourself or you've been, you are
not positioned yourself, you are
a legitimate thought leader in
this space. I mean, anybody's
been listening for the last 10
to 25 minutes or half hour. Now,
like, has learned more about
conferences in one setting, than
probably they have their entire

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career. And thank you very much
for that. Now.

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You're clearly a thought leader
in this space. Your state

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of conferences report just came
out? Can you talk us through
that a little bit and tell us a
little bit about what the state
of conferences is? And why, you
know, first of all, why people
should read this, but also, you
know, why people should be
considering a broader

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conference strategy.

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Melanie Samba: Yes. So last
year, we launched the state of
conferences report for the first
time. So this year is our second
year. The goal of the report is
to look at conferences from a
brand's point of view from the
point of view of someone that's
working in Markham, in house or
through an agency. So from, you

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know, basically, again, self
serving, you know, from our
point of view, and their real
goal is to find out what our
peers are currently doing. When
it comes to conferences, what do
they see as value right now,
when it comes to determining the
success of conferences? And do
they see no, do they see

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materializing for their brand?
Do they see an increase of
sending spokespeople? There's
all those type of questions we
ask. But it's really peer to
peer insights, if you want to
just get bottom line, peer to
peer insights on conferences. So
from a branding or marketing or
communications point of view

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from so it's not the normal
report that you will get on like
the audience specifically, it's
like what are your peers doing
in the space? Right? What we
found in the report is one of
the things that actually had me
focus in on Sproxton you're
really build it beyond for my
own me only my use case is I was

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asked to join an accelerator
where I pretty much figured out
whether or not I want to move
forward or if this was a real
business. That was my decision
by the end of the accelerator
during that pandemic. And during
that time, one of the tasks was
doing customer development. So
talking to a lot of corporate

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comm executives, obviously
already had A lot of
relationships because I've been
in corporate comms for a long
time. And then also with
conference organizers, if
finding out from them, like,
what are their issues, their
pain points? Like, how are they
currently managing conferences,

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and I ended up finding out that
everyone has the same exact
issue, everyone is complaining
across our full form industry,
using Excel spreadsheets, or
what I like to say is
MacGyvering different solutions

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Daniel Nestle: MacGyvering
solutions to I'm gonna, I'm
taking that Mel, thank you. Or,

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Melanie Samba: I mean, even less
just straight using email to
manage conference, it's always
lost in email, you know, no one
knows what the actual return is.
They know they're spending a lot
of money in the space. No one
knows how much they even need
to, you know, have budgeted,
they don't know what audience to

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reach. Like, there's a lot of
unknowns. And I've always been
the person like, which you hear
this term all the time, which
you cannot measure, you cannot
manage, you know, you hear the
term all the time. You can you
can measure everything else from
as to marketing, but for some
reason, even media, but for some

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reason, with conferences, there
was no real source of
measurement. So for me staying
at conferences was first to find
out what my peers what their
focus, you know, what are they
focused in on for the next year.
And

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Daniel Nestle: before you go
further, I just want to, for our
listeners, I want to draw a line
here between conferences and
trade shows, because, you know,
trade shows you have a booth,
you know, you people come up to
the booth, you scan QR codes
now. And so it goes and says,
you can measure the number of

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leads, and you follow, it's much
more attributable you could do,
you could do attribution to
sales very, very easily.
Conferences are different, what
we're talking about here is a
little different, or
considerably different. Talking
about, you know, platforms
thought leadership. Yeah. Those

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kinds of things, branding, so
pardon me, they pardon me for
interrupting, please, please
continue? No, completely.

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Melanie Samba: Okay. So we are
talking industry events that
you're using for brand
awareness, for positioning your
thought leader, for building
your brand, basically, seeing
what your peers are doing, and
really building your brand
externally to all your key
audiences. And so with data

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conferences, some of the
questions we focused in on was,
what are you doing this upcoming
year? Are you sending more
spokespeople? Do you do you see
this impacting your bottom line
are what are your pain points?
How are you measuring success,
we gave 18 different metrics,
measuring success at

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conferences, and two years in a
row audience reach was number
one, in regards to measuring
success at conferences. So
everyone basically is saying
that the very first thing that
they need to look at is the
audience and whether or not
we're speaking directly to the
audiences that we already have

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as part of our corporate
communications or marketing
strategy. And they need all
details about that audience.
That is what I'm getting back
from that report. People are
also looking at website traffic.
media mentions social media
engagement from a corporate
comms point of view. However,

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some of the differences that
I've noticed, is an in house
team, what they see as valuable
is different than an agency. We
didn't see that over 90% of
agencies touch conference
strategy, in their day to day
work over 90% of PR agencies
that is a part of their so W or
their scope. However, when they

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look at success, or what they
see as valuable or more vanity
metrics, so it is the social
media impressions, whether or
not your thought leaders
messages are resonating with the
audience's media. However, with
the in house team, they're
looking at strategic
partnerships that happen from

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the conference, any sales that
happen from the conference, all
audiences basically audience
reaches number one. So just
getting to the right audience is
the number one metric that every
single doesn't matter who you
are, every single corporate comm
or marketing executive is
looking for. So it was a very

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interesting report, that you can
get some insights on your peers
and see what they're doing when
it comes to conferences your
year to year.

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Daniel Nestle: You know, one of
the cool takeaways from the
report is the impact on of
speaking engagements, you know,
like specifically because you I
know as somebody who deals with
the executive team all the time,

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you know, very fortunate. And
sometimes you feel like, you

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know, the heavens have have
opened up and rays of sunlight
are shining upon your head when
you have an executive who's
like, yeah, sure, I'll go speak.
That sounds great. It's not a
not a phrase, We hear it all
that often. You know, it's
often, you know, seen as an
important thing for them to do,

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and they understand this, but
it's work right, but I love it
when they're very enthusiastic.
But that's not always the case.
So to prepare for that speaking
engagement, you know, and, you
know, what, what is the business
impact that the report

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uncovered?

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Melanie Samba: So to prepare for
the speaking engagement, as far
as business impact, we do see
that people, it wasn't what I
will know, I feel like the
numbers has changed year to
year. And so year one, it did
seem that over 60% of the
respondents saw a speaking
engagement materialize, it is

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increasing, it depends on the
agency or in house team, the
amount of speaking engagements
and whether or not they see
speaking engagements
materializing on behalf of the
business. As far as speaking
engagement, everyone's
increasing the amount of
speaking engagements, every

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executive or they know the value
of speaking engagements, we did
get that intel from the report.
Most agencies are focused in on
getting speaking engagements for
the executives, the biggest
issue is, you know, how, what is
the rationale, like you just
said, Why are you going to this
conference? What is the return?

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Also doing with proxy, I just,
you know, you can do a lot of
peer to peer analysis and proxy,
find out what your competitors
are doing. If you're working
with the CEO, and there is, what
is the competitors CEO doing on
the conference circuit, you can
find that out through SP proxy.
So you can find out all details

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about a conference from on a
brand level, let me be specific,
what companies are participating
at what level they're
participating? Are they
exhibiting are they speaking,
are they just attending on a
brand level, and you can
literally pull a report on on a
specific brand and find out

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their activity, you can also
find out what their topic focus
is at conferences through some
proxy. And the reason we provide
those insights is to is to share
with our users how to refine
their strategy. So right now
manually, or if you're using
different software's to try to
do social listening, and then

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different software, you know,
you or you probably, I'm sure,
you're still just trying to
figure it out manually by just
googling what everyone is doing
in the build. What are your
peers or your CEOs peers doing?
Through the software, you can
literally pull a report and
share that with your executives.

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So you will have a data informed
report or data informed answer
back to why you're sending an
executive to speak at a
conference. Outside of the
vanity park like this is just
the top conference in the build,
you have actual metrics that you
can share. So that is some of
the intel we did get from the

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state of conferences. We use to
be honest with you the state of
conferences, we use that report
to really refine our product. So
the first version of our product
based off of the respondents
telling us the five different
ways in which to measure
success, that is undermine
analytics. That's how we're

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measuring success and ROI at
conferences is from those five
metrics to start. We're
literally delivering exactly
what the marketing costs
professionals are telling us
you're missing out on.

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Daniel Nestle: Wow. There is

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a big voice of customer survey,
I mean, essentially and that's a
I mean, people should take note
that, you know, when we as
communicators, marketers do
research. It's not just to have
some numbers on a page or just
to convince somebody of
something. There are 1000
different ways you can you can

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interpret or find insights from
research and sometimes it's it
can be self serving to just
figure out how to improve your
business and That's maybe the
best kind of intel that we can
get. You started talking about
proxy, you know, insight in, in
the context of, of the report,
but also some of the great

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things that that the platform
does and that you've developed.

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Can you go back a little bit?
Because, you know, look,
everybody, I

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think a lot of my listeners
know, comtec, communications,
technology, big areas of focus
for me, and for a lot of folks
who who come on the show. And,
again, I'll just give a very
high level definition for those
who, who may be hearing that
term for the first time contact.
But if you just think about how

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communications is enabling
communicators, to do their job
better, and measure the results
in a more, in a way that matters
to the business, that's probably
the easiest way to think about
it. Or if you're a marketer,
just think about your martech
stack, and just kind of just
kind of poured it over to the

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top of the funnel, you know,
awareness and kind of PR type
stuff. similar, very similar
type of, of a of a setup.

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But you know, it's like, it's,

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it's employing technology to do
a job better now. We're both
dashboard 25 People were
supposed to be movers and
shakers in the context space.
I'm uneasy with that title. But
But you, I think, I would gladly
bestow it upon you many, many
times over

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the journey from,

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you know, from court comes into
contact to proxy. I'm assuming
that you didn't just say, okay,
you know, what, I think we need
software, and then you were an
up to that point, you

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are non technical.

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Right, there has to be something
about your background and the
way that you worked with
technology, and saw, you know,
contact in your work. So what's
the kind of flow that went from,
you know, employing contact or
innovating in contact, in some
ways, I suppose, to into
Sproxton? And then how does how

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does proxy fit into the context
stack?

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Yeah, so big question. I'm

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Melanie Samba: sorry, it's a big
question, but I love it. So with
coms tag, I guess, just to even
backtrack a little bit more, you
know, trying to sell CommSec to
investors has been like, what is
cops tech? Like, what are you
saying to me? Like, what are you
talking about is this even cops
tech. So I do want to share that

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a little bit that this is such a
new space. You know, as far as
developing solutions,
specifically for marketing and
communication professionals, and
looking at it as a comms tech
solution. This is a new space
for everyone and beyond, even
within our field, so it wasn't
sexy, you know, to choose like,

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I wanted to create this type of
cost tech solution, or I even
want to enter into martec
contact is a subset of Mark
tech. So enter into martec
trying to sell this comms tech
idea. It wasn't actually
probably the best idea. But I've
heard when you know, speaking to
investors, however, because

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00:48:24,450 --> 00:48:47,550
again, my experience in the
field when I saw comms tech
solutions, they are focused on
media. And they focused on
social listening or social media
or traditional social, you know,
there was nothing that I that
answered the question on other
parts of the comms or corporate
comms workflow, like thought

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00:48:47,550 --> 00:49:09,960
leadership, I didn't see it. And
I literally, you know, but when
I am a corporate comms person
first before a tech person I,
you know, again, investors tell
me not to say this, but I'm
like, I'm just an executive that
needed something. I'm an
industry executive, I don't
really even see myself as a tech

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person. I'm an industry
executive. I don't believe there
is a company that is not going
to be tech focused. That is
where we are. Every single
company is going to have tech
stack, they're going to have
some type of tech comp
technology they're building
within their company, you know,

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so it's probably too early for
me to say that to investors
again, but that is my belief is
that's not using technology.
Well,

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Daniel Nestle: first of all, you
know, I couldn't agree more, but
it's, it's not a new statement.
Right? We in comms have been
saying that. Well, let's say a
certain number of us, according
to Dr. Week, 25 of us maybe each
year, but now, a very broad
number. A very broad number of
people have been have been very

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involved in the contact area and
you know, Oh, for me, I mean,
contact or comms tech, you know,
it's funny.

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I love the difference there.
Because I think it was, you
know,

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we start calling it comtec Page
society's calling it comtec. And
then Edelman comes around and
starts calling a comms tech. And
now like, you have to do two
hashtags. You know, that's,
that's the world we're in now.
But either way, you know,
vanilla, vanilla, it's still the
same thing. And you know, we've

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been talking about it for years,
and perhaps living in a little
bit of a bubble, because we
think everybody's talking about
it, because we do but You're
100%, right. I'm always amazed
when we do an event, or when we
talk about, you know, contact
contact. And you have all these
people CCOs, right. CMC OHS,

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people who are really advanced
leaders in the profession, we're
going, I need to get a handle on
content, I need to get a handle
on this still.

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So your, you know, 10,000%,

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I think, right? When you say
that all companies are, are
going to

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have this digital, you know,

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communications and marketing
kind of integration, if they
haven't already, I think it's
already too late, maybe for some
of them. But I mean, for
certainly for enterprise
companies, but I think it's a
really important point to make.
So

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the other thing is that I think

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many of us in this space, have
the same Corp comps, or
marketers

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first, and we discovered the
technology that just makes our
jobs better, easier,

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or helps us advance, you know,
there's little selfishness
there. Yeah. But ultimately, it
serves the customer and the
client better. And, you know,
that's the future. So you want
to equip yourself with the tools
to continue to be relevant,
right? Yes. And I love the fact
that you've seen that, you know,

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okay, contact addresses media.
But what about those other
channels that are so critically
important, and I think that
media is becoming less important
over time, in terms of like, you
know, the amount of time that we
devote to it, it's still very
important channel to get me
wrong, but we devote so much

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time to media and for a
decreasing rate of return. So
what about those other channels?

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Right and and having the
technology to back

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it and measure it? Yes. You
know, is so critically important
that you were saying about, you
know, how you were your comms
parts comms person first, then
you saw about saw the technique,
the way technology fit in. And
then you're leading me to Sprog
saying, I apologize for
interrupting No,

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Melanie Samba: it's okay. You do
not have to apologize. So I just
felt like there wasn't a huge
opportunity, I looked and saw
the growth in PR and comms, I
again worked in corporate cops
in house and agency, I know
about the 80 hour work week or
more, you know, like, there is a
lot that the PR corporate comms

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person does day to day. And,
again, on a selfish level I
first proxy was just to prove
that I was doing a good job for
my clients. You know, I wanted
to prove that I was doing a good
job, and that I wasn't just
trying to send someone
somewhere. And that there was
rationale. And there was data to

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back up why I was saying what I
was saying, you know, and so
that was the it also needed to
cut the time that I was devoting
and to manually doing the
process, you know. So that was
the original concept of why I
was building SP proxy. It was
really just to prove, have a
data informed approach on why

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we're selecting conferences,
what's the return on it? How am
I moving the needle as a
marketing or communications
executive on behalf of this
brand? When there's more events
to choose from, the budgets are
being cut. Now there's AI, how
do we use data and AI to get
more insights that otherwise we

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00:54:30,900 --> 00:54:53,550
may not have been able to get?
Because we have the 80 hour work
week juggling everything. You
know, like sure it's just to
accelerate whatever your head of
corporate comms or your comms
team is currently doing. That
was really the only goal as
proxy is to accelerate into have
a data informed approach and to

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show the real value of our work.
And that was the rationale that
is why I became a tech founder?
Yeah, that is really the reason.
I,

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Daniel Nestle: I'm glad you went
through all that and said that
and you kind of lead directly
into what is probably going to
be my ultimately, you know, last
or second to last question for
you, which is, which is about
AI, because you had you had
said, the advent of AI, you
know, I didn't put two and two

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together necessarily thinking
about proxy, but you'd started
thinking about in developing it,
you know, during the pandemic,
chat GPT, launched in November
of 2022. So you weren't
initially developing it with
generative AI in mind, right? I
mean, maybe there was some some
elements of AI you're you're

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00:55:44,340 --> 00:56:02,280
employing. So what do you see as
an AI? No, now, because, you
know, we've been talking about
this kind of stuff. But I know
that, of course, AI is
integrated into your platform,
and in several ways. So how are
you looking at AI, both first
proxy, but also as, as it
affects our profession.

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Melanie Samba: So

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there's actually something that
I share with with people is now
when you go to a conference, and
you could be sitting in an
audience watching a speech, and
there is AI, that is watching
the audience to see if the
messages from the spokesperson
on the stage is resonating. So
they're the people in August to

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see, if you're responding back
to what the person is saying on
a stage. That is where we are
currently, like that is actually
something that you should be
finding out from the conference
organizer, as the comms person
to see your messages are
resonating with the audiences.
So the train has left the

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00:56:46,500 --> 00:57:09,900
building, or whatever that
phrase is, it's like AI is here.
Now. Of course, no, I'm for
sproc, see, before chat, GPT.
And everything. I already was
looking at other PR solutions.
And I know that you know, from
my past working on media
solutions, you could get
predictive analysis on what's

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00:57:09,900 --> 00:57:31,500
going on in an industry well in
advance and literally tell your
client or your your boss, like
what you expect this going to
happen in an industry based off
of a media software that you're
doing. So for me, I felt you can
do that with conferences, why
can't you do that with
conferences, you could probably

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00:57:31,530 --> 00:57:52,950
find out so much about
conferences, in the state of
conferences. And in the future,
what your industry is doing,
just by gathering the data, and
finding out behavior, you know,
based off of what people are
saying, based off of the type of
programs that's being pushed
out. And also based off of users

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on the platform, what they're
doing, you can start to build
Intel and insights off of like,
well in advance, tell people
what's going on in your
industry, just by gathering and
analyzing data. You know, so
when I think of proxy, I don't
think of it as a solution
justifying the conference, you

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00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:39,360
know, or a solution to just
pitch your executives to be
honest speaker, you know, on the
stage, I look at it as a
solution that gathers data,
analyzes data, and provides you
insights. And as we gather more
and more and more data, the AI
would provide more insights that
will help refine your strategy,

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00:58:39,810 --> 00:58:58,800
you know, as far as what you
should be doing as a marketing
or comms professional, or what's
even happening in your industry.
So a prime example of this is
last year, I went to South by
Southwest. So one of the main
questions I always ask is like,
you know, can you tell me the
demographics of the audience?

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And how has it changed? You
know, so I went in like, Okay,
what's the difference between
pre pandemic and lash in this
year? How has the audience
changed? Where's the audience
coming from what countries are
coming to this conference this
year? And I found out that last
year, where before it was like,

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00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:41,610
Japan, you know, those type of
countries last year, it was
like, Brazil, you know, so it
was like more BRIC nations that
started going to South by
Southwest. So what does it tell
you? As far as brands go, and as
far as the industry goes, you
know, like, that is a huge
insight based on our audience

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00:59:41,610 --> 00:59:58,290
and the change of ideas and
where people are coming, what
countries people are coming
from, to go to a conference, a
huge industry insight for a
potential user, or for someone
that knows how to ask the
question, if you're still going
to do it manually. You're not
sure.

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Daniel Nestle: I mean, it

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Melanie Samba: was As proxy,

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01:00:00,930 --> 01:00:18,240
Daniel Nestle: it's almost like
an economic, if you look at
South by it's so massive, that
could be an economic indicator
all by itself. You know, I keep
thinking, as you're talking
about saproxylic, and thinking
about, Okay, can we predict next
year's topics for these big
conferences, you know, well in

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01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:31,890
advance so that we can start to
tailor our thought leadership
platform to kind of be parallel
to that, so that when we go to
the conference, we're more
likely to get a speaker spot.
And also, when we go to the
conference, we're a lot more
likely to have relevant content
to produce and so on, and so on

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01:00:31,890 --> 01:00:37,590
and so on. I mean, you know, the
hamsters running hard in my
head, I will tell you, or, or I,

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01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:58,440
Melanie Samba: can you influence
the conference based on with you
now, knowing how the industry is
evolving it, you're now the
resource to tell the industry,
how it should evolve. We so we,
we have a very, like we say,
accelerate innovation on a
couple of our materials, and is
very generic, and everyone is

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01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:18,030
like that, you know, it's so
broad, but I have always
believed and this is probably
like the geeky part of me. But
my core belief is a single
thought leader can completely
change the trajectory of a full
industry, based off of knowing
what conference what audience to
speak to, and how to influence

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01:01:18,030 --> 01:01:35,430
that audience. And it sounds a
little like key he is, but at
the same time, it is our job as
communicators, you know. So with
that approach, like how can you
influence the industry just off
of the Intel and the data that
you receive? Or I'm the it's,

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01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:36,720
Daniel Nestle: it's like,

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01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:56,070
I don't know, if you're a
history buff, or, you know, I
studied history. Part of my
university long, long time ago
was was history. And there's the
there's something called the
great man theory of history. And
I, we have to rename that the
great person theory of history,
but it's similar that one person

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01:01:56,070 --> 01:02:16,140
can exert ridiculous amounts of
influences influence, if they're
at the fulcrum at the right
time, right, if they put their
finger on the scale at the right
moment, and I guess conferences
is your opportunity as a
communicator, but also for your
executives for your brand. To do
that very same thing. I think

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01:02:16,140 --> 01:02:33,180
that's a killer insight. The
last thing I want to ask you and
and then we'll then we'll just
kind of take it home. And I
think you've answered some of
this, but, you know, just just
in general. I mean, what's
keeping you up at night? What's
the future looking like? For
you? First proxy, free, free,

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01:02:33,210 --> 01:02:34,260
free thinking answer?

245
01:02:34,620 --> 01:02:35,100
Go for it.

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01:02:35,880 --> 01:03:00,840
Melanie Samba: What's keeping me
up at night is I am a woman
founder. I did start this off
this journey off. I mean, I
think my son was like three
months when I decided I wanted
to do this, which is a little
crazy. You know, when I think
about it today, what keeps me up
at night, you know, is sprogs, I

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01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:20,220
am also on this proxy tray. What
I saw the vision of spicy that I
had initially wasn't like, oh,
you know, I'm creating this for
the masses. I was like, Okay, I
need this to serve my clients to
serve, you know, this, what I
will be able to increase my
revenue, you know, just by being
able to provide that was the

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01:03:20,310 --> 01:03:41,760
driving force. And then I'm
like, okay, we can productize
this, let's, you know, my, our
head of corporate comms know
this. I'm like, let's make us an
Instagram team. Small and
mighty, you know, now I was
like, Okay, this is gonna be
much larger than I expected.
Yeah, no. And we're getting

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01:03:41,940 --> 01:04:02,910
interest from global
organizations that want to use
proxy globally already. Even
before we launched a product. We
just announced the, the launch
of the product of February. So
what's keeping me up at night?
It's me also like being a part
of this train. It's exciting. I
remember, you know, ahead of

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01:04:02,910 --> 01:04:24,990
Spock, see, I'm like 20 years is
doing the same thing. Why am I
still doing this over it all,
like the safety, so it is
exciting. And I call myself
scary, fearless. Because I am
actually an introvert. I mean, I
saw like one right now, I just
know my profession as a
corporate comms person. And I'm

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01:04:24,990 --> 01:04:51,330
also fearless. I'm the prime
example of scary fearless if
there was a pitcher, it would be
me like, I am scared to do
everything. But I also jump into
a river or your nose is a little
crazy with me. What's keeping me
up would be I'm excited about
what's ahead. And I'm also
terrified. You know, it's

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01:04:51,330 --> 01:05:20,070
exciting because sproxil is
evolving, honest. You know? I'm
excited that this was A vision
that I was able to just push
forward even just to be a part
of, I have an excellent,
excellent team that decided to
be a part of this journey with
me. And I always think, if not
you, then who like I'm not

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01:05:20,070 --> 01:05:47,910
necessarily like the as I said,
again, I wasn't looking to be a
tech founder. But I guess if I
was to leave something with
your, your, your listeners is,
for one, we need more solutions
for people in corporate comms
and marketing. And to, if not
you who, you know, I did have a
really good career, I was also

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01:05:47,910 --> 01:06:09,150
doing the 80 hours, it wasn't a
guarantee this proxy was going
to happen. So proxy name
literally came together because
I'm like, Speaker proxies.
That's the name like, you know,
it wasn't like I gave it a lot
of five. Even the logo was just
like I saw like, okay, that's
the logo, we have been just

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01:06:09,180 --> 01:06:22,710
riding the wave. And again, if
that you who, because we all
need the help, when you start
speaking to your peers, you will
find out they all have the same
issues, and we all need the
help. So

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01:06:23,910 --> 01:06:27,750
Daniel Nestle: speaker proxy 's
proxy Yeah,

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01:06:27,780 --> 01:06:34,710
I you have now I can sleep to
try to figure that out. Scary
fearless.

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01:06:36,120 --> 01:06:38,850
Melanie, samba, scary, fearless.

259
01:06:40,320 --> 01:06:55,050
I am. I'm seeing how accurate
that is. You're, you know, you
clearly are fearless. And I'm
scared. So thank you for that. I
mean, look, this is amazing
stuff. I mean, I think that this
is a groundbreaking platform.

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01:06:56,700 --> 01:06:58,590
And I

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01:06:58,000 --> 01:07:15,220
believe if I were you, I'd be
kept up at night with like, holy
moly. What am I going to do with
all the with all the clients and
customers that are coming in?
You know, wow, it'd be
excitement I would be I'd be
just jazzed up all the time. And
just I think it's just a
brilliant future for you.

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01:07:16,390 --> 01:07:30,340
listeners out there you can find
Melanie at sproxxy.com spr o
double x y.com and on LinkedIn
Melanie Samba I don't think
there are any other ones. I
think it's just you and where
else what any other places that
people should look for your
mail.

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01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:32,440
Those are the two main

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01:07:32,830 --> 01:07:37,900
Melanie Samba: two main are on I
do you call it x now we are on x
as I like

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01:07:37,900 --> 01:07:44,290
Daniel Nestle: to call it
Twixtor because I'm never sure.
But you're on x now. Okay.

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01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:49,540
Melanie Samba: Is not a sprouty
yet s proxy and Instagram as
well.

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01:07:50,650 --> 01:08:10,330
Daniel Nestle: All the socials
as sproxxy, Melanie Samba on
LinkedIn, and then of course,
checkout sproxxy.com, it is it's
growing, it's adding more
functions it is, you know,
really at the cutting edge and
leading edge of helping anyone
out there to understand how to
deal with these crazy

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01:08:10,330 --> 01:08:22,030
conferences. But more than that,
how to exert influence and how
to make, you know, make your
speakers shine. And I think
that's really, that's really
what we're all about at the end
of the day. So,

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01:08:22,829 --> 01:08:25,079
Melanie, thank you very, very

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01:08:25,080 --> 01:08:29,670
much for joining me on the show
on the trending communicator,
because you definitely are a
trending communicator.

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01:08:30,090 --> 01:08:33,120
Melanie Samba: Thank you so
much. Thank you so much for the
invitation.

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01:08:33,510 --> 01:08:34,020
Daniel Nestle: You got it.

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01:08:40,950 --> 01:08:57,990
Thanks for taking the time to
listen in on today's
conversation. If you enjoyed it,
please be sure to subscribe
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me a review. Five stars would be
preferred. But it's up to you if
you have ideas for future guests

274
01:08:57,990 --> 01:09:05,310
or you want to be on the show.
Let me know at Dan at trending
communicator.com Thanks again
for listening to the trending
communicator.