Behind the Event II: Planning and Executing an Engaging Virtual Event, with Teresa Zimmerman, Erin Geoffroy, and Julia Thurston

Teresa Zimmerman serves as the Vice President of Marketing at Personify. She leads Personify’s global marketing organization and is responsible for driving market leadership, global awareness, demand generation, strategic events, and product go-to-market plans. Teresa has a rich history of success driving excellence at enterprise SaaS companies, having spent time at Bazaarvoice, Lithium, and Fuze where she oversaw North American marketing programs, including field and solutions marketing, demand creation, advertising, and events. Beyond the office, Teresa serves on the board of directors for BookSpring, nonprofit supporting childhood literacy and resides with her family in Austin, Texas.

A recognized leader in marketing, brand, and content, Erin Geoffroy has spent over 10 years helping organizations tell meaningful stories and create effective engagement strategies. Her diverse background includes developing highly effective national marketing campaigns and digital tools in the software, consumer goods, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors. Since obtaining her MBA in Marketing and MA in Journalism in 2016, Erin has focused on empowering nonprofits and associations to better engage their members and donors through technology and the use of data-driven insights. At Personify, Erin develops and executes marketing campaigns across Personify’s verticals and a suite of products and leads brand marketing initiatives.

Julia Thurston’s Bio:

As the head of marketing operations and demand generation for Personify, Julia Thurston is responsible for the marketing delivery functions across our digital ecosystem. Julia brings her technology leadership experience to this role having previously run operations, management and integration initiatives with our sales organization. Julia is passionate about the intersection between client experience and operational process, approaching the digital world through the lens of the physical. Julia is a graduate from Texas Christian University with a degree in Biology, a minor in Business and Chemistry and a member of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Team. In her free time, Julia enjoys the outdoors and travel.

What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why communication and keeping PersoniFest stakeholders both internal and external informed has been key to moving the event to a virtual space How the PersoniFest virtual event will take place on Thursday, April 23, 2020, at 9:30 am EDT (8:30 am central) Why translating physical experiences to a virtual space has been challenging, and what innovative solutions the team has created to make the event special How a key early step in transferring PersoniFest into a virtual experience was to evaluate what tools and technology were available that could be leveraged Why establishing clear goals and technology needs for a virtual event and focusing on offering values to attendees is vital Why being mindful of the quality of the experience and ensuring that audio and video are sufficiently robust is very important Additional resources: Website: https://personifycorp.com/ Teresa’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tazimmerz/ Erin’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/eringeoffroy/