CEO @ Accelevents | Event Marketing, Management, and Growth

Events are hard enough. At Accelevents, we're on a mission to help event organizers get some sleep the night before their event.

Jonathan Kazarian

Event Strategy vs. Event Plan

An EVENT PLAN is:
1. Your event timeline and schedule
2. Venue logistics and vendor coordination
3. Session topics and speaker lineup
4. Event formats (workshops, panels, networking sessions, etc.)
5. The checklist that keeps you on time and on budget.

Nail the plan and you execute.
Your event strategy will never work if you can’t execute.

An EVENT STRATEGY is:
1. Purpose - why the event program matters to the business and the audience.
2. Audience journey - who you invite, where they sit in the funnel, how you’ll move them forward.
3. Behavior change - the trust, loyalty, or pipeline progression you expect after the show.
4. Core formats - the few repeatable experiences your brand builds a reputation on for (flagship, field, virtual).
5. Measurement - attendee lift, downstream revenue, partner amplification. Probably can’t do this without Marketing Ops.
6. Tool fit - You need a partner, not duct tape. Your event tech should be an enabler.
7. Team cadence - sales, product, brand, and ops aligned from brief to debrief.

Your event program is ultimately a form of PR.
It will share you perception in the market.
And that’s how it should be approached.

When we onboard new customers.
They always fall in 1 of 2 camps.

Either:
Show me how to build out my next event.
OR
Teach me how to roll this out across my company.

The “event strategy” led teams always focus on the latter.
They know they can run the event.
What they care about is how they can scale the program.

**Note** you need management to buy into the strategy.
You need a C-suite that understands the compounding impact of a strategic event program.

When events are reduced to lead quotas, quality erodes.
Trust erodes.
Brand equity erodes.
Strategy prevents that slide.

Do you feel like you’re given room to execute an event strategy?
Or are you being tasked with ‘random acts’ of event planning?

CEO @ Accelevents - Event Management Software| Event Marketing | MarTech

Award Winning Event Strategist Driving Growth and Transformation For YOU | Plug-and-Play Project Manager | Technology Enthusiast | Always Curious

Shaping the Future of International Meetings | Collaborative Growth | Event Transformation

Curiosity - Innovation - Storytelling

As the Regional Director for North America at ICCA, I am passionate about driving growth and fostering collaboration within the global meetings and events industry. ICCA has stood at the forefront of shaping the future of international association meetings since 1963, and I'm honoured to be part of a team that champions innovation, sustainability, and advocacy on a global scale.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of strategizing, planning, and executing transformative events—from intimate gatherings to international conferences. My career has been built on an unwavering commitment to innovation, creative problem-solving, and a collaborative approach to ensure that every event exceeds expectations. Along the way, I've been fortunate to be recognized with honours such as "Planner of the Year" by Smart Meetings and a spot on the "40 Under 40" by Connect x BizBash.

But more than accolades, it's the connections I've built and the stories we've shaped together that truly inspire me. It was the Guinness World Record attempt to host the largest online event gathering, GMID Goes Virtual, in 2020, which connects almost all the industry associations across the globe. It was #EventprofsBreakShit that I co-founded in 2021, seeking an honest, authentic, but joyful way to explore event technology. 

These are the real rewards of our work, and they underscore the power of collaboration in our industry.

At ICCA, we're not just organizing meetings—we're creating spaces where ideas flourish, communities grow, and the future of our industry is redefined. I'd love to connect if you're interested in exploring how we can collaborate, build meaningful partnerships, or simply share ideas. Let's work together to amplify the value of international meetings and create sustainable, innovative solutions for the future.

Are you ready to shape the future of international association meetings? Let's connect and make an impact together.

taplio

The Battle

Jonathan Kazarian

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

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taplio

The Battle

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