Club Ichi

Co-Founder and head of community for Club Ichi, a friggin' awesome membership community for B2B Event Marketers

Conference sessions on inflatable unicorns, 2:30 a.m. exploding pajama parties, secret business trips, lots of hugs, and a whole lot of people just looking to help each other. 

If you're looking to advance your career, expand your network, and build relationships that transcend business, Club Ichi is the place for you. 

Join in at weareichi.com

Co-Founder, Chief Community Officer

The Community Factory

Most events aren’t designed to build deep connections. We apply our Power in Company Method to help to spark the relationships the drive revenue.

Our Spontaneous Think Tanks will revolutionize your conference, advisory council, trade show, or field event. 

Need to keep the community feel going all year long? We're your Community as a Service (CaaS) solution for companies looking to drive pipeline and revenue through loyal, organic growth strategies.

Co-Founder, CMO

Haute Companies

Haute Companies is a collection of brands that embrace the unconventional to build human-to-human connections. Our collection was made up of creative agency Haute, music venue Haute Spot, speed shop Haute Motorworks, and SaaS platform Swag Hub.

As the founder of Haute Dokimazo, I created conversation-based experiences virtually and in person, as well as epic and memorable virtual adventures that drive connection. 

In launching Haute Rock Creative, I led the event team that supported Fortune 500 clients with global ABM programs, product launches, trade shows, and hospitality programs, along with event strategy and program design. 

As CMO over all of the Haute brands (Haute, Haute Spot, Haute Motorworks, and Swag Hub), my role was to manage and implement branding and marketing programs to drive awareness and create demand for our offerings. In 2021, we rebranded Haute Dokimazo, Haute Rock Creative, and Event Works to be a single creative agency called Haute.

Cedar Park-based music venue Haute Spot was sold to our production partners, Lightstream, in July 2022 and I continue to be an owner and investor in that company.

Marketing director leading the IBM experiential & digital event team, client references team, and brand strategy team. Responsible for the development and execution of the Analytics & Hybrid Cloud global event strategy & execution, as well as customer references, case studies, and video testimonials. Our team collaborates with performance and portfolio marketing team and uses a data-driven approach to strategically implement campaign goals into the right large and small 3rd party tradeshows, product launch events, C-level activities, roadshows, digital events, and customer stories.

Program Director, Event Marketing, Customer Advocacy, & Brand Strategy

Marketing & advocacy director overseeing the strategic community engagement initiatives for the IBM Analytics advocacy program, including community events, customer advocacy, and virtual communities. 

Engage the community by bringing IBM Analytics strategy to life through experiential product launch activities for clients, influencers, press and analysts. 
- Direct IBM Analytics Champions program, advisory councils, and advocacy & community programs, engaging customers and building community among IBM advocates. 
- Create and develop Analytics Platform Services C-level engagement, including the IBM CDO Summit program, a community-building event for Chief Data Officers, as well as branded and 3rd party CIO activities. 
- Bring creative and inspiring experiences to IBM clients, analysts, press, and employees through unique Signature Moment product launches. Drive experience strategy, manage agency partners and vendors, and oversee brand consistency across multiple workstreams including digital, social, AR/PR, offering management, and portfolio marketing. 

Milestone events include:
- Cloud Data Services Open for Data campaign launch, punctuated by an 80' inflatable dome in the parking lot of Mandalay Bay during IBM's 20,000-person Interconnect conference. 
- IBM Data Science Experience launch event, featuring an Apache Spark community event in partnership with Galvanize in San Francisco.
- IBM Watson Project: DataWorks launch event, attracting more than 650 data-driven professionals in NYC.

Program Director, Thought Leadership Event Marketing & Advocacy

GasPedal

Strategic leader recruited by CEO to create 3 year event roadmap, departmental strategic plan, staffing plan, and align systems to prepare for growth and scaling the event program. 

Coordinate across departments to ensure accuracy and brand alignment of marketing communications and attendee logistics communications. Manage speaker selection process, including evaluation of speaker relevancy to prospective customers and the geographic area being targeted. 

Note: Once the strategic initiatives were completed in August 2015, and it was determined that company growth plans had stalled, my role changed to a strategy consultant position and I launched Cheshire Moon Consulting, with the support of GasPedal CEO Andy Sernovitz.

VP Events

Dell

Director of global strategic planning for cross-business unit Tier 1 and Tier 2 B2B event marketing programs. Worked cross-functionally to identify key messages, funding sourcing, participation levels, and ROI targets. Directly responsible for coordinating funding, core team creation, and messaging constructs for more than 75 top tier events.

Created Dell's premier customer conference, Dell World. After launching the event in 2011 with 2,500 attendees, the conference grew to 6,000+ attendees in 2012 and over 8,000 in 2014. Led more than 50 workstreams including event messaging strategy, customer journey design, digital marketing, partner funding strategy, marcom, audience acquisition, vendor management, budget management, virtual event, event logistics, and customer follow-up communications and ROI measurement.

Led the global strategic planning team, driving initiatives ranging from evaluating event participation, marcom alignment, funding alignment, and onsite solutions and technology support for more than 150 events. 

Led global operations for Dell's event marketing function, focusing on vendor consolidation and spend efficiency, while leading a team of professionals who support day-to-day event activities. Launched corporate-wide strategic meetings management program globally, launched event master service provider program for cost savings and spend transparency, drove cost savings initiatives through operational efficiencies saving the company millions of dollars.

Marketing Director

Managed North American event marketing team of 18 team members responsible for executing relationship events in the US and Canada. Events portfolio included tradeshows, advisory councils, C-level events, hospitality events, roadshows, customer conferences, and large internal sales events. Led all aspects of team engagement from strategy to execution to measurement, including reporting event metrics to the business unit leaders.

Led the development of dell.com/events, and created and managed social media engagements for @dellevents Twitter account. Completed certification for Social Media and Communities Professional designation at Dell.

Marketing Director, B2B Event Marketing

As part of the management team, created an event measurement process, lead technology and process improvement initiatives, created quarterly ops reviews, managed events from conception to completion, produced executive customer profiles of global C-level event participants. Managed global event and marcom budget.

Managed team that executed all internal software & Peripherals sales trainings in Round Rock, Oklahoma City, and Nashville.

Created, managed, and maintained operational tools that facilitated efficient processes and workflows for global Large Enterprise Marketing and Global Event Marketing. Negotiated and implemented global event infrastructure technology tools including event registration and inventory management. Managed budget processes for the Large Enterprise Marketing organization, building the organization's first online spend management tool. Created online customer engagement portal dell.com/events, and internal global event management calendar.

Senior Manager, Business Operations, Large Enterprise Marketing

Delivered customer-focused executive briefing experiences at Dell's Executive Briefing Center. Consulted with sales teams, presenters, executives and coordinated with the office of the chairman to customize build-to-order briefings based upon the customer requirements.  Facilitated high-level discussions as part of the briefing pre-work process, identifying the customer need and responding by delivering a world-class customer experience.

Executive Briefing Consultant (contract through Aquent)

Texas Association of Assessing Officers & Texas Society of Professional Surveyors

Directed professional development program, including scheduling more than 65 state-certified courses and instructors each year. Expanded professional education program from Austin-only classes to six regional training centers. Planned, organized, and marketed association's annual conference. Managed exhibit hall and sponsorship sales. Designed all conference marcom collateral. Managed all negotiations for annual conference hotel and convention center contracts.

Editor-in-Chief of the TAAO's monthly magazine. Managed editorial calendar, content curation and creation, managed magazine P&L through advertising sales, and negotiated all print and distribution contracts with publishing vendors. 

General nonprofit management and administration responsibilities included negotiating, evaluating, and awarding vendor contracts, as well as maintaining corporate bylaws, trademarks, copyrights, and ensuring brand continuity.

Director of Education and Community Programs

Consultis of Austin

Worked with clients to identify high potential candidates for short term, long term, and permanent placement within their organizations. Managed all marketing of open position announcements, resume screening, interviewing, and facilitated the onboarding process.

Technical Recruiter and Account Executive

National Instruments

Worked with product marketing specialists to develop media plans, pitch, and placed articles in scientific and engineering trade magazines. 

Worked cross-functionally with technical writers and graphic designers to develop technical marketing collateral for vertical market products. Designed and maintained department intranet site and International Marketing Conference website and registration database.

Established and managed high-tech company’s relationships with various organizations for sponsorships and product donations (United States Olympic Committee, KVUE-TV-Austin, Boston Museum of Art, United Way of Austin, Austin Nature Center, North Austin YMCA, Austin Ice Bats, and Austin Chamber of Commerce).

Media Relations, Internal Communications, & Community Relations/ CSR Specialist

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District

Placed as a cooperative education student through the journalism program at Texas A&M University. Managed editorial calendar, content creation, writing, photography, layout and design of monthly district news publication distributed to more than 3,000 Corps of Engineers employees. 

Other duties included preparing slide shows and presentations for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ District Engineer, designing promotional displays for public exhibitions, working at exhibition booths, designing web pages for Houston-Galveston Ship Channel, and answering general inquiries by phone and in person.

Public Affairs Officer

Making your event more engaging for attendees.

What if... you had a place where you could connect with other B2B event marketers to advance your career and share your knowledge?

What if... you could ask a community of peers for ideas, guidance, help, templates, best practices, and they would actually respond?

Hi, I'm Liz Lathan. I run Club Ichi, the #1 place for B2B event marketers to connect.

I am driven by curiosity and learn best from conversation and behind-the-scenes experiences. So I create events where those things happen. 

Club Ichi: Our community and content for B2B Event Marketers (get in here at www.weareichi.com)

The Community Factory: Our team that helps companies like yours make events better for your attendees (and keep them connected all year long). www.thecommunityfactory.com

I'm often called "The What If Girl," thanks to my daily LinkedIn posts encouraging event professionals to think about new ways to engage their audiences at events, and my weekly newsletter, The Engaged Attendee. 

A 20+ year veteran of corporate event marketing life, I ran the global event team for Dell and created Dell World in 2011. I ran the global event team & customer advocacy program for IBM's Analytics & Hybrid Cloud division. I'm one of the founders of experiential agency Haute, and an investor in Haute Spot, a music venue in Cedar Park, Texas. I'm a writer, investor, speaker, and frequent traveler.

P.S. No I don't want to start a franchise or get my PMP Certification. Thanks, though. ;-)

Taplio

Liz Lathan, CMP's Linkedin Analytics

What is Liz talking about?

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Liz Lathan, CMP's Linkedin Analytics

What is Liz talking about?

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Liz Lathan, CMP's Linkedin Analytics