Posted on October 7, 2020

How event-tech ramps up creativity in virtual events, with Robin Daniels, CMO at Matterport

The Internet has been an invaluable ally of event organizers, especially during times of social distancing. The range of event-tech tools currently available for hybrid or virtual events is immense. They can provide the best experience and drastically improve audience engagement.

To talk more about how event-tech can be used in the near future of hybrid events, we brought Robin Daniels to our InEvent Talk. Robin is currently CMO at Matterport and has extensive marketing experience in many tech unicorns such as WeWork, LinkedIn and Salesforce.

1. What type of virtual events have you been attending? Is there any special one that captivated you more than the other?

I’ve been super impressed with the creativity of companies moving to virtual events. It feels like we are at the dawn of a generational shift of how we interact and engage with each other as human beings.

While I’m excited, I also think we have a long way to go before we get to the point of virtual events feeling like they offer the same opportunities for serendipitous connection, networking, and learning.

2. Do you guys in Matterport have any plans of using the product in the events sector? Creating virtual tours for attendees, enabling them to visit virtual booths, etc?

At Matterport we are absolutely looking into enhancing virtual events with real venues that have been scanned on our platform. It’s a perfect opportunity to mix real and virtual in a way that makes an event feel more like the real thing.

WeWork hosted an event a while back and scanned one of their spaces which they then marked up with interactive activities and information for people to engage with. It was very cool.

3. Matterport for iPhone has recently released a marketing campaign that you led remotely. Have you ever done that before? And after such a great success, are you and Matterport planning to keep this remote model for the upcoming marketing campaigns and operations?

Leading a team and launching a new product 100% remotely is definitely a first for me. We did this more out of necessity than anything due to the global pandemic we are in with COVID-19.

However, now that we’ve proven that this model works, I’m excited to go even further and see what we can do when we give people the freedom to work how they want and when they want.

One of the big benefits of this remote work moment we are in is that it has given people back a lot of time where they would normally sit in traffic for a long commute. That’s just dead time. But not anymore.

The other great thing about remote work is that it has created an environment where everybody can be heard equally as opposed to the old ways of working where you’d often have 4-5 people in a conference room and a few people on the phone who couldn’t really participate. So while I was skeptical about being all remote, I’m excited to embrace this as a team to see how else we can keep innovating.

4. You led marketing teams at several companies, including major brands. What is the difference between being in a startup that is starting to pick up traction and leading a consolidated marketing sector with over 400 employees?

There are many differences between being in small, medium, or large companies. In small companies speed matters more than anything. You want to test to see what works and you want to do so quickly.

In larger companies where you have a larger customer base and well-known brand, quality matters more than speed because you don’t want to lose the trust you have built up.

In small companies, as a leader, you also have to roll up your sleeves more and do the work, which in a big company with a big team happens less often.

It happens, but most of your time in a big company is spent on strategy, giving teams direction or feedback vs you sitting down and writing a blog post, for example. But both company sizes are super fun, it all depends on the journey.

Keep learning! Take advantage of our free and always updated resources:

• The 2020 guide for perfect online events [and how to migrate your live event to webinars, virtual meetups and live streaming]
• Why you need these 5 digital integrations to sell more
• 23 Event Pros and Digital Marketing influencers to follow in 2020 [and their social media profiles]

You can also check the latest projects Robin is working on at the moment, visiting his LinkedIn profile, as well as Matterport official website.