We love events, they were our first love and remain one of the core parts of our work. And events are a great tactic for B2B brand activation, which is a major focus for marketers at the moment. So, we thought we'd share some of our thoughts on executing this super effective brand activation tactic even more successfully.

Your blog (powerpoint, ebook, email, or social media post) is nearly ready and you ask a colleague, the boss or your team to check it over and the feedback is..."Great post, but I am not sure about the image... You need something slicker, more elegant and stronger..."

 I don't know how long you spent on your last B2B web build but I'll bet it was quite a while. Months if not years. So, it might seem crazy that I'm going to teach you to draft an effective page for your next event in just 30 minutes. But I am. 

A B2B event website generally has a limited shelf life and needs to materialise incredibly quickly compared with it's B2B brand, product or service cousins. It's for this reason that we don't want you spending months creating it. In short, it just isn't worth your while. Instead follow this simple method and you'll have the bones of your site down in as little as 30 minutes...

My name’s Hannah Wharrier I head up 3 of Clarion’s oil and gas businesses – the Energy Exchange the World Refining Association, and GTF. Since I started at Clarion, I have launched 5 events into frontier markets, conference and confex (conference + exhibition) of varying sizes and types from 200 people conferences up to 4000 visitor, 5000 sqm exhibitions in Egypt, Madagascar, Oman, Senegal and Gabon.

I would say all the tips I’m going through today also still apply if you have repeat events in emerging markets that move country every year.

The normal principles of launching a B2B event still also apply: data, going to your bellwethers first etc... these are the most important tips specifically related to launching or running your B2B event in emerging markets.

No matter how good a B2B marketer you are, events are a whole different ball game and the playing field is littered with potential pitfalls that can see even the most seasoned marketing professional burying their head in their hands. Luckily for you, we're sharing the 7 most common rookie event planning mistakes, along with our great free e-book that'll give you even more insight into things you should avoid.

One of the biggest challenges for the B2B marketer who wants to add events into their marketing mix is time management. Events work at a totally different pace from your average B2B sales cycle and can be a huge drain on your time if not managed correctly. To save you from these pitfalls and stop your candlelight vigils, we've created a guide to B2B marketing time management when running events...

One of the biggest risks when running an event as part of your marketing mix is that you over mail your database and annoy the very people you're hoping will ultimately buy your products or services.

Here are our quick tips on how to run a successful B2B event without cannibalising your database...

Last week we looked at how running an event could kill your B2B inbound marketing efforts. This week, we're going to come at the topic from a different angle and explore how you go about leveraging your existing audience to run great B2B events. Done right, this works just like the flower and the butterfly. Both get something out of it, no damage is done, everyone's happy.

You've spent months, if not years, carefully honing your inbound marketing machine. You've painstakingly tweaked your content, A/B tested your workflows and invested countless hours building trust and relationships with prospects and qualified leads who are now truly worthy of the name.

Then you decide to run an event and risk ruining it all... Find out why and what to do to avoid it.

So, you've finally convinced your boss to switch some of your focus from outbound to inbound channels, you've been given the go ahead and created some sweet content and made a good sounding plan. The only problem is, that results just aren't there. 

After the initial screaming and holding your head in your hands part, you're likely next thought is "what the heck do I do now?" What do you do when content marketing doesn't work? Here's our 3 point, no-panic action plan....

Let's be honest, event marketing can be very formulaic and innovation within the industry doesn't come in abundance. When I was asked by the PPA to do a session on innovation in events it was a great opportunity to talk about some of the guys who I feel are pushing the boundaries and adding a fresh angle to events and how we approach them. So here goes... 

1. Money 20/20: The power of video

With 40,000+ youtube hits to date this definitely generated a stir ... and in an industry that is traditionally seen as "conventional" and a bit "stiff" this was a very bold and almost risky tactic. Granted, it's not to everyone's taste but it lends itself to a great viral and memorable campaign. Hard to know what the results were in terms of uplift in sales but surely achieved a digital footprint in terms of branding and awareness. They used sponsors, vendors and staff in the video which is a great way to get buy-in and excitement for the concept and ultimately the event. Credit to these guys for doing something different! 

In our latest edition of B2B Inbound Marketing Stories, we spoke with Kelvin Newman, founder of BrightonSEO, the UK's largest SEO conference and MD of Rough Agenda, one of the new breed of B2B events companies shaking up the conference scene. In the interview, Kelvin reveals the secret sauce behind selling out his event in just 60 seconds and shares some pointers on how larger, traditional events businesses can incorporate a start up mentality to steer them to revenue success.

Watch the full interview, or pick up the key highlights below...

Whether you know it or not, like it or not, having a successful event or a series of successful events in the same or similar topic, is the basis of a community - it's all about the gathering of people that share a common interest. So what better way to engage with your community than through great content.

The events sector has a big advantage compared to most industries, in that you have experts at your fingertips - whether that's your production team, stakeholders, speakers or advisors. That allows access to knowledge, thought leadership and future shaping ideas with "relative" ease. 

Our series of Inbound Marketing Stories continues with John Whitaker, Head of Marketing from dmg events - a global events business that manages over 80 events in over 25 countries. John shares his experiences and learnings with his inbound marketing journey so far. 

A topic that always sparks discussion amongst B2B event and conference organisers - and that's what we came together to chat about at the recent Eventhuddle event. I was also joined by legends Kevin Jackson, Kelvin Newman, Scott Hope and Lindsey Fish.

In our new series of Inbound Marketing Stories, we interview B2B organisations and explore their inbound marketing journey so far. 

Our first story comes from Andrew Ferguson, Co-Founder at BrainXchange who lifts the lid on his unique business model and shares the reason why he believes inbound marketing for event and conference organisers is so essential for any future success. 

• Want to know how you can secure a 80-90% rebook rate from your event sponsors?
• How about the secret to being able to charge double what your competitors do?
• Or reliably booking a handful of delegates every single week without touching the phone?

You can listen to the full interview at the bottom of the post, or just digest some of the highlights we've pulled out here...

We are very pleased to announce that BrightBull has officially formed a joint venture with leading European inbound marketing agency Increnta. Increnta is a platinum HubSpot partner and Oracle Gold Partner with clients in 14 countries, specifically in the areas of Publishing, Training and Education, Financial Services, SaaS, Services, Healthcare and Tourism with a portfolio of 300+ clients.

We all like to think we’ve got the best marketing knowledge available, but when time is tight, how do you choose what to read?  So our team spent the time you don’t have, reading through all the latest marketing reports and shortlisting the best of the best. The result? Our list of the must-read event marketing reports to come out of 2016 (so far at least!). The only condition of entry to the list is that the report must be freely available. For those who are super pushed for time, we’ve also selected a couple of key nuggets from each that you can benefit from even if you haven’t had time to read the reports.