Remember when event promotion meant faxed invitations and static contact lists? While the tools have changed, many acquisition strategies have not. Too often, organisers still rely on broad-brush outreach, large email sends, and generic messaging, hoping relevance will emerge at scale. The problem isn’t effort. It’s precision.
Today’s buyers and sponsors are harder to identify, harder to reach, and far less tolerant of irrelevant comms. Job titles are unreliable, data decays quickly, and audiences expect every interaction to reflect a clear understanding of their needs. That is where AI-powered acquisition changes the game.
In our recent webinar, we sat down with Sharon Roessen, COO at Terrapin, and Vanessa Lovatt, Founder of Event Tech World, to explore how leading event organisers are using AI to define their true Total Addressable Market, enrich their data, and move from volume-led outreach to intelligent, signal-driven growth.
Here are the key takeaways from the session:
Why AI acquisition is no longer optional
The fundamental challenge for commercial event organizers remains the same: finding the right buyers (attendees) and sellers (sponsors/exhibitors). But the old routes are blocked. People change roles constantly, decision-makers are harder to reach, and audiences have tuned out to generic outreach. Vanessa Lovatt points out that while you can still buy lists and blast emails, it’s often an inefficient use of time and resources. Instead, she advocates for using AI to handle the heavy lifting of research. AI tools aren't magic wands; they are efficiency engines that open up new avenues that manual research simply cannot uncover.
The "Clay playbook": A new operating system for data
A major focus of the discussion was Clay, a tool that acts as a central operating system for data enrichment. Sharon Roessen shared details on Terrapin’s "Clay Playbook," which has transformed how they identify Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). Instead of relying on a registration form, where attendees often tick the first box they see, Terrapin uses AI to build a rich picture of their audience.
Here’s the workflow Sharon described:
- Ingest & Enrich: Feed existing attendee, sponsor, and exhibitor lists into Clay and enrich them with external data points.
- Define the ICP: Use a GPT to analyze this enriched data and clearly define what the Ideal Customer Profile looks like for both buyers and sellers.
- Find Lookalikes: Feed that strict ICP definition back into Clay to scour the web for new contacts that match that specific profile.
- Route to Campaigns: Segment these new leads into specific campaigns (VIP, delegate sales, sponsorship) based on their profile.
This approach shifts the human element from the start of the process (manual searching) to the middle (verifying the strategy), allowing for much greater scale.
Moving beyond job titles to "buying signals"
One of the most powerful capabilities of AI acquisition is the ability to ignore job titles, which are often misleading or vague. For example, if you are running a construction event for school builders, a "Technical Director" at a construction firm might be building roads, not schools. AI allows you to look for signals rather than just titles. Sharon explains:
Strategies to identify the right fit include:
- Scraping Websites: Analyzing a prospect's company website to see who their clients are. If they list schools as clients, they are a match.
- Tech Stack Analysis: Using tools like "BuiltWith" (plugged into Clay) to see what technology a company uses. For example, Grip uses this to identify events using specific registration providers to tailor our outreach.
- Social Listening: Analyzing what a prospect is posting about on LinkedIn to determine their specific area of expertise.
The rise of the "GTM engineer"
Who runs these sophisticated AI workflows? It’s likely not your traditional creative marketer. Sharon noted that while Terrapin previously relied on generalist marketers, they are now hiring for a new profile: Go-to-Market (GTM) Engineers.These individuals are data-centric, technically competent, and experimental. 24They need to find data fascinating, not boring, and possess strong AI prompting skills to get the best out of LLMs.
Start small: Focus on your CRM
For organizers working with tighter budgets, or those feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools (Apollo, Lusha, Gong, etc.), the panel offered grounded advice: Start with your CRM. You don't need expensive new tech to begin segmenting your audience properly.
- Clean your data: Before adding AI, ensure your existing database is accurate. "Garbage in, garbage out" applies heavily here.
- Utilize built-in AI: Platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce Einstein already have AI tools that can help identify churned sponsors or suggest re-engagement workflows.
- Trial free tiers: Many tools, including Clay and RB2B, offer free tiers. Use these to prove the concept and ROI before committing to an annual license.
The results speak for themselves
Does this granular, data-heavy approach actually work? Sharon shared a recent success story from one of their events. By using AI to enrich data and strictly targeting the ICP, Terrapin saw a 25% increase in attendance. The most impressive part? They spent 38% less on data acquisition but achieved a 25% higher response rate.
Watch the full conversation
There is so much more to uncover, including how to use AI for cross-selling portfolios, the potential of AI voice agents, and how WhatsApp is driving show-up rates. If you want to modernize your acquisition strategy and move beyond volume-led acquisition strategies, this session is a must-watch.
.webp)
