How we organized a meetup in New York with top guests and speakers from major companies using Social Selling on LinkedIn
For the past two years, ModumUp has been building B2B Marketing Leaders, an international community for B2B marketers.
We organize community meetups every month, but until recently, they had all been online. When Olga Bondareva, Founder of ModumUp, planned a vacation in New York, we decided to combine it with the community’s first in-person meetup.
We used Social Selling to achieve three goals:
• Find a free venue
• Bring in 4–5 expert speakers
• Attract 10–15 relevant attendees
1. Finding the venue
This was the hardest part, but we eventually found two strong venue options in Manhattan.
The most effective approaches were:
• Warm introductions
• Outreach to potential speakers, with an offer to host the meetup at their company’s office
Channels: LinkedIn and email.
2. Finding the speakers
We already had a well-tested process. ModumUp regularly recruits speakers for podcasts, webinars, and community meetups.
For this event, the criteria were strict: experienced B2B marketers from major companies who were ready to share practical AI use cases for B2B marketing, supported by examples and numbers.
Two approaches worked:
• Warm outreach to members of our community
• Cold outreach supported by ModumUp’s track record of webinars, podcast episodes, and events with respected industry experts
The communication path was: LinkedIn -> meeting -> email
The final lineup included speakers from Lenovo, Globant, Kyndryl, and other companies.
3. Attracting the right attendees
Quality mattered more than the number of registrations. We were looking for B2B marketing directors and experienced managers from medium-sized and large technology companies.
We already had a proven process for attracting attendees, which we regularly use for our own webinars and client projects.
We invited selected people through LinkedIn. Registration was managed through Luma, with every application reviewed before approval to make sure the audience remained relevant.
The result was 30 relevant registrations - exactly the limit we had set.
12 people attended. The audience was highly relevant, and the discussion focused on practical AI use cases and the challenges of applying AI in B2B marketing.
Several attendees demonstrated such strong expertise that we now plan to invite them as speakers at future community events.
The meetup achieved everything we had planned. The atmosphere was open and welcoming, the discussion was highly practical, and ModumUp also generated new business leads - although lead generation was never an event goal.
Organizing the meetup alongside a planned trip required additional coordination, but the results confirmed the value of the format and created a strong foundation for future in-person community events.
For the past two years, ModumUp has been building B2B Marketing Leaders, an international community for B2B marketers.
We organize community meetups every month, but until recently, they had all been online. When Olga Bondareva, Founder of ModumUp, planned a vacation in New York, we decided to combine it with the community’s first in-person meetup.
We used Social Selling to achieve three goals:
• Find a free venue
• Bring in 4–5 expert speakers
• Attract 10–15 relevant attendees
1. Finding the venue
This was the hardest part, but we eventually found two strong venue options in Manhattan.
The most effective approaches were:
• Warm introductions
• Outreach to potential speakers, with an offer to host the meetup at their company’s office
Channels: LinkedIn and email.
2. Finding the speakers
We already had a well-tested process. ModumUp regularly recruits speakers for podcasts, webinars, and community meetups.
For this event, the criteria were strict: experienced B2B marketers from major companies who were ready to share practical AI use cases for B2B marketing, supported by examples and numbers.
Two approaches worked:
• Warm outreach to members of our community
• Cold outreach supported by ModumUp’s track record of webinars, podcast episodes, and events with respected industry experts
The communication path was: LinkedIn -> meeting -> email
The final lineup included speakers from Lenovo, Globant, Kyndryl, and other companies.
3. Attracting the right attendees
Quality mattered more than the number of registrations. We were looking for B2B marketing directors and experienced managers from medium-sized and large technology companies.
We already had a proven process for attracting attendees, which we regularly use for our own webinars and client projects.
We invited selected people through LinkedIn. Registration was managed through Luma, with every application reviewed before approval to make sure the audience remained relevant.
The result was 30 relevant registrations - exactly the limit we had set.
12 people attended. The audience was highly relevant, and the discussion focused on practical AI use cases and the challenges of applying AI in B2B marketing.
Several attendees demonstrated such strong expertise that we now plan to invite them as speakers at future community events.
The meetup achieved everything we had planned. The atmosphere was open and welcoming, the discussion was highly practical, and ModumUp also generated new business leads - although lead generation was never an event goal.
Organizing the meetup alongside a planned trip required additional coordination, but the results confirmed the value of the format and created a strong foundation for future in-person community events.