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Kathy Kane
Event Strategist / Leader - known for creating event opportunities with maximum ROI
Professional Background
Kathy Kane is a dynamic and innovative leader with over 15 years of experience in the conception, development, and launch of industry-defining events within the technology, professional services, and media sectors. Her career is characterized by an impressive ability to connect with diverse buyer personas, spanning large global enterprises, small-to-midsize businesses, and public sector entities alike. With a strategic focus on B2B conferences and trade shows, Kathy has demonstrated an exceptional ability to identify and deliver new event opportunities that not only expand market reach but also drive significant revenue and profit growth.
Throughout her career, Kathy has notably scaled a business from $3 million to an astounding $130 million, showcasing her acumen for business growth and market expansion. She specializes in leveraging and monetizing proprietary content and brands through high-impact events, while also focusing on the development and maximization of thought leadership content across various platforms, including in-person, digital, mobile, and social media.
Kathy's extensive experience includes identifying, engaging, and facilitating impactful client advisory boards, where she fosters innovative discussions and insights that resonate within the industry. She thrives in fast-growth environments that demand rapid innovation and agile approaches. Known for her collaborative spirit, Kathy excels in working cross-functionally with diverse teams, fostering consensus and commitment across departments.
Her work history is particularly distinguished, with a wealth of experience in developing and managing strategic partnerships and joint ventures that enhance organizational goals and outreach.
Education and Achievements
Kathy completed her undergraduate studies at Marymount College where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, complemented by a Minor in Marketing. This educational foundation has equipped her with critical skills that underpin her professional activities in event marketing, business strategy, and content engagement.
Throughout her illustrious career, Kathy has held several prominent positions in highly regarded organizations, including:
- Freelance Event Strategy/Consulting – Here, Kathy utilized her extensive insights into the event industry to offer strategic advice and planning for various clients.
- Event Marketing Director at SAS – In this role, Kathy oversaw the planning and execution of marketing strategies that enhanced SAS's presence in the technology event industry.
- Founder and Managing Partner at OnTrack Communications – Here, Kathy was instrumental in establishing the company, developing strategic initiatives that positioned OnTrack as a leading entity in event communications.
- Group Vice President, Worldwide Events at Gartner – In her role at Gartner, Kathy spearheaded global event strategies, leading the firm’s symposium ITxpo initiatives and rendering them as cornerstone platforms in the technology space.
- Group Vice President, Symposium ITxpo Worldwide at Gartner – Kathy further reinforced her leadership in event direction, managing large-scale symposiums that drew attendance from substantial industry leaders.
- Vice President Symposium at Gartner – Kathy took charge of symposium events, implementing enhancements that increased engagement and audience satisfaction.
- Director, Symposium ITxpo at Gartner and Senior Conference Manager at Gartner – Earlier in her career, she diligently managed key conferences, honing her skills in event operations and audience engagement.
- Conference Manager at Gartner – As a Conference Manager, Kathy laid the foundational framework for her approach to successful event management.
Some notable achievements during her time at Gartner include successfully boosting attendance figures, enhancing sponsorship revenues, and spearheading marketing initiatives that solidified Gartner’s position as a leader in industry events.
Achievements
Kathy Kane is recognized as a leader in event marketing, with proven expertise in driving demand generation and audience acquisition. Through her strategic, results-oriented approach, Kathy has not only contributed to executing high-profile events but has also influenced the broader landscape of event marketing by championing innovative experiential campaigns. Utilizing her substantial expertise, she develops effective event operations that deliver substantial ROI for stakeholders and participants.
Her specialties encompass a wide range of skills vital to the industry, including:
- Event Marketing: Crafting strategic marketing initiatives that align with event objectives.
- Communications and PR: Effectively managing brand communications to enhance visibility and credibility.
- Business Development: Identifying and leveraging opportunities for growth and partnership.
- Content Development: Enhancing event narratives and participation through engaging content strategies.
- Audience Acquisition and Engagement: Utilizing innovative approaches to draw in diverse attendees.
- Experiential Marketing: Creating memorable experiences across F2F, digital, mobile, and social platforms.
- Sponsorship & Exhibit Modeling: Developing attractive sponsorship opportunities that drive revenue.
- Building and Leading High-Performance Teams: Nurturing a culture of excellence and collaboration.
- Event Operations: Tailoring event logistics to achieve seamless execution.
- Financial Management and Contract Negotiations: Overseeing budgets and negotiations to maximize profitability.
Kathy’s holistic view of event strategy and execution is fortified by her commitment to fostering an environment of inclusive collaboration that results in successful outcomes. As a thought leader in the event space, Kathy continues to inspire others with her insights and experience, placing her at the forefront of industry advancements.
tags:[
Event Marketing
B2B Conferences
Trade Shows
Business Development
Content Development
Audience Engagement
Experiential Marketing
High-Performance Teams
Partnership Management
Financial Management
Contract Negotiation
Strategic Partnerships
Client Advisory Boards
Revenue Growth
Location
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.