Events, sponsorships, and demos

Geckoboard had a very small marketing team and a very small events budget, so broad conference sponsorship was rarely an option. The useful question was where a small, focused presence could punch above its weight: events where the audience already cared about support, sales, customer success, or partner ecosystems, and where a live dashboard demo could make the product immediately tangible.

I made selective bets on events inside the Zendesk, Aircall, and HubSpot ecosystems, plus adjacent communities such as The Alliance. That meant choosing the right events, organising sponsorship logistics, preparing demo dashboards on a TV, pulling together banners and handouts, and giving the team a simple talk track so the stand felt coherent rather than improvised. At partner events, the goal was not only customer acquisition; it was also raising Geckoboard's visibility with the ecosystem teams and partner managers who could influence future opportunities.

The result was a field-marketing motion that matched the scale of the team: practical, targeted, and partnership-led. Geckoboard showed up in rooms where Zendesk, Aircall, and HubSpot customers and partners were already thinking about reporting, performance, and operational visibility, with live demos and follow-up motions ready rather than a passive logo placement.

The work was scrappy in the best sense. A good event presence did not require a huge stand or a giant budget; it required knowing why we were there, making the product visible in seconds, equipping the team to have useful conversations, and following up while the context was still fresh.