The mission of the NYCMA Backstage Spotlight: The NYPCMA Backstage Spotlight was created to provide a sneak peek into the life of an event professional. We’re taking a look behind the curtain to highlight the planners, teams, and vendors that help us thrive to create engaging experiences for the audiences.
In this introductory spotlight, we are pleased to highlight Matt Murnane from LendIt Fintech. LendIt Fintech is the largest media and events company dedicated to innovation in lending, digital banking, and financial technology. Today they operate five major conferences annually, in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Miami, with attendance ranging from 400 – 4500 people.
LendIt Fintech Nexus – Dealmakers Summit was an in-person event with 350 attendees that took place from February 7-8 in Miami, FL. The goal of this was event to focus 100% on creating a networking event for Investors, Banks, and fintechs, etc. With the new product launch, it was the perfect timing to have an event focused on in-person networking. What made this event unique was the focus on face-to-face meetings, which was highlighted through a series of onsite activations.
So many event planners have experienced setbacks with events through the pandemic and this event was no different. Originally, the Dealmakers event was scheduled for September but with the rapid increase of the Covid-19 Delta variant, plans had to be adjusted. This meant the entire team was back to the drawing board with renegotiating contracts and trying to get dates rescheduled in a record amount of time— all the while having to forecast budgets and adjust marketing goals to align with the new event dates. Fortunately, the partners maintained their support throughout the different set of challenges.
A few things they learned. LendIt Fintech Nexus pushed the limits with their program. The more experiences, the better! Creating experiences for attendees allowed them to form connections with they couldn’t create through a screen. Being a brand-new event, there was room to create an impactful event. The program was 100% meetings-based and attendees would have different experiences throughout the day. In between the minimum of 10 pre-scheduled 30-minute meetings, attendees were wowed with a luxury coffee bar, a bourbon tasting, opportunities to test drive luxury cars, walking tours, and more. They also incorporated healthy meals and yoga to provide attendees with the opportunity to incorporate fitness into the day.
As an add-on to the event, LendIt Fintech hosted their annual Industry Awards Dinner in the same location as the conference. The biggest challenge was to convert the space of the two-day conference into something that felt like it was an elevated experience, more aligned with an awards show. This meant the entire production team had to reset the room and build a stage in an extremely limited amount of time. They saved money on the overnight rental fee (yay) and installed the 16’ AV screen after Day 1. They transformed the room by adding lighting, floral and greenery, an awesome photo op wall, and lots of roaming entertainment.
LendIt Fintech is a small but mighty team and each person in the organization plays a major role in hosting the events. When the team gets together, the energy is electrifying. During this event, the VIP Concierge team (without whom, the program wouldn’t have worked) and the marketing team, helped build the networking component of the very necessary mobile app. Each person on the team pitched in to make each attendee feel like a VIP. There was no job too big or too small for anyone on the team. Huge thank you to Megan on the Ops team and the Lendit Fintech Leadership team who lived by the phrase, there’s no job too big or too small!!
Sounds like a job well done! Congratulations to the LendIt Fintech team!
Want to be featured? Submit your next event! Planners can submit an application in google forms to submit a request to be featured. This can include ANY event someone is working on. We can market in the upcoming newsletters and through social media. This is a great opportunity to highlight planners, partners, destinations to show other planners examples of what is happening in the industry.
