After an era of virtual events that limited interactions to faces on screens, in-person gatherings are back in full swing and reminding people of the incomparable power of being together. Businesses and organizations recognize the premium value of face-to-face connection, as live events spark ideas, ignite movements, and drive meaningful change.
Dr. Amy Cannon, the world’s first Ph.D. in green chemistry, experienced this firsthand at an event in 2010 — and the impact of the experience is still unfolding today. In 2010, Cannon, representing the then-nascent field of green chemistry, was invited to speak at a Bioneers Conference on a panel about fostering eco-literacy in education. At the time, Cannon’s green chemistry education nonprofit, Beyond Benign, was only a few years old. Through her work, Cannon sought to change how chemistry was taught in educational institutions, resulting in a total reimagining of the way products are made as well as their health and safety for humans and the environment.
Cannon knew that uniting green chemistry education leaders was essential, but she didn’t have a model for doing so. Her Bioneers co-panelist, Anthony Cortese, discussed the success of the higher education-focused Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments, and the two connected one-on-one after the panel, seeding a vision of how Cannon could apply the model to her work.
Cannon and Beyond Benign established the Green Chemistry Commitment in 2013, inviting higher education institutions to join a global community of green chemistry leaders and receive support in bringing greener practices to their chemistry programs. Today, more than 130 colleges and universities worldwide have signed the Green Chemistry Commitment and nearly 2,500 chemistry degrees have been awarded to graduates versed in green chemistry since 2013.
That fortuitous meeting and its exponential impact are powerful examples of what can happen when thought leaders, practitioners, and service providers are brought together under a common theme. Done right, conferences and live events create connections that can transform lives and movements and provide unparalleled opportunities to connect supporters around your mission in novel and unpredictable ways.
Bringing the Mission to Life Through Live Events
While a worthwhile cause is the foundation of any impact event, an event that yields measurable outcomes requires much more than that. Events require significant resources from your organization, speakers, and attendees, so it’s critical that you maximize the use of those resources. While the “secret sauce” to event impact can be those intangible connections and sparks that are impossible to plan, it is deliberate planning that sets the stage for these moments of serendipity to unfold.
How can you ensure everyone’s time, energy, and money are well spent?
The key is strategic marketing designed around tangible outcomes before, during, and after the event. Bark Media has decades of experience in marketing events of all sizes across the impact sector.
We partner with clients to help:
- Ensure the right people attend by leveraging quality content, segmented outreach, targeted ticket sales strategies, and aligned partnerships;
- Expand event reach through partnerships, brand ambassador programs, and targeted ad campaigns;
- Facilitate meaningful connections before, during, and after the event with networking opportunities, customized programming, and digital touchpoints between events;
- Extend your event’s impact by recording key moments, conducting interviews, and sharing stories year-round; and
- Encourage real-time engagement by equipping attendees, speakers, and partners with the tools to share their experiences, further growing your audience and engagement.
By integrating content marketing, email strategy, social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), network activation, and advertising, Bark helps impact-driven businesses and organizations connect with aligned audiences, build momentum around shared values, and drive action and impact.
And remember: The impact doesn’t end when the event does. Capturing and repurposing event content — presentations, panels, discussions, and more — makes your event a powerful engagement generator year-round, sparking ongoing conversations, attracting more people into the fold, and turning attendees into brand champions.
Case Study: SOCAP24 — Targeted Communications and New Event Attendees
The largest global impact event, the annual SOCAP conference forges profound and powerful connections by gathering impact investors, entrepreneurs, and academics to learn from each other, share research, and showcase scalable, world-changing ideas. Since 2020, Bark has worked with SOCAP Global to strategize and execute an audience growth, engagement, and conversion campaign that grows the reach of powerful impact solutions at scale and drives ticket sales for the event.
The 2024 event ticket sales strategy focused on three key components: growing the marketing list of potential first-time attendees; personalized communications that highlighted the value proposition to various audience segments; and maximizing the reach of event content. The results were year-over-year increases in ticket revenues, email marketing lists, and social media presence during SOCAP24.
Learn how we did it in the full case study.
Case Study: Bioneers — Capturing the Magic of In-Person Gatherings
An innovative nonprofit organization founded in 1990, Bioneers connects people with solutions and each other through its acclaimed annual national conference complemented by a vibrant online media presence, award-winning radio and podcast series, book series, and more. Bioneers acts as a fertile hub of innovators and solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. Since 2017, Bark has worked with Bioneers to develop its year-round content output and grow its audience around the flagship event and game-changing initiatives related to Restorative Food Systems, Biomimicry, Rights of Nature, Indigeneity, Women’s Leadership, and Youth Leadership.
For the 2025 conference, Bioneers aimed to drive registrations while conveying the event’s unique value to potential attendees, using multimedia content to overcome a longtime struggle to provide a compelling glimpse into the attendee experience. The marketing goal was to demonstrate the richness of the event and inspire more people to participate using a personalized content-focused strategy. The result? A sold-out event with record engagement on the website and social media.