When Apptio approached us in March 2020, they already had a few events scheduled for their clients in Europe: IT decision makers at larger enterprises. Apptio is a North-American company that develops technology business management solutions to make investments in IT measurable and comparable.

The past few years Apptio had organized interviews together with the TBM Council: an international community of technology leaders committed to advancing the discipline of technology business management. But travel and gathering restrictions forced both to look for alternatives. That is why they consulted DDG to discuss the possibility to switch to an online event format. Audiences were existing clients and European prospects that are targeted in Apptio demand generation and sales acceleration activities.

Liselore Ligtermoet, commercial responsible at DDG: “First we considered several interviews on different locations in Europe, but then we decided to start with one location and have a few consecutive interviews in the same studio-setting.” A round-table discussion in a TBM Council-style background, with a total of twelve speakers, both in the studio and remote.

Managing Disruption

The first live sessions with Managing Disruption as central theme were in May: IT Leaders Series 2020. Viewers were also invited to participate in breakout sessions with Apptio consultants in different languages: English, French and German. This enabled interaction with important viewers.

The roundtable recordings are now part of the IT Leaders Series content library. Intention is to add fresh video content this autumn. The program includes both pre-recorded interviews and live online sessions made in our studio in the Netherlands.

With this roundtable event Apptio and TBM Council have a format that is future-proof. The online events are embedded in other European marketing activities and contribute to Apptio’s online presence.

As event marketing agency DDG took care of the total production, including:

• Pre-, during and after event activities
• Concept creation
• Event Design
• Moderator selection
• Selecting the right studio
• Suggesting the right platform for viewer interaction
• Provide entertainment, gimmicks and goodies
• Plan the event from A-Z
• Ensure the smooth running of the online series