Hub Day 3 Highlights from Maria Pergolino

Andrea.zils

Yesterday on Slack, Anne-Julie Balsamo referred to these daily Hub reports as “the ‘what happened in Vegas’” emails. I don’t want anything that’s happened at Hub to stay here, so I’m thrilled to share this third and final message from Hub 2018 with all of you. 

It’s been a fantastic three days — so wonderful that Alfonso Ribeiro, our master of ceremonies, gave Anaplan a shout-out on Instagram, saying: “what a great company. They’re gonna change the world.” 

Overall, 1,411 attendees checked in on Wednesday. That’s 98 percent of those who registered, which is amazing. 205 gallons of coffee were consumed by Hub attendees Wednesday morning (up from 175 gallons on Tuesday), and 60 gallons of Bloody Marys and Mimosas were served. Masseuses in the Expo Hall gave 224 chair massages on Wednesday, and 576 cotton candies were spun. Attendees were on the Hub app all day long—checking the agenda more than 15,000 times, sharing pictures, sending messages, and more.  

Live streams of Wednesday’s general sessions were watched by 491 unique viewers. Our executives had 43 meetings with customers and prospects.  

I was so proud to co-host our first Diversity Lunch with Marilyn Miller on Wednesday. Our guest, Charu Sharma, is author of three books and started the mentorship program at LinkedIn. I loved what Charu had to say, and I love the timing: March is Women’s History Month, and today is International Women’s Day. Therese Crane captured the event beautifully on Twitter. 

The Influencer Relations team welcomed 20 media and analyst attendees and arranged 21 media interviews and 49 analyst interviews with Anaplan leaders and customers. The team also issued four press releases: Anaplan Announces Partner Awards and Launch of New PartnerConnect Program at Hub 2018, Anaplan Announces New User Capabilities for its Connected Planning Platform at Hub 2018, and Anaplan Unveils the Future of Connected Planning at Hub 2018. (A fifth press release on customer awards will be distributed as soon as the customers named in it give their approval. Our PR crew also coordinated two partner press releases: Workiva and Anaplan Announce Platform Integration, and Digital Cyber and OpenSymmetry Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Delivery of Anaplan “Customer-first” Connected Planning Solutions. 

In addition to going out on the newswire, our press releases were shared on LinkedIn and got engagement rates 33 to 250 percent higher than average. Our Facebook audience had similarly high engagement rates, 50 to 200 percent higher than industry averages.

Media response during Hub has already been great, with coverage in SiliconAngle: With its big bet on connected planning, Anaplan has high hopes for 2018; MarTech Advisor: Anaplan Unveils New User Capabilities for its Connected Planning platform at Hub 2018; Data Economy: Anaplan Could Build Out Data Centre Estate In Response To Rising Global Sales; and Big Data Insider: Modernes Enterprise Planning mit Anaplan. 

In social media, the #AnaplanHub hashtag got 11,764,618 Twitter impressions over three days. Twitter engagement has been 2 percent (the industry average is 0.8 percent), and our base of followers has grown. In addition to Alfonso Ribeiro’s Instragram post above (which, as I write this, has received more than 6,300 likes), other influencers sharing from Hub include Cindy Zhou of Constellation Research, Chandana Gopal of IDC, CIO.com columnist David Mario Smith, Hyoun Park of Amalgam Insights, Katherine Jones of Mercer, Albert Pangof Apps Run the World, and Dan Swinhoe of IDG Connect.  

Our customer marketing team patrolled the Expo Hall and got 170 individuals (112 of them customers) to complete quick iPad surveys. 97 percent of survey-takers agreed that by connecting planning processes companies can be better prepared for disruption, 98 percent agreed that connected planning brings companies competitive advantages, and 99 percent said that companies that connect planning processes work more efficiently. They got 128 separate agreements from customers to present at webinars and events, speak to media and analysts, or participate in customer stories. The team also had eight attendees (including people from Facebook, Cisco, and Tableau) to participate in quick “Vox Pop”–style video interviews about the Hub experience, and conducted formal customer story videos with Unilab, Criteo, TELUS, the City of Tallahassee, and Abilene Christian University.

While we want to be data-driven, we’re also drawn to the stories and sentiments that the Hub community shared. Here are a few favorites collected by our Customer Experience team:

• "The wide array of breakout sessions was incredibly helpful. From customer success stories to in-depth learning modules, there was something for everyone."
• "I am on CAB [Customer Advisory Board] and appreciate the insight into the roadmap. Anaplan has some great product plans, and [I’m] looking forward to future releases."
• "Excited to see the whole lot of features in the near future."
• "Great product keynote!!!"
• "Great event! Such a difference compared to the last year!"
• "Content is great! And the keynote speaker [Malcolm Gladwell] was awesome!"
• "The event has lots of energy!" 

A prospect said this about Hub: "Very well-orchestrated. Great getting questions answered from other customers."  And another: "The Anaplan team top to bottom was amazing and 100 percent engaged. Great event."

I couldn’t agree more. 

I finished Monday’s and Tuesday’s emails by thanking those of you who kept the lights on while the rest of us were at Hub. Today, I want to thank the entire crew that made Hub happen, and give special kudos and congratulations to Megan Chenoweth, Emma Chapman, Georgina Brown, Andrew Harris, and Jenna Moore. I am so grateful to all of you.