Give people a reason to come.
A weekly newsletter introduced the speakers and sessions. Social posts gave individual sessions, mentors and music their own space.
Case study:
Venture Café Phoenix
A summer off became ten Thursdays together.
In 2025, Venture Café Phoenix closed for summer. In 2026, the team ran a new series. We handled the emails, social posts and podcast promotion that kept it in view.
- Client
- Venture Café Phoenix, a free weekly gathering for Phoenix's innovation community
- Work
- Email, social media and podcast promotion
- Since
- May 2026
- 1,575total visits
- 158visits per gathering, on average
- 339first-time guests
- 85Net Promoter Score
Summer series · Ten Thursday Gatherings · June 25–September 3, 2026. Visits include repeat attendance.
A new series needed a place in people's week.
Venture Café Phoenix is a free weekly gathering for the city's innovation community. In 2025, the team paused from mid-June to early September.
For 2026, they planned Extraordinary Summer: Real Founder Stories. The job was to introduce the new series, explain each week's program and keep reminding people to come.
Kathleen Celmins, founder of boomp.net, took over the marketing in May. Until then, the routine was one newsletter and one carousel a week, with no regular reminder.
One program.
Every channel connected.
The speakers and sessions became the newsletter, the posts, the reminder and the recap. One person kept the work moving each week.
| Each week | Before May 2026 | Summer 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 newsletter | About 3 emails: invitations, reminders, recaps and podcast updates | |
| Social | 1 carousel shared on Instagram and LinkedIn | About 16 posts across Instagram and LinkedIn |
| Total | About 3 emails and posts | About 19 emails and posts |
Over the summer: 163 posts across LinkedIn and Instagram, including 37 videos and 19 carousels.
Remind them before Thursday.
A Thursday email put the gathering back in view. Before May, there was no regular reminder.
Keep the story going afterward.
Friday recaps and podcast promotion carried the conversations beyond the evening. Thirteen podcast episodes ran from June 25 to September 24.
One evening.
Eleven reasons to notice.
For the 200th Thursday Gathering on August 6, we made eleven posts. The main event, individual sessions, music and mentors each had a place. A sponsor thank-you followed.
214 people attended. It was the largest gathering of the summer series.
The summer held its own.
Average visits per gathering stayed close to spring and fall. The year before, there was no summer series to compare.
| Period | Average visits |
|---|---|
| WinterJanuary–February | |
| SpringMarch–May | |
| Summer seriesJune 25–September 3 | |
| FallSeptember 10–October 15 |
*Spring is estimated from the year-to-date total. Each bar starts at zero.
More email. Readers stayed.
Monthly emails rose from about 5 to about 14. The reported open rate stayed between 44% and 46% all summer.
More people registered ahead.
Pre-registration is optional. Typical weekly registrations were 20% below the prior year in January and February. By September to mid-October, they were 26% above it.
What the numbers tell us
The new series recorded 1,575 visits and welcomed 339 first-time guests. Those are event results during the marketing work. They do not tell us how many people came because of it.
Speakers, topics, timing and word of mouth also affect attendance. Without a measured source for each guest, we cannot assign a share to email or social media.
Sources: GatherUs check-in records, Mailchimp campaign reports for the Venture Café Phoenix list, and Venture Café Phoenix's 2026 sponsor deck. Figures read October 21, 2026.
Your next event.
Kathleen on the marketing.
This is the kind of work our Marketing partner plan covers. For $1,800 a month, you get regular email, social content and one person keeping your marketing connected. We agree on the scope before work starts.