Behind the Curtain: Inside DealMAX with Kate Weaver

It’s possible that no one knows more about DealMAX than Kate Weaver, vice president of events at ACG. She joins us for the fourth episode of this year’s Inside DealMAX series to share the secrets behind the scenes and what attendees can look forward to this year, as well as hot tips and conference hacks only an insider would know.

Register today at dealmax.org. Read a transcript of the podcast below.

Middle Market Growth: Welcome to the Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast, an ACG production. I’m Carolyn Vallejo. We’re back with another episode of our Inside DealMAX series where we’re going behind the scenes with those involved in ACG’s flagship conference for the middle market, taking place April 27 through the 29 at the ARIA in Las Vegas. Throughout this series, we’ll be exploring M&A trends, what you can expect on the ground at DealMAX, and networking tips from dealmakers and industry experts who will be there right when the doors open. Today we’re talking with someone who works very hard behind the scenes of DealMAX to make sure that the event happens and appears seamless, from designing a lounge map that fosters networking and efficiency to organizing panels on topics that matter to you and so much more. ACG’s Kate Weaver, a wonderful colleague of mine, welcome to the podcast.

Kate Weaver: Thank you, Carolyn. Thanks for having me.

MMG: We’re so happy to have you here. Before we jump into the main interview, tell us a little bit about what you do at ACG.

KW: Sure. I’m the vice president of events here at ACG. I spend most of my time shaping the strategy of DealMAX and other ACG HQ events. Essentially what we do is we take the needs of our ACG audience and we craft experiences that deliver measurable outcomes for our attendees.

MMG: Awesome. And just for a little bit of fun, tell me about what your first job was and what was maybe a long-time life lesson that you took from it.

KW: My very first job was delivering the Hartford Courant—that’s Connecticut’s daily newspaper. I think I started when I was nine or 10 years old. Probably the life lesson that I learned is that if I didn’t get up in the morning and deliver that newspaper before school each day someone was opening their front door and not finding that newspaper at their front door. So understanding that people rely on you to do your job each day was the lesson. But I would say the hardest part of that job was once a month knocking on doors of subscribers and telling them how much they owed for the newspaper and collecting that money as a 10-year-old and asking people to pay their bills was definitely a stretch for a child, and just a wonderful experience.

MMG: Yeah. I imagine you learned a lot of adult lessons in that job and it sounds kind of like some of those lessons that you learned are definitely applicable to DealMAX. So I want to jump right into our DealMAX conversation, and you are a veteran. Tell me how many DealMAXes or you know, formerly known as Intergrowth, have you attended or organized?

KW: So this is my sixth Intergrowth slash DealMAX and I was here during the transition from Intergrowth to DealMAX. It’s been really fun to see the brand launch and grow and it’s been especially exciting to see just how much the event attendance has grown since we came back from COVID as well.

MMG: Oh yeah, it’s definitely huge. So over those years you have almost certainly seen and experienced some memorable things. I’m going to guess the days are long on the ground at these events and you’re kind of in the mix from the very start, before the very start, all the way through the very end. So maybe you can share with us your favorite DealMAX memory.

KW: So I wouldn’t put this in my favorite DealMAX memory, but probably the most impactful memory is our Sammy Hagar experience. If you recall, a few years ago, we had a big concert at DealMAX. We were super excited to plan it as an events team, not knowing how much work it was going to be to put on this concert at our opening party. It really felt like we were planning two entire meetings in one. It became a real drain on resources for our team and it was a fun experience. But what we learned from that was people are not deciding to come to DealMAX because of the bells and whistles that we’re adding from an event experience standpoint. They are really choosing to come to DealMAX because of the people and the networking that takes place. So being able to see we can offer this amazing experience for our attendees and they can, you know, come to a concert right in the ARIA in Las Vegas. I think being able to see that that was not a driver of decision making for DealMAX itself was informative to the group, to just reprioritize, what are people coming for? They want the one-to-one networking, they want those organic networking opportunities. Yes, we still like to talk about those surprises and delights for our attendees, but it’s at the end of the day, not the reason why people are coming.

MMG: No, it makes complete sense. People come for those one-on-one connections, those dealmaking opportunities of course. And you know, because you have attended and or organized so many DealMAXes in the past, and as I mentioned, you’re there from the very beginning. Before the beginning, you really have the boots on the ground kind of vision of how this event works. So I’m curious, when you start to plan each year’s DealMAX, which I know happens very far in advance, what are some of the very first decisions that you make?

KW: I think what people would be surprised to learn is that we don’t wait until DealMAX is over to start planning the following year. We actually are planning the following year before we’ve even executed the current year’s event. And that’s what I think makes DealMAX even better from one year to the next is we’re constantly looking at every aspect of the meeting and how can we make it better from year one to year two, what we do immediately following DealMAX is we look at all the feedback that we’ve gathered from the time we’ve launched registration until the last person has flown home at the end of DealMAX and we say, what are the major takeaways? What are the things that we could improve on? And that’s when we start to lay it all out on the table and decide what are we prioritizing for improving next year. Some of those things have a long runway. If we’re going to make a major improvement to the one-on-one scheduling software, a CG access, we might need a full year to implement those changes and updates. Whereas changing a lunch format or where we place the coffee, that’s obviously a, a much simpler decision to make. But we always need to look at all the recommendations for improving the following year and working backward based on what we decide we want to tackle for the upcoming year.

MMG: So definitely decisions large and small, but all of them considered to improve the attendee experience as much as possible. It sounds like, and you and I have both been to DealMAX multiple times, but for first-time attendees physically navigating this event can be really challenging. You know, we hear all the time people truly get their steps in thousands of steps, even tens of thousands of steps a day. Tell me a little bit about how you think about and plan for how attendees physically navigate this space.

KW: It all comes back to the recurring theme of efficiency. We want someone to navigate the space as efficiently as possible. We never want an attendee showing up and being confused about where their meeting is going to be or how to find water or coffee in the room. So, you know, that comes down to the event design itself. Where are we placing these things? How are people entering the room? How would someone expect to navigate where a table is for an investment bank who starts with the letter B versus the letter Z? Where would someone imagine that table would be in the landscape of this giant space that DealMAX encompasses? So we really kind of take a look at human behavior. Some of that is based on observation from the prior years. Some of it is based on just what we know about how people navigate spaces in general, and then we try to build in ways to make that even more efficient. So where do we place the signage? How do we communicate things in the onsite guide or at registration to make sure from the moment someone steps into DealMAX, they aren’t confused about where to go?

MMG: So as I mentioned, you think so much about the attendee experience. Obviously you’re eager to kind of act on attendee feedback, and I know you’ve touched on this a little bit, but I’m curious for this year, are there any areas where you’ve made changes directly as a result of attendee feedback?

KW: So last year there was a great story, someone stopped my colleague, Jennifer and I, they were very upset because they had an 8:00am meeting and the lounge wasn’t opening until 8:00am and they really wanted to get down to the meeting space so that they weren’t late for their meeting. And this person kind of turned to my colleague and I and said, well, I know you guys aren’t the ones that actually make the decisions, I’m just, I’m venting to you because I, I’m very upset about this. And Jennifer and I looked at each other and kind of laughed because we thought, well we actually are the people that make these decisions. And you know, that’s one of the changes that we’ve made for this year, we are officially opening the lounge at 7:45, but the first meeting doesn’t take place until 8:00am. So you know, that’s an example of like direct feedback. We heard you we’re listening, we’re now going to open the lounge and make sure you have a 15-minute buffer to grab some breakfast, find your seat, and make sure you’re not late for that first meeting. Year after year, we heard from attendees everything was great, we loved it all, but the walk to the cabanas is so long and we didn’t realize we were going to be late for our meeting. And you know, we worked with the ARIA on this, pushed them year after year. We, we keep getting this feedback, can we create a tunnel from the ACG DealMAX Lounge directly to the cabanas. We can’t create a tunnel, but we pushed them enough that we were able to actually create a new dedicated pathway for our attendees, specifically to have quicker, easier access from the DealMAX lounge to the cabanas. And I think we cut that walk down from 12 minutes to five or six minutes. So some of it is just really pushing and coming up with solutions based on the feedback that we’re getting from our attendees.

MMG: I imagine there are listeners right now who have attended multiple DealMAXes, maybe they’re veterans as well. And so they’re hearing some of these, you know, adjustments that you’re mentioning and they’re probably thinking, oh yeah, that’d be great. But at the same time, I’m sure there’s also listeners who might be attending DealMAX for the first time. Do you have any tips for these first timers?

KW: Yeah, and I’m actually really excited about one thing we’re doing this year, which is really diving into that first timer experience. I think as a group we rely a lot on the feedback that we get from our volunteers and who we call like our DealMAX pros. These are the people that really get how to navigate the space. But equally important is that group of individuals that’s showing up to DealMAX for the first time, especially the individuals that are not attending with a group of colleagues. So who is that solo attendee that’s entering this experience for the first time? What is their experience like and how can we learn from the experience of some of our first timers last year to make sure the experience for first timers this year is excellent. And one thing that we heard from some of our first timers who we’ve talked to directly is be open to conversation. This individual was very expressive about how friendly the DealMAX attendees are and he said, you just need to go and know that people are willing to talk, people are willing to listen, pull up a chair, ask if you can join someone for lunch, take a seat next to someone in a content session. They want to hear who you are, they want to tell you who they are. People are very open to these organic connections. And I think sometimes when you’re walking into an event space of 3,200 or more people, it seems like a lot of people know each other. There are just as many people like you that are willing to meet a new person, willing to make a connection. And I think you just need to be open to that experience of taking a seat and introducing yourself.

MMG: Is there anything that you are maybe doing differently already for first timers based on last year’s feedback?

KW: Yeah, so a couple things. One, we decided that it would be really helpful for first timers that don’t have a colleague attending to maybe be able to build connections prior to arriving at DealMAX. So we have a private LinkedIn group where hundreds of people are already lined up to join this group and they’ll be able to start mixing and mingling on LinkedIn, building those connections prior to the conference. We also are going to have a dedicated first-time attendee webinar, which my hope is that it becomes sort of a more personal Q&A. I think it’s super helpful when it feels like everybody knows all the things to have a platform where you can just ask the question and have others hear the question that you’re asking. So giving a way for these first timers to, to ask their specific questions about how Access works or about how to navigate the DealMAX experience and environment. And then finally, and this is really exciting to us also, is that first day on site in Las Vegas, we’re having a Sunday evening welcome reception that is really designed for first-time attendees. Again, we want to give them an opportunity right when they arrive at DealMAX to meet friendly faces so that they don’t feel like they’re navigating the event alone. And we’re excited to have that experience right at the front end of DealMAX.

MMG: And what about your best conference hack? I love asking this question. You get so many great travel tips, but you in particular must have some great insight. What’s your favorite conference hack?

KW: I think for DealMAX specifically, the more you can prepare ahead of time, the better your experience on site will be. So the attendee list is already available. We’re getting ready to launch ACG access in just a couple weeks, but now is the time to start looking at that attendee list and figuring out who’s going to be there, which one-to-one meetings do I want to prioritize, what are the content sessions I might want to go to. So for that first time attendee, really prioritizing that pre-meeting work can go a long way. My tip for DealMAX pros: Don’t over schedule yourself. We see this all the time. People just schedule back to back to back meetings. They don’t schedule a time for a bio break, they don’t schedule a time to eat or to hydrate and they regret that at the end of the day. So I think, you know, we’re always looking at these two audiences at DealMAX, sort of the newcomer and the newbie experience. Those that might need to fill their time with more organic networking, how do we support them? And then also the DealMAX pro who’s arriving with that full meeting schedule. I think there’s learning on both sides regardless of who you are and what your experience is going to be, we just really want to support all of our attendees at DealMAX.

MMG: And on that note, to close this out, you’ve mentioned a couple changes and improvements for this year’s DealMAX, but is there anything else that you’re particularly excited to unveil this year?

KW: This year our lounge is going to feel a little different. We are really expanding our use of the space. Typically, all of our investment bank deal tables are consolidated to one room of the DealMAX Lounge. We’ve spread them out amongst both rooms. We hope this provides a more cohesive lounge experience, supporting more organic networking as people are moving more fluidly throughout the space. We also have sold out of space earlier than ever this year. So we’re going to be experimenting with adding some additional space upstairs in the content room area and just really encouraging our attendees to move about all of the DealMAX space from the first floor lounge area to the third floor content area.

MMG: Amazing. Alright. ACG’s own Kate Weaver—just like if she didn’t wake up early, people wouldn’t get their morning news, if Kate weren’t working so hard behind the curtain, DealMAX attendees would not get this incredible experience that they definitely get every year. So Kate, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and sharing your insights.

KW: Thanks for having me, Carolyn.

MMG: And if you’re interested in joining us at the ARIA and in experiencing DealMAX firsthand, you can register today at dealmax.org.

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

The Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast is produced by the Association for Corporate Growth. To hear more interviews with middle-market influencers, subscribe to the Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud.