Events

Plan events as a GTM motion. Own the event decision, strategy, narrative brief, activation map, follow-up logic, and measurement plan. Do not become an event production or logistics planner. Catering, AV, venue sourcing, travel, and booth shipping are out of scope unless an operational constraint changes the GTM plan.

Before planning

• Read ../_shared/evidence-gaps.md and ../_shared/ssot-consumption.md.
• Read ../_shared/segment-selection.md when selecting or prioritizing audiences.
• Check .agents/product-marketing-context.md (or legacy .claude/) when no applicable SSOT covers the needed context.
• Identify the event, date or planning window, role, business goal, target audience, resources or budget constraints, and decision owner. Do not stop for missing facts. Mark them Assumed or Gap and state what would resolve them.
• When an SSOT exists, use the project manifest and relevant canon files. Record the SSOT version or files used. Never alter canonical files.

Workflow

1. Decide whether the event merits investment

State the event role: hosting, sponsoring or exhibiting, speaking, attending for meetings, webinar or virtual event, executive dinner or roundtable, conference or trade show, or customer or community event. Mixed roles are allowed; describe each motion distinctly.

Choose one primary objective and any secondary objectives from pipeline generation, pipeline acceleration, customer expansion, category or brand building, product education, community, and customer advocacy. Explain why this event merits investment now, how it supports the broader GTM strategy, and what alternative or opportunity cost is relevant when known. Do not manufacture ROI, attendance, pipeline, or conversion estimates. Mark unsupported estimates as Assumed or Gap and identify the evidence needed.

2. Set the event strategy

Use relevant attendee jobs, skepticism and proof needs to establish credible event value; carry those insights and persona references to asset owners.

Define the target segment, personas and accounts, event objective, theme or thesis, audience offer, CTA, desired buyer action, sales involvement, success criteria, and pre-event, during-event, and post-event motions. Explain the audience problem the event addresses and why this event should exist beyond general awareness.

Select metrics that test the stated objective. Set a target only when the user or a source provides a basis. Separate leading indicators from business outcomes. Treat attributed or influenced pipeline as influence unless causal incrementality has been demonstrated.

3. Build the event narrative from canon

Use the approved SSOT as authority for category, positioning, ICP, persona priorities, core problem, value proposition, pillars, differentiators, product truth, and approved claims. Adapt emphasis and wording for event format, persona, theme, and funnel stage while preserving canonical meaning.

Capture the event theme, central audience problem, core message, supporting messages, approved proof, CTA, and relevant session, booth/demo, or executive talking points. Do not invent new product claims or independently redefine strategy. If the event requires a material narrative that conflicts with canon, flag the conflict and route evidence through ssot-context-loop. Do not silently change canon. A missing or stale SSOT element remains a gap, not permission to guess.

4. Orchestrate activation through asset owners

The event strategy owns the brief, audience, timing, purpose, dependencies, and handoff. The downstream skill owns the actual channel artifact. Route only the assets the plan needs:

Keep traceability where the project can support it: EVENT STRATEGY ID → SSOT VERSION → DOWNSTREAM SKILL → ASSET. Do not rewrite downstream channel artifacts inside this skill.

5. Plan segmented follow-up

Specify owner, timing, purpose, and next step for relevant groups: attended and engaged, attended with low engagement, registered but absent, target account met or not met, existing customer, open opportunity, and speaker, VIP, or partner. Combine groups when their next action is genuinely the same. Route message drafting to the channel skill that owns it. Include consent, suppression, and sales handoff constraints supplied by the user or project.

6. Measure, learn, and hand off

Choose only metrics relevant to the objective. Possible leading indicators include target accounts invited, registrations, target-account attendance, meetings booked or completed, engagement, and qualified follow-ups. Possible outcomes include opportunities created or accelerated, influenced pipeline, expansion, post-event conversion, reusable content, and customer or market learning. Define data source, owner, measurement window, and baseline/target only where known. Separate observed outcomes from attribution claims. Record learning and evidence that could inform future event decisions; route any proposed canon change through the SSOT process.

Required output: event strategy

Every plan contains these sections. Mark a section Not applicable with a reason when the event type does not need it. Missing evidence is never a reason to omit a section.

1. Inputs and assumptions: Sources and context used, with Sourced, Assumed, or Gap labels per ../_shared/evidence-gaps.md.
2. Event decision: Why this event and why now, role, objective, audience, broader GTM role, expected outcomes, and major assumptions/evidence gaps.
3. Event strategy: Type, audience, objective, theme, offer, CTA, desired buyer action, sales role, and success definition.
4. Canonical messaging inputs: SSOT/client, canon version or mapped files, relevant approved elements, and any missing, stale, or conflicting inputs.
5. Event narrative: Core message, supporting messages, proof, CTA, and applicable speaker/session, booth/demo, or executive angles.

6. Activation plan:

   Phase

   Asset / motion

   Audience

   Purpose

   Owning skill

   Timing

   Status

7. Sales motion: Before, during, and after event.
8. Follow-up segmentation: Segment, treatment/next action, owner, timing, and rationale.
9. Measurement plan: Leading indicators and business outcomes, with source, owner, window, and targets only where supported.
10. Evidence gaps: Ranked Assumed and Gap items using the shared format.

Final checks

• The chosen event role and objective are explicit, and the audience is defined.
• The event thesis, offer, CTA, desired buyer action, and success criteria align.
• Narrative preserves canonical meaning; conflicts are routed to SSOT review.
• Activation and follow-up name the downstream asset owner and handoff.
• Metrics fit the objective, distinguish leading indicators from outcomes, and do not state influence as causal revenue.
• Claims, estimates, and audience choices carry evidence labels. No unsupported ROI or pipeline estimate is presented as fact.
• Every required output section is present or marked Not applicable with reason.

Boundaries and routing

• messaging-consistency-audit checks event narratives and assets vertically against SSOT and horizontally against other market-facing assets. Route event strategy-level narrative conflict to events; route each asset correction to its owning channel skill.
• output-quality-check checks whether this event strategy meets the requirements in this skill. It does not check company-message alignment.
• ssot-context-loop owns canon review and approval. Repeated narrative conflict or evidence of stale canon is a review request, never an automatic edit.
• Detailed event production and logistics are outside this skill's core scope.

Related skills

• launch-strategy: event as one component of a product or feature launch.
• marketing-copy, email-sequence, cold-email, social-content, sales-enablement: channel artifacts and sales execution.
• analytics-tracking: tracking implementation and instrumentation.
• messaging-consistency-audit: SSOT alignment and cross-asset narrative checks.
• output-quality-check: independent check against this skill's declared quality bar.
• ssot-context-loop: governed canon review and approval.