Alon Alroy, 39, is the co-founder, CMO and CCO of Bizzabo. He's based in New York.
What I do:
I help marketers and event organizers from world-leading brands promote, manage and maximize their professional events to create memorable and impactful experiences.
Why I love my job:
I work with the most amazing and talented people in the world. Our Bizzaboers inspire me and motivate me every day. Our customers include some of the most innovative brands, and we’re all on a mission to bring people together to create impactful experiences. What else can you ask for?
My career journey:
I began my career in the Israeli Air Force special forces, and then I jumped headfirst into analyzing start-up investments. At university in Israel and while participating in the prestigious Zell Entrepreneurship program, I met my co-founders Boaz and Eran. In 2012, I moved to NYC to build Bizzabo’s go-to-market teams and assumed the role of CMO and CCO of Bizzabo, the world's first Event Experience Operating System for hybrid, virtual and in-person events.
My greatest career accomplishment:
While I have held several leadership roles prior to Bizzabo, building a category-defining platform is definitely my life’s work and my biggest achievement. I moved to New York City in late 2012 without real funding, few connections and little knowledge about the event industry. I had to find my way in the big city, build a team, a network and sell a dream. Today, Bizzabo is 400 people strong and growing. We have raised almost $200M from world-leading investors, and we’re only getting started.
In 2021, I and the Bizzabo team introduced an entirely new category—Event Experience—and launched Bizzabo’s Event Experience Operating System, replacing Event Management Software for good. The Event Experience OS is a comprehensive open platform and a crucial part of the marketing tech stack. The Bizzabo team redesigned its best-in-class event platform from the ground up to meet the needs of modern event experience leaders. To drive this vision forward, Bizzabo acquired four companies in six months—Whalebone, x.ai, Klik and TeeVid. Each brings premiere products, technologists and infrastructure to holistically incorporate the most cutting-edge capabilities to power engagement and networking in Bizzabo’s offering.
Throughout the past few years, we positioned Bizzabo as a meaningful force in event software, and were named as a leader on Forrester’s Wave for Event Management Solutions 2021. Personally, I was grateful to be recognized as one of Business Insider’s 2021 MarTech Leaders and Eventex’s “100 Most Influential People in the Event Industry.” In February 2022, Business Intelligence Group named Bizzabo a winner of its 2022 BIG Innovation Awards.
How I helped my organization during COVID:
In March 2020, the pandemic nearly forced us to shut down. Our commitment to our people, values and mission helped us survive and thrive. We embraced creativity, problem-solving and customer-centricity, making lemonade from the lemons we were served.
Bizzabo is on a mission to unleash the power of professional events to create impactful and rewarding experiences. In 2020, we were the first event technology company to launch a virtual solution after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Just weeks into the global shutdown, our Event Success Platform seamlessly transitioned to supporting virtual, in-person, and hybrid experiences within a single platform. This first-of-its-kind solution received industry recognition.
We have embraced this time of pandemic disruption, using it to fuel the pursuit of new solutions and creative applications of emerging technology to break down isolation and disconnectedness. By choosing a bold approach, we keep Bizzabo at the forefront of the event industry’s ongoing transformation.
The time I averted a complete event disaster:
COVID-19 created unprecedented global disruption affecting every industry, including the events industry. In late March 2020, we weren’t sure how we could continue. The pandemic forced us to completely rethink our approach—we nearly shut down, and in fact, we did have to lay off part of our workforce—but fortunately had the privilege of hiring them back later. Bizzabo is our people, and so as thoughtful as we could be as an organization, we worked to strengthen that level of trust. There were challenging moments, but we refused to lose the human touch, even as we made the difficult decisions that were right for the business. So we worked to build clarity and, as we pivoted to adapt our focus to support virtual, hybrid and in-person events, we also worked hard to maintain the culture.
On May 5, 2020, we had our first virtual event just a few short weeks after the pandemic shut everything down. Within 24 hours of our announcement and registration launch, we had 100 people register. We didn’t have a product yet. We didn’t know how to run a virtual event, but our teams put their heads together and said, “We can do this.” We reached out to leaders of IMAX and other top companies, putting together an incredible lineup of speakers. Suddenly, we had more than 4,000 people registered. We worried that our platform couldn’t sustain the scale, but we said, “Let’s try it.”
Our production team was sitting in a room, trying to figure out the logistics as we realized the complexity involved in running a virtual production agency. In times of adversity like this, there wasn’t anyone who had the knowledge to either define what a virtual event was, but we knew we had to take a stab at it. As a leader, I had to keep grinding, making decisions, rethinking our approach and trying to provide answers.
We didn’t know what to expect when we hosted that first virtual event on May 5, but the feedback we received—from the leaders of Peloton, Gainsight and Twitch—was positive and optimistic, providing the fuel we needed to continue innovating in the event space.
My most memorable event experience in the past year:
In our commitment to lead by example and help the industry experience and develop new formats, we conceptualized, planned and hosted Agents of Hybrid, a behind-the-scenes look at the future of events. This two-day event, held virtually and in person, brought together 5,000 marketing and event professionals from all over the world. Our goal was to deliver a fully immersive experience in a safe space where attendees could explore how hybrid events blend production, strategy and technology to create free-flowing exchanges of information while delivering a shared, integrated and personal experience for everyone. Ultimately, we delivered a unified hybrid experience that created the best experience—rather than the same experience—for each audience by moving from a siloed to a shared experience, creating value and driving impact for everyone.
Best advice I’ve ever received:
Nothing beats an in-person meeting. When you want to truly close a deal, meet face to face.
Impressive stats I’m responsible for:
I’m proud that Bizzabo has powered hundreds of thousands of events attended by millions of people from around the world.
What’s next?
I’m passionate about the next generation of events, which will include in-person, virtual and hybrid formats. Our industry has gone through its most significant technological transformation to date. The best consumer experiences are those that integrate physical and digital, like Amazon and Uber. Exciting things are awaiting attendees in 2022—stay tuned!
What I do outside of work:
I love surrounding myself with friends, and I do my best to bring people together outside of work, too. I love traveling the world, meeting new people and exploring different cultures.
I sit on the board of a nonprofit organization that provides access to tech education to kids from rural areas in Israel.
Above all, I love spending time with my wife and three amazing kids.
Dream vacation:
I’d love to take a year off and travel Southeast Asia with my family.
Connect with Alroy on LinkedIn and Twitter.
“Connect x BizBash 40 Under 40” is sponsored by VDA, an experiential marketing and event design agency based in Massachusetts that specializes in custom live, virtual and hybrid experiences.
