By Tracy Judge, CMP, CEO & Founder of Soundings
Tracy with Rachel Andrews, Global Head of Meetings & Events at Cvent
Why I spent London at the tables
The best conversations at a conference rarely happen on the main stage. They happen at a small table, with a coffee going cold, when someone finally says the thing they've been thinking about for months.
That's why, when I headed to London for Cvent CONNECT Europe this October at the InterContinental London – The O2, I didn't want to just attend. I wanted to be available. So I signed up to host four Community Conversations over two afternoons and opened my calendar to anyone who wanted to talk about event teams, staffing, and careers.
Here's what I heard and what I'm bringing back home.
A table, 25 minutes, and whoever shows up
Community Conversations are about as simple as a session format gets. Attendees book a seat through the Cvent CONNECT app, head to the table, and talk. No slides, no stage, no podium.
I loved it. A small table changes the dynamic. People don't sit back and listen; they lean in and contribute. Within a few minutes, the room is less about me hosting and more about a group of peers comparing notes.
I hosted four of them over two afternoons:
Freelance Talent Meet Up
Let's Talk Staffing Solutions
Future Proofing Your Event Career
Building Teams Around Strengths
The freelancers and the people who hire them
I deliberately put these two sessions back to back. The first was for freelance event professionals. The second was for the leaders who build and staff teams. Same afternoon, same space, two sides of the same conversation.
Freelance Talent Meet Up. The freelancers at my table weren't looking for gigs so much as for community. Independent work can be lonely, and many said conferences like this are where they reconnect with peers and stay sharp on the technology clients expect them to know.
Let's Talk Staffing Solutions. Thirty minutes later, the questions came from the other direction. How do you scale up for a peak season without carrying headcount all year? How do you bring in outside help without losing quality or institutional knowledge? Those are exactly the questions we built Soundings to answer, and it was energizing to hear them asked so openly.
What struck me most was how much these two groups want the same thing. Freelancers want meaningful, well-matched work. Teams want reliable people who can step in and deliver. The gap between them is usually just a good connection.
Careers and the teams we build
Day two turned more personal, and honestly, these were the conversations I enjoyed most.
Future Proofing Your Event Career. Our industry is changing quickly, with new tools, new formats, and AI showing up in nearly every workflow. The people at this table weren't anxious about it so much as curious. We talked about which skills travel well no matter what the technology does next: judgment onsite, relationships with stakeholders, and the ability to learn a new platform fast.
Building Teams Around Strengths. This is a topic close to my heart. Too many event teams are built around job titles rather than what people are genuinely great at. When you staff around strengths, people do their best work and stay longer. Several leaders at the table shared how they're rethinking roles this way.
What I brought home from London
Flexibility is no longer a nice-to-have. Across all four tables, the same idea kept surfacing: event teams need to flex up and down without losing quality. Agile staffing isn't a workaround anymore. It's becoming how strong teams are built.
Freelancers are a strategic asset, not a stopgap. The best independent event professionals bring cross-industry experience that a permanent team rarely gets. The organisations that treat them as true partners get far more from them.
Careers are built on people, not platforms. Technology will keep changing. What lasts is the network you build and the strengths you invest in. That's exactly what a conference like this is for.
Showing up matters. Booking a table and opening my calendar was the best decision I made all week. I came home with new friends, new ideas, and a long list of follow-ups.
Let's keep the conversation going
To everyone who pulled up a chair in the Riverview Foyer: thank you. You made those 25-minute slots the highlight of my trip.
If we didn't get to meet in London, I'd still love to connect. At Soundings, we help organizations staff and develop their event teams through our network of 4,200+ event professionals, supporting everything from planning and technology to registration and onsite. Whether you're planning next year's program or thinking about your own next step, please feel free to reach out to hello@soundingsconnect.com.
See you at the next table!