Keap, a marketing automation platform for entrepreneurs, is rebooting its IKON conference in the Valley this year after a hiatus and a pandemic shift last year.
The company said this year’s event would be a hybrid of in-person meeting and virtual live streaming for people to connect from afar. The event is scheduled for November 3-5 at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas in Scottsdale.
Keap, which is based in Chandler, held its first IKON conference for its customers to meet, connect and hear product updates back in 2006. The conference took place annually until 2017 when the company canceled the event, citing high costs at the time.
When Keap co-founder and CEO Clate Mask returned to the helm of the company early last year, he said bringing the conference back was one of the first things he did to revitalize the company; But Clate, and the world at large, did not know what lurked around the bend when Keap announced IKON’s return in February 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced IKON into a virtual format last year, but Mask said that having the event again after years of not doing it made him realize how important it was.
“It was different, but just to bring customers and partners together again, it felt like ... it literally felt like a family reunion,” he said in an interview. “Honestly, I had forgotten how much I love it.”
He said he expects about 500 people to attend in-person in Scottsdale this fall, a much smaller figure than the thousands that poured into the Phoenix Convention Center in years past.
Mask also said the company was not planning to have a famous headliner addressing the conference this year. In the past speakers like Jillian Michaels and Dave Ramsey talked to Keap customers about entrepreneurship.
The smaller gathering, Mask said, would give the conference a more intimate feeling and allow people to really connect. He said the event’s format will continue to evolve in the coming years, but he said the hybrid aspect is likely permanent as it gives more people access to the event.
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