Meet Adrienne!
Adrienne Gardner, MBA, has spent more than two decades helping venues, hospitality businesses, and event professionals improve the customer experience.With a background spanning venue management, event operations, revenue leadership, and sales strategy, Adrienne has helped organizations generate millions in event revenue while building sales systems that are practical, repeatable, and easier for teams to use. Adrienne is known for delivering straightforward, engaging presentations that give audiences ideas they can put into practice right away.
She covers a range of topics including sales process, buyer behavior, follow-up strategy, and team performance, always with a focus on making the work more effective and less frustrating. Whether speaking to small groups or large audiences, Adrienne’s goal is simple: help people rethink what they’re doing, make better decisions, and get better results.
Full Group Session:
The Last-Minute Buyer: Understanding the New Event Decision-Maker
The way events are being booked has changed — and it’s not a temporary shift. Buyers are waiting longer, deciding faster, and expecting businesses to keep up. But most sales and operational systems were built for a different kind of customer: one who planned further ahead and moved at a slower pace.
Using real industry data and behavioral insights, this keynote explores the gap between how buyers make decisions today and how businesses are still trying to respond. The result? Compressed timelines, staffing pressure, and missed opportunities.
Presentation Takeaways:
A clear understanding of how today’s event buyers actually make decisions — and why traditional timelines no longer apply
A framework for handling short-window inquiries without overwhelming your team or sacrificing quality
How to adjust your sales approach and communication style to match faster, more decisive buyers
How to apply small, continuous improvements to keep up with shifts in buyer behavior