Jeniffer Barros, Marketing Events Manager, APAC at Staffbase, shares how successful event marketing extends far beyond attendance metrics. In this interview, she explores building measurable business impact through strategic planning, regional personalization, AI-powered efficiency, sales alignment, and meaningful human connections that transform events into long-term drivers of pipeline growth and customer relationships.
Welcome to the interview series, Jeniffer. Could you tell us about yourself and your journey as a marketer?
I’m currently the Marketing Events Manager for APAC at Staffbase, where I lead marketing events across the Asia Pacific region. I love bringing together strategy, creativity, and execution to create experiences that connect people and drive business growth.
I’ve been working in marketing and events for around five years. I started in event logistics while studying Marketing and Communication in Australia and later joined Staffbase, where I found my passion for B2B event marketing.
Before that, I built my career in Brazil. I have a degree in Human Resources and worked in accounting, managed a real estate agency, and worked in real estate sales. That diverse background taught me how to build relationships, stay organised, and always think from both the customer and business perspectives.
What I enjoy most is turning ideas into experiences that bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and create real business impact.
What are the key ingredients of an event marketing campaign that delivers measurable business impact?
I believe every successful event marketing campaign starts with a clear business objective. Rather than focusing only on registrations or attendance, it’s important to define what success looks like from the beginning.
For me, the key ingredients are understanding your target audience, creating content that addresses real business challenges, aligning closely with the sales team, and having a strong follow-up strategy. The event itself is just one part of the journey; the engagement before and after the event is often where the greatest value is created.
Finally, measuring the right KPIs, such as audience quality, engagement, pipeline influence, and customer relationships, helps demonstrate the true business impact of an event.
APAC is a diverse region. How do you balance a consistent brand experience while adapting events to local markets?
One of the things I enjoy most about working across APAC is that no two markets are the same. While maintaining a consistent brand and message is important, I’ve learned that successful events need to reflect the local market.
I like to keep the core objective, brand experience, and key messaging consistent, while adapting the content, speakers, format, and even the networking style to what resonates with each audience. Understanding local business culture and partnering with regional teams is essential.
For me, the goal is for every attendee to have a relevant and authentic experience while still recognising they’re part of the same global brand.
Event success goes beyond attendance. Which KPIs do you prioritize to demonstrate business value and ROI?
For me, event success goes beyond attendance. Registrations and attendance are important, but I focus more on business impact.
The KPIs I prioritise are audience quality, engagement with target accounts, meaningful conversations, follow-up engagement, and the opportunities created for the sales team. I also look at attendee feedback and how the event content continues to deliver value after the event.
Ultimately, success is about building stronger relationships and supporting the company’s business goals.
“The event itself is just one part of the journey; the engagement before and after the event is often where the greatest value is created.”
What has been your most challenging event marketing campaign, and what did it teach you?
One of the biggest challenges in event marketing is that no matter how well you plan, something unexpected will almost always happen. Whether it’s a speaker cancellation, a last-minute venue change, or a campaign that needs to pivot quickly, I’ve learned that flexibility is essential—believe me, I learned that through experience!
One thing I’ve also learned is that you can never do it alone. The best events happen when everyone is aligned around the same goal, and you have a team you can rely on. Open communication, collaboration, and supporting each other make all the difference when challenges arise.
That’s what I genuinely love about event marketing. Every event is different, every challenge is an opportunity to learn, and seeing months of planning come to life is incredibly rewarding. There’s nothing better than watching people connect, share ideas, and leave having had a meaningful experience. That’s what makes all the hard work worthwhile.
AI is reshaping event marketing. Where do you see it adding the most value, and where is human creativity still essential?
I think AI is already transforming event marketing by helping us work smarter. It can save a huge amount of time by supporting research, content creation, audience segmentation, campaign optimisation, and analysing event performance. That allows marketers to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time focusing on strategy.
But when it comes to events, I believe people will always make the biggest difference. Even if the topic is AI, people attend events to hear real experiences, challenges, lessons learned, and different perspectives from other people. That’s what creates value.
Whether it’s the speakers sharing their expertise, the organisers bringing people together, or the conversations between attendees during a networking break, those human connections are what make an event memorable and relevant.
For me, the future isn’t AI versus people; it’s AI helping marketers create more time for what really matters: building meaningful experiences and genuine human connections.
What advice would you give marketers looking to turn events into a consistent driver of pipeline and business growth?
My biggest advice is to stop thinking of events as a one-day activity. The event is just one moment in a much bigger journey.
Start with a clear objective, know exactly who you want in the room, and work closely with your sales team from the beginning. Just as importantly, don’t let the conversation end when the event finishes. The follow-up, the content you create afterwards, and the relationships you continue to build are often where the real business value comes from.
As AI becomes part of our everyday work, I actually believe events have become even more important. People don’t attend events just to hear about the latest trends or technology. They come to learn from others, share challenges, exchange perspectives, and build genuine relationships with people facing similar experiences.
My advice is simple: always put the attendee first. If you create an experience where people leave with new ideas, valuable connections, and conversations they couldn’t have had anywhere else, the business results will follow naturally.
About Jeniffer Barros
Jeniffer Barros is a B2B event marketing professional with expertise in strategic event planning, campaign execution, and brand engagement. With a diverse background spanning marketing, real estate, accounting, and business management, she combines commercial insight with creative thinking to deliver impactful experiences. Passionate about building meaningful connections, Jeniffer focuses on creating events that foster relationships, generate measurable business value, and support long-term growth.
