TLDR: Not to be confused with the Spice Girls movie, SpiceWorld is an IT conference in Austin, Texas with three days of technical workshops, networking with peers, and the latest IT products and solutions. It was a hybrid event and their first in-person component since the start of the pandemic. There were roughly 600 attendees and over 75 speakers, however past events saw attendance of over 4,000 people.

To my knowledge, this is the first time Twilio has sponsored this event.

Through my interactions with attendees, I learned that most of them come from IT System Admin or Security backgrounds, so it was a great opportunity to drive awareness of Twilio to newcomers. That said, I met many folks who’ve used and love Twilio.

During the event, I gave a session to spark the imagination of builders by showing attendees how they can use Twilio Programmable Messaging to create a TLDR application in Python. In addition, I was able to drive awareness to the corresponding blog post. Shout out to Sabrina Francois and Alina Rakhmatoullina who were able to quickly help me out when it came to renting a monitor for the booth.

---

Event Name:	SpiceWorld 2022
Event Date:	September 28 - 30, 2022
Who Attended:	Anthony Dellavecchia
No of Attendees:	600+ onsite
Location:	Austin
Sponsored?	Yes
Level:	Silver + 30-minute breakout session. Included a booth with table and TV monitor. The 30-minute breakout session was an add-on.

---

Event Strategy:

Goal	Type (K/U/L)	Measure	Metrics	Tactics
Drive Awareness of Twilio	KNOW	Introduce visitors of our booth to Twilio by sending out a SMS.	15+ texts sent	When visitors asked what Twilio is, I showed them by using the Bento Box app to send an outgoing message which showcases Programmable Messaging.
Drive Awareness of Twilio	KNOW	Introduce visitors of our booth to Twilio by starting a live video chat application.	15+ video calls	When visitors asked what Twilio is, I showed them by using the Bento Box app to send a link to a video chat application using Programmable Video.
Drive Awareness of Twilio	KNOW	Introduce visitors of our booth to Twilio by doing.	100+ booth visitors. 20+ 5MD	Have booth visitors earn swag by asking/learning/knowing Twilio.
Drive Awareness of Twilio Quest	KNOW	Introduce visitors of our booth to TwilioQuest by playing.	15+ people played	Play a mission of TwilioQuest on the booth monitor.
Spark the Imagination of Builders	KNOW	Demonstrate a use case of what you can create with Twilio Voice.	~8 participants	Share a link to a Halloween app which spooks callers when they text it.
Showcase what you can create with Twilio	KNOW	Give a 30-minute session demoing how to build a sample app.	14 attendees	Live-code a TLDR app in front of an audience. I showed less code than normal, since the audience wasn't all developers.

---

Worked:

• Bento Box App: The Bento Box app showcases Twilio Messaging and Video with an easy-to-use nice-looking User Interface. People were really excited about the - Video Chat application and seeing their faces live on screen.
• Halloween App: I created a spooky Halloween app that showcases Twilio Voice and Studio. Then asked people to text it. I only had about 8 people play, but they were really creeped out by it (which I guess is a good thing).
• TwilioQuest Booth Extension: The booth extension that Nathaniel Okenwa created is a great way to engage people into playing TwilioQuest and writing a bit of code. We had around ~15 people play the mission.
• No Hiccups: This is the first time I’ve live-coded without any errors or technical issues. It was a pleasant surprise.
• Blog Post: Referencing a technical blog as part of the session allows us to increase our content promo

!Worked:

• Attendance: In-person attendance was much less than anticipated. There wasn’t a lot of booth traffic after the first day. Veteran attendees mentioned that pre-pandemic attendance was around 4,000.
• Session Attendance: There were 6 other sessions taking place during mine, so attendance wasn’t as much as I hoped for. I also had to “compete” with the most popular session of the day.
• Participation: Some people were reluctant to participate in booth activities where I asked for their phone numbers because many of them work in security. I’m wondering if others have experienced this and what you do to instill confidence.
• Passport to Prizes: We opted out of Passport to Prizes which I believe would have helped get more booth traffic. But it’s hard to say if those additional people would have been interested in our products.
• Booth Location: Our booth was positioned directly in front of the entrance, so I thought we’d get heavy traffic. But when doors opened, most people walked straight by and into the center of the expo. This is worth noting for future events.

---

Stories:

• Someone from Community Legal Aid came up and talked about how much Twilio has helped their non-profit serve legal aid to low-income individuals. It’s great to hear our services being used to help others.
• A group of three were really interested in using Twilio after they first found out about us. On Day 1 they learned what we do (SMS), on Day 2 they played TwilioQuest and sent out a text, and on Day 3 they played my Halloween Voice app. I usually don’t see repeat visitors but they were really curious about what we had to offer. I also encourage others to change up their booth so as to encourage repeat visitors.

---

Photos:

---

Thanks for reading! 🙌

Please react or comment to this article, down below!