The ROI of In-Person & High-Quality Events with Ashlee Nelson

Digital channels may dominate the marketing playbook, but nothing replaces the impact of a well-crafted, in-person experience.

This week, I sit down with Ashlee Nelson—event strategist, experience curator, and founder of Curated by Ashlee
—to dig into why live, high-quality events are still one of the smartest moves you can make for your brand. Even better? She shares how to actually calculate their ROI so you can prove the value to your team, clients, or investors.

Here’s what you’ll learn:
💡 Why face-to-face connection builds trust faster than any ad campaign
💡 How to design events that deliver unforgettable experiences and measurable results
💡 A practical framework for calculating ROI (beyond ticket sales)
💡 The most common mistakes businesses make with events—and how to avoid them

👉 Connect with Ashlee:
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashleenelson

🌐 Website: curatedbyashlee.com

📈 At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems—and systems into growth.

🧠 Want to see it in action? Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
👉 Book Here

🔗 Useful Links:
🌐 Website: MarketSurge.io

📘 Facebook Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio

🐦 X / Twitter: x.com/marketsurging

🎙️ Podcast: Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Creators and Guests

Host

Reed Hansen

Reed Hansen is a seasoned digital marketing executive with a proven track record of driving business growth through innovative strategies. As the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, he focuses on leveraging AI-powered marketing tools to help businesses scale efficiently. Reed's expertise spans from leading startups to Fortune 500 companies, making him a recognized authority in the digital marketing space. His unique ability to combine data-driven insights with creative solutions has been instrumental in achieving remarkable sales growth for his clients. ​

What is Inside Marketing with MarketSurge?

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest business insights, marketing breakthroughs, and entrepreneurial real talk.

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a digital marketing veteran who's helped scale everything from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 giants, this podcast dives deep into what’s really moving the needle in today’s marketing world. Find us at Marketsurge.io

Each week, we’ll break down the latest marketing and business news (minus the fluff), explore tech trends you actually need to know, and feature unfiltered conversations with the most interesting minds in entrepreneurship and marketing.

Whether you're a founder, a marketer, or just a curious hustler looking to level up, this is where growth happens—loudly, smartly, and with just the right amount of sass.

Subscribe, tune in, and let’s scale something legendary. 🚀

Speaker 4: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello,
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing With Market Surge.

I'm your host, Reid Hansen, and
today I'm thrilled to be joined by

Ashlee Nelson, founder and event
strategist at Curated by Ashlee.

Ashlee specializes in designing guest
first experiences for masterminds,

executive retreats, trainings, and
high level corporate gatherings

with freakish attention to detail.

She helps coaches, entrepreneurs, and
brands create unforgettable moments

that turn attendees into raving fans.

While freeing our clients to
stay focused on leading the room,

not just running the schedule.

Ashlee, we're so glad to have you here.

Thanks for joining.

So you often say that you, uh,
start event design with the

feeling, not the checklist.

What would you say are some key questions
you'll ask a client to nail down the, uh,

emotional outcome you're trying to get?

That's fantastic.

And, and you know, maybe just
as a, um, to go down a tangent a

little bit, um, I think a lot of.

Business owners or those that are
participating in events maybe don't

understand, you know, how to, how
to quantify the value that, uh,

in person events, uh, can generate
for their brand or, or how to

optimize them to, to do that.

What are some of the metrics that, that
you use to measure that effectiveness?

Mm-hmm.

That's fantastic.

And you know what, as you, as you said,
it's um, not always a direct correlation,

straight to, uh, sales dollars.

You know, sometimes it
is, you know, a, a, an.

Additional high quality touchpoint
that that helps them along a long-term

sales cycle, that, that, or, or
helps persuade them in a way that

that was unique to being in person.

Um, so I noticed on your website,
uh, you used the term guest

first and guest first events.

What would you say that
really means in, in actuality?

Like, how did, how do
you make that happen?

Um, you know, and what would
be an example of a guest first

event that, that you've planned?

Uh, and what was the impact?

And, you know, you brought up Masterminds
and a lot of the members of our

audience there, there's coaches or, uh,
people that are both practitioners and

coaches or have a course of some sort.

And, and masterminds are a great
tool for, for them to, you know,

create engagement and, and whatnot.

The, these, you know, and what
I, I guess what I'm trying

to get at is there, there's.

Uh, definitely a lot of specialization
in planning those kinds of events,

but you also plan conferences as well.

Um, can you talk a little bit about why,
you know, how your approach shifts for

high touch events like masterminds and
retreats versus maybe, um, mass events

like conferences where they're interacting
with, you know, hundreds of people.

Um, you know, how do, how do you make
those effective, or what are your

techniques for making both effective?

Okay.

That's, you know, that's really cool.

The, you know, and I'm,
I'm glad to hear that.

I, I, um, you know, I guess I'd hate
to hear you say like, well, I just

bring in more, more equipment or more,
you know, like we just print out more.

Flyers, you know, but I'm glad
that, that you're able to make,

make that, uh, still a, a very high
quality interaction in both, both

situations, you know, planning events.

Um, it's not a job for, for
me, I just don't, um, I, um,

I'm a, a bit introverted.

I'm also kind of, um, I get overwhelmed
by like, so many things happening at,

at the same time and just kind of.

Exhausts me.

And so, you know, kudos to you for
being in that, in that, uh, mindset

and, and having those skills, but.

So I'm curious, you, you run these high
touch events, but, um, what are those

tools that you use to manage those?

And is technology a part of this
is, do you have like automated tools

that help speed up things or, uh,
you know, help make your life easier?

Or are you pretty, pretty manual
and pr like using pen and paper

and, and, uh, you know, the like.

Well, you know, that's great advice,
you know, and I think whether it's, um,

you, you know, managing, being realistic
with your capacity or, uh, you know,

qualifying and disqualifying certain, uh,
certain customers, I think that's a good

practice that businesses should do is, is.

Deliver work to the quality
that you're turning away.

Business, I think is always something
to aspire to unless you're selling

something that you deliver and
never have to see them again.

But,

well, um, so, you know,
a part of events, uh.

You know, is, is generating some,
you know, some memories, some

razzle dazzle, some wow moments.

C can you talk about some examples of,
um, surprises or, or, you know, wow

moments that really pop or stand out
in your memory, uh, that drove some,

uh, some real, real great experiences?

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That's awesome.

Um, so one, one big topic I'm
sure you've thought much about is.

You know, and we're a few years
removed from this, but during

the pandemic years, um, in-person
events were pretty much shut down.

And, uh, you know, a lot, a lot of
them were canceled, but many of them

shifted to online, uh, equivalents or,
you know, some, some form of online.

And, and I think, you know, just
anecdotally, I'm an outsider, but I've

observed that a lot of, um, a lot of.

Events or, you know, there, there's
just like a huge prevalence of webinars.

Um, where, where do you think the market
for the in-person events is and, uh, do,

like, do you see it coming back gradually
or do you, um, and then I've got a follow

up too is, you know, tell us about the
need for in-person events in 20 20 20.

20, 25 and beyond.

Um, you know, in light of like, you
know, we've got, we've got Zoom,

we've got all this technology, you
know, where, where are we at today?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Fantastic.

Um, so how do you help, uh, businesses?

So you know, they're putting
on an in-person event.

And it's like a whole new operation.

They, you know, they, they're
plenty busy with their day to day

and there are a lot of questions,
decisions to be made around events.

How do you help these
businesses, uh, navigate this?

Are there, are you.

Uh, able to make decisions independently
in most of these engagements?

Or, uh, are you able to coach
them and give them a framework,

uh, to, to help speed that up?

Because I imagine just the decisions
around a lot of these events can be

overwhelming to a lot of businesses.

How, how do you help them through that?

Hmm.

Well, you know, that's, that's helpful
and I think that's a sign of a good

partner, uh, that, that you're able
to pull this off without making this

a huge burden on, on, uh, on the.

Your, your sponsor.

Excuse me.

And, um, so just last question.

You know, we're looking ahead, um, in
light of, you know, cultural changes and,

uh, even like the advent of AI and, and
all these, uh, different technologies

we're, we're starting to get used to.

How, how do you see the, the meetings
event space, uh, changing and.

Or, or staying the same?

What, what do you see as the future in the
next three to five years for this space?

Hmm.

Hmm.

Well, that's fantastic.

Well, actually, if a, uh, business of
any kind would like to have an awesome

event and work with you and, um, you
know, or, or consult with you, what would

be the best way for them to find you?

Well, fantastic.

I

will include those links in the show
notes and would definitely, uh, point

anybody your way that is looking to
create a great and memorable event.

Thanks so much for
joining us today, Ashlee.

Speaker 6: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.