Why Convene One Boston Place is the Venue of Choice for Technology Conferences

At Paperless Parts, a Boston-based technology company, creating memorable experiences for their manufacturing clients is essential. One of the ways the company does this is by hosting impactful and engaging events.

We sat down with the Chief Marketing Officer of Paperless Parts, Sarah McAuley, to discuss her experience planning a recent user conference at Convene One Boston Place that “exceeded expectations.” From exceptional service to meticulous attention to detail, discover how the team at Convene helped elevate Paperless Parts' event to new heights.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your position at Paperless Parts?

My name is Sarah McAuley. I am the Chief Marketing Officer at Paperless Parts. In this role, I manage the marketing and business development functions, which include all of our demand generation activities, product marketing, content marketing, and business development. I've been working in tech marketing for 25 years.

What types of events are you responsible for, and how many do you organize annually?

We do a couple dozen field events a year. Field events range from small events with a handful of customers and prospects in a box at a sporting event, to larger-scale trade show-style events. 

Last year, we held our first-ever user conference, and we had about 75 customers come to Boston to spend a couple of days with us at our offices. We did another one on the West Coast of similar size. We took the learnings from those two events and decided to hold a larger user conference this year.  

Since we had outgrown our office, we opted to do this year’s event at Convene One Boston Place. We surpassed all of our expectations from a registration and attendance perspective.

I know this was your first time hosting an event at Convene. Why did Paperless Parts opt to host at Convene versus an internal space or a space where you've held events in the past?

Not only had we outgrown the physical space of last year’s event, but also the format of the event had evolved to be more workshop-centric, so we needed a space with several different rooms for mainstage sessions and breakout sessions. 

What originally attracted us to Convene was the size of the space. It wasn’t too big or too small, and we could do a total buyout and really own the space and create an immersive experience for our guests. It was also around the corner from our office in the heart of Boston’s Financial District, which was super convenient. 

I have experience running events at hotels and convention centers where it feels like I have to pull teeth to get the full picture. With Convene, I felt like the process was super transparent and upfront. From the beginning, the Convene team always understood the big picture goal and what we were trying to accomplish. Everyone was willing to get creative to accomplish that for us. 

What was your favorite part about doing your event at Convene?

The space checked all of our boxes, and the team made it super easy. 

We would think of something, and before I had a chance to vocalize it, it was almost like the Convene event production manager read my mind. We were very much on the same page for the whole event. 

I've done hundreds of events over the course of my career, and the value-for-dollar ratio at Convene was great. We did the event in a relatively inexpensive way without it feeling like an inexpensive event. It felt very polished, very professional, and very high production value, but it didn't come with the price tag normally associated with that kind of experience.

How did Convene help Paperless Parts achieve your event goals? 

The sum of all the little things made the whole process easier. There was great communication from Convene throughout the planning process, no budget surprises, a ton of flexibility, and the willingness to shift gears or talk through questions or challenges. I never had the feeling that I was being nickeled and dimed. It felt more like we were in it together. 

Were there any moments where Convene exceeded your expectations?

On our first site visit, we mentioned how much some of our customers love Mountain Dew, but Convene doesn’t normally stock Mountain Dew. But when we arrived for our event day, there was a Mountain Dew pyramid. It really reinforced that the team was always listening and was really focused on delivering an exceptional event.