If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I’d be trading Texas BBQ in Austin for a proper pint of Guiness in a London Pub in the span of just five days, I would have laughed. But that is exactly where the spring events season took me, and honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing.
This past month, I had the privilege of attending two incredible, completely distinct conferences: SaaStock USA in Austin with our partners Kuno Creative and HubGem LIVE in London.
While on the surface, a massive B2B SaaS conference in Texas and an exclusive, highly specialized education marketing event in the UK don't seem to have much in common, my time on the ground revealed a different story.
Whether you’re selling enterprise AI software or recruiting prospective students to further their education journey, the core of event strategy remains exactly the same.
Here is a recap of what I learned, my favorite moments, and why the "tech tax" of events is finally being replaced by smarter, CRM-first thinking.
SaaStock USA (now Shift AI) took over the Palmer Events Center on April 15-16, and the energy in Austin was electric. This year’s theme was all about navigating the intersection of AI and ARR, bringing together over 1,500 founders, operators, and investors to talk about scaling GTM strategies in the modern era.
Walking the event floor, it became clear that the SaaSpocalypse isn't a threat; it's an evolution. Companies are moving past the experimental phase of AI and are now laser-focused on how AI tooling drives real margin, cuts down manual workflows, and optimizes conversions.
One of the biggest themes echoed in the conversations I had was that 40–60% of event-generated pipeline vanishes after the event ends.
I talked to dozens of GTM leaders who confessed to the same pain: their team spends thousands on a booth, scans a bunch of high-intent leads, and then... the data sits in a spreadsheet for two weeks. By the time the reps get the context, the excitement has cooled.
The consensus in Austin was clear: to win in 2026, you need a unified data flow. The leaders who are actually closing deals post-event are those who have connected their lead-capture tools directly to their HubSpot portals, allowing sales to trigger instant, personalized follow-ups based on real-time intent signals.
Check out the video below with our friends from Kuno Creative highlighting our experience on the show floor!
(Bonus points if you're using hapily with AI voice notes to capture immediate on-site context… no manual typing required!)
Exactly one week later, on April 22, I found myself across the pond at The Exhibit, a beautiful resto-pub in the heart of Balham for HubGem LIVE.
This event was a one-of-a-kind gathering created specifically for schools, colleges, and universities navigating the complexities of modern marketing and admissions.
While the Austin crowd was talking about expansion revenue and seed funding, the London crowd was focused on something just as vital: experience, trust, and the prospective student journey.
Education marketers and admissions teams are managing incredibly high-touch, long-cycle relationships. A parent choosing a school for their child isn't just making a financial transaction; they are making a deeply emotional life decision.
What I loved about the HubGem LIVE agenda was its balance of strategic empathy and technical innovation. We dove deep into how education providers can be using CRM automation not to replace the human touch, but to protect it. Letting the tools do the work so they can focus on what matters; making meaningful connections with prospective students and their families.
During the session on "Integrations & The Power of a Connected Tech Stack," the room was engaged talking about how to eliminate the "tech tax" of jumping between legacy tools. Admissions teams want clear, real-time timelines. They want to know when a family attended an open house, what specific questions they asked, and they want to be able to send an instant session reminder via SMS or WhatsApp without spending hours on manual admin.
So, what happens when you cross-reference a B2B SaaS conference in Texas with an education marketing summit in the UK?
You realize that events are moving away from disconnected silos and moving natively into your CRM. Whether you’re a GTM operator at SaaStock or an admissions director at HubGem LIVE, nobody wants to deal with manual CSV uploads, fragmented data, or delayed follow-ups. We all want the same thing: to build meaningful relationships at scale.
And that is exactly why the work we do at hapily feels so relevant right now. Whether it's helping teams automatically route event data into HubSpot or ensuring event communication stays perfectly aligned with CRM context, the goal is to make the software work in the background so you can focus on the people standing right in front of you.
Attending both SaaStock and HubGem LIVE was a fantastic reminder of why we do what we do. Events are the ultimate touchpoint for building trust and community, two key pillars of relationship building with prospects… but only if your operations support that experience.
Thank you to the incredible teams in Austin and London for the hospitality, the insights, and the laughs. My suitcase is unpacked for now, but my notepad is full of ideas for the summer and beyond! The remainder 2026 is shaping up to be BIG for in person events!