Darlene Smith Email and Phone Number

Guidewire Software, Inc., is the leading provider of flexible core systems that enable property/casualty insurers to deliver insurance the way they want to. As the senior director, marketing events at Guidewire, I manage the 2,100 attendee Guidewire Connections user conference, executive symposiums, financial analyst program and strategic third-party events. In my tenure at Guidewire, I have grown the overall conference registration 30% and customer/prospect registration by 25%. I project manage all elements of the conference including demand generation, audience acquisition, budgeting, logistics management, contracts negotiations, speaker research, agenda development and conference website, community and mobile app content development. I also manage a cross-functional team of product marketing, product management and services/support experts to develop an agenda with 11 concurrent sessions of 115 breakouts, customer advisory group meetings (CAGs) and in-depth product workshops.

Completed the seventh annual Taleo World User Conference with over 1600 attendees, record high evaluation rating and within the allocated budget. During this acquisition period I managed all aspects of the conference including the content management, budget development, program logistics and sponsorship sales.

Taleo Corporation, the leader in on demand talent management solutions, acquired by Oracle Corporation in June 2012. Taleo's product suite includes recruiting, performance management, learning management and compensation for small, medium and large enterprise organizations. My depth of marketing experience spans the following functions:- Analysis & strategic development of demand generation plans to include e-mail, webinars, seminars, executive events and tradeshows.- Taleo World User Conference content development: Included Call for Papers process management and agenda development for eight separate tracks and seventy breakout sessions as well as keynote research and recommendations.- Research and recommendation of sponsorship marketing opportunities. - Development and sales of partner sponsorship packages.- Audience acquisition plan development for Taleo World.using Eloqua. - Budget development for all demand generation programs and Taleo World. - Vendor management (tradeshow booths, hotels, sponsorships, gifts, production companies, virtual vendors, registration/logistics vendors and speaker bureaus).- People management skills. Have managed both large and small teams.- Post-show analysis of demand generation events with reports from Salesforce and Eloqua.

Developed and managed a demand generation events and sponsorship budget of $13 million annually and a $7 million corporate budget. I worked with product strategy to help develop product marketing promotion plans and event budgets for five major product lines. Developed, planned and executed corporate events and sponsorships based on major initiatives of the organization. Developed PeopleSoft's overall direct marketing sponsorship plan and managed the process for the evaluation of the effectiveness of sponsorship programs. Oversaw a staff of seven program managers and built the department from one person to the final team of 7 program managers.

Overall responsiblities included program and content development of direct marketing programs that generated leads for our sales organization. Events produced included press/analyst events, sales meetings, product launches executive events, executive dinners, seminar and web seminars to promote the various PeopleSoft product lines.

Managed the complete logistics and program development as well as direct mail execution for road shows and events and direct mail campaigns. Duites included: seminar/event venue site selection, hotel contract negotiations, supervision of outside vendors, program development, speaker selection, demo and av coordination, onsite staffing, audience development, list sourcing and coordination of all elements with a mailhouse. Also coordinated with outside creative agencies and writers in the development of the direct mail pieces supporting the events.

Managed lead qualification tracking to drive pipeline and progession. Telemarketing management and maintenance of a prospect/suspect database. Direct mail campaign development. Managed all aspects of event management including site selection, contract negotiation, program development and on-site management. Also supervised the building of a large theme booth that showcased technical innovations and was the centerpiece of a major promotional tradeshow campaign.

Assisted in all areas of event management and worked on the development and implementation of a lead generation tracking system. Negotiated with list brokers to purchase mailing lists for demand generation programs.