From Attendee to Advocate: How Product-Led Events Drive Feedback, Early Access, and Loyalty

Customer events are often treated as a one-way street: the company presents, customers listen, and everyone heads home with a few new ideas.

When she was at Ironclad, Event Lead Hillarie Ralston took a different approach.

By embedding product, product marketing, and design teams directly into Ironclad Local, a hands-on customer education series, she turned customer events into an active part of the product experience. Attendees weren't just learning about the platform. They were helping shape its future through live feature voting, collaborative workshops, and direct conversations with the teams building the product.

The impact extended far beyond the event itself. Ironclad consistently saw NPS scores above 85%, strong social engagement, increased early access participation, and a steady flow of customer insight that informed product decisions long after the event ended.

In this Context First session, Hillarie will share the cross-functional playbook behind Ironclad Local and how event, product, and customer teams can work together to create experiences that strengthen relationships, surface meaningful feedback, and turn customers into advocates.

We'll explore:

How to bring product, PMM, and design teams into customer events in ways that create value for everyone involved

Interactive formats that encourage customers to share ideas, feedback, and real-world challenges

How to use events to drive early access participation and deeper product engagement

Ways to strengthen customer loyalty by giving customers a voice in what comes next

Lessons learned building a repeatable model that benefits both customers and internal teams

Whether you're running customer events, community programs, or customer education initiatives, you'll leave with practical ideas for turning events into a source of insight, connection, and advocacy.

Before and after the event:

Participate in the AMA thread with Hillarie

Ask questions, upvote others, and keep the conversation going

Speakers

Hillarie Ralston

Strategic Events and Experiences Lead @ Sage

Joshua Zerkel

Head of Marketing & Community @ Gradual

Event has finished

4:00 PM - 4:30 PM GMT

August 12, 2026

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