You already know the problem.
You've sponsored the conference. You've bought the booth. You've hosted the dinner where half the people showed up, everyone smiled, exchanged cards, and then went completely dark.
The events industry is full of smart buyers who have gotten very good at being invisible at industry events. They don't fill out lead gen forms. They don't respond to cold outreach. They protect their attention like a resource... because it is one.
The only thing that still works is trust.
What is Club Ichi?
Club Ichi is a paid membership community and social club for B2B event and field marketing professionals. Not a free Slack group. Not a leads database. A real community with 600+ members in 15 countries where event professionals come to solve problems, share resources, and build relationships that last. And it's all built on trust.
Members include:
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Corporate and field event marketers at Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies
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Association conference directors
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Freelance event producers and agencies
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Event tech founders and suppliers
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Speakers, facilitators, and production professionals
$1.3B in collective buying power. 12,000+ events produced annually. All in one community.
These are not passive followers. They are active practitioners who make or influence real purchasing decisions for venues, technology, production, staffing, registration, creative, and strategy.
Why Partner With Us?
We're not selling impressions (even though we get them). We're not selling access to a list (even though the list is solid).
We're offering something rarer: a warm introduction inside a community built on trust, to the exact professionals your team has been trying to reach.
Club Ichi members don't want to be marketed to. They want to do business with people they actually know. Partnering with Club Ichi puts your company in that category — not as an advertiser, but as a participant. A peer. A friend they can call when they need help.
That's a different kind of pipeline.
How we work with partners
There's no one-size-fits-all package here. We build partnerships that make sense for what you're actually trying to accomplish, and that are honest about what each experience delivers.
Here's what's currently trending:
Supper Clubs
Facilitated prospect dinners with a Supper Club vibe.
15–20 corporate event and field marketing leaders. Curated to match your ICP. Hosted and facilitated by Liz and Nicole. No pitches. No pressure. Just real conversation and the kind of follow-up that actually gets replies.
This is how modern business development happens when it works.
Behind the Brands
Exclusive access experiences built around your brand.
Club Ichi designs intimate experiential moments (think behind-the-scenes access to cultural and industry spaces) that bring your company into the story in a way that feels earned, not sponsored.
Past experiences have included the Obama Presidential Center preview tour, Behind the scenes at MGM Resorts, the Warner Bros. Discovery's Upfront, SXSW, and the Disney+ Upfront. The guests remember where they were. They remember who made it possible.
Community Partnerships at
Spontaneous Think Tanks & Clubhouses
Your brand inside Club Ichi's peer-problem-solving methodology and parties.
The STT is Club Ichi's signature programming format: sticky notes, Sharpies, real problems on the wall, peer-matched problem-solving with actual output. Sponsoring an STT puts your company in the room where the hardest conversations in the industry are happening - as a peer, not a presenter.
Our Clubhouses take place alongside select industry events and bring people together in a casual and fun environment. Call it a party, but we promise that you can actually have conversations and not have to yell at each other over the music.
Content & Media Partnerships
Reach 11,000+ newsletter subscribers, an engaged LinkedIn audience of more than 45k, and a hoppin' Instagram with more than 12k followers.
The Engaged Attendee is Club Ichi's weekly editorial briefing for B2B event and field marketing professionals. Liz's LinkedIn content regularly drives thousands of engagements across the events industry. Content partnerships are built around substance, not generic brand placements, not advertorial content that doesn't actually make sense in its spot. Video content is cross-posted to maximize platform audiences.
If you have something genuinely worth saying to this audience, we'll help you say it well.
Note: Content partnerships are generally only executed as part of another partnership package to maximize trust created within our community.
In-Kind Partnerships
There are a number of opportunities to get your brand, destination, venue, or product in front of our members!
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As an Insider, you can present your solution on our 7-Minute Demo or an Insider Show & Tell online gathering or be a guest on the Barfoot Business Podcast.
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Your venue can host a Spontaneous Think Tank, a Supper Club, or a Barefoot Business Retreat.
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Your destination can host a Fam Trip (Club Ichi can help you make it "the Ichi way"!)
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We can do a content swap - your content in our newsletter and our content in yours!
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We can be a guest on your podcast or webinar.
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You can supply merch/swag to our members or attendees.
Street Cred (Media Kit)
Liz Lathan, CMP & Nicole Osibodu
Co-Founders · Club Ichi · The Community Factory · Haute Dokimazo
LIZ LATHAN, CMP — BIO
Liz Lathan is a 20-year B2B event marketing veteran, co-founder of The Community Factory, and co-creator of Club Ichi, a private membership community for B2B event marketers with 11,000+ members. A former global events leader at Dell and IBM, she was named to the B2B Dream Team list by Event Marketer, winner of the Smart Meetings Entrepreneur award, and pioneered the concept of Return on Emotion™ and the HAAAM emotional engagement framework. She is a regular columnist for Exhibit City News, a contributor to SITE Global and PCMA, and has been featured by Skift Meetings as a Meetings Innovator, PCMA Convene (cover package, April 2025), Marriott Bonvoy Events, and Vendelux. She holds her CMP certification, maintained for over 20 years.
NICOLE OSIBODU — BIO
Nicole Osibodu is co-founder of The Community Factory and co-creator of Club Ichi. Known in the events industry for her instinctive ability to read a room and create belonging — a practice she calls the Wingman Protocol — Nicole brings over two decades of experiential production expertise to every gathering she designs. She and Liz Lathan pioneered the Spontaneous Think Tank format, most famous for a 2019 secret trip to Tuscany, and together built one of the fastest-growing peer communities in B2B event marketing.
Exhibit City News — Regular Columnist
exhibitcitynews.com/author/liz-lathan/ · 9 published columns, 2024–2026
Brains Behind the Bots · March 2026
Why Great Event Ideas Get Stuck in Approval Limbo · October 2025
The Three Types of Attendee Engagement That Drive Better Results · April 2025
Late Merch? No Problem · November 2024
Designing for the Human Experience · July 2024
Checking the Pulse of Event Professionals · May 2024
Are We Barking Up the Wrong Tree About Sustainability? · April 2024
Back to the Basics: The (De)evolution of Tradeshow Booth Engagement · March 2024
How Decisions Are Made on the Inside · January 2024
Other Bylined Work
How Connection, Leadership, and Safety Will Shape the Future of the Events Industry · SITE Global · November 2025
Human Engagement Powered by Technology · CrowdPass · December 2024
PRESS & FEATURES
2026
Featured in Smart Meetings Magazine · Smart Meetings · May 2026
2025
How to Design for Return on Emotion (Cover Story Package) · PCMA Convene · April 2025
Meetings Innovator: Liz Lathan · Skift Meetings · July 2025
The Wisdom Bank: What Is Club Ichi — and Who Is Liz Lathan? · Gathering Point News / David Adler · September 2025
When to Consider a Micro Event and How to Make It Happen · Marriott Bonvoy Events · July 2025
How Event Planners Can Handle Uncertainty (and Why Resilience Beats Control) · Angela Gargano · August 2025
'Like Being Plugged Into the Matrix': How Club Ichi Became a Lodestar for Event Marketers · Vendelux · February 2025
2024
Event Marketing: A Fast-Growing Peer-Education Group Turns 1 · MeetingsNet
Inside Club Ichi: Building a Rapidly Growing Peer-Education Network · Corporate Event News
Club Ichi Telethon: The Inside Story of an Ambitious Membership Drive · Accelevents Case Study
Event Content Professionals to Follow 2024 · Sessionboard
This Virtual Event Used As Much AI As Possible (Club Ichi AI Hackathon) · BizBash
2021
Your Corporate Retreat Is On—but It’s Going to Be Weirder · Wall Street Journal · March 2021
5 Things You Need to Know to Successfully Run a Live Virtual Event · Authority Magazine · January 2021
Liz Lathan — Speaker Profile · PCMA Convening Leaders · 2021
2019
Want Your Next Event To Create Deeper Lasting Connection? Make It Immersive · Forbes · December 2019
PODCAST APPEARANCES
Hundreds of guest appearances across events, marketing, and entrepreneurship podcasts.
Community Strategy: The Future of Experiential Events (Ep. 181) · Events Demystified · May 2025
Understanding Return on Emotion with Liz Lathan · Marketing Podcasts Net · May 2025
Building Club Ichi: The Journey, The Growth & The Partnership (Ep. 261) · Event Business Formula · with Nicole Osibodu
Future Trends in Engagement at Events (Ep. 175) · Better Events Podcast · Spotify
How Can Event Tech Foster and Sustain Virtual Communities? · Epic Events Podcast (vFairs)
Building Engaging Events and Communities with Liz Lathan · Clare Forestier Podcast
Community Factory Co-Founders on Building Events that Connect · Eating at a Meeting · with Nicole Osibodu
Transforming Spaces with Creativity with Liz Lathan · Heartcast Media
Mastering Event Engagement and Community Building · Elevate Your Talent / Play for Performance
Liz Lathan, CMP — Experiential Marketing Trailblazer · The Connector Next Door (iHeart) · Lisa Gareau
Emotion Is the New ROI: Modern Event Marketing with Liz Lathan · YKMD / Eventist365 · October 2022
SPEAKING, WEBINARS & KEYNOTES
Conference Keynotes & Sessions
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PCMA Convening Leaders 2021 — "Crafting Authentic Experiences with Emotional and Audience Intelligence" (with Nicole Osibodu)
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Swoogo Unconventional IRL 2025, New Orleans — "Lounge Chair Chat: Spontaneous Think Tank"
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Skift Meetings Live 2025, New York — Featured Speaker as part of the Keynote Listener Series
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CEMA Summit 2024, Seattle — Featured Spontaneous Think Tank
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Exhibitor LIVE 2025, San Antonio — ROE: Return on Emotion
Webinars
How to Create Unconventional Events · Swoogo · with Nicole Osibodu
Unconventional Events 2.0: The Remix to the Remix · Swoogo
Notable Events Hosted
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Club Ichi Telethon (December 2023) — 12-hour virtual membership drive · 513 registrants, 75+ speakers, 57 sessions
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Club Ichi AI Hackathon — First-of-its-kind event where AI drove the program design in real time
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Secret Family Reunion 2019 — 2019, 80 participants, chartered plane to Tuscany
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Secret Family Reunion 2026 —2026, 50 participants, New Zealand
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Barefoot Business Retreat — 2022 Waco, Texas, 2023 Brenham, Texas, 2024 Croatia, 2025 Evermore Resort Orlando, 2026 Belize
Speaking Topics
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Return on Emotion: Designing Events for Business Impact
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Building Community at Scale: The Club Ichi Story
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The Spontaneous Think Tank: Rethinking the Conference Format
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Psychological Safety as Event Design Principle
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Human Engagement in an AI-Augmented Events World
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The Five Emotions That Drive Business Connections
ABOUT CLUB ICHI, THE COMMUNITY FACTORY, and HAUTE DOKIMAZO
CLUB ICHI
Founded in 2023 by Liz Lathan and Nicole Osibodu, Club Ichi is a private membership community for B2B event marketers built on a simple philosophy: the most valuable resource at any event is the people in the room. The community has grown to 11,000+ free members and 450+ Insider members in just over two years, making it the fastest-growing peer learning community in B2B event marketing.
Club Ichi operates on peer-to-peer education, vulnerability, and the belief that people can learn more from each other than from any speaker on a stage. It produces virtual programs like the Club Ichi Telethon, AI Hackathons, and runs a thriving Slack community with daily practitioner conversations. In-Person, Club Ichi is known for Ichi Clubhouse pop-up parties, Spontaneous Think Tanks, the annual Barefoot Business Retreat, Secret Family Reunion, and is launching Happy Camp in August 2027.
THE COMMUNITY FACTORY
The Community Factory is the parent company of Club Ichi and the consultancy arm of Liz and Nicole’s work. It helps brands build and activate communities — from strategy through event production — using the frameworks Liz and Nicole have developed over decades of corporate events work.
HAUTE DOKIMAZO
Haute Dokimazo is the experiential events brand Liz & Nicole co-founded, home of the Spontaneous Think Tank format and origin of the Return on Emotion™ trademark. The Haute Dokimazo model strips away panels, keynotes, and rehearsed presentations in favor of participant-driven, agenda-less experiences. Haute Dokimazo was an event series that evolved into what is today know as Club Ichi.