Sam Kolbert-Hyle

Sam Kolbert-Hyle is the President & CEO of Brandlive. Brandlive helps the world’s best brands create experiences that move people - from town hall-style internal meetings with soul to major marketing events that drive revenue. Under Sam’s leadership, Brandlive has grown from a handful of employees to over 150 and hosted marquee events for companies like Nike, Nintendo, Ark Invest, The Wall Street Journal, Square, Google, GoPro, and Adidas, and was ranked #1 in Live Events on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list in 2021 and in the emerging video category in 2022.

Content Marketing

Sam Kolbert-HyleThursday, September 15, 2022

Virtual Events Don’t Have to Suck: Marketing Departments Can Make Them Dazzle

We all participated in a lot of virtual events during the pandemic — every human interaction became a Zoom or Meets meeting. After two years of staring at screens, it’s hard to get people to tune into another boring virtual event or webinar. So, why are the best marketing teams investing in virtual events and webinars? When well executed, virtual…

It all started as a book club.

Yes, I’m serious. I started my work on the web more than two decades ago. My first site was Helping Hand, which curated the best sites from around the web to help people with their computers and navigate resources on the Internet. Years later, I sold the domain to a company that helped folks quit smoking, one of my first big contracts.

I began blogging on Blogger and waxed poetic about everything from politics to Internet tools. I was all over the place and mostly wrote for myself – without much of an audience. I belonged to a Marketing Book club in Indianapolis that quickly grew out of control. Over time, I discovered that more and more of the group were coming to me for technology advice. The combination of my technology background and my business and marketing acumen was in high demand as the Internet rapidly changed the industry.

After reading Naked Conversations, I was motivated to better brand and control the content on the site. I also wanted more control over the look and feel of my blog, so I moved to my domain in 2006 and built my first WordPress site. Since I was focused on marketing technology, I didn’t want the domain with my name to get in the way, so I moved the site (painfully) to its new domain in 2008 where it’s grown ever since.

The Martech Zone is owned and operated by DK New Media, LLC, a company I started in 2009. After working with virtually every major online marketing department in my tenure at ExactTarget and launching Compendium, I knew there was a great demand for my expertise and guidance within such a complex industry.

DK New Media oversees my consulting, publications, podcasts, workshops, webinars, and speaking opportunities. Highbridge, my agency with two other partners, helps companies maximize their investment in sales, marketing, and related products. We offer integration, migration, training, strategic consulting, and custom development.

Thank you so much for your support over the years!

Douglas Karr
CEO, DK New Media