Last week’s 1st Annual Pardot and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Summer BBQ and User Group Joint- Meetup was a sold-out event and a great success. Because this was the first time we attempted such a meetup, we will call this the “1st Annual”. We kicked off with 3 inspirational speakers; then the BBQ with open bar.
The Hosts

On the London Pardot User Group – side, we had power-organiser Jess Pyne (many thanks!) as well as Ricky Wheeler and Burak Sezgin. On the London Salesforce Marketing Cloud User Group, we had myself (Jimson Lee). Pleased that Kerry Townsend was able to fly in; but Phil Walton sadly took a rain check (or it was raining in Manchester, one of the two reasons).
The Speakers
Jacques Prothon, CEO, ODICCI Interactive Marketing

Title: Gamification and Reveal marketing using Pardot and Marketing Cloud
Details: Deploy fun, interactive content to better engage with your audience.
Sarah Kelleher, Head of Marketing Automation at Nebula
Title: Being GDPR Compliant with Pardot.
Details: Sharing their internal pathway for compliance.
Neil Procter, Global Head of Customer Systems at Hive
Title: Confessions of a Marketing Cloud Implementation
Details: In 2017 Hive went live with Salesforce Marketing Cloud – ExactTarget, Journey Builder etc, but it was not an easy ride. This talk covered the initial need for marketing cloud, the lessons learnt during the implementation project (ouch), and elaborate on some of the areas the technology has proven useful to help grow and nurture the Hive customer base. This includes supporting partnerships with British Gas and Amazon, new product release/trial journeys (i.e. leak detector), and integration with the Hive IoT platform.
The Slides
- Jacques’ presentation showed great ideas on how to make your 2017 SFMC’s digital marketing more engaging and interactive. The presentation slide deck:
Gamification & Interactive Marketing for B2B (Odicci) (PDF, 7.5MB). - Sarah slides on ‘How to Manage a confirmed opt-in process in Pardot’ at Slideshare:
Sarah Cottingham – managing confirmed optin. - Neil’s presentation:
Hive_Marketing_Cloud_User_Group_04_July_2017 (PDF, 3.0MB).
The BBQ and Party
We had well over 75 in attendance and the good news is: we had enough drinks and food to last until 10pm! Besides good wine and great food, many new connections were made, laying the foundation for further collaboration, so that the BBQ was both fun and useful!
We plan to do it again next year with even a bigger party, or .. surprise you at Christmas!
Update: Pardot is renamed to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement as of April 5, 2022.
Last Updated on April 18, 2023