Codarity · market briefing

Market briefing for Czerlonka Event Design & Management

Prepared for Eric Czerlonka. This is research about your market and where your firm sits in it, ending in a path. It is not a proposal.

What you do: Corporate incentive travel and luxury event design for global corporations, a niche intersection of high-end hospitality, incentive program strategy, and hands-on event production, differentiated by the curated luxury experience positioning.
Prepared: 23 August 2026

02 · what you told us

Your answers

You answered four questions. They are here first because everything after this reads differently depending on them.

No answers on this record. This render uses the research only, which is how the report reads before the four questions are submitted.

03 · your market

How your buyers decide

Before anything specific to your firm, one thing about how your buyers behave, because it explains most of what follows.

5 actively looking now12 forming a view quietly83 not looking yet

5 in every 100 of your buyers are actively looking right now. 12 are forming a view without talking to anyone. 83 are not looking at all and will be at some point. Almost all marketing in this market is built for the first group. The work that compounds is built for the second.

04 · your buyers

Who is actually in the room

A decision about corporate event contracts is almost never one person's. It is five seats, and on a small team one person holds two of them. Over 221 days each seat arrives at its own conclusion, mostly without talking to you.

Most firms in this market write their website, their proposals and their whole pitch for one of these five: the seat that runs the event. It is the seat they meet, so it is the seat they answer. The other four decide anyway.

The one whose neck is out

CEO · Managing Director · Chief Marketing Officer · VP Marketing

Wants: a result they can point at in a board meeting. The event is a means to something they have already promised upwards.
Afraid of: spending a large number and having nothing defensible to show for it. Not failure exactly, ambiguity.
Actually asks: “If I am asked in six months whether this was worth it, what do I say?”
Settled by: a supplier who talks about outcomes and measurement before they talk about production values.

The one who has to run it

Head of Events · Events Director · Events Manager · Event Marketing Manager

Wants: a delivery that does not consume them. They have done this before and they know exactly which parts go wrong.
Afraid of: a supplier who is impressive in the pitch and unreachable in week six. They have been burned and they remember it.
Actually asks: “When something goes wrong at 6pm the night before, who actually answers the phone?”
Settled by: specifics about process, escalation and named people, rather than a showreel.

The one guarding how it looks

Head of Brand · Brand Director · Head of Communications · Creative Director

Wants: something that feels like them and lands with their audience, not a generic event with their logo on it.
Afraid of: cheapness. A stand, a stage or a room that undercuts everything else they have spent the year building.
Actually asks: “Will this look like us, or like an event company's idea of us?”
Settled by: evidence the supplier understands their market and their audience, not just their sector.

The one who signs it

Finance Director · CFO · Head of Procurement · Commercial Director

Wants: predictability. A number that does not move and a process that survives an audit.
Afraid of: scope creep, and being the person who approved the thing that overran.
Actually asks: “What is the number, what changes it, and what happens if we cut it by twenty per cent?”
Settled by: commercial clarity offered early and unprompted, rather than extracted during negotiation.

The one who has to live with it

Head of Sales · Sales Director · Head of Product · Head of People

Wants: the event doing the job they need it to do: pipeline, a launch that lands, a team that comes back motivated.
Afraid of: an event that is beautiful and useless. Lots of photographs, no conversations that went anywhere.
Actually asks: “What do I get out of this on the Monday after?”
Settled by: a supplier who asks what happens after the event before they ask about the venue.

Read the four “afraid of” lines together and the pattern is hard to miss. Not one of them is afraid you cannot do the work. They are afraid of ambiguity, of being unreachable, of looking cheap, of overrunning, and of spending a great deal on something that changes nothing on the Monday. A portfolio of beautiful past events answers none of that.

05 · your buyers

The 221 days before they call you

Everything after this hangs off one number. In B2B event services the gap between a buyer starting to look and a buyer making contact averages 221 days. Nearly eight months of deciding, almost all of it in private, and almost all of it before anybody picks up a phone.

Start with the part that deserves saying plainly. Czerlonka Event Design & Management has built this business on delivery and on people recommending you, without any of what follows. That is harder than it sounds and most firms cannot do it. Everything below is about what that leaves on the table, not about the work.

Now the part that is harder to see from inside. A buyer in this market spends 221 days researching before they make contact. Across the 10 places we can actually check, Czerlonka Event Design & Management is present at 0 of them and absent from 100 per cent. Every gap sits early: being findable when a buyer asks an AI assistant, being found on the questions they search months earlier, publishing a point of view where they already read and appearing somewhere that is not your own website.

before they are looking

asks an AI assistant who the credible suppliers arecontent an AI can find, cite and summarise: not yet; no substantive content surface, so there is nothing for an assistant to cite
searches the problem, months before searching for a supplierpages that answer the question behind the search: not yet; no content surface at all, so no way to be found on a question
reads their feed and forms a view of who understands this workfounder-led publishing on LinkedIn: not yet; no publishing activity found
sees the name somewhere that is not the supplier's own websitedigital PR, earned mentions, speaking: not yet; the research found no press, awards or third-party features to point at
never comes looking, because they already have someonenamed-account outreach and DMs: cannot tell from outside; nothing outside your business can show this. It is the first thing worth asking about

researching in private

is not looking yet, and needs to have heard of you before they areLinkedIn brand and thought-leader ads to the right accounts: not yet; no LinkedIn advertising
disappears for four months mid-cycle, then comes backretargeting that keeps you present without nagging: not yet; no retargeting, so a buyer who leaves mid-cycle is gone
wants the thinking without having to talk to a salesperson yetsomething worth an email address: not yet; nothing to exchange for an email address, so interest arrives anonymous or not at all
is 221 days from enquiring and will forget you in 30a nurture sequence that stays useful, not a mailshot: not yet; no route to stay in contact between briefs

building a shortlist

types a buying-intent search once the brief is realGoogle Ads on the terms that carry intent: not yet; no paid search

choosing

checks you can actually do the work, once you are on the listcase studies and named clients: not yet; the delivery record is not readable by anyone who has not worked with you
(not a buyer touchpoint: whether you can see any of the above)first-party tracking across a 221-day cycle: cannot tell from outside; nothing outside your business can show this. Over 221 days it is the difference between knowing and guessing

100%

of the buyer research journey we can see, you are absent from. Present at 0 of 10.

Two things on that list we have deliberately not scored, and they are the same two on every briefing we produce. Whether you are approaching named accounts directly, and whether you can see which of these actually produces work. Nothing outside your business reveals either, so guessing would be worse than useless. They are the first two questions worth asking on a call, and between them they usually explain more than the rest of the list.

That is the whole of it. Not a pitching problem, not a pricing problem. For roughly 221 days a buyer is forming a shortlist you are not on, and by the time they enquire they have already chosen. The work you lose this way never appears as a loss, because you were never invited to bid for it. It looks like a quiet quarter.

What closes that gap is not doing more of what you already do well. It is being demonstrably the firm that understands corporate event contracts better than anyone else, in the places your buyers are already looking, for the whole of those 221 days. That is what the rest of this is.

09 · the hinge

What that means for you

The research reads a firm operating at a level where buyers arrive already knowing roughly who you are. Two things in the research point the same way: enterprise-tier buyers and demand arriving with nowhere to land.

The tension is not demand. It is that interest which arrives before a buyer is ready has nowhere to go, so it leaves and comes back as somebody else’s client.

The fastest change available to Czerlonka Event Design & Management is not a bigger effort across everything. It is somewhere for interest to land, because it is the one thing every other move depends on and the one thing currently absent. The majority of your traffic that is researching quietly becomes a known contact instead of an anonymous visit. Staying useful between briefs follows it directly, and the rest of the board is ordered behind those two.

What the research found

Czerlonka Event Design & Management is a Boston-based premier event management and consulting agency founded in 2011, specializing in corporate incentive travel programs and event design and management. With approximately 11-50 employees operating from 109 State Street, Suite 304, the company serves global corporations with luxury incentive travel experiences, corporate events, conferences, and galas. They are affiliated with key industry associations including PCMA, SITE, ILEA, IATAN, and Meet Boston. Recently, the company expanded with a consumer-facing offering (CURATED by Czerlonka), though their core positioning remains firmly in the corporate B2B event services space.

10 · the path

The full board

This is the whole system, not a proposal. Four pillars, and within each one the two modules that would do the most for Czerlonka Event Design & Management given what the research found. Two are lit for the first quarter. One is marked as deliberately not yet. Everything grey is real work that is simply not the next work.

first quarteron your path, later quartersdeliberately not yetreal work, not your next work

Deliberately not yet

One move in Attraction is held back on purpose. Proactive visibility works once there is something credible to land on. Published proof comes first.

11 · the path

Authority

Authority is whether a buyer can satisfy themselves that you are credible without speaking to you. It is the pillar everything else borrows from.

Published proof

Quarter 1

Turning work you have already delivered into evidence a buyer can read before they ever speak to you.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because the delivery record is strong and almost none of it is readable by someone who has not worked with you.
What changes: Buyers who are shortlisting quietly get something to shortlist you on. It also gives every other module something credible to point at.
First move: Pick three delivered events, one per buyer type, and write each up as a short account of the brief, the constraint and the outcome.
You will know because: Enquiries start arriving that reference a specific piece of work rather than asking what you do.

What this looks like · positions you as a firm whose delivery record can be checked without anyone making a phone call

Article on your site
Who answers in week six: how a Czerlonka incentive program is staffed from contracting to final departure, with the named roles a client actually reaches
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What a luxury program has to earn beyond the photographs: the meetings, conversations and follow-through built into the itinerary before anyone arrives
for the one who has to live with it
PR angle
Offer the trade press a Boston destination management view on how corporate brand teams now vet galas and incentive programs against the standard they defend all year
for the one guarding how it looks

Being findable when buyers search

Quarter 3

A small set of pages that answer the questions your buyers put into a search bar before they have a shortlist.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because there is no content surface for a buyer to find you on before they have a shortlist.
What changes: You become discoverable to people who are not yet in a buying process, which is when a shortlist is actually formed.
First move: List the ten questions you get asked most in a first call. Each one is a page.
You will know because: Search starts to appear as a source on new enquiries.

What this looks like · positions you as the firm that answers the question, months before anyone starts naming suppliers

Article on your site
Who answers the phone at 6pm the night before a gala, and what a destination management contract should say about on-site escalation
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What actually goes wrong on corporate incentive programs abroad, and why the debrief never says so
for the one whose neck is out
Article on your site
How to brief an incentive travel and event design partner when you are the one defending the brand, and the questions you should be putting to us
for the one guarding how it looks
Paid search theme
A search theme to hold when you are ready to buy terms: people typing what an incentive program costs and how scope is controlled, landing on a page that answers it plainly
for the one who signs it

12 · the path

Attraction

Attraction is how interest reaches you and what happens to the interest that is not ready to become an enquiry.

Somewhere for interest to land

First quarter

A path for the visitor who is interested but not ready to send an enquiry, so their interest is not lost.

Why it is here: This is the first move, because interest that is not ready to become an enquiry currently has nowhere to go. The research is unambiguous on it: demand arriving with nowhere to land. Everything in the quarters after this one assumes it is in place.
What changes: The majority of your traffic that is researching quietly becomes a known contact instead of an anonymous visit.
First move: One thing worth an email address, built from the proof you already hold, behind a form that asks for very little.
You will know because: A list that grows every month without paid support.

What this looks like · positions you as worth an email address months before you are worth a meeting

Lead magnet
An incentive travel brief template that includes the measurement and post-program reporting lines most briefs leave out and every leadership team asks about later
for the one whose neck is out
Lead magnet
A one page cost structure for a corporate incentive program: what is fixed, what moves with headcount, and the three places an overrun usually begins
for the one who signs it
Lead magnet
The internal case pack for taking a program to leadership: what to promise, what to record while on site, and what to report when it is over
for the one who has to live with it

Named-account targeting

Quarter 4

Working a defined list of accounts you want, one by one, rather than waiting.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because the accounts worth naming are identifiable, and approaching them needs the always-on layer working first.
What changes: The highest-value route and the most demanding, because it needs everything else working.
First move: Fifty named accounts, researched properly, approached individually.
You will know because: Conversations opening inside accounts you chose rather than accounts that found you.

What this looks like · positions you as the firm that arrived understanding their program rather than broadcasting into their inbox

Outreach angle
Open on what their program week looks like, transfers, room blocks, on-site staffing, and what you have watched go wrong on that shape of itinerary
for the one who has to run it
Outreach angle
Send the questions leadership asks after an incentive program is over, with nothing attached and nothing to book
for the one whose neck is out
Outreach angle
Lead with what you have seen about how global corporations are keeping brand consistency across destination programs, and say nothing at all about your services
for the one guarding how it looks

13 · the path

Automation

Automation here means giving you the hours back, not taking the people out. The conversations stay yours. What goes is the repetitive work stacked around them.

Walking into the call already informed

Quarter 1

Every enquiry enriched the moment it arrives, so whoever takes the call already knows the company, the people and the likely budget.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because first conversations currently start from whatever the enquiry form happened to capture.
What changes: The first conversation starts a level up. You are asking about the brief rather than asking who they are, and that difference is audible to the buyer.
First move: Decide the six things you always wish you knew before a first call, then have them attached to the enquiry automatically.
You will know because: Nobody opens a call by asking what the company does.

What this looks like · positions you as informed before the first call, so the conversation starts on the brief rather than the basics

Enrichment field
Attach to every enquiry the programs this company has already run, the destinations, the attendee counts and who ran them, so the first call starts with their history, not their name
for the one who has to run it
Enrichment field
Attach whether this account has bought an incentive travel program before, from whom, and what it was reported on afterwards, so nobody asks a question the buyer expects you to know
for the one whose neck is out
Enrichment field
Attach the brand's current standard to the record: recent campaign and event imagery, the marketing or brand lead's name, and whether they are on the call
for the one guarding how it looks

Staying useful between briefs

First quarter

A regular, genuinely useful contact with people who are interested but not buying yet.

Why it is here: This runs directly behind the first move, because the buying cycle here runs in quarters and there is nothing keeping you useful across it. On a buying cycle measured in quarters, the two together are worth more than either alone.
What changes: On a buying cycle measured in quarters, this is what makes you the name they already know when the brief lands.
First move: A monthly note to everyone who ever raised a hand. Short, and about them.
You will know because: Replies from people who went quiet eighteen months ago.

What this looks like · positions you as still useful nine months after they first found you, and still the name they know

Nurture branch
For the one who told you their worry is proving it was worth the spend: a quarterly note on what leadership asks after a program and what has to be captured on site
for the one whose neck is out
Nurture branch
For the one who said internal buy-in is harder than budget: a slow path on holding a brand standard across a destination program you do not own
for the one guarding how it looks
Nurture branch
For the corporate buyer nine months from a brief: one useful piece a quarter on what attendees actually do with the days you have designed for them
for the one who has to live with it

14 · the path

Architecture

Architecture is the plumbing. Unglamorous, and the reason the other three either compound or leak.

One pipeline, agreed stages

Quarter 3

Every live opportunity in one place, with stages everyone reads the same way.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because there is no single place that answers what is actually coming.
What changes: You can see what is actually coming, which is the difference between forecasting and guessing.
First move: Agree five stage names, then move every open opportunity into them.
You will know because: The pipeline answers questions instead of raising them.

What this looks like · positions you as able to see what is actually coming, on a cycle measured in quarters

Workflow
The first three steps after any enquiry, written down once, so they happen the same way in the week you have three programs on site
for the one who has to run it
What to measure
Record what started each incentive travel enquiry, the article, the template, the conversation, from now on, or a year of publishing will read as waste later
for the one whose neck is out

A smaller way in

Quarter 4

Something a new buyer can commit to that is not a full event, so the first yes is easier.

Why it is here: On the board for Czerlonka Event Design & Management because the only thing a new buyer can say yes to is a full event, which makes the first yes expensive.
What changes: Shortens the first decision and gives you a relationship to grow from.
First move: Name one paid engagement worth a tenth of a typical project.
You will know because: New clients arriving through a small first commitment.

What this looks like · positions you as easy to say yes to the first time, without committing a whole program

Lead magnet
The day-before escalation checklist for a conference or gala, worth using whether or not they ever appoint you
for the one who has to run it
Outreach angle
Make contact in the quarter before budgets are set, offering one read of how their last program was reported upwards, with no proposal behind it
for the one whose neck is out

15 · the path

Sequence roadmap

Four quarters, in dependency order. This is not a proposal for four quarters of work. It is the order the modules have to happen in if they are going to hold, so that if you only ever do the first quarter it still stands on its own. Arrows mark where one module needs another in place first.

Dotted arrows mark a dependency: the module at the point needs the one at the tail in place first.

16 · the system

What sits underneath

Under each of those four pillars sits roughly a hundred smaller moves. Nobody needs all of them, and nobody should try. It is here so the eight modules on your board read as a choice made from the whole picture rather than the whole picture itself.

Roughly ninety moves sit under the four pillars. Eight are on your board. The fog is the point: nobody needs all of it.

17 · the system

What it becomes

Compounding is the part that is hard to picture from the first quarter, because the first quarter mostly looks like effort. Eclipse Global has been running this system for eight years. Their published account is at codarity.com/results/eclipse-global.

The shape of it is worth saying plainly. Nothing on your board pays for itself in the quarter it is built. Published proof earns nothing the month it goes live. A list of people who are not ready to buy looks like a cost until the year it becomes the reason you are already on the shortlist.

That is the whole argument for sequencing rather than intensity. Each quarter makes the next one cheaper, because the thing you built last quarter is still working while you build the next one. Eight years of that is a different business, not a better marketing function.

Year by year figures for the Eclipse Global curve are held back until they can be stated exactly. The published case study carries the account in full.

18 · if it is useful

Next step

The obvious next step is a conversation about the first quarter, not the board and not the roadmap. If the next twelve months are meant to come from corporate event contracts, the first quarter is where that starts, and it is small enough to be worth talking about properly.

Codarity is a growth partner for firms that deliver B2B events. We build the system on the board above, one quarter at a time, and we are equally happy being useful on one module of it. If the first quarter is the only part that is ever relevant to Czerlonka Event Design & Management, that is a good outcome and not a failed one.

The Event Engine Programme is the version of this where we build and run the whole board over time. It is one option for the first quarter, not the only shape it can take.