Codarity · market briefing

Market briefing for Umbrella Ship

Prepared for Derrick Gilday. 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 employee enrichment through creative entertainment, wellness experiences, and play-based team building, positioned at the intersection of workplace culture, mindfulness, and performance arts. The founder's unusual background (PhD Physical Comedy, mindfulness facilitation training) gives the offering a distinctive creative authority that differentiates from conventional team-building providers.
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 booking 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 what is already begun, because it is further than it feels. Umbrella Ship has made a start on being found on the questions they search months earlier and appearing somewhere that is not your own website. None of that is nothing. It is the difference between building on something and starting from scratch, and it is why the rest of this is a sequencing question rather than a standing start.

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, Umbrella Ship is present at 0 of them and absent from 80 per cent. Every gap sits early: being findable when a buyer asks an AI assistant, publishing a point of view where they already read, reaching the right accounts before they are looking and staying present when they go quiet mid-cycle.

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: partly; a blog exists but the site reads as thin, so it answers few real questions
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: partly; one third-party mention found: Active blog publishing across multiple categories in April 2026. One is a start, not a presence
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

80%

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 booking 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 whose reputation lives in the rooms it has worked in rather than anywhere a buyer can reach on their own. Two things in the research point the same way: no active acquisition surface yet and delivery evidence not published.

That works while the network holds. It stops working the moment you want more than the network can carry, because there is nothing a buyer who has never met you can act on.

The fastest change available to Umbrella Ship is not a bigger effort across everything. It is published proof, because it is the one thing every other move depends on and the one thing currently absent. Buyers who are shortlisting quietly get something to shortlist you on. It also gives every other module something credible to point at. Being findable when buyers search follows it directly, and the rest of the board is ordered behind those two.

What the research found

Umbrella Ship is a San Diego-based B2B event services company founded in 2020 by Derrick Gilday, specializing in three pillars: immersive entertainment (roaming performers, aerialists, themed productions), corporate wellness (sound therapy, meditation, breathwork, yoga), and creative team building (improv, dance, theater arts, multi-day retreats). They serve corporate clients including EA Sports, Apartments.com, Kind Snacks, San Diego Padres, and Rady's Children's Hospital, delivering on-site and virtual experiences for corporate events, employee engagement programs, company retreats, and brand activations. The company operates with a small team of approximately four people and falls within the $500K-$1M revenue range.

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 Umbrella Ship 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. Paid search is the obvious lever and the wrong first one. It buys clicks into a site with nothing to convert them, so the spend leaves no residue. Worth revisiting once there is proof and a capture path.

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

First quarter

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

Why it is here: This is the first move, because the delivery record is strong and almost none of it is readable by someone who has not worked with you. The research is unambiguous on it: delivery evidence not published. Everything in the quarters after this one assumes it is in place.
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 the corporate experience supplier whose delivery record a stranger can check before they ever pick up the phone

Article on your site
A written account of a multi-day Creative Immersion Retreat from the planner's side, naming every point where they needed an answer from us and how quickly it came
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What was different in the office the week after a sound therapy and breathwork series, written for the person who has to show it was more than a pleasant afternoon
for the one who has to live with it
PR angle
A trade piece for meeting planners on where roaming performers and immersive environments start to read as cheap, judged by the people who sign off on brand
for the one guarding how it looks

Being findable when buyers search

First quarter

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: This runs directly behind the first move, because there is no content surface for a buyer to find you on before they have a shortlist. On a buying cycle measured in quarters, the two together are worth more than either alone.
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 name people teams find while describing the problem, months before they search for performers

Article on your site
When something goes wrong at six the night before an aerial set or a wellness room, who answers, and how to test a supplier's escalation route before you book
for the one who has to run it
Article on your site
What quietly goes wrong with corporate team building bookings, from the improv session nobody wanted to the retreat that ended with no follow-through
for the one whose neck is out
Article on your site
How to brief immersive entertainment so it reads as part of the brand rather than a hired novelty, and the questions to put to a supplier before you commit
for the one guarding how it looks

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

Quarter 2

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: On the board for Umbrella Ship because interest that is not ready to become an enquiry currently has nowhere to go.
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 long before you are worth a meeting

Lead magnet
A one page brief template for an employee enrichment programme, with the lines that decide whether you can defend the spend when someone asks six months later
for the one whose neck is out
Lead magnet
A cost sheet for a company retreat or an on-site wellness series listing everything usually added after approval, so the number does not move under the signer
for the one who signs it
Lead magnet
The internal case pack for asking leadership to fund play and wellness, with the likely objections written out and an answer sitting next to each one
for the one who has to live with it

Turning up where buyers already are

Quarter 3

Deliberate presence in the places your buyers gather, rather than waiting to be found.

Why it is here: On the board for Umbrella Ship because you are findable by anyone already looking and invisible to everyone who is not.
What changes: Feeds the top of the funnel so the layer underneath has something to work on.
First move: Pick the two places your buyers actually spend time and show up there weekly for a quarter.
You will know because: Enquiries from people you have never met, naming where they saw you.

What this looks like · positions you as known to San Diego people and brand teams before there is a brief on anyone's desk

Brand campaign
A campaign on the gap between entertainment that decorates a room and entertainment that carries the brand, aimed straight at the person who signs off how it looks
for the one guarding how it looks
Brand campaign
A campaign built on the quiet fear of the beautiful forgettable day: good photographs, and nothing anyone is still talking about on Monday
for the one who has to live with it
LinkedIn post
Derrick on a live booking where he changed the running order two days out because the room was wrong for it, and exactly what he told the planner
for the one who has to run it

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.

Staying useful between briefs

Quarter 2

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

Why it is here: On the board for Umbrella Ship because the buying cycle here runs in quarters and there is nothing keeping you useful across it.
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 later, without ever asking for a decision

Nurture branch
For the person whose worry is proving it was worth it: a short series on what to record before, during and after an enrichment programme
for the one whose neck is out
Nurture branch
For the one protecting how it looks: a slow series on how formats, casting and dressing are chosen so a live element holds up beside the rest of the year
for the one guarding how it looks
Nurture branch
For the buyer nine months from a brief: one note a month on formats people actually joined, formats they avoided, and what that says about their teams
for the one who has to live with it

The same first steps, every time

Quarter 4

The tedious sequence every new opportunity goes through, held as tasks and checklists rather than in somebody's head: the questionnaire, the RFP review, the internal sign-offs.

Why it is here: On the board for Umbrella Ship because the same set of steps runs on every new opportunity and none of it is written down.
What changes: The boring work stops depending on who picked it up and how busy they were. You get the hours back and the process stops varying.
First move: Write down what actually has to happen between an enquiry arriving and a proposal going out. That list is the workflow.
You will know because: Nothing stalls because one person was on site all week.

What this looks like · positions you as consistent in your busiest week, which is the week it matters

Workflow
Enquiry in to proposal out as a written checklist: qualifying questions, date and venue check, performer and facilitator availability, so the same first steps happen whoever picks it up
for the one who has to run it
Workflow
Vendor questionnaires and procurement packs held as reusable saved answers, so an hour of retyping is handed back to a person instead of repeated
for the one whose neck is out
Workflow
One written definition of a confirmed booking against a held date, so two people reading the same pipeline see the same thing
for the one guarding how it looks

14 · the path

Architecture

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

Crediting the first touch, not the last

Quarter 3

Recording what a buyer had already seen before they made contact, not just the click that carried them in.

Why it is here: On the board for Umbrella Ship because the long half of the buying cycle is invisible in what gets recorded, so the work that starts decisions cannot be defended at budget time.
What changes: On a decision that takes 221 days the last touch is the doorway, not the reason. Crediting only the doorway defunds everything that did the work.
First move: One question on the enquiry form: where had you come across us before today?
You will know because: The channels you were about to cut turn out to be the ones being mentioned.

What this looks like · positions you as able to say which piece of work started the conversation, not only which one closed it

What to measure
Record on every enquiry what the planner had already read, seen or been sent before they filled the form, captured in their own words
for the one who has to run it
What to measure
Score every touch by how far it sat from the signature, so the early articles are not judged by the last click that carried someone in
for the one whose neck is out

One pipeline, agreed stages

Quarter 4

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

Why it is here: On the board for Umbrella Ship 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 across entertainment, wellness and team building work

Workflow
One list of every live booking with the same stage names used for entertainment, wellness and team building, so nothing depends on who remembers it
for the one who has to run it
What to measure
For every open opportunity, which of the five people in that room you have spoken to, and which one you have never met
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 booking 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 Umbrella Ship, 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.