The Last Defensible Channel in Marketing (w/ Julius Solaris)

Julius Solaris has been the events industry's most trusted voice for nearly two decades — founding EventMB and building it into a media company with millions of readers before its acquisition by Skift, then serving in executive leadership at Swapcard and Hopin during the virtual event boom. Four years ago he founded BoldPush, a vertical agency advising the world's leading corporate event teams. He joins Brand Humanity Show host Anthony Kennada — a former Hopin teammate turned longtime friend — to make the case that in-person events are the last defensible channel in marketing. The argument is hard to ignore. SEO is writing "letters of desperation." Content marketing is drowning in AI slop. Meanwhile, the events industry has posted four consecutive record-breaking years despite inflation and travel disruption that would have crushed it in any prior era. Julius's explanation is simple: you can't fake it in a room. Every technology wave was supposed to kill in-person — Twitter, then virtual, now AI — and every time, the opposite happened. But thriving here requires a new playbook. Anthony and Julius dig into why registrations now land two weeks out, why alumni strategy beats acquisition, why "connection over content" keeps showing up in the research, and where AI gives event teams real leverage — from facial recognition at check-in to event platforms shipping MCPs that connect directly to Claude. Topics we cover: – Why the events industry needs to stop playing defense — and what four record years prove – Events going from a channel to the channel as SEO and content collapse – The Pinterest phone ban and trading reach for impact – Late registrations, GLP-1s, and why "connection over content" is backed by research – Alumni over acquisition: the flywheel most event teams never build – Where AI gives event teams real leverage — and where it's just noise If you're a CMO deciding where your budget goes in the AI era, this episode makes the case that the most durable channel is the one that's been here all along. Because when everything online can be faked, the room becomes the premium.