Service

    Twelve senior people in a private room, and all of them turn up

    Executive roundtables are the hardest event format to fill and the most valuable when they work. Senior Australian buyers do not respond to cold roundtable emails. They respond to being personally invited. That is a phone job, and it takes six weeks.

    ACV of $5,000 plus is ideal.

    The arithmetic

    What it takes to fill fifteen seats

    Most people underestimate this by a factor of five. Here is the funnel for a premium Australian roundtable targeting CXO-level personas.

    StageTypical figure
    Named contacts targeted80 to 120
    Phone connect rate with senior executives10 to 15%
    Real conversations10 to 15 per 100 names
    Soft commitments secured25 to 35% of connections
    Show rate after hardening calls75 to 85%
    Confirmed attendees12 to 15

    Roughly two to three attendees per 100 named contacts. That is the honest number and it is why email alone does not fill these rooms. To get 12 CFOs to register from cold email at typical open and conversion rates, you would need to mail five to six thousand contacts, and four or five of the twelve would no-show anyway.

    What a roundtable actually costs

    Line itemTypical range
    Venue and catering, Sydney or Melbourne CBD$8,000 to $15,000
    External speaker, if used$2,000 to $5,000
    Invitation calling campaign$5,000 to $8,000
    Logistics and follow-up$1,000 to $2,000
    Total$15,000 to $30,000

    At those numbers, every empty chair is expensive, which is why the calling budget is the last line anyone should cut.

    Timeline

    The six week playbook

    1
    Week six, build the named list80 to 120 named individuals at named accounts, matched precisely to persona, revenue band and location. Not a segment. A list of people, each of whom you would be pleased to see at the table.
    2
    Weeks five to two, connect and secure soft commitmentFour to six call attempts per contact across different times of day. Connect rates with senior Australian executives run 10 to 15%, so 100 names produces 10 to 15 real conversations, and 25 to 35 of those turn into a soft yes.
    3
    Weeks two to one, harden every commitmentA soft yes is not attendance. Without a hardening call, expect 40 to 50% no-shows. With one, drop-off falls to 20 to 25%. This single step is the difference between a table of eight and a table of fifteen.

    Results

    What this delivers

    Higher quality attendance from target accounts
    More confirmed conversations before the event
    Stronger show rates through follow up and reminders
    Clearer post event handoff into pipeline
    Less manual coordination for internal teams
    A repeatable event attendance process, not last minute scrambling

    Our approach

    What we run end to end

    Every engagement follows a structured operating model across targeting, execution, qualification, and reporting.

    Targeting and event setup

    1Targeting and setup

    • Target account list review

    2Execution

    • ICP alignment and invite criteria

    3Qualification and handoff

    • Event messaging and positioning

    Outreach execution

    • Email outreach
    • Calling where useful
    • LinkedIn touches where relevant

    Deliverables

    What you get

    A named guest list you approved

    • You see and sign off every name before we dial. No filling seats with whoever answers.

    Hardening calls in the final week

    Every soft commitment converted to a firm one, with the host looped in for senior-to-senior closure where it helps.

    Attendee briefing pack

    Who is coming, what they said on the call, and why each of them is worth your time on the night.

    Approach

    How we make the call

    The most common mistake in roundtable calling is running it as a cold sales pitch. It is not one. You are offering access to something closed, and the framing has to reflect that from the first sentence.

    We open by naming the event, the format, the number of seats, and the specific reason this person is being invited. No discovery questions. No attempt to close attendance on the call. The yes we are after is 'send me the details', not 'I'll be there'. Pushing for the second one on a cold call loses both.

    What does not work

    • Opening with "do you have 30 seconds"
    • Calling it a thought leadership event
    • Mentioning that industry experts will be presenting
    • Anything that makes it sound like a webinar in disguise
    Onshore matters more here than anywhere else in outbound. Offshore callers can fill a webinar. They do not fill a private table of Australian CXOs.

    Fit check

    Is this for you?

    Best for

    • You have a defined target account list
    • You want senior decision makers in the room
    • You are running a focused B2B event, dinner, or roundtable
    • You want support with outreach, follow up, and confirmations

    Not for

    • You want open registration volume over attendee quality
    • You do not know who you want to invite
    • Your event positioning changes every week
    • You are looking for broad consumer event promotion

    Why it works

    Why roundtables work

    Executive roundtables work because they create a smaller, higher quality environment for commercial conversation than broad event marketing. Instead of attracting mixed attendance, they bring together a defined group of senior decision makers around a relevant topic, challenge, or industry theme. That makes the event more valuable for both the host and the attendees. For B2B companies selling complex or high value services, roundtables are often one of the best ways to build trust early, create peer level discussion, and open conversations that would be harder to start through standard outbound alone. The key is not just running the event itself but making sure the right people are in the room. Structured outreach, follow up, and confirmation management improve attendance quality by moving beyond generic invites and focusing on real fit, timing, and relevance. This gives sales and marketing teams a stronger pipeline asset and a much more strategic way to engage priority accounts.

    Today's roundtable activity

    57

    Invitations sent

    14

    Positive replies

    6

    Attendance confirmations

    3

    Executive referrals added

    Senior invite outreach
    RSVP tracking
    Priority accounts
    Updated today

    FAQ

    Questions & answers

    Common questions about our executive roundtable booking service.

    Still have questions?

    Commercials

    How roundtable campaigns are priced

    Roundtable campaigns are scoped as six week projects against a named list, not monthly retainers. Typical invitation calling budget is $5,000 to $8,000 depending on list size and persona seniority.

    Request a scoped quote

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