A named guest list you approved
- You see and sign off every name before we dial. No filling seats with whoever answers.
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.
Best fit: deals worth $5k or more a year
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.
| Stage | Typical figure |
|---|---|
| Named contacts targeted | 80 to 120 |
| Dials reaching a live person (all buyers) | 14% |
| Real conversations | 10 to 15 per 100 names |
| Soft commitments secured | 25 to 35% of connections |
| Show rate after hardening calls | Tracked and reported weekly |
| Confirmed attendees | 12 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 item | Typical 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 | Quoted as a project after a 30-minute call |
| Logistics and follow-up | Scope agreed before launch |
At those numbers, every empty chair is expensive, which is why the calling budget is the last line anyone should cut.
Most people underestimate this by a factor of five.
Timeline
The six week playbook
What happens
Week six, build the named list
80 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.
What happens
Weeks five to two, connect and secure soft commitment
Four to six call attempts per contact across different times of day. In our data 14% of dials reach a live person, so plan several attempts per name to reach 10 to 15 real conversations from 100 names, and 25 to 35 of those turn into a soft yes.
What happens
Weeks two to one, harden every commitment
A 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
Target account list review
Outreach execution
- Email outreach
- Calling where useful
- LinkedIn touches where relevant
Deliverables
What you get
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.
Executive roundtables work because they create a smaller, higher quality environment for commercial conversation than broad event marketing.
Today's roundtable activity
218,000+
Dials, Nov 2024 to Apr 2026
1.3 vs 0.3
Meetings per 100 dials, onshore vs offshore
2 weeks
To first calls
About 8
Qualified meetings a month typical, range 6 to 20
Senior invite outreach
RSVP tracking
Priority accounts
Updated today
Published operating benchmarks
FAQ
Questions & answers
Common questions about our executive roundtable booking service.
Still have questions?
Book a 30-minute callExecutive roundtables, leadership dinners, private panels, invite only discussions, and any B2B event where attendee quality matters more than volume.
Yes. We work from the target account list you provide and focus outreach on those accounts.
We can review the list for ICP alignment and suggest adjustments based on targeting criteria.
We can support with invite copy and positioning, or work from messaging you provide.
Yes. We run structured follow up until we reach a clear outcome on each contact.
Through a confirmation workflow that includes direct contact, reminders, and attendance tracking.
Yes. We run a reminder cycle in the lead up to the event to protect show rates.
Weekly reports covering invites sent, responses, confirmed attendees, and next steps.
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How roundtable campaigns are priced
Roundtable campaigns are scoped as six week projects against a named list, not monthly retainers. Invitation calling is quoted as a project, depending on list size and persona seniority.
Request a scoped quoteRoundtable campaigns are scoped as six week projects against a named list, not monthly retainers.
Ready for a calendar full of qualified meetings?
30 minutes with our team. We'll map your market, your buyers and what a campaign would book.
Event campaigns are quoted as projects after a 30-minute call.