About CDM
Built by event marketers, for event-led businesses.
A small, deliberately senior group of event marketing specialists. Founded in 2024 by Caylee Donaldson after fifteen years running event marketing inside some of the UK's most commercially pressured organisers. We do one thing, for one kind of business, properly.
FOUNDER'S NOTE
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I spent fifteen years inside B2B event businesses — running marketing functions, launching flagship events, rebuilding rebook systems, getting hauled into the commercial director's office when registration numbers were behind. I know the pressure, because I've been the person holding it.
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When I stepped out in 2024 and started taking on contract work, I saw the same pattern over and over: event-led businesses were being let down by the market that was meant to serve them. The freelancers were reasonably priced but tend to lacked industry experience. The agencies were senior but structured for twelve-month retainers that made no sense for a launch cycle. The fractional CMO networks were industry-agnostic, they understood marketing, but not the specific pressure of a delegate target four weeks from doors-open.
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CDM was built to sit exactly in that gap. Senior. Event-specific. Shaped around the cycle, not around a retainer model.
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Two years in, we're a small team of event marketing specialists working across conferences, summits, memberships, and exhibitions. We do one thing. We do it for one kind of business. And we do it to a standard that means we don't need to sell to anyone who isn't the right fit.
HOW WE WORK
​Five principles the work is run by.
We own the number, or we don't take the work.
Every engagement is measured against a commercial outcome we've agreed up front. If we can't commit to moving a number, we're not the right firm.
Senior by default.
Every engagement is led by a consultant with a decade-plus in event marketing. No junior pass-through, no "we'll put a mid-weight on the account." If the brief is senior, the person is senior.
Event-specific, not event-adjacent.
Conferences, summits, memberships, launches, B2B trade shows. Not weddings, not consumer festivals, not generic B2B brand work. The depth of understanding is the thing you're hiring.
Integrated with your team, not parallel to it.
We work inside your tools, your Slack, your CRM, your meeting cadence. The goal is to feel like an extension of the in-house function — not a supplier you manage from outside.
Handed back stronger than we found it.
Every engagement ends with documented systems, working reporting, and usually a recommendation on what the next twelve months should look like. We don't build dependency.
THE TEAM
A deliberately small, senior team.
CDM isn't an agency with a staff roster, and it isn't a marketplace of random freelancers. It's a small, hand-picked team of senior event marketing specialists, each with a decade-plus in the discipline. Every engagement is led by one named consultant as your point of accountability, with the right specialist depth behind them.
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For engagements that need additional specialist depth, we draw on a trusted network of senior event marketing consultants. Everyone who works on a CDM engagement meets the same seniority bar. Join the network →