For event planners & coordinators
Behind the Curtain.

The weekly edge for event planners who want to close more, stress less, and deliver extraordinary experiences.

Free. Weekly. Actually worth reading.

Behind the Curtain

Your events
deserve to feel
effortless.

Yours can.

Weekly intelligence that gives event planners a real, unfair advantage. Strategies that work right now, delivered before the industry catches on.

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Event atmosphere
Event intelligence Close more events Weekly unfair advantage Less chaos, more bookings For event planners Real strategies that work Event intelligence Close more events Weekly unfair advantage Less chaos, more bookings For event planners Real strategies that work
How it works

The edge is in the timing.

01
🗓️

One insight, every week

One well-researched idea that event planners are using right now to close more, stress less, and deliver better events.

02

Before the crowd catches on

By the time something hits a conference keynote, it's already old. This newsletter surfaces strategies while there's still a first-mover advantage.

03
🎯

Written for your role

Not for general marketers. Written specifically for event planners and coordinators juggling clients, budgets, and impossible timelines.

Elegant event venue
Events that feel as good as they look.
Recent issues

The latest from
Behind the Curtain

Issue #16 August 28, 2026

Your convention bureau plays favorites. Your sales floor might too.

A new incentive travel survey just proved something most hotel sales teams already suspected about themselves.

Issue #15 August 21, 2026

Your last group's best photos are still sitting in their guests' phones.

Wedding planners solved this with QR codes months ago. Hotel sales teams are still waiting to ask.

Issue #14 August 14, 2026

Forty guests at a farmhouse are booking richer nights than three hundred at a conference.

Couples are already proving it, and planners are starting to catch on.

Issue #13 August 7, 2026

The fastest way into a CFO's heart is a hospitality suite at Wimbledon.

New data says 70 percent of decision makers already budgeted for a marquee event this year.

Issue #12 July 31, 2026

Most of your best group leads are already sitting inside your own history.

New research says 63 percent of hotels can't tell a real lead from a dead end, and the fix is sitting in data most sales teams have never connected.

Issue #11 July 24, 2026

Half your restaurant's regulars have never booked a room here.

Turns out the fastest way into a planner's shortlist might run through your kitchen, not your ballroom.

Issue #10 July 17, 2026

The pitch that gets a meeting approved isn't the one everyone's making.

Executive buy-in jumped from 49% to 70% with one change: talking business outcomes instead of culture and connection.

Issue #09 July 10, 2026

Fourteen people can out-earn three hundred, if you treat them like it.

The group that books the most rooms isn't always the group worth chasing.

Issue #08 July 3, 2026

Friction killed the booking before you knew there was one.

The booking a hotel loses to friction rarely shows up anywhere in the lost business report.

Issue #07 June 26, 2026

Your room block isn't the number you signed up for.

By the time the real number shows up, your cutoff date is already behind you.

Issue #06 June 19, 2026

The hotels winning the World Cup are nowhere near the stadium.

Nearly 80% of host city hotels are pacing below forecast.

Issue #05 June 12, 2026

The conversation your RFP form is having without you.

Hotels lose millions in group bookings by designing sales processes for themselves.

Issue #04 June 3, 2026

What your client's attendees remember in September.

90% of planners are stressed about proving ROI. The metric just changed.

Issue #03 May 29, 2026

What most hotel teams didn't see coming this summer.

Five million tickets. Eighty percent of properties tracking below forecast. What the gap means for the rest of your calendar.

Issue #02 May 20, 2026

What the best hotels are already tracking.

The groups giving you 10 weeks of runway aren't the outliers anymore.

Issue #01 May 13, 2026

What the best events leave out.

Turns out, the most memorable part wasn't on the agenda.

What readers say

Unfiltered. Slightly embarrassing.

"

I read it at 6am before my first call and walked into the meeting with an actual answer. My client was impressed. I was more impressed.

Event planner, Dallas
"

My boss thinks I came up with the idea myself. I am not correcting her. Ever.

Coordinator who prefers anonymity, New York
"

I forwarded issue #03 to a client mid-meeting to prove my point. Closed a $22K event before dessert arrived.

Event coordinator, Chicago
Celebration event
The moments that stay with people forever.
Bob Matteson
About Bob

Founder of
Relivable.com

I’m the founder of Relivable, the platform that lets couples collect, organize, and relive every photo and video from their wedding in one beautifully simple place. Guests and photographers upload directly via QR code or shareable link. Relivable’s AI organizes everything by people, moments, and moods, and generates highlight reels automatically.

I created Behind the Curtain because the event industry deserves better tools and smarter strategies. This newsletter is for our friends who plan, sell, and coordinate events — weddings, galas, corporate events, celebrations — and want a competitive edge through weekly actionable intelligence. These are strategies you can apply before the rest of the industry catches on. Find me on LinkedIn.

Relivable.com helps couples collect every wedding photo and video in one organized, searchable gallery

Offer virtual tours to venue clients so they can fall in love with your space before they visit

Highlight reels generated automatically by people, events, and moods from every upload

QR code sharing lets every guest upload phone pics and pro shots to one effortless gallery

Visit Relivable.com →
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Guests on the dance floor
The energy that keeps people talking long after the night ends.