Pandora at

GHC 2016

There’s no reason why we can’t make recruiting events be as exciting and engaging as a concert.

That’s what my team and I kept in the forefront of our minds when developing Pandora’s presence at the 2016 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, a critical recruiting source for women in technical roles.

Goals

  1. Position Pandora as an inclusive, unique, and exciting workplace for Women in Tech

  2. Recognize the inspiring and talented women in tech that already work at Pandora

  3. Create an atmosphere conducive for networking, making it easy for the 150+ attendees to connect with Pandora employees

  4. Highlight Pandora's culture of music-geekiness with a performance by an up and coming artist, based on Next Big Sound and Pandora data

  5. Encourage social chatter and fomo (do people still say fomo?), leading to increase awareness of goal #1

Step 1: Find the right artist

At Pandora, we had access to a treasure trove of data that let us know what key target audiences are listening to—not just pointing out obvious, more established artists, but actually helping us identify emerging musicians that can deeply connect with those that we’re trying to reach.

For this event, we were aiming to reach a diverse representation of female college-age students from universities with strong CS programs. Based on the data from Pandora and Next Big Sound (one of our acquisitions), all signs pointed to Yuna.

So that’s who we booked. :)

Step 2: Build the experiential concept

Pandora’s women leaders in tech deserved to be lifted up and admired—so we literally created large acrylic portraits of them for attendees to lift up and admire!

I worked with our internal team on the photo concept and shoot, and our event production partners, Pen and Public, on the fabrication.

I worked closely with our event production partners to identify, scout, and solidify the space that we would transform into a Pandora art gallery. It was close enough to the convention center to make access easy, yet far enough away to have that exclusive “secret show” feel.

We had food, drink, a photobooth, and the opportunity for attendees to meet and connect with both Pandora engineers, music analysts, university recruiters, and Yuna.

4R5A7555.jpg
4R5A7635.jpg
image37.jpeg
image32.jpeg
4R5A7294.jpg
image33.jpeg
4R5A7323.jpg
4R5A7662.jpg
4R5A7664.jpg
4R5A7644.jpg

Results

Event Stats:

  • RSVP cap (500) hit in under two weeks

  • 205 attendees (goal of 150)

  • Hashtag #PandoraGHC saw 1.9M organic impression

    • Yuna used the hashtag in her posts

Candidate Outreach:

  • 132 thank-you / emails sent to attendees, saying thank you for coming and a link to learn more about Life at Pandora

  • 565 emails sent to no-shows, saying sorry we missed you, keep in touch, here’s a link to learn more about Life at Pandora

  • Within one quarter: 18 Recruiter Screens // 7 Hiring Manager Phone Screens // 5 On Site Interviews