“I guess we all heard the jolt at 1:40 a.m., and I'm glad no one got hurt,” said Robert Sofia, CEO of the marketing technology firm Snappy Kraken, on stage at 8 a.m. Tuesday to a standing-room only crowd in Nashville.
Over 500 guests at the firm's Jolt! Conference heard the alarms at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel go off briefly at about 1:30 a.m. They left their rooms via staircases and stayed in conference areas on the lower floors of the facility until about 3 a.m.
“It was an interesting night,” said Lauren Lennahan, marketing manager of Pennington Partners, a family wealth management office. “When we came downstairs, the black smoke near the hotel exit was so bad. Then we heard a loud bang and came back inside. It was really alarming.”
Liz Fritz, co-founder and chief brand evangelist of the tech consulting and services firm F2 Strategy, said: “You could really see black smoke in the bad area of the fire” on the upper floors of the parking structure. “And there was talk about concern that the [skybridge connecting the hotel and parking area] would catch on fire.”
Multiple city vehicles, including street sweepers, were affected by the fire, Nashville Fire Department officials told local TV station WKRN. Explosions heard by hotel guests were likely caused by burning gas tanks, gas cans and tires, the fire department said, adding that no hotel guests had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
After guests returned to their rooms about roughly 3 a.m., “I was able to get back to sleep, so I could be up bright and early and get down to the conference area by 7 a.m.,” Lennahan said.
“The opening talk at 8 a.m. was full,” said Sofia, who organized the first Jolt! event three years ago.
Morning Session
In his opening remarks Tuesday morning, Sofia discussed the “dramatic changes” taking place in the industry as technology advances at “a blistering pace. “Now, AI is a reality in our business,” he said, while it was just in its infancy a few years ago.
Advances in this technology are doubling every seven months, Sofia added. “You can stay as you are or scale.”
He went on to describe the need for advisory firms to do more to work better with next-gen clients and prospects. “They want more than just tax seminars,” Sofia pointed out. If they don’t get that, many of these individuals are ready to move on from their parents’ advisors.
“Yet most advisors are not ready [to serve] next-generation clients,” he said.
His advice? “Chart a new growth trajectory, stay competitive and stay relevant.”
The opportunity for advisors, he says, lies in the humanity they can combine with technology. “The greater the role of technology, the greater the role of a human, an advisor, can be. … And the more important human connections matter. The human factor has to stay put.”
Fritz, who was part of a pre-conference panel discussion about artificial intelligence, agrees: “We talked about how advisors can dip their toe into AI by using tools like ChatGPT or generative AI for appointment making, note taking and operational efficiency.”
Today, “Time saving is a priority,” she said. This allows advisors to have more time for “humaning — deepening advisor-client relations with AI rather than replacing this connection with technology.”
Tech Updates
During the event, Snappy Kraken announced updates to its Smart Growth Suite, which Sofia described as a “complete system” that automates lead conversion for enterprise firms, mid-market organizations and individual advisors.
Among these was the introduction of Dynamic Groups, a capability designed to help advisors automate segmentation and support personalized outreach to convert leads efficiently.
Using the tool, advisors can segment contacts using attributes like age, gender and investable assets, enabling more personalized messaging without adding manual work.
“Dynamic Groups puts real-time intelligence behind every campaign, eliminating static lists and busywork in prospecting,” Sofia said. “It’s segmentation that adapts as fast as advisors’ clients do.”
Sofia noted that, based on Snappy Kraken’s performance data, firms using the Smart Growth Suite see a 20% to 340% increase in lead conversion rates.
Other news from the Jolt! conference included the appointment of the experienced technology executive Cheryl Nash as a board member. Nash is currently the president of the APL unit of InvestCloud.
Her appointment is meant to strengthen Snappy Kraken’s focus on driving organic growth for enterprises and advisors by reinforcing its capabilities in lead capture, contact management and business development, the firms say.
A fire truck responded to a blaze at a parking structure near the Renaissance Nashville Hotel. Credit: Liz Fritz/F2 Strategy
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