Welcome to the Dakota Events Playbook — a new series on how Dakota builds the in-person events (Dakota Cocktails, Dakota Conferences, and Data Summits) that drive real relationships with investors and allocators.

In this first episode, Dakota's two in-house events experts, Catherine and Dominique, break down the roadblocks that keep firms from ever getting an event off the ground:

• Answering ”who, what, when, where, and why” before anything else
• Why too many opinions and approval layers kill momentum
• Starting small instead of chasing a big vision from day one
• Setting a per-head budget that creates freedom, not restriction
• Deciding who from the team actually attends
• Why no event is perfect — and how a strong team handles it when things go wrong

Practical, hard-won lessons from a team that's run 30+ events a year for five years running.