Debbie Chong of Lenos Software
GGBA member Debbie Chong is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lenos, a firm that since 1999 has provided innovative marketing automation software to easily design, manage, and analyze branded meeting and event marketing programs enterprise-wide for revenue generation and dramatic savings. Lenos solutions power engagement marketing programs for corporations, associations, nonprofits, marketing and event agencies worldwide.GGBA: Please describe your business and its mission and values.
Debbie Chong: The Lenos Event Cloud Platform powers virtual, in-person, and hybrid event marketing. Founded in 1999, Lenos Software’s innovative software is an all-in-one solution for seamless engagement marketing. A single source of truth for all events across the enterprise enables a disciplined approach to manage all event processes, and supply-chain to achieve measurable business objectives aligned with corporate strategic goals/vision, data governance, and branding guidelines.Lenos effortlessly handles small internal business meetings to powering sophisticated annual customer conferences and expos. An easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), drag and drop event-content management system eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming coding.As part of a community that only recently won the right to get married, we know the trauma and life-changing experience of being gay in the U.S. when it was illegal. Based on our personal experiences, privacy controls are baked into Lenos. Our first decision was to determine to build an organization based on Privacy by Design/Default, a foundational principle of international privacy regulations. Trusted by 50 percent of Fortune 100 to power their event marketing engagement, Lenos solutions offer a full-featured native Privacy Consent module. Trust builds brand affinity with customers, partners, employees, and prospects.GGBA: Why did you decide to create your business?Debbie Chong: Back in 1999 and still today, we see an unmet market demand for software automation that is 100% branded, feature-rich, and enterprise class privacy respecting. Not to mention, we have a passion for event marketing and its impact on enterprise engagement for lead and revenue generation, customer/employee retention.GGBA: Who are some of your role models, and especially those who helped to influence your business?Debbie Chong: There are many. The most impactful in my life is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who has been my role model for 30 years. She has fought and will continue to fight for individual rights and liberties and will not accept anything less.Ann Cavoukian is a significant influence on our business philosophy. She is a former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario who is credited with developing Privacy by design/default, a framework for systems engineering back in 1995, which is now a foundational principal of international privacy regulations.And Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce. He has taken the position that we should have a national privacy policy to protect personal data and ensure that an individual owns and controls the use of their data. At potential cost to his business, he also challenged political leaders in respect to LGBTQ rights. He has also made significant financial contributions to social causes.GGBA: Why did you decide to join the GGBA, and how long have you been a member?Debbie Chong: It’s great to have a community, a tribe where we belong and are accepted and can discuss common issues that LBGTQ businesses experience on a day-to-day basis. We’ve been members since 2016.GGBA: How has being a member of GGBA helped your business so far?Debbie Chong: The GGBA community is very welcoming and always helpful. If LBGTQ businesses are to make a positive impact on our society, then we must lean on each other to open doors that otherwise would be closed. Once a door is cracked open, then it is up to each business to make what they can of the opportunity.GGBA: What other advice would you give to someone who is thinking of starting their own business?Debbie Chong: Be prepared to ask for help and to offer help in return. Entrepreneurship can be very rewarding, but it also demands patience, dedication, tenacity, and blood, sweat, and tears. It is reassuring to know that GGBA is a welcoming community to help you network.For more information about Lenos: https://lenos.com