Hi friends - For my Americans, I hope you had a lovely 4th, and for my Canadians, a lovely Canada Day. Cheers to independence. 🍾 

Alright, so this month, I’m gonna prep you for the upcoming conference season.

September and October are action-packed with tech and business conferences, and I want to help you maximize your impact and outcomes.

In July, we’re going to cover -

• How to determine which conferences you should attend

• How to prepare before

• What to do during the conference

• What to do after

Let’s dig in.

How to determine which conferences to attend

Should you attend as the founder?

Your time as a founder is your highest-value asset. Full stop.

You have limited time and limited money to 1) survive and 2) grow. Make decisions about where you spend your time and money accordingly.

Ask yourself these questions to determine if you should attend -

1. Is the primary audience your ICP AND your buyer persona? Will your decision-makers be there?

2. Can you realistically expect to generate a 5x ROI from attending?

   • Assume your ‘day rate’ for being out of the office is $5k, and the conference is 3 days. Can you reasonably expect to generate $75k in closed won deals ($15k*5)?

   • Or, can you expect to generate 5x your ACV in net new pipeline?

3. Is there an opportunity to connect with existing customers to deepen your relationship?

4. Is there a speaking opportunity?

5. Is there an opportunity to host (or co-host) a more intimate dinner or happy hour during the event to increase the likelihood of 5x ROI?

Do not waste your time if you can’t answer yes to at least questions 1 & 2.

Should your sales team attend?

If your sales reps want to attend a conference, make them go through the same exercise.

They should prepare and submit a business case detailing their strategy to generate a 5x ROI.

One founder I know requires that his reps book at least 20 meetings during the conference before he approves the travel expense. Brilliant. Make them earn it.

Should you sponsor it?

Almost always, if you’re a seed-stage company, the answer is no. If you are a Series A+, maybe.

I recommend attending the event one year first to scope it out and confirm the quality before committing to a sponsorship.

And if you decide to sponsor the next year…the same 5x rule applies.

But now you’ve got your day rate PLUS the sponsorship cost to consider before applying your 5x multiple. Be damn sure you can achieve that before you waste the time and money.

Some tips to help you do your research

Contact the event producer and say something like…

“Hi [Name] - I am considering sponsoring this event and need a bit more information to build a business case to justify the investment. Can you provide / confirm the following information?

• Who normally attends (title) and what size or profile are the companies they represent? Is it possible to provide a list of attendees from last year for illustrative purposes?

• What is the cost of sponsorship, and what does it include?

• Are there any additional speaking opportunities on the panels? “

Almost always in my experience…they will send you the list of attendees from the prior year.

That list often only includes the company name and the person's title (not their name for GDPR, etc.). But if you have the company name and title, you can enrich that file using Apollo or Clay, and boom. You’ve got confirmation if it is, in fact, the right audience AND a list of people to reach out to before the conference to try to book meetings.

Also, you can get added to a panel as a speaker or moderator more often than you'd expect. Yes, even without sponsoring the event. They always need more speakers and potentially more diversity in their panels.

Shoot your shot.

Final pro tip

I know plenty of founders who just go to the city where the conference is held without purchasing a ticket and post up in the hotel lobby to meet with people.

Sometimes, you don’t need to be in the room to capture ROI; just in the vicinity. 💡 

See ya next week!

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With love and gratitude,