The Ancillary Event

Making the most of conference attendance

It’s Event Season

With the marathon of events happening at the moment, it's hard not to think about event strategies and business outcomes. 

Bizzabo has a nice definition: “An event strategy is a data-driven, intentional, measurable plan that outlines what your organization expects to accomplish through events and how you will achieve and measure those goals.” (Source). In many cases, the goal is a certain number of participants, booth scans i.e. leads and pipeline. Perfect - but how do we get there?

Back in January I addressed executive events. In this post, I’d like to talk a bit about tradeshows and conferences and how to leverage them for maximum business outcomes.

According to Bizzabo “Forrester found that B2B companies allocate as much as 40% of their budget to events.” (Source). Trade Shows and Conferences are an expensive investment. Therefore, sponsoring the right one/s is key. 

Most event strategy plans hold the standard list: measurable goals, execution to do’s, staffing, preparing for the unexpected and follow-up. But how do you leverage for example a conference to really hit and surpass your goals and more? The first step is seeing an event as actually part of a larger integrated marketing campaign.

Example

You are sponsoring a conference with booth presence and speaker slots. Make sure these items are on your “to do list”:

(i) Promote your presence and speakers everywhere you can using all channels. Focus your social media channels and up the cadence as you get closer to the event. Also, don’t forget to post “live” from the event.

(ii) Get as much information on the attendees as possible and try to set meetings on-site in advance.

(iii) Booth activity - make it exciting! 

and then add one last thing…

The Ancillary Event

One place where I have seen deals being closed with a handshake live over and over again is at an ancillary event during a conference. 

Think about your conference experiences. 

People are attending presentations and workshops with a tight agenda. During the breaks they have the chance to visit the booths and hopefully you are strategically located, but they also want a break. Sometimes there will be an evening event in the exhibition area (if there is, make sure you are part of it!). Even if you are lucky enough to have enough booth traffic, much of this traffic will only be for long enough to be categorized as a Marketing Interest or Cold Lead.  

Holding an ancillary event enables you to have meaningful conversations with selected attendees. 

A few tips here:

(i) The location should be within walking distance

(ii) Promote the event before and during the conference

(iii) Setup a registration page and make sure people can also register at the booth 

(iv) On-site staff should have goals on registration and attendance of participants to the event

(v) leverage the event to introduce existing customers and prospects to each other

Goodluck!