By the end of January, most of you have completed your annual planning for the year. Sales and marketing strategy is mapped out for the next 6-12 months, and that includes a conference plan for the year. Big events might be booked already, booths ordered, and abstracts submitted. But it’s unlikely all your plans are laid out yet.
This article is a generic checklist for you, the conference team leader, and conference attendees. Sending staff to conferences is expensive. And it’s not always clear if you’re getting the best return on your investment. You want to make sure you set your team up for success and avoid the feeling of wasting time and money in sending them.
Setting conference goals
What is your purpose for attending a conference?
Companies attend conferences for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, your company’s presence has something to do with generating revenue. Brand exposure, competitor research, sales meetings, client meetings, or even a training exercise for new staff, all can feed into a revenue generation plan. An individual’s reasons for attending can be all over the map, but do you know what the top priority is for the company?
Sending a team to a conference, you should have an idea of what you want to get out of the experience. Make sure your team knows why you’re sending them to the conference. The overarching goal as an organization needs to be clear and shared with them.
To get started on your overarching ‘conference goal’, think about which items from the following list resonate with you.
- Partnerships; building relationships and meeting potential partners.
- Sales; closing deals and finding new companies and individuals to sell to.
- Networking; making contacts and [cultivating] relationships for multiple purposes.
- Making new connections for sales and following up on existing relationships.
- Face-to-face meetings with clients, prospects, and/or suppliers.
- Learning about an industry/field/market.
- Gaining or growing industry presence.
Individual goals
An individual’s agenda at a conference partially depends on their role in the company. Your technical staff are going to have different goals than your sales and marketing employees. Similarly, seniority and tenure make a difference too. Sending junior staff, or new team members, to conferences can be a great way to get them industry exposure. They can attend sessions, learn from industry experts, and shadow more experienced sales, marketing, and executives as they pitch the company again and again.
You may want a more senior employee there to show off you/your company’s technical expertise and thought leadership.
At most conferences, you’ll want some sort of sales and marketing presence. There’s plenty of opportunity to meet clients, prospects, and competitors in person, and establish a general brand presence in your target market(s).
Regardless of the company goal, there are going to be varied reasons for individuals to attend. It’s important that they set a clear goal for why they’re personally attending the conference too.
Having a conference goal for each individual attendee is important for a couple of reasons.
It sets clear expectations. Everyone knows why the company and individual staff members are attending the conference. Whether it’s to lead some function, support another, or merely learn and gain experience. A terrible thing for team dynamics is getting to the end of a conference disappointed that a teammate didn’t do what you expected them to do. It’s possible they found the conference a success, and you thought it a failure, because you weren’t on the same page on what the conference goal(s) were.
Allows for better coordination. Each conference attendee should come up with their own reason for attending. Once laid out in one place, it’ll be easier to see where folks can compliment each other. Individuals may discover their goals overlap, and they can talk about dividing and conquering or working together. You may find the individual goals miss the mark on the team goal, and that a reset of some people’s expectations is in order.
Coming up with a gameplan
Now that you have your conference team assembled, the company’s goal set, and everyone has their own personal goals, what’s next?
How will you achieve your goal?
This is where experience helps. For first-time conference-goers, they might be in the dark as to how to achieve their goal(s). Help them set objectives that will make it easier for them to succeed.
There are things they should be doing in advance of the conference; activities they should be aware of and doing during the conference; and tasks to do after.
Budget
Is there a budget? Does it come out of marketing, or sales, or somewhere else? Is there one big budget, or do individual functions have their own buckets?
However you set up your conference budget, everyone attending should have an idea of how much they can spend.
Even if you don’t have a hard and fast budget, make something up. Give your team boundaries. This is especially useful for larger expenses (such as a trade show display), junior employees, and employees coming from a different industry.
For example, I once encountered an employee who believed it appropriate to have multiple alcoholic drinks with each dinner, and expense it to the company. Conversely, I worked for a company where expensing any alcohol was prohibited. The boundaries will differ depending on the industry you’re in, a company’s management and culture.
Share your expectations on expenses. And note, these will likely change depending on which country you’re traveling in:
- Cost of hotel per night, and star rating.
- How much is expected to spend per meal (ie. dinner).
- Is alcohol expenseable or not, and if there are limitations.
- What transportation is appropriate (eg. rideshare, public transportation, walking, taxis). Safety should also be considered.
Tips and tricks
Preparing in advance
Conferences are stressful, and even more so when you walk in unprepared. Here are some things I recommend for helping your team reach goals and objectives more smoothly:
Booking accommodations and securing travel plans – do this in advance.
Secure travel plans as soon as you know when the event is, and who’s attending. Some companies will hire a travel agent to do this, others will go through a central operator (eg. operations personnel or a team manager), and others will ask employees to take care of their own travel arrangements and expense them. Agree on the method beforehand, and push your team to do this all ahead of time.
Book meetings with clients, prospects, and suppliers 2-3 weeks ahead of time.
Once you know you’re going, if there is anyone you want to meet with or talk to, try to book a time with them in advance. Everyone gets busy once you’re at the conference, and everyone else is going to be pining for their attention. You’ll get some cancellations and no-shows, but try to book in meetings (especially with key contacts) a few weeks in advance.
List targets.
Are there strategic targets at the conference? Maybe you want to get a demo with a competitor, or make sure you have some face-to-face time with your biggest client. Whatever the big target is, make sure everyone knows what it is so you can support each other in making a positive impact. A shared list of targets helps everyone on your team to be on the same page while preparing for and attending the conference.
Research your targets, go in with some information beforehand.
You always look better when you look like you did your homework on them. Especially if it’s a sales or partnership target. With competitors or suppliers, you can get away with coming off as not knowing anything about them.
Check out the conference agenda, book or make note of sessions to attend.
See what sessions look interesting and useful for you or your teammates to attend. And sign up for them in advance. Some of these sessions will fill up, and some of them you will need to be on a registration list to attend.
Reserve restaurant tables and meeting rooms for big, important meetings.
At large conferences everything close to the venue books up fast. This is especially relevant if you’re booking strategic meetings. You’ll want to maximize the time you spend developing the relationship with them, rather than running around looking for a place to eat that isn’t full. If you do end up having to run around, then at least that can be a bonding experience.
Know the dress code and plan accordingly.
Is everyone going to show up in business casual, jeans and a t-shirt, or full suit? Make sure you let your team know what you expect, or what other conference attendees (like your partners and clients) will likely expect. It’s not a great look when you come into a meeting where one of your teammates has ripped jeans and a t-shirt, another has a suit on, and your clients are in full business formal attire.
While at the conference
Don’t plan on getting much sleep. Even if you’re going to bed early, you’re still sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, and likely downtown in a big city. You’ll be getting up early for meetings, hitting the trade floor, or attending sessions. Each day is jam-packed, running from one thing to another. If you’re changing time zones, that’s yet another factor.
If you do plan on being part of the conference nightlife, make sure you have a contact or two for the events/parties. Some conferences will host good evening events. Your conference pass may automatically include your registration for such events, but this isn’t always the case. Some events are invite-only, others you need to purchase a ticket for or register for ahead of time. Often there are ‘off-site’ events as well. For these, it’s handy to have a well-connected industry friend pointing you to the right place and helping you get your name on the right list.
Experience the city. Those who travel for work often get bored of “just another city”. But try and experience some of the cultures of the places you visit. Often I’ll ask my taxi or rideshare driver, on the way from the airport to the hotel: “what’s one thing I should do here?” I’ll often try a local cuisine or dish. Sometimes I’ll visit a local site. Even walking from place to place (weather permitting), helps you get a small sense of the city.
Follow up follow up follow up
Even if you aren’t explicitly at the conference to network, you will network. Write down names, contact information, and companies. Take pictures of name badges and scan QR codes.
Make sure you follow up with these contacts, even if it’s just a friendly ‘nice to meet you’ message. You may be able to help a member of the sales team with an introduction, or lead up to scheduling follow-up calls yourself.
Debrief and learn for next time
Make sure you get the conference team together for a debrief. Some teams will do this in the airport, or hotel lobby, at the end of the conference. Others will book a meeting once everyone’s back in ‘the office’. Do it soon after the conference, so the experience is fresh in everyone’s mind.
What went well? What went poorly? Is there anything they’d change if you were to do it again? What happened that you didn’t expect?
People will want to know if the conference was ‘a success’. Consider how you might evaluate that.
In summary
- Set and communicate an overarching conference goal
- Make sure your attendees have their individual goals
- Help each other identify objectives to make achieving goals easier
- Set expectations around budget
- Plan the majority of things in advance
- Share conference/travel tips with the team
- Follow up with contacts
- Debrief together