Conference badge? Check. Now what?

Woody Allen once famously said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Woody Allen never attended a trade show.

I’ve gone to my share of financial services conferences over the years, and with the many private bankers, investment bankers and wealth managers I’ve run into, I can undoubtedly tell the difference between those just showing up and those who have prepared well.  

Success at these key events can pay big dividends for banks and wealth-management firms. It’s no surprise, then, that nearly half of respondents in a recent business-leader survey believe events to be the most critical marketing tool. And, while digital communications certainly have their place, on-the-ground events provide the face-to-face interactions so important to the financial sector.

I continue to make events a critical pillar of my own business plan, and those of my clients

So, why the angst among many banking and wealth leaders when it comes to conferences? Do they simply want to be “conspicuously present” among competitors? Blindly attending with no idea about determining success? Do they even arrive with an idea of what success means?

I know it can sound basic, but what is basic in financial services is often overlooked.  And undervalued.

In fact, I find it quite astonishing that 55% of business leaders – those that actually approve the budgets -- don’t feel they measure the success of their events well enough. This is certainly counter to the ROI fanaticism of banks and wealth-management entities. Couple that with the fact that nearly $1,300 is spent on the average conference attendee, and it’s a tasteless recipe for waste.

It doesn’t matter how many bankers, managers and other financial professionals you’ve sent – event success can be defined in the same way used in every other part of your company’s business strategy: plan and measure.

In the financial world, it’s about the plan. But when that sentiment is turned inward, it’s often like the shoemaker’s children. A recent Forbes study pointed out that B2B companies only spend an average of 5-8 weeks readying for an event. Compare that to how much energy enterprise leaders spend on, say, an annual meeting or an investment banking conference.  According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, planning for internal leadership summits start up to a year in advance. Why should a financial company treat an outside conference with less respect? I would argue that there is as much, if not much more, on the line.

So, what does your plan look like? First, and early on, study the agenda and attendee list, outline with whom you want to meet and identify sessions to attend (while events are primarily used to build business, don’t neglect the learning!). How about speaking to raise your thought-leadership? And, even if you just sit in on a session, create some killer questions to ask the speakers to engage and raise your own credibility. Meeting schedules and sessions fill up fast, so act early.

At the same time, planning cannot be detached from measurement. Every other business activity in the banking world is carefully measured: advertising, email, PR and social. Especially in today’s prove-it climate, enterprise leaders need to see the evidence: a recent study found that executives tend to be 50% less supportive of events when event ROI was hard to come by.

Let’s face it, banking and wealth-management conferences are important, but they are not cheap. Especially when all costs are added up. Mistakes can be expensive. Lack of planning, absence of a sound event strategy and clear measurement will mean the difference between a well-executed and successful conference, and bunch of wasteful receipts.