Going to a convention as a team

By Ran Margaliot, COO, VP R&D and Co-Founder of?Affogata

Coming back recently from the Lisbon’s Web Summit conference made me think of just how great it was to meet people and business colleagues face-to-face again. Yes, it was hectic as me and the rest of the Affogata team ran from one meeting to another, but after almost two years of talking to clients and prospects over zoom, it felt like a breath of fresh air to shake hands, sit down and really talk to each other.

Conferences and conventions are always a great opportunity to keep in touch with people and truly feel the heartbeat of our industry. But it is also hard work, as done by many of our company’s teammates who helped us to prepare and manage our successful participation at Web Summit.

Here are the key steps to take when participating in a conference, divided into four categories.

General planning

Getting ready for such a get-together starts out by mapping out specific conventions in advance and in order of relevance. On an annual calendar, it is best to plan in Q4 what conference to attend, just before a new year begins, although one needs to leave out some room for choosing one conference over another throughout the year as well.?

A second key factor to consider is budget. One needs to balance the decision of which conference to attend between its importance to the company and the costs it involves. Budgeting for booths in a conference can be quite costly so a company can also plan to present and meet without a booth. For that, there is a registration fee to pay. Other expenses to plan for include the production of all marketing materials, flights, hotels,? local travel and food expenses.?

Once deciding on which conferences to attend, we must designate which company’s employees to send.?

After sorting out the conferences and registering, it is best to inform all relevant company departments about them. That makes it easier for each team to prepare well in advance. Then, as each conference time nears, have specific task plans to be carried out, such as tasks for "4 weeks before the event,"' "2 weeks before the event", "the last week before the event" and for the conference week itself. Who does what? Who's responsible for what? Such preparation includes designation of tasks not only to the back office teammates but also to the team members who are participating in the conference itself.

Upon registration, one must also buy tickets to the conference’s events in advance, unless their price is already included in the registration fee. Purchasing the tickets in advance saves waiting in line for them at the location.?

Pre-conference: Setting up meetings

Preparing for a conference always starts out with lots of research and intelligence. We usually “rate” the event to understand its relevance for our company. Such “rating” includes the number of people attending, which companies are coming to the event, the industries that they come from, who are their representatives, and what are their positions within the organization. We also take note if stakeholders are attending as well.?

Next, we sort out lists of potential customers and prioritize whom to schedule with and which team member should meet with which client.

Then, the process of setting up the actual meetings should be divided into 2 parts:

1. Meetings with existing clients, just to say hello and touch base on all relevant issues. Some of those clients may be in a trial period of our product, so talking to them face-to-face may increase the likelihood that they will sign with us.
2. Meetings with new clients: deciding who meets who and trying to squeeze in as many meetings as possible. The 09:00-18:00 daily conference hours, excluding lunchtime which is usually between 12:30-14:00, enable one team member to schedule 14 half-hour meetings in one day. Since this may be too much, and in cases when we do not have a booth it would take time to move around from meeting to meeting, it would be wise to set up a goal of meeting with at least 8 company representatives per any one day of the convention.

Key factor: the people our team members would meet should receive the best possible pre-market Affogata materials and product explanations. The meetings with these prospects should not start from scratch, due to the tight conference schedule and as each team member should meet as many people as possible. As the average meeting takes about half an hour, the prospect should already have a basic idea of our product and platform. This would enable the meeting to be more about relating to the client, understanding his needs and showcasing the benefits of using Affogata.?

In addition, the marketing department should prepare all marketing materials for our team. This includes a deck creation that showcases the company’s solutions; Writing and editing specific landing pages for the event that are later being sent out to other attendees; Creation of brand awareness ads so that people who are going to the event will recognize our company and the participating team members; And last but not least, our marketing team also takes care of preparing the branded swag to hand out at the event.

There are also social media issues to tackle. It starts with targeting the audience and engaging them with relevant content for each platform. Each channel requires different content. For example, Instagram is more targeted to images while Twitter is more about text, so content pieces must fit each platform accordingly. Then there is self-branding, aiming to create the perfect combination between product branding and team branding. In addition, it is important to document, meaning to create high-quality images before and during the event.?

During the conference

• Depending on the client and the situation, use the meeting to build relationships with the new clients (a soft-sell) or sell the platform directly (a hard-sell).?
• Write a short summary of each meeting. Take notes about specific requests from the client or sum up important remarks relating to the prospect.?
• If a team member attends any of the lectures or conference’ events, have him summarize them so that the other teammates can learn from the talk and current industry buzz.?
• Social media actions: it is recommended to post from the conference in order to draw more attention to the fact that the company is there and would be more than happy to schedule on-location meetings with other company representatives.?

Post-conference

Coming back from a conference requires you to follow up on all of the meetings. That includes:

• Send out a "thank you" email 2-3 days after coming back to the office.
• Schedule the "book a demo/call" if this was the outcome of the conference meeting or continue to pursue the client with additional reminders. Sometimes a zoom-meeting, even before a "book a demo", needs to take place, so schedule it too.?
• Give the SDR team all of the information about each meeting and client (status check). You should also inform the SDR what were the strong and weak points that popped up during the meeting for future learnings.?
• Do a post-conference report and then hold a brainstorming office meeting to conclude how the team performed and what is there to improve for the next conference.?

Participating in the industry’s conferences is a great chance to meet many currents as well as new colleagues in one place. Good planning at the preparation phase pays off when you meet existing and potential clients and get a chance to talk to them face-to-face. It is also a great chance to promote and grow your brand and company, work on lead generation as you plant the seeds for future engagements and contracts, learn what the market currently holds for you and your competitors and even enjoy the fruits of your labor and your teammates' hard work.??

See you all at the next conference!