Mind Readings: What Makes A Good Conference/Event?

In today's episode, let's talk about conferences and events. One of the most common questions uh organizers of conference and events like to ask is what they could do to improve the conference experience for individual attendees. It's a difficult question to answer because people go to events for different reasons and have all sorts of different goals. For example, some people attend events for professional development, for training, for education. They're at the event to learn how to hone their craft.

And their measure of success as an attendee is how much they come away with new information, new skills, new certifications, or enhancements of their existing skills. Other folks attend events for things like networking, right? Where their goal is to meet and build relationships with other people. Their measure of success is the quality and quantity of the relationships they've built. Still other folks attend events as sponsors or exhibitors or vendors where their goal is to sell stuff.

Sell stuff either at the event or obtain commitments to purchase after the event. I can't tell you the number of events I've been to where people are just signing deals right on the expo floor. Their measure of success is net revenue. They paid to be at the event and they earned from the event, and the greater multiple of you know, earned minus spent divided by spent, which is ROI, the greater that multiple is, the greater the success of the event. That is their measure of success.

Did we make some money? So it's difficult to figure out what makes an event successful given all the competing uh agendas that are that are happening, the reasons people come to an event. But almost all attendees also want, you know, basic amenities from events to have fun, to have a good time, to experience travel with decent food and a comfortable place to arrest your head at the end of the day. The less attendees have to think, the more frictionless an event is, the better the event experience is. That is sort of the unspoken rule of events and event planning.

Make them as easy as possible for people to participate in, and people have a good time in proportion to how easy a time they have. So, to help attendees meet their goals, every event needs to provide infrastructure in service of those goals. And doing so can be real delicate balancing act. The reason why is that events require four basic pillars for success. If you're an event planner, you know these pillars, you live these pillars.

They're the four S's. Speakers, sponsors, sellers, sanctuary. Right. Speakers, pretty straightforward. These are the talent, the names on stage at events that convince attendees to attend, right?

Sometimes it can be a big keynote speaker whose message people want to hear. You know, Tina Faye, Barack Obama, you name it, it's a big name. Sometimes it's a roster of experts, people with a unique perspective or experience. But whatever it is, whoever it is, this talent is essential to most events because it gives focus to an event. People don't just get together for no reason.

They need to have some focal point. And those speakers often are that focal point for it, particularly for professional events, conferences, etc. Number two, sponsors are the advertisers who have run a show in some fashion, right? The big name companies that want to sponsor and get the word out about their products and services to the audience. If an event knows its audience well, it can sell access to that audience and command a premium from a sponsor.

You'll see it all, the lanyard badges with the company's name on it, the big signage everywhere, the so and so company lounge experience, whatever on the on the expo floor. That's that's the height of sponsorship. Sponsors are important because they are the operational revenue suppliers that elevate an event from good to great. They basically provide like a third, two-thirds, sometimes 75% of the operating budget of an event, especially in advance, so that an event can reserve a venue or hire speakers. Sellers are vendors who offer goods and services to attendees, typically on like an exhibition floor or an expo floor.

Sellers pay a fee to events, and in rare cases pay percentage of sales to the event to give attendees a chance to purchase things they want relevant to their event goals. You know, like go to a marketing conference, and there's all these companies selling software to people. Uh go to a fan convention, this be things like interesting souvenirs or artwork or t-shirts. You name it, somebody maybe who can't afford the big sponsorship, still wants to sell stuff at an event, so they buy a booth and they exhibit as a seller on the floor. Now, vendors can be sponsors, right?

Sellers can be sponsors too, and very often this the sponsor has a big pavilion. If you go to like Dream Force or IBM Think, they are those 40 by 40 booths that have couches and interactive experiences, and they sell for like a million and a half dollars at Dream Force, two million dollars for that for the week. So vendors and sellers and sponsors can be synonymous, but in many cases, sellers are not folks who can afford the big big sponsors, but still want to have something to sell. Fourth is sanctuary. Sanctuary is the social environment.

It is the oasis that an event provides. This is this is the transitory magical world that a well-run event provides, like nothing else. It is a chance to for a lot of people to get out of the office or away from home and immerse yourself in an experience. Whether it's an academic conference, a music festival, a fan convention, that sanctuary environment creates the opportunity for magical interactions among attendees. At the best events, people experience a real sense of like withdrawal almost and depression after an event because they've had this sanctuary for a day or two days or maybe you know a whole week where they can they can be free of their obligations and just have a magical experience.

And well-run events know that and they they invest heavily in it. These four pillars, the four S's of successful events, are critical and almost equally important. An event that drops the ball in one pillar is likely to impede the remaining pillars. For example, an event that fails to land big sponsors, they're gonna have trouble affording the best speakers, which in turn diminishes the number and quality of attendees because attendees will be like, well, I don't know there's really nobody there. I have to see.

But you go to an event that has great sponsors, and it's like Metallica's playing, right? So that that one S that you drop the ball on impacts everything else. And if the the number and quality of attendees drops, then that makes it less appealing to sellers and also diminishes that event's sanctuary-like feel. So these things are all connected. Say an event is really poorly scheduled or operated incompetently.

That's gonna disrupt that feeling of sanctuary. People are gonna feel, instead of relaxed and open, they're gonna feel like stressed. That's gonna make attendee attrition substantial. And a poorly run event, you will see like 50% of the people if it's a it's like a two or three-day conference. If it's poorly run, by day two, 50% of the people are gone.

And by day three, if there is a day three, there's like two people left. I remember I was at this one event in San Diego, and it was so this was like a tiny little market conference. Not social media marketing world, just but a very tiny little conference. This was back in 2015. And there we started with 200 people at this event.

And it was just so badly run that by the by day three, which is when I was speaking, my there were four people left. Four people left. Needless to say, that that was not an event that we want to repeat. But when you have an event that's badly run, attendee attrition gets really high, and then sellers don't hit their ROI goals, right? They're there to make money.

Sellers are like, we can't turn a profit here. Speakers may simply cancel their appearances, right? Sponsors certainly are not going to see the value of the sponsorship. A negative word of mouth about the event can impair future events or or maybe just cause their cancellation entirely. So these four S's are the heart and soul of a good event.

I want to walk you through two examples of events. One that embraced these pillars and one that did not. And I want to emphasize in both cases, this is my opinion only. I cannot speak for anyone else, but it's my opinion about my experiences of these events. Let's start with the positive.

The event every year that wholly embraces the four pillars, year after year, marketing profs B2B forum. Marketing Prof's B2B forum. Forum for those outside marketing, it doesn't sound like the most exciting event, but it really is. This is the premier event for B2B marketers to get fantastic professional development education, right? Every year you go there to learn new stuff from some of the brightest people in B2B marketing.

Every year, the marketing profs team throws essentially a vacation. It's like it's like going on a cruise, disguised as a conference. Like it's it's in Boston, so you're not like actually on a boat, but it's so well run that it feels like a vacation that just happens to be for work. So let's go through the four S's. Speakers.

Marketing Prof B2B Forum, they call it MPB2B, always attracts interesting speakers who have valuable and interesting perspectives to share. The keynote talks usually quite interesting, but where they really shine is the breakout sessions and lots of them. There's always something going on. There's always something to see, something to hear, something to learn at any given moment from multiple speakers on a variety of topics. And the speakers tend to hang around, right?

And not just like hide in the speaker's green room, but they're actually out and about among the attendees. So if there's someone that you see and you want to talk to them, you can probably find them and like ask them questions outside of their session, which is which is pretty rare. Pillar two, sponsors. MPB2B's laser focused on a valuable niche audience, B2B marketers, makes attracting sponsors very straightforward for them. Sponsors who want to reach B2B marketers, uh, marketing decision makers know that the event is year after year a reliable bet for their budget because you know who the audience is.

You know exactly why people are there. You're not going to run into you know people who are selling something B2C, it's it's a B2B event. Uh, the sellers, my company, Trust Insights, we've exhibited at the past at Marketing Professor shows, and the exhibit hall's always crammed full of companies who have fun and interesting stuff to share. As both a past seller and a frequent attendee, MPB2B goes the extra mile for their sellers, ensuring the exhibit hall is the highest foot traffic place in the event. They put meals there, happy hours, drinks, uh all the social gatherings are in the exhibit hall, but it's done in a way that feels organic and integrated.

So you just kind of want to hang out there, but of course, they're giving the sellers all as much foot traffic as you reasonably can. And critically, they avoid diverting focus from the exhibit hall by not hosting major activities elsewhere. It's everything's in the really nice exhibit hall. And finally, Sanctuary. This is, I think, where Marketing Prof2B form shines the most.

As I said earlier, ease is proportional to enjoyment. The easier you make things for attendees and everyone else, the more enjoyable an event is. From the moment you register, Marketing Profits B2B Form makes things easy. There's a solid mobile app all the time that keeps you up to date with what's going on. There's professional signage everywhere to make sure that you don't get lost.

And no shortage of people who are happy to help you find your way. The staff is always helpful and friendly and eager. These are the people who somehow it's got to be either coffee or something. It's they're giving them something, but they're generally always happy to help you out. And one thing that separates the show from pretty much every other conference on the planet.

There are legitimately delicious meals to enjoy, included with your ticket price, plus parties, gatherings, and activities. It is all inclusive. It is like it's like going on a cruise, right? It it is so easy. You don't have to satisfy any basic needs outside of the event.

Breakfast is there, lunch is there, dinner's there if you want it. There's fitness, there's yoga, there's all these things that make it such an all-inclusive event. Marketing Props B2B Form recognizes the vital importance of that sanctuary, that community. Their theme year after year is welcome home, right? Because they recognize the value of sanctuary, the value of community, the value of like-minded people finding their group, right?

Their people, and getting a break from regular life. The event doesn't take itself too seriously and recognizes that the attendees are the beating heart of the event, right? Sanctuary is first among equals. The activities are fun, they're not compulsory. Again, like a cruise ship, but everything centers around making sure people have a good time.

There's welcome parties, buddy systems, icebreakers, and a busy but not impossible schedule that ensures if you want it, there's always something to experience from morning yoga and photo walks around the city, Oktoberfest pretzels, and and of course the greatest showman of B2B marketing, Ann Hanley, they pull out all the stops to ensure that it's fun, easy. You're only lost there if you want to be. And it's incredibly easy to have a good time. There's a reason why. Yes.

Don't have to think about it. They do everything right, but they get sanctuary the most right of all. And even though say it's you know, they're about equally important. If you have to bet on one as an event planner, bet on sanctuary. Bet on your community.

So let's look at a contrary example. I won't spend too much time on it. I recently attended the Halo Bearer convention in London put on by a company called FanFusion. Unlike a marketing conference, this is a fan convention for fans of the Netflix TV series Warrior Nun, which you've heard about from uh the past. Same 4S framework.

And again, remember these are my opinions only, I can't speak for anyone else. Speakers. A fan convention is defined largely by how many of the personalities from the show a fan the fans care about are in attendance. And for for reasons unknown to attendees, the the folks who were the speakers who were contracted to attend the event, some case canceled at the last moment or significantly curtailed their appearances. And while this is not an uncommon occurrence, believe me, as an event planner I know, there was no backup plan.

The net effect was a wildly shifting, unpredictable schedule and a lot of dead time. Like three to five hours of just sitting around with nothing else going on. Two, sponsors. To my knowledge, there was no lead sponsor of the event. Without a lead sponsor or any sponsors, an event has to rely solely on ticket prices and vendors to earn revenue, which can impair the level of service that you can provide, right?

And that that was evident, at least to me. Three, sellers. The sellers received I would say pretty minimal support from the event. At one point culminating in a a very public meeting in the in the in the halls about about the lack of support. I actually volunteered at one of the tables of a friend of mine was selling some merch, and I got to relive the retail days of my youth.

And that yeah, there was very negligible promotion of the vendors. So it was it was very difficult for the vendors to earn money from the event, right? To to get a positive ROI. There's one stand next to next to the one I was in where they got they were so far down at the end of the hallway, they got almost no foot traffic, and I'm pretty sure they did not have a positive ROI for the show. And of course, that would dissuade you from attending future shows as a as a vendor, as a seller.

And finally, Sanctuary. At a fan convention, Sanctuary is the cornerstone of the event. Right? This is not a this this was not a professional development conference where you know if if you miss the ball on community, that could be overlooked or forgiven if the educational content of the event is superior, right? That's what true at a lot of conferences.

But when it's a fan convention, community is everything. And this event didn't have that, at least again, from my point of view. There were inconsistent interpretations of convention rules, causing really significant friction between event staff and attendees. And there's a whole bunch of stuff on Twitter if you want to go see it. A wildly shifting schedule with no room locations on it, no online schedule meant that multiple attendees missed things that they had paid for, including me, with no recourse.

There was no way to get that back. The same schedule also meant, you know, sitting on your butt for a really long time, which is fine if you're attending with a group of friends, right? There were people gathered who are were friends gathered around playing cards on the floor of the hall. But if you were a solo attendee, could be a very isolating experience. Communication from the event was done on Twitter instead of in a mobile app, which is problematic, particularly if you're not on Twitter or you don't want to use Twitter.

Um and despite the fact that you know at at the the mid and upper tiers, the ticket prices were comparable to a professional conference. There were no meals or refreshments provided at all, which means the shared experience of dining together and meeting new friends was less likely. Did it still happen? Yes. But the event didn't enable it, which meant lost opportunities for creating sanctuary.

Again, if we think back to marketing process B2B Forum, if you don't have to go anywhere and figure out food and stuff, you know, the meals are there, you create those opportunities for new connections. You can sit down and break bread with someone else that maybe you don't know. And it's easy. It's easy. That did not happen at the fan event.

So these two events, Marketing Pro B2B Forum and Fan Fusion's Halo Bear could not have been further apart in how skillfully they executed the four S's, the four pillars of a successful conference. In fact, Halo Bearer went so badly that the company announced they'd no longer be doing any Warrior None events, and then uh they deleted all their social media accounts, which was like that's that's that's a reaction. Meanwhile, on the other side of the things, I've already submitted my talks and my workshops for Marketing Cross B2B Forum for the fall. I've and my workshops already been accepted. I am so excited to go home again.

Just so excited to be at Marketing Cross B2B Forum this fall. And I hope you're there too. If you plan events, if you're an event planner, conference planner, or you're thinking about becoming one, virtual or real life, big or small, embrace the four pillars of success: speakers, sponsors, sellers, and sanctuary. Follow the examples and best practices set by events like marketing process B2B Forum. If you have to choose where to invest and you have limited resources, invest first and foremost in Sanctuary.

Sanctuary is the environment that you create for your community, is first among equals. And it is your strongest foundation for a successful event. If you want your event to succeed, if you want word of mouth that will keep people coming back year after year and encourage sponsors and sellers to invest in your event you've got to bet on Sanctuary. Charge a little more if you have to but don't sacrifice on creating that sense of community. Thanks for watching.

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