Sending one manager to a conference costs approximately $6000 + their weekly pay. Providing him with business cards ~$70. Listening to the explanations why the business cards were left in a hotel room is priceless. Just as priceless as trying to write GEOs and verticals on the glossy surface of an entirely black business card with an equally black pen. Or as priceless as wearing the same tee two days in a row branded only with a tiny alligator-sized logo on the chest. But the most priceless thing is to ask the marketing department about the results of the conference and listen to their hesitant cluttering, “mostly good, you know, like, generally”. All the time wondering if it was just as good as they say.
My name is Dmitriy Pachko. For 11 years on the market, I've visited/attended more than 70 conferences and 300 nearevents of any imaginable privacy rate taking all comprehensible positions from affiliate-manager to CBDO (including promo model with a pink square haircut) and the whole preparations for most of them. I've faced all the challenges normally faced by a manager delegated on a tiny budget, expected to do the impossible, and to reach the unreasonably high goals dictated by the business demand. I’ve even created a naming for an annual meet-up just providing a word as an example of a brand not including general market terms. Not that I need all that for guide creation, but when you start collecting your name tages, you understand it's really hard to stop. I always knew I'd lay my paws on it one day. That’s why I’ve prepared these Cardinal Rules and instructions on how to equip not just a couple managers but an elite squad and get a measurable result that can be counted in real numbers.
Study the event and find out why you need it
At least 2 events from the list of main upcoming conferences for the next year are picked based on: “Cmmn! That’s the NUDES’2023*! Everyone’s gonna send people to NUDES’2023! Of course, we should also send some!” These events are joined with the only goal — to send someone necessarily. That’s the KPI. So it could be easily reported right after the end with the statement, “We’ve sent someone! Along with everyone else. Not pretty sure how effective exactly, but extremely necessarily!”
* NUDES’2023 (here and elsewhere) — Not a Usual Digital but Exclusive Summit’2023, just a basic name for any very important event
No matter how fully-ranged event is calling itself — it’s not. Right from the pre-sale period its website will contain most of the title sponsors and “media-partners”. Their number will increase in the nearest future for exactly 30–150%, not more. Just the number but not the verticals and company specializations. All that gives us the opportunity to find out what to generally expect.
3 of 5 title sponsors right from the start are gambling/betting brands? Then there would be 10 of 15 title sponsors — gambling/betting brands/networks, 1 payment solution and of course 1 same old nutra, rebranded. Of course there would also be others, mobile utilities and game developers but only by way of exception.
Anyway, the whole event could be attended for the sake of one meeting, but that’s a separate task that should be planned in advance and not be mixed with all other efficiency metrics. Even though it covers the whole trip — it could be mingle, but not shaken or stirred.
Know who is who in your team
Business Development Manager would be expected to support colleagues near the booth and might be doing it, but afterwards they would be asked how many new partners he has found. Found. That means “has been looking for”. Best case scenario is “somewhere outside his own booth”. That all means he’s better be walking somewhere close around and other faraway places where any other companies could be found, initiate new acquaintances and join planned meetings. For 10 hours of spare time (excluding meetings) every Business Development Manager could generate not more than 60 contacts and their relevance is only a matter of personal skills and company’s abilities.
Affiliate Manager would definitely be working on the booth and obviously they would also be asked how many new partners they has found. Even though he hasn’t been looking for anyone. The only thing he could be responsible for is the number of new requests handled . Actively searching Affiliate Manager would be less effective than all the world's social networks’ accounts in “active search” status. Working on a booth, affiliate manager could provide more effective leads but their CR to effective launches would become measurable only 1 month later.
Team Lead / Head of Department would appear on the booth frequently to maintain the level of service and support managers. Often they’re found somewhere in faraway meetings with the most valuable current and potential partners that he has arranged months ago. Or they may be reflecting on the entire conference organization accompanied by other friendly team leads, all standing in the rows of booths, trying to learn some insights.
When there's nothing else to do, they would help managers handle the incoming people traffic and forward new contacts off hand. But actually it’s better to keep them for others staying in the office. Anyway there would be such a rush with onboarding and forwarding new partners so it’s better to avoid it even with the contacts delivered by the Team Lead.
Сo-founder/ Co-owner would stand near the booth exactly 2 times for 3 minutes, saying that he is capable of doing it much longer. Usually appears late on the first day, walks around the convention for 3-4 hours, shaking hands with friends (also Co-founders) and discussing the most sensational restrictions of the last few months and the ways everyone has gone through it. On the booth he asks unintentionally: “So, how are the people on the NUDES in general?” and scopes the backwall banner and the mess of packed pop-sockets and BC’s to the strains of mumbling answers.
And after filling out the whole checklist “Work hard on the conference” he walks away satisfied to join his best co-founder fellas to spend the rest of the day dining and justifying these meetings as the only way to find out some kind of money-making insight.
At another event in a month he would tell others: “Hey! We have been at NUDES this year! Nothing interesting — just a usual convention but in another city.” But honestly we have not. He has not. Afterwards he would not be asked how many contacts or partners he attracted or delivered. But he’d better. At the conference Co-founder could effectively represent only one thing — himself. And that’s very effective during the meetings that Team Lead arranged a month ago. When it comes to all other activities, Co-founder’s time costs too much.
Know the price of the working hour
Every attendant has a limited timeframe at their disposal: 3 pre-party hours, 6+5 hours at the convention itself, and 2 afterparty hours. These 16 hours cost ~$6000 + his weekly salary. And that investment does not open special secret abilities and skills. Only blocks the ability to perform basic duties. No, he will not perform his duties. No, he will not. Yes, of course, stay in touch, do not forget to respond, control data, check the performance and other click-click-click. But truthfully, all these keep-in-touches are just: “Hey, there! I’m at the conference right now, let’s discuss it when I get back next Monday? Or next May.” That’s how it turns to ~$7000**. That’s ~$440 per hour.
Why weekly salary but not 4 days only?
An average convention takes place on TUE-WED or WED-THU. Plus one day before and one day after for the flights and Friday for “We’ve landed late at night, I would rather get some rest and start adding new contacts from home”. Moreover, 4 days is 80% of the whole working week.
** Why does the average weekly salary counted as $1000?
Could it be really counted based on the monthly manager salary — $4000? Why is it counted that way? Because otherwise there are only 3 possible reasons. First — the manager does not work hard enough, second — the manager is paid not fair enough, third — I’m completely wrong, drop it, I will become way much wronger and wronger further.
How to get the best from $440 per hour?
Do not try to save money on the things you can’t save money on.
Expand available time from 16 to 28 working hours to lower the average price of an hour to $250
Increase the efficiency and amount of capabilities to decrease stress
Do not mess with hotels
Just book either an official hotel of the event or the one of those two hotels within walking distance. Yes, it’s more expensive, but in terms of the whole budget — it’s not that crucial.
Why only two? Because walking distance implies that the hotel is next to the convention center or just across the road. Every city where notional events take places has traffic network more tangled than tax legislation of some growing country or Game of Thrones’ genealogical trees. So getting back to a hotel room that is not across the road = 2 taxi rides + wait for it twice + elevators + 10 extra minutes for “Damn, I’m tired” + 10 extra minutes for “I should also check the data” + one eternity for “Do I need something else” + 1 return for the thing you decided to get back + and extra 10000 feet on foot from taxi to convention. That’s too expensive to do and sabotages active working experience as well. Yes, official hotels cost ~$200 and more. But compared to the total budget this is just a drop in the ocean that gives advantages like:
no need to take a bag full of laptop, powerbank and other “very important” stuff;
ability to bring any branded production you run out of;
opportunity to rest for 10 minutes and reboot;
ability to really work for 30 minutes;
ability to leave business cards and get back in zero hours;
chance to forget anything;
ability to forget where you’ve stopped and get back reminding you haven’t ordered a taxi;
ability to change because you can.
Oh, cmmn! Three blocks away from the event center is close enough too!? No. Do not mess with the hotels. Or mess, but only if you have ever tried to cross 2 streets in Dubai that look “right here behind the corner” on the map.
Include 2 days before the event
Any event starts on TUE or WED. Pre-party takes place either on MON or TUE evening. Anyway Monday will not be even a half-working day. Even in the second case Monday will not be any kind of working day. The tickets would have been taken for 17:40, that looks almost like an evening, that looks almost like the manager could start working a little bit earlier and work till 15, it could be almost full working day, but no. That’s one big illusion.
The best case scenario is to send people on Saturday morning and book a hotel for 2 days more (extra $300, already included in $7000). It provides the following advantages:
Everyone would be happy to come earlier and get some rest, acclimatize, try local cuisine and survive it right to the beginning of the event.
Even a 3-hours jetlag should be alleviated before work, so the manager doesn't feel death of fatigue is breathing them down the neck..
There appears 1 extra day for 3 big meetings 2 hours each out of the event schedule.
From a simple 'pop in to get your name tag', pre-parties turn into an effective 5-hour networking session.
There appears a probability of two real working hours on Monday.
These 2 extra days could not be paid with daily allowance cause everyone would be happy to spend the weekend in a hotel either way. By the way, point 6!
Be generous in daily allowance and do not claim checks
Daily allowance less than $100 is a never-ending avalanche of issues.
Mostly that’s a feeling of being underrated and that's a feeling of being underrated and devoid of ability to tend to basic and company needs, but hey, these service may be overpriced, but they are here. Right now.
To order a room-serviced dinner. Not to waste time on looking for the restaurant on the other side of the city to fit in the budget. To have a lunch break inside the venue. To grab $15 beers for yourself and new partners. These abilities turn available 6+5 hours of schedule into 7+6, and 2 afterparty hours expand to 4 hours + option “let;s leave this place for a calm quiet place with free seats”.
Moreover, using local money (it’s usually not a Dollar) is easier in cash (even if it is Euro). This perspective brings an feeling of constant, undying, never-ending surveillance, a lovely addition to the one you already have. And also a fine excuse for collecting all types of papers in your pockets.
Spend twice more on branded clothes and business cards
Complete functional business cards*** should be remarkable, handwriting-friendly and should stick in the walls when thrown like a ninja star. That’s why they cost a whole 2,5 times more which is the whole $90 extra (counted for 200 cards per person for average $60). Compared to the total budget of ~$7000 again that’s an unbelievable 1,2%.
High quality merchandise had better be duplicated, that’s also an incredible extra $90, that is paid for the ability to join a second day without laundry or to change instantly for the stand-out clumsies.
*** How to create business cards, merchandise and branded products that really work — read in the upcoming articles!
Help your teammates join all available pre-parties, nearevents, along-meet-ups and other private after-awards
If one certain Manager didn't attend two evening networking events in one day, the company lost $1000. They are mostly private or RSVP, so it’s pretty hard to get listed right at the conference. Certainly with having no close contacts in the sponsor company. And afterwards in the office there will be a conversation like this at least twice.
“How was the meet-up thrown by CPABigDataKPIFoundation, good one?”
“Naah, we really tried to join it, but noone knows anyone from CPABigDataKPIFoundation so everybody AfterNUDES!”
“Why didn’t you texted me? Me and their Co-founder - are father and son. I could’ve easily listed you!”
If you know decision makers — help your people to join meets. In advance. For the next event.
Remind everyone about common courtesy, basic ethics and mutual support
Welcome absolutely everyone with a handshake: men and women, acquaintances and strangers, friends and enemies, even SMS-spamers.
Everyone must be able to replace their colleague. There’s nothing hard in learning the perfect pitch of a colleague from a different department. To avoid situation when Business Development Manager says to a newcomer: “Oh, sorry to say, but our Affiliate Managers are all busy right now and I know nothing about the things they do and can’t help you, so you have to wait” and they stay in an awkward silence. Everyone should know what their colleagues’ do anyway.
There is nothing bad in saying “no”. It’s much better than further wasting time in meaningless small talk about earning the whole nothing. The best choice is to mention there are no touchpoints for you, then exchange contacts and stay in touch for the future.
Do not ignore anyone staying around just reading backwall banner no matter how shy or non-speaking English they look like. They would show their best later during the chat using Google translate.
Do not forget to give a business card in return even if you think it's a lost cause.
Do not hesitate to invite people to the conversation unless it’s private.
You will never hunt any partner of the sponsor throwing their own party where you got listed at the last moment. Never.
If there is a spare chair at your booth — offer it to the guest during the talk. It is appreciated a lot.
You’d better dine hard before the networking party and drink more water. There’s no use in saying ‘Do not get drunk’, so that’s a couple advise how not to die fast and live long.
Set KPIs. For everyone. Reasonable and measurable. And count them all afterwards
Spending extra $900 (that equals psychologically-crucial 13% of $7000) you can make sure that every sent attendant got everything he needs to work effectively throughout 28 hours of the conference. That’s the point when you could and should start claiming full reporting. And to measure the efficiency you can rely on the inner sense scaling from “some kind of not good enough” to “generally fine”. Or you could try setting comprehensible, realizable and counted in real numbers KPI’s for everyone and calculate them in short, medium and long terms (1 week, 1 month and 1 quarter after the event).
What to measure 1 week after?
During 1 week everyone should have already got back, placed all the leads to the CRM and created accounts for them in every scrum-agile-platform-task-tracker systems very much needed in such a huge amount. At this time:
Business Development Manager should place 60 new leads
Affiliate Manager — 100 leads
Team Lead — reports the results and controls placing all the leads and their tagging
Co-founder — talks everyone through his own meetings and foundings, and checks general KPI’s.
What to measure 1 month after?
1 month after all new leads should be delivered to the test launch or declared irrelevant.
Business Development Manager should keep 15 active partners out of 30 tested.
Affiliate Manager — 20 out of 50 tested
Team Lead — counts the amount of new launched projects that came out of his meetings and the one’s kept live.
Co-founder — should try to remember who he met and what came out of these meetings.
What to measure 1 quarter after?
Three months after the conference there comes the ability to count all the numbers you could imagine and you could possibly reach. All new partners are onboarded and tested, all tests launches are done and all the potential should be obvious. So here you can get down to the real numbers:
General revenue should cover the whole event spent at least 3 times.
Affiliates’ payouts — at least 2 times
Existed partners’ growth rate — depending on the company's general revenue.
When you have collected all these numbers you are able to answer the main questions in percent: “How effective was the conference?” and “At which stage of preparing the next trip are we now?”. Cause if you haven’t started yet, so why haven’t you started yet? Deadlines are pressing already!
