Conference Strategy — M13's RocketGuides

In this section: Networking Strategy | Optimizing the Attendee Community

02. At the Conference

Networking Strategy

Networking widely may have long-term benefits, but be tailored in your approach.

Identify your purpose with each networking opportunity: Are you looking to meet new customer prospects or convert existing prospects? Seeking investors? Finding potential partners? Know who you want to meet and why.
Prepare for your interactions: Garner as much information as possible about who will be in the room, and do your research. Know who you want to connect with, why, and commonalities you can start to build a relationship upon.
Set goals: Write down what will make the interaction a success for you before you go into the room. Be specific: who do you want to meet, and what follow-ups do you want to secure? Hold yourself accountable after the event, and use your goals to assess if the event was worthwhile and if you showed up in the way you intended.
Be open-minded about opportunistic networking: If you’re in the right place, there are likely some other great people in the room too. Take advantage of meeting them, even if there isn’t an immediate goal for the relationship.
Leverage social media: Connect with people over LinkedIn and other social platforms in real time. (At the end of the day, looking through your recent connections can also help you keep track of who you talked to.) After the event, posting about your experience and tagging people you met can help set you apart in a sea of new contacts.

💡 Networking Tips Based on Your Goals:

Prioritize 1:1 meetings. Set as many up in advance as you can and fill the rest of your time going to networking events instead of the conference programming.
Divide and conquer. If you’re exhibiting, have one person roam the floor and another stationed at your booth to reach as wide an audience as possible. Utilize any current clients of yours that are in attendance—they often make your best spokesperson.
Focus on sharing your story with a mass audience. Regularly publish content online, co-sponsor networking events with like-minded partners, and/or co-author market insights with current clients. Make sure your website and social channels are active and up-to-date before the event—new people you meet will be looking at them!
Consider creating a data room specifically for the conference, with links to your deck, product demos, and testimonials. Prospective investors you meet can share the link with anyone on their team and you can set up unique link tracking to understand views and engagement.
Keep it simple! Attend the conference programming and bring a notebook and pen. RSVP for third-party events outside of the conference programming that pertain to your interests.
Hype it up! Make sure your collateral and in-person signage makes it clear you have a new offering available. Consider working with your sales team to offer a promo or discount code to celebrate the launch publicly and incentivize new clients.

  By Melissa & Amelia

Optimizing the Attendee Community

Conferences are rare opportunities to access a mass of relevant people IRL and all at once—use them wisely. Outside of a conference’s official programming, there are often a lot of third-party events to take advantage of.

Put yourself in others’ shoes. What objectives are they juggling? Companies send employees to conferences for many reasons. The best relationships are formed out of equal partnership. What can you give to those you’re meeting? Insights, introductions, event invites? Ask explicitly, “What do you need help with right now?” Find your superpower and use it.

Be an opportunistic attendee: If you’re invited to a new event, dinner, or meeting, be nimble about attending if it aligns with your goals. Spontaneity is an asset in the sometimes manic conference environment.

💡 Host with the Most

Be a good (and strategic) host: If you want to host an event, identify great partners and sponsors to help you bring it to life and add to the network you can bring together. Know the overarching event schedule (both the conference and offshoot events) to choose an optimal time for your own event. For example, if a lot of events are starting at 5:00 PM, consider hosting yours at 3:00 PM to get ahead of the rush. Generally avoid hosting events at the very start or end of a conference, as you’ll lose potential attendees who arrive later or leave earlier.