Maximize Your ROI This Event Season: Tips For Making The Most Of Industry Conferences

No matter your industry or job title, the fall months mean the beginning of crunch time. The fall season means activating 2H plans, aligning next year’s budgets, and finding creative ways to finish the year strong. But the fall season also brings another exciting time: industry events!

This year we have been busy supporting our clients at many major global conferences. CES, SXSW, and Cannes have been circled on the calendar since last year for multiple clients. We helped strategize news announcements, drafted speaking submissions, prepped for keynotes and panels, and focused on ways to break through the noise so their on-site experiences helped deliver the ROI expected after the marketing spend. Especially for one of our clients, which so happens to be one of Fortune’s Top 10 Companies, we assisted with the gamut of Cannes planning and activations: on-site activities, coordinating executive schedules, sending press invites and facilitating registration, drafting and pitching news announcements, managing coverage tracking, and sharing daily recaps … and those are only a few of the activities we led.

Just from those experiences alone, we have learned a lot. As we approach sweater weather here in the northeast and prep for the next wave of events like Hubspot INBOUND and Advertising Week New York, here is our advice to make the most of it.

1. Maximizing ROI at Industry Events:

Many conferences in the second half of the year offer unique opportunities. Some have a hefty price tag to simply walk through the door. Others require travel, hotel accommodation, and associated expenses. But on the other hand, who is speaking at or sponsoring the event? What opportunities are on the agenda to expand your network? There are invaluable conversations (both planned and impromptu) that can be had on the show floor, after a keynote, or at a networking event. Think of people you may be able to meet, old colleagues you can reconnect with, industry trends that can help grow your business or new tools that will increase efficiencies. The intangibles may outweigh the initial cost.

2. Evaluate Your News:

Are you considering making a news announcement at an upcoming conference? It’s going to get noisy out there. Pushing out a press release that announces yet another product, capability, or enhancement is certainly exciting for you, your team, and your company. But is it newsworthy enough to stand out from the rest of the press releases tied to the event? Not to mention, will it catch the attention of your key media targets? A release filled with jargon, or one that doesn’t quickly prove the differentiators or quantify the value will surely be cast to the wayside. When many other companies are pushing out news, think about how your news can be set apart from the rest, and perhaps, adjust the timing and release at a different time so that it stands out on its own.

3. Extend the Life of the Event:

No matter if you are attending an event for your own personal growth, business development opportunities, or on behalf of a client, industry events have a multitude of benefits. But, those don’t stop once you pack up and head home. Perhaps it is following up with connections you made, or reaching out to a speaker to say how their keynote or session has helped solve a specific challenge. Or, maybe it is incorporating topics and themes into conversations with your clients or prospects to spark new campaigns or thought leadership ideas. Think through the ways that your experience can work harder for you and incorporate those into your upcoming workflows.

However your calendar is shaping up for the rest of the year, or even beginning to take shape for Q1 2025, be sure to embrace the opportunities, set clear goals for your plans, and learn from your experiences. Take the best of each event and iterate for the next one so that you can be sure to make the best of your time, dollars, and resources. 

PS – Headed to Advertising Week New York? Let us know at hello@sourcecodecomms.com, we’d love to say hi!