How to make Industry Events work for your business
Every founder in IT Channels, VAD, B2B tech or SaaS space takes partners in events.
VADs chase partner focused events and co-branded OEM events, the ones where their reseller network and OEM stakeholders actually show up.
SIs spread wider. Industry events, media events, OEM hosted end customer events, and their own end customer events on top of all that.
ISVs lean the other way. Some partner focus, but the real weight sits on end customer events.
Tech founders follow the same pattern as ISVs. A little partner presence, heavy end customer focus.
The percentage changes depending on who you are. But everyone wants the same outcome.
Meet the right people
Talk about a real problem you can solve
Walk away with follow ups, both on the go to market side and the end customer side
And yet, across every one of these founder types, one complaint is common: events do not generate enough efficiency.
The reasons are rarely one thing.
Sometimes it is the type of event chosen in the first place
Sometimes it is what happens, or does not happen, before, during and after
Sometimes it is positioning
Sometimes it is how you present to the audience
Sometimes it is messaging that does not land in thirty seconds.
Before any of that gets fixed, there is a more basic question.
Should you even be at this event?
Five things to check before you shortlist an event
This applies whether the event is free or commercial. A free event will still costs you a day and a team member. A paid event costs both, plus budget.
Who actually attends. Not who the organiser claims will attend. Ask for a past attendee list or sponsor list if you can get one.
Does your ICP show up here. An event full of the wrong job titles is a wasted day, no matter how good the branding on the invite looks.
What has this event done for you before. If you have attended this event in the past, look at what it actually produced. Repeating a low return event out of habit is the most common trap.
What is the real cost. Entry fee is only part of it. Add travel, stall design, team time and the opportunity cost of everyone who is not in office that day.
What is the one outcome you want from it. Leads, visibility, or relationship maintenance. Pick one primary reason. An event trying to serve three goals usually serves none of them well.
Seven things event success actually depends on
Once an event clears the shortlist, these are the factors that decide whether it delivers.
Positioning: This comes first because everything else is built on it. If you cannot say what makes you different in one sentence, no stall design or follow up sequence will save the conversation. Positioning is the thing you carry into the room before you say a single word.
Messaging: Positioning is what you believe about yourself. Messaging is what you actually say out loud when someone stops at your stall. Clear and specific, or generic and forgettable, this is where positioning either shows up or gets lost.
The type of event: A partner event and an end customer event need completely different pitches, different materials and often different people representing you. Walking into both with the same deck is a common and avoidable mistake.
Presentation: How you show up. Your stall, your slides, your presence. This is the first impression before anyone hears a word of your messaging.
Pre event preparation: Who you plan to meet, what you plan to say and what you carry with you. Decided days ahead, not in the cab on the way there.
In event execution: How you spend your hours on the floor. Working a plan versus wandering the aisles produce very different results, even at the same event with the same budget.
Post event follow up: The single biggest point where events fail. A great conversation with no follow up might as well not have happened.
A few reminders before your next event strategy
Events are one the only channel, but a good one provided you identify them early. Irrespective of whether you are a VAD, SI, ISV or tech founder, the mix is different for each, but the discipline stays the same.
An event without a clear purpose wastes a day, whether it was free or paid. And a paid event wastes money if not planned.
Positioning should reflect in everything you say and do there.
Last but not the least, follow up decides more than the event itself.
