Hey y’all! So many of you attend social media/digital/content marketing conferences every year, and it can be a huge expense. But with some planning and effort, you can wipe out the expense of attending conferences and even show a profit! That’s what I talk about in today’s episode, walking you through how I did this with my own conferences and turned a $2,500 expense into $20,000 of revenue!
The bottom-line is this: If you are judging the value of a conference on strictly the sessions, then you’re doing it wrong. In fact I would argue that the sessions are typically the least valuable part of most conferences. I didn’t say they weren’t valuable, they are, but to maximize the value you get from conferences, you need to view the sessions LAST, not first.
Start with the attendees. Who is going, what companies and agencies do they represent. Check out hashtags and groups that are set up for the event and start interacting with attendees as soon as you can before the event. Is there anyone that you can set up a business or professional meeting with? Anyone you could interview for a podcast, blog post or white paper?
Next, examine who will be speaking. Same thing, is there anyone you can set up a business meeting with, or is there someone you can interview for your podcast or site or other?
Finally, look at the sessions. Make sure topics are covered that match the areas where you need deeper knowledge. If you are going with a team, try to split up so that you don’t attend the same sessions, or have one person in a session while another does interviews or has a meeting in the hall.
Take an audio recorder! Olympus has several models on Amazon for under $50. Great for note-taking and for sharing transcriptions with your team.
I talk about this more in-depth in the podcast, but there are so many options available to you for getting more value from conferences. If you plan properly, and hustle, you should be able to come home from a decent-sized event a much smarter person and with likely 2-3 week’s worth of content for your blog/podcast/site.
Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly. And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well. Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!
Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.
We’ll talk again on Wednesday!
