Conference season is quickly approaching.

When is conference season?

It’s always conference season somewhere!

In Atlanta, we have Venture Atlanta in early October so it’s time to get going if you want to attend, sponsor, or put on an event during InnovATL.

I’ve even heard rumors — can neither confirm nor deny — of another Founder/Funder Jog hosted by TrackCred on Tues, Oct 8.

If something as awesome as that should happen, I’ll post sign up details on LinkedIn. 😉

But back to conference season.

The most important writing I’ve ever done has been my conference guide:

The *REAL* Conference Guide: 10 Non-Traditional Tips From A Conference Veteran

It’s essential reading for any attendee of any conference and highly useful at identifying (and avoiding) conference immortals.

It’s applicable to everyone — whether you’re a young female employee mistaken for a booth babe (me) or someone using a conference as an excuse to party with favorite teammates (also me).

I feel confident it has made the world a better place and I’m expecting a Nobel Conference Prize any day now.

But while I wait for my accolades, I’ve created another conference post with more targeted, and, dare I say, more practical tips, specifically for startups.

Here are 5 tips for startups looking to make the most of a conference especially if prospective customers are attending and budget is tight!

1. Reach Out To Prospects BEFORE The Conference

The value of the conference starts well before you put on your official name tag lanyard.

It’s a reason to reach out to your best prospects!

• Will you be there?

• Come see us at our booth!

• Here’s some events we’re looking forward to — what are you attending?

• Sneak preview of thought leadership content or product release!

• Would love to connect in person — want to grab coffee?

• We’re hosting a dinner with other CTOs like you — want to join?

• If you can’t make it…we’re doing a recap, we’re posting daily, we’ll share best practices.

• Can I buy you lunch at this awesome vegan restaurant I know you will like because I used Zinnia AI to uncover personalized insights like what a health nut you are??? (Oh. Just me who says yes to any kind of kale outing during a conference?? 🥗🤤)

2. Prepare Your Follow Up BEFORE The Conference

I know this sounds crazy because you’re desperately trying to order last minute swag, book a cheap hotel, and upload your logo for your booth design but FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING…spend an hour planning your post-conference follow up.

Then spend 2-3 hours prepping it.

• Are you sending an email?

• Offering a follow up demo?

• Are reps doing custom outreach?

• How do you designate high potential leads vs tire kickers?

• Is there a unique path depending on interest level and fit of a prospect?

• Are there lists, forms, Calendly sign ups, something in the CRM to track things?

It will be total chaos, then everyone will be exhausted, jet lagged, and hungover.

If you don’t prep now, it will be 5 days after the conference that you’re following up and then everyone has forgotten you!

3. Don’t Pay For A Booth

If you can afford a booth, go for it! But sometimes they’re a couple million dollars sooo…that may not be in the budget.

Activate Backup Plan!

Can you partner with someone else who has a booth and help them by manning the booth? Everyone is short staffed so a strategic partner may appreciate the help with customers or demos.

Or — host an event during the conference that’s close to the main location (but not an “official” conference event).

If that’s too expensive, send your best rep and have them set up meetings with all the ideal prospects attending. They can hold meetings at locations outside the conference hall.

They will also hustle their way into some events. TRUST ME. If your sales person can’t get in to a conference party, you should fire them. 😂

4. Have A Non-Tech Backup Option

If you’re newish to conferencing, you may not realize that technology never works in conference halls.

This is largely by design.

Conference organizers want to force you into the $1,000,000-per-day-plus-naming-rights-to-your-first-child fees for fast internet.

Also, you’ll need to pay for a power outlet. That’s only $500,000. A bargain really.

One hack for crappy internet — open all the tabs you need for a demo and don’t let anyone change them! Click from tab to tab instead of waiting for pages to load in real time.

Other tech challenges not fabricated by the conference mafia are things like your demo stations being too crowded or paper being quicker than technology (e.g. business cards).

Having a PDF overview to hand out or let reps talk from is helpful.

A place to capture business cards or email addresses if needed is also good.

Yes, yes, of course you’ll have conference scanners and get the list of attendees. But that shit breaks and people are too busy fixing other scanners to fix yours.

So just have some lo-fi options if you can for back up!

5. Let Your Best Prospect Win

**WARNING: Controversial Suggestion Ahead***

I saved my spiciest suggestion for last.

Design your super awesome giveaway raffle thing so that you pick who wins. And make it a great prospect so you have a reason to follow up.

Conferences halls are ruled by Viking law which legalizes swag raids, daytime drinking, and hand-picking business cards out of glass bowls.

If you’re upset by this, I’d like to remind you — IT’S A FREE IPAD, PEOPLE!!! You probably don’t need one anyway, you just like to win free shit.

(Note: I don’t actually recommend iPads. It’s just a great 2010 example. Here are the real lessons I’ve learned about what kind of gifts and swag customers like.)

Also, I’ve literally been at conference halls when everyone is packing up and watched all the booths around me doing this. So if you win something at a booth…you’re a great prospect and expect a sales rep to follow up relentlessly. Hope it was worth it! 😉

Regarding the prize — make it something a person wants. No discounts for your product or something that is an expense-able work item. GIVE ME SOMETHING FREE FOR MYSELF!! (says every conference attendee.)

What other conference advice do you have? Any special tips for startups or companies on a tight budget??