Event Strategies Used at Web Summit
Recently, I went to Web Summit Vancouver as part of the media and was lucky enough to interview some amazing female founders. In this blog, I’ll share about pre-, during, and post-events and how to get the most out of them. It's from my experience over the years, as my energy levels change, and from my goals and what my business needs.
PRE-EVENT
1. Get on the Conference App
As best as you can, try to get on the conference app. Web Summit has an amazing app where you can:
- See all of the speakers and connect with them
- See all of the other delegates or attendees
- See what their business is
- Connect with them in different ways
If you're going to start connecting with people, have a purpose.
For me, I was looking for female founders. I started going through the list, trying to find them and the businesses they started.
2. Connect with Intention
You only have one chance at it. What I did was say straight up: "Hey, I want to talk to you because you're a female founder and I'm looking for guests for my podcast called Dynamic Women." Put a link to whatever it is you want them to know about.
As my coach says, this is "being in service." Imagine a waiter putting a napkin on their arm when you go to a nice restaurant, then welcoming you in and serving you. You want to come into your connection, serving the person.
Even if it's like "Hey, I'd love to learn more about you. I see that you're doing X, Y, Z. Maybe you'd like this article", something where you're serving, not where you take the napkin, put it like a bib, and come with the intention of "give me, give me, give me."
I had a few people reach out wanting to connect and say things like "Hey, this is my business. You can book a call to learn more here." I'm probably not going to even connect with them.
On LinkedIn, always send a connection request with a note so the person knows why you're reaching out.
3. Plan Your Schedule
If there are multiple stages/speakers, where do you want to be at what time? Which makes more sense?
