The 11-step playbook to crush it at conferences
Everything you need to prep, show up, and stand out
When done wrong, conferences drain your budget, burn out your team, and leave you with little more than a stack of unqualified leads and a hangover.
Yet conferences are a staple in GTM playbooks for pretty much every industry. Why? When approached strategically, they have a unique power to unlock new leads, strengthen customer relationships, and generate a substantial pipeline in just a few days. No other marketing channel can deliver those results as effectively.
Think about it: you have a concentration of buyers in one place, the opportunity to build genuine relationships face-to-face, and a chance to showcase your product to a captive audience.
I'm currently working with fast-growing companies that are driving the majority of their new business from conferences. Some companies drive 95% of their new business from these events.
However, conferences can also be a total waste of time and money. You can spend six figures on the highest-level sponsorship and walk away with zero new customers. You can send your A-team to a conference where none of your target customers show up. You can collect thousands of names and never get a single qualified lead.
The difference comes down to how you approach conferences. I’ve attended and sponsored too many conferences to count over the years. You need a playbook to align your team and deliver real value to the business. You need to plan ahead with intention and creativity, and treat conferences like a real business investment.
Here is a proven playbook to crush it at a conference:
Why most companies waste their conference budget
Many companies treat conferences and trade shows like a box to check. They show up without a real plan for how it’s going to drive the business forward.
I’ve seen companies waste their conference budget in a few ways:
No real goals: If you don’t know what success looks like before you arrive, you will fail. Goals need to be specific, such as a number of meetings booked, pipeline generated, and $X in customer relationships strengthened. It shouldn’t just be “brand awareness.”
Lack of coordination: Conferences require cross-team collaboration. Details like messaging, booth design, and product launches all come into play at conferences, so plan for these well in advance. Sales, marketing, product, and design teams need to be in sync from event planning to execution.
No follow-up strategy: Capturing leads is the first step. Following up quickly and personally is where the real magic happens. Without a plan in place before the event (including how you’re capturing leads and what info you're collecting), all those badge scans will turn into nothing.
Focused on outspending, not outsmarting: Renting the biggest booth or sponsoring the biggest party does not guarantee a boost in business. The brands that win at conferences are the ones that think outside of the box.
1. Go where your customers and prospects are
It’s tempting to chase the biggest, flashiest events.
But I’d always take a conference with only 400 of my target customers attending, over one with 4,000 attendees but where only 10% are my ideal customer profile (ICP). Connecting with 400 good-fit prospects at a large event is much harder than linking up with 400 potential customers at a smaller, more targeted event.
Once you know your ICP, figure out what events they attend and go there.
Conferences aren’t just a way to land new customers; they’re great for deepening relationships with existing customers, too. You’ll want to know which of your customers plans to attend the events you’re going to. Once you know that, you can invite them to dinner, coordinate a time for them to visit your booth, or grab a quick coffee in the morning before the day starts.
Do this to figure out where to go:
Ask your customers about the events they’re attending. Incorporate this into your direct discussions with customers, and make it part of the QBRs your success team holds with clients.
As you talk to customers throughout the year, mention the events you’re planning to attend and coordinate meetings with them.
Survey your customers to determine which events they might be attending, and plan your annual conference budget accordingly.
You’d be surprised how simple and effective this is.
2. Run conferences like a company-wide project
Don’t just grab a booth and show up — treat conferences like a product launch.
Crushing it at conferences requires real ownership and cross-team coordination. Don’t just hastily throw a plan together at the last minute.
It takes a village: you need Sales and Customer Success to figure out who’s attending and help prioritize the people you want to meet. You need a designer to create a booth and swag that actually stands out. You need someone in charge of project management and logistics. You need your CEO (or another executive) to prep the right presentations and conversations. And if you’re planning a product launch around the event, the product team needs to be looped in early, too.
To execute a successful conference like you’re building a first-class feature, follow these steps:
Start planning early, define a budget, and coordinate your conference team.
Set clear goals, such as the number of meetings booked, demos held, or pipeline generated.
Define a project plan before the event, such as booking flights and lodging, designing the booth, shipping merchandise, and preparing demo accounts.
Designate a dedicated owner and ensure they receive executive support. The whole organization must commit to the event's success.
Conferences aren’t just “buy a booth and show up” — it’s an orchestrated effort.
3. Don’t just outspend, be strategic
The biggest booth doesn’t guarantee the highest quality leads. In fact, because a huge booth is more likely to draw a bigger crowd, the leads will be of lower quality, and that’s just more noise to deal with.
Spend your money strategically. Be creative with how you use your budget.
For example, BetterCloud attended a conference in San Francisco at the Moscone Center and got the smallest booth. We used part of our savings to rent the bar across the street for the day, inviting attendees to take a break, grab a drink, and recharge. We were able to provide this experience at the same cost as larger booths, but it was way more impactful and memorable.
Another year, we rented out the lobby bar in the main hotel, which was actually very cheap. The hotel bar was located at the check-in area, so everyone had to pass through our happy hour. We had a ton of people stop by and hang out with us.
Keep the following in mind as you allocate your budget:
Don’t default to the biggest sponsorship package.
Invest in experiences that create deeper connections.
Get creative. Think popups, afterparties, or guerrilla marketing.
Prioritize lead quality over booth size.
Winning at conferences isn’t about who spends the most. It’s about who makes the smartest moves.
4. Lock in touchpoints ahead of time
At my first company, we would show up at a booth and just wait to see who came by. I quickly learned this wasn’t a smart approach.
If you don't schedule meetings in advance, you’re doing it wrong. You need to start coordinating meetings as soon as you know who will be coming. Otherwise, you’ll be scrambling at the last minute to connect with different folks whose calendars are already full
I love this tactic from Drift’s co-founder and former CEO, David Cancel: reach out to people ahead of time and offer limited-edition swag, but only to those who had pre-registered for the event. It creates urgency, exclusivity, and drives a ton of pre-booked meetings.
Here’s how you can be proactive and make great connections at conferences:
Start outreach early, don’t wait until the last minute.
Use every channel to announce you’ll be attending. Consider adding a brief note to your support email templates and email signatures so people know you’re coming.
Meet outside the conference floor. Schedule breakfasts, coffees, or dinners to facilitate deeper discussions away from all the noise.
Being proactive ensures you hit the ground running and don’t waste precious time at the event.
5. Be strategic about who you send
You need a well-rounded team at conferences, and you want the people who can provide the most value.
Keep in mind that not everyone enjoys or thrives at conferences. Don’t default to bringing your most tenured people, especially when others will show up with enthusiasm and add more value. Bring your conference dream team.
Kyle Porter, the founder and former CEO of SalesLoft, told me this story:
Their first year at Dreamforce, they didn’t have the budget for a booth. But they brought their best team, including one of the top AEs. This guy would walk right up to people, look them in the eye, and say, “You look like someone I need to know.”
It worked! He would stop people in their tracks and give them a demo of the product.
Bring people who will show up and kill it. Here are a few essential roles for your dream team:
The coordinator: Deals with schedules, afterparty logistics, dinners, and transportation.
The product brain: Fields tough questions, provides onsite support, and gives product demos.
The outbound hustler: The extrovert who will pull people into your orbit and help close deals.
The executive magnet: An exec who opens doors for key conversations.
Bonus tip: Create a friendly competition around who gets to go. For example, whoever books the most meetings in advance gets to go.
6. Secure a private space
A lot of great things can happen at the booth, but they are often noisy and full of distractions. So they aren’t always the best place for deeper conversations with customers and prospects.
Find a reliable place you can go for more in-depth conversations. Depending on your budget, that might be:
A coffee shop down the road. This is obviously cheapest.
A separate conference room at the venue. Many conferences offer this for an additional cost.
A hotel room or suite connected to the venue, with all the comforts and amenities. This space can also serve as a break room, a storage area for swag, and a quiet area for presentations. This is the most expensive option, but I highly recommend it as you can control the experience, and it’s the quietest and most comfortable.
7. Be wildly, unforgettably creative
Circling back to my interview with Kyle Porter, this is one of my favorite guerrilla marketing stories, and I tell it all the time:
It’s a year or two after Salesloft first attended Dreamforce, and they decide to do something crazy to stand out – they hire a fake Marc Benioff.
They get him a full Dreamforce-themed outfit, including custom Converse, Salesforce swag, and the whole thing, but they don’t stop there. They have a person dress up like security, another act like a frantic handler with a clipboard, and they parade “Benioff” through the conference floor.
People go nuts. They’re lining up for selfies, posting Benioff sightings on Twitter. And eventually, security approaches them and says, “Marc knows what you’re doing. He saw the Craigslist ad, and he’s impressed. He wants to meet you.” So then Kyle and his team meet the real Marc Benioff and end up hanging out and getting photos with him.
I love that story because it shows that with a bit of creativity and hustle, you can make a huge impact without spending a fortune.
Another favorite: At BetterCloud, we had a tradition of creating a new hoodie every year – different colors, fresh designs – and over time, we became known for having the best hoodies at every event. Our customers and prospects started collecting them. So one year, to really stand out, we went bold: highlighter pink, custom-dyed BetterCloud hoodies that no one could miss.
Our entire team showed up wearing dark pants and pink hoodies, which was pretty hard to ignore. On day one, we had a line of people wanting the hoodies. The next day, you couldn’t go anywhere at the conference without seeing 50 other pink hoodies in the same room. We even heard that some people were offering money to buy hoodies from others.
One time I saw a booth where they set up a photographer to do professional headshots, and they had a line at their booth every day. After the event, attendees received an email from them with their headshots. Another founder, Autumn-Kyoko Cushman, took it to a completely different level. Her company Shift Rx actually hired an entire petting Zoo for their booth, which is wild, but it definitely made for a memorable experience.
To be creative and memorable, you should:
Think outside of the box.
Take calculated risks.
Engineer surprise and delight.
Provide value when possible (like the photobooth headshots).
Turn your fans into marketers.
If you want to stand out, you have to be bold enough to create moments people can’t stop talking about.
8. Have a strategy for capturing quality leads
Lead capturing is crucial at conferences, so you need a plan for how to do it. You want quality leads, and you want to capture as much information as possible. The more you know about them, the more you can personalize your follow-up and build a meaningful connection.
It starts with a genuine conversation. Qualify people in real time, through authentic conversations. This is where your A-team comes in. You need extroverts and good conversationalists.
Before the event, make sure your team knows what information you're trying to capture. For example, job title, company size, buying intent, pain points, whatever matters most for your follow-up. Take 30 seconds after every good conversation to jot down quick notes because a week later, “guy from fintech company” won’t be much help.
Many large conferences use a badge scanning system. But smaller events might not offer that. In that case, how are you capturing leads? Pen and paper? iPad form? A good old-fashioned business card swap?
Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to capturing quality leads:
If badge scanners aren’t provided, have a plan for DIY lead capturing. I haven’t used these apps before, but iCapture and Backtrack both allow you to capture leads with a tablet or smartphone.
Have your team write down notes immediately after conversations
Audit badge scans at the end of the day to ensure you captured all the information. Fill in any blanks while the conversations are still fresh in your head.
Customize the fields you're capturing if possible. This enriches personalization opportunities even more.
How you capture leads determines how you turn those moments into real momentum after the conference.
9. Align the team when you arrive
Conferences come with a lot of moving parts. Depending on the size of the event or your company, you may have a few people or a dozen attending. Whatever the case, your team must be aligned when you show up at the event, and everyone should understand their responsibilities.
Share the following information with your team immediately before the event:
Event and hotel locations
Booth location
Daily schedules and meeting locations
After-hours plans (dinners, afterparties)
Booth etiquette and rules (no cell phones, no backpacks)
What they should wear
In addition to a pre-event briefing, consider doing a daily huddle to prepare the team. We did this at BetterCloud during conferences. Each morning, we’d discuss the following:
Daily booth schedule
Meal times and locations
Meeting times and location
Key players we’re looking to connect with
Key talking points and demo schedule (e.g., every 15 minutes)
The more aligned everyone is, the smoother the conference will go and the more coordinated your team will look from the outside. This level of organization also helps maintain your team’s energy and avoid burnout.
10. Protect and harness your energy
If you walk a conference floor on the last day, it’s clear which teams have taken care of their energy and which ones may have gone a little too hard at the afterparties.
One thing is clear: energy stands out. You’re attracted to those who are still going strong.
Don’t be the team that’s slumped over your booth, hungover, and half asleep. You could burn valuable opportunities if you’re not fully present. Bring excitement every day, including the final hours at the booth.
Conferences are tough; you’re on your feet all day, walking long distances, lugging merch, and setting up heavy conference displays. It’s a physical and mental grind. You need stamina. I drank less and less at conferences over the years because I realized how much my energy actually mattered.
Maintain your energy by:
Freeing up your schedule to avoid regular daily tasks so you can be fully present at the conference all day.
Hydrating thoroughly throughout the day.
Getting proper sleep.
Taking breaks and tag-teaming the booth. You’ll need moments to step away and recharge.
Reducing or avoiding drinking alcohol, especially on the first day.
The more energized and focused you are, the more magnetic your team becomes, and that’s what turns casual conversations into real opportunities.
11. Follow up like it matters (because it does)
This is often what gets missed at the very end and ruins the entire ROI of the event. If you’ve done everything up to here and fail to follow up effectively, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Have a clear follow-up plan, including:
Who’s following up? Ideally, the person who had the conversation should own the follow-up. It’s more personal and effective.
When are you following up? Timing matters. Reach out as soon as possible while you’re still top of mind.
What are you offering? Make the follow-up valuable. Share something relevant, a helpful resource, or a next step to keep the conversation moving.
How are you following up? Skip the generic sequences. Personalize every message so they actually resonate.
Conference tips from other CEOs
Here is what other CEOs have shared about crushing it at conferences:
Kyle Porter, founder and former CEO of SalesLoft, shares the infamous fake Marc Benioff story. He knew his team couldn’t outspend the competition, so they outsmarted them with an eye-catching, somewhat disruptive “stunt” that still gets talked about today.
Melanie Fellay, the CEO of Spekit, shares that securing a booth at Dreamforce in 2018—despite having no customers and limited funds—was the pivotal move that closed their first five deals. She spent $35,000, a fifth of their bank account, to test demand and expose the product to a high concentration of relevant buyer. The strategy led to long-term customers like Southwest Airlines, who expanded to 4,500 users and became a key reference account.
Diego Oppenheimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Algorithmia, attributes landing Nike as their second customer to a direct interaction at a small AI conference, where his co-founder’s technical rigor impressed a skeptical engineer. Without a large budget, the team prioritized being present at events. Oppenheimer emphasizes their guiding principle: “you can't win a game if you're not on the field.”
Rohyt Belani, Co-Founder and CEO of PhishMe, aggressively built early traction by speaking at every available venue, including 25 ISSA chapter meetings in a single year. He emphasizes that founders must deeply own go-to-market efforts in the early stages to stay connected to real customer challenges and make informed product decisions.
Conferences are a strategic marketing play
These events don’t just magically happen. They’re a reflection of the work you put in before, during, and after the event.
If you show up with a plan, a clear focus, and energy to match, you can turn a booth in a crowded expo hall into real pipeline, authentic relationships, and momentum for your business. Treat every conference like a high-stakes GTM launch, and you’ll be one of the few companies that actually make it worth it.