Demand Generation Machine

Getting organized for an event and really making the most of your time there can be hectic but if everything leading up to the even is well planned and executed they can be a great source for generating a lead pipeline and meeting new prospects. Last week we compiled a list of all the other attendees and speakers to one of the key calender events for music, media and interactive technology making a note of what each of the companies and presenters were going to speak on. Step two was to send out quick emails to each one of them to see if we could schedule a meet up time with them sometime during the conference which would provide a great opportunity to see if there was any area that we could collaborate on. Within minutes of the email campaign the replies began to pour in and within the first 12 hours we received just over 200 positive responses from those who were interested in getting together some time during the conference to talk. With little over a day to go before the actual event itself we kicked off the process of replying to each response and trying to squeeze in appointments or at least share schedules with each of those who replied. The process of replying and continued down to the day of the event itself and of course moved to blackberry and twitter by those on the ground at at event itself. The campaign went exceedingly well and if we had to attribute this to anything it would just be the fact that everything was carried out systematically and there were quick replies and constant communication with each attendee. The person who is actually on the ground at the even often has a million things to think about from how ready they are with their presentation to whether they have all their travel plans in place so that assistance in the pre-event activity as well as the support in co-ordinating everything with other prospects who are expected at the event can be that extra edge in making the most out of the time you spend at the event.