7 ways to maximize your booth ROI

Val: Welcome to today’s webinar seven ways to  maximize your trade show booth roi my  name is Val Riley and I am  the head of content marketing here at  Insightly i’m excited to get in the  groove of live events. I got  interested in this topic  about a month and a half ago when our  team decided we were going to attend  some events in September and i thought  gosh i bet everyone’s a little bit rusty  on our team and we have so many new  hires who have never actually worked a  live event before and so i thought well  we’re experiencing this perhaps others  out there are as well. 

So i reached out  to my network and got in touch with Lee  and we decided to do this webinar  together  and Lee is certainly qualified welcome  Lee  he has a 20’s a 20-year veteran of  events with stints at Ziff Davis, Tech Target, On 24  and Touchcast.  Lee is known for helping people provide  best and providing best practices to get  the most out of their trade show  experiences he speaks regularly at  industry events and he is also part of  the LinkedIn sales leadership forum  Welcome Lee! 

Lee: Thank you Val excited to be here and  excited to talk about this  topic that means a lot to me 

Val: We ran the poll just before we  got started and we’re looking at the  responses now so  tell me what you think well this is  wow it’s actually more than i thought.  As far as people who have  attended an in-person industry event  already in 20  2022 at 72 percent yes and  28-0 what we’re hearing out there a  little bit is more in the 60 40 area

Lee: We have a  high-performing group here which may  make sense because of the topic  as far as planning to  also planning to sponsor  and be there it’s solid it’s exciting to  see 90 ready to get back in there and  add that into their demand generation  and marketing programs  getting a sense of how people think of  their current ROI this is good to know  that you know we’re looking people  believe they could do better in  in  descri you’re at the right place  congratulations  and how do you describe your pre-event  could be better also needs a lot of work  we’re happy to give you a lot of  insights today around that  and your post event also i think  consistent could be better and needs a  lot of work  that is um  you know that that’s you know what it  shows you’re with people who you’re in  the same boat shall we say you’re in the  same boat so that’s really helpful as we  begin our session to know where you are  so thanks very much  when we started promoting this webinar  on LinkedIn  as one of the areas but i tagged a  few previous teammates that i’d spent a  ton of time with at on-site events  and one of them katie o’rourke who you  see at the bottom who i worked with at  on24 she replied with the quote how  could i forget sergeant Lee walk with  purpose and  you know this  comes with a bit of a backstory but i  think it does set the stage for today’s  topic seven ways to maximize your booth ROI.

Val: Lee it used to drive me crazy that the  marketing department would spend tens of  thousands and oftentimes hundreds of  thousands on an event and we would send  people to this event who  thought of it as a boondoggle a party as  if this was a president’s club trip  and  you know especially if it was in las  vegas so the teams referred to me as a  drill sergeant because i had a clear  expectation if you’re representing the  company on site you show up on time you  ideally early  you’re  at all assigned activities not just the  booth could be at you know ancillary  events you’re dressed professionally and  you’re certainly not hungover the  company has spent a fortune on this  event and your tne to be here this seems  like a fair expectation so you want to  make sure everyone representing the  company regardless of the department or  seniority  knows the clear expectations of  their role prior to the event on-site  post-event in advance and don’t be  afraid to be a drill sergeant to ensure  the company maximizes their roi  leah i’m so delighted to hear that  because as you know someone who’s been  in charge of the marketing budget i’ve  i’ve often been called the ‘killer of fun’  because people do think they’re going to  come and they’re going to have fun and  they’re going to go out and and it 

Lee: listen they can enjoy themselves we want  them to  but this is an event where there are  heavy expectations and i think folks  just need to be constantly reminded of  that  exactly so  number one you want to develop a  pre-event target list based on speakers  sponsors and those with booths so often  you’re not going to receive that  attendee list prior to the event  but you are able to see who the speakers  are  the sponsors and those with boosts so we  want to pre-schedule meetings on site  and that is one of the first ways you  can increase your roi  say versus taking chance taking the  chance of a happenstance meeting  so way to look at it for weeks before  the event review the speakers other  participating companies for those in  your icp your ideal customer profile and  or your target list  if you see matches and you well you know  who the speakers are but you only know  the company and the names of the  sponsors and those with booths so then  you want to build out a prospect list  with companies you want to meet with  from your crm  from your linkedin from linkedin zoom  info or whatever your sources are but  this should be a joint effort between  marketing sales and when i sell say  sales if you have it both sdrs and aes  they know who are their target customers  aes they see they’re going to be there  they know the people who they would want  to talk to that may be there and you’re  compiling this list i just i just want  to share lead that well i i mentioned  this before but  one of the biggest deals i have ever  closed at this trade show was selling to  the people in the booth next door to us  and it was well over a six-figure deal  and so i think sometimes we’re so hyper  focused on the attendees who’s going to  be there when we  the fellow sponsors you know that list  is right in front of our face and we can  certainly make a lot of progress there  so just a tidbit from me a hundred  percent and it and there are some  nuances that are there about  you typically don’t there’s a lot of  downtime you know you’ll see high  traffic times at the event you know  they’ll have a networking hour they’ll  have a break in between  that isn’t the time to pitch other  people you’re the people next to you  it’s in the  down times in between  that people are  are there that’s a natural time to  strike up conversations and talk to work  i’ll talk a little bit about that late  later but great point great  all right on to number two  number two  so the pre-event campaign to secure  booth demos meetings  invites to co-sponsored cocktail or  dinner event  on an on-site nearby a lot of words  let’s break down that out so you now  have now that you’ve you know have  your desired on-site prospect list  a few weeks prior to the event it’s time  to schedule your outbound email campaign  so in addition to pre-scheduled meetings  at the booth your sponsorship may also  if you’ve sponsored it have a vendor  session presentation that also should be  promoted in that campaign  especially if it includes a customer  case study with a customer presenting  and i can’t recommend more that is  really the one of the most effective  ways to get people to come especially if  it’s a vendor session to have a customer  pay for their tne have them come have  them present it adds a lot of  credibility and you’ll attract many more  people to your session and it also adds  some weight in your presentation your  campaign when you send that out  um  now  so now more than ever at events they’re  cutting back budgets  and you’ll notice that what they’re  doing is they may have a cocktail party  in a you know in the exhibition hall but  they’ve cut back on all the dinners  that they do and so this is a great  opportunity to find some other sponsors  or booth participants that are in your  ecosystem and co-host a dinner ideally  at the same hotel or very close by  you don’t want to create a logistical  barrier  and it is a great way to attract senior  level attendees so for example val say  you notice at this event you have a  booth but ringcentral does too shopify  does zero does these  are all integration partners of  Insightly  and not particularly competitors so that  would be an ideal group of people to  package together team up together  and create one of the mo must attend  dinners or a tequila tasting or whatever  you think would attract your desired  audience yeah and another tip too some  sometimes the evenings tend to get a  little crazy if there’s a concert or  there’s a after hours event sometimes  you can hijack a little time at  breakfast and get people up and out of  their hotels a little bit early and then  maybe do something as a breakfast too  a hundred percent  so now you have your content for your  outbound email campaigns one with a  dinner event focused on or senior  level prospects one for secondary  prospects focused on a speaking session  and  you know and one for meeting up  specifically at the event  so all these prospects should be  assigned to sdrs and they should be  compensated for the meeting set and held  in the same manner that they are  compensating for a meeting set and held  at a or for a zoo meeting at a non-event  that really helps drive motivation and  secures that pre-event meetings and  gets it gets you to have enough  ae aes attending the event should  also have goals it’s an honor to  represent the company there to be there  they should have clear goals for  scheduling meetings ahead of time  working with this sdr  self-prospecting especially if there’s a  nice dinner and they’re inviting a  senior level person that’s the perfect  way to reach out and bring that person  there they’re the ones who’s going to be  there networking with that person for  the dinner we used to also say if you  don’t have anyone at the dinner you’re  not coming  like that you if you want to be part of  that you have to drive attendance and be  part you know and get there and do that  um  finally many events you know will  provide the attendees  you’ll get that if you have the event  app you’ll get all the attendees about  48 hours in advance  that is golden time um  scanning through that the attendees  sorting by your icps  you know katie who i mentioned earlier  was just a master at this and she could  secure meetings in the last 48 hours  once she saw exactly who was going to be  there from  enterprise company xyz who she’s been  going after and and use the either the  messaging app from the app itself or  emails directly to schedule and set up  that meeting so and then the last thing  have a calendar with all the scheduled  meetings at the booth so you can ensure  you have the right resources on hand  especially if the meeting is scheduled  during a high traffic hour  an ae is going to be doing that meeting  well they’re not going to be available  then for the general traffic that’s  coming by you have to make sure  you have the  enough resources there to cover those  calls  super important does that make sense  absolutely yeah absolutely  all right we are moving on  all right we’re at the event here we are  now at the event that’s pre-event we’re  now at during the event what we want to  talk about is engaging interactive booth  that generates energy and attention and  let’s talk about how we might do that  so you’re coming into the booth ideally  with 50 to 60 percent of your meetings  pre-scheduled now it’s time to ensure  you get your share of the floor traffic  so an eight buck foot table with  brochures and logo squishies isn’t going  to cut it you want to stand out you want  to generate energy you want to draw  attention so a large spinning wind wheel  with a variety of prizes that make some  noise includes some big value ones that  will draw people in to stand in line and  when they’re in line for that other  that’s a perfect opportunity to scan  badges and have conversations  you could get even crazier and have a  cash grabbing wind tunnel with scheduled  times and you must be scanned to even  participate  those spectacles they garner a lot of  social media posts from people posting  and grabbing of others in there and then  that draws the dish if you put those in  hashtag the event others see it and  they make sure they come by your booth  other things a photographer on hand to  take updated linkedin  social media not tinder but social media  profile shots that won’t work well  at an event but you you know that  leads to great conversations again while  they’re standing in line to get that  they also give you their best email  address because they really want that  photograph updated photograph for  those things  another some other ideas that draw  attention a sign of a more cerebral  booth draw  look for high profile speakers who are  at the event those people 90 percent of  the time have books  they are always looking to show that  their books are at the top of a  bestseller or amazon list  you can make that person a deal that  you’ll buy a bulk number of their books  if they will come by the booth and sign  those books for you  and  that  then you can put a sign up usually you  want to do it after their speaking  session then there’s usually a break  that is a networking session they  announce at the at their session i’ll  be signing books the good folks at  Insightly are giving away this and you  can come down and  and those you’ll have a line of people  there to do it now one thing you could  do extra with that person is  have them sign an additional 20 books  and personalize them to some of your top  prospects in your pipeline that may not  be at the event then your aes or a  senior executive can send that book to  the person said sorry we missed you at  this event we hosted so and so out in  our booth and they personalized this  book for you we look forward to working  with you it’s just an additional way to  leverage  that um  that activity to influence your other  pipeline and activities along that  line i love that idea Lee we we did get  a question to clarify you used sbr and  ae  acronyms can you spell those out for  our folks who may not be familiar i  apologize so  i apologize on that i hate when i other  look i did it str’s are  sales development representatives  sometimes called business development  representatives technically this is a  person who’s there whose sole focus is  to  book appointments for  your aes um  and so aes are account executives they  would typically be your sales reps so  when i divide the two if you do have an  organization that has  appointment setting  representatives versus  sales representatives what i was trying  to get across or reinforces they both  should be engaged in scheduling these  meetings pre-event and  as such appreciate that clarification  yeah and during the event sometimes i  like to call what you’re describing  as the human funnel right maybe if you  have a game or an activity or something  that’s attention grabbing the marketing  folks that are there are working the  game or talking to folks and then as  those people start to ask questions that  get maybe a little bit more detailed you  pass them on to the ae or the sdr  who can you know get into more  one-on-one conversations with them so  like they’re going deeper in the funnel  literally in your booth  i do think it’s important to consider  being coveted aware while you’re working  the booth and you have to read the room  like give a little more distance than  you normally might especially if the  person’s wearing a mask avoid  physical contact that you may have or  done in the past  and if you have something like a spin in  wind where the person is actually  spinning you should have antiseptic  wipes available in doing that  and if you’re scheduling a dinner or an  external activity if you have an option  to do so an outdoor an outdoor venue  just makes you know it increases the  chance of you having as many people as  possible there and not being known as  the super spreader event so whatever  um you know these are things to consider  in these times as you’re doing that so  now similar to what you were talking  about val and i think that’s really  important is to have a mix of personas  at the booth and sponsored  you know sponsored sessions  because you typically as we talked about  at when you when you sponsor an event  they’re gonna be one to two high traffic  sessions per day  um  [Music]  and you’ll also have like say that  vendor speaker session so you’ll want to  have all hands on deck during those  times  and  if you have people who are interested  and walking by because everyone is  engaged at that moment you’ve missed out  so that means when you talk about  various personas we’re talking event  managers marketing managers aes sales  engineers product marketers and senior  executives mostly for pre-scheduled  meetings that are very important we’re  not asking those senior executives to  spin the wheel if you know what i mean  now but you know to be there for some  really solid meetings now this allows  the right people to drive the right  conversation so for example  um  if you have a person who walks up and  i’m sure this has happened all the time  too  who’s the current customer and they have  a really in the weeds conversa a  question about something they’re doing  you know when we try and do this we  can’t do this it is perfect to kind of  spin them to a solutions consultant or  sales engineer a product marketer who  can help take care of their question  which then frees up an ae for a new  pipeline conversation new customer  conversation  um however i don’t just having customers  in and around the booth are great  because if they’re big fans there’s no  better sell  seller than a happy customer so being  able to have that person if someone  comes up and asks a question often time  will be like oh look so and so from here  they have the same challenge then it was  resolved please  join in and have a conversation with  them i do love having a solutions  engineer at the booth exactly what you  said  because sometimes when current customers  come up  you know they genuinely want to engage  with you but you know we want to engage  with them too but we also you know  really want to conquer some new business  there so being able to pass them to the  person who can best help them and the  person and simultaneously freeing up an  ae or an sdr to have a conversation a  new business conversation is is  certainly a win yeah and it’s great  sometimes they’re talking to a product  marketer and if that’s a challenge that  person’s heard a few times then it gets  on the road map and then the person has  a lot of pride that they’ve influenced  the road map and they aren’t the only  ones with something and they’ll always  take some swag too right so like that  of course and we want them to  we so we’ve also had a lot of success  with these sdrs who i described before  the sales development reps is business  as appointment centers actually  including them in the mix on site  because with a pre-event campaign list  in hand they can walk the booths at off  traffic times as i mentioned before and  ask is x y or z here today  it’s amazing what they find out they’ll  find out yes they are and they can  secure a meeting later at a boot at the  booth or for a demo  they also can find out  if they’re not around who is around  oftentimes they might be told you know  what you know that person isn’t the  right person but the person who’s here  is this person and they’re able to  either  get an appointment with that person or  they learn  who to follow up with after the event so  a lot of sales development reps part of  their job is just trying to uncover and  understand the account know  the better way and it’s works very  effectively for them again assuming  you’re in a ecosystem and a universe  that all these people are potentially  your customers too Insightly is again  like a likely person everyone could be  you know everyone could be your customer  so any one of those people could likely  do you know get  have some benefits so sdr working that  area is almost like them sitting there  making calls except they get a pickup  every single time because they’re  walking up to the booth and having a  conversation absolutely that’s a dream  come true everybody’s answering the  phone because you’re right there  yeah it’s a 100 page to pick up let’s  take a look at number five so  using the technology offered to scan  badges and more importantly grabbing  that pertinent info  so many times the only way you can  secure the attendee  complete information of the attendees is  via scanning them either at your booth  or at your session or at your dinner and  depending on the traffic i have to  recommend that this is not an area to  cheap out scan  you know you put all this money you’ve  flown all these people here i know it  sounds outrageous it’s like you know  thirteen hundred dollars a scanner  eighteen hundred dollars a scanner it’s  just not the time to cheap out the  again like having two at a minimum and a  high traffic and being able to scan all  those people especially the right ones  and being able to put in the pertinent  conversations is so important for you  being able to show roi when you follow  up in the post  areas like that i would say nothing’s  more frustratingly than you’re talking  to someone you’re having this great  conversation and they’re ready to move  on and you haven’t scanned them yet and  you have two devices in your in your  booth and both of those people are busy  talking to other people so you either  have to  interrupt another conversation which is  awkward like gosh just spring for a  couple of extra licenses on that app  it’s so worth it for those moments where  you can avoid being awkward let someone  get along get on their way and and you  know and  not have to make any interruptions yes  and we’ve seen some success with  dedicating  like the event staff the event manager  and this that and maybe a marketing  manager that are both on site where  that’s all they do during the break  obviously if there’s a moment and they  can have a conversation yes but by  having some dedicated people or scanning  because that way also a person’s in a  conversation and they can be like um  they can be courtney could i get a scan  here and courtney comes over and grabs  the scan and runs back the other thing  is we all know i don’t know this is it’s  almost like trying to self-scan at a  supermarket you can do four in a row and  you’re like i got this i’m really good  at this there isn’t there and then you  get to that one item and it just doesn’t  scan and the same thing’s true with with  those scanners for some reason  it’s not  you need someone who’s doing it all the  time because they get really good at it  they know exactly the distance they know  the lighting they know what happens and  it gets done  so  so you know and most of these have  note sections so capturing the relevant  discussion  in that is really important especially  the pains of their current providers and  what’s happening because the reality is  you just won’t remember that  conversation after the fact and i can  see so many i remember so many times  where you’re at back  at the office and people are like hey i  met your customer they came by the booth  or your prospect and yeah they were  talking about they were really not happy  with their current provider but i  can’t remember i talked to so many  people i can’t remember what they said  like that missed opportunity so really  capturing those conversations a lot of  the apps offer the apart it’s really  important to put that in right there and  so certainly if you’re using Insightly  or another crm we hope you’re using  Insightly getting that information  right up into the crm so get downloading  it from the conference app and then you  know with Insightly you can certainly  map the fields directly into the crm so  that everybody who’s receiving those  leads post show has all those notes and  all the information right there and  they’re ready to act on it  that is golden and setting us up for the  next slide look at that it’s like a  softball  hat now having if your crm has a mobile  app having that open and at the ready to  get a quick snapshot of the statuses of  any previous conversations or booked  business  is so important because you’re able to a  person  like we oftentimes you’ll see a person  at the next booth and they’re going to  be walking over here you see what  company they’re with really on it reps  on the thing you’re already pulling it  up on  the on the crm app and they’re looking  at it and they’re like oh this is  so-and-so’s account they’re actually in  they have an open up they’re working  with this person this is where it what  stage it’s in so when they come up  they’re like oh we’ve heard of you yeah  we’re actually in conversations with you  we’re talking with so-and-so is he  here today oh no he’s not here today but  so and so it’s great let’s talk to her  you know and all these kinds of options  that um  have it having that information into  your point actually being able to  download and put information into it  directly or through the integration  whatever works just get those  conversations in i think to your point  you know even when you talk to a lead  and it’s so hot and you’re so excited  you know after like the show we’re going  to in september there are three days of  expo and they are like seven hours long  each and i don’t care how hot that lead  was you are not going to remember what  you spoke to that person about because  you will have spoken to a thousand  people over three days so really getting  that information in is so important  and now it’s post event and again that  immediate follow-up for those you have  this window  of you know in the same way when  marketing they say when a person touches  and asks for  a demo or you know  a meeting  you have so much time to get back to  them before they you know very little  time and the faster you get back to  someone the more you know the  more effective it will be so a lot of  times people come back from events are  so exhausted  the follow-up is a little you know gets  gets pushed aside so immediate follow-up  and ensuring the event campaign  code is always present in any  opportunity and that comes for those  sales leaders on the line it’s really up  to us to really make sure all the reps  do that and i say that because  you we want to ensure that any  opportunity that moves to closed one or  pipeline that can be associated with  that event happens  so that  week  that event can be held in the future and  the more the more roi we can attribute  to it the more they’re able to get even  more money for the event a bigger  presence more speaking slots all those  factors so we want to make sure that  that attribution is there so we have the  opportunity to send reps again and be  part of that event so  um really critical so at  in this idea of immediate follow-up at  outreach  when we were at a our dream force booth  one of the use cases we touted for sales  engagement  software was sort of automated post  event follow-up to ensure every booth  lead was touched i know sometimes sales  reps are super excited about following  up with someone and we have and they  sometimes start that follow-up before we  get the leads downloaded from the show  app and uploaded to the crm and then  they’ve created an opportunity or  they’ve created a contact and that  contact doesn’t carry the show  attribution with it and they’re hurting  themselves because  at that point you know we want to go if  you want us to come back to the show if  you like this show so much  give us the you know 24 hours or you  know time it takes to get those leads  properly loaded into the crm and  populate properly attributed so that we  make sure that the roi from this show  shows up a year from now and and we  don’t have to rely on you saying oh i  actually closed xyz from that show well  it’s not in the crm so it’s on crm it  didn’t happen  exactly and and and when you talk about  those campaigns that come back it’s  important ahead of time to have them  personalized and broken down between  what might have been a booth visit what  might have been a vendor session a  speaking or might have been the dinner  because the messaging in there will be  different and that perhaps the  follow-up will be different the  activities of doing that  and those should come you know this is a  discussion a strategy session a  discussion you’re having with marketing  to go which ones may be more general and  come from a marketing campaign which  ones would go into an actual  sequence  which  you know which would be a  calls email you know email call social  touch again  done by the appointment center done by  the account executive with the goal of  scheduling a meeting  to follow to to schedule a meeting post  event exactly and some of those  some of those mqls maybe we’re just  going to nurture for a little while  longer and we’ll just going to put them  with our marketing automation platform  and just kind of see what we can get if  we can get a hand raise out of that  versus this group that we know we really  want to put into an ae cadence and  really  focus on those we felt like we had some  meaningful conversations that we can  convert  all ties down to that roi attribution as  sales leaders we want to ensure with our  marketing partners we’re participating  in the events that make the most sense  that drive the most pipeline that you  know for for for those purposes  obviously many events have  different may have different goals for  the organization but from our  perspective we want to just ensure that  we get the most out of it we put a lot  of time energy money we’ve sent people  out of the you know out of the office  or  their home offices to attend we really  want to make sure we get the most out of  it and  having this these seven steps  helps you do that  this was so great we do have some  questions coming in from our audience so  we’ll get those in just a second so keep  keep submitting them but i wanted to  take a minute here to talk about  Insightly crm we’ve talked about crm in  a lot of ways here today and i know we  have some Insightly customers on the  call and that’s great but if you’re not  a current user of Insightly and a crm is  in your future we definitely want to  talk to you  Insightly crm is super easy to adopt  it’s very customizable to your business  and it integrates with basically  everything you’re currently using we  hear from customers all the time that  they’re set up with Insightly in weeks  not months as some of those other  platforms will require  and that they’re seeing roi of 300 in  just a year  so one of the best aspects of Insightly  is that it’s a true platform you know we  just spoke about leads coming into a  marketing automation platform and then  being transferred into a crm  in my previous role i was using  salesforce with pardot and it was really  like a wall between sales and marketing  it was very difficult and within  Insightly sales and marketing are on the  same platform so there’s no there’s  no integration it’s just all one  system so it’s super smooth and then we  also have Insightly service so if it’s a  customer service ticketing system so if  your customer support reps are  supporting customers they can be in the  same platform too so you really have  this unified experience where your  customer facing teams marketing sales  and success are all working in the same  tool really really good stuff so i  hope you’ll check us out maybe get a  demo Lee i’ve got the first question  so i hope you’re ready  this one comes from sarah she says um  any lower cost ideas or suggestions to  attract attention to your booth maybe  she can’t afford your cash your cash  grabbing machine lease so some lower  cost ideas perhaps  well  you know  the  the spinning of the wheel doesn’t have  to also be a giant big  imported type wheel you can also get a  very affordable software that creates a  sp a wheel where you can put options in  and you have a laptop that you’re  bringing and you  put that on the table and the wheel  spins and the you put x two external  speakers on that to create a little bit  of noise and energy and you get the  a similar experience it’s not  quite as visual some if you’re already  maybe having some monitors up already  you might use one of those but just  simply on the laptop you’re bringing you  can create a spin and win and you type  in what the pri they’re free software  programs that allow you to type in what  the prizes are and they you pull them  off and they it’s really  can you can accomplish the same thing  affordably in that way so i’d say think  about those look at online games that  are available in online  and and and and add that in but it’s  about engaging it’s about a little noise  to attract people to come in and to do  that those are fun when someone gets a  clunker it’s  you know and all sudden people turn  around and come in and when they you  know win there’s a big fun music playing  and things like that so yeah i’d look at  online gaming and a laptop and that’s  all you need to create some energy  i’ve also seen you know you can  invest in one nice item and then do like  a raffle a chance to win hr  conferences i know are famous they’ll  give away like a really nice designer  purse and because hr tends to be a  little heavy on the female demographic i  know women would be just lining up to  put their business cards in to win  you know a really nice bag  um and i used to go to a lot of it  related conferences and we would use  lock and key game and so you had to  pick a key from the bowl and you know if  you if your key unlocks the  cage then you win the prize in the cage  that could be like airpods or um  a router or something and you can  adjust the odds of the game by how many  keys you put in the bowl so there are  ways that you can you know if you have  only a few prizes to give away you you  know change the odds of winning and that  kind of controls you know how many  prizes you give away to or same thing  with a combination log so a couple of  ideas there for you sarah i hope that  was helpful  um  another one  this is a little bit of another question  this one’s anonymous so we don’t know  who this one is but what is your  opinion of using geo tracking at  conferences for future future digital  marketing  i love the concept because it helps you  better understand the buyer’s journey  and their buyer meaning the attendee and  their interests you’re able if you know  what it sessions they’re attending so  say you’re at a security conference and  they’re attending um  they’re attending where they likely  would have geo-tracking potentially but  they are attending events around data  discovery or around  gdpr or other areas and you’re able to  understand these are the sessions that  they’ve attended then you have a much  better and you know what boosts or  other you know depending how much that  is  how detailed it is you’re really able to  understand the interests of that of that  participant and therefore  what their  what type of  software or technologies they’re  considering so that you can address and  do that so if you are in the  data discovery space then anyone who  went to the data discovery stuff is who  you’d like to focus on so it really does  help with understanding the interest and  the buyers journey there  i would add too that like so i’ve  been at a conference and all of a sudden  you’re you know you’re on facebook or  twitter and you’re served an ad to go to  a certain booth and sometimes those ads  can create urgency like we’re doing our  giveaway on thursday at noon or  we’re doing our book signing like you  mentioned you know don’t forget to come  by and see author so and so at this time  so i think it can be that geo-tracking  can be specifically effective if you  have a time-boxed event that you want to  draw people to to create urgency  thank you for that question i have  another one here from jennifer she says  thoughts on trade show landing pages and  if they are effective  i’m trying to imagine this might be a  landing page on what  say Insightly is doing at an event we’re  going to be here at this time we’re  going to be here at this time we’re  going to be there doing this i think if  you’re  if you’re having multiple activities or  doing things the landing page is  effective if there’s just one activity  come see us at our booth like then  probably not but if you’re really going  to have a potentially co-hosted event in  like we said speaker sessions that are  at different times  having that is  is a good idea i think it shows a lot  but there should be a call to action on  that landing page sign up for this  schedule time for this get an advance  you know  there always should be a call to action  on any type of landing page  schedule it schedule a meeting  yeah i do like those because i feel like  especially when our sales reps are  posting about the show like hey i’m  going to be at this show it does give  the person seeing that that social  media post  a destination where to go to get more  information so like john smith says hey  anytime he’s going to be at this show  and you know check us  here’s a link then they can go and say  oh i like it see it’s booth number 168 i  see that they’re going to be giving away  some air pods you know maybe i should  come by there so i think you can have  some application there too  um Lee let’s do one more question and  then i think that’s all we have time for  um  this one yeah you kind of touched on  this earlier how would you handle it if  a rep like an ae or an sdr wanted to  attend for your company but would only  do so if wearing a mask i think that’s a  great you know we should encourage them  to come in any way they feel comfortable  to attend because they’re going to be  people at the event who are going to  feel the same way so you’re actually  making a really comfortable attendees  wearing a mask is going to be drawn to  the other person at the booth wearing  a mask they’re like-minded in their  approach towards the pandemic and  allow them to have that conversation and  be comfortable more comfortable so  the more the more the merrier if and  i would definitely include that i did  did want to add one thing which i meant  to mention and that is a number of the  principles that were discussed here  especially the pre-event planning the at  during the event activities and post  event are relevant for both in-person  events as well as virtual events that  you may be participating in and  sponsoring those same things of who’s  speaking who are the guests activities  you’re doing in your booth all this  translates to both so take a lot of  these same principles and apply them to  whether it’s in person or virtual these  are just a it’s a good sales process a  good marketing process to ensure  your roi wise words Lee thank you so  much for joining us i really appreciate  your time i think we all learned a lot i  know i feel more prepared for my show  coming up in september so i’m excited  Lee thank you so much for joining us  today and thanks to everyone out there  we’ll see you next time take care  [Music]