How to make the most out of fairs and conferences

This is how we planned and executed the South Summit 2024 to get a very good return on investment and what you can learn for upcoming fairs.

Hey, we are Ramón Rodrigáñez and Andrea Marino, Co-Founders at Nova, the Global Top Talent Network.

Welcome to Talent First, our newsletter where those who believe that talent is the most important resource in the economy get together.

Every week we cover a new topic related to attracting, hiring, developing, and retaining talent, as well as the learnings from our journey building Nova.

Summary:

• 🔎 How to make the most out of fairs. For the first time since we launched the company, we decided to sponsor a fair (South Summit in this case) and got a very good ROI. We will tell you how you should approach these events if you want them to truly work. Spoiler: it’s all in or nothing.

Our experience at South Summit

You have most likely considered attending different fairs as a company, typically to get clients and visibility. However, if you have ever gone to the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Web Summit, South Summit, 4 Years From Now (4YFN), or similar events in your industry, you probably know it’s not evident to get a positive Return On Investment (ROI).

Let’s face it, startup conferences have become mainstream. There are now more than 10 conferences only in Europe that claim to be “the place to be” for startups, so it’s not an obvious decision. For that reason, investing money in a booth or marketing activities at those conferences is always doubtful, can this be worth it?

Fairs are by definition a place where many people go to sell their things, and by having lots of salespeople and offers, is not always that simple to get your buyers. We had attended these events in the past as attendees and we always had mixed feelings on whether a day on your walking around the stands had any kind of impact and ROI.

However, for the first time since we launched Nova, this time we decided to go all in with South Summit 2024: we took a stand, we participated in the startup competition and we sent a big team to make the most out of the investment we had made (9.000€ plus helping South Summit with the recruiting of their volunteers). This year’s topic, “Human by Design”, was very aligned with our values and our mission at Nova, so it made sense.

As it happens with some things in life, this is the kind of investment where the more you put in, the more you get out. Our goals with the event were mainly 3:

1. Utilize it as a growth lever and get as many nominations of high-quality talent as possible
2. Leverage it to sell B2B and get as many B2B leads as possible
3. Take the opportunity to engage with our members within the startup community in a different setup

Let us tell you how we got a great ROI in terms of brand awareness, member engagement, nominations to the network, and leads B2B by combining 3 key elements:

1. A great event preparation
2. A big involvement from teams
3. An excellent event execution

Key #1: a great event preparation

To make the most out of fairs, the first key element to consider is to have a clear event owner who coordinates the preparation of the event. In our case, María Varela, Head of B2C at Nova, did a fantastic preparation and dealt directly with the provider (South Summit).

Our team started by organizing a brainstorming session about what we could do before and during the event to make the most out of it.

From here, we decided to execute those actions with more impact, which we can categorize into 2: event preparation actions and event execution actions. As for the event preparation, we:

1. Dia a draw on Social Media with 2 tickets which went viral
2. Created posts from the entire team attending giving visibility to the fact that Nova was going to be present at South Summit (see picture below)
3. Launched an issue on Talent First about why we had decided to go
4. Created a WhatsApp group for Nova members to easily connect before and during the event
5. Prepared a clear agenda with a highly detail plan of what would happen, when, and who would be involved.
6. Our B2B sales team utilized the South Summit attendee list (in the app) and tried to message and set up coffee chats with potential customers, warming them up before the event started

Key #2: a big involvement from your team

To make a fair truly useful, the more people you send (of course with some limits and rationale on who should go and why), the better. Stands with only 1 or 2 people are hard to approach and people do not stop by, as breaking the ice and starting the conversation is tough.

Our presence at South Summit was marked by the enthusiastic participation of 15 team members, all proudly wearing Nova t-shirts. Each of them was a walking billboard and the sight of our logo everywhere we went was a powerful statement. It wasn't just about being there; it was about being visible, approachable, and ready to engage.

Our team members, with their passion and dedication, brought Nova’s mission to life, attracting significant attention and sparking countless meaningful conversations. Our booth was full the entire 2 first days, as people saw other people stopping and talking in circles and decided to also stop by and ask what was Nova about.

Besides all the things that happened at the booth, there was a moment that summarized our company culture. Fatima, Celia, and Anabel surprised us with a crazy example of frugality, one of our company principles. Instead of leaving our South Summit billboard at the event venue, they realized it could look great in our new office for events, so they asked for permission and took it.

However, it did not fit in any Cabify, not even in the big vans. So, instead of leaving it there, they lived by our frugality principle, went the extra mile, and carried it by hand from La Nave to our Madrid office by metro. As a side effect, we got hundreds of curious people taking pictures and a great offline Marketing campaign for free (we got the picture below in another unrelated WhatsApp group).

This is what frugality means: we could have spent a few hundred euros and wasted a bit of cardboard, but they decided to recycle, save some money, save some cardboard, and make some good publicity.

Key #3: an excellent event execution

The third pillar of a great South Summit was our great execution of the event, where we had a clear plan of activities to accomplish our 4 goals (grow nominations, get B2B leads, engage with existing members, and grow our visibility). Let’s go 1 by 1 to explain what we did to accomplish each of them.

Growing our nominations

To get interest from people walking around the conference and turn them into nominations to Nova, we ensured that our booth had always activity and lots of people:

1. Our booth had a coffee machine which made it easy for us to invite people over to it for coffee
2. We organized a couple of contests and gave our merchandising as a prize
3. 2 of our coaches offered free coaching sessions during the event for potential members to try to experience the value of Nova
4. We organized a speed networking session
5. We gave 3 extra nominations to members going through our booth

The return of all this effort was great and we got more than 200 potential members in the funnel, all of whom have a much bigger likelihood of becoming Novas now that they have got the full pitch from our team and have gotten excited about what Nova can bring to their lives and careers. For you to get a perspective, the week of South Summit was one of the top 3 in the last year in terms of nominations to the network.

Getting leads B2B

3 people in our sales team attended South Summit with a clear intention: getting leads to startups and big companies who may be interested in recruiting top talent at Nova. Here, the execution went in 3 directions:

1. Meeting with the prospects we had talked with before the fair
2. Walking over the entire fair and trying to talk to each and every company exhibitor. Although HR teams were mostly not there, we could get a few intros by their colleagues in the stands.
3. Approaching speakers who could have hiring needs and presenting our services briefly as they finished their sessions, using what they had said as a hook.

Here we probably got the less good ROI, but we still managed to get a good volume of leads which we will try to convert in the coming weeks.

Engaging with members

For community-based businesses like Nova, events like South Summit are golden opportunities to deepen connections not only with new potential members but also with existing ones. We empowered our members by putting a stamp on their name tags that certified them as members of Nova.

They became organically our proud ambassadors and made the vision of Nova come to life when interacting with all sorts of people who would notice that strange sticker. People could ask our members for a nomination, and that also increased the overall amount of connections created within the event since they already had one thing to talk about.

Moreover, the fact that we created a WhatsApp group and let members connect, and organize lunches and casual coffees has made a difference for many of them attending the event, who felt they always had people to hangout with during the conference and had the opportunity to network with each other.

But that’s not all…our members were not only attendees, they were also entrepreneurs pitching. Our pride swelled even further when three out of the ten companies that won the South Summit contest turned out to be Nova members. This success story is a clear validation of our mission to identify and nurture top talent. It was immensely gratifying to see our members achieve such high recognition, reaffirming that Nova is indeed succeeding in attracting some of the brightest business and tech talent out there.

The fact that out of the thousands of applications for the South Summit competition, 3 out of 10 winners are members, is something statistically outstanding. Congrats to Invopop (overall winner), Embat (best team), and Shakers (most scalable).

Growing our visibility

Last, but not least, we also took the opportunity of participating at the South Summit to increase our visibility to the general public, particularly by participating in the startup competition and by being part of a panel around AI in recruitment.

This year we have been proud to hit a little milestone by being selected as one of the 10 finalists for the startup competition on the Future of Work. While we don’t give much importance to pitch competitions, it has surely been a testament to our dedication and the importance of building relevant networks in an age where traditional platforms are becoming increasingly cluttered and don’t foster meaningful connections.

Here you can see a picture of Ramón pitching Nova in front of a big audience:

Takeaways

Looking back, our experience at South Summit reinforced a crucial lesson: it’s not about the conferences you attend, but how you engage with them. At Nova, our strengths lie in our compelling mission, recognizable brand, dedicated team, and engaged community. These elements together amplified our impact at the event thanks to a very mindful strategy that leveraged it.

From our humble opinions, there are a few things you need to consider when deciding whether or not is worth investing in one of these conferences:

1. Goals alignment: Ensure the conference aligns with your strategic goals. For us, South Summit’s focus on innovation and the future of work was a perfect fit, particularly with this year’s topic.
2. Set clear intentions and prepare carefully: what you do before the event can make a big difference. Ensure to prepare in advance and leverage draws, social media, and the events’ apps to ensure people know you will be there and make the most out of the event.
3. Involve a relatively big team: Have a committed team ready to engage fully, as this can turn a good opportunity into a great one. Having more people, even in a small stand, makes it easier for people to stop and engage in conversations. So, once you go in, commit fully.
4. Execute with passion: if you think that just by having your booth and logo visible you will get a significant return you will be disappointed. Once you decide on your ultimate goal, be intentional and execute activities carefully to maximize that metric.

All in all, we think the South Summit was a successful investment of time and resources and we can see how it also boosted team morale as they realize how many brilliant people out there feel the need of Nova and recognize the value of it.

Thank you for being part of our story. We look forward to continuing this journey with you, connecting talent, and creating value.

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