Thread by @asanwal

I'd say that 95% of the conferences I've spoken at have done very little to nothing for @cbinsights business

They're good for a bit of ego gratification but in terms of actual value to the biz, nil to negligible outside of a few events

2/ Partly, cuz most conferences are not content-first.

Translation: they don't respect their attendees and have sponsors on stage delivering mind-numbingly boring pitches dressed up as mediocre thought leadership

And so the audience mostly tunes out speakers as they should

3/ The worst investment of time I ever made was getting on a flight for a 30 min panel

a. Panels are the worst format
b. 30 minutes with 3 panelists means 10 minutes at best (unlikely as there is always 1 person who drones on)

Can't think of a better way to waste one's time

4/ The 5% that have been content-first where people come to learn and hear speakers, however, have been tremendous

Separating those from the rest is tricky at times but becoming much better at identifying those and asking the right questions up front

5/ some events have a lot of clients or prospects attending so being there has value if we can organize meetings with them

this is a 2nd order benefit of speaking at events

Requires going with a plan and meetings set up

Wandering around hoping for serendipity is not a plan

6/ hosting dinners at a conference has been effective for us as well when done properly / with planning and strategy

But again, not sure you need to speak at the event to get this value

7/ final thought

If instead of all the time spent on these events, we just wrote more, it’d have a bigger impact on our biz

the value of that writing / research has more value because it persists and reaches a bigger audience and so the ROI for us is demonstrably larger

ymmv

8/ we just finished our 5th conference today

I’m very proud of the @cbinsights team for doing events which are content-first and thoughtful and which respect our audience

We can (and will) still get better so expect to see a lot more

@CBinsights 9/ if you are smart, insanely hard working, have ridiculously high standards and want to build this business

boards.greenhouse.io/cbinsights/job…

@CBinsights 10/ on tweet number 4, ppl asked what metrics we look at. Won’t share all but here’s one.

Number of ppl attending is unimportant / useless.

Want to know seating capacity of room we’re presenting in.