Lessons Learned From Sponsoring an Event for the First Time

Last week we sponsored an event for the very first time...
Here's what I learned:

1. Stop people in their tracks by using their first name. Look at the badges and say something simple like "Hi David, how are you liking the event so far". It's almost impossible for someone to ignore you when you actually use their first name to start a conversation.

2. Immediately ASK what they are doing so you can adapt your "pitch" to them and make it relevant for them. Developers need to hear a different value proposition from agency owners etc.

3. Have a screen with a screenshare demo of your product. On the first day we noticed that many more people stopped WHILE we were doing a live demo on the big screen (compared to the slides presentation that was running). So the second day we created a screenshare demo video. People like to see how tools are working so a screenshare demo stops them just long enough for you to engage with them.

4. Have a good lead collection system (we learned this the hard way). Whether it's asking for business cards or asking ppl to fill out a form. Which brings us to the next point...

5. Business cards... People still ask for them and use them! We didn't have business cards. Next time I'll bring business cards specific to the event with a QR code or something to help them remind why they wanted my card in the first place.

6. Reciprocity works. At one point we were serving coffee (before we learned that was not really allowed and had to stop ;) ). If you give someone a coffee they feel obligated to stay around for a couple of minutes which gives you an opening to chat.

7. Take throat lozenges with you, hopefully you'll be talking A LOT :)

8. Have a compelling slogan that makes people want to engage with you. This helps people who don't know about your brand yet what you're doing and why they should care. We had this on a small screen but I would print it on a large banner next time around!

9. Use social media during the event (especially Twitter #). This is one we didn't take enough advantage off (being busy doing demos) but next time I would assign someone as the "social media person" for the duration of the event and they have to post on Twitter, snap pictures and engage with others etc.

10. Stickers are a great low cost way to give away some "swag" especially if you make the stickers appealing to the target audience (with your brand being less of the focus).

And one bonus one:

11. Go talk to competitors! They're also just people in your industry doing cool stuff (you even had a similar idea on how to help your industry... how cool is that). You might notice you have similar problems you're trying to solve or ways to actually collaborate.

What about you? Have you ever sponsored an event? Any good tips?