INBOUND 2016 — A Quick Recap of Our First Conference

We Went. We Saw (Some Things). We Conquered (As Much Free Food, Drinks, and Content As We Could).

So here we are, about two weeks after the end of HubSpot’s INBOUND 2016, having had sufficient time to decompress and lick our wounds.

The first conference attended by members of the DarwinApps team was, more than anything, a learning experience. An opportunity to meet, greet, and observe marketing professionals — representatives from our ideal customer base — in their natural habitat.

The following is meant to highlight the missteps we took, and where I personally thought the conference was could improve. Overall, the conference was brilliantly produced (example: Sarah Silverman was replaced less than a day after cancelling with the Trevor Noah), and we’re extremely glad we decided to take part.

This is a photograph of Trevor Noah.

So, after much discussion and reflection among the team’s attendees, there are a few main takeaways we came up with for how to better approach such an event in the future.

We Should Have Purchased the Next Level Up From The “Community Pass”

The three members of our team all purchased the “Community Pass,” which is the lowest priced option for attending the event.

Here’s what that got us:

1. Access to all of the “Keynote” and “Spotlight” speeches in the main stage area.

Anna Kendrick had a keynote interview.

Although we enjoyed the Keynotes and Spotlights, if I were a full-time marketing professional in the vein of many of the attendees there, I think I would have needed to upgraded my pass. The breakout sessions looked to be where to “money” content was.

2. Access to the main hall area, which consisted of booths purchased by sponsors, the HubSpot central area, and various re-charging areas (both for our bodies and our cell phones).

This area proved to be a fantastic area for networking, and there was never a lack of HubSpot employees around to assist conference attendees with any questions they had about the conference or the HubSpot product itself.

I should probably not complain about having to pay for food when it looks like this.

3. Free coffee, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks during the INBOUND happy hour each night.

The “free coffee” every day and “free drinks/hors d’oeuvres” during happy hour every night were great. And we can’t complain about that.

Unfortunately for us, the higher tiered passes had full access for lunch and dinner to “free” food from all of the food trucks waiting outside. These food trucks did not accept cash or credit, and would only serve to those with the higher-tiered passes.

We Should Have Purchased a Booth

Considering that our clients trust us at DarwinApps to serve as the engineering extension to their marketing team, we had in theory a conference full of employees from prospective clients.

As there were certainly many attendees with just the Community Pass, and many others with free time between sessions, the main hall booths received a ton of foot traffic.

At the price points we were given from various sponsors, meeting just one future client through this investment would more than pay for the price of the booth.

There’s also the credibility that comes with attaching your company as a sponsor to such a big event, which bring us to the next takeaway…

We Should Have Had A Representative From Our Team Speak At One or More Breakout Sessions

DarwinApps has been around for over five years, and our CEO and CTO have invaluable insight and experience regarding the intersection of inbound marketing and its development needs.

A huge amount of breakout sessions were scheduled throughout the four days, and either our CEO, CTO, or both could have provided important insight regarding their experience working under the hood for marketing teams.

Not that it needs mentioning, but the credibility that comes from presenting at a session opens up all kinds of avenues for business development, and at the very least, opportunities to speak with our ideal clients at length about their pain points and how to curate our services to best address them.

Election Day On The First Day Of the Conference Had A Definite Impact

Here’s a picture of a gigantic lobster’s claws I saw to take your mind off the election :)

INBOUND was held this year from November 8–11, and November 8 was without a doubt a memorable day for all Americans (and I’m sure many non-Americans).

Now, my research tells me that the conference has been held in September in the past (and will be next year), so although this was a one-off year, it was unavoidable for it not to be influenced by the results of the American Presidential election.

Ta-Nehisi Coates spent his entire keynote on the morning of November 9 addressing the election and its winner in negative terms.

Trevor Noah eviscerated the President-elect as well, and they were far from the only two speakers to go all-in on Donald Trump.

There was even a noticeable pall in the mood of all attendees Wednesday through Friday. Given the demographics of those in attendance, this was hardly surprising. But continuing the discussion of the election instead of topics related to inbound marketing kept attendees in a certain “mood,” and without a doubt alienated those there who supported the winning candidate.

In Conclusion, A Learning Experience and Great Networking Event

Without a doubt, we learned a ton about how to appropriately approach an event like this in the future.

We also managed to network a bunch and meet many amazing people. Next year, we’ll have a better attack strategy and will employ it, hopefully with even greater success.

As Hova once — okay, many times — said: “On to the Next One!”