How to Choose the Right Startup Conference to Attend as A Founder?
Just wanted to share my personal observation
Picture this — you’re building a company with limited funds and resources. You have a team of roughly 10 people, and all of you are extremely excited about the solution you’re presenting to the world.
The product is almost ready, and now it’s your time to shine — this is the perfect time to talk to investors, get some early adopters, and test your solution in front of a real audience.
How do you approach this process?
Well, my understanding is that you go to startup conferences, get a booth, and showcase your solution in front of a real audience.
It could be one of the highest ROI things you could do, after all.
But how do you understand which startup conference or event is the place to be?
I mean, there are soo many of them already. All of those Web Summits, and Slushes, and Tech BBQs, and TNWs promise to offer unique opportunities to us, the entrepreneurs.
So, the main question stands still:
How Do You Make Sure That You Go to the Right Tech Conference That Resembles Your Company’s Needs?
It’s still a big investment to attend these things, after all.
Here’s what I think about this topic.
Before choosing the conference to attend, you must make research on a couple of things and answer these questions:
How Big Is the Conference?
It is crucial to understand the size of the conference you’re going to and align it with your goals.
Founders and entrepreneurs commonly misunderstand the value that a specific event gives them, often resulting in not meeting their objectives for attending these events in the first place.
So, this is how I would categorize it:
If you have more commercial purposes and your goal is to get as many leads as possible, then maybe bigger conferences are better (50,000+ attendees) for you.
If you want to raise funds and meet potential business partners, then aim for something with up to 10,000–15,000 attendees.
If you want to meet quality investors in a specific region of your interests, then maybe look for something in the range of 2,000–4,000 attendees.
It’s not about how many people you meet at these events but who you meet. If you prioritize making quality connections over quantity, you will definitely see high value in these events.
Who Are the People Going to This Conference?
Doing proper research on the audience of a specific conference is absolutely necessary if you want your trip to be successful.
Remember — startup events are mostly designed for networking, so understanding who to network with is what will give you higher probabilities of success.
Most of the startup/ tech conferences have their app, where you can connect to other attendees as well. Make sure you take your time exploring this app properly and connecting with people who are interesting to you.
What Is Their Intent for Going to This Conference?
After doing research on the audience, think about why are they coming to this conference? What’s their motivation? And then send them messages according to that.
For example, if you want to connect with angel investors, talk to them about your growth plans and business models.
If the journalists and media representatives are the ones whom you want to connect with, don’t talk about your product too much — tell them about your story and the impact you’re making with your solution.
You get it, right?
After answering these questions, I believe you will already have a rough idea if it is worth investing your time and resources into going to a specific event or not.
By rough idea, I mean your research still might be a bit inaccurate, and the event might not turn out what you expect it to be.
But, well, at least you tried and tested it.
Finally, I’d like to say that going to tech conferences can be very beneficial for anyone on an individual, as well as company level. It’s a lot of fun, at least for me.
However, doing the research and going to the right events for you is crucial to making the most of your experience.
If you’d like to chat more about these kinds of topics with me, I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn. I’m on my way to Slush now. Bye!
Ucha
