Conference season is an exciting time for dealmakers. The thrill of traveling to a new city, meeting face-to-face with top targets and — hopefully — walking away with several new or improved connections is one that's difficult to beat.
But there’s a big difference between simply attending a conference and proactively putting a trade show plan in place. Preparation takes work, but the results are worth it. So to help, we've prepared a conference checklist for private equity dealmakers.
Before we dig into the list, it's important to note that our list assumes your firm already has a solid investment thesis in place, and has identified the conferences you will attend this year.
For help creating your conference attendance strategy and lineup, check out these lists. Otherwise, keep reading for the ultimate conference checklist!
Prepping for a conference means planning for the whole event: before, during, and even after. Our conference checklist has you covered across all three areas:
Your first stop is your deal sourcing platform, like Sourcescrub. Start by finding the attendee list for the conference you’re planning to attend, and filter it by your firm’s investment criteria. If you need a little help identifying the right targets, check out this blog post.
Then, cross-reference this short list with your CRM to see whether any of these companies are actively being pursued (meeting with these folks should be a top priority) or have already been disqualified. If your deal sourcing platform is integrated with your CRM, this should take no time at all.
In addition to the attendee list, consider widening your search to any target companies within the same city or zip code as the trade show. Since you'll be traveling there anyway, it's a good time to try to snag some extra face time with local businesses.
As you cross-reference your conference attendee list with your CRM and prioritize the opportunities you’d like to meet during the event, make sure you mark the key contacts you already know. Then, start your research to learn more about these owners and operators, as well as identify other contacts you’d like to connect with.
Social media channels, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, can help, since you can see what you have in common (e.g., interests, mutual connections). Remember to note all these details in your CRM so you have a "single source of truth" to help inform each interaction and keep everyone on your team on the same page.
The next step in our conference attendee checklist isn’t the most enjoyable part of conference planning, but it’s definitely one of the most important.
The earlier you reach out to your top targets to start scheduling meetings, the better. Depending on the size of the event, you may have a few hundred emails to write or calls to make, so we recommend using generative AI to do first drafts of these emails. However, make sure you tailor each one to add a personal touch before sending.
Putting the effort in now (especially by incorporating all that research you did in steps 1 and 2) not only helps you schedule as many meetings as possible, but it also makes communication throughout your interactions with these contacts that much more productive.
One email, call, or meeting invite is never enough. Persistence is a dealmaker's best friend, and your goal should be multiple touchpoints, up until the event itself. "It's not just one email campaign," says Stevens. "Sometimes you just have to try new things, whether it's a couple more emails, a couple more calls, or maybe sending something tangible to a business owner ahead of time. Anything to build some of that name or brand recognition and stand out."
Also, don't limit yourself to the conference venue itself. After seeing the same halls for 2 days, a walk or meal somewhere else in the city can be a welcome change of scenery for both you and your contacts.
Once you know who you’re meeting with at the event, create some fast and easy reference points to help keep yourself organized and on track amidst all the day-of distractions. Try channeling your inner college student and create company and contact profile flashcards. Having a physical representation of important data — especially in a form you can easily pull out and refer to prior to each meeting — helps the info stick in your brain.
The idea is to make things as easy as possible for Future You, so lean into your preferred way of ingesting information. Color-code your flashcards (or your chosen medium) by day, company type, opportunity stage, etc. Then, organize them according to your meeting schedule to help you quickly glean information and save time during the event itself.
Once your feet step off the plane, it's officially game time. All the work you did in the previous section of our conference planning guide pays off now — but even with a packed schedule, it’s still likely you’ll have some downtime. And you don’t want to waste it aimlessly wandering the expo hall.
At the start of each day, check your schedule and see what's on your agenda. Perhaps you can squeeze in some time for “business as usual” tasks before the event actually starts, or maybe you can take a short afternoon walk to decompress and see the city sights.
Visiting the booths of companies you weren’t able to get meetings with is a highly productive use of free time. The expo hall map you laid out in the “Before” section of this conference checklist is a great resource for this.
Conferences get really busy, really quickly — for both you and your contacts. Each morning, save everyone a headache and send meeting reminders for the day. Something like, "I'm excited to meet you at 10:15am in the Florida room to discuss your expansion plans!" as a reply to the accepted invite can help prevent no- or late-shows. Plus, it gives attendees quick context for the meeting and displays your excitement for the chat.
Again, this is where the prep Past You did is incredibly helpful. Prior to each meeting, pull out the appropriate flashcards or notes to give yourself a refresher. Names, key company or contact, industry trends, etc., are all helpful to have top-of-mind before you jump into a conversation.
During meetings, your focus should be entirely on your contact and the conversation. Keep your phone on silent and stay fully engaged by keeping your laptop closed as much as possible.
Afterward, though, it's time to be kind to Future You again and write notes. Your CRM likely has an app — though a notebook or note-taking app works in a pinch — where you can write a brief description of what was discussed, general feelings about the meeting's success, next steps for you and the team, etc.
Once the conference officially ends and you're back home, your first action item is to follow up on the meetings that went well. Use the notes you took to inform how you reach back out and what you say to keep the conversation going. And remember, the goal isn't necessarily to close a deal immediately.
As Stevens recalls of one particularly successful trade show, "Looking at the calendar now, this was 2.5 years ago. And some of these relationships are still fully engaged with us.” Good relationships are powerful, especially in a people-driven industry like private equity, so maintaining and nurturing good connections is a valuable endeavor.
Just because a meeting didn’t go exactly as planned doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Markets, businesses, and leaders change, and you never know what the future holds. At the very least, following up on unsuccessful meetings to thank participants for their time and wish them well is a great way to grow your network.
For meetings that went well and targets that are still top of mind but not ready to transact, use automation to your advantage. The best deal sourcing platforms offer company monitoring and alerts for data signals like executive hires, product announcements, and media coverage.
Staying on top of recent and relevant events like these gives you a reason to reach out and continue building rapport over time. Taken together, many of these signals indicate readiness or willingness to make a deal, ensuring your firm is the first (and hopefully only) one to the table.
When the travel dust has settled, your conference attendee checklist is all ticked, and you have a good grasp on the results of the event, sit down with the team and discuss what went well and what didn't. Early indications of potential opportunities, rates for successful vs. unsuccessful meetings, information you gleaned from the conference itself, etc., are all important discussion points.
Not only will this “retro” help determine whether this conference (and similar events) is worth continuing to attend in the future, but it will also highlight areas where your team can improve its overall strategy and approach.
No matter where you are with your conference strategy, good planning — and this conference checklist — will help you make the most of every event. The more work and research you put in ahead of the event, the smoother it will go.
For key tips about how to source more deals and use data to your advantage at industry trade shows, check out our guide on data-driven conference strategies.
