Is It Worth It to Create a User Conference?

0:00Alright, so we're going to talk about if it's worth it to have a user conference. So first, let me define what a user conference is and we're going to talk about it. So a user conference, I was looking at my email and ClickFunnels kind of does this. They have their funnel hacking live and that's where they have a lot of their users come through and they have a lot of great speakers come in. Tony Robbins, a lot of marketing speakers. And I remember actually I was supposed to speak at one of their things a couple of years ago, but then COVID happened. But point being is that there are a lot of these, for example, digital marketer, they used to have the traffic and conversion conference before they spun it off and sold it to a PE backed, it's called an events company.

0:36And so a lot of people do this. Salesforce has Dreamforce, for example. It's a huge conference. And so what we want to talk about, if it's actually worth it to do conferences, because both Neil and I have experienced doing conferences, some with a couple hundred people, some with less than a hundred people. Neil, I don't know how big yours were, but go for it. I never really done in-person events like that. The up twist. Oh, twist up. You're right. I forgot. I used to have an event. Dude, that was so long ago. And it wasn't really my event. It was me and a few investors, an event company from a guy named Michael, what was his last name?

1:11McAdden or something like that? Nice guy. We had up to a thousand people at the events. And when we took it over, it had less people and we did a poor job of keeping the culture and the environment of the business that we acquired. He did a much better job than us and eventually we shut it down. Got it. So let's go back to the question that you look at Dreamforce, you look at Funnel Hacking Live. Is it worth it? HubSpot, we're both speaking on Inbound, right? We're doing a live podcast together. So by the way, all of you that are going to HubSpot's Inbound this year, we're doing the marketing school meetup where you can hang out with Neil and I.

1:42We'd love to see you and we're doing a live podcast there. So come join us. But anyway, and by the way, I think you can use the code marketing school and then you'll get 15 % off or something. They're not paying us to say this. I just remember this. So anyway, is it worth it to do your user conference? I think it is, but I think it's worth it once your company is established and you're big enough and you have enough customers and you have enough revenue. And what is that number? I think it varies per industry, but I would say once you have millions and millions, not like one or two million or five or six, you know, my guess would be if you're a 10 plus million dollar company, it could be worth doing it because by then you probably have enough customers.

2:18I wouldn't do it if I was starting off and I was small. Yeah. You know why? So to build on that point, it's because it's a completely different business. There are a lot of moving parts when you do an event. It's a logistical nightmare. And even though you hire other people to help you with it, you still have to like be in it doing the work. You are very immersed. And I mean, take it from me, like I still do the leveling up mastermind, right? Like, even though that's not a big conference, it still takes up mindshare for me. I like doing it, but let's just look at these bigger events, right? Let's look at dream force.

2:49We're talking, I think it's like a couple, like a hundred thousand people or so that come through in a span of a couple of days. And you look at HubSpot's inbound, I think last year was like 10 ,000 people or so, 8 ,000 that came through. And so it's a lot. You're getting people to uproot their lives to come. But at the end of the day, the relationships that are built, it's like, oh yeah, I met up with this person at HubSpot's inbound, HubSpot's inbound. What happens is a lot of word of mouth happens because people share their experiences from these events. yeah dude i think overall it's worth doing did you know that hubspot had city or local meetups so let's say if someone was in san diego they wanted to throw a hubspot event hubspot would help pay for the expenses and they would help support it and bring more people together to talk about hubspot this was i believe before they went public smart strategy as well and helped grow the ecosystem quite a bit yeah i'm just trying to remember i mean these aren't necessarily user conferences but some of the my best experiences some of my best friends have came from meeting people at these events, right?

3:45For example, like our mutual friend, Syed, I met him because I went to digital marketers mastermind, right? War Room. And so I think there's a time and place and just keep in mind, like if you are going to take some time and attention away, I do agree. I think you should maybe hit eight figures or so before you start to do this. And then it's worth, actually, I see a lot of agency owners doing this right now where it's like a mistake I've made in the past. They have, they start like a couple of other agencies and then they start an education thing. And then they also start a conference at the same time.

4:11And then they're also like doing all this other stuff, right? That is a recipe for making your business go backwards. So I remember my CEO, Mike Gullickson was telling me like a year ago or so when he worked at iProspect, which is a density company, I think they have, I don't know, 60 ,000, 100 ,000 employees is something large like that. I think I prospect someone between five or four and 7 ,000, somewhere in that range of employees. They would do events. And when they did events, what would end up happening is for their customers and users, they would end up generating a lot of revenue, upsells, renewals.

4:47And it was one of the best times for them to generate more income as a business. And then they would get companies to also sponsor it, which would then make their costs on it pretty much close to zero, if not profitable. You know who does this? WPP. I think I kind of talked about this a little bit before, but WPP, they have this conference called Stream, and it is the WPP Unconference, right? Which is, I would consider leveling up mastermind almost like an unconference because it's not traditional. And so what they do is it's invite only. And I'm just reading their FAQ right now on their websites, WPPStream.com.

5:20So what is Stream? Okay, Stream is the WPP unconference that brings together WPP agencies, clients, and partners to debate the future of technology and creativity. Over the last 10 years, it has gained a reputation as the world's best technology conferences by WIRE or as TED Meets Tech by SAB Miller. And then final thing I'll say is when you attend an unconference, none of the usual rules apply. Crowdsourcing determines the content of the event, which begins with an empty whiteboard to be filled by attendees with ideas for discussions. Everyone is expected to participate and contribute. Tim O 'Reilly, one of the pioneers of the format through Foo, Friends of O 'Reilly Camp, describes it as the wiki of conferences.

5:56It's democratic at times. I can't read that word. And everything your standard speech is followed by drinks and networking. It's not a standard conference is the point. So it's kind of chaotic is what they're trying to say. Anyway, if you're going to do it, just follow the rules that we said. Re-listen to this podcast. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe. Five stars, please. And we'll see you tomorrow.