Don’t just show up: Get more from conferences and events

Start with a goal, not a booth

The strongest event strategies start long before anyone gets on a plane. Firms should have clear goals in mind for each event: building visibility in a key market, strengthening existing relationships, meeting targeted prospects or referral sources, or generating qualified leads. That clarity helps determine whether an event deserves sponsorship dollars, who should attend, and how success will be measured.

Preparation also matters more than many firms think. When possible, review attendee lists early, and identify must-meet, high-value contacts. Always give attendees a simple plan for outreach, on-site priorities, and note capture. The more repeatable the process is, the better.

Your marketing team can support your strategy with tactics like email outreach, social posts, handout materials, and branded swag giveaways. But more importantly, your internal team roles need to be defined: who is responsible for meetings, who is tracking conversations, who owns follow-up, and who will report results.

Make the time on-site count

At the event, the goal is not just to collect the most business cards. It’s to create meaningful interactions and capture enough information to make follow-up relevant. A good conversation with no system behind it can easily become a missed opportunity. 

Firms should equip attendees to ask qualifying questions, quickly record takeaways, and flag next steps while details are fresh.

What happens after matters most

The real value of an event is often decided in the first 48 hours after it ends. This is when firms should send follow-ups, debrief internally, launch nurture activity, and assign ownership for priority relationships. Generic outreach wastes momentum; thoughtful follow-up turns conversations into opportunities. 

A short internal post-event questionnaire can also help capture what worked, what did not, whether the event was worth the investment, and what content or insights gleaned from the event can be repurposed into thought leadership.

For firms building a conference and events strategy from scratch, the answer is not to make the process more complicated. It is to make it more intentional. Start with a repeatable framework for selecting events, preparing attendees, capturing information, and reporting outcomes. The firms that get the most from conferences are usually not the ones going to the most events. They are the ones doing the best job of connecting what happens at those events to their firm’s goals.

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Maggie Tomasek is the director of marketing at Mowery & Schoenfeld. A former journalist and communications pro, she has spent the last decade building brands and driving awareness, growth, retention, and engagement for financial services and professional services firms.