“Events are a waste of time and money.”
Spend enough time in public relations, and you’ll inevitably hear a founder (or three) say this almost verbatim. I wasn’t surprised the last time it happened, but I didn’t have a convincing counterargument ready to go at the time.
Many founders, especially those running early- and growth-stage startups, consider events a bit frivolous. It’s not an uncommon opinion, as it aligns with the overarching mindset of an ecosystem obsessed with short-term KPIs and instant feedback loops. Events don’t always yield immediate results that can be definitively quantified and plugged into a spreadsheet. Small teams therefore end up with the impression that events don’t deliver value.
But the cost-benefit analysis here is skewed. For startups with good strategy and timing, events can simultaneously drive outcomes across PR, sales, fundraising, partnerships, hiring and positioning.
The point of any given event isn’t only the pithy insights or ego boost of a keynote speech. The aim is to bring a critical mass of relevant stakeholders to one space, and give them a ready excuse to form genuine relationships.
Approached with the right mindset, events not only have the potential to yield promising leads, they spark connections that can shape a startup’s trajectory and define its future.
Let’s see how this works.
Most startups are underprepared
First, a disclaimer: Not every startup is ready for events.
If you’re still figuring out your product, lack a clear narrative, or find yourself drowning operationally, stay home. Events require attention, clear objectives and time. Come back when you have those.
Funnily enough, in my experience, the founders who pushed back the hardest on events were usually in charge of event-ready startups. Their resistance didn’t stem from a feeling of unpreparedness; instead, they had either previously attended the wrong events or been to the right events but failed to reap the benefits.
You require a strategy to make the most of an event. Attending a 10,000-person mega-conference without booking any meetings, having no aligned messaging, and no follow-up plan will lead to disappointment. Underpreparedness leads to poor execution, and that’s not the event’s fault.
Another stumbling block is thinking 10,000-person mega-conferences are the only game in town. Events come in all shapes and forms — they can be big or small; focused or generalized; some emphasize networking, while others focus on industry-specific insights; the list goes on. There’s an event for any vertical or function where the right people can meet face to face. Selecting the right event is half the battle.
The real work begins once you’ve done that. We’ve worked with several small teams who nailed their conference involvement by treating it like a campaign. They identified who to meet, practiced what to say, and spent time deciding which assets to bring.
The results were real: New media relationships, friendly intros to investors, and even commercial conversations kicked off right there in the hall. We helped a client get ready for Money20/20 earlier this summer, and they came back calling it the most valuable three days they’d had all year. In 72 hours, they’d connected with multiple journalists, VCs, and prospective clients.
Cold emails can’t do that.
Getting in the room will always beat landing in the inbox
Everyone sends cold emails; we’re all in someone’s DMs; the chase for eyeballs online is pervasive. Events let you skip the queue.
Meet someone once, even briefly, and that encounter can stick in a way no email will. A journalist, investor or potential partner now knows you’re a real person.
It sounds repetitive, yes, but putting a face to a name makes a huge difference. It completely changes the dynamic the next time you get in touch, should your name pop up in their inbox. This is why people prioritize following up with people they met at a conference.
Things can move much faster than that, too. We once ran into an off-duty event organizer at a conference who was booking speakers for her own event, so we introduced her to a founder we support. They struck up a conversation, and the organizer ended up booking our client for a keynote. Another client was introduced to a podcast host over lunch; by dinnertime, they’d already recorded an episode.
Events are accelerants for compounding relationships that drive long-term outcomes. Those small wins (like podcast guest spots) that events foster can be partially credited with that acceleration.
Events can multiply PR impact
Events are media microsystems. Journalists attend them; podcasters show up ready to record; niche publications, newsletters, and analysts come in search of new stories and insight.
Have you ever met someone casually who later became a lifelong, unexpected ally? This happens all the time at events. The co-founders of one startup we work with — currently among the fastest-growing startups in their home country — met in passing at an event in the U.S. On the PR side, you may find that the journalist moderating your panel or fireside chat takes an interest in you or your company.
I’m not saying everyone will become friends. But warm, professional relationships tend to create more visibility and consideration in future interactions with your brand (and, in some cases, more interviews and fireside chats). The relationship between late TechCrunch journalist Steve O’Hear and Monzo founder Tom Blomfield is a textbook example of this.
For one of our bigger clients, event activations coupled with guerrilla marketing and side events in key cities are central to their marketing strategy. They go big to create buzz that drives people who fit their customer profile to join fun activities. This creates great content, and allows their leaders to meet customers. Journalists are invited to these experiences, too.
There’s no magic involved. Everyone relevant is already there. You show up with something worth seeing or saying. That’s it.
Events have a compounding effect
Much like consistent earned media or a strong newsletter, showing up repeatedly in a relevant way builds familiarity. You go from being a person someone met once to a person they know.
You’ll start hearing things like, “I saw you speak at a couple of events,” or, “I know you speak regularly about XYZ.”
These make for great conversation starters, attract the right type of contact, and take conversations in a productive direction faster. And don’t get me started on future pitches for speaking opportunities, podcasts and recorded interviews. Having a track record always adds credibility and makes your pitch punchier.
An audience’s attention isn’t only trained on the speaker onstage, but also on the event’s social media accounts and newsletters. Speaking at events reaches far beyond the people in the chairs. Most events are recorded, so engagement doesn’t end once the event does.
Recorded sessions add great validation points into the middle of the funnel and improve your YouTube SEO. There’s virtually no downside.
Events aren’t a silver bullet
If your team is still too early, too stretched, or too shaky on its core messaging, events probably won’t work for you. Yet.
For startups, an event will be just as fruitful as the work you put into it. The right event (attended with the right mindset) will deliver high-impact connections even if, for instance, your product isn’t perfectly fine-tuned. With clarity, preparation, and follow-through, events can help you cut through noise, accelerate relationships, build credibility, and create opportunities that simply won’t happen online.
To be clear, you need to be more than just a warm body. But strategies for succeeding at events are the topic for another blog post.