In the morning I will be boarding a train to attend the 66th Annual CHBA Conference in Quebec City. As a member of the Greater Ottawa and Niagara Home Builders Association attending the CHBA event this year is rather easy to do based on how close it is to our normal area of coverage.
National events like this work if the travel time does not take you to far from your normal scope of business, if I had to travel to BC I would most likely not be going. This year a large majority of the Home Builders up for awards called the SAM Awards are from Ontario which provides me a great opportunity to meet the finalists and winners to discuss coverage in an upcoming issue.
The conference is one really big networking event away from the normal day to day operations that we face in the office and allows for a relaxed atmosphere to talk. I have so far lined up two meetings while I will be there. In the past these type of events were often ignored or followed up simply by a reporter. There is real value in attending these if the costs for travel and accommodations work. If creative you can introduce yourself before and set up meetings like I have or allow an opportunity to meet with some people who have just been two busy to talk before.
The last conference I went to of this nature was the Ontario Forum hosted by the Ontario Home Builders Association in January in Toronto. In a matter of two 10 minute conversations I walked away with two feature articles that generated several thousand dollars in revenue. Both people I had spoken with before and seemed interested in the idea but the conference setting allowed for us to connect.
Something to remember though is that some events do not generally produce such quick results. A quick comparison is Construct Canada. I walked away with a group of 30 potential leads and of that so far 4 have produced a few thousand dollars in revenue, other have been earmarked for the completion of a project which is in the works and others have developed into relationships. The key to these is being able to track the cost of attending the measuring the results generated.
Should we attend all events? If the budget will support it for sure. The keys to follow are:
1) Have a plan of action of what you want to achieve.
2) Know who is going and set up meetings, this could be with potential and existing clients.
3) Make sure to follow up with every contact in a timely fashion.
4) Track who you met and allow for additional meetings to continue to build the relationship.
5) Measure your success and challenges.
6) Discover ways to improve and over come challenges.
7) Keep repeating the steps.
Well my next posting will most likely be Saturday evening after the awards. if you attending the CHBA Conference send me a quick email at chasemarketing@sympatico.ca and we can meet for a drink. I would like to share your experiences, photos or even profile your company in an upcoming issue.
