By Scott Oser, MBA
President, Scott Oser Associates
It was April 2020, and like many associations, the Society for Vascular Ultrasound (SVU) had made the difficult decision to turn their face-to-face annual conference and marketplace into a virtual event. The event was originally scheduled to be held in New Orleans in August, but with all the risks involved with COVID-19 the right decision to make was to change the event to virtual.
This decision had impact across all areas of the event, but the one particular item that I needed to was how to generate value for the sponsors and exhibitors.
Start with What You Know
As part of the team organizing the event, I had a lot of information. I knew what software platform we were going to use for the virtual event. I knew what sponsors and exhibitors had already committed to for the face-to-face event and what money we had already received. I knew why the large majority of sponsors and exhibitors chose to participate in the face-to-face event and what their goals were. All of this was very important information to dive into as it influenced the types of opportunities that were considered for the virtual event.
Key Learnings:
Create Your List of Opportunities
In the case of SVU, we were fortunate to have around 80% of what was budgeted already contracted. That meant that my main job was to convince those contracted companies that the new virtual event would provide the same, if not greater, value than they would have received at the face-to-face event. This required a fantastic list of new virtual opportunities. In order to develop this list, I did a lot of research and a lot of listening. I participated in so many webinars my computer got tired (and so did my eyes), but it was worth the time I invested. Between the ideas I discovered and my own creativity, I was able to come up with a great list of options. At this time, they were simply options as I needed to see what we could implement and, most importantly, what the companies would find valuable. I used the list of benefits that companies would have received for the face-to-face event as a guide of sorts as. Those offerings were originally purchased for a reason, so it made sense to try and replicate and enhance those benefits for the virtual event.
Key Learnings:
Confirm the Opportunities
Once the expansive list of potential opportunities was created, we needed to make sure we had the tools to implement them. For the most part, the ideas we came up with were possible through our current vendor. There were a few items such as sponsored retargeting that were not, so we had to do a cost-benefit analysis before deciding to outsource.The rationale for figuring out what we could actually offer to sponsors before talking to those who were already committed was making sure our offerings were something we could deliver on. If not, I felt that would undermine my credibility and diminish the value of the conversation and communication. During all sponsorship conversations, I asked if there was anything else they would like me to consider. I truly wanted it to be a “we are in this together” conversation which the sponsors appreciated.
Key Learnings:
Communicate & Sell
Based on the conversations with our tech vendor and our primary sponsors, I was able to finalize our list of offerings. It was finally time to reach out to sponsors and exhibitors to get them to recommit for the virtual conference. Even though I had talked to many of them while we were coming up with our list of offerings, there were still a ton of questions. Many wanted to know what their presence would look like. I realized that I hadn’t given them anything that showed what they would receive. Once some examples of their presence were developed, in conjunction with our partners, the conversations went a lot smoother.
Key Learnings:
At the time of the writing of this article, I am still in the middle of selling sponsorships and exhibits for the SVU Virtual Conference & Marketplace. Portions of the sales effort, primarily virtual exhibit sales, have started off slowly. I am confident that we are offering a lot of value and took the right steps to be successful. The good news is that the conversations continue to occur, and we have plenty of time to sell, so I predict we will meet or exceed the revised budget.