Last week I decided to check out the Affiliate Summit East event at the Marriott Marquis hotel near Times Square in New York City.
The first day it opened last Monday (after wasting way too much time standing in line to get my badge thanks to what seemed like a dated and inefficient process), I headed over to the the unfortunately-named “Meet Market”.
(Seriously…that’s what they called their Exhibit Hall!)
In any case, I got to meet up with one of my copywriting mentees, and she and I made the rounds of the various exhibitors’ tables.
I demonstrated to her how I approach people at these tables, find out what they do and if there’s any kind of need or fit for copywriters, and how I tell them what I do (I mostly talk about the people I’m training and mentoring, vs looking for clients for myself).
After doing this a few times and taking the lead, I let my copywriting mentee take the lead and hung back. She ended up getting several solid potential client leads after we made the rounds for the next hour or so.
That’s in spite of the fact that many of the exhibitors there were more focused on services for businesses like loan programs, order processing, etc., and not creative services.
In any case, we parted ways and I set off on my plan for the rest of the afternoon and evening outside of the event (including that wonderful dinner with Gary Bencivenga I wrote you about earlier this week).
But I got a text from her later. She’d ended up at a rooftop party with an open bar in Manhattan, hanging out with none other than the legendary Parris Lampropoulus.
So that’s lesson #1 today. Sometimes it’s worth it to attend an industry event even if it’s not a perfect match for what you do. You never know who you’re going to run into and what kind of valuable connections you might make.
And even though a company may not seem like they have a need for copywriters, you may find once you actually talk to them that there are some opportunities.
With the cost of an early bird ticket just $99, and the other costs a tax-deductible business expense, checking out this event was a no-brainer, being just a short train ride away. Not every worthwhile event has to cost a few grand (like I said, my main complaint was that they fix that check-in process).
Now that I knew Parris was at the event, I sent him a text the next morning and suggested we meet up, along with my husband (who he’d met before), for coffee. My husband found a nice quiet spot for us to meet up in one of the closed restaurants at the Marriott Marquis (yes, ALL of their restaurants and even their Starbucks were closed.)
Fortunately, there was a coffee bar in the event’s “Meet Market” where I could grab us some cappuccinos and espressos (at least for my husband and I, Parris declined).
We talked about several things, but at some point I asked Parris what he thought about the event. It was his first time coming to one of these Affiliate Summits as well.
And he mentioned sitting in on a few of the sessions (which I hadn’t attended myself). None of them on “paper” seemed directly relevant to what we do. However, he said he got one good idea he was eager to try out from one of the sessions.
As Parris put it, that one idea made attending the event worthwhile for him. Because how often, especially when you’ve been in a particular industry for so long, do you really get to hear or learn something new?
So that’s lesson #2 today: When you attend events, be sure to listen in on as many sessions as you can, even if you don’t think they’re relevant to you. You may be surprised at what you discover…and one valuable takeaway could more than cover the costs of attending (as can one good new connection).
Avoid only attending events within your sphere of knowledge, like copywriting for example. Seek out places where you’re NOT the smartest person in the room, as my friend and mentor Brian Kurtz likes to say.
This coming Fall there will be more opportunities to attend live events, and if you have the opportunity to take advantage of them (while still staying safe), you should definitely do so.
Be sure to step out of your comfort zone…you never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll learn when you do!
Yours for smarter marketing,
Kim
P.S. Here’s a pic of Parris and I at our NYC meet-up. And yes, we’re the same age! I was saying, “Not bad for XX” when my husband took the picture. I’m not going to say what number is “XX”, but I will admit it’s in the double digits.
P.P.S. Speaking of mentoring, I’m a few months away from announcing what my copy mentoring options will be for 2022. If you want to be among the first to hear about them, simply reply back to this email (Kim@kimschwalm.com) and I’ll put you on the wait list.