6 Tips for More Meetings from In-Person Events

Not "generate leads." Not "network." Something specific: book 3 qualified discovery calls with targets in the [sector] space, or have a substantive conversation with 5 people who match your ICP.

Without a concrete definition of success, everything feels like it worked a little and nothing worked enough.

Most events share attendee lists, speaker profiles, or company sponsors in advance. Use them.

Identify 10 to 15 people you genuinely want to speak with. Research them the same way you would before a sales call. Know one specific thing about their business, their recent news, or their role that makes a conversation natural instead of transactional.

Arriving with a target list turns a room of 60 strangers into a room of 10 priorities and 50 serendipitous opportunities.

The most common pre-event LinkedIn post reads: "Looking forward to connecting with everyone at [Event] next week." It generates likes from people who are also going. It generates zero conversations with people who matter.

The people who stand out before an event do something different: they make the event more useful for everyone else before it starts.

Take 45 minutes and publish a curated guide — three sessions worth attending, why each one matters, and one question worth bringing into each room. If a speaker on the agenda connects to what your target accounts care about, write a substantive preview of their topic and tag them. They almost always respond.

The goal of pre-event content is not to announce your presence. It is to become relevant enough so other attendees will be willing to meet you face to face.

Selling is not about talking, it is about listening. To understand what your prospect really needs, you should be asking questions.

Three questions worth preparing for every event:

• What is the biggest commercial challenge your team is focused on this half? How are you trying to solve it?
• What does success look like for you in the next 90 days?
• What is the one thing that, if it worked better, would change everything?

The person who pitches their service in the first three minutes becomes a vendor to avoid. The person who asks those questions and listens carefully has a better chance to relate the prospect's need with its solutions.

Most event conversations die in the inbox. Not because the relationship was not real, but because every follow-up email says the same thing: "Great to meet you. Would love to continue the conversation." There are 100 emails like yours waiting in that inbox.

The way to stand out in the 48 hours after an event is the same as before it: be the most useful person in the room, even after everyone has left.

A high-quality curated summary — three to five real takeaways from the sessions, written in plain language, with one implication per insight — is genuinely useful content. Not a transcript. A synthesis: what was said, what it means, and what to do about it.

Publish it on LinkedIn within 48 hours. Tag the speakers and organizers. Share it directly with the people you met, framed as a resource rather than a follow-up: "I put together a summary of yesterday's key takeaways — thought it might be useful if you want to share with your team."

The person who publishes the best event recap becomes the reference point for that event in their network.

Lack of follow-up is the number one mortality for B2B deals. And to be clear: we are not talking about spamming. We are talking about keeping close. It is not the same thing.

For every follow-up you want to be relevant and adding value.

Within 48 hours: a personal message that references one specific thing from the conversation. Not a template. Something that proves you were actually paying attention.

Within one week: one piece of value — an article, a relevant introduction, a specific insight — that connects to what they told you they were working on.

Within 30 days: a soft ask for a 20-minute call, framed as a continuation of the conversation, not a sales pitch.