When a company hosts their first successful customer conference, it’s common to see them decide to take things on the road with regional roadshows under the same banner and concept. And it’s common to see these roadshows fail.
It’s hard to translate the magic of a big conference with customer from around the world to a one-day event in local markets.
Part of it is because the very fact that it’s a “roadshow” indicates this is the pared down, simplified experience. It’s a signal that says: “This isn’t where a big announcement is going to happen.”
Also working against most companies is the fact that they treat these roadshows with too heavy of a sales focus. The expectations are always too high on the revenue goals, often even more lopsided than the big event they were spawned from. The cards are just too stacked against the roadshow for it to have much chance of succeeding.
There’s two areas to consider in solving this disconnect:
Stop trying to connect the roadshow to the bigger event. Instead make them something new and unique. And perhaps it’s a simpler, smaller event than you realize. Even a casual dinner or roundtable discussion with customers and key company leaders is likely worth as much goodwill as a big, high production value event.
And stop treating your own customer events as a lead retrieval exercise. Sales will result from these over time, but these events should be viewed first as branding and relationship building exercise, and demand gen second.