Doing Panels At Events

We are into panel season and event season in a lot of industry verticals.  Let me make a very broad generalization.  If a tech person etc is on the panel circuit talking a lot, they aren’t working on their business and their company probably isn’t doing well.

There are two reasons to do panels.

1.  Customer acquisition.
2.  Talent acquisition.

That’s about it. Don’t do it for the press. Press won’t get you anywhere and the best press is your customers talking about how great you do what you do. Don’t do it to attract investors. If your company is firing on all cylinders and growing top line revenue, they will find you. Odds are good they will be better matches because they probably were doing diligence on someone else and found you.

Growing top line revenue is the best way to grow bottom line revenue. If you get the chance to be at an industry conference with potential customers in the room, you might consider it. When you are on the stage, tailor what you say and how you answer questions to how your typical sales pitch goes. Someone in that room should want to talk to you afterward about placing an order.

Talent is always worth fishing for. Virtually every startup can use great talent. It’s the C level people’s job to find it. Suppose there was a university that was full of students that could graduate and come work for you. If you got the chance to do a panel at the university to talk about your business or what you are seeing in your field you’d obviously take it.

Some people do panels because of thought leadership. Possible, but I find thought leadership happens in blogs and podcasts, not canned panels. Remember, at a lot of conferences, panel members might be sponsoring the conference or paying to be on the panel. I don’t recommend that either unless it’s in pursuit of the two reasons to do it in the first place.

As a venture capital firm, we rarely do panels.  We have two real reasons we do them.  To connect to deal flow and to connect to investors.

Here is something you might not have thought about.  There can be a lot of bias in panel selection.  Especially given the climate in the US today.  Maybe there is an investor relationship or some other ulterior motive. Most conferences aren’t done with anything in mind except for the organizers of the conference making money.  I have seen business plans where conferences are a revenue generator.  I also am invested in businesses that have done conferences and it actually costs them money but it’s a marketing expense for them.  They are pretty transparent about it though.

Something to keep in mind when you go to a conference.