# Trade Show / Conference ROI Plan ## SaaStr Annual — September 2026 (specific dates not provided) --- ### CARD 1 — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This year's plan asks last year's SaaStr Annual performance to do more with proportionally more money: combined investment rises from an implied ~$87,400 last year to **$110,000** this year (+26%), while the lead target rises from a **DOCUMENTED** 95 leads to a **PROJECTED** 150 (+58%). The historical baseline is genuinely useful — same conference, same general format, a real cost-per-lead figure, and a real conversion rate to build on. But two things keep this from reading as a confident "yes": (1) there's no data on deal value (ACV/LTV), so even a successful lead-volume outcome cannot be translated into a dollar ROI figure — only into lead and conversion *counts*; and (2) the jump from 95 to 150 leads is not yet tied to a specific operational lever beyond the added $25K booth budget. **Biggest lever to improve ROI:** tightening on-site lead qualification and near-immediate follow-up. Since the conversion rate (12.6% documented) is the multiplier on everything else, a faster, better-qualified follow-up process on a larger lead volume is more likely to move the needle than simply generating more raw leads. --- ### CARD 2 — GOAL-TO-METRIC MAP | Goal | Success Metric | Target | |---|---|---| | **Primary:** Generate 150 qualified sales leads | Qualified leads captured on-site; leads converting to paying customers within 6 months | **150 leads** — PROJECTED (user-set target; last year's comparable baseline was 95 leads, $920/lead, 12 conversions — DOCUMENTED) | | **Secondary:** 3 analyst/press meetings | Number of analyst/press meetings secured and held | **3 meetings** — PROJECTED (user-defined goal; no past-event data exists for this metric at this event) | | **Tertiary:** Brand visibility | ⚠️ **FLAGGED (Rule 8):** No measurement approach stated. Needs a defined metric before it can be tracked in Card 7 — candidates: booth traffic/scans, social mentions, session/speaking-slot impressions, press mentions | **UNKNOWN** — cannot be set until a metric is chosen | --- ### CARD 3 — PRE-EVENT CHECKLIST **8–10 weeks out** - Finalize booth design and demo hardware order against the $25K booth-activation budget - Book analyst/press meeting slots directly through SaaStr's analyst program — these fill early, and the 3-meeting goal depends on securing slots well before the show, not walking up on-site - Confirm travel/lodging for the 4 attending staff (part of the $85K total event cost) **4–6 weeks out** - Finalize booth staffing schedule and roles (who qualifies leads, who runs demos, who handles analyst meetings) - Train staff on a consistent lead-qualification script — this matters more this year since the lead target (150) is 58% above last year's actual (95), so throughput per staff-hour needs to improve, not just booth traffic - Produce collateral and swag within the booth budget - Pre-draft post-event follow-up email/call templates and assign follow-up owners now, to shrink the delay window once the show ends (see Follow-Up Decay Risk, Card 5) **2–3 weeks out** - Confirm demo hardware is tested and shippable - Finalize analyst/press meeting agendas and internal briefing materials - Set up lead-capture tooling (badge scanners/CRM sync) so the 150-lead target is measurable in real time, not reconstructed after the fact **Event week** - Daily lead-count check-ins against pace toward 150 - Track analyst/press meetings held vs. the 3 scheduled - If a brand-visibility metric gets defined before the show (see Card 2 flag), instrument it now — e.g., a booth traffic counter or social hashtag tracking — since it can't be added retroactively --- ### CARD 4 — BUDGET BREAKDOWN | Line Item | Cost | % of Total | |---|---|---| | Total Event Cost (registration, travel for 4 staff, booth space) | $85,000 | 77.3% | | Booth Activation Budget (design, staffing swag, demo hardware) — tracked separately per user clarification | $25,000 | 22.7% | | **Total Combined Investment** | **$110,000** | **100%** | *Note: the user clarified the $25K booth budget is additive to, not a subset of, the $85K total event cost, so both are shown as distinct lines rather than conflated (Rule 4). The internal split of the $85K figure across registration / travel / booth space itself was not provided, so it's shown as a single bundled line rather than broken into invented sub-amounts.* **Priority alignment (Rule 6):** Nearly all discretionary spend (the $25K booth budget plus staff time) is structured around the primary goal — lead generation. Analyst/press meetings (secondary) draw on staff time already budgeted for travel, with no separate line item, which is appropriate given it's a lower-priority, lower-cost goal. Brand visibility (tertiary) has no dedicated budget line and is treated as a byproduct of the same booth spend — consistent with its priority ranking, not something that should be pulling resources on par with lead generation. --- ### CARD 5 — ROI DIAGNOSTIC | Factor | Score | Status | Rationale | |---|---|---|---| | Goal Clarity | Moderate | ⚠️ Partially Defined | Primary (150 leads) and Secondary (3 analyst/press meetings) are both clearly measurable. Tertiary (brand visibility) has no stated metric and is flagged per Rule 8 — it can't be scored as "clear" until that's fixed. | | Past Performance Confidence | High | ✅ Strong Baseline | This is the *same* conference last year, not a comparable-but-different event, so Rule 7's LOW COMPARABILITY flag does not apply on event-type/audience grounds. DOCUMENTED: 95 leads, $920/lead, 12 conversions in 6 months (12.6% conversion rate). One caveat: last year's specific attendance figure wasn't provided, so scale-over-scale comparability (12,000+ expected this year) can't be verified precisely — noted, not treated as disqualifying. | | Budget-Goal Fit | Moderate | ⚠️ Needs Justification | Combined spend rises ~26% (implied $87,400 → $110,000) while the lead target rises 58% (95 → 150). That efficiency gain is *assumed*, not yet grounded in a stated operational change (e.g., additional staff, expanded booth footprint) beyond the $25K activation budget. It's plausible but currently a PROJECTED assumption, not a DOCUMENTED expectation. | | Follow-Up Decay Risk (OPERATIONAL EXTENSION — NOT A GUARANTEED STATISTIC UNLESS DRAWN FROM PAST EVENT DATA) | MODERATE | ⚠️ General Caution (Non-Statistical) | Past data shows *overall* 6-month conversion (12.6%) but doesn't isolate how much of that depended on follow-up speed — no decay-specific figure exists to draw on. MODERATE here reflects a standard operational caution (leads cool the longer follow-up is delayed), not a measured statistic. | **Core ROI Reading:** The historical foundation here is unusually solid for this kind of plan — same show, real cost-per-lead, real conversion rate. What's unproven is the scale-up: a 58% lead-target increase riding on a 26% budget increase, with brand visibility still unmeasured and no deal-value data to convert leads/conversions into an actual dollar return. This reads as a defensible bet, not a guaranteed one. --- ### CARD 6 — ROI PROJECTION | Scenario | Projected Outcomes | Basis | |---|---|---| | **Conservative** | ~100 qualified leads (PROJECTED) → ~13 conversions in 6 months (PROJECTED, applying DOCUMENTED 12.6% rate) → cost/lead ≈ $1,100 (PROJECTED) → 1–2 analyst/press meetings held (PROJECTED, below goal) → brand visibility: unquantified | Assumes lead volume lands only slightly above last year's DOCUMENTED 95, despite the higher $110K combined spend — i.e., the extra budget doesn't convert proportionally into extra leads. | | **Expected** | 150 qualified leads (PROJECTED — matches stated goal) → ~19 conversions (PROJECTED, applying DOCUMENTED 12.6% rate) → cost/lead ≈ $733 (PROJECTED) → 3 analyst/press meetings held (PROJECTED — matches stated goal) → brand visibility: unquantified | Assumes the primary and secondary goals land exactly as targeted. The 58% lead-volume jump over last year's DOCUMENTED 95 is the load-bearing assumption in this scenario and is not independently substantiated beyond the added booth budget. | | **Optimistic** | ~180 qualified leads (PROJECTED) → ~23 conversions (PROJECTED, applying DOCUMENTED 12.6% rate) → cost/lead ≈ $611 (PROJECTED) → 4+ analyst/press meetings held (PROJECTED, exceeding goal) → brand visibility: directionally strong but still unquantified | Requires above-target execution on both booth traffic capture and staff qualification speed. Even here, financial ROI stays UNKNOWN, since no deal-value/ACV data exists to convert conversions into revenue. | *All scenario figures are PROJECTED estimates, not guarantees. The conversion rate (12.6%) is DOCUMENTED from past-event data; applying it to a new, higher lead volume is itself an assumption worth stress-testing, not a certainty.* --- ### CARD 7 — POST-EVENT MEASUREMENT PLAN - **Leads (Primary):** Track total qualified leads captured within 1 week of the show close against the 150 target; track conversions to paying customers on a 6-month horizon to match last year's measurement window, for direct comparability. - **Analyst/Press Meetings (Secondary):** Confirm the count of meetings actually held (not just scheduled) within 1 week of the show; track any resulting coverage or analyst reports over the following 1–3 months. - **Brand Visibility (Tertiary):** Cannot be tracked yet — Card 2 flagged this goal as missing a defined metric. Before it can appear in a future measurement report, pick one (booth traffic count, social mentions, press impressions) and instrument it at the event itself. - **Follow-Up Speed:** Log the date each lead is first contacted post-show. This isn't one of the three stated goals, but it's the direct lever behind Follow-Up Decay Risk (Card 5) and will let next year's plan finally carry a DOCUMENTED decay figure instead of a general caution. --- ### CARD 8 — METHOD NOTE This is a planning aid, not a guaranteed forecast — every figure not pulled directly from last year's results is labeled PROJECTED and should be read as an estimate to plan against, not a commitment. The plan is built on the Event Investment Framework (Pre-Event Preparation, On-Site Execution, Lead Capture & Qualification, Post-Event Follow-Up, ROI Measurement), extended with Follow-Up Decay Risk as an operational planning caution — here treated as MODERATE on general principle rather than a fabricated statistic, since the past-event data didn't isolate follow-up timing from overall conversion. Past-event data (95 leads, $920/lead, 12 conversions in 6 months, from the same conference) gave this plan a real baseline to work from, and the separately stated $25K booth budget was used only in the line-item breakdown, kept distinct from the $85K total event cost per the user's own clarification. What the plan could *not* do is quantify dollar ROI, because no deal-value or customer-lifetime-value figures were provided — only lead and conversion counts could be projected. Actual results — leads, conversions, meetings held, and (once defined) a brand-visibility metric — should be tracked against Card 2 to sharpen next year's targets and finally close the Follow-Up Decay Risk gap with real data. --- **VERDICT: MARGINAL — DEPENDS ON EXECUTION — the historical baseline (same event, real cost-per-lead and conversion data) supports continued investment, but the deciding factor is whether the 58% lead-target increase materializes; without deal-value data to confirm financial return, and with brand visibility still unmeasured, this is a defensible bet rather than a confirmed positive ROI.**