Go to the industry's conference without a stand: book the meetings before you arrive and host the breakfast next door.
Salesforce started out by turning up at a rival's conference without a stand. In early 2000 Marc Benioff hired actors to stage a mock protest outside a user conference held by Siebel Systems, which was run by his former Oracle boss Tom Siebel. It drew TV crews and eventually the police (San Francisco Chronicle, March 2019). Salesforce says the stunt brought its first major press coverage, in The Wall Street Journal (Salesforce, updated October 2026).
In 2011 Salesforce paid Oracle about $1 million to sponsor Oracle OpenWorld and hold a keynote slot. With about 45,000 people gathered that week, Larry Ellison cancelled Benioff's keynote (The Irish Times, 21 October 2011), and Oracle had to refund the fee (InformationWeek, October 2011). Benioff moved the talk across the street to the restaurant of the St Regis hotel, which held only about 100 people, and more than 5,000 watched the live stream (The Irish Times, 21 October 2011). The Register called it one of the most keenly attended sessions at the show (The Register, 5 October 2011). Salesforce's own conference, Dreamforce, began in 2003 with just over 1,000 registered attendees and had more than 171,000 in 2019 (Salesforce, updated October 2026).
B2B companies whose buyers gather at two or three events a year.
The stand is the expensive part of a conference; the attendees are the valuable part. Event budgets are under pressure. In Forrester's 2026 survey of more than 400 event decision-makers, two-thirds faced flat or declining budgets, nearly 70% were cutting the number of events they run, and for over half, net-new lead generation was the main objective (Forrester, 25 June 2026).
The value sits in the meetings around the show. In a field study of industrial distributors, follow-up sales effort was more productive with customers who had already been exposed to the company at a trade show (Smith, Gopalakrishna and Smith, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2004).
Verified. Smith, Gopalakrishna and Smith (International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2004). Reported. InformationWeek, The Irish Times and The Register on Oracle OpenWorld (October 2011) and the San Francisco Chronicle on the Siebel protest (March 2019). Self-reported. Salesforce's own history, including its press coverage and Dreamforce attendance. Vendor. Forrester's own State of B2B Events survey (June 2026).
Cost to test. Travel, a ticket if you need one, and a private room and breakfast for ten to twenty people, plus three weeks of outreach.
Kill it if after two events you booked fewer than ten meetings in advance at each, or none of them led to a next step.
Organisers increasingly guard attendee lists, so plan on speaker lists, sponsors and LinkedIn instead. Read the organiser's rules before running anything on or beside the site, and book rooms early. In the UK, emailing people at their work address is still covered by UK GDPR, and sole traders and some partnerships need to have consented, or to fall under the soft opt-in, before you email them marketing (ICO). A stunt aimed at a rival, as Salesforce's was, can win coverage and can also make an enemy of the host.
The Roundtable Series, Trigger Outreach, The Annual Report
A 30-minute call first. If it fits, two calls in one week and a written growth plan you keep.