As I write this, I’m sitting on a flight home after attending Cannes Lions. I’m exhausted, dehydrated, and way behind on my email. I started to wonder: Why do we confer?
Conferences in our industry are a paradoxical experience. They’re usually held in enviable destinations but packed with events, so you rarely have time to enjoy the local flavor. Everyone complains about the weather, the food, and the travel time, while colleagues back home post memes about how they do all the work while their managers reap the rewards of (insert conference title here).
Cannes Lions is especially egregious. I’ve heard far more people complain about being there than I ever would’ve guessed. Are they all just trying to downplay it? Is it a type of false humility in a “Cannes isn’t really that great, so it’s OK that I’m here and someone else isn’t” kind of way? Or do they really feel annoyed by being forced to spend time in the south of France?
Let’s dig into the pros and cons of industry conferences.
Why companies keep coming back
Oh, the humanity
Relationships are what build businesses, especially burgeoning ones. The impact of human connection can’t be overstated, especially in a post-COVID, remote-leaning, AI-generating world.
For a startup, you can find VC funds and private equity firms, startup-friendly businesses open to partnerships, and innovative brands that want to push their marketing teams forward.
Get intel sooner
The vast majority of conference time is spent talking. You’re eating, in a meeting, walking between events, at the Chandelier Bar, Gutter Bar, or Fontainebleau Lobby Bar, but always talking.
This is intelligence gathering. You’ll hear who’s looking for a new role, what company is trying to sell, what product really works, and which one doesn’t. It’s your opportunity to act on that knowledge before someone else does.
Dynamic marketing
The conference becomes a pop-up experience for your company. It can be zany, sophisticated, or understated. It’s an opportunity to express your brand voice in a way that’s unique and temporary.
If you don’t have a space, you can sponsor someone else’s and place your best people on their stage or camera. Being visible at a conference is surprisingly achievable.
The cream rises to the top
Conferences are a fire that reveals who can handle the pressure and who can’t. It reveals who’ll call in sick on day two, who’ll take that breakfast meeting, who’ll thrive speaking into a microphone, and who’ll hide from the stage.
Some employees will represent your brand brilliantly. Some won’t. Knowing the difference makes your company stronger.
The world’s most powerful SEO platform, purpose-built for Enterprise.
Why people keep coming back
You are who you network with
The human connection that builds a business also builds a career. Some of my closest friends are VPs and executives with whom I’ve stayed out far too late, building shared experiences that make us want to bring our worlds closer together.
The random assortment of tech salespeople, agency leaders, and minor celebrities who bought Smashburger last year at Cannes Lions still talk about hiding our fries under the table from the very strict Caffe Roma manager.
Panels, roundtables, and speaking engagements
Conferences require content, which means plenty of opportunities to speak. You’re much more likely to get a slot if you’re already planning to attend. Very few conference speakers have all their travel and attendance costs covered.
Get yourself to the conference, then start raising your hand. Connect with those networked friends, ask your marketing team to nominate you, and say yes to every opportunity. Even if you don’t know the subject matter well, you can study before the session.
Bucket-list destinations
If it’s a priority, it’s easy to tag on a few days before or after a conference for personal travel. I’ve known people who took a week before Possible in Miami for a Disney Cruise with their family, or stayed after Adweek New York to see a Broadway show. I’ve explored southern France by staying an extra day or two after Cannes Lions, including this year, when I spent a day wandering the beautiful artists’ village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
The overabundance of free stuff
Don’t get me wrong — 95% of swag is junk. Please stop with the stress balls, cheap Chapstick, and baseball caps. But there are gems.
At sunny conferences, you’ll never need to pack sunscreen or a personal fan because they’re everywhere.
Some of my favorite items this year were the straw hat from Zeta Global, the Chill Pill from T-Mobile Ads, the themed swag bags from DoorDash Ads, and the charm bracelet from Snapchat at the Female Quotient Beach.
I even tried to get a tattoo at Pinterest’s Manifestival, but they were fully booked. I also picked up a free carry-on suitcase from InMobi to get everything home.
Why companies hesitate
Measuring ROI is difficult
Some companies are strict about proving value. How many meetings did you book? What follow-ups happened? Deciding the right level of investment is almost impossible.
Kargo puts on a drone show at Cannes Lions every year that must cost millions. How do they know which deals came from that show? I don’t know. But I do know they’ll probably do it again. Because…
Once you start, you can’t stop
The absence of your brand can speak louder than its presence. “Where did they go?” “I heard they lost business.” “Maybe they can’t afford it anymore.”
Once you decide to show up in a meaningful way, it’s incredibly difficult to disappear.
Someone will always feel slighted
You won’t be able to bring everyone, and those not chosen may feel they deserved to go. They’ll grumble during the conference, creating a negative environment in the absence of some of your top people, who did attend.
Why you might hesitate
Your health and comfort
For most conferences, you’ll experience jet lag, swollen feet, overstimulation, social drain, too many calories, dripping sweat, and miles of walking. Your routine will evaporate, and your mouth will be permanently dry.
You’ll exercise less, drink more, and forget to text your partner goodnight. Your mind, body, and relationships will all take a hit, and you’ll have to invest in recovering them.
The cost of being away
Conferences usually take a full week away from work. Even if they’re two or three days, the prep, travel, and recovery will easily spill over. This will slow your day-to-day progress and mean missing social and family engagements.
Personal risk and exposure
I’m going to hold your hand when I say this: Every conference presents opportunities to make bad decisions. It’s almost a requirement to make at least one. How else will you bond? (See pros list.) But the consequences vary wildly. It’s up to you, and the strength of your own boundaries, to make sure your bad decisions stay relatively harmless.
The real value of showing up
Personally, I’m grateful to this industry and to my employers, past and present, who invested in sending me to conferences because they believe the return is worth it. They’ve trusted me to represent the company, our vision, and our point of view. I’ve made new contacts, strengthened old friendships, and recorded content that I’ll be humble-bragging about on LinkedIn very soon.
Why do we confer? Not because conferences are immediately ROI-positive. We do it because relationships, ideas, and trust are built faster when people spend a few days together than when they spend six months trading calendar invites.
Most of the value shows up months or years later when someone remembers a conversation, introduces you to the right person, or calls you before they call someone else.
As long as you’re honest about the downsides and prepared to manage them, I think the upside far outweighs them.
If you see me at a conference, I’d love to take your company’s tote bag. I’ll probably need it to carry all the pens, water bottles, and all the random swag I picked up along the way.
The post Why marketing conferences are still worth it appeared first on MarTech.