We Built a Strategy for Cruise360. Here's How It Went.

May 5

How many conferences have you attended where you feel you maximized the return on your investment? I gotta tell ya - I feel like I never nail this part.

This year, we decided to get a booth at Cruise 360. I had never actually attended the event, but I knew we needed to help members of Cruise Business Blueprint approach this conference better than I ever have. So we built a session around going into the event with a strategy. We called it Expo to Execution, and based on the feedback we have received, it delivered

We didn’t do anything earth-shattering. We just made the space (time commitment) to get together and hone in on what we wanted to get out of the event. A little brainstorming, then some narrowing down, and BOOM! We had a plan, including:

Some journaling to determine what we’ve been putting off that could be addressed with the right connections, where we want to be 6 months from now, and what we could amplify in our businesses with what we would learn at the expo.
Narrowing down broader goals to 2 or 3, so we could actually accomplish them
Identifying our top 5 BDMs to connect with, including why we needed to connect with them, what we wanted to walk away with, and the one thing we wanted to ask.

We also offered some loose scripts to help with what to say to maximize the 37 seconds of face time you usually get at a tradeshow.

I think the most popular thing we delivered was a mobile Content Field Guide, with prompts for creating tons of content that positions you as a professional who invests in their expertise. This is an interactive tool to help advisors with ideas of what to say/film and a checklist to help with accountability.

The fun part for me was being able to check on our members face-to-face to make sure they were doing what they set out to do. And they were!

Overall, it was a good experience, and I’m so happy that we were able to help some folks make it worthwhile. Have you ever taken the time to slow down and create a detailed strategy before a conference?