LIVE SaaStr Insider Webinar: SaaStr Annual Sponsors Key Reminders

hit on some key reminders since annual is coming up really fast and really close. And I know a lot of you are beginning to ask more like in-depth, maybe more technical questions in our like inboxes and just emails. So we did want to hit a lot of the reminders. So this will be in a slightly different kind of format and order than previous weeks, but hopefully super helpful. As always, please drop your questions into the chat. There. I see some already coming in. So yeah, at any time, please feel free to drop into Q&A. A lot of this, if we don't answer it live on the Q&A, it's because we're gonna get to it in today's presentation, or we're trying to keep up with the questions that are coming in. So without further ado, let me go ahead and get started. So cool. I think you all know by now, staff trainer Elizabeth Sierra is back at the San Mateo County Event Center. For newer sponsors, I always just like to preface and remind folks that this is an indoor-outdoor event, so you'll be both inside and outside some of the time, you know, and just dress appropriately and accordingly for weather. Wear comfortable shoes. It is a massive 40-acre campus, so it is a fair amount of walking. There's also grass and concrete and different surfaces, so practical shoes are always good for— Safter. So we're going to do, like I said, in a slightly different format. We're going to run through the key reminders and basically what we're going to do is explain each reminder as we go. So some of this might be repeat information for some of you. Some of this will be new information for folks. So hopefully this is helpful. So first and foremost, I know we've been doing these weekly talk to webinars. Sometimes not everyone can stay for the entire time or for the whole team. So we have compiled a Know Before You Go guide, which is linked here. And actually what I'll do, similar to last week, is I will drop this presentation into the chat right now. So let me share. And let's do that. Should have remembered at the start. Going a little slow there. I think that's me. Anyone with the link? Great. And I'll put this into the chat for everyone. So voilà. Okay, you guys can follow along, and then also you can click links as we go. So cool, there is a sponsor note before you go guide. It is literally a compilation of all these past webinars, all the information, any back information, because sometimes we don't get to everything every week. So basically anything you would need to know is in there. It's not, you know, 100% of all questions that could possibly be answered, but there is quite a bit of information in that note before you go. So linking that there for you all in the deck, you have it as needed. Okay, so that's just the preface. And then the first real reminder is we have extended the deadline for the customer nomination program. So as you may know, if you come to these webinars or maybe it's your first time hearing about it, this is open to all current sponsors of SASTRA Annual 2023. Basically, we started this program last year and what it is, it's a way for our sponsors specifically to bring your qualified customers and prospects to this year's annual event to meet with you. If you haven't done this yet, or if you've got newer folks, because we've extended the deadline, in either case, there's two ways you can send us your nominations, which Joel walked through. You can either use this landing page, or you can just send it directly to me in a CSV. I'm just ai@safestrength.com. Makes it really easy. Not fake, even fake. It's just my initials. So either way, you either come to the landing page, like if you just have a few, you can nominate your customers here. This landing page is also helpful to reference because it shares kind of like the qualifications people might need to meet in order to be accepted into the program and then ultimately ticketed, which is the goal. So for any sponsor, and this is for any level of sponsor. You can nominate up to 10 individuals who are either your existing customers or active prospects. We do ask that these folks are, you know, manager, director level and above. Kind of the exclusions are folks that we have not accepted so far into the program are people like, you know, SDRs, AEs. We have not accepted investors, LPs. I've seen a few board members we have not accepted, right? This program is not for that. It's really for your for your customers, for your prospects. If you do have investors and board members who want to come, that's where you can use your actual sponsor team passes, not your customer and prospect passes. So apologies if that's confusing, but we will detail that out to you once you send your nominations. I will say about 99% of people's nominations have been ticketed so far, and there's only been a few handful of folks where we had to flag where they didn't meet these criteria or qualifications. So, um, That is the process. It's as easy as that. If you're— I have seen too a few times, like actually multiple times, if your nomination already has a ticket, we will let you know just so that you don't eat up one of your 10 with somebody who is a current attendee. I've seen folks have as many up to like half of their nominations already be coming. I've seen folks with 10 have maybe 2 already coming, or I've seen folks, which is more common, have team members who are already coming from the same company, but maybe not the specific individual that they are looking to ticket. So But yeah, that's kind of like the rough sense of how the nominations work. So basically you would either fill out this form or send a CV to me with the same information, right? The minimum required information I and we would need would be like, you know, who are you nominating from? So if you're, you know, Kevin from Zafter is nominating folks, I need to know like what sponsoring company you're a part of. And then we do need each nomination, and this is very important, first name, last name, company title, and email. I have seen a few folks submit without email. That is a required field in order to get ticketed, and so we've had to go back to some folks if there is no email on the field. So it just goes a lot smoother and faster if you can include that information up front. There's a question here in chat from Pam. How do we see who have been nominated by our company representatives? Pam, I can just— email you after this and let you know. I get that in bigger companies you may not know who all has been nominating whom from your sponsoring team. So I could send that over to you, as there's not a public way to see that. So yeah, that's kind of the onus there. Everyone does need these contact details. It makes it a lot easier for us. The other thing I'll remind folks on is, you know, to try and coordinate Pam's point, like, do try and coordinate with your teams of who's nominating. I have seen teams submit nominations more than 10 because one person submitted 10 and another person submitted a different set of 10. They did not coordinate internally. So no problem. We sussed it out. Some of them were repeats, but most of them were unique. So yeah, it is helpful if you guys send one set of 10 so that we don't have to go back to you and say, hey, you've actually had, you know, 20 submissions because somebody else also submitted. So that helps streamline it. But again, this deadline has been pushed out to the 15th because a lot of folks were like, I just need a few more days to get the rest of my nominations in, or I've got a few more people I want to ticket because I've only done, you know, 2 out of 10. Yeah, that's the big news that this has been extended until next Tuesday. So we do want your nominations by then, pretty please, just because it is a process, right, for us to review and ticket these folks to make sure they meet the requirements. And also, it's helpful for your prospects and customers to know if they are coming or not. One thing I'll call out, it does not matter where they're based, right? So if you've got international customers, that's fine. We can ticket them. I've seen a few folks do that actually. So yeah, that's not a problem for us, but just bear in mind, right? Like, if you do have international customers who want to come, they probably want that ticket sooner rather than later so that they feel good on like making sure they can come to the full conference and book all their travel and all that. So The sooner you do it, the better. That's kind of why we actually have this deadline is to make sure like your customers and prospects will show up on your ticket for you and come meet you there. And so the sooner we can do that, the better it increases their chances to travel to the show. So that's customer nominations. Again, you can either use that landing page or if it's, if it's easier, which I sometimes find it is, you can just send me a CSV of the same information. You can share it with me in a Google Doc. A lot of folks have done that, so thanks everyone who's done that and just kind of like tagged me in their Google Docs when they have more nominations. It actually makes my life easy. Um, so that's the way to do it as well. Um, so cool. Let me flip through that because we went through that. Um, okay, the next reminder, again not to be confusing because that is strictly for your customers and your prospects, it is time if you have not yet to register your teams. We've quite a good amount of sponsors who have not registered their teams either fully or at all. And starting next week, you will start to get a reminder to do so. And to avoid those reminders, and for a lot of other reasons, we do want you to please register your teams. A few reminders on this as you're registering your teams of questions we've been getting and seeing on registration. Does need to include anyone who's involved in your booth or your sponsorship overall in any way. So that includes any of your booth staff, your speakers, any of your activation vendors, anybody who's doing, I don't know, a sort of delivery for your food, touching your food if you've got like a food activation, any of that does need to be registered under your sponsor registration code. So that is a big important reminder. You guys are doing that. If you guys don't have your codes, you know, just reach out to Sponsor Success. We will resend you your unique code. And this ticket is important because it is full access. It is sponsor designated. So what that means is it does grant you early access to things like the sponsor hall, to the load-in day. That's on Tuesday, right? The 5th, before SAS Re:ANAL officially begins. And importantly as well, tickets are not transferable. There is a strict no badge swapping policy at SAFTIR. So everyone on your team does need to have their own ticket. The other reason we want everyone to register is because if you are not registered, you can't do things like sign up for Brain Dates. You can't do things like chat, which we're launching next week. You can't do things like get all the attendee newsletter or do the Meetup VC program or any of that attendee networking. You cannot do any of that unless you are physically ticketed. Physically, I mean, it sends you a digital one, but you know what I mean. So yes, that is why we want everyone to get ticketed by next Tuesday as well, just so that you have all that information and nothing comes as a surprise as an attendee. It also means when you sign up and you are an attending sponsor, as we call it, you can do things like sign up for sessions again, do the Brain Dates, do the networking. You'll get all— you'll start to get the attendee reminders in addition to the sponsor reminders. There's a lot of good information in those. And so yeah, that's why we want you guys to register sooner rather than later, and also just to make sure you've got everyone covered off on in your registration. I find it really helpful to do so. So if you haven't yet and you still need to register your teams, this is how you would do it. We will send you your registration code and URL to register your team for the sponsor all-access ticket type. Again, it's early load-in, and badge swapping is, you know, strictly not allowed and non-transferable. So just if you need extra passes or codes, reach out to Sponsor Success and, you know, just explain how many extra tickets you may need or anticipate needing. From there, again, do not, you know, register your customers or your prospects with that. Code. That is for your customer nomination form. This is for your team, any of your vendors, any folks like that. And so bear that in mind. You can keep going. Okay. The next key reminder is lead scanning. So I know there was a question in the chat about this earlier. It's been a common question for the last few weeks. So on lead scanning, I'm just gonna run through it briefly, but basically Basically, everybody's company has been reached out to, um, so that we have been asking for everyone's main point of contact for the lead scanning license. So one thing I'll clarify on that, if you're newer to FASTER, it is a license versus a physical device, meaning you can use your license on up to 10 different devices to be connected to one login. Um, so the best way to explain that is like if I'm the POC for a sponsoring company, and I put myself as the main point of contact, I would share my login information with Kevin and he'd be able to also join plus 8 more people. So you can have up to 10 devices connected to the same login. And there is a way to set whose device is what ID, so you know who scanned who while you're on site. So you should have already received an email from Sponsor Success asking you to send us your main lead scanning POC. This person does need to be someone who is attending the show for a lot of reasons. Um, first and foremost, they are the person with like the main login and export power. So bear that in mind, the person who you put at the main POC, like anytime you do a download or an export of your whole list of leads, so if I'm the main POC and Kevin doesn't export, it's going to send it to my email. Um, so if I'm not on site and Kevin needs it, it doesn't really work because then, you know, I can't send it in real time over to him. So it does also track like Because it's through our ticketing system as well, it does track when you're, you know, checked in on site. So it does need to be somebody on site so it doesn't run into issues of like, it doesn't think that you're at the show and then it gets weird. So it has to be somebody on site and you can only have one main POC. How this will work is if you've already sent us your POC, thanks, great. If you have not yet, look in your inbox for that email. For your lead POC blurb that we sent out. It looks a little bit like this. We put some of this information in there as well. So that is super helpful. So you have all this linked. What you're going to do from there once you sent us your POC is you can go ahead and download the app. There's not a ton to do now, but you can get familiar with it ahead of time. So it's called the GTR Leads app. It is, you know, supported on Apple, Google Play platform. So basically any Android, right? So any devices, um, basically you won't be able to log in yet, but you can download the app. Once you set up your POC, what we're going to start to do next week is send everyone back their access code to log in. So if I say, you know, I'm the POC, next week, um, SaaStr will send me a code to log in to the app. And basically when I log into the app, um, I'll be able to configure it. So I'm going to click this app capabilities here. This is a really good article of, you know, what it all does and maybe what it doesn't do. So I do recommend you guys— I do recommend you guys reading through this, especially if you are the main POC or somebody who's gonna be scanning attendees on site. Again, this is how it will work. Once you have your code to log in, you will log in with your activation code. And then basically the, the default tab it drops you into is kind of like the homepage. So basically it'll say like SaaS Ranial at the top. You'll see any recent leads, which you won't have any once you first come into the platform. And then this button at the bottom is what you would hit to scan a badge. So it, again, it just turns on your camera. It becomes really easy to scan a badge on site. In the settings tab, you'll see there'll be a few things you can do to set like qualifiers and that's qualifying questions. They are a yes/no toggle. So in the same way it says like use cellular data, that's what I mean by on/off toggle. So a lot of people have used this to say like, you know, is this a qualified lead? Like hit it for on if they are or leave it off if they aren't. Is it an active customer? Things like that. You can, I think, put up to like 10 or so questions in there and you can change the order of them. So it's really easy. You would just click it You add again the qualifier. It can either be on/off, which is true/false, or you could do a rating scale as well. So if you want to do something like how, what's their, you know, propensity to buy, or what would you rate the conversation, you can also do a rating scale just so you have got like some quick notes as you're scanning this person and putting them in and saving them as a lead. Again, the scan button's in the middle, so it will open your camera to scan the badges on Slate. And then more importantly, you'll have your Leads tab. So this will collect in, in real time the leads that were scanned during the event. So this will show you your leads. The important thing in the Account tab, I'll point out, and I'll point this out again once we get closer to the show, this is how you can change your device name so that you know who scanned whom on site. So once you get into the app and you're in the Account tab, you can see this example here. Lillian's, this is her device and this is her device name. You would wanna change that to say something like Lillian's iPhone so that you know that that's who scanned those people on site versus like remembering that she's 54C29 'cause that's harder to remember. So that's my top tip for you is to rename everyone's devices before a show. And you do want to have cellular data on, I do recommend it again, or get on the Wi-Fi to at the venue so that it can keep syncing your leads as you're scanning. Just bear in mind, right, like if you're scanning a lot of people in a row, it's probably gonna, it's gonna sync once you have a low moment. So like if you're scanning a bunch, like 5 people, like you just put someone in and then, you know, you're talking to them all at once, it's gonna basically keep syncing once there's like a lull. So like if you're not actively scanning, it'll like constantly sort of sync to the platform every human. So that's a few things to keep in mind there on lead scanning. Just a few other reminders on the export, because sometimes folks have asked us like, how does the master export work? So if Amelia scanned 10 people and Kevin scanned 20 people, how do I get those 30 people? Again, that's why you have the main POC. They would be able to export the master list of all of the leads scanned. And what you get back from this is any of your qualifiers that I just walked you guys through, those would come to you and the default information that SAS provides back to you is the first name, last name, email, job title, and company. So those are like the defaults that you'll get in your CSV after exporting. If you are taking notes, which it does have like that functionality, it does have a bit of a character limit. So bear that in mind and, you know, try not to use any special characters, etc. So those are just kind of some handy guides to keep in mind for once you get on site to start scanning leads and attendees. Okay. Next thing we wanted to go through with Braindates, because we had to breeze through this last time, some of these, again, we try to put it more at the front because we had to breeze through some of these last time. So Braindate networking is now open. Again, one caveat here, you do have to be registered. So if you're not registered yet, you will not be able to get into the Braindate platforms or click any of these cool links that are embedded in this. Sponsor deck. So do make sure you are registered. I will say if you're registering in real time today, it does take about 20 minutes or so to sync up with Braindate. So don't expect it to be instant. It's often less than that, but it does depend on how many people are registering all at once, which these days is a lot all at once. So yeah, give it about 20 minutes or so after you register for it to sync over to Braindates and then try the link. So bear that in mind if you are registering in real time. So what Brain Dates are, they are our main networking platform for SAS Re:Annual, and they are open again right now to all sponsors, all attendees, all VCs, etc. So if you've started now, this will definitely give you a jump start on creating topics and Brain Dates. It did launch to all current attendees, but again, it's kind of early for attendees to be paying attention. So it's a great way to kind of get a head start and get your topics books there so attendees can see them once they start to pay attention to the brain dates and the app. So how this works is there's, there's kind of just a flavor of format for brain dates and how big the brain date is, and that will also inform how long the brain date is. But in any format, whether you do a, what's called a one-on-one brain date or more of a group brain date, and there's two group sizes, it's basically, it's based off of all like mindshare and knowledge and thought leadership. And the goal is to like help learn somebody— help learn something new or teach something to somebody so they learn something new. And it's to help create partnerships and foster ideas and innovation and strategies. So again, two key reminders for our sponsors here. You have to be registered first. And one thing I do want to point out is that Brain Date topics are moderated. What we mean by this, and I'll show you in a second when we walk through the platform, is They do go through a review process with our team when you post your topic. So if I posted something like, here's why you should buy my product, um, that will get flagged and that will get rejected as a topic because it's not thought leadership based, right? This is again meant to be attendee networking, all thought leadership, all mindshare. And so we don't accept topics that are just overly commercial or pitchy. Um, again, it should be something that you are a subject matter expert in. The best, you know, presentations and brain dates I've seen are folks who can weave in, you know, you can talk about your company and what you've done for them, right? Of like, okay, I created this cool email marketing campaign for XYZ company. If you're a sponsor, right, that's a great idea. Or I've done XYZ thing at this company and oh, we happen to be a sponsor. That's the better way to come about it. I also feel like that gets more traction from attendees because keep in mind, Braindates are double opt-in, right? So because you're posting topics, somebody has to join your Braindate. So if I post something that is too pitchy or too commercial, the less likely it will be that an attendee will want to join that topic. If it's from a subject matter thought leadership place, then it's more likely that somebody will want to join my Braindate and learn and hear what I have to say, and then maybe more naturally, organically inclined to learn more about, you know, the product or company that I'm representing. So Once you're ready to do so and you're all registered, you would log into Braindate. I'll get here just to show you guys what it looks like. The first time you do this, you will have to set a login and a password. I'm already logged in because I've been in the Braindate platform. And basically what you'll do the first time is— it's just slow because my internet's slow. It will show you two things. So there is a marketplace which is just loaded for me. And then there's a way to add a Braindate. So I'll walk you guys through this now. You'll see there are 30 topics in here already. There's some VCs in here, there's some attendees in here. There are what we call super Braindates in here with open sessions. And so yeah, there's a lot you can do in Braindate. So basically the default it will show you is it will show you the existing topic. So as I scroll, this would be for me to— this one's actually full already— for me to join a Brain Date. So what that means is if I, you know, if I, if I was in sales and I wanted to learn more about PLG from Atlassian, which is a fairly good PLG company to learn from, I could book a spot in this Brain Date to join this Brain Date with 30 others about PLG and sales. And that would be as easy as that. This has a set time, bear in mind, right? So keep in mind the times that are here, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Keep this in mind with when you are or may not be at your booth. Another thing you can do, you know, this is how to join a Brain Date, is you can post a Brain Date. So if I wanted to create a new topic, I would pick what kind of conversation I want to have. One thing people have asked us is like, why can't I pick a speaker Brain Date? It is a good nuanced question. That is because we do that in two ways. Either we have worked with that speaker, like the Atlassian topic I just showed you, to precede that Super Brain Date. Or the other thing we do is we see when groups are full and we will upgrade them to a Super Brain Date. So it's all based on like how attendance is going. It's all, you know, crowdsourced. Like again, Master does a handful of content programming and Super Brain Dates, but half of them are not. Half of them are just people who really post a good topic. It fills up and they fill it up basically more than once. And we're like, hey, do you want to go super? Because people really like your topic, right? So it is a natural kind of survival of the fittest content. But that's why you can't pick a super brain date. But you can do it based on like a deep dive, an open discussion, an AMA, etc. I know a lot of VCs and investors do AMAs. Or if you're like a super subject matter on something, you can do an AMA there. And you could just say something like, I'm gonna do an AMA on best email marketing tactics that really get you opens. 2023. Basically, what you would do is you would hit next. So it's topic-based first. So you're going to put in your topic first and then you're going to pick the type. I will say, don't blow by this. Like, you know, this— what inspired this topic? This is basically asking you for your topic description and why people should join your Brain Date. I sometimes see people blow by this and they just put in the subject and they put like 2 words, like, I love emails. It's kind of hard, you know, for folks to join when they're like, you love emails, great, but it doesn't really tell me why I should join your topic and come network with you. So you are gonna wanna fill this out. So just to be funny, I'm gonna put, I love emails, and I'm not gonna post this 'cause this is an example, but basically you would put in a very good topic description here and then pick the type you want to host. So with the one-on-one, basically one person would meet with you when they wanna join. Remember, it's opt-in, right? So Kevin would have to be like, oh, I'm gonna join Amelia's Braindate. Jade, because I wanna— she really loves emails. If you do a group, it is up to 4 people that join you. So it says 5 people max. So that's 1 host, meaning you, and then 4 other people would join the group. You are limited, I will say, in the amount of one-on-ones and groups you can create. So use this wisely. It's not just like you can throw up 10 things onto the platform and wait for people to come to you. You are limited to 2 of these until they fill, meaning like if you're one-on-one fills and your group fills, it will open you up new options on the platform to keep networking, right? Again, it's all crowd-based of like what attendees are coming to and topics that they like. So basically I'm gonna pick a one-on-one here just for simplicity. And I, you do need to put some keywords, help people again find your topic. Right now there's only 30 topics, but by the time we get to annual, there's gonna be like thousands of topics in Braindate. So the more robust The better you can make this, the easier it will be for folks to find you as more people start to onboard in the platform. You know, so I'm gonna say things like marketing demand gen, and then you'll see some pop up, right? And I say email marketing. Cool. And then what you would do is hit next. And basically in a one-on-one, it would just let you post this because a one-on-one, the person would basically pick a time with you. So I'm not gonna post my topic, but that's how you would post your topic in the platform. It's as easy as that. I will say again, you are limited in the amount of topics you can post at one time. So until they fill, right? Until they fill. So make sure you make this your best foot forward, best topic so that people join you, they fill, and then it opens up more opportunities for you in Brain Dates. The other thing I will say is like, don't just host them. I know people are always tempted to just like, I'm just gonna host a bunch of Brain Dates and I'm not gonna join any. It kind of defeats the purpose, right? Like I would do an even ratio there of like join as many as you host. Join a bunch of groups. If you're hosting one-on-ones, it is a better way to learn, get the conversation going versus like it being just more self-promotional of, oh, that guy's just over there doing one-on-one brain dates all day long. Not like learning from others, right? So again, I would recommend an even ratio there. But brain dates are a really great thing to do and a really good opportunity on site, especially for our sponsors. So make sure you Do leave yourself, you know, time to do the brain dates on site. So we've gone through that. The next reminder I want to cover off on is just a quick note about booth selection and the campus map. So as you probably know, booth selection is actively underway. I know a few folks have been asking us for their booth number because you want it for the shipping label. If you do not have your booth number yet, you can just put your company name. So if you're you know, SAS, or just put that— well, you're not SAS, but yeah, you put your company name. Don't have your booth number yet. And I know a lot of folks have been asking, like, why is this process taking so long? It is an order of contract signature date, and we do follow it very strictly. Just bear in mind, like, you know, if you're like— like, if someone's taking really long and they're holding up the rest of the group, that is basically what has happened a few times in our group of— booth selection, but I think you would want that same benefit of the doubt if you were ahead of that person next year for 2024 SAAS booth selection. Like, you would want to have your time to pick your booth and get the booth that is your first choice selection because it is an order of contract signature date, and we do honor that very carefully. So again, that is why some of these groups have taken longer than others. But again, I know everyone will have their booth number. By the time, you know, event happens. But for now, if you are shipping things and you don't have your booth number yet, you can just put your company name. So again, just a reminder there, like, we do very strictly follow contract signature date for booth selection. So just a few things I'll call out in the sponsor hall map and then the more wider campus map. So on our sponsor hall map, This is actually an older one. I'll link to the newer one. But basically what you'll see, if you've already selected, you'll see, you know, your confirmed selection on this sponsor hall map. There is 2 pages because I know logos can be hard to read sometimes. So there is a directory on the second page if you want to see something like who your neighbors are or the folks who are around you, etc. Also, it's, you know, you can use this to call out in your promotions of after annual. One thing I've said in previous weeks, which I think holds true, is, you know, some, most of our attendees seem to be directional versus like actual booth numbers. And what I mean by that is like if you're near something, I would call that out. Like if you're near the Cantina, if you're near the Coworking Space, if you're near one of the stages, if you're near the Founders Lounge, if you're near Brain Dates, That kind of gives people a marker of what to look for, because SASTRA is fairly huge. So that's an important note to call out too. That helps in your promotions. But yeah, this is our, our, our, our sponsor hall map. And, and one thing that I'll say here is there is a lot going on just on the overall campus, which I'll flip to, right? So the, the sponsor hall hangars are quite a large area and footprint of the overall faster annual campus. It's like our biggest contiguous area, but the campus map is huge, right? And so I think for both yourselves and attendees, one thing we call out every year is like, you are gonna have more of a constant stream of traffic versus more like a— let's just say it like in air quotes— traditional like tech event, if you will, where, you know, only maybe only happy hours are in the sponsor hall, or only breakfast is in the sponsor hall, or there's only certain times throughout the day where people are in the sponsor hall because sessions aren't happening. That's not how SASR is set up. As you've probably noticed between the two hangars, there's a lot of activations in there that ensure a footfall of traffic, right? All the brain dates that we just talked about are in there. The main cantinas, which are where people get food, are in there. Coffee's in there. The coworking space, which is a super popular activation hangout area for folks, is in there, as well as 3 stages, right? So you're gonna get constant footfall and traffic from people going from stage to stage, activation to activation, getting food, talking to other sponsors. It can be, again, a little bit overwhelming if it's 3 days and you have the same people in the booth 3 days. So a few things on that is to please rotate your team because it does help, you know, keep them fresh, keep the conversation light. You are going to pretty— again, there's going to be constant foot traffic in and out and around these hangars. Like, again, it's there, and there are things like those dedicated happy hours and Food and Wine Fest in the sponsor hall. So there's going to be really peak times, right? And there's also going to— there's not really going to be lull times, if you will, because there's so much happening in these hangars all at once. So bear that in mind. I know sometimes it can feel like a sensory overload, so it is good to rotate through your teams. Also keep in mind, like, there will be— you are gonna hear other things, right? It's not gonna be a pin drop hall where like, oh, if somebody starts the conversation, like, I'm gonna hear it. Like, there's gonna be ambient noise pretty much at all times, right? Between two stages, people talking, and then, you know, another stage and speakeasy and all these other things that we're doing, like, you are gonna hear things. And so bear that in mind, right? Like, be prepared for that of, you know, there's not gonna be that down, really lull time of like, oh, I'm just gonna sit and chill in the booth. But that's why we have outdoor areas, right? That's why you can go outside, have a break, and then come back. And, and that's why some things are spaced out this way. But this is the main area of FASTR Annual. I'm reading this question in the chat. So there's a question in the chat asking about where is the best area for Uber pickup and drop-off and shuttles. That is on a future slide. I think it's coming up in the next slide or two, so we'll try and hit that before we end today's webinar. And I know we're running out of time already, but just on the overall campus, right? Again, Good to always get your bearings. Keep that in mind. But there is, you know, it's a lot of sensory overload, so come prepared. And you try and rotate your team through in terms of like being both, you know, on booth duty and also being in a— being an attendee, right? So things like allowing yourself time to do things like the networking and the brain dates and things like that. So all good things to keep in mind there. Okay, yes, a few things other to remind you guys of. So one thing I want to chat about is shipping furniture and guidelines. So I put a few dos and don'ts on here just to kind of recap some of the questions we've gotten from folks in the last week or so. I know some of you have started to ship your swag to either the Advanced Warehouse or the show site. One thing to keep in mind is that Monday, September 4th, is Labor Day. So if for some reason, you know, your carrier is giving you an estimated delivery of Monday the 4th, which would be weird, but it might, just know that those shipments will not be accepted at the venue that day. Or if you're trying to get ready to hand over to the venue that day, it will not get accepted because the venue is closed that day. So Labor Day is what they call a dark day, and just bear that in mind. For shipments and also for travel, right? Like, um, this Labor Day. So, um, other things to remind you on just shipping and raw booth kind of logistics is everything does need to be self-contained. So if you have any additional furniture, signage, swag, activation, that does need to all fit within your booth. Everyone does have a neighbor, so, um, and we do enforce these because we have these things called aisles. Which are basically aisles for egress and ingress, and they do need to be clear, right? So we can't have your swag spilling over. We can't have it spilling over to your neighbors or into the aisles. And so we are fairly strict on this. And so that's why, you know, it does need to fit within the confines of your booth. There's a few folks asking here related questions. So is there a reason why you should ship to the advanced warehouse versus the show site? I would 100% ship to the advanced warehouse versus the show site because the show site doesn't accept deliveries until the 5th, which is also the day of load-in. That's not ideal, right? Because if you're loading in and everyone has shipped their stuff there, you might not get it till the end of the day. Or to be honest, you may not get your delivery till the next morning delivered to your actual booth. If you ship it to the advanced warehouse, there's not that issue because it's there in time and they can make sure it gets to your booth. So if you have the option and you can either pay a rush fee or you still have time to get it to the advance warehouse, definitely try and get it to the advance warehouse. Other things I'll call out that we've seen as well, you can only hand carry into the venue. So I know we've, we've touched on this a bit, but everything else needs to be arranged for material handling via Freeman. This is a strict union venue house. And as the San Mateo rules. So this does include things like, you know, if you're parking and you've got a bunch of boxes you want to bring from your car to your booth, they do need to handle those boxes. So if you cannot, you know, literally carry it in your hands, then they need to handle that for you. Also, most of you are probably going to need storage with them anyway, so it's best to have them handle your material so it's all set and you don't have to worry about it. So that they can handle storage of your materials, right? If you've got a certain amount of swag you want per day. So just a note there. Another question we've seen a lot is like, is there, you know, cleaning, etc.? So there is daily cleaning of your booth overnight. So, you know, throughout the day they'll try and make runs as best they can to pick up any trash, etc. The full cleaning of your booth is overnight. Someone has asked, do you have to prearrange storage with Freeman? Yes, you do. So we'll show you where that is. I literally have the next slide. And another, again, dos and don'ts is you do need to bring a dongle or et cetera or the like for the monitor in your— so basically every booth has at least one monitor. And it has an HDMI cable, but what you do with that HDMI cable is up to you. So if you've got a MacBook, you need a dongle. You can— I've also seen folks bring things like an Apple TV or an Amazon Fire Stick just to like plug into the monitor, and that way you can extend your, your screen without being, you know, tied in and into the monitor directly. So, okay, so again, just to explain a little bit further on shipping, some of our guidelines are here. If you haven't read through them already, please do. And because of the timeline, it is good to, again, Avoid surcharges, start delivering your stuff to the Freeman Advance Warehouse now. And so please do coordinate that. A few folks are asking what we do for outbound shipments on site, like if you have anything left over at the end of the event. That is also through Freeman. They will— they are the exclusive like outbound shipping folks, and so they will basically come to your booth at the end of show and arrange outbound shipping with you if you have leftovers. We do try and recommend, you know, trying to be a bit more sustainable, like don't order 5,000 pieces of swag, even though there will be 5,000 people. Like, be mindful that basically every sponsor has swag that they're looking to bring. We try and make Zaster Annual as leech-free as possible. So yeah, do try and bring, you know, the right amount of swag for your booth. I think everyone always kind of overorders swag. So do bear that in mind as well. So these are the more fuller instructions. And for those who joined late, the link to the full deck is in chat if you need to reference any of these slides. The labels are there. A note here on the exhibitor kit, so some of you have been asking like, how do I arrange for the shipping and handling services? That's where you would use the Freedman Online Portal. Again, it's linked here in the deck. The deck is in the chat, and you would just click that link and you see that nice big shipping material and handling information. Ship with Freeman, go to those, they'll walk you through how to, you know, get your boxes over to them, to the advanced warehouse, all shipping and handling, all that. So that's all in there. The other things that have been in there are things like ordering additional like carpet padding or furniture. I will say the deadline was the 8th. So if you're doing it now, it is late, and so they may not be able to accommodate it. They're trying. I think we've gotten a few late ones we've been able to accommodate, but it's not guaranteed, right, because it is technically past the deadline. So do bear that in mind if you're looking to do a last-minute order. Last things on monitors, power, kind of furniture we chatted about, but just on power and then additional AV needs and Wi-Fi to kind of— round out your booth. If you do need additional power, you would need to order that from Edlin, who is the power company on site. Those details are linked here. They basically have a flyer and a form of, you know, what you would— if you, if you need extra power, how to do so. It basically takes you to that portal, and it's super easy to do it. So that is needed by August 16th. So you've got a few more days to order power. If you're not sure what power is already in your booth, again, that Know Before You Go that we linked at the very top of the, of the webinar does have the booth slicks, and that does detail out where power is by default for each booth level. So if you need more power than that, that's where you would go to add one. Additional AV needs are due by tomorrow to EPS. So since everyone does have, you know, their own monitors, etc., This would just be if you need any— I've seen folks commonly order laptops so that, you know, you don't have to stick your own laptop there. You can rent one and hook it up to the monitors. They'll make sure it's all hooked up for you, which is nice. I've also seen people rent things like iPads because you can use them for the lead scanning devices. So those are common orders in the form there. So again, you do need to do that by tomorrow if you do need additional AV. The last thing that you would need to order by the end of this week as well is if you need a hard line for Wi-Fi. So There is Wi-Fi throughout the entire campus, both indoors and out. But if you need a hard line, you can get this directly through us and the San Mateo County Event Center. It is just a straight 25 megabyte hard line, $60 per each hard line. I do recommend this if you're doing something really beefy, if you've got beefy demos, if you want to show things that— and you want to run smooth, like super smooth like butter, to get a hard line. You know, back in the day when I was a SAS TRU sponsor many moons ago now, I would always get a hard line as well. So it's always just a good idea to have— if you do get a hard line, I think I've seen a common question of like, does this mean we get like our own router and stuff? Like, no, it just means you get a hard line so you can, you know, plug that into your computer's Ethernet port, or if you have a Mac, you would need a dongle for the Ethernet port. But it does mean you can plug directly in. To your own dedicated, you know, 25-megabyte line, and you would basically have no issues. Someone has asked, what's the last date to order stuff from Freeman Slate for the booth? That deadline has passed, so you're past the last date. They are— if you can still put it in now, and they will see if they can accommodate it, but at this point it is past the deadline. So as it's listed on here, it's August 8th. Again, they will try and accommodate it, but it's just not guaranteed. Okay, last thing I'll talk about is transportation because I've seen a few questions on that, and then we'll do any last questions. So the last thing on today's know before you go is for parking, transportation, et cetera. So, Pastrana Annual, again, on the 40-acre campus, transportation is, you know, kind of festival style. If you've been to a big music festival, it's gonna And I feel like that. So there is on-site parking. So if you have already requested or have not yet, there is a link here to request parking. It is on a first-come, first-served basis because it's free. And we do ask that you only request it if you're going to use it. If we see that we don't use it on the first day and you request a 3-day pass, they will cancel it in the system. So please make sure you only request parking as you need it. So they don't cancel your passes if you're not using it or if you don't show up. There's a few questions in the chat. If we request a parking one, you'll hear if you're approved. That'll probably be in the next week or two. We are just waiting on final count for parking, which we have now, and then we'll start to ticket folks their parking passes. So in about another week is when you'll hear back. So I know folks are still requesting parking actively. For those who may, again, on the parking versus rideshare versus like what should we do, I'll say this, you know, we've been at this venue now 3 years in a row. For the last 2 years, rideshare has always done surge pricing because it is a lot of people who are going to ASHTRA Annual. If you want to try and avoid that, sometimes even if you are staying somewhere that's 5 minutes away, it is still cheaper to get a rental car for your team. Versus doing Uber, Lyft, rideshare, that kind of thing. I know it's sometimes unavoidable, or, you know, maybe your company expenses Ubers in a different way that they expense rental cars, etc. So I know that's not always possible, but that's just kind of a pro tip there. We do also have what we call these like on-site pedicabs and prams, so they will be looping around the campus within the campus all 3 days to get around like the actual property if you are on site and trying to get from one place to another. I think we answered the parking questions there. Just a note on parking, I think I've seen a few people ask like, where should I get picked up and dropped off? Where am I gonna be able to go? There are two lots that basically Ubers, Lyfts, etc., and also parking passes will be able to have access to. The west parking lot is closer to the sponsor hall and the hangars. The east parking lot is closer to more of the outside portion and registration. And just a note there, it kind of depends on your Uber. Like when you get in and you put San Mateo County Event Center, half of them, as we know, will go to one lot, half of them will go to the other lot. So we kind of have a— we do have a more designated pickup and drop-off in the east parking lot just because it's a lot bigger than the west parking lot, as you can physically see. But it doesn't always mean that, you know, that Ubers and Lyfts will pay attention to us and our direction. So they'll kind of go to you. If you are arranging things like shuttle or a bigger mode of transport that is not just like, you know, a passenger vehicle, that is all gonna get directed through the east parking lot on Saratoga just because the gates are bigger. The west parking lot that's closer to the sponsor hangars, is— it's a smaller gate to drive into physically. The shuttle usually have to go through the east parking lot. So hopefully that answers questions there. I think I'm going to end on that one just and answer any final questions that we may have. And also, Kevin, if there's anything I've missed that you want to go over, we could do it in our last few minutes. Let's see. Now we answered a bunch of Q&A.

Yes, lots of Q&A, but this is great. So any other questions you have, please, please keep them coming.

Okay. Which people are asking about hotels, which I interestingly took out of this because I was like, I think people look for hotels. Give you one second and I'll share our Know Before You Go guide, which has it on there. I was like, ah, I talk about hotels every week. I should have left it in there. One second. I've actually seen a few people ask that question. Okay, let me share this one. This is in our Know Before You Go guide, which I will drop into the chat if you guys don't have it yet. Yes. Come on, Zoom. That didn't work. Okay. That's okay. But basically, to answer the question here, which I now seem to have a stuck screen on. So weird. Anyways, let me try and stop my share and I'll try and restart my share here.

Amelia, I also believe on the attendee portal on the website, it's the same hotels that listed there as in the—

Correct. Yeah.

Okay. I'll just drop that in the chat as well. So that way folks have access to Is this going to live on the website?

Yes, it does live on the website. And like, if you guys have not— maybe not memorized, but like, look thoroughly through sasreannual.com. There is a lot of really great information on it, especially if you just registered as a sponsor and you haven't been getting the attendee emails till now. And any information you might miss would be on that— called the attendee portal of the SAS Re:Invent website. To Kevin's point, so in terms of attendee hotel options, these are where the blocks are. They may not necessarily be the most popular. Well, Crown Plaza is because it's sold out. If you look at the Crown Plaza San Mateo, there are nearby hotels around it. Those are quite popular with attendees and sponsors if you haven't booked your hotel yet. There's also a nearby, I think, Marriott, and then there's a newer one, I think, that just opened if you haven't booked yet. Either. I think it's a Hampton Inn and Suites that just opened, if I remember the name right. So there are kind of a few options that, like, that one's literally brand new. So there's a few, like, last-minute options for you guys if you have not booked yet. Someone's asking if it would be good for a shuttle bus. So I'm not sure if I fully understand the question because VASTR does have a shuttle. It does run from the Crown Plaza to San Mateo County Event Center back and forth on about a 15-minute loop. But the hotels that would be walking distance would be that Marriott that I called out. If you look up San Mateo County Event Center and like look for the Marriott that's nearby, that one is technically walkable, though it is about a 20 to 30 minute walk depending on how fast you walk. Someone else has asked if there's a full list of satellite events around SAFTR gonna be shared. There's a partial list of the events we know about that's on SAFTR.com. So that got released yesterday. It's not a full list, so we are trying to update that with submissions as folks— as we hear about site events. Sometimes we don't even know about all of them, so we get to find out about them as long as it is good. Folks are asking for the Know Before You Go deck. I'm going to drop this into the chat as well. So now there's two things in the chat, which being this presentation as well as the Know Before You Go deck. Yeah, any last questions in our last 60 seconds? Cool. Okay. Well, thanks everyone for your time and attention. I know this is a lot to go through as we go through every week, but I know South by Annual is approaching quickly. So thanks all for listening. Hopefully you've got these links now. I see you all popping on here, so that's great. If you have any questions about anything in the stack, again, feel free to reach out to us. And as always, we will see you next week for even, you know, more information reminders on SAS 3 Annual. So until then, we will see you guys next week.

Thanks, everybody.