LIVE SaaStr Insider Webinar: SaaStr Annual Sponsors Final Prep

In this live sponsor‑focused webinar Amelia (host) and David walk SaaStr Annual sponsors through every practical detail they need before the event at the San Mateo County Event Center (Sept 5‑8, with a pre‑load‑in day on Sept 5). They cover the attendee portal, parking options, shuttle service from the Crowne Plaza hotel, registration locations, badge collection, coat check, temperature/ID checks, and strict rules on badge swapping, prohibited items, and personal vehicles. Shipping instructions include the official delivery address, the need to label boxes with booth numbers, and the use of Freeman Sponsored Freight Services for day‑of or replenishment deliveries; sponsors must route all boxes (any size) through Freeman, cannot use handcarts or wagons, and can use the West Parking Lot for last‑minute deliveries, which is staffed on load‑in day and will deliver items directly to the sponsor’s booth. Booth setup guidance explains that booths are turnkey, HDMI cables are provided but adapters may be needed (especially for MacBooks), monitors have HDMI‑only inputs, power is available in the back cabinet, and vendors (Freeman, ETS, Edlund) can assist with AV, power, and storage. Sponsors are urged to arrive early for load‑in (Sept 5, 2‑7 pm) and can use the express lane for badge check‑in on subsequent days. The SaaStr Events mobile app is the hub for agendas, QR badge scanning, chat, Braindates, and networking, but there is no full attendee list. For speaker sessions, non‑registered employees can access the Expensify chat room only if designated as a room admin on the speaker team. On‑site amenities include coffee (Mercury sponsor), food trucks, photo and video booths, a container park with a zipline, a casino, a speakeasy, and the evening “Big Party” concert. The daily schedule is outlined (registration 8‑9 am, sponsor hall 9‑6 pm, lunch 11:30‑1:30, happy hour 3:30‑5, big party 5:30‑8). Final Q&A covers common sponsor concerns such as swag delivery, flag handling, bag limits, and pet policies, and the hosts encourage sponsors to focus on attendee engagement rather than stress over logistics, reassuring that any delivery delays will be handled without impacting the attendee experience.
Chapters
screen here. And if you hear background noise, that is because I'm live on site at the San Mateo County Event Center where we are prepping. It's actually day 7, so we've been here a week prepping for the Astro Annual, and we're so excited to have all of you join us shortly to see all this great work we've been doing. Cool. A few final tips and tricks and reminders, and again, we want to leave plenty of time for questions today. So First and foremost, for the know before you go, for event information on the attendee portal. I don't know if you guys got the chance to watch our attendee-specific webinar, but if you didn't get the chance to, we have the attendee portal. It does apply to you guys as well as sponsors. So just calling that out. This has some know before you go event information, FAQs. Also, more importantly, if you haven't yet, it's got all the information on parking and shuttles as well as overflow parking. So that is the biggest thing to note here. There's some other handy information there. If you ever get lost, you can always check there or the sponsor note before you go. There is a lot in there. Okay, many of you are probably staying at the Crowne Plaza, so just a quick brief on it here. This is our official faster attendee and of course Sponsor Hotel. It's about 10 minutes to, you know, 15 from the actual main campus and venue itself. This is the address in case you didn't have it yet saved and you are staying there, the phone number if you need to reach them, and then just a few of the amenities if you are staying there. This is notably where our shuttle picks up and drops off. So if you are planning to take the shuttle, it goes about a 15-minute loop, so about every 15-20 minutes if you Wait for the shuttle. It will come. I know sometimes it seems faster if you would like to grab an Uber because it will come in 5 minutes, but sometimes they take long or there's surge or it takes a while. So it does end up usually being the fastest way to get to and from faster. Those scheduled times are listed in here, which I dropped into the chat, and they are also on the attendee portal. Coming into an overview of the event, I think by now you guys know we're at the San Mateo County Event Center next week. So the official event days are the 6th through the 8th. There is stuff to do, however, on the 5th, which I'll call out. Um, just a quick note on weather as we've been here like during setup and load-in, it is a little bit unpredictable. It can be kind of chilly in the mornings and get really warm in the afternoons. Um, so definitely, you know, dress comfortably as you're packing now. Bring like hats, sunglasses, different layers, jackets for the evening events, etc. And for the mornings, it does get a little chilly, and we do have a coat check on site if you ever wanna like check some of your items. Yeah. Okay. Coming into registration, we do have 3 areas for you to check in when you come. The main one that you're gonna wanna use is out in this Delaware registration lot. This is 2650 South Delaware Street. Make sure you save that in your phone now so that you have it saved. If you are a sponsor who has requested parking, we have been distributing those. If you haven't heard back yet, you should email our registration team, registration@staffforinc.com, so that they can help give you a status. But most of our parking passes have already been distributed, so we are fairly up to date there. If you still need to request parking, you can. It is starting to get a little bit full in the West Lot, so you may not get preferred sponsored parking in the West. There is also the East Lot, so that is the number 1 registration circle. That is at 1346 Saratoga Drive. Notably, that's where the shuttle will pick up and drop off, and that is the only shuttle pickup and drop-off station. Somebody has asked in the chat that they wanna confirm where the hangar is and the hangars are in proximity to the shuttle pickup. And it's about a 10-minute walk, I would say, or less, depends on how far or how fast you walk, really. There. So yeah, that takes about 10 minutes to walk from that one. It only takes about 2 to 3 minutes if you're coming in from Delaware. So that's kind of the difference. There. Cool. Hopefully that answers that question.
I'll say you can't miss it either. You can't miss the hangers. They're huge.
You can't. They are labeled. Yeah, they have some branding on them, so they are labeled. You will see them quite large, and you also will not miss registration. Like, there are plenty of signage as you're starting to pull up to the event center that is labeled for the working gates and entrances.
So, and Emily, just confirming that there's— is there a cost for the coat check?
There is not a cost for the coat check, no. But I would not store anything, you know, crazy of high value with a coat check. It's really just meant for like extra items, jackets, that kind of stuff. Um, I— again, it's a massive 40-acre campus, so I would— I wouldn't like— I would keep your laptop with you at all times and like any electronics. This is the best rule of registration tips and tricks. Thank you. The things you need to bring with you, and I think we have gotten some questions about this recently in the Spots with Success inbox. You do need to bring a valid photo ID. You know, this is preferably a driver's license or a passport. In addition to having your email ticket confirmation code is really handy. So again, If you haven't yet, good time to download the app, get it all preloaded with you on your phone. Be prepared for those daily temperature checks that we will have. And keep in mind that badges do need to be worn at all times. So this is not just like at, you know, when you're entering or reentering Sapphire Annual or like once per day when people are looking. They do need to be worn at all times or you are gonna get flagged. So make sure you do wear your badge and that you don't lose it. If you do happen to lose it, there is a reprint fee, and the help desk will need to help you with that on site. So just be aware that does take, you know, some time to get through the help desk. So if it's one of those things where you're like, ah, I'm on the shuttle and I left my badge in my room, like, it's honestly probably still faster to go back for it and avoid that fee than it is to come in, pay the fee, and like wait in the help desk line because there might be other people who need help at the help desk. Other things of note, we've said this a lot, but just as a reminder, Bad swapping and transferring after you check in is strictly prohibited. So after I've walked into FASTR Annual, I cannot then give my badge to David. I need to hang on to my badge. That is my badge for all days of FASTR. If David or somebody else on my team needs to come to FASTR Annual, they need to have their own ticket. But if for some reason David gets sick, our team on site can help transfer it as long as there's a paper trail. But after you check in, strictly prohibited. Prohibited. Other things of note, you do have to pick up your own badge. So Amelia cannot just come and pick up, you know, Amelia's and David's and lots of badges. Everyone has to pick up their own badge. So be sure you're aware of that. Even if you are running late, even if you are a sponsor, you still need to come on time to pick up your badge. There is not like an express line just for sponsors. Everyone still needs to come on time to pick up their badge. There is a daily temperature and ID check, so just bear that in mind too. When you come back the subsequent days of— after, and especially if you're coming for early load-in on Tuesday, starting Wednesday you'll be able to use that express lane. Well, they will just check your badge, your ID, and your temperature to make sure you are in fact you and that you go— then you meet our health and safety requirements. So do keep that in mind. We've chatted about this a lot as well, but again, just the final reminder, you know, weapons and prohibited items are obviously not allowed and will be confiscated. Confiscated if we find them or you bring them in. So that does include things like outside alcohol, I know pocket knives, like I know people are like, I have so much swag, like bring a pair of purse, a pocket knife to do that. Balloons, confettis, all that kind of stuff that's not approved again will not be allowed onto property and will be confiscated. All items that you bring in, this includes backpacks, purses, laptop bags, briefcases, etc., are again just subject to search. So again, stow away any restricted items that you may have, um, with you at your hotel, etc., and do not bring them on to campus. If you are bringing outside food and beverage, um, i.e., if you go get the Starbucks outside or like something at Whole Foods, again, it can only be for yourself, not something that is catering for your whole team or like a group order. This can only be for you since there is plenty of food and coffee on site at the San Mateo County Event Center. Final reminder here on things that you should avoid. Do not bring any personal vehicles with you, such as scooters or bikes. I know Jason's been posting a lot of videos of our team on like scooters and bikes rolling around campus, but those are reserved for our production team so that if there is something we need to deal with, we can respond with appropriate action. and get to where we need to be. Um, I see a few things we're answering in the chat that I'll call out for everyone once I get to the full campus map in a few slides. Um, but just other things to know, I know a few people have been asking us, um, Priya, for the Wi-Fi passwords so that they can load it up on your phone, or you can print out for your team, or you guys have your own like personal note before you go. Um, so calling that out that that is here for you guys, and so you can save these now so that you have it. I mean, we'll also, you know, we'll have it handy and available for you. But just so you know here, if you want to pre-save it and send it out to your team so that you guys have a note on your phone of what the Wi-Fi passwords are for when you get here. Big call out for shipping and day-of deliveries only because we have started to have some boxes show up. Just bear in mind that boxes are postage to start showing up Tuesday. They're not supposed to be here yet. We have been receiving a few that have come early, um, but at this point, if you are shipping anything or bringing anything to the venue, um, please make sure you use, um, this address in order to do so. Um, also note, you know, make sure you have your booth number on it. If you didn't know your booth number yet or you forget it, just make sure it has your company name so we can make sure we can get it to the right place. And really important call out here, if you have any what I call replenishment or like day-of deliveries, if you're like, I know my carrier is not going to bring it until the day of, or I'm getting, you know, I have an activation that faster approved and like my activation people are bringing a fresh batch of cookies that morning, and that does not fall into like UPS or FedEx or any of those kinds of things. For any of those things which I call replenishment deliveries that are taking place on event days, these do need to be received by Freeman Sponsored Freight Services. You will see them in a tent in the west parking lot. It's the same place you guys are entering for registration. It's that same Delaware address, so just direct them there. Many of you, I know, have already requested parking for your vendors if you have activations, but just in particular, direct them to the Freeman Sponsored Freight Services tent that they'll have out there to receive your deliveries. So that they're not like waiting in the registration line to give us your deliveries. There's a special place, you'll see the signs for it, you'll see a big like Freeman sign for it, and that's where they need to go there if you do have anything that's coming day of. And if you are still shipping something rushed, we have included these labels here for you so you guys can see them and put them in your box. It's always a good idea to do them on the outside, and as I remind people, because we've gotten a lot of boxes where it's not on the inside, put them on the inside as well. If you've not shipped your stuff already. A quick note on transportation. Again, as we've chatted a lot about parking, many of you have already requested parking. I think there was like 200 parking passes for sponsors or something like that given out already. If you haven't yet, it is coming, like I said, kind of down to the wire to request a parking pass, especially as a sponsor. So make sure you do that now. At this point, it is not guaranteed that you will get to park in the sponsor, like, closest parking lot to the hangars because that one's getting full. So you still may get parking on the other side of the campus. But if you need parking, you do absolutely need to request it because there's no, like, just show up and like, oh, I just got a rental car last minute and I'll just show up for parking. You do need to pre-request it. It is pre-assigned, and I do know the deadline is literally like Monday. The deadline is closed. So if you haven't yet, please do that. Ride share and drop off, as we've noted. The— someone has just asked, where do we request sponsor parking?
So again, I'll post the link. Yeah, I mean, it's a few slides back.
It's a few slides back, but if you guys come to southrenial.com, there's an attendee portal here. If you just click parking, there is this handy parking request form, and you'll say that you are a sponsor or speaker. Obviously, our team will know which one you are, and you just need to click what days you need. So if you need all 3 days, or if you just need 2 days, you would fill out your information and then submit for parking there. So that's how to do that. Someone else is asking if I have a food activation, do I need to request special requests? Do I need to West parking passes. Yes, you do. Again, anyone who has activation, you— same process. You need to request a parking pass for them so that we can make sure they get to the right place. Otherwise, again, they're going to hit the gates, not have a pass. We're not going to know if they're affiliated with you if they do not have that parking pass. So even if they're not coming into the event, they do need to have a parking pass. Okay, coming into rideshare and drop-off. Uber and Lyft and other forms of rideshare, as we have said many a time now, does surge price during South Tri-Annual. There's many more of you than there are Ubers and Lyfts, so it's definitely a surge time for pricing. There is a lot— sometimes a wait time for surge pricing and Uber, and so Again, the best way is to get on the shuttle at the Crown Plaza. That's why there is a shuttle at the Crown Plaza. Again, this is not something we can control. I, I see some comments in the chat. This is really not up to us. It's just a pure volume play of how many people are trying to get to one area and the app automatically does that. So as we have said and tried to like preempt folks, right? Like if you're trying to save on budget, get a rental car, request a parking pass. That's the best way to get to and from the event while you are here. I know a lot of you still will use Uber and Lyft. That is still a great way to get here. Just, you know, be prepared to factor in that wait time with you if you have somewhere you want to be on site at a particular time. And the on-site is obviously a very large campus. We do have these pedicabs and trams throughout the campus that will help take you where you need to go once you are on property. Shuttle service, again, we've been touting this. This is a great way to get to and from Safter. Even if you are like offsite and you have a rental car, you can park at the Crown Plaza, get on the shuttle there, or you can park nearby Crown Plaza. If for some reason it fills up, there's a parking lot literally right next by, right next door across the street at TownePlace where there's the shopping center. There's more parking there. There's parking up and down that entire like street basically. And the shuttle runs from 6:30 to about 8:30 most days, and then Friday all the way till 9:30. So that should cover you as a sponsor on time for trying to get to SASTRA Annual. It comes here early and it leaves super late, so the shuttle times are there for you guys to utilize them. I've said this before, and I mentioned on the attendee webinar, but just again, I cannot stress this enough. I know not everyone is local to the Bay Area, and it seems like everyone's like, oh, SF is dead, the Bay Area is like everyone's moving out of it. There has been traffic every day for me just to come to the event center. So yes, again, if you are coming from further away, even if you're coming on the shuttle, like just be prepared, factor in that extra time. Like make sure you are early to whatever it is you wanna be, whether it's your booth, a session, whatever it is, just that you know you are there stress-free, nice and early, and you can enjoy it faster without having to be frustrated about sitting in traffic. If you are new, or if you do need to pop out for something, there is a lot of handy things in the area. There's all like downtown San Mateo where I know there's a lot of after parties going on. And then there's things like the Hillsdale Mall, and it's about 30 or 40 minutes to like either downtown SF or to Palo Alto. So if you have customer meetings, again, be sure to factor in enough time to do that. I'm going to skip ahead to the mobile app because I see a lot of questions on this. So the SaaStr Events app is our official SaaStr Events app. It's super handy. I've said this before, but this is what I personally use to keep track of everything on site. It's a great way to build your agenda. You can access your ticket details in it, so it makes it really easy when you show up as well. Like, you could just scan your QR code when you show up. You don't even have to search for yourself in the system. Makes it really easy and speedy to check in. You can build your schedule here. You can book a brain date here if you haven't yet, and you can also get into the chat. So I know there's a few questions about chat in the Q&A, like how to use it, etc. Some folks are also asking if there's an attendee list in chat. There is not an attendee list anywhere. So can I just preface for all of our sponsors, if you get somebody spamming you that's like, do you want to buy a list that's just your annual attendees? Trust me, I get them too, which I always think is hilarious. Like, hey, you know, whatever, XYZ amount per lead, and we'll give you the list. We do not share the list with anyone, like not even this team has full access to the full attendee list. Like that is how close to the vest we keep it. So if you get someone who's trying to tout that they have a list that they are trying to sell you, a sastre with 123 attendees, it is not true, not valid. Do not buy that list, please. Like just come to the events, Scan your leads. Do not buy any weird like third-party list that's like, you know, vetted or whatever they claim to be. I've gotten a few of them in the last week. They're definitely not affiliated with SaaSPer. We definitely do not share our list with anyone, so there's no way it's even partially accurate. We never share our list with anyone. So again, please don't give into those things if you're getting any of those emails. I know I've gotten a few or a few people have hit me up on LinkedIn. We do not, again, you're not, we do not share the attendee list with anyone. So anyone claiming to have it is wrong. And in things like Braindates and in things like our Expensify chat, there is not just a directory of attendees because that would be a way for people to scrape it and then get the full attendee list. So as I get, as enticing as that might be for sponsors, that is not something we do. We turn off all that functionality. There's no like full attendee list. We don't give it to to anyone. So that's not like one sponsor has more of a leg up than other sponsors, not even Expensify who's helping us run chat has a list to all attendees. Like it is opt-in. So you have to opt in through Expensify chat in order to start chatting. It is literally all opt-in, self-serve, same thing with Brain Dates. There's no full list. So just wanted to clear the air on that in case you guys have people that are saying that they have list, like those are not true. So again, avoid those. But if you are coming, the way to utilize the chat is to download the app, go to the chat tab. There are chat rooms for like the social channels. There's the announce channel. We're starting to see attendees in there. So some folks are asking like, where do I see attendees in chat? They're in the social rooms. Some of them are in the session rooms, um, because there's one for each session. Obviously those are not as popular yet pre-event as they will be on site. And again, attendees, a lot of attendees sign up at the last minute. A lot of attendees don't, you know, look at their phones, download the app until they come here. So there's gonna be a lot of on-site messaging for people to get on chat, for people to get on Braindate, for people to interact with one another. But there are people already on the platform. I can tell you that because we're in it. So Again, Expensify Chat, how you access it and see and start chatting with folks. Download the mobile app, click the button to start chatting. It's literally on the homepage, and that's how you will see those channels that we're referencing that have attendees. So again, when you load up your app, you're going to see this homepage screen. You're going to see the chat button, hit that. It'll take you to the social room. That's where you can start interacting with folks, saying hi, etc. And again, it's a great place to be pre-event and then during the event as well.
I'm in it right now and there's a bunch of activity in the social channel, people saying hello, good way to get started.
So yeah, and like where they're coming from. Yeah, totally. And cool. All right. Yeah, lots of good. Again, I know this is maybe a bit more of a technical because it's our final sponsor webinar, but hopefully these are great tips and tricks for you guys as you're starting to get on site. There's a few questions on booths, so thankfully this is our next section here. Sponsor booth tips and tricks. Keep in mind, again, you guys' booths are turnkey. I've literally— I'm looking at a row of booths right now in my periphery that are completed. So yeah, they, you know, our team has been hard at work with Freeman and ETS to install your graphics, get your monitors up, etc. Someone has asked if the HDMI cords are provided. They are, but you do need an adapter if you don't have a laptop that has an HDMI port. So if— I know a lot of folks have MacBooks that they bring to SASR, usually need, you know, the Apple HDMI adapter thing. Actually, I will unplug mine so you can see what it looks like. There's actually two types if you have a MacBook. There's either this one that plugs into like the USB-C and is bigger if you have the budget for it. This one I think is a little bit more expensive because it has more ports on it. I do find this one to be more handy than the smaller one that's like the HDMI-only port. Um, so this one's nice because it has a USB, an HDMI, and the charging port. So like even though it's a one-port thing, it is a, um, three-port capacity. So this one is my recommendation if you have one that you need for your MacBook. And then this is the singular one. So you can see the difference here. Like, this is a single one that you just plug into, like, your Lightning cable, but it only has an HDMI adapter. So you still need to plug your power in and any USBs to the other one, which is why I like this one that has the 3. So again, pro tip, super handy. There is an Apple Store in the Hillsdale Mall if you don't have one yet. You can schedule for an in-store pickup. Do go get one right before, after. There's also a Target right by Crown Plaza that has some of these, but obviously the Apple Store will be more of your best bet if you want one guaranteed because you can set one for pickup. So pro tip there as well. Somebody else has asked if there are USB ports on the monitor in addition to HDMI. There are not. It's just an HDMI hookup. So you do need to be able to HDMI in. To the monitors. So keep that in mind. I know a lot of folks in the past have brought, you know, their dongles or they brought like an Apple TV or they bring like a Fire Stick so they can just mirror or like extend their display. Those work really well so that you're not like stuck to where the HDMI cable is. Those are fairly handy. As we always say, everything that you have does need to fit within the bounds of your booth to keep with just, you know, fire marshal and safety regulations. So just think of it as a really big airplane seat where everything does need to be tucked away within your booth. And keep in mind, you guys will have neighbors, etc. There's gonna be a lot of people walking in and out of your booth. So the tidier it is, I also think the more enticing it is for attendees to come and interact with you. So that, you know, it's like having a clean housewarming or house viewing as well. There is power. So keep that in mind as well. There is power in your back cabinet, but I also still think it's a good idea to bring something like, you know, portable chargers, etc. Like if you have a lot of folks in your booth, then maybe the amount of chargers and plugs, it's always good to have portables handy. If you are storing things on site, this does go through our partners at Freeman, so they will help you manage your storage and any of your deliveries that might be coming in. If you have questions, I think at this point, you know, it is kind of easiest to come on site, come in that early load-in on Tuesday. It's Tuesday from 2 to 7, and you can also visit the on-site exhibitor service center at any time, like Tuesday through Friday, and the Freeman team will help you with whatever you may need. Or if you have a TV issue, you'll see kind of different vendors at the exhibitor services center. So there'll be Freeman if you have anything booth-related. ETS is our AV vendor, so anything AV-related they'll help you with, as well as you'll you'll see the Edlund folks there. They are a power vendor. So, you know, sometimes it's a little confusing because it's separate, but if you get confused, it's fine. They all know one another. You can kind of walk up to any of them and they'll help you get to the right places where you want to be. Someone else has asked, can we still rent items from Freeman? Unfortunately, it is too late to do that. I think that deadline was about a month ago. So at this point it is reset on what you have either pre-ordered or what is included in your booth. We've talked about shipment times. Just a final reminder, you can only hand carry items into the venue. To do so, so again, make sure this is only things that, you know, you can literally fit in your hands, the backpack, etc. Anything else that is like a box size or bigger does need to go through the free bin sponsor and freight services. And then coming to the campus map. So a few things on the campus map we wanted to call out. As you guys are coming in to Baxter, you will probably spend time in the hangars the most, but you'll probably— you'll want to explore the other areas of Baxter as well. It is a really big campus map. So again, There's a high-res PDF here, which is a good thing to save and like put in a packet if you're doing like an internal note before you go before your team. We will have printed one of these at Reg so you can pick one up if you need one. As well as there is a sponsor hall map with like all the sponsors listed out at this point. This one is up to date now with everyone's booth placements and final placements. So be sure to view that. As a final call out too, just keep in mind a lot of vendors have activation, so you We'll not be the only ones if you have an activation or if you're looking for something. A lot of these are food-based, so if you have like a craving throughout the day, definitely recommend chatting with and talking to your fellow sponsors if you're looking to have any one of those things. So we dropped a few of these in here. You can peruse them at your leisure. Again, if there's something like, I don't know, if you're looking for ice cream one of the days, or popsicles or whatever it may be, or boba, like there's different activations that different sponsors are doing. That will be active throughout all 3 days. There's also things that Staffer is doing that I wanted to call out. So we've got a fun photo booth in one of the hangars. This will literally give you like a physical printout, so that'll be a fun thing if you want to go do that with your team. We've got a video booth out by Stage A, so if you want to record like a little video message that can be featured in an upcoming Staffer video, you know, good idea to go in that video booth wearing your, your team's swag and go record a message. It will also send it to you. So if you want to like record something for yourself to use on your social promos, I know a lot of folks have asked about like camera crews and stuff. You can also do this if like you don't want to bring a full-blown camera crew, hop into the video booth, record a little message, and it does allow you to send it to yourself as well if you want to use it for your guys' purposes while you're at SASTR. So super handy thing to do there. There's gonna be tons of coffee throughout the campus, like literally everywhere. So Keep that in mind. Our friends at Mercury are sponsoring the coffee this year. So there's coffee in both hangars. There's coffee inside. There's coffee outside. The specialty coffee, though, if you're like me and you like to have kind of like flavors in your coffee, that will be at the Mercury booth. So keep that in mind. They're by Stage B Legends in the hangar. So if you see that stage, you're in the right place for all the specialty coffee. And they're also sponsoring the coffee van that's stage A. So any of those two places will have specialty, and then there'll be tons of like drip coffee just throughout the campus as well, um, for when you need to refill. Um, we do have a fun container park this year, so you guys heard me chat about that. This is gonna be like a fun hangout bar area. Um, it also has a zipline that is coming. So yeah, if you want to take a meeting or take a ride on the zipline or have a meeting while you wait for the zipline and then go on it with your prospect, um, that's a fun way to do so, you know, kind of better than doing it over Zoom. We also have our fun Casino Royale on campus, so that is open in the afternoons. This will be 1 to 5 each day and you can come again. Great way to like, if you guys want to do what I call an interactive meeting, you can do an interactive meeting at the casino. Maybe let your prospect win though. You're bringing a prospect to the table game. I'm like, maybe let them win. I don't know. Proper sponsor prospect meeting etiquette there. But yeah, it's a great place to like, you know, have a conversation. There's a lot of table games. So yeah, or if you're really good at one of these, that could also be impressive. Or you can just go play for fun. Or if you don't know the games, that's fine too. Like the dealers will help you out and explain all the rules. I'm gonna go through our event agenda because like, I see a few questions here that are related to when sponsors have access to food and beverage, which is included here. So I'll just call that out as I go. Again, biggest thing of note is if you have a few of your team members or even just one person who can arrive early, we highly recommend you use this day zero final load-in day to your advantage. It's a day just for sponsors to come in, you know, get, lay the land, get your badge. Um, see, you know, test your booth connection, your hookup, see if your swag is here or anything that you might have shipped here, um, kind of walk the campus and see what it's like, um, so that when, you know, Wednesday bright and early, you're kind of ready to go, um, and you don't have to scramble in the morning. Um, so for sponsor early load-in— oh, I said 2:07, it's actually 2:08— sponsor early load-in is due to 8 on, uh, Tuesday, September 5th. So this the day after Labor Day. We do have a sponsor-only badge pickup during this day from 2 to 4. So in both of our big registration areas, which again you'll see people in signage for, you'll be able to come pick up your badge at those times. It just means that after 4 o'clock there will be some attendees who are coming in to pick up their badge. So bear that in mind. If for some reason you miss this early load-in or some of your team members come in late, There is also just satellite registration open this day over at the Crown Plaza. One thing I'll call out, which is not in the Q&A, but something some folks have asked us recently, if you are coming for early load-in, like, where do you park? So park at any of those two registrations that are called out here that will be open. That's like the east and west lot. And you will be able to— it's open parking that day since it's just the pre-event day.
And Amelia, they're both equidistant west and east? There was a question about that. They're kind of— oh, to get to, to get to the sponsor halls.
So let me pull the map back up. Um, the Delaware, which is west lot, is closer. So again, that's about a 2 to 3 minute walk to the hangars. Um, the other registration is 7 to 10 minute walk. I've done it in 5, but again, depends how fast you are.
Uh, it depends what you're carrying. If you're not carrying anything, it's really—
yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Um, someone else is asking, early load-in, are you allowed to walk around and scope the venue, or can you just go from reg to the hangar? So not the whole campus is open. Um, the hangars are definitely open. You know, you'll probably hear AV testing stages and stuff like that. But there's gonna be some off-limits areas that are restricted just 'cause they're either, you know, still moving heavy equipment, et cetera. But it will still give you a good sense to come early if you do come early. I mean, the hangars are really quite massive, so they're definitely good to come walk and see the space. Coming into Wednesday, which was the first full day of FASTR, satellite registration is once again open this day. So if you have team members who are coming overnight and they wanna pick up their badge, before they come to the campus, definitely use the satellite registration that's at Crown Plaza. Otherwise, on-site, you know, we do start at 8 AM where you can come pick up your badge. You do guys have kind of like, I would say about 2 hours for final load-in, but bear in mind, like, you know, registration is open to all attendees starting at 8, so it doesn't mean that you won't see some sponsors who like to get there early. I feel like every year we kind of have what we call the early birds that like to come in early, do some work, and then they kind of know that like not all of SASPer is like live live yet. They're just there to do some work, um, have some coffee, you know, chill out before, um, the event officially starts. But we are open, um, sponsor hearts do officially open at 10, as well as like, you know, Brain Dates start at 10, um, etc. So lunch, I know there's a question in the chat earlier, it is every day from 11:30 to 1:30. The sponsor access is the same as attendees, so there are multiple lunch spots. If you're a sponsor, the closest spot to you will be within your hangar. So wherever you are within your hangar, that's gonna be the best place to go for picking up lunch. Some of them have activations, so you know, you may get just a badge check while you go get your lunch, but it's open access, you know, to sponsors. Your hangar will be the best place to go get lunch and the closest, but it is strictly 11:30 to 1:30. So we do have food trucks as well on campus, which is funny because somebody just asked that. Those have been known to have, you know, a little bit more of a line because it's a food truck. They do rotate per day, so there are different food trucks. They're insanely popular, so they do take time. I will say If you're a sponsor, the best way to do like the quickest lunch would be to do like the grab and go from the hangar that you're in. Or if you guys have enough people, you can kind of rotate folks during lunch. Lunch is also a very high traffic time when people are coming into the sponsor halls because they're coming in to get their lunch. So like, even though we have food trucks and they're really fun, again, if you have extra team members, I would rotate who goes to the food truck, not like, you know, everyone leave your booth all at once to go get lunch. I definitely would try and rotate your team if you can. So that you have somebody at the booth at all times. It's definitely a great idea to have at least one person in your booth at all times. I know that's not really mentioned anywhere, but just as always a good rule of thumb, like lunch is always really busy, and then during the happy hours, and especially on the first day of the Wine and Food Fest, those are going to be really peak attendee times in the hangars. Like, there's going to be people throughout the day all days because there's stages of content, but those are going to be like the peak peak times. So As tempting as it is to just like everyone leave your booth and like go to the food trucks and chill, I would rotate folks so that, you know, if day one like one person gets to go to the food trucks and the next day somebody else gets to go or two people go or whatever it is, I would rotate folks and then again I would just do like a grab-and-go lunch from the Hangar Cantinas again to kind of optimize your time and again be able to chat with attendees. A few folks are asking if lunch is included. Included. It is included with your sponsor badge type, so that includes any of the grab-and-go stations or the food truck there. So cool.
Amelia, is there breakfast anywhere on site? I can't remember.
There's— yeah, it's a good question. There's limited, so like we don't ever guarantee it. That's why lunch is only posted on, you know, these hours. There's a ton of like afternoon foods. Breakfast honestly has never been a big hit for us at Southpaw for whatever reason. I don't know, like we've tried to do breakfast in previous years and then a lot of it went to waste. So we stopped doing it because it just wasn't sustainable for us. We actually tried it again in Europa this year and it was the same thing. It was like, people are just not breakfasting. I think we're a coffee kind of crowd. Like people have coffee for breakfast. I know it sounds weird.
Everyone on this is like, "But breakfast!" I'd say probably the good advice is for your teams to have breakfast before they come. That way they're energized for the day, and I think that probably is what they should do.
Yep, totally, totally agree.
Emilia, question about swag. Like, if someone arrives with a lot of swag in a rolling case, how do they arrange Freeman to bring it to their booth? Right? So they're showing up with swag and they need the Freeman to—
Yeah, it's always good to prearrange this, but if you haven't yet, you're gonna want to use the— what I called out earlier address. I'm gonna come back to it here. So if you joined late and you didn't get this information on slide 10, again, any deliveries that are coming day of, there is a specialized Freeman Sponsor Freight Services in this west parking lot, same address as everything else. It's on— basically go to Delaware, you will see it. There's only one entrance on that side, so you'll see it there. They can enter there. There'll be a Freeman tent there, and they actually need to be the ones to arrange it to get it to your booth. You're not going to be allowed to hand carry that stuff in. You need to direct them there. But also notably, like, if they are coming in that day for this, That is something where you should either request parking or if it's just a delivery, they can tell the gate it's just a delivery and they're gonna go in and out, but it's gonna be policed. So like don't do that to get around a parking pass and be like, oh, I just have deliveries and then you park there. Like they're gonna watch you park there. So if they do need to park all day and deliver your stuff because it's an activation, make sure they request a full parking pass. Which is also in the slide deck earlier. Someone else has asked, where are the food trucks located? Okay, there's some kind of some specific questions, so we'll try and hit them, though I know we are starting to run out of time. So let me come back to the campus map. Where did I put it? I put it in a few places. Okay, mobile app. Um, the food trucks are right outside the hangars, so all you have to do is literally walk outside either hangar, east or west, and you can enter or exit from the north or south end, and you will see food trucks right outside them. So, um, that is the— there are other locations, but for you guys as sponsors, that'll be the closest to you. So, um, that you won't be able to miss them. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're, you'll, you'll see them. They're, they're big. They make a little noise because they're, you know, sharks. Someone else has asked, do you recommend having our food activations open at the booth during happy hours? Yeah, that is actually some of the most popular times people get hit during the day if they have activations kind of all day is during happy hours because I mean, keep in mind, like, you know, there's food, there's wine, there's like things Dasher is doing, but Sometimes like, you know, you get a little snacky when you drink, so attendees like to go find whatever activations people have. So yeah, good idea to have that open if you do have an activation or something special you're doing during those happy hour times. So, okay, I think we dropped off there. I'll come into Thursday and Friday and then maybe we'll just wrap there for final questions since I know there's been a lot of them. So on Thursday, again, this is probably at the point where you're going to want to utilize the express check-in when you come into registration. Again, they'll check your badge, check your temperature, do an ID check, all that fun stuff, but it will still be faster. So use the express lane for sure, especially if Wednesday is your first time in. There is an hour in the morning before attendees usually come in, so that's that 8:00 to 9:00 hours. The sponsor halls are officially open from 9 to 6, and content starts a bit earlier this day at 10 AM. Again, lunch is 11:30 to 1:30 each day, so that's not confusing. Burn that in your mind now, it's the same time every day. And we do have a sort of secret speakeasy this year, so if you were here last year, we had the fun like speakeasy. It's not in the same place, so there's a new speakeasy location to go and find with like To someone's point on snacks, fun snacks and kind of like surprising things in there. Happy Hour this day is 3:30 to 5:00, and then most notably the Big Party is from 5:30 to 8:00. For those who are new or maybe don't know the vibe of the Big Party that we've had since we moved it outside, the Big Party is pretty much a giant concert. Cheat Codes is playing this year, who's on my next slide, which is super fun. And yeah, if you don't know them yet, you know, YouTube it or put in Spotify or listen to it on the plane. And then you'll be like, oh, I probably already know some of these songs. So yeah, we're looking forward to that. That's gonna be super exciting. They're coming up from LA to come do this just for SaaStr annual attendees. It's open to all sponsors. So again, you just have to have your badge on you. That's why we always say like wear your badge at all times. Like the badge is your access to the party. And we definitely recommend going. Some folks are like, oh, can I just, you know, miss the big party, etc.? Is it mandatory? Like, nothing's ever mandatory, but I will say a lot of attendees do go to this. So it's a good idea to go. And like, I know a lot of people have done like different sponsor swag that day. Like, I know this sounds crazy, like we've had sponsors now for a few years, like wear something during the day at their booth and then wear something special for the big party so that like they're a team of people. So we've I've seen folks do like custom, just like t-shirts that are just like for their team during the big party that are like bright or colorful or whatever it is. Again, the whole point is to have fun and like it is still a great way to like meet prospects and stuff because a lot of attendees go to the big party. So yeah, I mean, it's super fun if you want to get some last minute rush order tees or do something fun with your team or like, you know, the big party is, it's a good time. Coming through our last day Friday, this is like our A, I, and V day. Onsite reg opens at 8 o'clock this day. Sponsor hall opens at 9. And a few things we wanna cover on the last day. Again, your booth return key. So if at any point you're like, okay, sponsor doesn't start until 5:30, but I've got team members that need to leave on flights at like 4 or 7 or whatever it is, and they need to factor in travel time, your booth return key. So like if you have nothing you wanna send back to your headquarters, home base, distributed base, your personal home base, wherever that might be. If you've got nothing left, you can literally just walk away from your booth when you are ready to do so. If you do have things you want to ship back to either HQ or somewhere else, someone's house, whatever it may be, or a warehouse, then you will need to wait and do that during the official sponsor loadout hours and get with Freeman Exhibitor Services in order to make sure your stuff gets back to you. Some of you though, like if you run through all your swag, et cetera, then you are good. I know some folks kind of like stay like an hour into happy hour, kind of see how it goes and start to trail off. It's again up to you. It is 100% up to you when you wanna do that. It just depends on if you wanna come back with anything else or send anything back, but there's nothing you have to like physically do. Once you're all set on loadout. This does go until 9, so you know, that is a fair amount of time if you do have any boxes or stuff you want to get out with you, or if you want to, you know, utilize the full span of the happy hour, you're obviously encouraged and more than welcome to do so, but 100% up to you. With that, I know we only have a few minutes, so I'm going to do a final Q&A. I know David has been powering through about 30 questions so far. We try to answer some of these live, but if you have any more questions, please drop them in here and we will answer them. Someone has, has asked for happy hour sponsors, where within the hangars will Freeman be dropping shipments off? I think I know who this is, so I'll respond to you in an email so that you have those details. Let's see, German recommend having food activations open during happy hours. Yep, I think we answered that, and the recommendation is yes, if at all possible. Is— will swag that is sent to the advance warehouse be in our booth on September 5th for early load-in? Yeah, that's the idea in theory, is that if you ship to the advance warehouse, it'll be at your booth for you. I do know I have seen some shipments here already, so they've already started that process. Um, but yeah, in theory that's the idea. It does, however, I'm gonna ask for that, depend on when it got to the Advanced Warehouse. So like, if for some reason I got there after the deadline, then it may not be there on Tuesday. It may just be there like Wednesday morning for you. Um, it does depend on when it got there. So if you experience any delays, um, then it may be Wednesday at the latest. But most of the stuff is that came early or by the deadline is already here. Um, Expensify chat, someone's wondering if there's Is there a separate app to download? No. So all you have to do is download the FASTR Events app, which I'll scroll back to. Mobile app. Yeah, it's just called FASTR Events. If you click this link, it'll take you to the App Store if you have a Mac, or if you do this on your phone later, it'll take you right to the app where you can just search for FASTR Events. And like I said, there is a button on the homepage that is chat embedded. So all you have to do is click that link, it'll automatically take you to chat. So you don't have to download anything else, which is really nice. Download the South for Events app and the chat is embedded for you. Um, someone else is down. I'm trying to decipher this so I can make it relevant to the group.
Well, I'll just add you can download the new Expensify app and chat there too if you prefer. It works in both places. Yes, but it's a new Expensify.
Yep. Yeah, good call out. Um, Is there somebody who can help? Okay, I'm gonna try to make this question relevant for the group. So just on the monitors, as we've noted, it is just an HDMI hookup. If there's something you wanna run specific to your monitors, you do need to have the dongles or the equipment to do that. So if there's something you're trying to run on multiple monitors, I know for like Platinum app, there's more than one monitor in your booth, I definitely recommend getting those like Fire Stick or like Apple TVs to plug in because they plug into the USB, and then that will enable you to play whatever it is that you're wanting to play kind of separately. So that is the best way to do that. Otherwise, you are going to have to plug in one device to each HDMI. So just a general rule of thumb, if you've got multiple monitors or if you don't want your monitor to be— or if you don't have a spare, right, to plug into the HDMI, then utilize either an Amazon Fire Stick or Apple TVs. Amazon Fire Sticks, I think, are about $20, so they're cheaper than the Apple TVs, and they just plug right into the HDMI. You can have that at home, you know, if you have Prime or whatever, and it ships to you. You can also sometimes get these at like Target or Best Buy if you need to pick one up here, and they're really easy to just mirror to and drive your content that way. Someone else has said, I did not know we have to have our flag delivered instead of hand carrying. So we cannot walk in with our flag. That is correct. You cannot walk in with boxes. You would need to again utilize that shipment, the Freeman Sponsor Freight Services in the west parking lot. You will need to walk up there and have them receive your shipment and manage the delivery for you. So you absolutely have to do that. If you forget, if you go to a different registration group, they are going to send you around to this west parking lot. So better if you go there the first time rather than coming to a different point and trying to sneak them in. There's definitely no sneaking. I know it's a big property and you're like, ah, CASPR can't see everything. There's a lot of people on this campus on the production team. Please don't try and hand carry things in. It's also a safety issue, right? We don't want people to drop anything. It's kind of a far walk from place to place. So definitely utilize this, you know, Freeman sponsor freight services in the west parking lot. You'll see their tent nice and big. That's where you go for any last minute deliveries. So another person has asked, I shipped my stuff to the advanced warehouse, but it got delayed. Assuming this is okay, but you may incur late fees. That is correct. But also, again, depending on when it gets there to Freeman, if it gets delayed again, it is a holiday weekend. It just may not arrive, you know, on Tuesday. It may arrive some of the subsequent days of SAS Preannual due to the delay. Someone has asked if dogs are allowed on campus. Um, as much as I love dogs and have multiple dogs in my home, um, they are not allowed on campus. So dogs are not allowed, um, you will need to board them. There are a few places nearby, um, that have kind of like all-day dog boarding if someone is attempting to bring their dog, um, but yeah, they're not allowed, um, on campus there. Next question here, can we come in with bags, with bags that we have? So again, the rule of thumb is if you can carry it in your hands, like bags, that is, but like not if you're trying to bring like, you know, like your entire arms are like loaded up with bags. Again, hazard and something that's gonna be flagged. If you're unsure, 'Cause I know the rules are a little bit complicated and they're hard to keep in line. You may not be sure, you may be nervous about this. Just go to the Freeman-sponsored freight services in the West parking lot. They will help get your stuff from point A to point B. And also it'll be a lot easier, like if you're bringing a lot of bags and technically you could hand carry it, but it's really heavy and you don't wanna drop it and you don't wanna like attendees to bump into you 'cause you might drop it. Again, if you're unsure, utilize, this address, utilize this tent and services that they'll have for you guys to get your stuff from, you know, the parking lot or any deliveries coming in last minute to where your actual booth is. Like, kind of like checking your bag on the airplane, right? Like, they'll take your stuff and then in a little bit you'll have your stuff delivered right to you at your booth. And it's a lot easier than like, you know, trudging through the airport with all your stuff. So again, if you're unsure, just utilize that address, utilize that service. There is a fee for it, but please use that. Here's a related question here. Can I bring a box? A box is— no, like a box is over the limit of things you can hand carry. If it fits in your backpack, you're good. If it's a box, a box is not allowed. So a box would need to be through this same process we've just outlined. Again, if you're unsure, If you think you're going to get flagged, if you think you're not going to get away with it, utilize this. This is why they're there. This is what they're there for. Do not bring any boxes. Boxes are a no. It needs to fit in your bag. Yeah.
Amelia, a few questions about laptops. I assume people can carry in their own laptop, like for example, put it in your backpack or just holding your laptop is not a problem, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Laptops are okay.
Like bringing in your own personal stuff is not an issue.
Correct. It's boxes that are in it. Boxes of any size need to go through Freeman. It's not that they're an issue, they just need to go through Freeman.
And that's for both loading in and loading out?
Correct. Yes. So there's a related question here of like, can I just bring in like a handcart or like a wagon to take my stuff out of the event? That's not allowed either. So to David's point, it's for either loading in or loading out. You'd need to utilize sponsor services there. A few last questions we'll try and answer because I know we're at time. If we do use the service, will they deliver it, deliver it to our booth? Yes, that is where they're going to take it by default. They're going to take it to your booth because that is your home base. So again, guys, please utilize this. That's what it's there for. If you're not sure, utilize this anyway. If you're not sure and they're like, you can bring that in, then that's on that, like, right? Like, let them make that decision for you of how stringent or how lenient they may be able to be. Again, it's not up to them either. There's a lot of venue rules and regulations that they're trying to abide by to keep everyone safe. So again, bear that in mind. Use this West parking lot for sponsor, like, last-minute deliveries. They are there to help you do this. That's why they're there. They have a dedicated team just to do this. Cool. Someone else has asked, confirming the drop-off in the West Parking Lot is available all— including load-in day? Yep, they'll be there on load-in day as well. So, um, and last question we'll answer here because I know we're at time. Is it possible for non- registered employees to participate in the Expensify chat room for the speaker session we have? Only if you designate them as part of your speaker team as a room admin. So that's a little bit of a complicated question, only because one, you'd have to have a sponsored speaker session. I will say we recommend it's people that are going to be on site just so that, you know, if you want to direct folks to where to find you guys, you know, before or after a session, etc., then they have a place to go and do that. If I know we— I know the speaker team is reaching out to folks today and tomorrow with kind of like dedicated links for speakers. If you do have a speaking session of how to utilize chat, the chat room links, etc., that would be the best email to reply to once you do get that email in the next day or so. If you wanna nominate somebody else on your speaker team to have access to the chat. Okay, with all that being said, I know this has been a long webinar. We covered a lot of questions. We did record everything. The deck is in the chat. We'll also send it out to everyone. And I know this is like very logistical-based, like there's floor plans behind me, but honestly, the best parting advice and final words we have for you guys is like, this is gonna be an exciting event. Like, I know a lot of the energy around SaaStr is very different from like traditional like trade shows or conferences. Like, again, it's indoor, it's outdoor, it has a festival vibe. Like, we want to give you all these logistics so you are set up for success. You're obviously coming to these webinars. We want to make sure, you know, it's not that we are trying to be so stringent and directive like deliveries and stuff. There's just, you know, 12,000 people that are going to be on site. We're doing it in the, you know, in the air of everyone's safety and comfort ability to make sure everyone comes and has a really good event, has a really good time at FASTR Annual. We've been loading up for like a whole week and it's getting really exciting. Like the grounds look super good so far. Like you guys are gonna be so impressed. Like again, come have a good show. Don't stress these things on like deliveries and stuff, right? Like that's why they're there in the last—
it'll work out. It'll work out.
It'll work out.
Lean into the fun.
Totally. Yes. Like that's why they're all here on site to help you guys. Like Again, you should focus on the things you guys should focus on, right? Which is like scanning attendees, having really great conversations, all that stuff. The other stuff, again, if your, you know, shipment is late by a day, it's okay, it's off, whatever. You have a last-minute delivery, it will work out, right? At some point it will get to your booth. It is okay. Like, the attendees don't know that your stuff was late. Only you know that. Um, so focus on what you can control and have come, you know, come to have a really great event. There's gonna be a lot of folks to meet and interact with throughout the entire campus. So kind of my last parting words of advice. I know we'll see a lot of you Tuesday, but in the meantime, if you have any questions, obviously you can reach out to us and we will see you here soon.
See you soon.
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