SaaStr Insider Webinar: Europa 2023 Preview

Nice to see everyone. Hello, SaaS fans.

Hello, SaaS fans.

Yes. Not a first-time caller, but a many-time listener at that. So there's that. Yeah. It's nice to see everyone.

Long-time listener.

Long-time listener. Here for a while. Here for a while. It's good to see everyone. Good to be here. Good to be back. I had a little bit of a sabbatical, I'd say, for what, about a year or so.

Yeah.

But we're up and running. So it's good to be here.

Yeah, exciting times. I thought with— well, one, we would just tell our audience that one, that Brian is back today. Join me as a co-host. And also, we thought it would be fun since both Brian and I have done Europa for a couple of years now to give everyone a preview of SAS Europa 2024. How does that sound?

I'm making a drum roll. No one can hear it, but I'm actually banging on my desk in drum roll fashion.

Well, cool. And we can talk a little bit about some of the post-Annual stuff if you guys missed it last week at the end. But we wanted to focus this week's webinar and try and keep it— we've been trying to keep these ones maybe closer to 20 minutes or so, keep it tighter so that you— they're a little bit more digestible. I know leading up to Annual, a lot of these are like hour-long and a lot of information. So yeah, we're trying to We'll try and keep it to about, you know, 20 minutes, of which I've already used 3 or 4. 15 left. Let me go into full screen here. So Sashpi Europa, maybe for those who don't know, because we've been talking so much about South Granville for the last few months, this is going to be our 4th Sashpi Europa. And the— or is it the 5th? Maybe I'll count them in a second. It might be the 5th. I'll count them in a second. Yeah, that's the fifth.

Is it? Okay, yeah.

Yeah, it's the fifth. Okay, cool. Yeah, this is our— some people, like, a lot of people always ask us, like, what's the difference between Europa? Like, is it the same audience? Like, you know, especially I think from a sponsorship perspective. I think from an attendee perspective, right, there's a lot of different— there's completely different speakers. And so that's kind of straightforward or more self-explanatory. But from a sponsor's perspective, yeah, It is quite different. We actually just ran the data now having had Annual just last month, and we actually saw minimal crossover in terms of direct audience between the two events. So like same demographics of like CEOs, founders, sales, marketing, all that, but literally just a small contingent of like actual overlap between the two events in terms of attendees. So what you're getting is pretty much a distinct audience between the two events. There's like, a 3% overlap in superfans that literally went to all of our events this year. So kudos to those people racking up miles. Yeah, 3% is not a lot. So yeah, definitely a unique audience to SaaStr Europa, but the same SaaStr community, you know, and love, you know, SaaStr CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, and revenue leaders. So yeah, that's kind of the gist of SaaStr Europa there. We are gonna be back in London for 2024. So, um, we've, we've never repeated a venue for Europa, for fun fact, until now. So this is exciting times because I feel like there was so much more we wanted to do at the Bacchadoc, um, now that we did it this year, that we're taking all of those really good learnings and putting them into 2024. It's a great venue, as you know. Um, I know Brian's been to, like, it's open air, which is nice. So, um, if you've been to Annual and you haven't done Europa yet, And it's, it's a festival vibe, but just on a little bit of a smaller scale. And that, you know, we don't have 48— you can't really get 48 acres.

Yeah, but plus, if you're a history buff like me, it's got some great history, which I love. So it's really got a cool history to it. It looks historical at that. So it's very, uh, it's very England. It's very England. I love it. It's a good spot.

It's very British. Um, it's very central, which I think a lot of people loved about the venue this year, right? You can get there from the tube and then walk. You can get there from the Channel. If you're coming from the airport, it's in central London. So again, if you're in central London, it's easy to get to anything else too, if you're going to customer meetings, stuff like that. We actually ended up really liking this venue this year, and we want to do more with it because we did not utilize the entirety of the space this year. So that's what we're planning to do for next year. So that's exciting times. We'll be back in June. So we've historically had Europa the first week of June. So we're keeping that intact for next year, the 4th and the 5th. Listen, this year was great weather. Um, uh, you know, fingers crossed great weather next year. It's, it's— I know, oddly as it sounds, sometimes it can get a little warm in London. You're like, what?

It's the right time to be in London at that.

It really is.

Yeah, all my, all my London friends listening to this, and also that, uh, message me right now about how cold and, and cloudy it is right now, they look forward to June. So it's a good time to be there.

Yeah, no, it's, it's a great time to be there.

Speaking of, look at the cloud. Look, the clouds have parted.

Right, it will look like this. Yeah. Of our event. It's a good simulation. So yeah, we talked a little bit about Europa. So yeah, Europa. And so how it all started, because, you know, next year is actually the 10th anniversary of SAS for Annuals, this will be the 5th anniversary of SAS for Europa. We did 2 years in Paris. So it actually started back in 2018 was the first Europa we did, because we we had a lot of annual sponsors and a lot of the community. Again, as I mentioned earlier, it is the same people, the same kind of demographics of our SaaS community, but not the same people, right? So it kind of opened up a new exposure to the community. And a lot of folks have been asking us for a long time, please go to Europe, please go to Europe. Yeah, we did 2 years in Paris. It started off really small, took a break for, you know, something in 2020.

Yeah, something that happened in 2020.

I'm not gonna say it on the livestream. Yeah, um, something that happened. And then, yeah, we, we brought it back to Barcelona. It was, um, yeah, Brian was there. It was like open air, really fun.

It was a party. It was a party. It was a SaaS party. Yeah, one of the big pieces of feedback from Barcelona was just how many members of the community were there, um, and yeah, how, how like alive the energy was, the atmosphere was.

So yeah, yeah. And we, you know, I think it's funny— not maybe not funny— a few folks were concerned when we took it from Barcelona to London. They're like, 'Ah, it's gonna kill the vibe.' And we're like, 'I don't know, it's indoor-outdoor, it's like on the dock, like not the same kind of water, but it is on the water. Like, we're gonna, you know, it's the community that really creates the vibe.' Um, and then I think, yeah, they were kind of, you know, pleasantly surprised that it was the same vibe. Yeah, yeah, it just in London, you know, so like, you know, a little different food for sure. Same vibe, different city.

Good food at that, excellent food. Um, it's all about the food.

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, we kind of looked at all the data, um, we looked at the data from Manuel again to see if there was overlap. I think too, if you, you know, just on the sponsor lens of it, valid concern pre-event going into London this year, you know, like, will there be more overlap between the two events because it's in London? So it's more central, right? It's easier to get to than Barcelona. Um, but yeah, you know, survey says not huge overlap there, like less than 3%. So, um, you get this awesome and epic community of, you know, of the staff community that can only come to these things that are in Europe, right? For one reason or another, you know, it is very cost prohibitive to get to the States, let alone annual, right? So it's always like kind of a trek and a mecca, and a lot of people do make the journey, but some of them just make the journey to Europa. So, um, yeah, we'll probably have closer to 4,000 people for, for the 2024 event. That's kind of what we're— that's honestly what we're tracking to. So fun fact, if you haven't seen it yet, the, the website is up, we're selling sponsorships, and tickets are being sold, and tickets are already ahead of where they were last year. And last year they were really ahead of where they were for Barcelona. Um, so Yeah, this one I always, I think I was talking about this a lot with Europa because it's near and dear to my heart because there's always been a Europa since I started. So it's nice to always see it. It is, you know, it is such a fun event. It's just at such a good size. Like, you know, I think 4,000 is the right amount where you could talk to almost everyone in 2 days, right? If you're doing it right, you can have a lot of meaningful conversations. And again, these are people who are again like Europe-based. So, you know, we do get— usually the host city is the most populous city that sends delegates. So yeah, last year, like the UK, not counting Brexit, we counted all of the UK. It's confusing for us Americans. We counted the UK as like, you know, the top delegate country. And so I'm sure that's how it will track this year. But, you know, there's people from all over Europe. There is actually too, I think about 10 to 15% that come from the US and Canada and make the journey that way if they've got London arms and London offices. But yeah, it's a great demographic of folks who are coming that are European-based. So if you sell to European companies or, you know, European companies that have an international presence, this is really where you wanna be 'cause Saastr comes to Saastr Europa. Anything I missed there, Ryan?

No, I think you hit the nail on the head. For those that have been Saastr fans and followers for a long time, I think very naturally Europa's following a very similar path in terms of attendance, which is really exciting for us. Because every year we see it grow even more in the mid-market and enterprise space. And I wouldn't expect anything different in this year. It's just getting wider and more popular. And so it's a very enthusiastic community too. Anybody that knows the European SaaS community, it's a very enthusiastic community. They're very engaged. So they usually come to this show and they're very, they don't waste time, which I love. So it's a good spot to be in.

Yeah, I would say too, that's a great point because it is 2 days. It is like a lot in the span of 2 days. But to Brian's point, you know, we waste— we spare no moment to spare. Like everything is full of either networking or content or a chance to interact with sponsors. So we kind of already talked about our audience, but again, same SaaS community that you know and love, just with that focus of, you know, most of them are coming from within Europe and mostly from the UK because that is the Hill Country for the year. So, you know, mostly C-level, C-level and director-level executives, um, split between, you know, CEOs, sales, marketing, and then, yeah, a fair amount of investors if that's something that's near and dear to you. Uh, yeah, I think we've talked about this a bit. So yeah, great, great audience that comes there. Um, the other thing I was going to say just before we go to the actual booth packages and stuff, um, just on SaaS Europa, it's such a good point too that, like, you know, this audience that comes to Europa, they want to do business, right? And I think folks actually saw that this week, got that commentary and feedback from folks who did both Europa and Annual this year, right? I think sometimes staff, or if you don't know it as much, you can sometimes lump it into like, oh, it's, you know, like a Dreamforce or like an Inbound or like any of those just big tech conferences where people just, you know, there are people there who are serious, but then there are people who are there to just like, It's swag. And I think we had some really great feedback from our sponsors this year who did both, who said, you know, they didn't really run into that in Europe and they were happily surprised they did not run into that at this year's annual and that everybody was there, you know, to get stuff done, if you will. And I think that's a little bit too of the nature of how things are going in SaaS and tech, right? I think everyone is very ROI-focused, ROI-focused. You know, driven. They either want to, you know, make a sale, close the deal, or make a good connection, or make a really good hire. I know a lot of people were on like trying to recruit a bunch of people. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think that's a positive indicator too, that like these people are coming. Yeah, they're coming for 2 days, and like they are coming seriously, right? To seriously talk to vendors, like to seriously talk to our sponsors, to learn from these speakers that we bring. Um, and I do think SASH New York was a bit different in that We do try and stay away as much as we can from just European SaaS company speakers, meaning like we either want folks who are global, et cetera. So, you know, this last, just this last June, we brought like Loom, UiPath, right? Those are huge global companies. Like they're not constrained to just the US or they're only Europe specific. I know Cockroach Labs, they're a big US company, right? So yeah, I think that's the differentiator from us too. We actually make a point to almost not to do that. Because we know there's a lot of conferences that do do that, and there's obviously a time and place for it, but we like to be a bit more distinctive. So we do bring, you know, US speakers as well as international to Europa that are doing international business. So from that perspective too, I think that's, that's why it draws the community it does in London. And I would say too, if you've never sponsored an after event, it's hard to tell from these photos, but it is something where we make the sponsors really the focus of the event. And I think sometimes we've heard it's a little overwhelming for folks because a few people were like, I could never leave my booth at annual because there was always people coming up, which is a great problem to have, right? Of like, we do center and we do literally architect the entire floor plan to be around the sponsors, the sponsor hall, and the content. So that wherever, you know, whatever it is, if it's in the morning, if it's during happy hours, if it's in between sessions, like there is constant foot traffic, which is what I love about our SAFTER events. But it can be, you know, it's a lot of conversations. So that is one thing to bear in mind. It's like to make sure if you are thinking about sponsorships, you know, we can help you make sure you staff accordingly. But it is something where like, you know, you can see here, like they've all brought like a lot of team members with them. Because yeah, it's kind of constant conversation.

Yeah. And I think you'll see too, when we get into the sponsorship packages, it's an intimate environment. So coming back to your floor plan point, the spaces are just different, right? Like when we do the fairgrounds for annual, it's such a wide and open space that we're creating the intimacy. When we go into like a tobacco docks, that space is already filled. Feels intimate. So our booths feel that way too. And this way you are actually, the more team members you have, like in this case, you see the team members they're bringing, there's team members are not just standing at the booth to Amelia's point. They're out engaging in different parts of the event. They're going to see some content. They're also meeting with people. It's, it's an ongoing interaction between all the different aspects that, and activations that happen on site. So yeah, I think it's a good call out.

Yeah, fair point. Okay, so let's go into the booth packages before We ran out of my proverbial deadline here on time. The gold package for Europa, this is turnkey. It is actually slightly different from what you guys may have seen at AD&OL. So that's why we wanted the photos of what the folks had this year. So it's a branded back wall. You can see her from Zendesk. It's that branded welcome counter as well as a monitor that you can either use or not use, up to you. And yeah, again, it's turnkey. So you send us the design, we do the back wall. And then the front kiosk is that big kind of like logo treatment. So this is our entry-level option for Europa. Again, there's no bad boots at Europa. So if this is the only like option that is in budget, there's no bad boots. The Golds are really turnkey too. If maybe you haven't sponsored a big event like Zafra yet, they're really great entry-level packages. There's no bad Gold boots on the floor, I would say.

Yep, I agree.

Super Gold is always— I don't know, I don't want to say it's my favorite of our packages. Actually, I think the Diamond Parade was my favorite because they were so tall. But Super Gold I do love. I do think, you know, this is the one to me that is always the most feasible if you have the budget for it. You know, it's an 8x4, which means you do get that bigger kind of branded back wall, but you do have space for an activation, right? When you're in the Gold, you're in a 6x4. It's just not enough space to have you, your team, and all the furniture we just mentioned, like it's pretty constrained. So it's pretty much just, you know, again, it's turnkey, which is great, makes it a lot easier to show up and like bring swag and stuff like that. But there's not space and accommodations for activation. So I really like the Super Gold in which you have enough space to do an activation, right? You get a bit of a bigger branded back wall and presence. And so I think it's just nice because you can use it more of like a billboard style. So yeah, the Super Gold, I think again, that's the biggest call out there is the space for the activation.

I completely agree. It's also my favorite, to be frank. I think it's very accessible. Well, because I think there's the golds, there's so many golds. And that's, and that's, again, we, there's no such thing as bad booth. So if that is your budget, we want you there. And that's great. But if you're looking to stand out just a little bit more, this is that way. Yeah.

So yeah, yeah, there's definitely a way to do that. I know Vertice brought like a putting green, a lot of the other sponsors did like activations with us through the venue. So yeah, it's Super Goal for Fun because you get that space and like optionality to have an activation. And if you guys missed us talking about it last week, we saw that at SaaStry Annual, the folks who had an activation had about 60% more leads than those without. So, you know, if you want to capitalize on that momentum to get, you know, again, more leads, more ROI, which is top of mind for everyone, then yeah, I think we always try and recommend, we try and anchor on the Super Goal, if you will. It's our favorite for a reason, right? It's fairly accessible. There are reasons, however, to go Platinum, right? So if you want a big presence on site, like Greenhouse has this branded wall, it was also branded on the back. It's a 12 by, it's about a 12 by 4 space. They actually had a little, they ended up with a little bit more. So they had a bit of a lounge, they had a popcorn activation that brought people in. You get this huge, nice branded wall, right, to make an entrance. And you do get a speaking session with the Platinum. So it's a 15-minute speaking session, great way to get, you know, your CEO or revenue leader on stage in front of this audience, in front of this community. And it does have like first right of refusal for activations, meaning, you know, there's only so many activations that can be accommodated in any venue between Europa or Annual. And so we always give our most top tier sponsors the first right of like Refusal, meaning they get to choose first from activations and then the Super Gold get to choose next. So yeah, anything on speaking, Brian, I might have missed there.

No, I just, again, if you're not used to our speaking guidelines, we do have guidelines that are very important for our speaking. So if you're unfamiliar, just to call out, it's a good thing to go and maybe go and see some of our old sessions and try to dive in there. But we try to keep things pretty tactical, pretty, pretty much in a way that I could leave that session and go and take it and apply it to my business today. And it's a big goal, right? So it's a little bit of a different, I would say, feel than like we don't want obviously you to go up and do pitches or things of that nature. That's not on par with us, right? But I do call that out because it is a little bit of a curve. I do know that there's some areas where that can be acceptable in the world. It's not a SaaStr acceptance. So I just want to call that out. Really important. The sessions are well attended. They do have a lot of exposure. This one's included on the main agenda. So like things like that, there's a lot of double thumbs up like for Roger and Ebert, but at the same time, just some nuance, I would say.

Yeah, that's a good point on the sessions and going back and watching them. And obviously it's something our team can help you work through. Yeah. And so yeah, I think, you know, that is the meat of what we wanted to review today. So I know Brian, you've been not only, you've been active during your sabbatical and I know like advising a lot of companies in the meantime, Yeah, for something like Europa, you know, how should folks think about it when they're thinking about their 2024 planning?

I think that's a great question. I think that there's a lot of exposure aspect that I think some of the companies that I've been advising miss in places like EMEA and APAC, and they want that extra eyes because of the environment, the audience that Saastr produces for Europa, which is very different again than many other, other types of maybe branding or different events that I've seen my advisory companies do. SaaSers, a community tends to come, as we mentioned, to purchase. They are there to do business. And I think that everything in '24 is very ROI-centric and lead-driven, as it should be. Right. And so if you're thinking about, I need demand gen, I need the ability for exposure and have— be able to meld those two worlds very perfectly, that's where Europa is going to be a big help, especially in the first half of 2024.

Yes. Yeah, okay, good points there. I think we'll wrap it on that positive note. We will send out these slides as always for recording. Thanks for joining on the live streams. I know like many of you actually started watching us on LinkedIn. Thanks for watching there. Yeah, we'll send this out. If you guys have any questions, Brian, what's the best way to— you have two emails here, so which email should people use?

Yeah, no, brian@sasterco will work. brian@sasterco.com. You can reach right out to me. You can also get me on LinkedIn, very popular because I'm there always and my phone is connected to me at the hip, so you can get me there. And look, there's a lot of— I'll say this one last piece. There's a lot of ways in which you can activate the SaaStr community and even in Q4. So if you're trying to find things for now or if you're planning for later, there's no real bad time to reach out. So please reach out. We're happy to help.

Yeah. All right. Thanks, guys. As always, we will see you back here next week. Same bat time, same bat signal.

Awesome.

Great to be back. Yeah, good to have you back. Thanks for joining, and we'll talk to everyone later.