SaaStr Insider Webinar: SaaStr 2023 Events Wrapped!

There we go. All right, sweet. So thanks everyone for tuning in. This is our last sponsor webinar of the year. We'll be on holiday break for the next couple Thursdays, but usually we do these every Thursday at 9 AM, usually a SaaStr insider on just what's happening at SaaStr geared more towards our sponsors. Sponsors and partners. Um, and yeah, today we thought we would share a little bit of a recap on the 2023 events. So yeah, without further ado, we'll go ahead and walk you guys through it. So, um, cool. Yeah, so stats to wrap in 2023. Um, yeah, we, we do kind of one of these every year at the end of the year just to kind of share some of the stats. Um, if it's helpful, and then we did a full-on 2024 preview last week. But, and we can touch on that a little bit today as well here at the end in case you missed it. But yeah, so without further ado, our 2023 SaaStr events. So yeah, so SaaStr this year did actually 3 global major events. It was our first year doing 3 rather than 2. So we did our inaugural APAC event this year back in February. We did Europa in London, which was the first London Europa, but the 4th Europa overall. And then Saastr Annual, which if you don't know, is our flagship event, was back in the Bay Area. Waylon, it was your first time. What'd you think about Annual this year?

I thought it was amazing. Like, I've been following Saastr since 2015 and never actually got to make it to event. But yeah, I was blown away. The energy, the vibe, you know, like more of a festival feel, almost like a celebration of SaaS versus kind of a stuffy conference. So yeah, super fun, great time.

Yeah, yeah. Good insights from a newbie, if you will. And yeah, so yeah, our APAC event was the first time one. I know some folks have been asking if we're doing this back in, back in February 2024, which at the moment we are not. So we'll go over our 2024 schedule of events, but we'll probably take a year, a little bit of a year pause there on APAC so we can concentrate more on Europa and Annual. And yeah, Europa next year will be back. In London. Annual is back in the Bay Area, maybe a slightly better week than right after Labor Day. But yeah, these events will be back in 2024. So just a little bit of a recap, you know, between the 3 events that we hosted this year in person specifically. I think what we, what this doesn't cover and what we're kind of publishing now on saster.com is all the really great fantastic things we've been doing on saster.com with the community. You know, I talk a little bit about Workshop Wednesday here next. But yeah, there's a lot more there. And so, you know, I'd be remiss not to mention some of our media, which is the best way to really get in touch with that broader global SaaS community. But yeah, let's chat about our in-person events a bit. So across our 3 in-person events, which you just saw, we had more than 15,000 SaaS CEOs, revenue leaders, VCs, and investors come together in person, really from across the globe. So I think one thing that is a big differentiator for us, especially for our international events and then also for the annual, is we do get a global community that comes to these events. I do think it's not just local. I actually think sometimes the local audience is not the top delegation of folks who come to these shows. Like the year we did, I guess it was last year, last year when we did Europa in Barcelona, actually the UK was the top country, which is why we moved to London the next year. But it doesn't always, you know, it doesn't always mean there's a direct correlation or that The US is necessarily the top country for the annual. It's sometimes, it sometimes is, it sometimes isn't. So there is a large international market and then yeah, it's not. And then within, you know, the US, it's not always just the area. So yeah, people do travel in for SaaStr. It's kind of crazy to see each year, kind of like the long plane flights people get on to come to these events. So major kudos to those folks if you flew out to a SaaStr event this year. I know from flying to Singapore, I had maybe the reverse experience. So yeah, it is, it was lengthy. I was like, this is a flight. So yeah, it is, it is work to get to our event sometimes when you are international. We have such a big international community. So definitely appreciate you guys jumping on planes to come to these events. And also anyone who was a sponsor this year, obviously that's a big investment too, right? Because you're investing in people, multiple people hopping on planes from around the world to be part of the sponsorship team. So, so So yeah, it was a, a really great year for our events. You know, we're gonna keep chugging and steaming ahead for next year. And then, yeah, one thing I just wanted to call out, 'cause I do think there is a bit of sponsor overlap here. It was our first full year of Workshop Wednesdays. So we started these in at the end of Q4 2022. So '23 was our first year of like full-on live Workshop Wednesdays every Wednesday. I think we only missed 1 or 2 maybe. I don't know. I was like, we're even doing one next week. So I actually don't know if we've missed any. I think we did do 52 weeks of Workshop Wednesday. And yeah, these are really great if you haven't been to them yet. We just did one yesterday. You can watch the replay on our YouTube. Yeah, these are great. They're interactive. Again, I always stress to folks, like, you know, if you want to get in front of SaaS or it's a both, it's a mix of in-person and digital because our community is so big that there's a lot of really great ways through media and things like Workshop Wednesday to get in front of folks that, you know, are either also in person or maybe not in person. Because again, it is, it is work to show up in person for these things. And yeah, Workshop Wednesdays, if you don't know, we kind of bring fan favorite speakers. It's interactive. We have had, you know, previous speakers even just in attendance in the audience. We've had some of our sponsors and CEOs in the audience. Really great mix of folks that are coming to these Workshop Wednesdays every Wednesday. They're super interactive. You know, you start to get to know folks on the Zooms that come every week. So thanks to the regulars that we've had, or if you drop in, every week that you can or watch it back. Thanks to you as well. But we had more than, I think when I looked yesterday, more than, you know, 30,000 views combined across all of our workshops, which is fairly good. That, that's not even all the views. I think I didn't count like, I don't know, all the live streams. I just counted YouTube. So I'm sure it's more than that. But yeah, a really solid mix of events and I would say Workshop Wednesdays and everything we do on saster.com and all the newsletters and all that stuff. Is really like our, you know, our drumbeat throughout the year. It keeps everything ongoing. It keeps everything evergreen. Again, this is not inclusive of everything. We didn't even talk about CRO Confidential on this, which was a hit this year. But yeah, lots of, lots of really great things for both our— I kind of consider Workshop Wednesday a digital event every week. And then our in-person events. Anything you want to add on our events for this year, Waylon?

Yeah, I'll just say like I think Workshop Wednesday, the attendance is great, but I think if people really knew how tactical those sessions are, I think that, you know, we'd have even more people there. So I would definitely check those out. Super tactical, great speakers. And like Emilia said, there's that interaction. You get to ask questions. I talk to people all the time who ask me like, how can I actually get more involved in the SaaS community? I think Workshop Wednesday would be my number one recommendation because you can build relationships with the people that you see there every week. You're going to meet other founders, other executives. You know, asking questions that are relevant to you. Those are great people to connect with though. Great, great way to interact with the SASTR community.

Yeah, that's a, that's a really great point. And it looks like Brian has now joined us. We got a whole party for the last webinar of the year. Brian, I know you've been to a number of SASTR in-person events throughout the year, but you also, fun fact, do, you know, I would say, do you call yourself an influencer?

I don't know.

Yeah, I was like, you've done other events though that are not, you know, just Saastr. I know, Waylon, you've also been to a ton of events that are not just Saastr. So give us your perspective maybe on how they're different, or, or, or, or, or shall we say better? I don't know.

Our in-person side? Well, look, I think here's the thing, right? We approach it from a whole different angle. I think Saastr has always done a really great job of making this a festival. A festival. And that sounds weird, but in our first 2 years of me being with the company, we used to— it wasn't— it was like under tents and there was mascots. Now mind you, we, according to how we've built it in advance, we're back in, in like a mixed environment and we're indoors as well with our expo. But that festival feel hasn't stopped. In fact, last year I think we're the only festival that had a zipline that I know of. So There's just like things that we do to make interactive elements come to life at SaaStr. We want our, we know the reasons why our attendees come, right? They come because they want to get really great content that they can use tactical strategies to bring back and deploy internally. That's the first thing. The second reason, they want to see what's hot in SaaS. Like why do our expo, why does our expo hall exist? Because our sponsors know Did I just, am I, I just went away. Where am I? There I am, sorry.

It's really weird.

Our sponsors know, our sponsors know that when they deploy their product inside the expo hall, they're able to showcase what's best in class in SaaS today. So that's the second reason. And I think the third is that the people that attend know that when they go, they're gonna have fun. It's not stuffy, it ain't Vegas. There's lots of windows, there's plenty of outside time. And we want people to engage in that way.

Yep. That's true. And Waylon, I know you came from Canada to come to AWOL this year. You're, you're technically one of our international delegates. So yeah. How is that coming to the Bay Area versus, cause I know we've been to a bunch of shows in Vegas just for like learnings and stuff. How is it coming to the Bay Area versus, you know, Vegas, which is a hotspot or New York or something like that?

Yeah, it's super easy. There's, there's so many direct flights. So. You know, it's about 4.5 hours in. So it wasn't bad at all. I think that, you know, it's such a big airport in San Francisco that like kind of no matter where you're coming from, you're going to have a lot of daily flight options and direct. That's the key.

Yeah, it is easy. And I know you popped up to the city too, right? So that's kind of handy about the annual.

Absolutely. I talked to so many people who come to SaaStr annual and then they bookend it with like, you know, some meetings in San Francisco. So it's a great way to like plan a trip around and go visit some customers, hit up SaaStr.

Yep. Yep. Great way to do it. All right. Well, only more, only more good things to come in 2024 on these events. But before we get to that, a quick recap on some of our sponsor numbers specifically across our events this year. So, you know, like we said, we had about 15,000 delegates on site across, this is across all 3 events, about 212 sponsors, I think if I added it up right. Across our events. Interestingly, more than 50,000 lead scans by sponsors across our events, right? So again, to the point of why do we have an exhibit hall and do lead scan, are people actually scanning these days? They are. We did have a, this is our first time having a true London pub at one of our events, which was a hit. As some of you might know, we do speakeasy at the annual, which we try to do. We do try and move locations of the speakeasy every year, so it's not easy for our alumni to find. But yeah, we do a speakeasy on site, which is fun. Little Coachella reference, if you will. We, and then yeah, this is, this is an interesting note. And then I know you guys have both done Braindates, so I'll let you jump in on this one too. We, we had 25,000 attendee connections made on Braindate this year. And it's actually, they wrote this up, not me. So I linked it to, I linked this to the article in case you wanted to fact check me. But it was one of the top 3 most successful events, I guess, in Braindate history. 25,000 connections made. If you click the article, we are, we, you know, we love our partners at Salesforce, but this was actually more connections than was made at Dreamforce, which I think is super interesting. So yeah, one of the top 3 most successful events in Braindate history. You guys have done Braindates. What, you know, what's your take on why maybe We smashed it outta the park. So, so much on these Brain Dates.

Well, I think that, you know, SaaS are first and foremost, it's a community, it's about sharing, you know, how do you grow and scale companies? And obviously going to sessions is amazing and seeing speakers, but a lot of times you wanna talk to other people who are dealing with the same challenges that you are and how they're dealing with those. I think obviously 2023 was a tough year for a lot of people in SaaS. So understanding like what's working out there. So I think There was tons of sessions on that type of content. What are people doing from an outbound perspective now?

Yeah.

You know, are they narrowing their ICP? Like, what things are they doing to advance the business? And I think being able to meet with 3, 4, 5 people with similar problems is just so powerful and connections that you can take back with you after the event is over as well.

Yep. Yep. That's a really great synopsis. Yeah. Speaking of speakers, we had I think it was 121 speakers. It might have been more, so I'm sorry. I just grabbed this.

It's a casual number, isn't it?

Casual over 100. I think there was more. I didn't grab this from the speaker team, so I'm sorry, speaker team. I just grabbed it from my worksheet, I think. So there might have been more. We had 14 stages across our events, which was actually our most ever. I think we may do 1 or 2 less next year to focus it a little more. And I do think too, to Waylon's point, right? So many people love doing the brain dates. We, we've kind of did this new thing this year too on Brain Dates. We did what I'd call, I don't know, I just called it Brain Date Power Hour and then we called it that in the agenda. But yeah, we do these things called Brain Dates Power Hour where we try and, we try and chunk out time at our events where you can just do brain dates, which is, you know, and it is our main networking platform. Like we pour all of our energy to get people to network on it. We do the Southern Meetup VC thing that's a little bit more specific. So, you know, most folks we kind of almost force them to do brain dates. But yeah, we've done these happy hours that was or power hours, I should say. That was new this year. I do think that helped with making connections. And I know a lot of attendees were grateful to have it. And they, I think they want a few more power hours going forward just because it's, you know, it's hard when you're on site, you get caught up in the wave of like, oh, I want to go see this really great speaker or I want to go chat with people in the booth, but you still got to make time for networking. So it's nice that we do this so that you can, you have some downtime, if you will, during the event to actually just focus on either you know, walking the show floor, doing brain dates. It's kind of what it's for there. Yeah, this year. So cheat codes. We have a big party at the SAS Annual every year. I forget the names of the folks who performed at the big party before I got here, but there were a couple of big parties before my time. And then I would say when we started moving to a festival style, to Brian's point in 2021, because we were indoors previous to that, we thought we would go all out, all out, all the festival style and have like a kind of an outdoor concert, if you will, with like a, with a big DJ. So yeah, the, the, the first 2021 festival we had Cash Cash. Last year, personal fave Duke Dumont came to Saster. And then yeah, this year we had Chikkas, which was so fun because they were so interactive with the crowd. I think it was such a fun time. For Foot Whalen, you were there. There?

Did you—

what did you think about the big party? It was your first big party, so it was my first big party.

Yeah, it was awesome. It actually just felt like you were at like a music festival, um, in like, you know, it's like one of the smaller tents for Bonnaroo. Yeah, because we're not putting 80,000 people in there. But yeah, no, super fun.

Yeah, I mean, we almost did, but yeah, I think the fire marshal might be mad at us if we try and overstuff it. But yeah, um, it's always a fun vibe. And yeah, it's, it was so, they were so interactive and such great guys in, in, in Cheat Code. So if you, if you don't know them, listen to them. But yeah, they were on my Spotify wrap this year of, of who I've been listening to. So that was a little funny. Yeah, indoor/outdoor. So yeah, Brian, I know you've, you've been around, we, we've rejiggered this and we did move the sponsor hall inside this year, but this indoor/outdoor thing, because you've been to a lot of other events that are also inside, like For you, what are, what are the key things of this that kind of help as differentiator? Right? Because I know sometimes for folks it is kind of hard for them to wrap their heads around because, yeah, I mean, I, I get it all the time from the production side of folks who are like, you know, the very first time and whatever. March of 2021 when we started planning the '21 annual, as you recall, I, I, I, I went to like, you know, all of our, all of our people and I was like, yeah, so the sponsors are all outside and they were like, No. And I was like, but yeah, anyways. So yeah, what from the— but from a pure sponsor and attendee perspective. Yeah. What, what, what do you see it as?

I still—

it's— I think it's more important, like, well, for me, I always saw it as like a differentiator because I don't know any other events that really true have a true outdoor feel that isn't food or a pool or something like a walk from one location to another.

Right.

This is like the festival's outside. But that said, I think when you think about what does it mean or what does it feel like, I'll just take it from our, our attendees. I still have people reach out to me as like, oh yeah, Saster, like you guys did this outdoors. I'm like, yeah. And because that is such a memorable thing, that's where people go. It's a different trade show. It's not, it's not a convention. It's not a trade show. It's like a different style. Right? It's meant to be where I can sit down on a bean bag and pull up my computer and be outdoors and enjoying the fresh air on a warm, typically, uh, September day. Um, just like not only be able to do my work but also overhear the content that's happening and kind of get a twofer of like a relaxed, fun area with great— surrounded by great individuals. And so I think that's what it offers, right? It's just, it's less stress. It's more opportunity to have fun and engage with the SaaS community. And look, man, like our SaaS community, we're a bunch of weirdos and we get to be weirdos outside. That's how it works.

It's fun. Yeah. And I think, Weyland, you were telling me, I don't know, maybe it was post-annual because you did so many calls with folks, right? After the show of the conversations being different on site, right? So yeah, maybe, maybe share a little bit with those watching.

Yeah. So I think like the fact that it's indoor-outdoor, that it has this festival vibe, it just leads to a different energy, right? When you're in like a, you know, whether you're in Vegas or wherever it is, you're in a hotel and just going through like sponsor halls in separate rooms. It's just, it's just a bit dreary, you know? And so like getting out in the sun being indoor, outdoor, it creates this vibe that's just, it's like being at a music festival where you're just talking to strangers in a way that you're not talking to strangers in an area that's a lot more stuffy, right? People are there having a good time. It's more engaging. And obviously that's perfect for networking.

Yeah. Yeah. I do find that even myself, right? Like when people don't, I mean, I love, we do, we, we did move to double-sided badges this year, which was actually a smart move because You know, I always hate being at these shows and it flips around and then you have no idea who you're talking to. But I think sometimes even, you know, if folks are not cognizant of the fact that I work at Saastr, even when I just, you know, walk around, ride the golf carts, whatever, and folks are like just chatting it up with me, they're like, oh, you work at Saastr. I'm like, like, I just always have good conversations, like even myself. So it's like, there's never a dull moment, right? You're never gonna go, I don't know, whatever it is you're doing, like even just grabbing lunch from the food trucks or, you know, sitting in the coworking space or walking around the show floor. Like I was constantly just chatting it up with just, yeah, random people I didn't know previously. But every conversation was great. And then one thing I didn't put on here as a bullet point, which I should have, 'cause I said I was gonna say it every week until September of 2024, was that we did see more execs this year do quote unquote booth duty. So I do think that's different as well of like, I think the, you know, a big differentiator for us that we always hear is like the number one feedback we got this year specifically from Manuel as well was like the quality of folks that were coming up to the booth was so good, so high, right? Like great conversations. And the folks and the sponsors who had their exec team or a leader in their booth got the most value out of it, right? Because it's like, okay, they have the right folks coming up to them and they have the right person to receive that conversation. And those really transform the best, right? I use the, I use the Xenyi example a lot. And I, and I should say Secureframe did this and so did G2, right? Of like, you know, Goddard was at the G2 booth, Shrav was at the Secureframe booth. Like people had their CEOs, like at Xenyi had their CEO at the booth and those folks like, you know, kind of pretty much almost instantly either close those deals or have really good conversations, right? That are closing now. 'Cause they have that presence and it is something we're trying to encourage everyone to do next year. It's like, You know, not only should you use this as an offsite, which I know our friends at, at BPRO do very well, you know, Massimo brings the entire team with Luca, the rest of his execs. He's always done booth duty, but I think because he's a super fan, so he was an early adopter of this model. But I know the more we can get folks to bring their exec team, not only to like have those conversations in the booth, walk the floor and, and, and experience the show. But also, you know, these folks are using it as offsites, like Bee's been using it for their offsite for the last few years. I know a few others have been starting to do that as well. But yeah, and then, yeah, go ahead, Bryan.

I think also it's, it's, I think it's a really good point about the offsite. I think it's also a place where teams right now are trying to find ways to get more efficient, and yet they still need to see customers. And so we've seen a really great use case where some of our top partners make sure that they're getting tickets for their customers to come see them on site because it's cheaper for that to them to do that than it is for them to fly and travel to each and every one of those top customers. So it becomes a place for you to go meet your, your people at a natural place where they'll be.

So yeah, yeah, that's a great point.

A couple, a couple sponsors I talked to had 50 to 100 face-to-face meetings with people they knew in advance. Either they got them tickets or knew they were going to be there in advance, which is huge obviously. Like to travel to see 100 customers would just be insane.

Yep. Yeah. It's a, it's a really decent point. I think too, we saw more CROs and yeah, more of those buying committees kind of coming to SaaStr because they need to, right? If a lot, a lot of folks on the attendee side are starting to use it as, as offsites as well. So across the board, right? Sponsors are doing it as offsites, attendees are doing it on offsites. They're bringing their customers. I think From, you know, just to maybe recap what Brian and Waylon have said, like when we have spoken to our sponsors who really are great at, and, and are great at measuring this, which I love, like, I know David's not here, but we were just talking to Mercury the other day, you know, large, large finance and banking product. She was like, yeah, you know, a lot of these really are, are converting now, but you know, they measure that. And so some of these too is like, It's, it's such a great touchpoint to have those conversations in person because they are, you know, for lack of a better word, sticky. Like now it's been, you know, almost 2 months since SaaStr, if you will. But some of those conversations are still being had. Right. I know just overall in the market, folks are maybe a little bit slower to buy. So that's maybe dragged out the usual faster conversion. But those folks are still converting right at a higher propensity than, than folks that they never interact with in their base. So that was a good thing to hear too. And like super solid touchpoints. And then yeah, you know, we've already kind of talked about this, but we do kind of different elements across, you know, APAC, Europa, Annual that I haven't seen at other events, but maybe now people will copy us, which does sort of tend to happen. But like this year we had our first container park and a zipline and we did our first, I think we called it the Casino Royale and Royal Casino. What was I typing? But we have a mascot that runs around. Encourage other people to bring their mascots. Yeah, we do the big party, right? Which again is hopefully differentiated from other folks doing their parties and concerts because we do do it outside, right? So it does feel more like a festival than just being in the expo with, you know, whatever main stage was on that day. And yeah, so, so yeah, a lot of, a lot of really great energy and learnings from this year. And then excitingly for next year, We've talked about this a couple times, but the annual turns 10 in 2024. If you're around a couple years ago, SaaStr turned 10. So we kind of celebrated the 10th year of SaaStr as a whole, but now we're gonna be celebrating just the 10th edition of SaaStr Annual, which I think is super fun. So if you didn't get to watch this recent recording that Jason did with Aaron Levy, who's CEO of Box, they actually talk about it in the very beginning 'cause Aaron was like one of the anchor speakers for the very first disaster. You could still watch these recordings on YouTube. It actually amazes me how many people watch these like really low quality recordings. But you know, technology has come far in 10 years with the session recordings and now we livestream everything, right? That really was not a thing back then. So yeah, it's a little funny. It's like, it's like watching it on a VHS, but you know, the content is still really good. Like you'd probably still pop in The Lion King if you had it on VHS because the content is good, right? So yeah. 10 years of the annual. We've— and I'll say this, I know, listen, we have no— I have no qualms against Vegas. I think there's a clear blueprint for how folks do shows in Vegas. I know Google Next is moving to Vegas, right? Salesforce is staying in the Bay for now. We've always had the annual in the Bay, which I think is a differentiator from, you know, something like our APAC event, which could move cities and then the Europe Europa event, which has moved cities, right? Um, we've always been in, in the greater Bay Area, if you will. So in the first few years, we actually were in like SF proper, like in the city. Um, in 2019, we moved to San Jose just so we could get a little bit more space. Um, that was super fun. And then, yeah, in 2021, we moved to— we moved to the San Mateo Fairgrounds, and we've been there since because it has this— it's got 40 acres, which, if you're not familiar with the Bay, is actually a little hard to find that much space that is contiguous. So I do think it's nice though, because, you know, unlike maybe other places like a Nashville or Vegas or even like a San Diego or a New York, like where you're distracted by things, we do create this campus now, which I think is really great. So it is something too where I'm like, I'm always amazed how many people like come early and stay late at the annual because it is almost like being on like, you know, like a Facebook or Google campus. Like we do build it out as a campus so folks can, can be there for their whole days and they really are there their whole days. So yeah, it's fun. And yeah, so, you know, we'll do some fun things for the 10th SaaStr annual next year. But yeah, any, anything you guys want to add here as we turn 10?

I think, I think, look, like 10 is a legacy.

So yeah, that's fun.

That's, um, what we have is, what we have is an established— at this point we're an establishment. We're not going anywhere. It's no longer an experiment as much as it might feel experimental at times. Um, we, we know it works. And so I think that's the reason why if you're watching this, um, you're watching this because you know that we, that we've, we figured out a lot of the things. So, um, 10 is only going to get better. Excited to see what happens in the next 10, right? But frankly, like, it's— we want— we want to find any way in which you can be part of this journey with us. And so, you know, 10 is a good year to start if you haven't done it yet. It's a great year to continue if you've been there before.

Yeah, I think Waylon was like closing deals when we took this photo or something. We always have a hard time getting everyone in, you know, I'm like, whoever's around. That's okay.

If you're going to miss a photo for something, it should be, you know, helping a sponsor get signed up.

Yeah. Or loading. You're probably helping somebody load out, to be honest.

On this one, can I just talk about how excited I am about Europa for a second?

You absolutely may. Yeah.

So just like brief history of Brian, but like when I came in, it was just like we were just coming out of our COVID era, right? Like it was, it was really relaunch time at Saster. And Europa, we flirted with the idea, but it was a flirt. It was like, can we go back? Will it be successful? Will it be fun? And we went, we just decided to like, let's play the chips, right? And we went for it and it was a great show. And every year since, it's been a great—

people talk about it.

And this year, what I'm really excited about is that the on-site attendance will match my first year at annuals onsite attendance.

Oh, that's fun.

So it's kind of like an eclipse. So this is going to be a true great year at London. We'll have over 4,000 people onsite. It's going to be an awesome show. And I'll add one other thing about Europa that's just so different than our US side is that I've never met— and if you're European and watching this, I mean this in the most loving way possible— I've never met a European that goes to a show that isn't laser focused on why they're there, right? Yeah. No waste time in Europe, right? Like, time's precious. It's a commodity. When you're not working, you actually have fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's what Europe is about. Americans, we only know how to work. It's what we do. And so frankly, like, they are there because they're intentional with it. And so those are 4,000 intentional attendees of the CEO, VP level that are there to go and make something happen. Either take something back to go put into play in their own business or go make a business deal happen because that's what they're there to do. So I love this. We're back at Tobacco Docks. We had, we have a little bit of a run my first year. We were in Barcelona. Now we're back at, we then went to London last year. We're now back at Tobacco Docks again. And honestly, the, the, the England crown for a crowd for us is pretty robust. We had great feedback from last year. We're catapulting off that to really to expand upon it for this coming year. I'm just super stoked about London. I totally am. These are— this is my Roger and Ebert two thumbs up for, for Europa this year. Anyway. Okay, I'll get off my, my horse.

No, I think, I think you, you expressed it right on the nose. So yeah, Europa turns 5 this year. So it's fun that we kind of have these milestones for each of these events. And I've been working on kind of a fun sub-team for Europa. So, but yeah, so Europa, yeah, this is a little bit of a differentiator on our Europa and then in theory our APAC event going forward as well as we do move cities typically for these events. So whereas the annual is always in the Bay, Europe is such a big place. It's, it's, it's 2 of us to kind of move places. Yeah, we started just in Paris as like an experiment to see if folks would come to this that don't come to the annual. And so I think that's a differentiator. People are always asking like, well, should I do both? Isn't it the same people who come? There's minimal overlap of folks who come to one or the other. And really it's folks, folks that go to both have, you know, kind of that global presence of like they have an office in the Bay, they have an office in Europe, and that's why they go to both. It is a lot of, you know, again, high-level executives. So that's why they're able to go to both. But for the most part, it's, you know, 85% differentiated. So you do get different people at our European events in Europa that are, you know, there specifically. And I would say a big differentiator we kind of started Europa on, and we're very cognizant of it in like every speaker meeting about Europa, I say this a lot to attendees, I should probably make it bigger on the website. But I would say like unlike other shows I've been to in Europe and I've been to something, I've been to like London Tech Week, I've been to Money 2020, like I've been to these things in Europe and they're fantastic and they have a time and place for being what they are, right? But a lot of it is how to go global, how to expand. We actually say we want none of that content. Like if you want some of that content, we do have a little bit of it on like saster.com or like we did like a Workshop Wednesday on it, I think this year, but It's something we actually stay away from at Europa because we have such a big global audience that comes to this. So like, again, the delegates have been— sometimes the host city is the top. So, you know, but I would say overall, like, you know, the UK is— it's always in the top 3, but the US has always been in the top 3 as well. So it is. And Canada too. So it's like, you know, folks are going from here to there. So it doesn't mean it's only Europeans or, you know, it is— all of our events are true global meetups. And I do like Europa because to Brian's point, right, it's still at a scale where you can have a lot of related— granted that it's 2 days, right? So annual's a bit more people, but you do have an extra day to try and, you know, maximize as many meetings with folks as possible. But one is kind of nice because again, you get 2 days to kind of maximize your time with everyone. And we are back in the same venue for the first time at Europa. So that'll be a fun mix because we know, right, kind of, we know exactly where people went this year. To the point of, you know, us being back at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds again for '24, right? Like, we know this venue, we've worked in it for the last couple years, we know kind of how to control the traffic and flow of folks. So it's funny because I think a lot of folks, for both Europa and Annual, we kind of put our sponsor halls in what I would say unique places in which people always stare at me on production calls and they're like, why are you putting sponsors there? Like, that's not, Usually they're like, here's where we usually put people. I'm like, here's where we're going to put people. They're like, no. I'm like, yeah. So yeah, that is some fun thing, right? If like we know where the foot traffic is. And also for annual, we did this actually flip this year because the last 2 years the actual sponsor hall was outside. Pros and cons, right? Lots of pros and cons to it. And so we heard from enough folks that they wanted to move inside. We moved some inside and there was like literally more traffic, I would say, to sponsors this year than there were outside. And I do think it did amaze a few folks because they were like, well, how would you do that? Not really knowing, right? Like you're kind of unsure because you're, you're changing, you're on the same campus, but you're changing the blueprint. And I'm like, well, but we've been in the same overall venue. So like you change a few things on the periphery, you kind of know how people are going to flow into things. So it's the same thing for Europa, right? Like now that we know the venue, we know where to put sponsors for the most traffic. They got a ton of traffic this year because they were basically in what I call the walkways. Huge thing to do in Europe if you know anything about how they run production and health and safety. But they're basically in the walkways, which meant they're the most highly trafficked area, which, yeah, again, we always get a lot of head scratches for how we do things, but, you know, folks got a lot of leads. So there's that. Okay. Onto the last thing, which I think is our event schedule. Yeah. For '24. And then we'll wrap on any, any final thoughts from the group since we're having a little bit of a party here. So our Major events scheduled for— oh, I used the same photo twice. Oh well. For 2024. Yeah, as we said, Europa will be back next year at Tobacco Docks. It's June 4th and 5th. So it's the first week of— it's the first week of June. Historically, actually, I know you guys may not believe me on this. It's been warm in June. So it's— and it's Tobacco Docks, like the annual. That's why we picked it. It's indoor-outdoor. So yeah, we do some fun things on what we call dockside. We can't really fit a tent there, but we do some fun things on the dockside because they've got like these old kind of like ye olde pirate ships that are there that are just marooned there. So we do some fun things on the dockside, which I think is really fun. Yeah, people like the energy out there. And then yeah, annual, you know, back festival style once again, indoor, outdoor. We do do indoor, outdoor for annual because it is 3 days. And so sometimes, you know, some folks are like, I get sun fatigued if there's too much out. I get it, right? I go to these festivals. Too in life. So yeah, indoor, outdoor, so you can enjoy the outside but also get a break from the sun for 3 days. So pace yourself. But yeah, back in the SF Bay Area, back also to our usual Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday setup for the annual. So again, you can bookend that with a trip to see your customers that are in Silicon Valley, in the Bay Area. Europa, that's a Tuesday, Wednesday. Again, kind of same idea there if you've got London offices or international offices to go to. Really easy to get from London to anywhere else in Europe and do it that way. So that's our in-person events. I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Demo Day, which Brian looks excited about. So give the folks a quick spiel on Demo Day.

I will. I love Demo Day. I'm selling it. People want it. Let's talk about Demo Day. Demo Day, it's our first inaugural Demo Day, but let me just tell you, it's not our first inaugural digital event. That's right, folks. I did say digital event. I know it sounds crazy, but we actually did a lot of these during COVID I mean, frankly, we did a lot. We did.

Like how you said the C word on the livestream, so I'll have to go edit it. But that's okay. Keep going. Whoa, whoa.

Oh, sorry.

You're supposed to say like during 2020 and then people will give you credit.

Yeah, yeah, I'll remove it. Sorry. But that said, right, like we did a ton. But now, like, we're getting back to it because we have, by popular demand, an opt-in audience of nearly 25,000 digital subscribers to the SaaStr universe that like our SaaStr stuff. And listen, y'all sponsors out there have said to us, and we've heard many times, we want to talk about our product. We want to talk about the new thing that we're launching. We want to talk about our audience. And you know what? We heard you. Insert SaaStr Demo Day. What we're doing, uh, it's a $25,000 sponsorship for 15 minutes of content driven by an executive of your choice. It's the idea of a founder selling to founders. We want to make it so that you have the ability to come in and talk about yourself for a little while. It's fun. Sometimes I talk about myself, usually at a family holiday, and then I get thrown out. But the thing— that said, this is really a fun— this is a really a fun thing that we're, we're finding a lot of buzz and excitement from, from the audience. So We want you to be part of it. It's January 30th as of now.

Yeah, we may move it just because folks are like, I didn't get my content.

Yeah, we may move it out just to be nice. But that said, it will be Q1, bar none, right? Like, it's not like we're going to punt it out to later in the year. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be January. Right now it's January 30th. But that said, we are super stoked for this. We're expecting that you'll generate somewhere in the neighborhood somewhere around probably 100 to 300 leads that you'll take from this that you can go in action and take to market tomorrow. And listen, it's a way to kick off the year, right? We just talked about things that are happening in June. We talked about things that are happening in September. And you need to do those things because if you wait, it gets more expensive and you do budgets now and we get that. But let's just call it what it is. A September event is a deal for 2025 and friends, it's 2024. So let's kick it off the right way. Demo Day, sign up. $25 grand is a sponsorship level. You come in and you've— we have what, 2 weeks left here? Week left here? 2 weeks left here. I'm taking your signups now. And if you decide to say, hey Brian, I'm really interested in Annual or Europa at a Super Gold level or better, well, maybe I can do something for Demo Day. Anyway, come on, let's go.

I'm literally not taking a break so that he can sell Demo Day. That's like how excited he is.

I told a customer earlier today, I'm like, you know, I'll jump on a phone with you Christmas Eve. Let's go. What do you need? Like, I'm here.

You just asked me today for a meeting on Christmas and I was like, even I need a day. Maybe, maybe the day after.

Yeah, I mean, I might not take the day after, but if I do, I have to do it from a closet because I'll get yelled at again. So I, you know, Yeah, anyway, I have to be Santa Claus. So I'm pumped.

You have to be Santa? I didn't know this.

Yeah, I have to be. Yeah, ho ho ho, you know? So I mean, he's real, but I have to also be him anyway.

Yeah, yeah, you should be Mr. Demo Day. All right, any final thoughts here as we wrap on the last sponsor webinar for the year? Many more to come next year.

My, my last and final thought is that I'm really sad that I didn't have a Christmas Hexy background for this call, but that's okay. We'll do that for next one.

Oh shoot, yeah, you're right. I used to— I have one actually.

Yeah, next time.

For me, I would just say, yeah, I'm really excited about Europa because I haven't been, so, and I've just heard so many great things both from attendees I've met, sponsors I've talked to, Obviously Brian is incredibly excited about it. I think that came through. But also Demo Day, because it's the one thing where, you know, SaaS are so valuable because it's about thought leadership. The one thing, you know, sponsors are always missing is a little bit of, I just really would love to show my product and now it's the time to do it and get leads in January. I've been a sales leader most of the last 6 years. You know, things can start off a bit light in the new year. Great to come in with 100 to 300 fresh leads. Just a great way to get a kickstart on the year.

All right, friends. And with that, that is a wrap on 2023 events and sponsorships disaster. We are still doing Workshop Wednesday on Wednesday though. So we've got one more last digital event workshop before the year is officially over. So if you're bored on Wednesday, come meet us there. Will be on Workshop Wednesdays. But until then, yeah, email us if you want to reach us. So Waylon, how can folks reach you? And then, and then Brian, how can folks reach you?

You can reach me on LinkedIn, Waylon McGill, or waylon@sasterinc.com.

The how to reach me is carefully, please proceed carefully. The where to reach me is LinkedIn, or you can get me brian@sasterco.com. And yes, I bring this energy to my sales calls. I'm just saying, if you want that.

He really does. So if you follow him on LinkedIn, just beware. So, all right. All right, everyone. Thanks for— if you are part of the community this year, thanks for being a part of it. If you came to an in-person event, thanks for playing and doing so. Or if you sponsored, mega thanks to you. And we will see you guys And then we'll see you for Workshop Wednesday, and then we'll see you in the new year. So see you later.

Bye everyone. Happy holidays everyone.

Bye.