SaaStr Insider Webinar: SaaStr Europa 2024 - Get Excited!

Sponsor webinar, and today we're going to talk about our next big event, which is SaaStr Europa, June 4th to 5th in London. And as a focus today, we want to talk about some of the top lessons learned in 2023 and how we're applying them to 2024. So excited to share some of these top 4 lessons. And then we'll briefly go through some of the different options in the prospectus to update everyone on the, on the different sponsorship opportunities. And yeah, excited to go through that. So I will just kick things off and keep us moving here. So number one, oh, we got a special guest. Hey, Brian.

Da da da da da da da. What's up, man?

How you doing? Welcome.

Thanks. Sorry I'm late. Welcome.

Well, feel free to chime in here. We're talking about lessons learned from SaaStr 2023 Europa and how we're applying to 2024. And I think my number one lesson or the biggest takeaway I had was actually London itself. If I have my math right, we've done SaaStr Europa now 4 times. We've done it in Paris, we've done it in Barcelona, and then last year in 2023, we moved it to London. And it was definitely the biggest SaaStr Europa ever. I'd say it was the best SaaStr Europa ever. And some of that had to do with nailing, I think, the right market at the right time. When we looked at the data from prior SaaStr, we saw that, you know, majority of the audience had come from the UK, the UK being a great hub for Europe, for SaaS companies. Globally EMEA-based. And so we moved the event there. In addition to London, it was also at Tobacco Docks, which was a fantastic venue. A couple pictures here, had this great like outdoor area, had the great indoor-outdoor setup for the entire event. The vibe was excellent. It was a great spot for both attendees, sponsors, speakers, so all the important constituents. And so, you know, the lesson learned is London worked and we're going to do it again. Um, and so the other thing that I would say is when Saster has gone back to the same venue in the same market for the second year in a row tends to be another, uh, broad success. Um, you know, we work out the kinks in that first year, we know the venue, we know the way it works, we know, uh, the everything in the, in the area. And, you know, how to really make it a big success. Brian, anything to add on there?

Yeah, I would say you nailed it, right? Like whenever we do something more than once, we just know how to expand upon it. And that's going to be definitely the case this year as we're going to change up some of the ways in which we engage in the space. Last year at Tobacco Docks, just about Tobacco Docks, it's a really cool space. It has historical value, which if you're a history nerd like me, you'll love. But it also, it also is a really cool feel. Very, very fun space where we have an upper tier. If you haven't been there, there's like an upper tier area and then a lower, like bottom tier area. And that bottom tier area, we did some things on last year. We're going to do more on this year and incorporate more of the space. The whole outdoor area you can kind of see in the top left. It's like their own private backyard, but it's super, super, super fun as they have like an old pirate ship there. It's a pirate ship, but you don't understand, like, how else are you going to say it? It's an old ship, but it's an old pirate. Anyway, super fun ship. It's just a cool setting. Great place for photos. Great place. Has that kind of Saster vibe, right? Saster traditionally always has this kind of festival type vibe. It has the Saster vibe. And I think you also really spoke well about it being London and the positives there. What I'll also say, just in the part of London, it's really not far from London Bridge. So it's kind of like right in a real I would say heart of the middle of the city.

So yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, we're really excited to be back. It's going to be the— it's going to be the biggest and best Saastr Europa ever. So yeah, lesson one. Lesson two, we really saw this in Saastr Europa. We ended up bringing it, a lot of it, to Saastr Annual. But in Saastr Europa, we had some great activations. Sponsors really leaned into these and did a really great job. They were really nice branded activations on the bottom. I think we see, I think that was, we see some ice cream cones. I think it was from Dill. And then on the top we see Greenhouse had a popcorn cart. There's probably about 6 or 8 of these at the venue and the sponsors really did a great job and the attendees loved it and it was fun. It was engaging and just a great opportunity to help your brand shine, stand out from the pack, and really just, you know, have a nice fun engagement activation with attendees. And so it was really so great in Europa, we brought it to Annual in a more organized fashion in '23. We're gonna be doing it again in Europa '24 and Annual '24. We have a little data too to show, and this is some data just on like average leads that sponsors got at their booths. And what you can see is that when we crunch the numbers, when a sponsor added an activation, they got a meaningful bump in leads. Looks, you know, somewhere around 35 to 50% bump in leads across pretty much all levels. So that was a real winner to on many levels.

Yeah, yeah, I think just, just in general, we've seen so many different types of activation at SaaS over the years. Food is very common, right? We see food constantly. Be a driver, especially if you're doing churros in London. Forget it. You'll just have me all there, but they're there all day. But outside of that, we see a lot of different like swag opportunities as well. You know, I've seen everything from graffiti artists all the way to like live. I'm doing art on site canvases being done. I literally name it, I've seen it, and they're all a fun way to engage the audience. Aren't you— you have to remember, SaaS is a place for founders and executives to go to and engage. They want to go— they're going to go to content all day. The content exists on the outside and outskirts of all of the central area, which is where we put our sponsors. So usually everything revolves around them. And so as your people are coming back to engage and then they're on site, they're going to want a reason to stop. And it could be a snack, but it could be fun too, right? It's a SaaS audience. Our audience is about having fun. So if you can envision fun and bring fun to your booth, you're going to have more eyes. More eyes will lead to higher conversion. So just to call out on David's slide here on the lower right-hand corner, the qualified leads. This is about qualified leads, right? Most of our sponsors do not just scan to scan. They're scanning as long as it makes sense. So the goal behind an activation is to increase the eyes. And by doing so, you increase your opportunity for qualification.

Yeah, and I'll say too, I just— ghost of Amelia here— I just talked to the venue this morning and, sorry, I'm a little raspy. I talked to the venue this morning and we're literally looking to do more of these this year. So I think that is the good news. They were such a hit last year and they're very amenable, right? We love working with the Tobacco Docs team. So if you do have an idea, I know there are a few sponsors last year that, you know, the venue does have a fair number of activations in their catalog. But if you are wanting something that is not in the catalog, they can likely source it. So there were a few things that were sourced last year that weren't in catalog, but they were able to secure and, you know, make sure it got loaded in and, and activated properly. So yeah, I think that's the good news for this year. Definitely recommend anyone who's a sponsor that has the space for it to do an activation because it does work. There'll be a ton of, ton of these this year. And yeah, some of them are, you know, to Brian's point, some of them are more like regional snacks, like, or there's things like churros which are not regional. But yeah, there are some like that are kind of like British and there are some that are not. That's just international and fun. So yeah, I, I, I love seeing these attendees really do respond to them. And it does, we do help with our sponsors to suss out, you know, what might make sense in terms of timing, how, how long you should do it, right? That kind of thing. So you're staggered with some of the other sponsors, but they're always a hit, right? I think especially given where we put the booths, which I think is the next slide or so. These activations are a huge, huge draw.

Awesome. Oh, skipped one. Number 3, sponsor flow. Yeah, and I think Brian, you know, Amelia just touched on it, Brian touched on it earlier. The really uniqueness of Tobacco Doc, there are these 2 floors. We have all the sponsors in the top floor, which is really great. On the top floor, we have several large stages there as well. You can see a picture here. This is one of the food activations. I think this was like waffles or something, or crepes that they were making. But you can see how it's like integrated in the flow around this top floor. Um, and you know, the other thing, it's— there's not a traditional sponsor hall, um, at Tobacco Dock. Uh, so the sponsors are sort of like interspersed in the flow of traffic as they move around the venue, which actually worked out really, really well, um, because you are placed where people are walking. They don't have to go find the sponsor hall. The whole place is essentially a sponsor hall immersed experience. So to me, that's kind of the uniqueness of this. I've never seen that in another venue or another event where the sponsors are kind of, you know, enmeshed in the landscape of the architecture of the building. So it was very cool. The activations are just part of that flow. And yeah, it worked out really nice. And, you know, I think we know what the hotspots are. This is a good part about coming back to the same venue. We know where the high traffic locations are, you know, in the real actual flow versus the theoretical. And so we know exactly where to place the booths to get maximum traffic. So that's, that's going to, I think, be to everyone's advantage this year.

Yeah, I'd add just that You know, a couple of things. First off, David calls out the sponsors on the top floor, whether they're on the top floor, bottom floor or whatever. It's not about— it's not a— we don't let the tail wag the dog, meaning like we don't let the venue dictate how and where we put our sponsors. We let our engagement into our show and like where the content will be and how we're going to use the space dictate where we put the sponsors. And we want our sponsors to be in the central part of the whole thing. So that's just an important part to call out because we're going to have content in one, at one stage and another piece of content at another stage. They'll run simultaneously. And because they're at different stages, you'll see sponsor, you'll see attendee flow go through all of the venue, which will then drive traffic around and circulate it so that it doesn't pool in one area. So I don't want anyone to think that like, oh, well, they, you know, all the sponsors get set in one place and everything else is in another place. Like, No, we, we, we really want to— we, we make it so that the space at Saster is interactive enough where the foot traffic rotates and goes around so that everyone has the ability to, to see all of Saster, not just, not just a little bit.

Yeah, I don't think it's possible to be more integrated into the menu than, uh, than, than these— than where we have our sponsors. So it's great, it's a real winner. We're doing it again and even better. So Very cool. And then number 4, something that stood out to me, I was in Saastr Barcelona, Saastr London, and an annual the past couple years, and I've never seen in Europe, Brain Dates are so a central part of what we do. And the attendees just absolutely love it. These things are so popular in Europe. They're just nonstop for 3 days, people meeting, discussing, really bringing, you know, high energy, uh, to these roundtables and one-on-one discussions, to Super Brain Dates. Um, it's just so integral to what we do, and I see it— I think it's even bigger in Europe than the US. Um, and so we are obviously doing that again. Um, the, the setup in London was perfect for Brain Dates. There was all sorts of places for people to meet and engage, uh, and have those discussions. Yeah, Brian, you've seen that before too, right? Do you agree? Europe being even stronger than US for Brand Dates?

I think what— yes, maybe different. I don't know if strong is the right word other than I think it's different, right? I think that the audience profile of Europa is just a different profile than maybe our US in that I think you're just in general. And if you're European and listening to this, I apologize. I don't mean any disrespect with it. Like, I seriously admire this. This quality of you all is that you come to this show to achieve something. You come with a mission, you come to, to do business, right? You're there to make things happen. Brain Dates is one of those ways which you're making things happen. You're having a natural opportunity to engage with other attendees in a really positive way. And you're, you're active. It's like you can go and listen to content at a stage, or you can go and engage in content at the Brain Dates and be part of it. And I think that's kind of why it's always so fun. The Brain Date group loves us, right? Like they've actually called Saastr out as being one of their best partners, even in 2023, and one of our largest partners. And so we, we've had this history with them for a long time. I would, I think it's safe to say there's a good chunk of our audience that comes to Saastr for the Brain Dates. And because of the power that they have had in taking something tactical or strategic that they can bring back and put directly into their business. So this is absolutely a really great callout. I think the Europa Brain Dates are done super well. I just think they're different than the US just based upon how the profile of people that attend bring their energy to engage.

Well said. Well said. Okay. Well, those are the lessons from 2023 that we're applying to 2024. Those are a couple of them. I'm sure there will be plenty more and we'll talk about them in the next couple of months leading up to Europa. I thought we'd also recap a little bit some of the different sponsorship packages at a glance, or let's dive into them a little bit about what we're doing in Europa. And so we have several different tiers here. This is our first. It is the Gold Sponsorship. You know, something that's really important to keep in mind, the packages are completely turnkey, just like Annual, just like we've done in Europa in the past. So really low lift for your team from a logistics standpoint. Yeah, Brian, anything to add on the Gold?

No, I— look, there's no such thing as a bad booth at SASTR. So let's just start there. There's just no such thing as a bad booth at SASTR for all the reasons we've already gone over. So, you know, if you're trying to figure out like, where should I spend money? You know, know that it's really about how do you want to best represent on site? I think also just to call out, all pricing that David's sharing today is our current list pricing. We do have several incentives that run right now. So if it's something of interest and you're thinking about how to execute your, your AMEA budget for this coming year, know that we're able to work. So there's, there's some room.

Yeah. Also, especially if you're doing both events where we see a lot of folks do Annual and Europa, we work on bundles to bring you at both.

So media, plenty of things to do with the media side as well. So like we absolutely are able to achieve a lot of the goals against our community.

So yeah, great. The next level up is the Super Gold, which, you know, look, the Super Gold sponsors last year had a really nice presence. They had a larger space, a larger footprint. and they also had a great 10-minute speaking session. So that was really great. They got to combine those two, get on stage, really share thought leadership. And I thought the, the partners last year did a really great job with that. And so this is the next level up, a good way to kind of increase your presence, have some stage time to share some real thought leadership with the community, and really a little more space for some great activations. That's where we saw some folks do some really creative and interesting things. And so like Emilia said earlier, there's going to be even more activation opportunities this coming year and something that you can take advantage of. Super Gold is typically the level that will sell out first. I know we have a couple left still and, you know, it's again a great way to kind of both have a nice presence, activate at the event. And showcase, you know, showcase your brand. 100%. Cool. And then finally, the last level that we have here is the Platinum. You can see a really nice shot of Greenhouse's Platinum sponsorship from last year. You can see it was a real nice brand presence, you know, huge backdrop, nice furniture, welcome counter. They really used the space well, did some, you know, they went for a real brand, a brand strong on the brand, um, and it was a great one. I mean, this is one of the premier sponsorship levels at, um, Europa. Go ahead, Brad.

I think when we get to Platinum and Diamond, we trans— we transition from booth at SASTR to experience at SASTR. Our Platinum and our Diamond sponsors are more of what I would say our partners for the show, um. You're treated as such, as you are, right? Because you're— you are our, our core, like, our, our highest sponsors. But that's it where I say it's an experience at Saastr because you have more of the depth and the, the space to achieve a goal, right? Greenhouse, as you can see here, built a very kind of loungy space by which people could engage with their brand and have natural conversation. I think that's a different thing than just walking past, you know, a pop-up or, or a backdrop of a 10 by 10 or a 3 by 5 or whatever smaller space of, you know, engaging past someone who, you know, you're going to be scanned and there's not a lot of room to maybe do a lot of business. This has space so you can bring different things like your activations inside the booth. A great example in previous year, Salesloft was one of our core sponsors and they had transitioned to— they turned half their booth into a photo wall, right? And they created this awesome graffiti image for their back wall and they were their gift or their handout was where selfie sticks And so the selfie sticks were made. People would go to the wall. It wound up being this huge popular item. And then I think they even enhanced it by bringing on ice cream as well. So they did like a twofer. And so between the ice cream that was, that was through a part of the day, as well as like using their space to have fun and incorporate that element of fun I mentioned earlier, it becomes an experience at Saster versus just another booth. So, yep. Nice.

Well, those are the options that we have in the prospectus here. We do also have a diamond sponsorship. That's something that's a little more bespoke. If you're interested in that, reach out to Brian or I. We can take you through that in more detail. And so, yeah, I mean, hopefully there's a couple of good takeaways here for folks. Hopefully folks are getting excited for SaaS Europa. London, June 4th and 5th. And yeah, I think we covered most of it for today. Brian, anything else?

No, I think, look, at the end of the day, when it comes to Europa, it's a huge portion of our audience. It's a huge portion of what we do. And, you know, every year that we've been doing Europa, so as David said, 4 years now between that plus being SaaS for 12 years, we have a lot of experience to bring a really fun and dynamic environment where founders and executives can come and engage and learn and grow. And I think that that's really what we're after. So, you know, if you're, if you're thinking of exploring this, if you're interested in exploring it, let's have the conversation. We're a turnkey solution with the ability to add that extra lead gen that, you know, you have to do. And frankly, what I'll leave you on here is to say Event marketing is different than any other type of marketing you'll ever do for your team because it's your ability to bring the live body of the demand directly in front of your sales team. And so you have the ability to engage a person live as opposed to getting a digital lead or digital inquiry. Both are good, but just, I don't know about you, but I love talking to people in person. If I had the option, that's just where I want to be. So, yeah, I think we have a big opportunity for the year ahead. That's it.

Great. Well, I think we can wrap it here. Um, and yeah, we're good.

Great. Um, well, tune in next week. Uh, we will see you more and again soon. Uh, we're here to answer any questions you have. David, how do people get in touch with you if they want to reach out to you?

Uh, brian@saastrinc.com. He takes my messages, so you can just reach out to me, it's fine.

I'm, I'm happy. Uh, yeah, Saster Ring, Saster Co. for me. Uh, Brian at Saster Co. But, um, you know, any questions at all, you can also get me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to, happy to be there.

Cool.

All right.

Okay, great.

Thanks everyone.

Thank