Sponsor Weekly Webinar Series | SaaStr Content Guidelines - Annual 2022

Let's go ahead and just dive right in. So just to give you guys a quick refresher, things that you've already heard from Brian, things that you've already heard from your sales team too with SaaStr, is that SaaStr's core mission is founders helping founders. So this is the intention in everything that we do from a content perspective. And so that's always the question that we're gonna be asking to make sure that everything we put on stage, whether it's earned or paid content, has this intention of founders helping founders. So you're going to hear this theme a lot throughout all of our content in this, and throughout all of our planning process with you too. So I'm going to go over our basic speaker and content guidelines. As a reminder, this is all going to be included in your speaker brief for whatever event that you're signed on to do. So for Europa, you will have your own speaker brief. If you've already been connected to us, you've already gotten that. Same for Annual, it will have its own speaker brief with all of this information and much more in there. You'll always be able to reference that, but we're just using this time to dive in deeper. So we always just like to let everyone know we're a little quirky here at SaaStr because we have very strict editorial guidelines. We're very protective of the content that we put out there, and we really do it because we've learned so much over the course of the past 10 years of putting out content and hearing from attendees and other speakers of the stuff that really lands for everyone. We also have a lot of data on what sessions perform best and what does really well on YouTube. Afterwards. So everything related to our speaker and content guidelines is really because of all of that data and all that information that we've gathered over the past 10 years. So all sessions, no exceptions, must adhere to these content and diversity guidelines. We're going to go over the highlights of all of these. So we do not allow any all-male unearned sessions. So this does include solo male sessions. So every session must have at least one woman speaker. Gender balance, diversity, inclusion is a huge, important core value of what we do at SASTR. It's something that we require for all of our sessions, and we've learned that sessions with diverse speakers and with gender balance are always outperforming those without. So this is a non-negotiable. This will be a requirement for all of your sessions. We're always going to work with you to help provide feedback, to help give you some information on what can make your topic a little bit stronger, what can make your slides a little bit stronger. We really want to help you make your content really great, but we never allow content that doesn't help founders, that doesn't help the next generation. And we never allow anything that is related to your product or related to your company. So all sessions should be from a thought leadership perspective, nothing related to sales pitches or vendor commercials. This is something that attendees really value about SaaSers content is that we are really, really protective of this. So your topic should not be related at all to your product and company, just to avoid any, you know, crossover or potential for it to go into that vendor pitch. We really suggest suggest that you do something about a best practice related to your speakers that is not related to your company at all. All content should be unique. It should not be something that you've previously, previously presented at any other event, on any podcast, on any internal, or any event that you, or content that you've put out from a company perspective. It should always be fresh and new. And then we do require that every session has at least a speaker that's VP level or higher. C-suite is always preferred, and a C-suite speaker is always going to garner more, more attention from registrants too. So a few questions to start thinking about what your topic could be. So we always want to make sure, once again bringing it back, is this helping founders? Thinking about whatever, which speakers you're using, what are they passionate about? What is— what are they tweeting about? What are things that they really love to talk about? What are they known for in the company? And what strengths that they have that are not related to the product or the company that they can teach others? Also, anything related to data, to survey collection, things with real-world tangible results are always the most helpful. Continuing on, sessions with a notable co-presenter always are going to outperform those without. So if you have a customer or a partner, especially one that is a household name, a really recognizable brand, especially one that's related and relevant to a B2B SaaS audience, this is a really great opportunity to bring that person in. Another colleague at your company is also another opportunity to kind of share two perspectives of how you may approach X, Y, or Z topic. This also is a great opportunity for you to figure out how to get gender balance on your session. One another requirement that we have is that everyone have slides. So even if you're a 10-minute session, even if it's a panel, everyone has to have a slide, slide deck that they share while they're presenting. This is another thing that we've learned over the years is that people really love engaging content and being able to see more visuals. So the slides really help with that. We do have a branded SaaStr template for each event that will be shared with you. And we do encourage that you use the, the last slide as well to like do a little bit of a call to action for more information and on-site for where they can find your booth. So closing note here, Brian, you may want to jump into if you have any closing thoughts on this, but with all of these rules, we review all content that you provide to us, whether that be an outline, your slide drafts, your final slides, we review everything with our full content team. We will provide feedback to you to make sure that it meets these guidelines, but we always reserve the right to remove any session that does not meet these guidelines, or that is too commercial, or not applicable to our audience. So anything that does not meet our guidelines and isn't able to be changed is subject to being labeled as sponsored or potentially removed entirely from the event, in which case your entire sponsored speaking slot would be forfeited. Know this is also included in everyone's sales contract too, but obviously something that we really, really want to emphasize. Never the case that we want it to be, so this is why we are trying to get started with everyone early so that you know about all the guidelines, but please just be aware this is something that if it doesn't meet our guidelines is something that we will have to resort to, right? I don't think further.

I think the only thing to pop in and add, Taylor, there is that this is really for your benefit, for your— all of your benefit. And the reason why is because we know what our use— what our, uh, our audience engages with the most. And what they engage with is content that they can resonate with. So if you're— if the content is really focused on that founders helping founders mentality or that, you know, you're helping, you're helping a C-suite organization uplift and enhance their ability to move and learn, it's going to, it's going to resonate way more. You'll get more interaction, you'll have more people attend, and that's really what we're aiming for here. So the guidelines aren't built to try to detract your ability to be successful. If anything, they're the exact opposite. And I know we're a little bit funky in terms of maybe other sponsorship speaking sessions you might do for other, with other, with other events. But that said, it is this little intricacy is built to help you and help our community. So that's how we, that's how we get away with it.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we will move on to a few more specifics. And of course, if you ever have any questions or want to run ideas by us, please, please do. Okay, so a few just reminders for both events. Your confirmed session day and time cannot be fully set until you provide us with your topic and your speakers. And also just be aware that with changing logistics on site, session days and time are always subject to change in the weeks leading up to the event. We also keep a close eye on registrations too, and reserve the right to be able to make any changes to make sure that everyone's capacity makes sense for them. So please just be aware, if you do have some time preferences that you need us to be aware of, please share those. But we do need topic and speakers to be finalized before we can fully confirm. Another flag is that we always open up session registration and the full agenda in the weeks leading up to both events. And so we strongly, strongly encourage attendees to preregister for sessions. And we do get a lot of positive response on this. So it is something that SASR attendees are really accustomed to doing. So it's very critical that we have your content and your speakers finalized in order to maximize your registration numbers. So this is really to put your best foot forward and to help you guys be able to fill the seats by when— having all of your information into us when we do that agenda launch. So super, super important that we meet these deadlines that we're going to go over in a few more slides so that you guys get the most exposure for your session and for your speakers. And then all sessions will be shared with attendees after the event and published to our YouTube channel. We typically release content after Annual on a rolling basis throughout the following 6 months after the event. If you do have any restrictions related to your content being shared, please, please let us know. Okay. So just a quick summary of some overall content dos and don'ts. Do have co-presenters and speakers that meet our content and inclusion standards. Reminder, the gender balance, you do have to have a woman on every single session. Make sure that you're picking a topic your speakers are experts on and that are one that is not related to your company or your product. Make sure your content is original and hasn't been presented anywhere else, and that you are presenting and creating engaging slides. We usually recommend, depending on the time of your session, that you have 5 to 10 slides, with a minimum of 5, and we also will include— make sure that one of those slides is a key takeaway slide, so that once again, you're capturing those really quick lessons that you want founders to leave your session with. And then please make sure, a big important do, is that you meet all outline speaker deadlines and deliverable dates. So once again, this is just to really put your best foot forward and make sure that you guys are getting the maximum time and exposure on your content. Some of the don'ts, pretty self-explanatory at this point, but don't suggest solar all-male speakers who do not meet our content guidelines. We will immediately push back with you guys on that. Don't make your product— don't make your session a product pitch. Avoid mentioning COVID-19 or the pandemic at all. In general, everyone is pretty tired of this content, but also there are different tags and algorithms that are— that catch the COVID-19 when it's published on YouTube. So we wouldn't want your content to be flagged at all and affect your views. So just no mention of anything related to COVID. Another don't is that we do have a restriction that 25% of your presentation cannot include your company branded content, pictures, or details. Once again, just an effort to make sure that all of our content is as vendor neutral as possible. Don't include too many speakers. You want to make sure that you have balance and diversity of thought, and of course gender inclusivity, but also want to just be mindful of how much time that you have and that you have speakers who can get enough airtime. And don't disregard our team's feedback on your speakers, your topics, outlines, or final slides. Once again, we're trying to help and make sure that we can impart all of the knowledge and feedback that we hear from attendees to make your session really great and to ensure that it meets all the guidelines. Okay, so let's move into a few specifics about each event. Moving on to SASTR Annual. So many people may be sponsoring SASTR Annual, and, or also both. So if you are, both of these guidelines are similar, but everything will apply to you if you're an annual bond or an annual sponsor. Highlights on the event. 3-day conference, September 13th to the 15th. We are back at the San Mateo County Event Center, another fully outdoors festival-style event, and we're expecting around 300 speakers, thousands of mentoring sessions, and more than 10,000 in-person attendees. So really, really excited to be back in San Mateo. And again, for annual, these are the levels of sponsorships that you may fall into. Unicorn, decacorn, diamond, ecosystem, platinum, platinum plus, and super gold. So all of these have slightly different times, um, but overall requirements are the same. So we'll just dive right in. If you are a unicorn, a decacorn, a diamond, and an ecosystem sponsor, you have a 20-minute workshop session. Once again, all the same topics and requirements apply. Speakers and content must meet all the guidelines. You should have VP level or speakers are above. CEO and C-suite speakers are always preferred, and making sure that it's not a sales pitch and it's coming from a how-to perspective. If you are a Platinum and Platinum Plus, you have a 15-minute workshop session, and same guidelines apply for you as well. If you are any of these sponsor levels that we just mentioned, so basically Unicorn to Platinum Plus, These are going to be your guidelines. By the end of April, so Friday, April 29th, you will be introduced directly to the speaker team. So you may be, if you've signed already, you may be introduced to us in the weeks earlier than that, but by April 29th everyone will be introduced directly to us. We will immediately start talking to you about who your speakers are, what your content is, and we will give you some deliverables that you have to fill out for us. Within 2 weeks of connection to us, you have to submit or you have to schedule a content call with us. So we will do a one-on-one call with you and your team. Ideally, if your speakers can be on it, that's great too. And we will go over all the logistics in a little bit more of a deep dive into your particular session. Also a great opportunity for us to brainstorm a few ideas. So it's always strongly encouraged if you can come with 2 to 3 session ideas to that call, we can talk live about what your possibilities can be. Within a week of that call, we are expecting that your session topics and abstracts be finalized. Definitely this needs to happen by the end of June 30th. And then your hard deadline for your first version of slides and outlines is Tuesday, August 2nd. We have our event overview webinar for speakers on Thursday, August 19th, so an invite will come for that. Same setup as Europa, you will— it will be recorded, you will have access to it after, we will share it with all teams and all speakers. We do always encourage one person to attend those. And then the hard deadline for slides is Tuesday, August 31st. Once again, we have to review everyone's content and also get it over to our AV team that has to load everything in advance of the event. So please, please make sure— you're going to hear about these deadlines a lot, and it's super important for you to hit so that you can be set up for success at the event. Okay, moving on to Super Gold. So if you are a Super Gold sponsor at Annual, you will have the 10-minute teardown session. So this is that 10-minute breakdown how-to session and all sessions and content must meet all the guidelines and diversity requirements that we've already talked about. Very similar guidelines for Super Gold, with the exception that you don't have to do a prep call before. Your hard deadline for your sessions and topic abstracts being finalized is Tuesday, May 31st. Your outlines and your slide deadlines are the same: August 2nd and Tuesday, August 31st. Webinar is also the same. That August 19th webinar is open to all speakers, both sponsored and unsponsored, and we mostly are going to be talking a lot about the event logistics and what you can expect on site. Key reminders for you is that you can contact us, the speakers team, for anything related to content, always at speakers@saastrinc.com. You can just review your content diversity guidelines because they are super, super important, so they are linked here. And you will get your speaker briefs for all the dates and all the deliverables if you haven't received it already through your calendar invite, but they're also linked here, the one for Europa and the one for Annual too. So that's all I have. All of our contact information is here. We do have plenty of time for questions if anyone has them, and we're always available at our alias if you do have questions after. Brian, I don't know if you had anything else that we may have missed that we need to cover.

I think the biggest thing for us and to just to remember for this year is that the guidelines really, really, really are taking a sharper look this year. I know that might be new for some of you that have sponsored with us in the past where maybe we're— and sometimes we had been more accepting, but we're going to be— we're getting back to more of a, what do you call it, a consistent method for all. This way everybody is in line and we have, we have some consistency across everywhere. I think the second piece too, just to keep in mind, is that these deadlines are built to make sure that we're all on track. We have a lot of content this year, and in order to get it done and do it properly and so that no one's rushed, we are going to hold to the guidelines, to the, to the deadlines. So just a little heads up, but we will get it done. We're here to help you and get it done with you. And we look forward to making these introductions as we get started here in the next couple of days, weeks. So there you go. That's it. Taylor, thank you.

Yeah, thank you guys so much. We're so looking forward to working with everyone this year and working with you again if you were a sponsor in the past. As always, we are here to help. And like Brian said, we want it to just be super successful for you and for attendees and for you to get the most positive feedback and have a really amazing experience. So Everything that we're providing feedback on is really just to help you guys do that. But of course, please feel free to give us— shoot us any questions, and happy to always provide feedback on any immediate suggestions that you may have for your sessions.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, everyone.