About 4,000 CXOs in the room. Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017, filled through partner channels.

Hong Kong FinTech Week is one of Asia's major annual fintech events, bringing together financial institutions, technology companies, investors and regulators.

For the 2017 edition, Lemniscate Growth marketed the event with a focus on senior decision-makers rather than general attendance.

Senior executives do not respond to ads

CXOs delegate their inboxes and ignore generic promotion. The audience that makes an event valuable is the hardest one to reach through paid media.

Many partners, each with their own network

Associations, sponsors and ecosystem partners each hold relationships with the right people. Without coordination, those networks either go unused or send mixed messages.

Map every partner channel

We identified every partner organisation connected to the event and what each could reach.

• Associations, sponsors and ecosystem partners
• The senior audience each partner could invite

Reach out through all of them

Each partner received a clear, specific ask and material to invite its own senior network.

• Partner-specific invitations
• Consistent messaging across channels

Build the pipeline and close it

Interest from partner channels was followed up and tracked through to confirmed attendance, the same way a sales pipeline is worked.

• Stage-by-stage tracking of prospective attendees
• Follow-up to confirmation

Funnel build

A working funnel was already in place, so the program started at the stages below.

Top of funnel

Invitations through every partner organisation and its network.

Middle of funnel

Follow-up with interested executives and their teams.

Bottom of funnel

Confirmed registrations and closures ahead of the event.

The event reached the senior audience it was built for.

• About 4,000 CXOs at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017.
• Every partner channel activated for outreach.
• Attendance built and closed as a managed pipeline.

Partner lists reach people ads cannot

For a senior audience, an invitation from an association or partner they already trust outperforms any paid campaign. Give partners a specific ask and make it easy for them to act.

Run event attendance like a sales pipeline

Track prospective attendees by stage and follow up until they confirm. Registrations that are not worked do not turn into a full room.

The same skill books meetings for exhibitors

Reaching executives before an event is the same work that fills a client's calendar with pre-booked meetings at conferences today.