Getting 1,000 Top Executives to Attend Your Conference

I have the opportunity to participate in about 15-20 conferences a year, in addition to hosting my own annual event. It’s pretty hard to get one hundred people to an event. It’s even harder to get 100 quality attendees in your target audience group to come and stay a day or two. But to get one thousand people in your target audience to do that year in and year out is a pretty unbelievable feat.

Christine Stoffel, founder of Sports Entertainment Alliance with Technology (SEAT), has found a way to attract C-level executives from the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS and Major League Baseball to attend and fully participate in her annual conferences. Below she shares how she’s built a conference that attracts this kind of loyal following from a who’s who list of global sports executives, and lessons you can put to use to do the same in your industry. (This transcript has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click on the audio player at the end of this article.)

Getting 1,000 Top Executives to Attend Your Conference