"My customers are not on LinkedIn!"

I had a fascinating conversation yesterday that brought me to an important realization.

While discussing our respective startups and the challenges of personal and non-personal marketing, someone mentioned how their clients aren't active on LinkedIn - so their commercial strategy is almost exclusively based on events.

This really struck a chord with me. We do live in an increasingly digital world, but that doesn't mean we're not human anymore. It's easy to forget the depth that personal connections can bring and the impact a cup of coffee can have on one's professional growth, network growth, and sales.

This isn't the first time that this has come up, of course. We decided to focus SponsorMotion on organizing the events space precisely because of its large and growing value across industries.

But it hit the spot particularly hard after looking at recent data on conference attendance.

• 92% of UFI survey participants in the US say that conferences can be organized just like before COVID, with most reporting stable profits (Source)
• Skift Research reports that professionals see virtual events as backup and are less willing to travel long-distance than pre-COVID (Source).
• Also, Skift reported that 64% percent of planners report that their attendees are more interested in networking at events than pre-Covid-pandemic.