New Workshop: Doing Conferences the Right Way

Every year, real estate professionals and their companies spend thousands of dollars on conference registrations, travel, hotels, sponsorships, and booth space. Most of them show up without a plan, collect a stack of business cards, and return to the office with little to show for it.

Conference season doesn't have to work this way. With the right preparation, on-site execution, and post-event follow-up system, conferences become one of the highest-ROI business development channels available. This is true whether you're a real estate operator raising money, a broker hunting for deals, or a proptech vendor looking for new clients.

This workshop—taught by Thesis Driven partners Brad Hargreaves and Paul Stanton—provides a complete, repeatable playbook for getting measurably more out of every conference you attend this year. We’ll also share some behind-the-scenes tips and tricks we’ve learned from decades of attending shows.

Friday, April 10: 12:00–1:30 PM EDT

Format: One live 90-minute session (recorded and shared with all participants via Circle).

Register here

You’ll Learn How To:

Choose which conferences to attend based on your specific goals, audience, and budget
Build a pre-conference outreach plan that fills your calendar before you arrive
Use conference apps, attendee lists, and speaker lineups to identify and prioritize targets
Turn conferences into content engines that fuel your LinkedIn and newsletter strategy
Evaluate sponsorship and booth investments against your actual business development goals
Maximize your time on-site with a structured approach to meetings, sessions, and events
Run a post-conference follow-up system that converts conversations into real pipeline

What the Workshop Will Cover:

1. Choosing the Right Conferences

Not every show deserves your time and budget:

How to map conferences to your business development goals
Evaluating attendee quality, format, and networking structure
Building an annual conference calendar with clear ROI criteria
Knowing when to skip, when to walk the floor, and when to sponsor

2. Pre-Conference Preparation

The work that separates top performers from everyone else:

Mining attendee lists, speaker rosters, and conference apps before the event
Pre-scheduling meetings and building a target list
Preparing collateral, talking points, and follow-up materials in advance
Coordinating team roles if you're sending multiple people

3. Conferences as a Marketing Channel

Turning attendance into content and visibility:

Live-posting frameworks for LinkedIn and social media
Repurposing panels, conversations, and takeaways into thought leadership
Building your brand on-site and online simultaneously
Leveraging event hashtags, speaker tags, and attendee networks

4. Sponsorship and Booth Strategy

Making paid placements actually work:

Weighing the benefits and drawbacks of sponsorship and booth purchases
Hosting side events, dinners, and breakout meetings
Measuring ROI beyond logo placement

5. On-Site Execution

Getting the most from every hour at the event:

Structuring your day around high-value interactions
Navigating receptions, dinners, and informal settings strategically
Managing energy, logistics, and competing priorities
Quick-capture systems for notes, contacts, and action items

6. Post-Conference Follow-Up

Where most of the value is actually created:

Building a follow-up system that launches within 48 hours
Segmenting contacts by priority and next steps
Converting conference conversations into meetings, deals, and relationships
Tracking long-term ROI across your conference portfolio

We'll also share some gray hat tactics from our own experiences.

Register here

Format and Access

Live workshop led by Paul and Brad
Real-world examples and frameworks
Post-workshop access via Circle:
All participants will receive an invitation to join our private Circle community after the workshop concludes.

Within one week of the workshop concluding, participants will receive session recordings and materials.

Circle is where we host all workshop materials and continue the conversation. Members also gain access to a live, active community of real estate investors, developers, operators, and capital allocators to connect, ask questions, and continue the discussion beyond the session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this workshop for? Real estate sponsors, operators, brokers, fund managers, service providers, and anyone whose business development depends on showing up at industry events.

Is this relevant if I only attend a few conferences a year? Yes. The frameworks apply whether you attend two events or twenty. In fact, being selective is one of the first things we cover.

Will this cover both attending and sponsoring? Yes. We address strategies for attendees, sponsors and exhibitors, and speakers.

Will there be templates? Yes. Participants will receive pre-conference planning templates, on-site tracking tools, and post-conference follow-up frameworks. These will be shared via Circle.

I can’t make this time—will a recording be available?
Yes. All registered participants receive access to the recordings and materials via Circle, even if they cannot attend live.

Register here

-Brad Hargreaves and Paul Stanton