Conference Communities Between Events

Sam discusses a successful conference business model based on studying companies like Money 2020 and Shop Talk, which were sold for $100M+ each. The key insight is treating conferences as real estate transactions rather than content events, with additional revenue from year-round paid communities.

Core Business Model:

• Treat conference as a 3-day transactional event rather than content-focused gathering
• Think of it as renting real estate at premium prices for a concentrated period
• Focus on B2B rather than consumer conferences
• Get competitors to attend by leveraging FOMO ("our competitor is there, we need to be there")

Revenue Strategy:

• Year 1: $2-3M revenue
  • Give away many tickets to build attendance
  • Focus on securing key sponsors
• Year 2: ~$12M revenue
• Year 3: ~$30M revenue
• Pre-sell next year's event at current event
  • Achieve 90% of next year's revenue before current year ends
  • Offer multi-year deals

Additional Revenue Stream:

• Create paid online communities between annual events
• Leverage relationships formed at conference
• Maintain engagement year-round

Key Success Factors:

• Focus on facilitating business transactions, not just content
• Target industries where deals happen face-to-face
• Get the right decision makers to attend
• Create environment where "a year's worth of business happens in 3 days"
• Ensure sponsors can justify ROI through deals closed

The model has proven repeatable across different industries (fintech, retail, healthcare) while maintaining similar execution strategies and team structure.