Four best practices for filling the room

Last week’s Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference featured one Tuesday afternoon break-out session that stood out from the rest, and did so starting 48 hours before it even began.

I met the company’s head of marketing in the hotel bar Sunday night, and she explained that her firm’s president would be speaking Tuesday afternoon. So far, same as everyone else.

Then she whipped out the ticket you see pictured here (front and back, click to enlarge). They had printed actual tear-off tickets for their break-out. Very clever.

What’s more, each ticket featured the presenting president’s full contact information (so it was a business card in addition to an invitation to the session). And on the back of the tear-off portion was a short entry form for the iPad2 they were giving away at the end of the session.

And to top it all off, the session would feature live prospecting. Literally, a sales guy in another room live cold-calling prospects to demonstrate the company’s appointment-setting techniques.

So, to recap:

1. Great invitation format (shaped like a ticket)
2. Full contact information for the presenter & president so the ticket gets kept
3. Tear-off portion doubles ad entry form for a premium giveaway
4. Session itself features a highly-attractive feature (live prospecting!) to fill the room

Some great ideas to emulate here.