The New Paradigm for Advisor Conferences

I clearly outlined the boundaries and communicated them to all registrants in an email newsletter two times prior to the event. But I did it in a non-abrasive way. I suggested specific things that people should do to minimize the chances of something bad happening, and I invited people to discuss with me if they had any questions. For example, I told people to refrain from drinking alcohol or doing drugs and to avoid hanging out alone with members of the opposite sex in private locations such as hotel rooms.

It worked out great.

At the beginning of the conference, I mentioned this conduct policy and emphasized the no drinking policy. Several women told me they felt more comfortable because I did that.

At our dinners, I did not have an open bar. At the restaurant, some people ordered drinks, but it was okay because they drank responsibly, maybe just having one drink, and stayed under control. To my knowledge, nothing bad happened.

2. Put the emphasis on connection

Very little of what people hear at conferences is retained long term. Attention spans are just too short. Furthermore, people don’t need to get on an airplane to gain information – they can watch a webinar without leaving their home.

Conferences should be about people and about personal interaction even more than about the information conveyed. You can learn more from your peers than from a lecture anyways. The most cogent point of a conference is to build lasting relationships with like-minded people. That is the greatest possible gain you could get out of any business opportunity, and that was the sole objective here.

I intentionally made it as interactive as possible.

There was a 10-minute break between each session to keep the energy level up and encourage “hallway chats.”

I alternated a lecture with a role play, panel, or a group activity. There were very few back-to-back lectures.

There were no vendor talks, product presentations from sponsors, or esoteric “thought leaders.” Everyone who spoke was a financial advisor and offered tips about how they ran things at their practice. This made the talks more relatable and the banter back and forth with the audience was constant. The audience pummeled the speaker with questions throughout the duration of the talk. We ended up extending the duration of most of the talks because the questions kept coming.

Result?

My event was called “Immersion,” and that vision came to life. The whole group was alive together and the energy was electric.

3. Pre-developed relationships through social media

Most of the people attending Immersion2024 knew each other from LinkedIn because we interact through my updates on the transparency movement. The conference was an extension of the relationships that had already begun. In a way, it was a family reunion. This took away the social anxiety of walking into a room of strangers.

I limited the attendees to 40. In the future, I will aim for 60 or 70, but it worked out great and it was the perfect size for the first time. I broke up the 40 people into groups of five to eight advisors called “pods” and introduced them to each other on LinkedIn. They had chat rooms where they could meet and share ideas. I asked them to meet once a month for the six months prior to the event.

The result?

Tthe first night we had a dinner, nothing big, just a little hotel restaurant, and people sat there talking for three and a half hours. Just talking and helping each other, nurturing each other.

Don’t you think that is beautiful?

Seriously.

4. Hassle-free location

I minimized the hassle and expense of having the event in a major hub like Chicago or New York by choosing St. Louis. I didn’t want to make it a “resort vacation” theme by having it in Hawaii or Las Vegas. I wanted people to come for business and not to party. I chose a reasonably priced hotel with a free shuttle to the airport.

Because I picked a small hotel, the staff was very gracious because they were grateful for our business. We were the biggest event there that week and they were extremely accommodating to all we asked of them.

5. No sponsors

I charged as little as possible ($250 a ticket plus taxes etc.), just enough to cover costs, and refused sponsorships from vendors. I didn’t want the private REIT salespeople pushing their agenda on my attendees. Also, I wanted distractions minimized by the lack of a vendor exhibition hall. I didn’t want monogrammed water bottles coming into play.

To do this, I needed to keep overhead low. I did not pay the speakers – everyone who spoke was an attendee – and kept expenses to the bare necessities. The emphasis was on giving people the chance to interact. It wasn’t about entertaining them with some random gimmick like a vocal act or karaoke party.

Instead of a fancy outing, I held a modest dinner at the hotel restaurant where you could eat for $15 a plate.

6. Dead time of year

I often joked about having a conference in Detroit in January to make sure that the people who came wanted to be there for a purpose rather than a vacation. I held the event in mid-March, not in a “good weather” time. It was a good decision to have an event in the offseason where there wasn’t too much else exciting going on, and it helped reduce costs.

7. A mission

I have a very strong sense of purpose in my work. I want to change the world by bringing transparency and logic to the way that financial advisors treat their clients. Everybody who followed me to this event felt the same way. It wasn’t just some tacky conference slogan; it was in our hearts. It was the reason that people showed up. We were united by a common purpose.

As a result, the mission came alive. The people were the conference. The energy was pulsing through every single person in everything that we did. We were ideologically aligned, marching together towards the same goal.

When we paused, everyone turned to the next person and started talking, nobody was on their phones. It was like we were held in this bubble. I was walking down the hall to take a phone call, and we were so loud, I could hear our group talking when I was 20 feet away.

8. The group ran the conference

Somebody brought name tags.

Somebody brought the video equipment.

All the speakers were drawn from those who already signed up to attend.

They went there to contribute to our mission, to be a part of something – not just sit there. There wasn’t some conference team running around with walkie talkies. The group took care of itself and because it was a simple set up. The administrative needs were low.

This is the new way to hold a conference

Conferences shouldn’t be about making money; they should be about our clients, not us.

Structuring my conference like this was a huge risk. I had a vision and I’m so grateful that the attendees brought it to reality.

I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I was scared to fall on my face. But now that I see the results, I know it was the right risk to take because I’ve discovered a new way of operating. I strongly suggest the rest of the profession follow this paradigm.

Sara’s Upshot

If you are a conference planner or anyone who makes decisions about conferences, I am talking to you.

Stop scamming your attendees and making it about you. Make it about the clients instead of about your own businesses. Make your event about sharing information that allows you to create better ways to work with clients.

Advisors, start talking to the people holding these conferences and encourage them to uphold higher standards. It’s not fair to you or your clients when conferences are about furthering the corporate agenda of product pushers. Take a stand and vote with your dollar signs and they’ll get the message.

Immersion2025 is going to be March 12-13th, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri. Join us if you are interested in flat-fee, hourly, or advice-only planning and want to get immersed in our energy bubble.

Here is the Immersion2025 page to learn more.

Tickets go on sale on July 15th, 2024. Please join this Immersion2025 email list to be notified.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a marketing consultant who helps investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms fight the tendency to scatter meaningless clichés on their prospects and bore them as a result. She is the evangelist for the Transparent Advisor Movement, a devout Catholic, and a mother of four children under ten years old.

---

A message from Advisor Perspectives and VettaFi: To learn more about this and other topics, check out our full schedule of upcoming CE-approved virtual events.

More Financial Planning Topics >