Using HubSpot to track conferences, events, etc. as a public speaker

[sharradog]

I'm new to Hubspot, looking for advice on how to set up a system to track conference leads.  For instance, a conference is in October 2018 and has a call for speakers in February. How do I set up a system to track the conferences (that may have multiple contacts). Do I add them as a "company"?  
Sorry for the newbie questions, thanks for any advice on setting up the systems properly.

[MFrankJohnson]

Q: Using HubSpot to track conferences, events, etc. as a public speaker.

Short A: One way to accomplish this would be to use a custom contact property -- e.g., Conferences

Longer A: 

If you use a multiple checkbox contact property it will allow you to track a variety conferences. (see image)

Additionally, because this is a custom 'Contact Property', you will also be able to track participation by contact. (see image)

Again, this is just one contact-centric solution that will allow us to both track and report on attendees across multiple conferences.

[sharradog]

Thanks Frank @MFJLabs this looks like a great solution. I'll have to look into that option more thoroughly.
When you have the contacts under the event (Annie, Bob, Charlie) are these different contacts at the event (people who book speakers?)

How would I identify when they are accepting speakers, would i add this to the conference as a task item?

Appreciate the help
Caroline

[MFrankJohnson]

Hi @sharradog,

The people shown in the chart above actually represent conference attendees. However, this model could also be adapted for Companies with a little more work.

By including a custom Company property (e.g., Conferences) we can quickly identify which companies were holding conferences. Depending on how we setup those conference names we can also quickly glean additional details (e.g., pseudo timeframe).

(see image showing all Companies holding conferences in 2018 & 2019)

That being said, we'll still want to additionally track individiual contacts at the respective companies (venues) since we'll ultimately need to engage them. This fine point is especially important when we deal with multiple contacts at a company (like HubSpot) where only one person may be our contact for conferences.

[MFrankJohnson]

@sharradog, may we please mark this post as solved ??

[sharradog]

Thank you Frank for the detailed reply!  So, if I have 50 conferences for instance that I am contacting - would each contact have a drop down? That seems like a lot of conferences to view/manage. Could I maybe organize them by Quarter? So that each dropdown field is Q1-2019, Q2-2019 etc. so I can filter all the conferences by quarter? I know that for Q1 conferences I will have to contact them in Q1 the year before....?

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

>>So, if I have 50 conferences for instance that I am contacting - would each contact have a drop down?

That's up to you @sharradog.

HubSpot gives you the freedom to set this up in many different ways. In our model, there's only one dropdown at the Company level -- the venue.

>>Could I maybe organize them by Quarter? So that each dropdown field is Q1-2019, Q2-2019 ?

Yes. Excellent idea.
However, we'd recommend using names like 2019-Q1, 2019-Q2, 2020-Q1, 2020-Q2 instead. That way, if/when we eventually need to export and sort our list at some point in the future it sorts in a meaningful way.

Bottom line is that you have options. You can build the solution that best suits your specific use case.

[sharradog]

THank you!

[mmcmahon]

Thanks for the response. I had seen this prior answer, and it partially helped.  But I'd like to track more detail per participant/contact per event.  So not only that a contact attended, but whether an invitation was sent, opened, and responded to. Seems like using contact custom properties is the best way to go, but can't figure out how I'd get more than one property per event per contact?

[MFrankJohnson]

Tracking sends and opens for marketing emails is no big deal. That's easily tracked using HubSpot smart list criteria &/or directly using workflow enerollment criteria.

The issue then becomes tracking RESPONSES to marketing emails -- not a built-in HubSpot feature. (by design) Since HubSpot marketing emails aren't technically sent from or linked to your email account, tracking responses isn't currently available.

Many of the best solutions we see involve a marriage between HubSpot and a proper webinar managment platform -- e.g., GotoWebinar (a leading HubSpot integration partner). We also like Zoom.us webinars.