About 4,000 CXOs in the room. Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017, filled through partner channels.

Use partner channels rather than paid ads. Associations, sponsors and ecosystem partners already have trusted relationships with executives. For Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017, Lemniscate Growth reached out through every partner channel, then built and closed the attendee pipeline, bringing about 4,000 CXOs to the event.

It means asking the organisations connected to an event, such as associations, sponsors and ecosystem partners, to invite their own networks, with clear messaging and follow-up. Lemniscate Growth used this approach for Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017, treating partner interest as a pipeline and closing it, for about 4,000 CXOs.

Book meetings before the event instead of relying on booth traffic. The outreach skills Lemniscate Growth used to bring about 4,000 CXOs to Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017 now fill clients' calendars at events such as Hong Kong FinTech Week, GITEX Dubai and Consensus, where CipherBC saw at least a 15x return.

For Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017, we started by mapping every partner organization connected to the event, including associations, sponsors and ecosystem partners, and the senior audience each could invite. Each partner then received a clear, specific ask and material for inviting its own network, with consistent messaging across all channels. Coordination mattered because uncoordinated partner networks either go unused or send mixed messages. About 4,000 CXOs took part.

Attendance at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017 was run like a sales pipeline because registrations that nobody works do not fill a room. Interest arriving from partner channels was tracked stage by stage, and prospective attendees and their teams received follow-up until they confirmed. Lemniscate Growth marketed one of Asia's major annual fintech events this way, building and closing the pipeline of senior attendees, and about 4,000 CXOs took part.

Senior executives were hard to reach for Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017 because they delegate their inboxes and ignore generic promotion, so paid media rarely gets through. The audience that makes a fintech event valuable is the hardest one to reach with ads. The route in was the event's partners, whose associations and sponsor networks already held trusted relationships with those executives. With every partner channel activated, about 4,000 CXOs took part.

It suits events with conditions similar to Hong Kong FinTech Week 2017: a senior audience that ignores ads, several partner organizations with their own trusted networks, and a team able to follow up with each prospective attendee until they confirm. That edition, one of Asia's major annual fintech events, used every partner channel and reached about 4,000 CXOs. If your event has few partners, or registrations cannot be worked as a pipeline, the model is harder to repeat.