Present, Sponsor, or Host? How to Sell IT Services Through Events

Events and networking are among the most powerful ways for founders of technology professional services startups to market and grow their businesses. The good news? Events don’t have to be massive conferences to deliver ROI. If you’re not already using them in your marketing strategy, you’re missing out.

Whether it’s a trade show, a local meetup, a webinar, or a fireside chat, your IT consulting or services company can still benefit from events. With hybrid formats and AI-driven personalization, events will likely become even more effective at helping founders find IT consulting clients and build relationships at scale.

Why Events Are a Unique Marketing Opportunity for IT Service Sales

1. Understanding Market and Industry

Events provide real-time access to industry insights and customer needs. Conferences, trade shows, and professional associations reveal market shifts and pain points often before they appear in mainstream reports. This helps sharpen your focus when selling tech services.

2. Accessing New Networks

Events extend your reach beyond your immediate network. Coffee line chats, networking tables, and breakout group discussions can all introduce you to new prospects and partners. Plus, hybrid and virtual events exponentially expand geographic reach.

3. Strengthening Existing Relationships

Events deepen existing connections, too. For instance, at Flux7, AWS re:Invent became a key touchpoint to meet clients in person and strengthen our AWS partnership. Founders can use private roundtables and VIP dinners to connect with clients in intimate, high-value settings — all great opportunities to solidify loyalty and increase upsell potential.

How to Get Started

There are a lot of different ways you can get started with events.

Attending

Attending events is one of the easiest ways to kick off your event strategy. As an added bonus, it’s a lot easier to attend a big event than it is to host one. Remember that preparation is key when attending events. Our article here deep-dives into getting the most out of your attendance. In summary, set measurable goals such as the number of conversations, leads, or learnings. Aim high and engage actively during sessions, breaks, and meals.

Presenting

Presenting builds credibility, a critical component of the ETS sales model. Submit proposals to formal events or reach out directly for smaller gatherings. Showcase client-focused frameworks, case studies, or innovative perspectives as part of your talk. Alternatively, you can also join as a panel speaker. Vixul’s panel appearance gained us 100 new followers (30% increase) and generated 20 high-quality leads.  If you record these talks, you can also repurpose as evergreen content across LinkedIn, YouTube, and your website to multiply audience and SEO impact.

Sponsoring

Sponsorship can be pricey (depending on the event) but it definitely delivers visibility and access. It can also bolster partnerships and signal industry authority. You can opt for booths, branded talks, and exclusive networking rights. You can use sponsorship as an opportunity to deliver interactive,  experiential marketing too — think live demos and exclusive workshops.

Hosting

Hosting is the most expensive strategic move out of all these options so far, requiring the greatest commitment not only in terms of budget but also team resources. But it certainly has an undeniable impact, particularly for events that successfully gain a wide audience.

If you’re ready to commit, you can increase your success as a host by tailoring different segments according to attendee personas: technical workshops for engineering teams, strategy roundtables for executives, and so on. Be sure to keep some parts of the event exclusive, such as invitation-only leadership dinners, for closer networking than a large-scale public event typically allows.

Combine live events with digital follow-ups such as recorded sessions and micro-content clips to create a content flywheel that generates ongoing leads.

Wrapping Up

Events are a powerful channel to find IT consulting clients and establish market authority. How you approach them can vary depending on the stage your business is at and the resources you have at your disposal to dedicate to your event strategy. When you’re just starting out, it might make more sense to focus on attending and networking aggressively. But as you mature, think about options for presenting, sponsoring, or even hosting your own events.

Remember, the key is doing more than just showing up. Use the tools at your disposal to help maximize your ROI. In doing so, you’ll transform events into a cost-effective growth engine for selling tech services.

🚨Don't Miss Out!

Keep in touch with Vixul, get our latest posts, and unlock community exclusives such as invitations to industry events, discounts and more. Just sign up below.