Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

How to Level Up Your Networking Game

And let’s be honest, those times were amazing. All of us conference junkies where somewhat addicted to this jet-setting lifestyle, waiting for the next fix and the next group of “friends” whose friendship expired within 24 hours after the conference was over. Zoom drinks won’t ever come close to the real thing, much like virtual sex won’t fully satisfy your appetite to exchange bodily fluids with another human being.

So what can you do? You can use this quiet time to level up your networking game, for when the events industry resumes to normal, or even when it comes to online events.

The goal of networking is to establish mutually beneficial genuine connections with people.

Here are four easy ways to do this:

Nurture your existing connections

Catch up with those connections you might have let go. Pull all those business cards out from your dusty drawer and start reaching out to the people who can add value to your network. The basic principle here is to drop your agenda. No pitching! Reach out to say hello, remind people where you met, and ask them how they’ve been. Suggest jumping on a quick call and when you do, focus on what you can give, rather than on what you can sell them.

Work on your personal brand and online presence

Now that you aren’t travelling between continents to attend or speak at conferences, you are also less distracted. Use this focus to work on your personal brand. Invest in a better headshot done by a professional photographer. Create more and better content, grow your social media accounts. Got videos where you speak on stage? Make a reel to promote yourself as a speaker. If you don’t have the skills to do this, there are plenty of video editors out there that need work. And they don’t cost a fortune. All of this will give you a head start when conferences come back to what they were.

Check out the Ad World virtual conference on 2-4nd November

Join a private member’s club in your town (or request a day pass)

A visit to a private member’s club will bring back some good memories of what conferences used to be. Fine food, selected crowd, business vibes. You have probably saved a significant amount of money by not travelling the world to go to events. Invest this amount in the right membership. Most private member’s clubs also hold online events or networking sessions. Getting in can be challenging and you might need to find people who can refer you. Alternatively, you can see which clubs in your area offer day tours or can give you a free day pass to experience the place.

Attend The Conduit’s Virtual Open House on 27th October

Book a day pass at The Conduit in London

Request a tour at AllBright of their Mayfair or West Hollywood clubs (women only)

Try applying for Soho House’s Every House or Local House membership

Go on a retreat that gathers professionals within your niche

It takes some time to appreciate the quality of retreats that people in the conference world organise. This is where a weekend can cost you some’s monthly salary (or your monthly salary), but if you pick the right ones, it will pay off in high-level connections and a quality experience you will remember for years to come. In my view as a hardcore budget traveller, those retreats are worth it. Even if you can only afford one or two per year.

SummitSummit is one such retreat that gathers a quality group of VCs and entrepreneurs. Their 2020 Iceland retreat got cancelled due to Covid and they are currently working on rescheduling it for 2021. They also organise regular retreats in Greece.

Virtual Open House at the Conduit 2020 – 27 October 2020 – The Virtual Open House is the ideal opportunity to learn more about how the Conduit is bringing together knowledge, capital and ideas for tangible and sustained positive impact.

Ad World – 2-4 November 2020 – Ad World is one of the largest online events for digital marketers in the world. For three days, Ad World will stream 15+ Digital Advertising Tracks, consisting of hyper-focused speeches, workshops and live Q&A sessions to help take your business to the next level.

SummitSummit – 25-26 March 2021 (tbd) – Our mission is simple: Connect world-class innovators and investors from Europe, Asia, and the US to create a long-lasting community. Out Of Office is the new way to network, raise funds, and build connections.

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Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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