The benefits of sponsoring and attending industry events and conferences can be highly impactful to your bottom line. They offer a chance to connect to clients in-person, share thought leadership, and supplement your digital distribution efforts with face-to-face business opportunities. Additionally, they are terrific content vehicles. Photos, social media posts, and think pieces can all be created and deployed before, during, and after a big event. 

But many issuers who opt-in to sponsoring a conference fail to take full advantage of the opportunity. Think about the exhibit halls of most conferences. Have you ever seen someone manning a booth and just scrolling on their phone? A presence at a conference is always a net gain. Simply showing up has benefits. But conferences present a host of opportunities to sponsors. If you are spending the time and resources to create swag and sponsor an event, you should squeeze every ounce of value out of it that you can.

The recent Exchange conference in Las Vegas showcased several asset managers who deeply understood how to make the most of the event.

Tap into the moment

Conferences exist at specific points in time. Most points in time are associated with broader cultural forces. Tying an activation to something that is happening, even outside of the world of finance, can deepen the activation. A shared experience is humanizing, after all. Exchange 2025 happened in March, which means March Madness is top of mind. 

State Street Global Advisors set up a Connect Four basketball exhibit on the lawn at the conference venue. Attendees could approach, grab a ball, and try to connect four shots in a row on a grid. This became a popular spot for networkers who just connected to deepen nascent bonds through competitive play. With State Street’s branding all over it, the activation facilitated conversations, provided attendees with social media fodder, and spoke perfectly to a specific event happening at the same time as the conference. This activation was rooted in a simple idea that accomplished a lot through being tethered to something that people were already interested in. Because March Madness is a phenomenon, social posts about the activation were more likely to see traffic boosts and the impact of the activation was enhanced as a result.. State Street also had speakers at the event, and the presence of thought leadership mixed with a clever activation inspired good will among attendees. All it took was a little planning in advance and understanding of what conference-goers might be interested in doing.

Tap into the location

Conferences exist at specific points in time. Most points in time are associated with broader cultural forces. Tying an activation to something that is happening, even outside of the world of finance, can deepen the activation and bring a timeliness element to the activation. A shared experience is humanizing, after all. Exchange 2025 happened in March, which means March Madness is top of mind. 

The Las Vegas Grand Prix is a big deal in the Formula 1 world. Formula 1 has seen increasing popularity amid a Netflix documentary and growing fan base. CF Benchmarks put a race car directly on the floor of the exhibit hall, creating an activation that resonated with the host city for the conference. The presence of the vehicle on the exhibition floor became a natural conversation starter for attendees and was impossible to miss. 

When in doubt, lean into basic needs

There are no doubts that creative, unique event activations can move the needle. In Exchange 2024, Grayscale set up a drone laser show that dropped jaws and had the entire conference talking. But not every activation needs to incorporate out of the box thinking or have the budget for an elaborate drone laser show. Asset managers can earn tremendous good will simply by thinking about the basic needs of conference attendees. 

Every conference runs on coffee. Conferences are also hotbeds of happy hours, dinners, and late nights, so there is a premium placed on good coffee. Even people with relatively light evening schedules and plenty of down time need a pick-me-up. Lazard responded by curating an entire coffee bar, complete with seating and tables, in the exhibit hall. Now, the conference itself was also offering urns of coffee, so Lazard understood their café needed to be next level. Crack baristas quickly and efficiently put together top tier coffee beverages for anyone walking by at any time, creating a networking hub within the networking hub that is the broader conference. Anyone who walked the exhibit hall at Exchange 2025 probably noted the constant traffic near Lazard’s cafe. Lazard was also trying to generate hype for a new product launch, and having one of the most consistently crowded booths on the exhibition floor helped reinforce that buzz.

Nuveen had a similar activation. Understanding that happy hours are a big deal at professional conferences, they set up a “muni-rita” bar to cleverly showcase their muni products and give attendees an easy-to-get-to happy hour spot. ROBO Global, meanwhile, had a similar idea, programming a robot arm to mix drinks for attendees. Both of these activations spoke to basic needs among attendees and provided plenty of good attention to the brands that deployed them.

Work everything you have at the maximum level

You don’t have to have bottomless spending to have a successful conference experience. Sometimes all it takes is being present throughout the lifecycle of a conference.

Conferences are more than a couple of days on a calendar. They are months of lead up and preparation. They are also their own aftermath. Before a conference, you can be setting up meetings, inviting prospects, and putting yourself in position to succeed. After the conference you can be active on social media, sharing reflections, and taking every possible opportunity to put your product, ideas, and people in the spotlight. 

X-Square Capital came to Las Vegas from Puerto Rico. Their purpose in going to Exchange was to share their Triple Tax Exempt muni fund with a broader financial advisor audience. 

In advance of the conference, they booked interviews. At the conference, their team worked. They talked to everyone they met. They handed out swag. They took every opportunity they could to talk to people, share their ideas, and put their best foot forward. Showing up can be enough, but truly showing up means embracing possibilities and being an active partner with the conference host. Many firms are content to just let their branding do the work, but the firms that get the most from any conference are the ones who put in the effort on the floor. X-Square certainly did that at Exchange.

Set yourself up for success in 2026

At the end of the day, all of this comes down to preparation. Committing to going to a conference early gives you time to plan and prepare. Making a smart or useful activation happen can lead to a huge ROI. 

As asset managers are crunched for time and resources, it can be hard to give any task its due. But taking the time to have a smart conference plan and then executing on that plan can pay huge dividends. There is an opportunity cost to any event. You are spending money to get your logo in front of prospects and take advantage of all that a conference has to offer. As discussed, even phoning it in can make the opportunity cost worthwhile. But why phone it in when, for just a little bit more effort, you can get exponentially more dividends out of your sponsorship?

Interested in setting yourself up for conference success? Speak to our experts.