Event Scouting

This drill finds industry events worth showing up to for hallway demos. The goal is NOT to sponsor or exhibit -- it is to identify events where your ICP congregates so you can intercept them in lobbies, hallways, lunch lines, and after-parties.

Input

• ICP definition (from icp-definition drill): target industries, titles, company sizes
• Target cities or regions where you can travel
• Budget constraints for travel
• Date range to scout (typically 30-90 days out)

Steps

1. Discover events in target markets

Run the event-discovery-api fundamental to search for events in each target city. Use multiple keyword strategies:

• Industry keywords: e.g., "SaaS conference", "DevOps summit", "AI/ML meetup"
• Competitor keywords: events your competitors sponsor or speak at
• ICP role keywords: e.g., "CTO roundtable", "engineering leadership"
• Community keywords: local tech community names, Slack groups, meetup organizers

Aim for 15-30 candidate events per city per quarter.

2. Score events for hallway demo potential

Add a scoring formula in Clay that evaluates each event on hallway demo suitability:

• ICP density (35%): How many speakers/sponsors match your ICP? Use event-attendee-enrichment to extract and score attendee lists. An event with 5+ ICP-match speakers scores 100.
• Venue accessibility (25%): Does the venue have public lobbies, hallways, coffee areas accessible without a badge? Hotel venues score high (lobbies are public). Convention centers score lower (badge-gated). Claygent can research this from venue photos and floor plans.
• Event size (20%): Sweet spot is 200-2,000 attendees. Under 100 is too small (you stand out as uninvited). Over 5,000 is too chaotic. Score: 200-500 = 90, 500-2,000 = 100, 100-200 = 60, 2,000-5,000 = 40, <100 or >5,000 = 20.
• Timing (10%): Multi-day events score higher (more hallway time). Single-day events with long breaks score well. Back-to-back sessions with no breaks score low.
• Cost to attend (10%): Free events and events at hotels where you can hang in the lobby = 100. Events requiring a $2,000+ badge to enter the venue = 0. Events where the hallway/lobby is accessible but sessions require a badge = 70.

3. Enrich top-scored events with attendee targets

For events scoring 70+, run event-attendee-enrichment to build a target contact list per event:

• Extract all speakers, panelists, and workshop leaders
• Extract sponsor company representatives
• If a public attendee list exists, extract and filter for ICP matches
• Enrich each contact with email, LinkedIn, company data
• Score contacts for demo relevance

4. Build the event calendar

Push scored events to Attio using attio-lists. Create an "Event Calendar" list with fields:

• Event name, date, city, venue
• Hallway demo score (from step 2)
• Number of ICP-match targets identified
• Travel cost estimate (agent can estimate from city distance)
• Expected ROI: (ICP targets x estimated conversion rate) vs travel cost

Track event scouting activity in PostHog using posthog-custom-events: log event_scouted with event name, score, and number of targets found.

5. Plan the approach for each event

For each event you decide to attend, prepare:

• Target list: Top 10-15 ICP-match contacts to seek out, with photos (from LinkedIn) for recognition
• Venue intel: Lobby layout, coffee area locations, session break schedule
• Talking points: 2-3 conversation starters tied to event topics
• Demo setup: Laptop or tablet with product loaded, offline-ready if WiFi is unreliable
• Scheduling link: Cal.com link ready to share for booking follow-up meetings

Output

• Scored and ranked event calendar for the next 90 days
• Per-event target contact lists in Attio
• Venue intelligence notes per event
• Event scouting metrics in PostHog

Triggers

• Run monthly to refresh the 90-day event calendar
• Run ad-hoc when a new event is discovered or suggested