The Unconventional Path to Event Profitability
I have built profitable events by ignoring what the industry says you are supposed to do.
The conventional wisdom says that to scale an event profitably, you need more days, bigger venues, luxury perks, and hundreds of attendees paying premium prices.
I have tested the conventional approaches like swag, fancy food, party buses, and yachts but found my success doing the opposite.
Table of Contents
My Approach
While others built three-day conferences with thousands of guests at five-star hotels, I kept it focused.
Founder-driven.
Hundreds of guests and venues chosen for connection over impressions.
Budget Mindset
My budget approach was not about cutting corners.
It was about clarity.
Skip premium catering? Absolutely.
Founders do not remember the custom cocktails. They remember the partnership they closed during the roundtable.
No fancy badges with titles and companies? By design.
Humility and equality drive better conversations than letting egos and hierarchy take over the room.
Smaller, curated audience? Always.
One hundred of the right people beat one thousand disjointed attendees every single time.
The Results
Here is what happened when I optimized for guest value instead of industry expectations.
Sponsors got a better return on investment because they had meaningful conversations, not just booth traffic.
Attendees closed five, six, and seven-figure deals because we engineered real collision opportunities, not just networking time.
What Matters
The event industry loves to overcomplicate things.
More is better. Bigger is better. Fancier is better.
But founders and executives do not care about that.
They care about three things:
- Did I learn something I can use?
- Did I meet someone who can move my business forward?
- Was my time respected?
Moving Forward
That is the approach I am bringing to Ecom North as we expand across the United States.
Profitable events are not about following someone else’s playbook.
They are about obsessing over what actually creates value for the people who show up.
Miami, December 4th. We are doing it our way.
Conclusion
Building profitable events comes down to focusing on what truly matters: real connections, meaningful conversations, and respecting your attendees’ time.
The industry playbook is not the only path to success.