Stress

At the time of writing, I’m prepping for DealTechno: LexFuel Volume 2 @ The Ivy (Canary Wharf), and I’m losing my mind…Game over night night.

• Is anyone going to turn up?

• Are they going to find me out?

• I run these things with little prep (for my sins) — will I choke?

• Will the Amex bounce at the end?

People often call this imposter syndrome. I think that’s a bit of a cop-out, it just means you care about something and want to make sure everyone has a good time. As they ain’t coming again if it is a dog.

At our last event, we won two clients out of it, which is why in-person events still matter, probably more than ever.

Being a founder, you’re always thinking about the “vending machine of investment”:
if I put in $1, how many dollars am I going to get back?

This time, we messed up sponsorship, our main sponsor bailed (note to self: always get a contract signed) so we’re covering everything.

We’ll be out of pocket about £1,750. The real question is: will we get 10x (£17,500) out of Volume 2?

Maybe… hard to say, but we will have excellent production value. As it’ss as much about the asset creation to drive FOMO and exposure post event - a slave to LinkedIn moan inbound………………………………………

I don’t have time, but may week.

Much love

Helpful Calculations for Running Events

Here are some quick numbers worth tracking when you’re deciding whether events are “worth it”:

1. Total Cost

   • Venue + F&B + staff + travel + marketing + hidden extras.

   • Example here: £1,750.

2. Cost per Attendee

   • Total Cost ÷ Confirmed Attendees.

   • If 35 people come: £1,750 ÷ 35 = £50 per head.

3. Conversion Value

   • Expected number of new clients × average deal size.

   • If 2 clients at £8k each = £16,000.

4. Event ROI

   • (Revenue generated ÷ Event Cost) × 100.

   • Using above: (£16,000 ÷ £1,750) × 100 = 914% ROI.

5. Break-even Point

   • Event Cost ÷ Average Deal Size.

   • £1,750 ÷ £8,000 = 0.22 deals → basically, 1 client closes and you’re in profit.

6. Sponsor Cushion

   • Always model the event with and without sponsorship so you’re not exposed.

Rob Johnson
DealTechno
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