Industry events are goldmines for business development. But if you're only relying on chance encounters and handshake conversations, you're leaving massive opportunities on the table.

I'm attending an event next week with 7,000 expected attendees. The math is simple - even if I talked to someone new every 5 minutes for 8 hours straight, I'd only reach 96 people. That's barely 1.3% of the potential connections available.

This is exactly why smart companies are turning to event automation to maximize their conference investments.

The Complete Event Automation Workflow

Phase 1: Pre-Event Intelligence Gathering

The first step is extracting attendee data from the event. Different events provide different levels of information:

• Event apps with full attendee directories

• Website listings of exhibitors and companies

• Speaker directories with contact information

• Networking platforms integrated with the event

Using web scraping tools, we can extract:

• Full names of attendees

• Job titles and company names

• Profile descriptions and networking interests

• Company information and websites

Phase 2: Data Processing and Enrichment

Raw event data is messy. Here's how to clean and enrich it:

Name Standardization:

• Remove titles like "Dr." or "PhD"

• Separate first and last names

• Clean up formatting inconsistencies

AI-Powered Data Separation:

• Use AI agents to separate combined "title + company" fields

• Extract clean job titles and company names

• Standardize company name variations

Contact Information Discovery:

• Find LinkedIn profiles using name + company data

• Extract company domains and LinkedIn pages

• Generate and validate email addresses using multiple providers

Phase 3: Intelligent Qualification

Not every attendee is worth your time. Here's how to qualify prospects:

Role-Based Filtering:

• Target founders, marketing leaders, and sales executives

• Filter out roles that don't match your ICP

• Identify decision-makers vs. individual contributors

Company Qualification:

• Verify B2B vs. B2C business models

• Check company size and funding status

• Research their services and target customers

• Confirm they're not competitors or VCs (unless relevant)

Phase 4: Personalized Outreach Strategy

With qualified prospects identified, create targeted messaging:

Research Automation:

• Extract company positioning and differentiation

• Identify their target customers and use cases

• Find relevant pain points and challenges

• Gather recent company news or updates

Multi-Channel Approach:

• Email outreach for prospects with validated addresses

• LinkedIn messaging for those without email

• Personalized messaging based on research insights

Post-Event Follow-Up Automation

The work doesn't stop when the event ends:

Immediate Follow-Up (1-3 days):

• Thank people you met in person

• Share promised resources or connections

• Schedule follow-up calls while the conversation is fresh

Extended Outreach (1 week later):

• Reach out to qualified prospects you couldn't meet

• Reference the shared event experience

• Offer value based on your pre-event research

Long-Term Nurturing:

• Add all contacts to your CRM with proper tagging

• Include them in relevant email sequences

• Monitor for buying signals and company changes

Tools and Technologies

Web Scraping: Various tools depending on the event platform

AI Processing: Claude, ChatGPT, or specialized AI agents

Email Finding: LeadMagic, Prospeo or Clay’s waterfall validation

LinkedIn Automation: Heyreach

CRM Integration: Salesforce, HubSpot, or your preferred system

Here’s a detailed video on how you can do it

The Bottom Line

Events are expensive. Between registration fees, travel costs, and time investment, a single conference can cost thousands of dollars. Event automation ensures you extract maximum value from every opportunity.

The companies winning at events aren't just the ones with the best booth or the smoothest talkers - they're the ones who systematically identify, research, and connect with the right people before, during, and after the event.

Ready to implement event automation for your next conference? At Mint Prospects, we build these exact systems for our clients, customized to their specific events, target markets, and sales processes.

Remember: Choose Vibes instead of stress, and watch your Sales grow!

Until next time,

Santiago 😎