Web Summit

Host the party, don't attend it

Shaan's recurring theory: you get little reward for attending an event, but capture huge goodwill, relationships, and opportunity by being the one who organizes it. Summit, HustleCon, and Web Summit all started by convincing a few legit people to come, then letting the dominoes fall.

“You get no rewards pretty much for attending the party, or very little rewards for attending the party, but you get all the rewards if you host the party. And Sam, you did the same thing with HustleCon, where if you do the sweat to organize and you can convince just that first couple people of legit players to come in, there becomes this domino of legit people who will come in”

Steal thisStop attending events. Host one: convince a few legit anchors first, then let them recruit their peers.