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Case study

Cheers Around the World: a partner appreciation event, 2024

By Founder, Events Authority · Updated

Disclosure

I ran Breach Secure Now's trade show and channel event program from 2020 to 2025, first as VP of Sales & Marketing and then as Chief Channel Officer.

On November 5, 2024, the day before IT Nation Connect, we took BSN’s partners around the world at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We called it Cheers Around the World.

Why a partner event, not another prospect event

Most event budgets chase new logos. That is where the leads are, and leads are easy to count.

Here’s the truth: events are not just for new leads. They are one of the best chances you get all year to cultivate the partners you already have, to remind them why they chose you and to deepen the trust that makes them stay. In the channel, people trust people more than logos. A partner who spent a day with your team remembers the team.

How it worked

  • The timing. The day before IT Nation Connect in Orlando, when partners were already travelling for the show. We did not compete with the show floor for their time. We gave them a reason to arrive a day early.
  • The offer. BSN bought each partner a ticket for the day, plus one for their business partner or their ITN Connect travel companion. The invitation was a thank-you, and it said so.
  • The theme. The festival already sends visitors around the world, so the event became a trip around the world with a toast to the partnership: to you, and to our shared opportunities.
  • The invitation. We started inviting partners in early October, coming off ScaleCon24, with a limited number of tickets and a reservation link.

What to take from it

Put the appreciation event where your partners already are, at a time that costs them nothing, and make the thank-you the whole point. The day after, when you see the same people on the show floor, you are not a booth to them. You are the people they spent yesterday with.

The show this event led into has its own case study.

Events Authority plans partner and customer events like this one; see corporate event planning services.

When did your partners last hear from you without being sold something? If the honest answer is “at the last show,” get your event assessment.

Send over next year’s calendar and the packages you are looking at. You get a written read on which shows are worth the money and what is leaking on the way out.

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