The return of client events

If it’s been years since you hosted an event or gathering for your loyal clients, you risk losing them to a competitor, because if the first third of 2024 has shown us anything, it’s that in-person events are back.

There’s no doubt the workplace is still experiencing a COVID lockdown hangover. Many advisors are working a day or two each week from home, client meetings via Zoom are more popular than in-person meetings, and many cities’ downtowns have less life than a Hollywood backlot after midnight.

For those advisors who emphasized in-person events and workshops to retain existing clients and attract new ones, those events ceased entirely during the lockdown era. We’d traditionally relied on events to fuel much of our new client growth and had thousands of people register for one of our educational workshop series back in 2019.

When the response to the pandemic kept us all indoors, we had to quickly pivot from live events to digital. On the one hand, it appeared we could be more efficient with our on-line educational seminars because we could be everywhere at once and could avoid the logistical time and hassle of in-person gatherings. However, those online events had less impact (fewer attendees, fewer new clients) than what we had achieved with in-person events.

After the lockdowns were lifted, some consumer behavior returned to normal, but not all. For example, travel exploded as people were making up for lost time. But people were not attending client and educational events at pre-pandemic levels.

Case in point, when we began hosting in-person events again in the fall of 2021, our registrations and attendance was about a third of what they had been.

But that all finally changed this year. Whether it’s a combination of recent stock market gains, an increased desire to be educated, a sharper marketing approach, or a combination of all three, we have seen a substantial uptick in attendance. In fact, we are now seeing numbers we haven’t witnessed since prior to the lockdowns.

Well-conceived in-person events are a powerful tool for strengthening client relationships, attracting new referrals, and acquiring new assets to manage.

For example, you may consider hosting an open house. Our Indianapolis office threw a solar eclipse watch party, with dozens of clients taking the time to attend. If you aren’t a dynamic speaker, you could host an event with a guest who is a subject matter specialist in behavioral finance or tax laws.

Other advisors I’ve spoken with agree that registrations and attendance for events have come roaring back. Which is a wonderful thing, because the fact is that educational seminars and workshops designed to attract and acquire new clients are a fantastic way to solidify your base and build your business. They provide an opportunity for you to bond with existing clients, or they can provide you with a stage to display your expertise so your potential clients see you in action before committing to a one-on-one sit down.

Scott Hanson is co-founder of Allworth Financial.