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Is it worth hosting a conference for

your Micro SaaS / Chrome Extension community?

Thereā€™s nothing quite like having an open and direct connection with your appā€™s users.

They will let you know what features they love and of course, what improvements theyā€™d like to see next!

In my old day job as Technical Director, I was so far removed from the end-users that it was difficult to glean any meaningful feedback from them.

Contrast that with the world of Micro SaaS where youā€™ll likely be interacting directly with your users every day. Youā€™ll have access to an invaluable and continuous stream of useful opinions and insights which will help shape your product roadmap.

In my case, I took this a step further and organized an entire conference for my nicheā€™s user base!

My flagship app, Merch Wizard (which Iā€™ve since exited from) is a chrome extension that helps Merch By Amazon creators streamline their Merch businesses and sell more products on Amazon.

As I was active in the nicheā€™s communities I saw that there was only one Merch By Amazon conference, held annually in Seattle, USA.

For some reason, I decided itā€™d be a good idea for me to organize my first ever conference for European-based Merch creators (whilst working my full-time job still!).

Once I had the blessing from the USA contingent, the Merch UK Conference was born!

Despite the stress of organizing a conference for 80+ people, which in the end had several attendees from the USA & Europe as well as the UK, the benefits far outweighed the stress.

Benefits Of Organizing A Conference

  • I was able to increase my profile in the community.

  • I built trust within the community that my app was run by a trustworthy and credible person.

  • I developed relationships with multiple Facebook group owners and networked with other app developers.

  • I got to meet many Merch Wizard users and got to pick their brains in person (these relationships have lasted years and have been vital for feedback).

  • I was able to subtly promote my app to the conference audience and the people buying the video replays. If you do this, be mindful not to plaster your logo everywhere and only mention your app at relevant times to avoid tainting the whole conference as a sales pitch for your app.

  • In the first year of the conference, I broke even but was set to make a small profit

  • from the ticket sales and sponsorship packages in the second year until the bug hit.

With that in mind, conferences can be financially beneficial although donā€™t underestimate the amount of hard work it requires to organize one properly!

Drawbacks of Organizing A Conference

  • No conference is better than a bad conference. It takes a lot of effort to put on a good conference. Think about attracting interesting speakers (not just a pitchfest), ticket sales, venue hire, presentation screen, filming, audio mics, meals, dietary requirements, drinks, website, payments, refunds, etc.

  • Alongside the above effort, it can take up valuable time and focus that you could be spending working on your app and promoting it elsewhere. Consider the time cost vs benefits in your case.

  • If youā€™ve ever tied the knot, it takes a similar amount of detailed planning to keep many people fed, watered and entertained for a full day!

In summary, if your app is fairly new or youā€™re operating in an emerging market (as I was) Iā€™d recommend earning trust with the community in one way or another.

That could be hosting a virtual conference or online workshop, rather than an in-person event or even just create a Facebook Group/Discord/Slack community if thatā€™s a better fit.

And what of the Merch UK Conference? Unfortunately, the second conference was scheduled for mid-March 2020 and had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

As I sold Merch Wizard last year, Iā€™m looking to pass the baton on to a trustworthy member of the community to carry it forward.

Finally, if youā€™re a disgruntled corporate 9-5 software developer, my journey might give you some hope that us regular guys can quit their jobs through Micro SaaS and have successful exits too.

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