We’re a tech-oriented company providing fairly new services, ie – businesses have a problem, they just don’t know they do or the extent of which they do.

I want to put together an end of year party or conference to a.) show appreciation to our clients and b.) to get them talking about our services – the word-of-mouth strategy seems to work well in such a tough sell.

My initial thought was to hold a light mini-conference to get our clients together and teach them how to better use our solution and introduce them to the new “bells and whistles” and directly follow that with an appreciation party. Clients will be encouraged to bring guests.

My hope is that this will work as a springboard for future mini-events for our clients throughout the year.

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Jay’s Answer: How about a client conference? In addition to highlighting what’s new, provide a forum for brainstorming / collecting suggestions for improving things / new offerings. What’s in it for your clients are a chance for you to hear their problems and potentially do something about it. In some cases, another attendee will offer their suggestion to the problem, but it will be ripe with lots of useful information. Definitely record the session for your own sake. The key is to follow up with the attendees, and actually come up with solutions (even if they are recommendations for other company’s products) to the issues that were raised. That’s how long-term relationships are built.