The Value of an Annual Conference

by John DeHart

Having just come off of our 4th annual franchise conference, I wanted to evaluate the benefits of having a yearly conference. Year after year, franchise organizations around the world spend tens of thousands of dollars to promote, plan and produce their annual conference. All with the same objective of: ‘How do we improve results and make our existing franchise partners more successful?’

Often franchise organizations spend less time focusing on the experience and education they provide their franchise partners in order to answer the question and more time worrying about the expenses associated with holding a conference. As such they tend to utilize many of their own staff or existing franchise owners within their system to carry out presentations or work shops and essentially tell their partners what they already know or what they have already heard. With more franchise partners transitioning from a corporate environment to becoming small business owners, they are capable of differentiating between conferences filled with insight versus just another ‘meeting’ that lasts three days.

So what distinguishes a great annual conference from a long overblown ‘meeting’? What we’ve learned is that it’s the quality of the content as well as the relationships that are nurtured. Prospective franchise partners should look for a conference that brings everyone together and has relevant speakers that will inspire, motivate or re-energize the company as a whole.

Timely relevance is key. It’s great if a franchise system can bring out an exceptional speaker but the content needs to be relevant for you as a franchisee. For example, this year, we had a great inspirational speaker in Verne Harnish, an expert in business and the growth guru. We also had outside presenters that focused on elements our partners wanted even more help with. Strategy and goal setting, face-to-face sales – elements that would help grow their business in the short term.

Taking the time to research what type of annual conference your prospective franchisor puts on will go a long ways in showcasing whether they are serious about helping you grow your business.

John DeHart
Co-founder and Co-CEO
Nurse Next Door
www.johndehart.com

Learn more about Nurst Next Door at topfranchises.franchisebusinessreview.com.

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