Remember when a good booth at a big con was all you needed? | Cybersecurity Marketing

Michael Harris · 2026-03-13T08:05:08.304536+00:00

Back in 2018, my old boss dropped about $25k on a huge booth at RSA. We thought the foot traffic alone would fill our pipeline. It didn't. We got a ton of swag grabs but maybe five real leads. The whole thing felt like a vanity burn. Now I see teams spending that same cash on targeted webinars and case studies, and it works way better. Anyone else shift their budget from events to content after a flop like that?

jenny_hall6mo ago

Honestly @nina_campbell, I still think a great booth can make a real connection that content just can't.

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adamk956mo ago

My buddy's company did a huge booth at a tech thing last year. Spent a fortune. Said it was just a room full of people looking for free phone chargers. They put that cash into a podcast now and it's working way better for them.

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nina_campbell6mo ago

We blew almost thirty grand on a trade show booth back in 2016, convinced it was the only way to get seen. I was totally on board with that old-school thinking. Watching people just walk by to grab free pens completely changed my mind. Now I'd rather put that money into making really good explainer videos that our actual customers find useful. The return is just so much clearer when someone watches your content because they already have a problem to solve.

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