We Attend the Conference for You

Your competitors will be there. You won’t. A few thousand buyers and companies you compete with are showing exactly what they’re building next. Someone needs to be on that conference floor for you.

I attend one conference for one company, bookable up to 10 days out. Full days on the floor running a brief you approve: competitors, sessions, buyer signals, questions you want answered, the deliverables you need. You get the intelligence without being there.

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What We Do

Act as your proxy on the conference floor.

We ask.

Before the conference, we build a list of questions that matter to you. Then we go find the answers at the conference. Not formal interviews; smart questions asked to people in the market, e.g., what did competitors say, what are buyers actually asking for, what did we miss, what’s the biggest problem trying to be solved right now, what’s overhyped, what announcement actually got attention, etc.

We observe.

Competitor audits. Demos. Session themes. Announcements. Attendee reactions. Emerging trends. We identify the questions that keep coming up, e.g., what are target buyers actually complaining about in session Q&As, what are competitors promising at booths (giving your team direct counter-messaging), what demos are pulling crowds, what gaps are they leaving exposed, etc.

We look for patterns.

One person saying something is interesting. Ten people saying it is a signal. We find what angles your team can pursue immediately post-show. Hundreds of notes, responses, observations, announcements, and conference material, connected into actionable patterns.

What You Get

1 · Mission Brief

Built from a call before the conference. The questions you want the market asked. The competitors you want analyzed. The sessions you want to attend. The positions you want to own coming out of the show. The deliverables you need. We pursue your custom mission on the conference floor.

2 · Field Intelligence Report

What the answers mean for you, what to do next, what marketing should be saying, what questions sales should start asking. Customized and organized by the signals you request:

  • SALES SIGNALS — Field intel from the named targets you provide in advance: booths to visit, sessions to attend, target account scouting. Who attended, what they announced, what they appear to be solving for, and a recommended follow-up angle for each.
  • COMPETITIVE SIGNALS — Positioning, demos, claims, partnerships, traffic. What’s new and what it implies.
  • MARKET SIGNALS — What we heard, what changed, what’s overhyped, what’s undervalued. The themes and shifts your team should know about.
  • CONTENT SIGNALS — The strongest angles found in the field. Quotes, observations, and evidence your team can attribute and build on.

3 · Live Field Intelligence

We embed on the conference floor as an independent founder to serve as your dedicated eyes and ears, delivering real-time competitor signals, session positions, and sales intelligence. We attend sessions on your priority list; you get a written take on what it means for you before the day ends, while it’s still news. A live field desk channel delivering real-time opportunities during the event (e.g., Google Doc, Slack, WhatsApp) detailing how you should react before the news cycle moves on.

4 · Field Media

Curated documentation supporting the findings. Floor photos and clips captured as permitted by the conference. Custom deliverables based on your needs, e.g., drafted X/LinkedIn posts, newsletters, and pull-quotes.

Why Me

I am Mark O’Brien, your conference proxy field unit. Embedded field intelligence delivered by an exit-founder who knows how to spot the single signal that impacts pipeline.

I am the person walking the conference floor for you who has built and sold companies, taught over half a million students technical subjects, and spent years buying media and building pipeline.

The reports aren’t written by someone documenting an event. It’s written by someone who has sat in the buyer’s chair and knows which details matter.

Justin-Mark-OBrien-linkedin - ai Innovation - conference proxy

How it Works

BOOKABLE LATE, ON PURPOSE

Most engagements need a quarter of lead time. This one needs ten days. That’s the whole point. You may realize two weeks before the event that you need a clone of yourself for a specific deliverable. That’s when you call me.

  • 10+ days out: Engagement confirmed. You provide the conference credential. I handle travel and preparation under our all-inclusive flat rate.
  • 7+ days out: Mission call. We review the event, audience, agenda, floor plan, sponsors/exhibitors, and objectives. I build the mission brief around what you need accomplished.
  • Conference days: Full days on the floor, running the plan. Live Field Desk running throughout.
  • 1 week after: Deliverables and debrief.

All-Inclusive Pricing

Day rate. Travel (T&E). Conference pass. Prep, on-site collecting, synthesis, and delivery. No expense invoice afterward.

DIY ConferenceConference Proxy
Total Cost$100,000+ (Sponsorship, travel, hotel, passes)Day rate, travel, hotel, conference pass
Executive Time Spent4-5 days lost in transit and on the floor0 hours travel time
Intelligence CollectedFragmented (Your team is trapped in meetings or in a booth)100% focused on requested deliverables
Floor AccessOpenly tagged with your company badgeIndependent analyst asking questions

Your Exclusive Conference Proxy

Our conference proxy engagement with you is private. We work for you only. We spend the conference looking for your answers. We extract the conference intelligence exclusively for your company.

Name

FAQ

Yes. Before the event, we build your brief around the intelligence that matters most to you. For example: track X competitors, get pitched at X booths, attend specific sessions, identify emerging market trends, capture buyer pain points, audit competitor messaging, find potential partners and opportunities, produce content and social posts, provide coverage, and more:

• Competitive Intelligence — messaging, positioning, demos, claims, launches
• Sales Intelligence — competitors’ pitch, customer pain points, follow-up opportunities
• Market Intelligence — emerging themes, buyer language, shifts and surprises
• Session Intelligence — what major announcements and speakers mean for your category
• Field Evidence — useful observations, quotes and visual documentation

Anything that can be legitimately observed or documented on the conference floor. Common assignments include competitive intelligence, buyer pain points, session positions, market trends, account signals, competitor demos and messaging, emerging companies, and useful field media. We turn the findings into concise intelligence reports and actionable recommendations.

We start with your mission, then use our own judgment in the field. A competitor announcement that everyone already knows about isn’t particularly valuable. An unexpected customer concern, a positioning shift three competitors are suddenly making, or a company nobody on your team has heard of showing up with a compelling product is. The value isn’t the volume of information. It’s knowing what matters.

You define the mission. We use our judgment to find what matters.

As your conference proxy, we can ask attendees, session panelists, competitor booth staff, etc., any questions you want answers to. Here are some examples:

COMPETITORS:
What are they launching?
What are they saying?
Who’s getting attention?
What are they doing differently?
CUSTOMERS:
What are buyers actually asking for?
What problems are they trying to solve?
What are they frustrated with?
MARKET:
What’s real?
What’s hype?
What’s changing?
What’s becoming commercially relevant?
PARTNERS:
Who should we be talking to?
Who is emerging?
Who is making moves?
PEOPLE:
Who should be on our radar?
Who is worth meeting?

Yes, for high-priority developments, we can send updates (e.g., Google Doc, Slack, WhatsApp) during the event rather than waiting for the final report. We can share the things your team will benefit from knowing while the conference is happening.

CEOs & FOUNDERS: 40+ hours of executive travel and conference time back. Get targeted intelligence on your exact competitors and target partners.
INVESTORS: You want someone on the ground understanding an emerging market, company, or technology.
PRODUCT LEADERS: You want to know what competitors are building and what customers are asking for.
SALES LEADERS: You want intelligence on accounts, competitors, and buying signals.
MARKETING LEADERS: You want to understand the market before you decide what to say.

Yes, and we tell them the truth: an independent analyst attending on behalf of a client we can’t name. We never pose as a customer or use a false identity.

Everything in your report comes from what any attendee could observe or hear at booths, demos, sessions, announcements, and open conversations with people who know they’re talking to an outsider. The value isn’t secret access. It’s uninterrupted days of attention and knowing which detail matters. Under NDA, GDPR-compliant, and inside the conference’s own rules on recording and photography.

Competitive intelligence has a professional standard, and we work to it. SCIP’s code of ethics prohibits misrepresenting who you are, inducing anyone to breach confidentiality, or using dishonest methods to extract information. Everything we collect is either observable on the floor or freely offered in conversation by someone who knows who they’re talking to.

What we always do
• Attend as ourselves, registered under 1BVP, on a badge with our own name and company.
• Answer honestly if anyone asks who we are. If a competitor’s booth staff asks, we say we’re an independent analyst attending on behalf of a client we’re not able to name. That ends some conversations. It’s still the answer.
• Work only from what is legitimately observable, publicly stated, or voluntarily shared.
• Follow the conference’s own terms on photography and recording, and obtain any required permission in writing before capturing anything.

What we never do
• Pose as a customer, prospect, investor, journalist, or job applicant.
• Use a false name, a false employer, or someone else’s badge.
• Ask anyone to share something they’re under an obligation to keep confidential.
• Record a conversation covertly. Where someone consents, we record; where they don’t, we take notes.
• Name you to anyone at the event without your written permission.

Engagements are confidential, but we are happy to share sample redacted reports and final deliverables. That said, each client has custom field intelligence requests unique to their business. With our background as an AI consultant and tech founder, we focus on AI and technology conferences, attending everything from CES to AI on the Lot.