The Forthea Growth Summit.
Goal: 20–30 senior marketing decision-makers from Houston/Texas multifamily and multi-location brands. Generate 5–10 qualified follow-up conversations. Identify one strategic partnership.
A Half-Day Practitioner Session, Not a Conference
Format: Half-day working session (9 AM – 1 PM) followed by a hosted lunch. Not a conference. Not a panel. Not a pitch. A structured peer exchange where 20–30 marketing leaders work through a real problem together, leave with a tangible output, and spend four hours in a room with Forthea's team without ever hearing a sales presentation.
Location: Houston, Texas — Forthea's home market. A boutique hotel meeting space or high-design co-working venue. The room should signal 'this is a premium experience' from the moment attendees arrive. Not a conference room. Not a hotel ballroom.
Core value to attendees: walk away with a completed one-page action plan for your single most pressing marketing challenge, benchmarked against what 25 peers in the same market are doing. Chatham House rules. No pitches. Peer-level conversation only.
Why this format over a dinner or a panel: I've managed events for client accounts and for my own consulting work. The format that produces the highest-quality follow-up conversations is always the one where attendees do work together — not where they listen to someone present. People remember what they built, not what they heard. And they associate what they built with whoever facilitated it.
Target Attendee Profile
- ●VP of Marketing, Director of Marketing, and CMOs at multifamily PMCs with 50–500+ units under management in Texas
- ●VP Marketing, Director of Digital Marketing, and CMOs at multi-location brands with 20+ Texas locations — franchise, fitness, healthcare, home services, and restaurants are all strong targets
- ●Decision-makers with P&L accountability or direct authority over agency spend — not coordinators, not specialists
- ●Priority to accounts with active signals: recent headcount growth in marketing, new location openings, or job postings for digital marketing roles (signals they're investing)
How I'd Build the Invite List
I use the same methodology for building high-value event invite lists that I use for ABM account targeting — start with the data layer, work outward to personal outreach.
Title + Industry + Texas geography filter. Build a universe of 300–400 names, prioritize down to 80 Tier 1 targets based on company size and inferred deal potential.
The most pre-qualified multifamily list in Texas; Forthea almost certainly has existing relationships here that make warm outreach possible.
Current and past clients in target verticals get a personal invitation from a senior Forthea leader — not a blast email, a phone call or direct message.
Use Bombora or LinkedIn's built-in 'recently active in your category' signals to prioritize outreach to accounts actively researching digital marketing services.
Co-host partner (see Partnership below) brings their own network of 5–10 highly qualified attendees.
8-Week Promotion Timeline
| Timeline | Channel | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 8 weeks out | LinkedIn organic | Forthea CEO and senior leaders begin posting thought leadership content teasing the event concept — no registration link, just building organic anticipation and credibility |
| 6 weeks out | Personal email / phone | Tier 1 outreach: CEO or VP sends personal invitation to top 40 priority accounts — subject line references one specific, company-relevant reason they were invited |
| 5 weeks out | LinkedIn Sponsored InMail | Targeted InMail to VP/CMO titles at multifamily and multi-location brands in Houston/Texas; geo-targeted, title-filtered, outcome-led copy ('A peer session, not a pitch') |
| 4 weeks out | SDR follow-up sequence | 4-touch sequence to all Tier 1 targets over 10 days; goal: 15 confirmed RSVPs before the 4-week mark |
| 3 weeks out | Partner amplification | Co-host partner sends invitation to their member/customer list; adds third-party credibility that Forthea's own outreach can't replicate |
| 2 weeks out | Confirmation + pre-read | Confirmed attendees receive a one-page pre-read brief with three questions to reflect on before the session; builds investment and improves day-of conversation quality |
| 1 week out | Final logistics + warm call | SDR warm call to every confirmed attendee; review logistics, ask if they have a topic they want the group to address — reduces no-shows and surfaces agenda input |
Run of Show
Forthea's job at this event is to facilitate, not present. The single most important thing Forthea can do is run a session so valuable that every attendee leaves thinking 'I should talk to these people.' The sales conversation happens in the follow-up. The trust gets built in the room.
Arrival and breakfast — conversation starter cards at each seat with one provocative question about attendee's current marketing challenge
Welcome and framing — CEO sets the tone: peer exchange, Chatham House rules, no vendor pitches, one shared output by end of session
Working session 1: 'Where is your marketing dollar actually going, and what's it producing?' — guided audit exercise using a simple channel-to-outcome mapping template Forthea pre-builds
Working session 2: 'The one channel you're systematically underinvesting in — and why' — structured peer debate with Forthea-provided benchmark data as fuel
Break — informal networking with Forthea team strategically positioned for 1:1 conversation
Working session 3: 'Build your 30-day action plan' — each attendee leaves with one completed page: their priority channel, their measurement gap, and their next action step
Hosted lunch — open conversation, Forthea team seated strategically to continue highest-priority conversations
Close — Forthea thanks the room, offers a complimentary follow-up audit to anyone who wants to go deeper on their 30-day plan
Post-Event Follow-Up Plan
- Personalized thank-you email from the Forthea team member who had the most substantive conversation with each attendee — references something specific from that conversation, not a template.
- LinkedIn connection request from every Forthea team member present, with a short personal note — connections made within 24 hours have significantly higher acceptance and faster response than ones sent a week later.
- Internal hot/warm/nurture scoring session: the Forthea team debriefs immediately post-event while conversations are fresh; score every attendee by buying intent, problem urgency, and fit — this determines follow-up cadence.
- Hot accounts: offer a complimentary Source-to-Lease Attribution Audit (multifamily) or Paid Media Efficiency Audit (multi-location) — same low-commitment, high-signal first step as Exercise 2.
- All attendees receive the event takeaway document: a clean, well-designed one-pager summarizing the group's top findings and Forthea's benchmark data. Double duty: follow-up asset and content marketing piece.
- Enroll all attendees in a 6-email nurture track: one insight-driven email every 10 days, each tied to a topic surfaced at the event. Not promotional — valuable. Each email passes the 'would I forward this to a colleague?' test.
- SDR follow-up call to all warm accounts that haven't yet converted to an audit or consultation — reference the specific action plan they built at the event and ask how it's going.
- Invite non-converting attendees to a follow-up virtual session: 'Six weeks in — what actually happened with your 30-day plan?' Creates a second engagement point and surfaces new buying intent.
- Publish anonymized aggregate insights from the event as a Forthea thought leadership piece — with attendee consent, this becomes a 'State of Multifamily Marketing in Texas' report that seeds the next event.
Strategic Partnership Proposal — Texas Apartment Association
Why TAA
TAA is the most credible third-party voice in the Texas multifamily market. Co-hosting the Forthea Growth Summit under a TAA banner doesn't just expand the invite list — it changes how every attendee perceives the event before they walk in the door. No amount of paid promotion produces that kind of preemptive trust. For a company trying to establish itself as the leading digital marketing partner for Texas multifamily operators, being co-endorsed by the industry's primary trade association is worth more than a year of brand advertising.
Secondary consideration: Entrata, Funnel Leasing, or Knock CRM. Any of these PropTech platforms has an existing customer base of Texas multifamily operators who are pre-qualified prospects for Forthea's services. Their co-host stamp adds tech-ecosystem credibility and their distribution list adds volume.
- TAA gets co-host branding on all event materials — a meaningful distinction from 'sponsor.' Attendees perceive TAA as an organizer, not a vendor, which transfers to Forthea's positioning.
- TAA sends the event invitation to their member directory for the Houston market — estimated 100–200 additional highly qualified invitees who already trust TAA's curation.
- TAA representative provides a 5-minute 'state of the Texas multifamily market' data snapshot during the event — no pitch, just benchmark data that adds value to the room and gives TAA visibility.
- Forthea and TAA co-author the post-event thought leadership piece, distributing it through both organizations' channels and extending reach to audiences neither would reach alone.
- Forthea offers TAA members a preferred rate on the Source-to-Lease Attribution Audit as a member benefit — creates an ongoing referral channel that extends well beyond the event.
- Access to 100–200 pre-qualified multifamily decision-makers in the Texas market who already have a trust relationship with TAA.
- Third-party credibility that compresses the sales cycle — attendees arrive pre-disposed to take Forthea seriously, which changes the quality of the conversations in the room.
- An ongoing co-marketing relationship: joint webinars, co-authored content, and a referral pipeline that extends the event ROI across 12+ months.
Success Metrics
| Metric | Target | How Measured |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified attendees | 20–30 VP/CMO-level decision-makers | Registration data + attendance check-in |
| Attendee-to-consultation rate | 25–35% (5–10 follow-up conversations) | HubSpot CRM; Forthea sales team logs within 7 days post-event |
| Pipeline generated (90-day view) | >$100K in new opportunities | HubSpot pipeline report; opportunities tagged as 'Summit-sourced' |
| Post-event email open rate | >55% on follow-up sequence | HubSpot email reporting |
| Net Promoter Score | >65 | Post-event Typeform survey sent within 48 hours |
| Partner list reach | 100–200 additional qualified invitees | TAA-reported member list size for Houston market |
Budget Estimate
| Line Item | Estimate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Venue rental — half-day, A/V, setup | $1,800 | Boutique hotel meeting room or premium co-working event space in Houston |
| Breakfast + hosted lunch (30 people) | $2,400 | $80 per person all-in; quality matters — the experience signals Forthea's brand standards |
| Branded materials — workbooks, takeaway one-pager, signage | $700 | Design + print; the workbook is also a leave-behind that keeps Forthea top of mind |
| LinkedIn Sponsored InMail (6-week campaign) | $600 | ~2,000 targeted impressions at VP/CMO level in Texas multifamily and multi-location |
| SDR outreach allocation (8-week cycle) | $1,500 | Blended hourly cost estimate; outreach starts 8 weeks out, continues through 1 week before event |
| Event documentation (photographer + short video recap) | $800 | Post-event social proof asset; used in content marketing for the next event |
| Total | $7,800 | ~$310 per attendee at 25 attendees |
At 30% attendee-to-consultation rate and Forthea's average deal value of $20K+ MRR, a single contract sourced from this event produces more than 30x the event investment in Year 1 revenue. The event doesn't need to close 5 deals to be worth it. It needs to close one.