Virtual Summit Case Study: How User.com Generated 1,500 B2B Leads

In February 2021, User.com ran a two-day online event for SaaS founders, managers, and authors. The team planned it in 12 weeks, recruited 25 speakers, and reported 2,130 registrations. About 1,500 of those registrations were new SaaS leads, according to User.com's first-party project report.

This is a historical virtual summit case study, not a benchmark. User.com reported the figures in March 2021, one month after SaaS Growth Summit. HeySummit helped manage the event journey around the programme, while User.com, Airmeet, Figma, Lemlist, partners, speakers, and paid channels each had separate jobs.

Evidence note. The figures and timeline below come from User.com's dated account of the event. HeySummit has not independently audited the registration, lead, cost, or sales data. Unsupported interview quotations and claims that do not appear in User.com's report have been removed.

User.com's virtual summit at a glance

On a phone, swipe sideways to see every column.

Part of the case	What User.com reported
Organizer	User.com, a marketing automation company
Audience	SaaS founders, managers, and authors
Dates and format	11 to 12 February 2021, online across two days
Planning window	12 weeks, from the end of November 2020
Speakers	25 SaaS professionals
Registration goal	1,000 registrations, with 60% from new SaaS leads
Reported registrations	2,130 registrations
Reported new leads	About 1,500 new SaaS leads, or 70% of registrations
Promotion	Facebook ads, media partners, speaker promotion, owned email, outreach, newsletter ads, social media, and sponsorship
Event stack	HeySummit for pages, registration, event emails, giveaways, and replay access; Airmeet for the live venue; User.com for CRM and marketing automation; Figma for design; Lemlist for outreach
Post-event model	Replay access, a summit booklet, lead handoff, and follow-up campaigns

The challenge was reach and a credible attendee experience

User.com wanted to become better known among SaaS companies in the United States and Canada. The team also wanted the event to produce useful content and a good attendee experience, then continue working as a lead resource after the live dates.

The measurable acquisition goal was 1,000 registrations, with 60% coming from new SaaS leads. The more ambitious target was 2,000 registrations at the same new-lead share. Those were User.com's campaign goals, not targets set by HeySummit.

The programme grew as the team recruited speakers. What began as a plan for one day and roughly 12 to 14 experts became a two-day event with 25 speakers. That expanded the audience opportunity, but it also increased the work required for promotion, scheduling, testing, speaker communication, and event-day support.

The 12-week plan combined the event stack with distribution

User.com's timeline shows that the landing page, speaker outreach, promotion plan, and technical delivery developed together. This was not a page-building project followed by a late campaign.

1. Kick-off and goals. The team set the audience, brand, content, registration, and lead goals at the end of November 2020.
2. Weeks 1 to 5. They built the event landing page, invited an initial group of speakers, prepared the visual identity and promotion assets, and developed the channel plan.
3. Week 6. User.com launched its first social posts and Facebook campaigns while continuing partner and speaker work.
4. Weeks 7 to 10. The team added owned-site banners, recruited media partners, tested Airmeet, used direct outreach, launched newsletter ads, and prepared the live venue.
5. Week 11. They increased promotion, sent speaker joining details, tested event emails and streaming, and prepared the host notes.
6. Event days. The team handled live support, networking, sales conversations, and social updates across 11 and 12 February.
7. After the event. User.com sent a wrap-up booklet and thank-you campaign, thanked speakers, handed leads to its sales team, and kept the recordings available.

The historical account says HeySummit handled the landing page, registration form, automated event emails, giveaways, and replay access. Airmeet supplied the live online venue and networking area. User.com handled CRM data and its own additional campaigns. That split matters because an online event platform can coordinate the attendee journey without becoming the video room or the organizer's CRM.

For a similar event now, HeySummit's event landing page builder gives the organizer a current route for branded pages without custom development. The 2021 report describes a different product version, so this article does not assume that the exact interface or plan access remains unchanged.

Speaker recruitment worked in stages

User.com worked with SaaS consultant Natalie Luneva on speaker outreach. The team first secured a small group of credible experts. Those confirmations made later invitations easier because prospective speakers could see the subject, peer group, and seriousness of the event.

The final programme included 25 speakers, twice the original estimate. The useful lesson is sequencing, not celebrity. Start with experts who fit the audience and can commit, then use a real programme to approach harder-to-book contributors. Current speaker management can keep profiles and talk details in one workflow, but the organizer still owns the invitation, editorial fit, deadlines, rehearsal, and promotion agreement.

User.com also gave speakers personalized promotional banners and stayed in touch throughout the campaign. A practical speaker promotion kit should give each contributor the event promise, dates, approved copy, images, tracked destination, and a clear promotion window. It should make sharing easier without assuming every speaker will promote.

Promotion used several channels with uneven evidence

User.com's channel report is useful because it does not pretend every registration came from one tactic. Some channels had comparable cost and registration counts. Others contributed reach, relationships, or unattributed registrations that cannot be added into a complete channel total.

On a phone, swipe sideways to see every column.

Channel	Reported registrations	Reported cost	Evidence limit
Facebook ads	545	About $5,140 total, or $9.40 per registration	Three regional campaigns ran from 4 January to 12 February 2021.
Media partners	About 370	No direct media spend reported	UTM-based count. Staff time and coordination still had a cost.
Lemlist outreach	19	About $10.40 per registration	User.com already used the subscription and had a contact base.
Paved newsletter ads	14	About $7.80 per registration	The campaign started late and ran for roughly 10 to 11 days.
User.com's owned contacts	40	No comparable paid acquisition cost reported	Two invites, a newsletter mention, on-site banners, and an incomplete-registration reminder were grouped together.

Media partners received ready-made banners and copy. Speakers received personalized assets. User.com also used paid ads, owned email, direct messages, newsletter placements, social posts, banners on its own site, and a podcast sponsorship. The mix reduced dependence on one channel, but it also made clean attribution harder.

A current organizer can connect tracking and promotion tools through event marketing integrations. The important operating decision comes before the tool. Give every channel a named owner, destination, tracking convention, budget, time cost, and success measure.

Airmeet supplied the live venue and networking

User.com chose Airmeet for the live venue. The event used its networking area, partner booths, parallel live delivery, and social lounge. The team also ran a 30-minute networking session at the end of each day and promoted a separate Facebook community.

HeySummit sat around that venue as the event-management layer. It handled the public pages, registration, event communication, offers, and access journey described in the source. User.com then used its own platform for CRM, tracking, additional reminders, nurturing, and a rapid message when live attendance dropped during one session.

That boundary is still useful. The event platform, video provider, CRM, creative tools, and human operating team have different responsibilities. A rehearsal should test the handoffs between them, not just whether each tool works alone.

The verified result was registration and lead growth, not automatic revenue

According to User.com's published results, the event reached 2,130 registrations. About 1,500 were new SaaS leads, or 70% of registrations. Nineteen of the 25 speakers were based in the United States or Canada, and 451 of the reported new leads came from companies in those two countries.

User.com also recorded 28 new accounts and five demo calls one week after the event. That was an early snapshot, not a complete sales-cycle result. The report says User.com's sales cycle was about three months, but it does not provide a later cohort analysis that attributes long-term customers or revenue to the summit.

The case therefore supports a narrower conclusion. A well-promoted summit helped User.com exceed its registration and new-lead targets in February 2021. It does not prove that every registration attended, that every lead was qualified, that HeySummit caused the result, or that another organizer should expect the same conversion.

User.com identified clear improvements

The event report records three practical problems. Facebook streaming did not start as planned. The reminder and login emails needed clearer instructions. The schedule was too dense, with 12 or 13 sessions per day and no substantial mid-day break.

Those lessons point to specific operating changes. Test every live destination and fallback before launch. Write attendee instructions around the actual joining path. Add breaks and buffers to the schedule. Assign one person to monitor attendance and support while another person protects the live programme.

Current event reminder emails can keep confirmation, joining, reminder, and follow-up messages inside the event workflow. The organizer still needs to write clear copy, test every link, confirm time zones, and provide a support route.

Replay access extended the life of the event

After the live dates, User.com kept the event open for replay registration and sent a wrap-up booklet with links to the sessions. Its March 2021 report said the replay was producing about six to eight new leads per day at that early point without active promotion.

That observation was time-bound. It does not show that the replay continued producing leads indefinitely. An on-demand event content library can keep recordings accessible, but the organizer must decide how long access lasts, confirm speaker rights, keep the page current, and measure replay registrations and viewing separately from the live event.

User.com also planned follow-up through its CRM and sales team. It sent a thank-you campaign, passed leads to sales, and prepared personalized outreach. The event created the opportunity for a continuing relationship. The follow-up process determined whether that opportunity moved any further.

What to copy in 2026

These are lessons drawn from one 2021 event. They are not a promise that the same timeline, channels, or stack will suit a different audience.

How HeySummit fit the workflow

In User.com's account, HeySummit managed the event layer around the programme: the landing page, registration, automated event emails, giveaway offers, and replay access. Airmeet delivered the live venue and networking. User.com managed CRM data, marketing automation, nurturing, and sales follow-up. Figma supported the creative work, and separate outreach and media tools handled parts of promotion.

A current HeySummit workflow can also bring speaker profiles, sessions, integrations, attendee communication, access, and event reporting and analytics into the same event-management layer. It does not replace the organizer's strategy, live production, CRM decisions, editorial judgement, or follow-up.

If you are planning a multi-speaker online event, see how the HeySummit event workflow fits together. You can also browse other HeySummit customer stories and check the evidence behind each result before adapting the model.