Conference prep

A named ERP conference in. A short list of humans who already said they will be in the room, a handful of no-oriented coffee asks, and a packed bag that can take a walk-up. Paid intercept while they are in the city is Conference-city Google Ads. This page is everything before and beside the ads: LinkedIn, search, allowed automation, meetings during the show, and the rest of prep.

The first show is Digital Stratosphere 2026, Le Méridien Denver Downtown, 9–11 Sep 2026. As of 5 Sep, the pre-wire window for this run is days, not months. Still do the human LinkedIn work. Save the eight-week cadence for the next city.

There is no public attendee file. Third Stage sells registration; they do not publish who bought a badge. Expo signal research already says: do not buy a broker dump, do not harvest badges, do not scrape an event app. Same here. What we can see is what people publish: posts, comments, sponsor "see us in Denver" pages, the speaker list, and (if Third Stage created one) a LinkedIn Event Going / Interested list viewed in the product UI by a human.

Copy still follows communication instructions. A Stratosphere attendee has been told all year that vendor pitches fail. A connection note that sounds like a booth will be deleted. Booking stays on Cal.com (20 minutes, Gabriel + a decision-maker). Identity after a company name exists goes through ZoomInfo, then a person checks it. Do not treat a hashtag as a problem.

Two clocks

Clock	When	Job
This run	Sat 5 Sep → Fri 11 Sep 2026	Comments, ~10 named notes, ads, body in Denver. Do not start a 200-invite campaign four days out.
Next city	8 weeks → travel day	Saved searches, weekly triage, 15–25 real conversations on the books before wheels up.

If nobody from Naologic is flying to Denver, HALT the meeting asks. A LinkedIn coffee with nobody in the lobby is a lie.

1. What we do on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the hallway before the hallway. It is not the CRM, not an export, and not a place for agents to log in and scrape (ERP signal research).

Company page (Naologic)

One post, dinner test, this week:

• We will be in Denver 9–11 Sep.
• We make manufacturing operations software.
• If you are at Stratosphere and the work might be ours, say when a walk between sessions works. If it is not ours, we will say so.
• Link the /denver page from the ads playbook. No "as seen at Kimberling's show." No "vendor-agnostic" (we are a vendor).

Pin it until Friday. Reply to every human comment the same day. People who react are not a list to sequence. People who write "we'll be there" are.

The humans who are going (personal profiles)

The person actually flying posts once, as themselves, not as a brand account:

• Name the city and the dates.
• One sentence of what we want to talk about (Friday stops lying at a 50–500 plant). Not a platform tour.
• Open door: coffee in the lobby, not "grab 15 for a demo."

Then work other people's posts, which is where attendees actually are:

1. Third Stage and Kimberling posts about Stratosphere 2026 — read comments first. "See you there," "flying in Wednesday," "bringing the CIO" is the tell.
2. Sponsor posts (Infor, Epicor, EstesGroup, Priority, NetSuite, PCG, Fuuz, TEC, Info-Tech, ERP Risk Advisors, Bryant Park). Same comment pass. Most commenters are vendor colleagues. Skip them.
3. Hashtag #DigitalStratosphere2026 and #Stratosphere2026 — Posts filter, past month.
4. If a LinkedIn Event exists for this show: click Going or Interested as ourselves, then open Attendees in the UI. Filter in LinkedIn to title / industry. Write names into Salesforce by hand. Do not paste the Event URL into PhantomBuster, toflow, Waalaxy, Expandi, or anything that "imports 1,500 attendees."

Daily cap while the show is this close: 10 minutes of comments, 5 connection notes, 0 InMails to strangers. InMail is for a 1st-degree or an open profile we already researched. A blast of InMails into a vendor-skeptical room will be reported as spam and deserved.

What a note may say

Reality → one question → a choice they can refuse. No feature list.

Heading to Denver for Stratosphere later this week. If you will be at Le Méridien and it would not be a bad time, I would rather do a coffee in the lobby than another hallway pitch. If you'd rather not, no harm — enjoy the sessions.

If we already know they run a plant in a process we sell, name their work in one clause ("pipe" / "molding"), not our product. If we do not know, do not invent a scene. Hypothesis stays a question.

Do not:

• "Congrats on being selected as a delegate."
• "Loved your post" with no evidence we read it.
• Connection with empty note, then a pitch on accept.
• Invite them to skip Kimberling's keynote for our demo.
• Ask Third Stage staff or Infor booth crew for a discovery call.

On accept: one follow-up that offers two Thursday windows and a Cal.com link with America/Denver hours. If they say no, stop.

2. What we search (find people who will be there)

Attendance is almost never in a title field. It is in language they chose to publish. Search that language. Then ZoomInfo the company. Then a person decides.

LinkedIn (human, logged in as ourselves)

Surface	Query / filter	What a hit is
Posts	"Digital Stratosphere" OR "Stratosphere 2026" OR #DigitalStratosphere2026	They put the show in public. Highest-signal self-ID.
Posts	"Le Méridien" OR "Le Meridien Denver" AND (ERP OR Stratosphere)	Travel / hotel posts. Confirm it is this show.
Posts	"see you in Denver" OR "heading to Denver" AND (ERP OR Kimberling OR Third Stage)	Weaker. Denver is a big city. Read the post.
Comments on Third Stage / Kimberling / sponsor posts	No query. Scroll.	"We'll be there" is better than a hashtag.
People	Title contains ERP OR CIO OR COO OR "plant manager"; current company industry manufacturing; not used alone as "attendee."	Title is not attendance. Only stack after a post/comment tell.
Events	Search Events: Digital Stratosphere 2026	If the card exists, that is the Going list. If it does not, skip this row.
Sales Navigator (if we have a seat)	Keywords "Digital Stratosphere" OR "Stratosphere 2026" OR "Kimberling"; Posted on LinkedIn past 30 days; headcount 50–500; industry manufacturing / wholesale; seniority director+; exclude company names Infor, Epicor, Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, Priority, Third Stage.	Saved search + weekly alert. Profile keyword is weaker than a post.
Sales Navigator	Same ICP filters, Following Third Stage Consulting Group (and Naologic if anyone already does).	Following TSC is not proof they bought a badge. It is a watch list.

Boolean operators in Sales Navigator must be UPPERCASE. Do not geo-filter Denver for the pre-wire: most of the room is flying in. Denver geo is for ads during the show, and for the 48 hours they are physically there (People search, location Denver, posted this week — noisy, use only on-site).

Open web (agents allowed; no LinkedIn login)

Same stack as Research and the "see us at" pass in Expo signal research.

"Digital Stratosphere" OR "Stratosphere 2026" ("attending" OR "see you" OR "heading to" OR "join us" OR "booth" OR "sponsor")
"Digital Stratosphere" 2026 (CIO OR "plant" OR manufacturing OR "we're going")
site:thirdstage-consulting.com stratosphere 2026 speaker

Firecrawl /v2/search, then scrape the hit. Keep rows whose kind_guess is plant. Drop OEM / SI / software unless the job is competitive intel.

Named public lists for Stratosphere 2026 (start here)

These are not attendees. They are who the organizer put on a poster. Research the employer. If that employer is a 50–500 manufacturer in a process we sell, the speaker or their colleague is the meeting.

From Third Stage's 2026 lineup posts (confirm on the live agenda before we write a note):

• Eric Kimberling and Third Stage team — not prospects.
• Jan Baan, Ema Roloff, Daniel Raffield — public speakers; read who they work for before any note.
• Sponsor sessions / exhibitors: Infor, Fuuz, Priority, TEC, Info-Tech, NetSuite, PCG, ERP Risk Advisors, Bryant Park, Epicor, EstesGroup.

Sponsor staff are in the hotel. They are not the ICP. Be decent in the hallway. Do not book "discovery."

Triage before any connection

Bucket	Who	Do
A — ask	50–500 manufacturer or distributor, process we sell, they (or a colleague) published that they are going	One note. Cal.com or lobby. Salesforce campaign Stratosphere 2026.
B — maybe	Manufacturer, but we only have a comment "hope to make it"	Ask if they will be there. Do not assume.
C — peer, no pitch	Lean / CI consultant already in plants	Consultant partnerships rules. Introduction later, not a Denver demo.
D — skip as buyer	Selection firms (Third Stage, TEC, Panorama, Ultra), SI/VARs, Infor/Epicor/NetSuite/Priority/Fuuz	Do not prospect.
E — park	Professional services, energy, "digital transformation" with no plant	Out of motion.

A hashtag is attendance claimed, not ERP intent. Same as attendee_claimed on the expo page.

3. Automation we will run (and will not)

The useful automation is alerts that a human triages. The useless automation is a robot that extracts Going-lists and fires connection requests.

Do put in place (native or already in the stack)

Automation	What it does	Cadence
Sales Navigator saved searches (if seated)	Email + homepage alert when a new lead matches the keyword / ICP search above. Cap 50 saved lead searches per seat.	Weekly mail. Human triage Fridays.
LinkedIn notifications	Follow Third Stage, Kimberling, Infor, Epicor, EstesGroup, Priority, NetSuite, PCG as the person who is flying.	Live. Comment when a human shows up.
Google Alert	"Digital Stratosphere" OR "Stratosphere 2026"	Daily digest to the flyer.
Firecrawl search job	The open-web queries in section 2. Write a JSON row, no Salesforce bind.	Twice a week from T-8 weeks; daily in the last 10 days.
Salesforce campaign Stratosphere 2026	Every A/B name, source (post / comment / speaker-employer / walk-up), meeting flag.	On each add.
Cal.com event type	20 minutes, America/Denver, Wed 17:00–19:00 (happy hour overlay — they may be in the bar), Thu 07:30–08:45 and 17:00–19:00, Fri 07:30–08:45. Not during published keynotes.	Exists before the first note.
Google Ads	Conference-city Google Ads. Presence, 1 km, event/venue keywords only, hard cap $900, max CPC $3.	Tue–Fri of show week.
14-day remarketing	After they hit /denver or after a walk-up.	Pause geo Friday 16:00 MT. Keep remarketing.

Do not put in place

• PhantomBuster / toflow / SalesMind / Evaboot / Waalaxy / Expandi / Dripify "event guest export" or auto-connect.
• Logged-in LinkedIn scrape by an agent.
• Buying "Stratosphere 2026 attendee list" from a broker.
• Photographing badges or exporting the official app directory.
• LinkedIn connection sequences (day 0 invite, day 2 pitch, day 5 breakup).
• Performance Max or LinkedIn Ads targeted at Greater Denver as a substitute for the hotel radius. City-level LinkedIn geo is Denver professionals, not Kimberling's ballroom.

LinkedIn Ads may be used later as a matched audience of emails we already have a relationship with (Campaign Manager contact list), not as a way to manufacture an attendee file. That is a company decision and a 48-hour match delay — too late for 5 Sep, useful at T-6 weeks next time.

Agent schema (open web only)

{
  "show": "Digital Stratosphere",
  "year": 2026,
  "source": "post | comment | speaker_page | sponsor_page | google_alert",
  "person_name": null,
  "company": "",
  "domain": null,
  "role_shown": "exhibitor | speaker | attendee_claimed | unknown",
  "kind_guess": "plant | oem | si | software | selection_firm | other",
  "quote": "",
  "url": "",
  "retrieved_at": ""
}

Stop. A person assigns the triage bucket. ZoomInfo is identity, not a problem.

4. Meetings during the conference

Goal for Stratosphere 2026: 3–8 named coffees, not a full calendar. The room is a few hundred people. If we "fill the day" we will have booked vendors.

Slot (MT)	Why it works	Why it fails
Wed 17:00–19:00	Happy hour is already the social block	Loud. Keep it coffee, not a laptop demo
Thu 07:30–08:45	Before sessions	They may still be at breakfast with their team
Thu 17:00–19:00	After the day	Best window
Fri 07:30–08:45	Last look	Bags are packed
During a keynote	—	Never

Ask:

Would Thursday after the afternoon sessions be a bad time for 20 minutes in the lobby? If you'd rather wait until you're home, here is a slot next week.

No-oriented. Delete is valid. If they want to meet at our booth and we do not have one, say so: we are in the room, not on the exhibitor board.

On-site capture: Salesforce the same day. UTM is irrelevant for a handshake; campaign member status met_onsite is not.

5. What else is conference prep

LinkedIn is one corridor. The week still fails if the human in Denver is unprepared.

Prep	Done looks like
Named flyer	Who is in Denver 8–11 Sep. Phone that rings. Cal.com is theirs.
Hotel	Walking distance of 1475 California St. Prefer the venue hotel if a room exists.
Agenda	Printed or offline copy of the live Stratosphere agenda. Mark sessions we will actually sit in (independent talks over sponsor product hours).
One sentence	"We build manufacturing ERP for plants that need to change the system without a two-year SI." If it needs a slide, it is wrong for this room.
Do-not-claim card	No vendor-agnostic, no "best," no invented ROI, no Third Stage partnership.
ICP reminder	50–500, process we sell. Professional services and energy were in the 2025 mix; they are not why we bought the ticket.
/denver page	Live, UTM'd for ads, honest that we did not organize the show.
QR	To /denver or Cal.com. Pocket, not a retractable banner if we are not exhibiting.
Open web + LinkedIn list	Salesforce campaign, buckets A–E, 15 names or fewer for this late run.
Google Ads	Campaign B ready Tue noon MT. Event / venue / organizer keywords only. Category ERP terms (manufacturing erp, erp software, sponsor product names) are negatives, not bids.
Clothes / badge	We look like a colleague, not a booth.
After-action	Friday 16:00 pause ads. Within a week: who we met, who we should not have asked, what to copy next city.

Pack for the hallway, not for a keynote slot we do not have.

6. Stratosphere 2026 this week (operator order)

1. Confirm the flyer. If none, stop meeting asks; ads-only is a different, weaker motion.
2. Ship /denver + Cal.com Denver hours.
3. Follow the organizer and sponsor pages. Spend one hour on comments and hashtag posts. Write every A-bucket name into Salesforce.
4. Sales Navigator saved search (if seated) so the next show is easier; do not wait on it for this week.
5. Five notes, then stop for the day. Repeat once Monday.
6. Launch Google Ads per the ads playbook.
7. Tuesday travel: location Denver on LinkedIn is now a weak on-site tell — use only as a supplement.
8. Wednesday 15:00: registration. Happy hour is the first real room.
9. Friday 16:00: pause geo ads. Thank-you notes only to people we actually met. No "sorry we missed you" spray to the hashtag.

What this is not

• A public attendee file. It does not exist for us to scrape.
• Permission to auto-export LinkedIn Event guests or to run a connection bot.
• Proof they need Naologic. They bought a Kimberling ticket.
• Consultant partnerships with Third Stage.
• A reason to skip sitting in the independent sessions. If we only hunt badges, we should not have come.

Related knowledge

• Conference-city Google Ads — Presence campaign in the hotel radius
• Expo signal research — exhibitor directories; see-us-at language
• Research — Firecrawl / Browser Run
• CEO scene videos — only if we already have a named P1 and a real artifact; not a Stratosphere template
• Consultant partnerships
• Meeting booking
• Sales stack
• Communication instructions

Change log

• 2026-09-05 — LinkedIn search, native alerts, meeting slots, and Stratosphere 2026 pre-wire. No event-guest scrapers.