ToIRL April 2024

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of Toronto IRL - where we find the best IRL business + tech events in Toronto, and curate them, so you don’t have to go searching.

Events (Sorted by Date)

LinkedIn Creators Meetup Hosted by Ryan Ing
Thursday April 4th (tonight) - DM me for info if you qualify. Got one spot left.

April Tech Connect Hosted by Nehmat Kaur / TodoToronto
Tuesday April 9 @ Par Bar Topgolf
Note: Networking plus some some fun minigolf
Ticket Link - use promo code Ryan15 for 15% off

Founders Poker Hosted By Derek Jouppi
Thursday April 11
Notes: Application only. Friendly founders community. Beginners welcome.
Ticket Link

Mixer for Private Label Brand Owners & eCommerce Hosted by Andrea Lo
Tuesday April 16
Ticket Link

Toronto Sales Mixer April Hosted by Saad Khan & Cassandra Gentile

Fuckup Nights April Hosted by Marsha Druker
Thursday April 18th
Notes: ​​Global speaker series where stories of failed businesses and projects are shared. Each speaker is given 10 minutes and is able to use 10 images. Q&A session, as well as time for mingling and drinks!
Ticket Link - $36

Fractional & Agency Owners Meetup Hosted by Ryan Wong
Tuesday April 23
Notes: ​​Repeat event, popular among agency owners.
Ticket Link - $50

Staples Studio Networking & Tech Community Hosted by Elsa Khalil
Thursday April 18
Ticket Link

Building a $1B Company With A Small Team Hosted by Charles Javelona
Monday April 29 @ OneEleven
Notes: Charles is also hosting a CTO Private Dinner in May - feel free to DM him
Ticket Link

Upcoming
Wanted to give a shoutout to Aceocial for planning Toronto Tech Fest 2024 in May. A week long “unconference” where anyone can host a tech event. DM Michael Liu and he’ll help you plan an event!

Ryan’s Corner - What Is He Up To?
I’ve continued to roll my event planning skills into the company I’ve been working for, Superlink. We’ve been using events as a way to drive inbound leads and meet new partners. So far we’ve had overwhelming success, with every event receiving 100+ applicants and us choosing the top 12. The applicants become an entire lead list for the company to follow up with, and the top 12 become qualified leads.

Why invest in private events?
If you think about from a ROAS perspective, an event may only take around $1500USD to host but you can directly engage with 12 VIPs for 2 hours. Your cost per enterprise lead is around $100/each. The VIPs will also want to reciprocate the favor of being provided a nice experience.
Trust is built faster in person. Prospecting is faster online.

If any of you are attending Token 2049 Dubai, feel free to DM me.

I’m also enrolled in Brand30 which is a LinkedIn Creator Cohort. So I’ll be making daily LinkedIn posts for the next 30 days.

Event Organizers I Am Tracking And Aggregating
RI.Events, TechTO, FuckupNights Toronto, Aceocial, Founders Poker, TodoToronto, TorontoEventHub, Ryan Wong, Daivik Goel, Godwin Chan. Sometimes I add Bitcoin Bay / Solana Toronto events if I feel relevant to a broad audience.

LinkedIn Newsletter
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https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7150158886610640898/

Newsletter Changes
Going forward, I’m going to only curate events that I would personally go to or have been to. I’ve also simplified the formatting to just have date, and less of my notes.

Additionally, I’m going to start writing more about my own career journey and other interesting things, and make the focus less on just events.