photo credit Ed Yourdon

10 ways to get the most out of a Conference

A friend was talking about conferences he attended this year,  he said he really wasn’t getting anything out of them. But I think he wasnt applying himself as best as he could.  As Marteen Vaneste says in his book Meeting Architecture, education, networking and motivation are the three main goals in events or meetings.  Of course education is a huge part for any event, but the other two main goals of networking and motivation have to be helped along by attendees themselves.  They need to make the most out of any conference they attend to justify the time and cost.  Hopefully, the networking portion can off set the lack of education and we all have to be open to motivational elements. Motivation is really a internal vs. paid conference meeting element that could be discussed at length.  But confernce organizers need to make sure they are motivating attendees to return next year!

If a event or conference is not giving you the education or attendees are “not getting anything out of it” then frankly, that conference will not be sustainable. It will die off. That is why getting the right speakers and tracks are essential for conference organizers.

Having a bag of tricks for networking should always be on attendees minds.  With the advent of social media, not aggressively networking at an event is really your own fault.  With companies like Pathable.com now in the mix, you should already have lined up meetings with other attendees before the wheels hit the tarmac.  If not with Pathable then using twitter and researching the conference hashtag should have you in conversations way before the event.

The last big conference I went to was Blogworld and I never had a down minute. The content was amazing (almost too much) and the networking opportunities were abundant. Of course this is a social media Mecca basically, so I am not sure you could go wrong.  But I had used twitter in advance to line up several interviews and meetings with prospective clients and industry folks. I came home educated, with a ton of new resources from networking and my motivation was topping the charts!

Here are 10 tips for getting the most out of your next conference.

1) Make a schedule for yourself.  See where you can plug in meetings between sessions.  Look to evenings, lunches and breakfasts meetings.

2) Research conference website for social media links and the conference hashtag.  Hashtag = a # followed by an abbreviation and year.  (#bwe09 =Blogworld Expo 2009)

If you are putting on an event its a good idea to come up with one and put it on the website.  That way you don’t have several floating around making information and connectivity harder for all attendees or prospective attendees.

3) Research on Twitter search and Google Blog search for other attendees and conversations. Plug in the Hashtag see what comes up. Connect and research folks that are posting about the conference. Plan meetings with them if only to say hi.  In this way you will already know folks at networking events/parties.  I usually do this and make a pact with someone to introduce them to everyone I meet and vice versa. Usually ends up being a lot of fun for both of us.

3) Check out and research the tradeshow floor before you arrive to see if there is anything you might want to check out.  This can be a huge time saver, so you are not wasting precious networking time finding out about each booth onsite.  Spend that time meeting and connecting with people.

4) Look up last years conference information, blogs, old hashtag, flickr.com for pictures.

5) Check out meetup.com and upcoming.com to see if any local events are happening around the conference. These may end up being more important networking opportunities then the conference itself.

6) If you have a blog maybe write a few posts to encourage dialogue with folks like you searching for information about the event.  Also,  take some time to write a few post dated blog posts so you don’t have to worry about blogging onsite. plus writing something about the conference will attract people like you doing research. Boom!, more opportunities for networking.

7) Might be a good idea to check linkedin for local people in the area your are attending for out of conference meetups or meetings. Perfect opportunity to say you will be in town – maybe grab a cup of coffee.  if you are in the same industry this will give you lots to talk about.

8 ) Pack business cards. Nothing worse than telling people you don’t have any because they are on your nightstand at home.    I just had some cards printed with Grass Shack Events & Media on one side and meetingspodcast on the other.  I had mine done by Overnight Prints.

9) Make sure you have an up to date photograph on your social networks so you can easily be found. I am a really bad example with my ever changing facial hair. But its a good idea to stick to one recent picture.

10) Schedule your own meetup at tahe event.  Pick a subject and find a space to hold it.  This is an easy way to meet with a bunch of the people you want to connect with at one time. Make it easy for everyone to attend.  Make sure to check your calendar and the conference calendar, meetup.com and upcoming.com so you are not up against other events and meetups.

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