One of the things I look forward to every year is catching up with my colleagues at various conferences, and I highly recommend it to all professional organizers and other small business owners. Going to conferences isn’t cheap though, so it’s really important that you don’t treat it as a strictly social occasion.
To help you get the most out of your investment, I’ve invited Certified Meeting Professional Elizabeth Glau to share a few tips.
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If you are fortunate enough to have the resources to attend professional development conferences, I hope you are spending time before the event to plan out the time you will spend there. You are already busy with day-to-day activities, you have to prepare to be out of the office and then you pile on thinking about how much you will be behind when you get back to the office. It‘s no wonder you don’t want to put any thought or effort into what you will do or who you will meet at the conference! Have you ever had to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for attending such an event? If you had, then you might be forced to put a bit more effort into making sure you get something out of it, instead of returning home wishing you had done things differently.
Look, in detail, at the sessions being offered. Can you identify a specific learning objective that will help you increase revenue or reduce cost? Motivational speakers are great for keeping us energized, but you need to be able to take home actionable items that you will put into place. Write down your objectives and take them with you. Make sure you spend a few minutes at the end of each day to review your notes and make yourself a to-do list for when you return to the office.
Ask for an attendee list. Are there suppliers you could connect with that will be able to help you in the future? Are there other businesses with whom you could collaborate on a project? Are there competitors you could form relationships with and be able to refer business if necessary? Clearly, if there are potential clients at a conference, you not only want to attend, but you should also ask about sponsorship opportunities and analyze the ROI you would get from that kind of increased exposure.
You will meet a large number of people if you are proactive in introducing yourself. Make notes on their business cards about which of the above categories they fall into and what type of follow-up is required. Regardless of what type of future relationship they might have, immediately invite them to connect with you on LinkedIn. You never know how someone might be able to help you someday.
The tech savvy conference organizer is going to offer you a variety of tools to help you accomplish these goals. Mobile conference navigation guides (mobile apps), for example, will make sure that if a room number changes or a speaker cancels that you have the up-to-the minute information on what is happening. They may also have established a public or private social networking platform. Using profiles and keywords, you can search for the attendees you would like to meet before you arrive and schedule meetings with them around the educational sessions you want to attend. Many conferences these days will have informal meetups and hospitality events in the evenings. Make sure that whichever tool you use has the capability to keep all of your appointments in one place.
Analyze the ROI, spend time preparing before the event and stay organized during the conference to make sure you are making the most of the resources you are spending to be there. If you are a conference organizer and need recommendations on the technologies I mentioned here, shoot me an e-mail at eglau@BasicSocialMediaTraining.com.
Elizabeth’s experience includes hotel catering, sales and operations as well as meeting planning and marketing for non-profit organizations. Elizabeth earned the Certified Hospitality Sales Professional (CHSP) designation in 2003 and the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2006. A member of the Ohio, San Diego, and Southern California chapters of Meeting Professionals International, Elizabeth has served on a variety of committees and been a member of many other industry organizations. An early adopter of social media applications, Elizabeth launched Building Blocks Social Media www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com with the goal of bridging the gap for meeting planners. She helps conference organizers with a thorough understanding of how attendees are accustomed to networking and how they can increase engagement through online social networks.
