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Get the most out of any conference - essential actions to make it worthwhile

3rd Jul 2015
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There’s a big conference coming up. Big names in your field are going to be there, several of the presentations look interesting and useful, who knows how many leads you might pick up?

But . . . it’s 2 days in Manchester, on your own time, and you are up to your eyeballs in work as it is.

Is it worth attending?  And if you do go, how can you make sure you get the most out of the time away from your “real” work?

In this article, Heather Townsend gives her top 4 ways to make sure the time investment delivers in every way.  Over on How to Make Partner, you can read more ways to prepare before attending a conference.

Be clear why you are going

Yes, you could learn a lot from the presentations.  But you could watch those at home on your mobile, pausing, rewinding, and skipping the irrelevant parts. Your CPD is important, but you need more than the presentations to justify the time away.

The biggest benefit of attending a conference is the chance to meet existing, and potential, clients face-to-face.  So networking needs to be your primary aim before you decide to attend.

Have a strategy for who to meet

If you can get hold of the attendee list beforehand, great! Go through it and note down the people who are most likely to help your business development strategy.

Once you have identified which of the movers and shakers you need to meet at the conference, get in touch with them to introduce yourself so that you are known to them on the day, and not just another part of the crowd.  If you haven’t been able to see the attendee list, email or tweet to the people you hope will be there to see if they are going.  You might prompt them into attending when they were originally going to pass.

Use social media

Most conferences will have a hashtag associated with them. Find it out, and use it to hook up online with people before you go, to make comments during the conference, and to discuss the event afterwards.  If you don’t use social media much, I really recommend that you do. I’ve put some good tips about how to make social media work for you here.

Work the margins

Conferences have several points each day when everyone is free - 3 meals and coffee breaks at least, not to mention the evenings. These “in the margins” times are fantastic opportunities for networking. There seems to be less pressure, chatting to someone over breakfast, than there is approaching them cold in a conference hall.

What are your views on conferences?  Do you dread them, or revel in them?  What are your top tips to make the time investment really pay?

This post originally appeared in a different form on the How to Make Partner website.  To read more networking tips, download your free guide to building a networking strategy.

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