Conferences and seminars are great opportunities for learning and sharing your business’ best practices. This year, I’ll be attending the National Property Management Association 2016 National Education Seminar. As a physical asset management professional, I am looking forward to learning industry trends and networking with other asset management professionals in both the Private (defense contractors) and Public (Government agencies) sectors.
Having attended a few conferences and symposiums over the past decade, I have compiled a few tips for getting the most out of your experience. These tips can help seasoned conference attendees and newbies alike.
Start Networking Before The Event
Do you have access to a list of conference participants? Are other professionals from your company attending? Reach out to your peers! This is a great opportunity to meet someone new and collaborate. Perhaps you can break the ice by asking for tips, session recommendations, etc. Networking before the event can help you identify popular sessions or workshops you may not have thought about.
Prioritize Your Preferred Sessions
What is your goal for this training attendance? Review the agenda and highlight the sessions and courses that help you achieve your desired goal. Prioritize those sessions and in the event you have two sessions you want to attend, but they are at conflicting times (two sessions at the same time in different locations), contact the presenters and request access to the presentation after the conference is completed. Better yet, meet the presenter for the session you missed, introduce yourself and request a time to discuss the presentation in a less formal setting. This is a great opportunity to have a one-on-one summary of the presentation and make a new connection.
Visit Your Must-See Vendors
Don’t wait until the last-minute, visit your must see vendors early into the conference. This will ensure you don’t miss out on information and have the vendor’s undivided attention. In my experience, the later you wait to visit the vendors, the less material they may have available to share and their time is divided between more prospects. The early bird gets the word!
Do you have competitors in your industry? Of course you do. If you don’t think you have competitors in your industry, I will argue you don’t know your competition very well. Learning about the ways vendors overcome challenges (perhaps challenges faced by your competition) can give you insight on how your competition operates. Take a sneak peek into their competitive advantage 😉
Go Outside Your Comfort Zone, Learn Something NEW
You’re on a conference to learn from and network with your industry. So, what’s the point of taking a session who’s topic you’re very knowledgeable on? While you can certainly join the session and share your unique point of view, consider joining a session you have little experience in and expand your knowledge. Learning something new, as long as it’s related to your industry, can help you think of different solutions to problems or challenges you may not have known you had.
Alternatively, you may offer insight or best practices based on your own niche. For example, as an asset management professional I may be called upon to manage assets such as tooling, equipment, material, etc. However, how is the company managing its fleet of vehicles? Any similarities between the two? Attending a session on Fleet Management can broaden my knowledge base and help identify similar best practices we can both (Asset management and Fleet management) benefit from. Some examples are:
- periodic maintenance
- identification
- processes
- procedures
- record keeping
I bet you can find parallels where one hand can wash the other.
Don’t Multitask
As guilty as you may be for being away from ‘the office’, or as tempted as you may be to take care of work while away from your desk, resist the temptation! If you give 80% of your attention to the conference and 20% to work, you’re missing out on great information and cheating your experience. Instead, consider allowing yourself some time each day for work either before or after the conference to take care of pressing work issues. Devoting a scheduled time for work will enable you to concentrate on the conference and meeting new and interesting professionals in your field.
Maximize Each Session
Make the best of each session by taking notes of lessons learned, resources shared, attendees and/or presenters, and jot down ways in which the session can help you become more productive at work. Exchange the name, number or business card of a fellow attendee and make a connection. Perhaps they are very familiar with the topic and can help you adopt some of the lessons learned, or vice versa.
Network
Which brings us to one of my biggest benefits for conferences. Networking. To me, networking means making a connection with another individual where a mutually beneficial exchange can occur. In other words, make a new friend and give selflessly. I promise you will get more than you receive.
- Another way to network during a conference is to connect with your customers! If your customers are present, you can meet face to face and solicit feedback on what your company can be doing better, or what are you already doing great.
- Have you met professionals in your field? Even if you are in different industries, I have found it valuable to meet others and solicit their view on a challenge. You may be surprised to learn process improvement insight from a different point of view.
- Are you an old dog or a newbie in the field? It really doesn’t matter, because conferences are great opportunities to meet others in your field that an provide valuable mentorship. You may even find someone to mentor yourself.
Pro Tip: Networking FORMULA (courtesy of AllBusiness.com)
F = friends and family (i.e. Do you have any friends doing what you do?)
O = occupation and organizations (i.e. What do you do for a living?)
R = rest, relaxation and recreation (i.e. When you’re not working, what do you like to do?)
M = motivation (i.e. Why did you go into business?)
U = unique (i.e. What is it that makes you different from ABC company?)
L = loves (i.e. Golfers love the game. Collectors love their hobby. Ask about it and listen.)
A = associations (i.e. Are you member of the XYZ industry association? Where do you learn about all the latest industry news? Do you have a local chapter of XYZ?)
Use this acronym to help you move a conversation along in a meaningful way!
Teach The Newbies, Learn From The Pros
Do you have new employees attending the conference? Teach them the ropes and give the tips you’ve found useful through the years. They may be too shy to come up to you, so contact your training coordinator (or whomever knows the employees attending the conference) and avail yourself to the newbies. Are you the newbie? Ask if senior or experienced team members are attending and pick their brain.
Get Organized
Decide how you’re going to take class notes. Write on the handouts, type on your tablet, jot notes on a notepad? Jot down ideas you’d like to share with others, or topics you’d like to explore in more detail.
Take notes for each connection made by writing on the back of the business card. “Angel, NPMA Nutmeg Chapter, Giants Fan, met at Auditing Course.”
Made new connections? Don’t lose the momentum and follow up with new connections by sending them an email, a LinkedIn message, handwritten note or phone call within the first week. This is a great way to follow up when their memory is still fresh.
Share Your Lessons Learned
Now that the conference is completed and you’ve taken actionable tips and suggestions, you’ve made points of contacts, it’s time to spread the news! I suggest putting together a presentation or summary of the sessions attended, lessons learned, tips and suggestions shared, and spreading the information throughout your department and coworkers. They say “Knowledge is Power.” I disagree, knowledge alone is not power, dissemination of knowledge, THAT is power.
To me, that means passing the information learned is vital to the health of your organization’s strength.
How about you, do you have any tips to add? I’d love to hear about them! Comment below or tweet at me so we can continue this dialog on social media.
Download a conference attendee checklist (pdf) below ⬇️