The main reason that companies or professionals are interested in attending a conference would be to gain more knowledge or expertise in the field and to network. Today, there are a number of high quality conferences that are on all year long, but it is important to go into the conference with a healthy balance of focus and openness. It is no doubt that one of the best ways to further your expertise in your field is to attend quality conferences or conventions, where you can network with people in your industry, know about industry trends and also use this knowledge for professional career enhancement.
To start with, you can get the most out of your trip when you have your full attention focused on the conference. A good idea may be to hire an outside agency with professional experience such as mice-maker.com to handle your travel and accommodation plans, which can sometimes cause unnecessary stress.
Networking Tips
One of the main reason that many professionals feel that attendance to expos, conferences or conventions is valuable so that they can network with peers in their industry or even potential clients. Knowledge is extremely valuable to further your expertise. Getting to know others in your field to exchange information could prove to be extremely valuable in the future. There is a great potential to form new, lucrative partnerships and even establish contracts. Furthermore, if you end up switching to a new company in the future, it is also very important to have already existent contacts that you can get in contact with. Before you head to the event, check out these helpful tips on how to maximize your networking potential here.
Pre-Event
The first step is to get to know who all are attending the event and who could be in your interest list. It is a good idea to contact most of them well before the event to schedule one-on-one meetings. Some executives get lined up for meetings months before the event, always a good idea to contact as soon as you know that you will be attending the event.
You can get the guest / company list from the event organizers or through efficient probing and online searching. A research well done now can save you hours later and most importantly get to you to the right contacts faster.
During the Event
Keep a keen eye on the exhibits and new companies that you see around. You never know when you’ll find something or someone you did not know before but could be the best fir for your business as a partner, advisor or investor.
Keep Track of Time and Meetings
You don’t want to rule out any potential sessions that could turn out to be very informative, but at the same time, committing to everything that even mildly peaks your interest could leave you feeling overloaded with information. Keep in mind that you if you do attend a session, but realize that it is not what you expected or doesn’t suit your needs, you shouldn’t feel obliged to stay there and sit through the entire thing. The point of your attendance is to gain as much knowledge as possible, and you won’t be getting that if you are zoning out of an uninteresting session.
Go Social
While this may not have been such a relevant factor in the past, becoming part of the “buzz” of the industry is another vital reason to attend a conference or convention. During the duration of the event, there will be Tweets made, photos posted and Instagrams shared that you want your company to be a part of. It can never hurt to get your name out there, and in the future clients may see that you were part of the event as well as show initiative to maintain a good base of up to date knowledge.
Post Event
While you may be fortunate enough to attend the conference or convention, it is likely that not all employees were able to be present. You can be a very important knowledge exchange for your company if you share relevant information that you learned at the event. This can also encourage other employees to attend future conferences and get involved themselves.
Learning by doing is one of the most effective ways to become an expert in your field. For this reason, many professionals could say that each day they are learning more and more about their industry simply by going to work every day. While this is true in many cases, one should also consider that the digital age has increased the spread of information and knowledge at a rapid pace, the world is getting smaller, and there is now more to learn than ever.