Getting The Most Value out of Conferences
A few weeks ago, a colleague only a couple years younger than I am, approached me and asked me if I had any conference networking tips to share. He was going to his first professional conference. His questions were straight forward:
- How can I get the most value out of networking?
- How many of the 400 presentations should I try to attend?
- Which ones?
I was a bit surprised that he was asking me. I remember asking the same questions to a senior VP six months earlier, before my first conference. I’d been to three more in the meantime, which apparently makes me worth asking. So I did the only thing I felt ethically appropriate; I tried to repeat the senior VP’s answers as best I could remember them:
The SVP’s advice worked out for me. I weaved my way through the ranks of business intelligence professionals: I met leading software developers, I was invited to join a leading B.I. influence council, and I quickly learned which sales reps were value-adding, and which were simply reps.
Next Generation Guidance
Was my ability to recount the advice nearly as effective as when I’d heard it from its original source? It seems odd, if conventional, that in 2008 I had to seek the advice of a senior manager on how to prepare for the conference. It was even more odd that my timid colleague thought I was the best person to ask for guidance. Passing on advice through word-of-mouth is so passé, so unfiltered and unreliable.
Shouldn’t this kind of expertise be available with the click of a button, a 1-to-5 crowd sourced rating, and user reviews? The Ativiti model will infuse advice with technology, vetting it by the world, and giving experts a platform to share the wisdom they have with the people who want to consume it.
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Great advice. I’d always selected presentations based on topic, but next time, I’ll try choosing by presenter. Thanks.