How to Get the Most from a Conference

As an author and professional speaker I’ve personally attended more than a thousand conventions, conferences and trade shows in dozens of different countries over the last 20 years – big and small, open-enrollment and single-company, exciting and boring, entertaining and academic. Attending conferences is one of the perks of “living mouth to hand” as I do, and I almost always benefit in some way.

But not all conferences have content as thrilling as that of the New York Times or networking opportunities as rich as TED or SXSW. I’ve even found myself at one or two conferences that drew more speakers than attendees, which tends to suck the energy out of everything. So it pays to know how to get the most benefit from an event.

Before even deciding to invest time and money in attending a conference, however, be clear on your goals. Do you want to consolidate existing relationships or meet new people? Do you want to acquire “how to” expertise or to gather industry insights and intelligence? From a personal standpoint, are you trying to grow your “personal brand” or make connections with others? Learn more in order to do your current job better, or to get to the next level?

At the event itself, while this might sound obvious, when multiple sessions happen simultaneously you should consciously choose to attend those on topics you don’t already know a lot about. All of us have a predisposition to be attracted to the familiar, and when you’re surrounded by strangers at a conference you’ll naturally gravitate to those subjects you already feel more comfortable with. But resist that temptation. Conference presentations, by their very nature, tend to be basic anyway, and if you’re already familiar with a subject you’re unlikely to learn much new.

The one exception to this would be case studies. I’ve found that sessions involving detailed, single-company case studies – often delivered by the person at a company who was “in charge” in the first place – can be very informative and interesting, especially because during the Q&A period you can ask about the problems and obstacles encountered, mistakes made, and so forth. Let’s face it: no one learns as much from a success as they do from dealing with a problem or a mistake. And case study presentations at conferences are the one venue in which you might get genuine insight about the kinds of things that went wrong and should perhaps have been done differently. Why we did it, what we thought it would be like, what went wrong, how it paid off, or not.

In addition, if you’re a Twitter user, then by all means tweet up a storm during and between sessions, using the conference’s hashtag. Various other attendees will be tweeting as well, and raising your visibility in the Twittersphere is an excellent way to ensure that people who are interested in the things you’re interested in will actually connect with you. (Plus, it’s always fun to meet other Twitter users face to face, and during a conference you get lots of opportunities to do that.)

Finally, to get the most out of a conference use a checklist each morning before leaving your hotel room to make sure you don’t inadvertently forget something:

• Business cards. Take a LOT of them, and always have a supply on your person.
• Conference agenda with sessions marked. Not just the ones you want to attend, but alternates for each time slot as well, in case you pick a loser.
• List of companies or attendees you most want to meet or connect with.
• Laptop or tablet. Capture notes electronically so you can more easily retrieve and use them later.

A good conference can be a great opportunity for learning, connecting, and having fun. But as with any other opportunity, what you get from it will be based on what you put into it.

More coverage of the New York Times Energy for Tomorrow conference:

• Michael Bloomberg: Towards a Sustainable Urban Century
• Clark Wolf: Roof to Table? Our Food May Be Closer Than We Know
• Cass Sunstein: What Google's Cafeteria Can Teach Us About Designing Cities