Do's and Don'ts of Conferences

I love to attend conferences.

The excitement of meeting new people, the thrill of gaining some new knowledge, and the exhilaration of a new mousepad, keyring, stress-ball and pens!!

Speaking of knowledge I’m going to share all of the insights I’ve gleaned over the years from attending conferences.

Be Prepared

Any selling point for a conference is the networking. It is good to be prepared. Take a look at the line-up and work out who you’d like to meet. See what they look like so you know whom to approach. Have goals you’d like to achieve via the networking. Note: taking selfies isn’t one.

Something you can do is to drop the speaker a brief email in advance - this way when you meet at the conference, you can bypass the awkward small talk and get straight to it.

Having said that, the speaker needs to be in your postcode. Don’t email Warren Buffett and expect this will guarantee a sitdown.

Being prepared also means looking at the address before you get into the car. Where is it? What time? What’s the best way to get there?

Stand Up

It’s awkward as heck to be standing two feet away from a conversation waiting for them to finish. They pretend not to, but they see you! Everyone sees you! If it’s someone you really want to speak to and this could be your only shot, hang in there.

Note there is no line and if someone swoops into the existing conversation, so be it - you've just been upstreamed.

As a speaker, you have to know that many will want to talk to you. Be gracious and have time for everyone, especially their selfie requests.

Sit Out

Truth be told, not all the sessions are amazing. If you’re out and about during a session you find a speaker who’s walking by themselves through the foyer. Of course this will only matter if you know what they look like.

Charge Me Up

With the social media posting, the selfies, the checking of email and the like, your phone battery is going to die before the first session is over. If you don’t have a charger, it’s going to be a very sorry conference, especially if you miss out on the dream selfie.

Hello Stranger

Speaking of which, if at the conference you resume tweeting for the first time in 10 months don't expect engagement on your tweets. Just because you decide to tweet now, doesn’t mean people are going to be interested in what you’ve got to say.

Hunger Games

Hungary attendees are angry ones so you need to make sure that all are satisfied. There has to be enough food.

To those responsible for the food, split up the serving stations so there isn’t one huge bottleneck.

Gets Late Early

At the start of the day there is a lot of energy in the room. People start to tire and around 3 in the afternoon begins a trickle of people leaving. Nothing you can do to avoid this, but you need to keep in mind that the afternoon sessions are possible graveyard hours.

Staying On Track

This is the hardest thing for organizers to deal with, Is there just one track or multiple?

The advantage of having multiple sessions simultaneously is that you can offer variety in terms of the technical level.

Keep It Real and Unique

Mousepads and selfies are fine, but a conference lives and dies by the sessions. If they aren't good, or even worse are forgettable, you will have a hard time getting people to comeback if there's a next one.

Conferences like to get the experienced big name speakers. Fine in theory, but they may be delivering the same stale deck they’ve done 30 times previously. A new person will be fresh.