Lessons from People-Watching at a Professional Conference

Professional conferences and seminars have a tendency to draw out all sorts of people, each with their own agenda.  I get it as a sales guy; it's a target-rich environment.  There are hundreds of people I want to speak with, and a limited time to do so.  I make the most of the time I have, but I also watch people.  I always have.  This isn't a blog on how to network, close a sale at a conference, or read body language... I wouldn't say I'm an expert in any of those.  This is more of an retelling of what I witnessed, and the impression those interactions left me with.  If you're the conference-going sort, I hope you will chime in below in the comments.

Yesterday I attended the Crain's In-House and General Counsel Summit in Detroit.  I have been in years past, and have always enjoyed it.  They get a good crowd of law firm partners (usually sponsoring some aspect of the event) and in-house attorneys.  For a guy like me who's in the legal staffing business, almost everybody there is a potential client.  It's obviously not a secret as every firm that Beacon Hill competes with in the Detroit market was also there.  Watching them and other vendors interact with these attorneys was probably the highlight of my day.  It forced me to do some self-reflection and try to picture myself approaching these same people and what, if anything, I would have done differently.  Here's what I noticed and what I gleaned from witnessing the interactions.

1. Kick in the door and take hostages:  Like I said above, everyone there has their own agenda.  I realize that some people there don't wish to be solicited or feel that it's not the right time or place for a detailed discussion of my business.  I will usually introduce myself, make some small talk, and if it's obvious that my agenda doesn't jive with theirs, I'll move on and call them in a few days.  Yesterday I had the privilege of watching what happens when you force it.  A vendor approached a General Counsel and extended his hand in introduction.  The GC instinctively reached out and shook the offered hand, though the expression on his face wasn't one of excitement for the coming conversation. The vendor then monopolized his time during one of the breaks between seminars.  I felt uncomfortable for the vendor because he did 99.9% of the talking and received a disinterested stare for his trouble.  At least the vendor can say that he talked to the GC, right?
2. Rushing the stage is only cool at a rock concert:  One of my clients chaired a round table discussion for a breakout session yesterday.  It was a very good discussion and the panel was outstanding.  My client is an attorney that I've met with many times in the past, and whom I feel like I have a good relationship with.  My intention was to give him the proverbial "good game" and probably gripe about the Tigers' travails of late after the seminar.  It didn't happen.  Here's why.  The sound of the last words he had spoken had literally just made it to the back of the room and there was already vendor tripping over himself to get to him.  Another, from a different, competing company was close behind.  I chuckled, caught my client's eye, gave him a wave, and emailed him this morning.  What I saw reeked of desperation, and I found it funny.  Even my client saw the humor in it.
3. A:  Knock-knock.   B.  Who's there?  A.  Interrupting Cow.  B.  Interrupting C....  A.  MOOOOO!  Okay, so this joke is a little funny, but interrupting someone else's conversation to insert yourself is not. Before the shindig even started, I was sitting with a client with whom I have current business.  We were talking about a project when two of my competitors from the same firm burst into my conversation. One proceeds to talk at my client for 30 seconds or so while his counterpart stood sheepishly about 6 feet away.  When he left, my client said, "that was awkward, that was one of your competitors."  I said, "I know."  We then had a laugh at how absurd the approach was.  It was clearly intended to one-up me, but I wasn't in a position to be one-upped, and he made himself look ridiculous to a potential client.  All's well that ends well, I guess.

This is just the tip of the iceberg but it's a blog, not a book.  Now it's your turn.  If you've been to a seminar, conference, etc. and have witnessed something that made you scratch your head, leave it in the comments.  We can all shake our heads in unison.  Thanks for reading.