EP10: Making the Most of Your Conference Experience with Will Curran

Will Curran , founder of Endless Events and mastermind behind the #EventProfs Community shares his experience in event planning and content creation, strategies for avoiding burnout, scaling a business, and maximizing the value of attending conferences.

In our discussion, Will delves deeply into the benefits of participating in conferences and events, offering valuable advice on how to make the most of your attendance. He explores the diverse objectives that attendees might have, such as gaining knowledge, networking, sharing expertise, or cultivating close relationships with a select group. Will also presents useful tactics for engaging with like-minded individuals and creating your own community. Ultimately, Will's philosophy is to attend conferences only if it's a "hell yes," meaning that there are specific people to meet, topics to learn about, or other goals to achieve.

Will also shares with us some of his favorite apps/tools and covers the importance of building your own platform rather than relying on rented social media land. Overall, this episode is packed with valuable insights into event planning, content creation, and personal growth.

Endless Events

#EventProfs Community

#EventIcons

Event Brew

Event Tech Podcast

Timestamps

0:03:24 Event Planner Burnout and Strategies for Avoiding It

0:09:07 Conversation on Utilizing Energy and Taking Care of Your Body

0:10:17 Understanding the Challenges of Event Planning in a Global Crisis

0:13:44 Empathizing with Event Planners in Times of Crisis

0:15:00 Conversation on Scaling a Business and Letting Go of Control

0:19:15 Incorporating Customer Experience into Events: Challenges and Solutions

0:21:13 The Challenges of Event Logistics and Creative Problem-Solving

0:26:27 Networking, Thought Leadership, and Personal Growth

0:29:43 Discussion on the Value of Attending Conferences and Events

0:30:53 Applying the "Hell Yes or Hell No" Motto to Life Decisions

0:32:40 What Makes a Good Company Booth?

0:37:43 Investing in Brand Recognition and Removing Sales Aspects

0:39:02 Discussion on the Impact of Knowledgeable Customers on the Sales Process

0:45:03 Reflection on Building a Tribe: A Conversation on the Benefits of Connecting with Like-Minded People

0:45:48 Conference Networking Strategies

0:49:13 Pro Tips for Optimizing Your Reddit Experience

0:53:01 Discussion on Social Media Algorithms and Platforms

0:57:03 Will's Insights on Building Your Own Land and Avoiding Rented Land

Highlights

• ”When someone really knows what they're doing and they don't want to have that salesperson experience, then they need to figure out how do they now get out of the way as fast as possible”
• “Sometimes just having a one hour conversation can make the flight being there for three days, being away from family, being away from work, a hundred percent worth it.”
• “I learned very early on having a trusted group of people who are either smarter than you or think the exact same way that you do. So you can brainstorm and build upon ideas. Once you start getting that together, that can make conferences 100% worth it.”
• “I like to think like, “maybe here's how I would've done this a little bit differently”. But I try not to get too caught up in that because if you get to that point where you're always looking for how you could have done something better than someone else, you're always working at that point.”
• “In theory, like as a business you should be always designing something like you're building a machine that has gears and moves around and if you design a process it limits the room for error.”