Top 12 Tips for Getting the Most from a Virtual Conference

If you’ve never attended a multi-day virtual conference: it’s not only different from an in-person conference, it’s different from your typical one-hour remote meeting. A virtual conference can be the worst of both worlds, leaving you exhausted and frustrated. Or it can provide all the traditional conference benefits—socializing, new ideas, and plain old fun—without?the traditional disadvantages of long-distance travel, overcharged credit cards, perpetual motion, personal-time deprivation, and bringing home an extra five pounds plus over-caffeination.?

Here are twelve suggestions for ensuring the latter experience.

1. Be prepared.?One appeal of a virtual conference is that you don’t have to worry about plane tickets, baggage weight, or dressing for a different climate. But neither should you submit your registration and leave it at that until the day-of. As with an in-person conference, you can save a lot of stress and snap decisions by reviewing the schedule in advance. Consider which workshops, private consultations, and special events fit your current situation and goals.
2. Consider time differences.?Depending on where you and the conference hub are located, event times on the program may be three or more hours off for your time zone. For each event you plan to attend, mark its correct time for you on your?personal calendar. (And if something is scheduled during your normal sleeping hours, be extra-thorough in considering whether it’s worth attending.)
3. Decide in advance what digital device(s) you’ll use to attend the conference.?Large monitor screens offer optimal view of slideshows and fellow attendees—but also chain you to a set location. Smaller devices may reduce visuals to squinting-eye size—but they can bring the program along if you want to run to the kitchen, sit outdoors, or even take in part of the conference from your favorite coffee shop. You may want to consider each workshop separately and switch between devices. But stick to one device per program: having two on at once, or switching mid-workshop, tends to generate technical annoyances.
4. Test conference links and digital connections in advance—and log in early for the first few programs—to avoid the stress trap of trying to solve a technical difficulty while?simultaneously wondering what you’re missing. But don’t take it personally if a technical delay does happen, on your end or a speaker’s. Even at in-person conferences, at least one headache-length glitch is par for the course.
5. Consider the setting you’ll be tuning in from.?Many large virtual programs these days turn off attendees’ microphones and cameras automatically, making meetings less potentially embarrassing if also less potentially amusing. Don’t take it for granted, though. Mics and cameras can come back on unexpectedly, and it’s advisable not to risk sprawling on your bed in pajama pants, surrounded by yesterday’s underwear.
6. Consider your personal appearance, as well.?At the very least, you may want to ask a question of the speaker, for which moment the main picture will be on you; so comb your hair and put on a fresh shirt before tuning in. You could keep your camera off or put up a static image, of course; but it tempts others to stop listening to what you’re saying, and start wondering what you’re hiding.
7. But don’t be overly self-conscious, either.?Regardless of how it feels with your own camera image staring you in the face, no one is paying any more attention to?you?than they would at an in-person program of the same size.
8. Go ahead and sip a cup of coffee,?or nibble a cookie, during the program: it’ll?make it feel more like a “real” (in-person) conference where refreshments are standard. (Attention does tend to wander when you’re alone at a desk, as opposed to being physically surrounded by fellow conferees.) However, don’t overdo it and bring a triple-giant-size Sloppy Joe to the program. Even if there’s no chance of anyone seeing or hearing you, it’s a bad idea to handle screens and keyboards with greasy hands.
9. Take time to meet some fellow attendees one-on-one.?Virtual conferences don’t invite the small talk and casual camaraderie that flows naturally at their in-person counterparts. But that doesn’t mean you have to, or should, remain a mere name on a list. Check for “breakout rooms” and “social hours” where you’ll have a chance to chat directly in smaller groups. Ask attendees you know to introduce you to their other contacts. And when you notice someone with whom you have something in common, set a time to make further one-on-one contact after the conference.
10. Don’t feel you have to attend a program for every time slot,?especially if you tend toward introversion. An occasional break to journal on what you’ve learned, or snatch a nap, will help keep you fresh throughout the conference.
11. Wondering if you should call in sick—or just stay out sick??As we all learned during the Great Shutdown of 2020-2021, one major advantage of virtual events is that you can’t catch a virus from anyone—or give them one of yours. But if you happen to wake up with a fever during the course of a virtual conference, you may not feel one bit like logging in even to listen. Deciding what exactly to do is a case-by-case matter, but try not to base that decision primarily on feeling obligated “no matter what”—or on being embarrassed over a simple runny nose. If you stay in bed and leave the computer off, it’s not necessary to send regrets, except for scheduled one-on-ones and anywhere else you’re directly expected. If you attend, it’s fine to leave your camera off and—if the program is small enough that self-introductions are expected—explain briefly that you’ll be an invisible listener because you don’t feel or look so well right now. (It’s equally fine to note via written Chat that you can’t join the main conversation because you?sound?terrible today.)
12. Watch out for post-conference FOMO syndrome.?At a traditional in-person conference, you committed to one workshop per breakout session; and if you wanted to know what you’d missed elsewhere, you had to?buy?audio recordings. At the modern virtual conference, access to every video recording of every workshop typically comes with the registration fee. It’s fine to take advantage of the extra learning opportunity, but don’t let Fear Of Missing Out prod you into an immediate binge-watching marathon, even if access is for a limited time. You’ll do better reserving the first couple of post-conference weeks for following up new contacts and putting what you’ve already learned into practice. When you do check out the recordings, go first to the ones most relevant to your personal goals; then take time to make use of what you learn?there, before rushing on to the next interesting-looking recording. You’ll get much more from the information with this “don’t just learn,?do” approach.

And if you forget some of this amid the excitement, or even make a major blunder, don’t despair: there’s always the next conference!