It’s not always easy to get out of the office for conferences. Not to mention the price of conference tickets, airfare, transportation and meals can add up. It’s important to make the most of every event you attend to make sure you can justify the travel and get the maximum ROI out of your participation.
As you prepare for this year’s Alpha DevCon, here are some helpful bullets to make sure you get the most out of this year’s trip…
1) Use Your Company’s Training Budget to Fund Your Trip
Alpha DevCon is full of educational content, tutorials, sample app demonstrations and how-to sessions. Many organizations earmark training dollars each year.
2) Clearly Justify Your Reason for Attending
It’s not easy to secure budget for a conference if your boss doesn’t understand what you’ll get out of the trip. If you’re having trouble getting your boss to sign off on your trip, this template can help.
3) Network, Network, Network!
One of the most valuable aspects of events is meeting other professional. People often uncover new partners, find new vendors, recruit new talent, or source new business opportunities at events. Be sure to tell your networks, customers and partners that you’ll be at the event and invite them to meet with you. Before your trip, check to see what customers reside in the area (Boston, MA) and see if they can meet you for coffee or a drink during your trip. Make sure you have a method to quickly capture critical contact information and share yours back. Mobile devices make it easy to capture images of business cards, snap a photo or quickly type a contact name into LinkedIn. Be sure to make a lasting connection when you network with someone onsite and don’t forget to write a follow-up note with your headshot after the event, so they’ll remember you, too.
4) Content is King
- There is a host of ways to make the keynote and session content work for you during and after the event. Curate the best tips and insights you gain and craft them into new content. Share images, tips, PPT slides (with sources cited!) and other takeaways with your professional contacts and followers via tweets, LinkedIn updates, blog articles or vlogs. Always be sure to include the event hashtag (#AlphaDevCon). Gather content ideas to power your blog for the rest of the year. Becoming a content curator will help raise your profile during – and after – the event.
5) Be a Knowledge Conduit
Remember that this is an opportunity to cull important information for the team back home. Capture the best tips and lessons in a way that you can easily share them with your colleagues during or after the event. Write a daily email summary with interesting insights you gained or professional connections you made each day. After the event, download and share conference proceedings with your colleagues. It’ll be much easier to justify your attendance at a future event if your boss sees that you take careful notes and add further value by disseminating critical insights with the rest of the team.
6) Learn from Others
When you’re at a conference, there are lessons to be learned everywhere. Don’t only think about the educational content, but how you can learn from others you meet with. Which speakers were the most interesting and engaging? What was their delivery style? What did their presentation materials look like? What demos were most compelling? Who captured your interested in the first 30 seconds you met them? Use these lessons to power better interactions and presentations when you get back to your office.
This related blog article by Lee Odden has even more ideas on how to optimize your conference attendance.
We look forward to seeing you at this year’s Alpha DevCon. Bookmark this page for the latest speakers and content.
If you haven’t registered yet, take a minute to do so now – the training session is filling fast, the early-bird special will expire soon and airfares are likely at their lowest levels.
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