| sonnygill | Thinking of an upcoming blog post - what are your 'best practices' when it comes to attending conferences? |
Oct 01, 2008 -
12:11AM
| sonnygill | Thinking of an upcoming blog post - what are your 'best practices' when it comes to attending conferences? |
| rockinprgirl | as far as...? The few conferences I've attended, I've ended up participating in panel discussions. |
| rockinprgirl | we tried to attend sessions that interested us, but I should note that they were all academia. |
| sonnygill | As an attendee - what are some skills you've acquired, grown while going to your industry specific conferences/events. |
| sonnygill | Whether it be breaking the barrier of reluctance to talk to other attendees or speakers, connecting b4 hand, etc. |
| sonnygill | Just curious to get ppls takes on their personal experiences attending events and how they truly got the most out of it. |
| rockinprgirl | the thing about it was that we mostly stuck to our own (PRSSA chapter), but we did interact with the other PRSSA chapter we were presenting |
| rockinprgirl | with ... at the bar. I can't speak for any best practices actually, so I'm out. |
| sonnygill | Gotcha - at the bar is always key  |
| rockinprgirl | haha, well I think people def. throw their inhibitions to the wind when there's libations abound. They forget their nerves. Trying to meet |
| rockinprgirl | and talk with people can definitely be nervewracking. A truly social atmosphere is more comfortable than approaching someone before or after |
| rockinprgirl | a session or keynote. |
| sonnygill | rockinprgirl haha no doubt - everyone lets loose after a few! |
| sonnygill | uniquefrequency Good one. That's a great thing to do as an ice breaker. |
| Debra Simpson | says | I never go anywhere without my hand held digital recorder - can record sessions or do some podcasting - helps in meeting ppl |
| DebInAustin | says | I know you are already on top of it with the b-card thing (so many people forget to bring them!). I have one funny thing I always put my |
| DebInAustin | says | cards in my left pocket (of my blazer) shake hands with the right, pass the card with the left and put the received cards in my rt pocket |
| DebInAustin | says | a little thing, butkeeps things organized. |
| CallKathy | says | talk to everyone. share cards. Use a two sided bcard holder. yours in one side, other people's in the other side |
| DebInAustin | says | sorry, I got distracted by the phone. I always go back to my room and write notes on backs of all the cards. As much as I can remember |
| DebInAustin | says | about the person- birthday, dog's names, etc. And, I always follow up with a note or email after the conference. |
| DebInAustin | says | one of my guy friends always carried like 6 or 7 pens. Inevitably someone would need a pen and he could pass it to them and start a convo |
| DebInAustin | says | make sure you don't have any bathroom issues- that sounds silly, but in Japan I organized and managed our Govs trade mission. I went to the |
| DebInAustin | says | bathroom and my blazer pocket must have fallen open and a bunch of the cards I'd collected fell into the toilet- cards for the head of |
| DebInAustin | says | Mitsubishi, Sr. staff from the Foreign Ministry, VP from Sony, VP from Japan Air, Ambassador to the US...it was awful! |
| sonnygill | Great points all! Deb, that's a great tip as far as carrying multiple pens with you. Good conversation starter. |
| sonnygill | I think a good one is if its a multiple day event, have a meet up 'after hours' and in a more relaxed setting (a few drinks im sure)... |
| sonnygill | help break the ice and make for more conversations the next day with that contact and then expand to his/her contacts and so forth. |
| MackCollier | says | Sonny use your Plurk/Twitter networks and see who else will be attending. Have biz cards ready & be ready to answer the 'what do you do?' ? |
| sonnygill | Yea i gotta my quick pitch of 'what i do' ready  |
| Connie | Attended new member reception at conf this weekend. Wii bowling at one end of room; Rockband at the other. Bar and buffet snacks. |
| Connie | Lots of tables and chairs. Board members introducing themselves to new members. Games made it easier for newcomers to join in. |
| sonnygill | Wow, thats a great setup Connie. Must've made it super easy for the new members. |
| AmberCadabra | I loved that the SBMU folks did a social event FIRST before the conf. really started. Helped folks get acquainted and go into the next day |
| AmberCadabra | feeling like they'd already made friends. I know I did! |
| DebInAustin | says | I love that games thing! What a great way to get people involved. |
| sonnygill | That is great Amber. Hopefully we can get a bunch of folks together the night before MP conf. kicks off. |
| onepinktee | if you're attending with coworkers, consider a 'divide and conquer' approach so that you hear as many of the sessions that sound good |
| onepinktee | then debrief over lunch or dinner and if there's anything to share in-depth, do a brown bag lunch after returning to work |
| DebInAustin | says | I always try to not spend all my time with co-workers at conferences. It's comfy, but I don't meet anyone new. |
| onepinktee | dress in layers and bring a sweater - it's hard to pay attention if you're focused on avoiding frostbite |
| AmberCadabra | LOLing at Tara telling a guy to "bring a sweater". Do guys do that? |
| sonnygill | haha no...guys bring hoodies cause it sounds tougher |
| AmberCadabra | Wait. "hoodie" sounds tougher? You might wanna rethink that. |
| onepinktee | well, the dress in layers part was meant for the guys |
| sonnygill | haha damn - i have a lotta hoodies, i thought they were manly lol - Tara, hopefully it is cool and not hot like AZ air! |
| BarbaraKB | says | prep before go: make list of folks u want to meet. perhaps e-mail & let 'em know u want to meet them. plan face time wisely. |
| BarbaraKB | agree DebinDenver: tempting to stick w/those u know. y good to have prepped a list of folks to meet. make self accountable. |
| sonnygill | Good tip Barbara - I'll be spending the next couple weeks contacting ppl who will be heading to the MP Mixer later this month. |
| sonnygill | Then keeping a list of folks I want to or already scheduled some time to meet up with. |
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