Conference attendance

This is the 2nd of 3 articles on getting the most out of the conferences.  The 3 components of a successful conference experience are: networking, session attendance, and social networking.

Networking:

1.  Never order room service. Sharing meals is great networking. Always find other people to eat with during the conference.

2.  Sit with different people at every meal.

3.  Make contact with individuals you’ve been following. Let them know how valuable their tweets, blogs, etc. are for your work; give specific examples.

During Sessions:

4.  During sessions choose a seat in the front of the room at the end of the row and speak to everyone as they pass going to their seats.

5.  Make sure to sit to the left of the speaker. As a speaker, I find myself looking at the audience from left to right (like we read). Consequently, I tend to notice participants on the left more. Smile and nod during sessions, providing positive feedback to the speaker.

Social Networking:

6.  Tweet about interesting speakers using the hashtag for that conference, i.e. “#nsa10 in Robert Bradford’s strategic planning session, gr8 info. if ur session’s boring come over”