Business Conference Success: Prepare, Participate, Pursue!

Business conferences...most of us will find ourselves participating in at least one at some point.  Whether you love them or hate them, it only seems logical that if you are going to spend your precious time there, you should maximize the benefits.  Following a few simple steps can go a long way toward reaching this goal.  Through the week, check off the objectives as you complete them.  This will keep you focused and also make sure that in the hustle and bustle, you are coming away with the key goals accomplished.

Prepare: In advance of the conference, give some honest thought to what the key items are that you want to get out of it.  This could be connecting with old or new acquaintances, learning a particular skill, or getting a particular set of questions answered.  Narrow it down to 3-5 key initiatives that you want to accomplish and jot them down in a notebook or store as a note on your phone...something you will have with you at the conference.

Participate: Why sit in the back of the room checking your watch?  Be in the moment...engage! Maybe the subject is fascinating to you, maybe it isn't...but you are there...so make the best of it.  We've all heard the saying "You get out of it what you put in".  Well, it's true.  Not just in conferences, but in life.  It sounds fluffy and cliché, but clichés come from somewhere. :) 

Pursue: If you walk away at the end and nothing has changed, you just wasted your time and money.  You set goals at the start.  Assuming you achieved them, there should be an action after the conference to either continue a relationship, put new knowledge to work, or practice a new skill learned.  Go make things better, in some big or tiny way, and the conference was worth your time.

Set a plan, execute it, and come away with something you didn't have before.  That's how you get the most out of a business conference.