Conference Attending 101

We are about to enter a new year, filled with new opportunities to spend money on things that have absolutely no impact on our daily lives. One such thing will be a whole slew of conferences that we can choose to attend, get excited about, and then forget.

Just in case you are sitting there wondering if I am arguing against attending conferences let me be more clear. I think that most people who attend most conferences would be better served by taking the same time and less money and just sleeping in their hotel room or reading a good book by the pool. This has a bit to do with the conferences themselves, which are mostly attempting to accomplish things for which they were never designed. It has more to do with the way people attend conferences.

As a person who still does attend conferences (even those obscenely expensive ones) I figured I would share my thoughts on how to make the most of a conference seeing as how many leaders will choose to spend precious time and money on them.

Choose your questions before you arrive. Conferences offer a plethora of answers on any number of topics. Most of these answers are to questions you were not asking. Perhaps they are questions you should be asking, but that is something that you should deal with in a future conference. Change happens in our current reality. That means you need to answer questions you are asking right now; questions that are immediately applicable to your life and organization.

You should choose one or two questions that you want answered... three if you are feeling extremely confident or cocky. These questions should guide you as you choose which sessions you are going to attend and which people you are going to try to meet. As a side note, the people you can meet at a conference are often much more valuable to your future than the information you will hear.

Choose questions that deal with character and vision, not best practices or programs. If you are looking for ideas on how to implement a new marketing strategy then read Seth Godin's blog and buy some books. You will get a much larger return on your dollars spent that way than from any conference. The most valuable thing you can change in your organization while at a conference is you. I recommend questions along the lines of "Where should I be focusing my energies?", "Where am I currently stuck in achieving results and what can I do about it?", and "If I had to choose three people to pour into this year (in preparation for one of them to replace me), who should they be?"

You may be thinking, "But conferences are not designed to answer such questions!" Well, that is why I think most conferences are a complete waste of money for most people. Conferences are designed to transfer information and provide inspiration. What they lack any power to do is lead to transformation. That is why so many people who attend a conference and "learn" something that "inspires" them do not actually change anything in their daily routine that lasts longer than a few weeks.

Decide what it is you want to discover beforehand. Focus on what can change in you as much as in your organization. Let these things be a filter for every talk you attend and you will be amazed at how answers come to your very specific questions.

Make your action plans before you leave. If you "don't have time" to work through your questions and all of the information you gathered and make some specific action plans before you go home, then schedule more time for your conference. The money you spend for an extra day or two of lodging and food will be well worth the investment.

I am sure I could dig up impressive numbers on how many people fail to implement any of the things they learn at conferences, but the most important research is personal. Think back to the last three conferences/seminars you attended and then point to the daily, weekly, and monthly activities that are on your schedule as a result of them.

If you believe a conference will answer some questions that are crucial and immediately applicable to your life and organization, then schedule the time to work all the way through that process before you come back home. You know what is waiting for you back home, and "time to think through all that good stuff you learned while on your conference vacation" is not one of them.

There you go. Two steps to increase the impact of your next conference exponentially. If instead you decide to just skip the conference and spend a day by the pool reading a good book... I won't tell if you don't.