With a Little Help From Friends — Old and New Ones!
Deciding to go to SxSW was easy. Well it was easy last summer when Sheila Scarborough and I had this master plan. I would go down to Austin and stay at her house. We’ve known each other since two days before forever . . . it seemed a logical next step — everyone says it’s the show for bloggers. Everyone seems to go there. It seemed that I should too.
Sometime in January, I started to wonder, why was I making this significant investment? Would it really help my business? Adding friends to my Twitter account didn’t seem like enough reason to melt my credit card for a trip to Austin. At best, my answer was nebulous.
I was torn. I saw serious potential, but I’ve also gone to conferences where no business happened.
Missed Opportunities and High Returns of Attending a Conference
I had to be sure before I registered that serious business conversations would happen. I needed a high return on my investment. The registration would be more than worth it, if I could grow my business and add more value to SOBCon08.
I realized the only way to ensure a high return was to plan one. Here’s how you might do the same when you come to SOBCon08 or any upcoming conference you’re considering.
- Know what you’re investing in. Ask yourself these questions:
- Is the value for me in the speakers? the workshops?
the chance to meet other folks there?
How can I make the most of those opportunities? - What do I want folks to know about me and my business?
- What do I want to learn from the people there?
I knew I was going to SxSW to let people know about my business and SOBCon08. Just being clear on that made a difference. It affected what I put on my name tag and which business cards I took.
- Is the value for me in the speakers? the workshops?
- Touch base with people you want to meet and let them know why you want to meet them.
- Most conferences have blog or a wiki where you can do that.
- Or write a blog post inviting folks to let you know that they are going.
I contacted certain folks that I wanted to see — Ian Kennedy, Chris Brogan, Fraser Kelton, Alex Iskold. We made plans.
- Know which sessions you want to attend. Every conference offers different value in content and session format. I knew that SxSW panels would be podcast later. So I carefully chose the few I really thought were important to see in person.
- Don’t overschedule. Leave some room for folks you don’t know will be there . . . I got to meet Jason Falls, J.C. Hutchins, David Beaudouin, and Beth Kanter.
Simple enough suggestions, but I asked — lots of folks came without a plan.
Frankly I’ve had my share useless, no-return conference experiences. They make it easy enough to convince myself that I can’t afford the time and cost of any conference. One thing they have in common is that I was a passive attendee — not invested in my own attendance.
It’s the plan that ensures the return. Now I pick the conferences most relevant to my business. Sometimes I suffer a pinch of cash flow, but I make a plan to ensure a return on my investment. My business grows, my network gets richer, and my blog gets more traffic. The plan keeps me focused, organized, and feeling in control of capturing what I’m after.
SxSW was a high return investment experience. I had fewer than 50 conversations, but they were the right ones with the right people. I came home with two new clients, another sponsor for SOBCon08, and a new project that I’m working on. That would have been a lot of missed opportunities had I not made the commitment.
Getting a return on our investment is the core of business. Key to investing is identifying true opportunities. Without investing we’re just going, moving forward not growing.
No one can attend every conference. But when one offers real potential, it’s worth thoughtful consideration. With a plan, we can ensure a high return on our investment. Missed opportunities are expensive too.
How do you decide between the high returns or missed opportunities of attending a conference?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. All that expertise in one room! Register now!