I just returned from Evo’10 Conference or rather The Evolution of Women in Social Media Conference. This was held in Park City, Utah this past Thursday – Sunday. While I am still a bit wiped out from all the fun and the altitude I did want to pass along some great networking tips for you when you attend a conference. And you should attend conferences, they really help you break out of the everyday ruts we all tend to fall into.
10. – Be Yourself – I know it is cheesy and played out as advice but you really should be as real and authentic as possible. Being yourself will help everyone in the long run.
9. – Be Helpful – Conference organization is really a grueling process and the organizers have done a ton of work even before the first person arrives to the registration booth. Be on the lookout for ways in which you can offer to help the conference organizers. This will get you noticed in so many positive ways.
8. – Talk to everyone that you can. Standing in a corner by yourself is not going to bring people to you so you have got to go to them. My friend Kim tells me that she sometimes challenges herself to talk to every person wearing a specific color. It may sound silly but you never really know who you are going to meet and if you have set up this personal challenge then you already have an opening icebreaker.
7. – Take Photos – If you are at a Social Media Conference take lots of photos. Also ask if you can take photos of people’s name tags after you take their photo, this way you will remember who they are when it comes time to tag photos on Facebook. Remember take care to post only photos where people look good, people like to see good pictures of themselves.
6. – Get into Photos. If you see someone who is taking photos make sure that you get into a few of them. Most conferences now have a Flickr Page or Facebook page and if you are in the photos then more people will see you and be curious as to who you are.
5. – Attend the after hours events. Even if you show up for a little while it is well worth your time to attend the after hours events and network with your peers. This is also a great way to make informal connections that can lead to greater networking.
4. – Recap – Write a blog post recapping your experience. Many people never get around to writing up their conference experience and the sooner you do it the more traffic will come to your blog. After a conference people want to look back and relive what happened so if you write a good recap then they will come to you.
3. – Follow Up – Follow up with the people you meet. Most likely you have come home with a stack of business cards, if you were smart you would write a little something about each person on each card. That way when you send a follow up e-mail you can easily remember to reference the experience you had when meeting them.
2. – Offer Feedback – Fill in any surveys that come your way, this helps to improve future events and lets the organizers know that people cared about the work they did.
1. – Thank You’s. Make sure that you write up thank you’s to the conference organizers, sponsors and anyone else who had anything to do with the conference. Taking the time to show that you appreciated the efforts that they made not only helps to ensure that the conference happens again but by thanking sponsors you can show them that their contributions made a difference and that may make it easier for the organizers to recruit sponsors again in the future.
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