By Andrew Sobel
Editor's Note: In the first part of this two-part article, Andrew Sobel looks at what to consider before paying to attend a conference. You can read part two of this two-part article in the May 21st issue of Rainmaker Report.
Is it useful to attend or speak at conferences? Can you really meet anyone of significance at them? Should going to conferences be part of your brand-building or relationship-building plan?
I am occasionally asked about the value of conferences, and my own clients have had mixed results from them – some good, some bad.
"They don't work for me," a partner at a leading professional services firm commented to me recently, adding, "I went to one last year and found myself presenting to a group of my competitors from other firms. It was a waste of time."
We can all probably remember a bad conference experience. Mine occurred nearly 20 year ago when I agreed to go to a financial services conference to present my firm's latest research on retail banking.
I spoke after a very boozy dinner, by which point most of the participants were heavily inebriated. Halfway through my speech a loud crash and a shout reverberated throughout the conference hall – I thought a fight had broken out.
In fact, one of the bankers in the audience had fallen asleep in his wooden chair, which was already tipped backwards on its rear legs, and it had flipped backwards, smashing into pieces!
That said, sometimes you can indeed make valuable connections at a conference and also build your public brand.
Whether or not a conference is useful for you will depend on several things:
- The benefits you seek in the first place.
- The focus of the conference and the quality of the participants.
- How well you prepare for and take advantage of the actual event.
Potential Benefits
These can include:
- Meeting valuable contacts and extending your network.
- Learning, either from the presenters or by having to develop your own ideas for a presentation.
- Building your personal brand by speaking or being part of a panel.
- Improving your confidence by getting out and mixing with other professionals.
- Being "seen" by high-level prospects or thought leaders, which can contribute to a sense that you are "one of them."
Whether any major benefits accrue, however, will depend on who is there and how well you capitalize on the event.
Attractiveness of the Event
You have to ask yourself:
- Will actual buyers of your services (or buying influences, or soon-to-be buyers) attend the event? Will they hear you speak and/or will you actually have the chance to meet them?
- Will there be others at the conference you would like to meet, for whatever reasons? These can include potential collaborators, key influencers, celebrities and thought leaders.
- Will it be valuable just to say you were there?
(I cannot think of many conferences that would fit this criterion, except for perhaps the World Economic Forum at Davos or a Star Trek nostalgia event in Las Vegas.)
- Is it a sufficiently large event to make it worthwhile?
While the most important factor is the quality of the attendees, it may be demoralizing to prepare for and speak at a conference where only 20 people show up, unless all 20 are CEOs.
- Whom do you want to meet?
There are really three possible targets at a conference: The organizers, the other speakers, and the participants. In truth, the first two may be the most interesting, unless it's a very high-level conference which attracts C-level executives.
The conference organizers may very well be able to make valuable introductions for you, and if you are a speaker, you earn a kind of peer relationship with the other speakers for the duration of the conference.
Editor's Note: Read part two of the two-part article in the May 21st issue of Rainmaker Report.
Also, you can register for Andrew Sobel's RainToday.com webinar to see him present, How To Build The Vital Relationships That Advance Your Career And Your Business.
Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is the author of the business bestsellers Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty, and Clients for Life: How Great Professionals Develop Breakthrough Relationships. He can be reached at andrew@andrewsobel.com.