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As a attendee, what is a successful live event (eg trade show, conference etc) for you?
I am back on the conference circuit, and it's interesting to see the live trade show is alive and kicking. What do you want to get out of a live event?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
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8 Answers
The one thing I learned early on in my recruiting career about attending live events that has had the most benefit to me, was to set a goal to walk out of the conference with at least ONE thing that would allow me to make one extra placement in the coming year. This has been good advice, because it forced me to focus on what was going to have the greatest impact on my revenue generation.
Beyond that, I learned quickly that the "meeting after the meeting" was where even more benefit could be developed. Sitting with like-minded individuals, those other attendees working in the search industry, it was fun to collaborate and see where partnerships could be formed that would lead to shared or split placements in the next 60-90 days!
Anytime there is a live event that is focused on your niche market, success can be found. As an attendee, it is YOUR job to make it happen. There are several ways to look at attendance at these types of events, and your objective will determine what plan of action should be planned for to get the desired outcome.
If you are needing education in a particular area, then attending the most applicable sessions that will provide you the knowledge you need would be your plan. If you are needing to update technology, then you might end up spending a lot of time in the vendor hall speaking with vendors and seeing them demonstrate their products firsthand.
The WRONG way to approach an event, is to get distracted by the marketing and attending without a specific purpose in mind. You will experience a little bit of everything, but most likely walk out without truly meeting a desired outcome.
Once again, those 10 powerful two-letter words come into play:
IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME
The best shows are where:
1) you learn about the new products and services that will impact your industry.
2) you meet and grow relationships that will last a life time.
3) you identify 2 or 3 concepts that will help solve problems back at the shop.
Success is highly dependent on setting goals and game plans to accomplish this vs. relying on serendipity.
Access to Internet and Power - At the recent LAUNCH Conference in San Francisco, the host, Jason Calacanis, said that he "spent $100,000 running Ethernet cables and power strips" for the 500 or so attendees seated at conference tables. There was also Wifi for mobile devices and iPad-type devices without CAT5/6 cable receptacles.
This made each seat into an office, so attendees often didn't leave their seats even on coffee breaks. As Jason quipped, "Ethernet cables are the new Wifi." Think how often Wifi has failed under peak demand times at conferences.
Note: In trendy San Francisco, you expected to see wall-to-wall iPads, but the predominate device was the 11-inch Macbook Air.
My perfect event, I'd immediately sign up for the next one, covers these components:
Excellent forward thinking presentations, presented by people who "are" the mission they are talking about, please not longer than half an hour each single presentation, followed by a managed Q&A session.
Track sessions on different aspects of the event's overall topic and the presented trends and visions. The most important purpose here is to focus on my specific interests that are mapped to my current challenges. I expect in those sessions ideas to apply things in a practical way, best practices and lessons learned from different view points.
Networking business driven: Roundtables to discuss trends, visions and challenges and to create new approaches how to solve the challenges with attendees, practitioners and scientists. Tribal thinking is important here in other words peer-to-peer conversations, no additional frontal presentations.
Networking in general: provide enough time and possibilities for people to get connected easily with peers they are looking for. Mapping interests of the attendees in advance and providing the attendees with appropriate tailored event information will be highly appreciated. There is state-of-the-art technology out there to create easily different customized apps for the attendees.
The location and the food should fit to the event's topic to make it a perfect event. If you are e.g. organizing an event on energy efficiency it makes a lot of sense to select a location which already implemented state-of-the-art technology on that topic.
To sum up, I want to have the feeling that I'm highly welcome at any time, that my feedback is highly appreciated, that the whole event staff is a passionate team to make sure that the event is based on a lot of energy and passion.
It's surely SMX for Search/Digital for a global show but AdWeek NYC is probably one of the best events that I have attended.
The best conference I've ever attended was the Net Impact Conference in Ithaca a couple of years ago. Every session was engaging and informative. People we excited to help each other. It was the kind of event where I wanted to be in 3 places at once. I think core to making it exciting to me was that I was genuinely interested in what was being said - nobody was actually selling anything.
I have been to a wide variety of conferences, and the ones that really seem to work for me are the ones that have a lot of energy. The speakers are very engaging and clearly interested in being there. The entertainment (if provided) is upbeat. The venue is smartly laid out (walking nearly a mile from your room to the meeting halls is not pleasant). The food has a nice variety from day to day. Ample opportunities exist to let the attendees socialize and network. After it is over, you are really excited about doing whatever the focus of the conference was. You can't tell enough people that they need to attend.
In the last 7 months I have attended conferences on both ends of this spectrum. One I fully intend to go to again, the other I fully expect to skip for a few years (at a minimum) and check out a different one.
Quality off-the floor sessions that impart valuable skills and/or product knowledge.
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