It’s conference season for many of our clients and my colleague, Colleen McKenna, wrote an article that I encourage ALL conference goers to read before you attend your next event entitled: Supercharge Your Conference Experience. Colleen does a great job at walking you through her process for pre- and post-conference outreach with speakers, clients, prospects, and other professionals.
Because I believe that one can never run out of help or advice, I’d like to offer up three more ways that you can take full advantage of your next conference experience.
#1 Join the sponsoring organization’s Group or Company Page
After you purchase your ticket or RSVP for an event, browse over to LinkedIn and look to see if the organization that is hosting the conference has set up a Group or Company Page. If they have, be sure to join the Group and/or follow the Company Page.
If they have an active Company Page, chances are high that they’ll share up to date information regarding the conference – keeping you in the loop. Also, if they have taken the time to create a Group, you’ll definitely want to join, as it will allow you direct access to other people who will be in attendance to the conference as well.
In both the Group and Company Page you are going to want to pay attention to the posts that they share surrounding the conference and even re-share these posts with your network. Which leads me to my second tip…
#2 Engage on LinkedIn surrounding the conference
If you notice the host organization sharing valuable posts surrounding a conference you’re attending, pay it forward and share that information with your network as well. This will do two things: alert your network that you’ll be attending said event and alert the organization that you are attending.
By sharing their posts you might discover that others in your network are also attending, allowing you to set up possible meetings with these people. You’ll also set yourself up as a valued attendee in the eyes of the hosting organization.
#3 Follow Through on Follow Up
One of the things that Colleen mentions in her previous post is that she keeps all of the business cards that she collects during a conference and then goes to LinkedIn to send PERSONALIZED invitations to Connect to everyone she met. This is a great tip and I just want to chime in and remind you as a final tip that you must then go in and follow up with these individuals as they begin to Connect with you.
Thank them again for Connecting and use that follow up message as an opportunity to continue a conversation/relationship that extends beyond the conference.
Okay so there you have it, three more super easy and “do-able” tactics for your next conference experience. Not bad right?
Consider implementing these tips and let me know how it goes. Our clients have consistently garnered new leads from conferences following these steps, so I am sure that they can work for you as well.
