Growth is a major focus for so many right now! And if your growth plan calls for participation in conferences, this blog is for you!
Conference attendance is a great area to invest in growth. Yet, all too often, conference participants see their attendance as the end result, and they don’t do the critical thinking and planning ahead of the conference to maximize their participation, nor do they do the crucial follow-up after attendance that ensures a real ROI from the conference investment. In this article, we’ll explore what to do before, during, and after each conference investment to maximize your firm’s growth success.
Before Attending the Conference
Choose the Right Conference for the Right Reasons
Before registering, clarify your objectives, or what you hope the conference will make possible. Are you attending to learn about an industry or emerging issue? Deepen relationships with current clients? Meet prospective clients in a specialized industry, service, or other niche? Strengthen referral source relationships? Increase your visibility? Reconnect with colleagues or alumni? Identify speaking, writing or collaboration opportunities? Your objectives and ideal target client profile (ICP) will help guide your choice.
For instance, the largest or best-known event isn’t always the right event. Often, the best conference is the one that enables you to have meaningful conversations with the people you most want to learn from, serve, and support.
Consider whether the event brings together:
- Clients and prospective clients in the markets you most want to serve
- Referral sources and strategic partners who understand or complement your work
- Industry leaders who can expand your thinking
- Peers who will openly exchange ideas and best practices
- Organizations whose needs align with your firm’s strengths and strategy
Review the agenda, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendee profile when available. To see if the conference is right for you, you can view session recordings from the prior year, access the prior year’s conference hashtag to scout social media posts which might provide you a sense of what you might gain by attending, or you can ask colleagues who have attended before what their experience was like. Some people post a question on social media like, “I’m considering attending [CONFERENCE NAME in LOCATION] and wondering who within my network has attended in prior years. If you’ve attended, what was your biggest takeaway or benefit in attending?” and see what kind of responses you get. Some may post that they’ve been and they’re going again, and they may be someone you should meet in person if you attend that conference. Also evaluate whether the conference format creates space for conversation, with plenty of breaks, lunch, and evening network events you can participate in.
A helpful question to ask yourself is: “If I leave this conference with three strengthened relationships, five new contacts, and one meaningful next conversation, who would I most want those relationships to be with?” If you cannot answer that question, you may need to do more research before making the investment.
Prepare Before You Go
The most productive conference networking often begins before you attend. A little upfront preparation can dramatically increase the value of the experience.
First, build a relationship list. Review the attendee, sponsor, exhibitor and speaker lists when available. Some conferences supply the attendee list ahead or have a conference app that allows you to view the attendees and reach out to them via the app to initiate conversation and potentially set a time to connect in person. Identify a manageable number of people you would benefit from connecting with, and they might benefit, too, including:
- Current clients you want to demonstrate gratitude to, celebrate, or learn more about
- Prospective clients whose needs appear to align with your ICP
- Referral sources you want to know better to see if you can help each other
- Former clients, colleagues, or alumni you would enjoy reconnecting with
- Thought leaders, vendors, and association leaders who may be key collaborators
- People in your existing network who might provide warm introductions to others
- Vendors who have cool new technologies or other solutions that you should know more about
Share your list with team members who are attending or who also serve your target market. They may know someone you hope to meet, have useful background, or be able to make an introduction. While you’re talking to your coworkers who are attending, be sure to compare notes for sessions you intend to attend, to make sure you cover the content without a lot of overlapping. This will help you immensely when you return and debrief on and share things you learned with others in the firm. A coordinated team is far more effective than several people attending independently without a shared plan.
Where possible, schedule a few conversations in advance. Invite priority contacts to coffee, breakfast, a walk, a short conversation between sessions, a small dinner, or a reception or group meetup. Keep your outreach personal and easy to accept:
“I saw that we’ll both be at the conference next month. I’d love to catch up and hear what you’re focused on this year. Would you be open to coffee before the sessions on Tuesday or a quick conversation that afternoon?”
The objective is not to schedule every minute. Leave room for learning, spontaneous connections and rest. Three intentional conversations are usually more valuable than 30 rushed introductions.
Be curious. Spend a few minutes before attending learning about the people you most want to meet. Review their organization, professional background, recent posts and current industry issues on their website, LinkedIn, or using AI. The purpose is not to impress them with your research. It is to ask better questions and understand where you may be able to help.
- Consider taking these potential questions with you to use during the meetings you schedule:
- What are you most excited about in your organization right now?
- What changes are having the greatest effect on your clients or team?
- What are you hoping to learn or accomplish at this conference?
- What opportunity are you most focused on this year?
- What is consuming more time or energy than it should?
- Who else are you hoping to meet while you are here?
- How can our firm or I help you?
During the Conference
Be Fully Present While You Are There
Conference networking is not about “working the room.” It is about being present in sessions while you’re attending, taking notes on things to bring back to others, and paying real attention to the person you’re with.
Put your phone away when you are attending sessions or in a conversation. Listen for interests, concerns, goals and possibilities. Ask follow-up questions. Look for common ground. Introduce people to one another when you see a meaningful connection. Generosity leaves a far stronger impression than sharing a story all about you or your firm.
Focus on relationships. We all meet a lot of people at conferences and it’s hard to remember each one. People are much more likely to remember someone who listened attentively, asked a thoughtful question, shared a helpful idea, or connected them with someone valuable. Be that person.
A useful conference conversation can include three levels:
Connect — learn something about the person and establish common ground or rapport. Conference attendance is an easy place to start. “How is your conference so far?” “How long have you been coming to this conference?”
Learn — explore the person’s work, goals, challenges or opportunities.
Follow Up — identify a potential reason to speak again after the conference. Not every interaction will hit all three levels. Sometimes the right outcome is simply, “I enjoyed meeting you. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!”
Create reasons for people to engage. Ask meaningful questions like the ones we shared in the “before the conference section” or, if you’ve built some rapport, consider going deeper with these questions:
- What is your firm’s most important goal or priority this year?
- What is the biggest challenge in achieving it?
- What client challenges are creating the greatest opportunity or risk for your firm?
The right question helps you identify themes, offer relevant resources and identify people who would value a deeper follow-up conversation.
Capture your next step. Conference days are full and long, and even the best conversations can blend together. Immediately capture a few notes about people you’ve met, what you discussed, something personal you want to remember, any resource or introduction you offered, and the next step you agreed to take.
Writing down or typing even one clear sentence about each meeting can prevent an important connection from becoming “that person I met somewhere at a conference.”
If your only action was to connect on LinkedIn, do so while you’re still at the conference so the opportunity to widen your network doesn’t fall through the cracks.
After the Conference is Over
Share Back
Help your firm maximize your investment by bringing your findings, lessons learned, and next steps back and sharing them with people in your service line or industry group. Also share this information with your marketing or business development leaders so they know whether to keep investing in this particular venue and how your involvement could improve.
When there is technical learning, or insights into trends, or other key ideas from the conference, consider hosting a lunch-and-learn in conjunction with others who also attended the conference to share the benefit of those insights and to spread the firm’s return on the investment because more people learn from your attendance.
Follow Through!!
The follow-up is where much of the value of a conference is either realized or lost. A brief interaction becomes meaningful when you demonstrate that you listened, remembered what mattered and cared enough to follow up and schedule a time to continue the conversation.
Follow up personally and specifically. Avoid a generic message and instead, refer to the conversation you shared and offer practical next steps:
“I enjoyed our conversation about the difficulty your firm is having creating capacity for growth. You mentioned that you’re considering M&A, offshoring, and improved delegation as potential solutions. I’m sharing the article I promised on M&A in your industry. I was also hoping that we could continue our conversation with a 30-minute video call in the next few weeks to compare what we heard and learned at the conference and what we see as our next steps?”
This kind of follow-up shows that you listened and gives the relationship somewhere to go next.
You can also generously offer value. Consider sharing:
- An article, checklist, template, podcast, or webinar – either that your firm created or that you found valuable on subjects important to this person
- A connection to someone in your network
- A relevant example or idea from another organization that is solving some of the things this person shared they’re focusing on
- An invitation to a short Teams or Zoom meeting, coffee when you are in the same city next, or small peer discussion or upcoming event
When you connect on LinkedIn, it’s useful, but it’s a start, not an end. The goal is to move from a brief conference interaction to a continued relationship where trust, collaboration and opportunity can develop over time.
Measure What Matters
The best conference results do not always appear immediately as signed business. Meaningful outcomes may include:
- A client relationship that becomes more strategic and uncovers unmet needs
- A referral source who better understands who we serve and how we can help
- An introduction into an ICP organization
- A future speaking, writing, or podcast opportunity
- A valuable peer relationship that expands your perspective or deepens your friendship
- A new idea that changes your firm’s approach
- A business opportunity that develops months after the event
Networking and relationship development are important, but they rarely feel urgent. That is exactly why they require intention. Strong networks are built a little at a time, over time. We should build and nurture them before we need them.
When you choose events strategically, prepare intentionally, engage authentically, and follow up thoughtfully, conferences become important investments that will pay real dividends. They become opportunities to expand your influence, raise your visibility, deepen relationships and make a bigger difference for your clients, prospects, referral sources, your firm, and the profession.
Gratefully,
