The following article is from frequent contributor Kosmo.
I recently went to a conference in New Orleans. It was hosted by one of the leading sales tax software companies. A bunch of techies and accountants, all in one place. New Orleans is an interesting place, and I’d recommend it to anyone. I arrived in the Big Easy hours before a Taylor Swift concert, which made getting an Uber a bit more interesting (and expensive). Electrical issues on my return flight extended my flight, which was a slight annoyance, but overall, the trip was successful.
There are a lot of conferences of this nature. Are they worth the money companies spend on them?
Costs
There are several costs that come into play.
- Conference cost – The organization putting on the conference will charge a fee to attendees. This can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. This allows the organizers to pay for the conference space, paid speakers, and the swag that is given away. At the conference I attended, I believe there was only one paid speaker. The other speakers were either employees of the software company or their customers. As far as swag, I came away with a water bottle, t-shirt, and quarter zip. There was other swag available, but I’m only a digital hoarder – not a regular hoarder
- Airfare – Despite what you learned from the movie Cedar Rapids, conferences are typically held in warm-weather cities, often far from where you are located.
- Rental car/ride share – People will need to get to the hotel from the airport (and back) and to various other places during the conference. Depending on the frequency of trips, it may be more cost-effective to just use a ride-share service or taxi.
- Hotels – The events are often held in the conference facilities of upscale hotels. All the companies I have worked for have a policy of giving each employee their own room for the sake of privacy. I wouldn’t recommend trying to save money by having employees share a room. A few bad incidents could kill team chemistry. Although you can often save some money by choosing a different hotel, the convenience of being on-site has value.
- Meals – Your employees will need to eat while they are at the conference. Although lunch (and often breakfast) during the conference is often included in the fee for the conference, there are likely to be several meals that are not.
- Lost productivity – One of the largest costs can be the fact that the employee is away from their typical work while they are at the conference.
Benefits
There are many benefits to attending conferences.
- Access to key individuals – The conference I attended recently was related to sales tax software. Yes, there is an entire industry dedicated to accurately calculating and reporting sales tax. Prior to the conference, we had encountered an issue for which we couldn’t find a solution. The typical process would have been to create a ticket and wait for someone to respond. However, while at the conference, I had access to the person who actually wrote the software integration where the issue arose. I was able to get a few minutes to chat with him about the issue with him and a colleague. They quickly realized that they needed to redesign some of the functionality, and I got them to put it on their roadmap for early 2025.
- Networking – I’ve typically been an introvert, but I’ve started coming out of my shell in recent years. Prior to one of the evening events, I struck up a conversation with a woman from a large apparel brand. We decided to keep in touch every couple of months to bounce ideas off each other. We are in completely different industries and fairly different roles. There’s enough overlap to be relevant and enough differences to help us each learn new things. I made several other contacts that could prove valuable in the coming years.
- Team building – There were four of us who attended the conference. I’m from the IT area, while the other three are in finance. We work with each other fairly regularly, and this was a good opportunity to get to know each other outside of the office. Sitting in the French Quarter eating beignets from Cafe Du Monde is a good way to build personal relationships with colleagues.
- Knowledge – Lest we forget, the whole purpose of the conference is to learn more about relevant topics. There are two different approaches -some people attend a handful of sessions, whereas other people fill their schedule. I fall into the latter group – I packed as much into my days as possible. Among the things I learned were that many companies are facing a specific problem we are trying to solve and that we may be oversimplifying what is required to enable some new business functionality. The information I learned reinforced my initial thoughts and gave me additional information to use when I meet with the team to discuss those topics.
Worth the cost?
Are conferences worth the cost? You probably noticed that the benefits section is more verbose than the costs section, which is a good indication of where I stand on the issue. Yes, I do think that conference are worth the money – if companies make careful choices:
- Relevant topics – The conference needs to actually be relevant to the work that the employees are being done. If your employee suggest a conference, have them go through the agenda and point to specific sessions that will be relevant for them.
- Relevant employees – It’s important to choose the employees that will get the most benefit from the conference. Some companies choose to send high level executives, or to use conferences as a reward for high-performing employees. However, it’s important to choose employees who will actually learn a lot and be able to do impactful networking.
- Frequency – There’s definitely such a thing as overkill. If an employee is going to ten conferences per year, they may be doing a lot of networking and learning a lot of relevant information. However, they cutting into the amount of time they have to do their day job.
Additionally, attending a lot of conferences within a short span of time may result in a lot of overlap and reduce the value of any particular conference.
Editor’s Two Cents
I pay around $2000 a year to go to, FinCon, the personal finance conference. The tickets aren’t that expensive, but the hotel and flights add up quickly. I feel like I get a lot of knowledge there, but I rare have any time to act it.
What are your thoughts?
What are your thoughts about conferences? Are you an employee who attends conferences or a manager who approves attendance? Do you see value, or do you feel that they are a frivolous expense?
