The annual calendar is increasingly filled with conferences and tradeshows and other inspiring networking events that leave attendees buoyed up with great ideas and strategies. But what happens once you’ve left the event? How do you feed that enthusiasm and can-do attitude into your regular work week? Here are five post-conference tips designed to maximise your conference experience.
Get to know the speakers
If an expert inspired you during a one hour session, imagine what value they can add to your work over a longer period of time. Follow them on social media, read their book and if you have follow-up questions send an email.
Create a takeaway list
Pull out the conference schedule, check your notes and for each session write down one piece of advice you took away. It’ll make great content for tweeting and blogs, or you can also use it to create a conference recap list for colleagues who were not able to attend.
Use those business cards
Memory fades fast so make notes on the back of those cards as soon as you get home. Did you have an idea about how that new acquaintance might be useful? Jot it down. Send a follow-up email while they still remember you and personalise it with something you talked about.
Create an action list
If you starred ideas that you’d like to implement in your work, get going. Turn the ideas into actions and feed them into your To Do list for the next few weeks.
Fulfill any promises
If you promised to send somebody a link to a great resource, do it. If you promised to answer questions on a specific topic, follow up. Helping out others establishes you as a ‘go to’ person and puts the recipient of your kindness in your debt.
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