How To Conquer Networking And Crush Your Next Business Conference

Maximising your business conferences can be a powerful way to propel your company forward and achieve great things in your industry. Getting it right can improve your branding and encourage more people to take you seriously. 

But how can you make the most of it? Fortunately, much of what we’re about to say is common sense. But you’d be surprised just how many firms miss out on the basics and don’t leverage their investment in these events as much as they should. 

Be Present And Engaged

When arranging a conference, set the scene. Take notes, listen, and actively ask questions. Get employees and other people involved to do the same. Ensure that the audience gets as many perspectives as they can while still working to find common ground. Don’t shy away from disagreements or controversy, but highlight them as points of contention instead. 

Maximise The Downtime

People won’t be presenting non-stop during the conference, so maximize the downtime. Ensure that you take advantage of gaps in the schedule to run through various notes or get people networking. You can also use void periods for note-taking or team-building activities to bring people closer together. 

Consolidate Your Notes

After the conference, ensure you take time to consolidate your notes. Use transcription services that accept any format, including dictaphone recordings, videos, or live streaming. 

Whatever approach you choose, make sure you keep everything organized by topic. Ideally, make notes digitally so you can search them for keywords upon review. Make annotations and ask questions to brainstorm the next steps. 

Share What You Learned

It’s also critical to share what you learned during the conference with your audience. Bringing large numbers of people together often sparks new ideas that improve your business and help you get more done. 

You could: 

• Present your learnings to colleagues who couldn’t attend back at the office
• Write blog posts or create curated videos providing online viewers insights into what happened at the event
• Have a brown bag lunch where you share ideas from the conference and bring more people up to speed
• Create slides and resources and compile a library that colleagues can refer to at any time in the future

Follow Up New Contacts

If you make new connections at your business conference, be sure to follow them up. Get to know people to build your network. 

For example, you could connect to them on LinkedIn or send personalized messages, talking about your conversation or a topic mentioned at the event. You could also arrange follow-up calls and even convert clients in attendance by providing extra support once everyone goes home. 

Put Your Knowledge Into Action

It’s also a good idea to try to come away from a business conference with one or two actionable takeaways you can use in your enterprise. Getting something concrete from the event enhances the return on investment (ROI) further, enabling you to justify more of the same in the future. 

Once you have an idea, share your progress with your colleagues and clients. Demonstrate you are willing to listen to feedback and continue innovating.