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Published at: 11/11/11 19:00:00
Maximising ROI from conference attendance.
Finding the time and the money to attend conferences is becoming increasingly difficult. So the decision needs to be taken for the right reasons.
When deciding whether to attend or not there are a lot of factors to weigh up – there are the logistical ones like cost, location & timing, but the two main reasons are content & people. How relevant the content is, what topics are being covered, and what you are hoping to learn. Then there are the people – how good the presenters are and who else is attending.
But the real ROI from a conference comes when you return to the office and use your learnings’ to positively impact performance.
Sadly though when you return to the office, that’s when the problems usually start. Day to day work gets in the way, you realise the notes you took aren’t quite as clear as you thought they were when you took them, the hardcopy of the speakers’ slides don’t make sense without the commentary and you can’t remember the details of that great conversation you had during the lunch break. As a consequence all the improvements to your job or business that you were wanting the conference to deliver just aren’t as good as you hoped! The excitement of the day has gone and often with it the value of attending.
So what’s the answer? You could video the conference and record any conversations you have but you’ll never find the time to put them into a usable format. And who wants to spend all their time at a conference focusing on making sure the video’s working rather than focusing on what is being said and how it can be made relevant to your situation.
The real answer lies with the conference organisers. If they gave as much thought as to what the outcomes of their conference are as they do with the inputs - delegates would get a lot more value.
By way of an example we have developed an ‘Insight Lab’ that runs both during and after a conference. It’s an interactive space where delegates and speakers can continue a dialogue together to make sure everyone gets exactly what they were looking for from the conference. Questions are asked and answered (not only by the presenters but other delegates as well), insights shared and suggestions made for future conferences. There is also a facility to store documents and videos so everything relating to the conference is in one place. And the whole space is facilitated to make sure everyone is engaged.
So next time you are considering attending a conference why not ask the organisers what they are proposing to do to maximise the value you will continue to get when you walk out of the conference hall? That could be the single most important way for you to maximise your ROI from attending.
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