Networking Tips to Attend a Conference

Learning networking tips in professional events and conferences provide a great way to meet new connections and add to your professional network.

Conferences are one of the single best ways to network. When you attend a conference, you’ve basically put a large sign on your head saying “I’m open to meeting people and networking in my industry.”

In general, those who attend a conference, have something in common, the conference! You have the first important stimulus to start talking with a new person.

“How did you enjoy the keynote speaker?”, “Where do you come from?”, “Did you attend last year?”, “How are you enjoying the conference so far?”, these are some common questions which you can start with to chat with others attending a conference and not look funny or awkward.

Attending a conference provide you with many benefits, among them are meeting new people or catching up with those who you have met in the past and want to make contact with again.

Networking Tips

Conferences provide excellent business opportunities if you know how to network effectively. These events are a great way to meet new connections and add to your professional network.

Here are some quick and easy networking tips to efficiently make connection at any conference, and make it all worth it:

1. Get Ready to Network

About a week before the conference, you should try to connect with speakers, VIPs or special attendees. A lot of conferences publish the list of registered delegates attending a conference in advance.  You can use this opportunity to see who is attending a conference, what their specializations are and figuring out from that which sessions they are more likely to attend.

2. Take Advantage of Social Media

Before you get there, look for a mobile conference app to connect with people before your conference begins.  Utilize any conference hashtags as well. Attendees may need some encouragement to start talking, so if you want to kickstart the conversation, you’d better search for their interests and needs.

3. Connect with Speakers

Instead of waiting in a group or line with many others after a talk, email the speakers afterward and be specific about what you took away or enjoyed from their talk. You can connect with them on LinkedIn.

4. Business Cards

When it comes to compact, cost-effective marketing tools, having a business card still tops the must-have list with established and emerging brands. A business card is a cheap and portable advertising method. You can easily share it with others. In today’s modern world, even with email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, people expect you to have a business card. Presenting a business card proves your professionalism and importance to your business. A business card is a way of saying, “I have dominance in my research or business field and I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Some say that carrying business cards are becoming less and less important as social media grows. I beg to differ. If someone hands you a business card it means they want you to contact them.

5. Follow-Up

“When you follow up, one of the “do’s” is to remind them of what you were talking about when you first met, so you can return to the warm conversation that this all started with,” says Spence. “The second tip would be to have a goal when you have that follow-up conversation, and then state that at the beginning. Don’t make them guess about why you’re talking or meeting. Just put that out there up front. If they’re talking to you, they want to help you, so you should have a clear ask so they can help you and address it in the shortest amount of time.”