How to Pick a Great Conference to Attend

Choosing a great conference to attend requires spending a considerable amount of time and money to grow your network, meet new potential clients, increase your skillset and much more.

For this, you need to ensure attending an event, among tons of conferences for every industry, that aligns with your business, meets your goals and provides you with an exciting opportunity to meet and connect with other influencers in your niche.

This decision seems more challenging when you have a limited budget for conference travel and a lack of time, you have to pick your conferences wisely to avoid events that fail to provide you with a turnout like you expected, and relevant to your needs and desires.

You don’t want to waste your time and money on an event which is worthless, so before choosing any conference to attend, study the following factors.

In this blog post, you can see 8 factors to consider when choosing a conference to attend:

1. Goals (for your business/blog, for you personally)
2. Cost
3. Location
4. Attendees (friends/colleagues/contacts)
5. Speakers
6. Topics Covered
7. Timeline
8. Networking Opportunities

Goals

This will be different for everyone. Before considering any conference to attend, you should set and determine the goals you want to achieve. Which goals are important for when you decide on a conference to attend? Increasing your network and connections?  Learn a new skill? Get certification? Meet potential clients? Spend time with friends or get away from our routines? These are some questions you should ask yourself before spending any money on any event.

Cost

When you choose a conference to attend, you should consider your budget regarding all relevant costs, including travel expenses, hotel and food, the price of the conference itself, hidden expenses like parking, and more.  For instance, if you are on a tight budget, choose small and national conferences which are generally cheaper in terms of travel and attendance costs.

Location

Considering the location of a conference is important, especially for budget issues. If the venue of a conference is close to your country, then your travel expenses will be significantly reduced. Weather issues are important for some attendees, as well. If you hate the snow and cold then don’t choose a cold country.

Attendees

Who else will be there? You may consider the attendance of your friends, colleagues or contacts. It’s easy enough to find out, most people post on social media. Do you want to meet a new group of people? Connect with a specific audience? Re-connect with people you’ve met before? How many people will attend — small, medium, large, mega? Conferences are unique networking opportunities, so consider the target audience.

Speakers

Topics Covered

Conferences may be focused on a very specific topic, or they may be more general. When you attend a conference you are expected to see whether you will learn something new and you will be contributing to something that will move the field forward in an interesting way.

Timeline

By checking the conference schedule you will be able to decide how you want to spend your valuable time. You also can’t be in more than one session at a time, so study the schedule to make sure you’re able to attend the events you want to attend most.

Networking Opportunities

If you find the names of people who inspire you the most, in the list of presenters at the conference, you will for sure decide to register. Getting to see someone that you admire and meet them and make small talk with them at social events like lunch or happy hour is a fantastic opportunity. You may also build a community of like-minded individuals and find businesses and sponsors there you want to connect at the event and make sure they align with your mission.

You can find a detailed discussion of networking tips in professional events and conferences which I previously wrote about here.