We bring you the fourth of six planned posts from our newest guest blogger, Geoff Hart. Geoff is a veteran of many conferences, including a number of STC Summits. We’ll be publishing a weekly post from him on Surviving the Summit: tips on how to get the most out of the Summit, or any conference you attend.
If a conference were only about reading the handouts and making notes, there’d be little point in going. The overwhelming advantage of attending is the chance to meet the speakers and ask the questions they didn’t already answer. This can lead to fascinating discussions, and sometimes even long-term collaborations.
Make time to socialize and to network, network, network. If you’re an introvert, eavesdrop on public conversations with the other introverts. Better still, make an effort to initiate conversations. Most conferences offer general or special-topic networking sessions, often disguised as lunches and parties. These are a great place to meet people with common interests who you might not otherwise meet. There are so many interesting people at any conference you can’t possibly meet them all, but trying to meet a large number is worthwhile; some will become lifelong colleagues or friends. The more people you know, the more help you’ll have to solve thorny problems—or the more people you can brag to about your victories, knowing they’ll understand why you’re so smug. If someone offers their business card, don’t just file it; write notes on it to remind you who they are and why they interested you enough to justify keeping their card. Send them an invite to FaceBook, LinkedIn, or any other social media site you frequent.
Bring more business cards than you expect to need, but don’t neglect more modern tricks. For example, if you have a smart phone, you can “beam” your contact information to a new friend’s phone using an app such as Beam It! for the iPhone. Since apps tend to only work between devices of the same type, learn how to send a text message or email with your personal information, ideally in the standard vCard (.VCF) format so they can import it directly into their contact-management software. See, for example, http://www.imore.com/how-send-contact-card-imessage-or-sms for iPhones and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/8/how-do-i-send-a-contact-via-sms for Android phones. Gmail users can create vCards directly. Since you may have information you don’t want to share, create a conference-specific vCard that contains only the basics you want new colleagues to receive. You can always provide more information later.
Last but not least, spend some time in the vendor showroom. Apart from the many useful and funky tchotchkes being given away, many vendor reps are also technical communicators and are bored from standing idly by while souvenir hunters pillage their chocolate supply and ignore them. They can teach you a lot, particularly if they’re experts in the software or service their booth is selling. Some may even be seeking new employees; if you make a good impression, they might ask for your résumé. You’ll also find occasional treasures, such as my cherished “Write or die!” t-shirt from MadCap.
Next: How to care for yourself while you’re there.
Geoff Hart is the grizzled veteran of dozens of conferences, and has emerged exhausted (but mostly wiser) from this experience. Visit him online at http://www.geoff-hart.com.