On Saturday I’m flying to Ottawa for Cannexus15 – I’ll be presenting about Vancity’s Orientation Immersion program, connecting with folks from the Canadian Education and Researching Institute for Counselling (CERIC), and learning a lot about how career development is central to building healthy communities. Whether you’re attending Cannexus or have a learning opportunity coming up later this year, here are 10 ways to get the most out of conferences.

Do your research

A lot goes on at conferences: keynote speakers, vendors, workshops, dinners, meetings, and parties all unfold in noisy hotel breakout rooms.  It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the content choices as well as the people, so before you leave be sure that you’ve learned exactly what’s happening at the conference and who you’d like to connect with most.

Be strategic

You will not be able to attend every session that’s offered. And you also have personal and professional interests/responsibilities that must be considered when selecting workshops and deciding who to meet for drinks.

Make a plan

Combine your research and strategic priorities into a few “hey, let’s meet for drinks” or “can you tell me more about your workshop?” emails and setup some conversations before you arrive. Circle and highlight the workshops that you want to take-in and figure out what sights are worth seeing in the city where the conference is being hosted. Having a plan will bring structure to your experience and help you enjoy it even more.

Leave your work at work

You will be tempted to stay connected to your job back home. Don’t. At least not too much. Sure, key priorities will need to be addressed, but you’re at the conference to learn and develop as a person and a professional, so make the most of your investment in the workshops and speakers that are there to inspire you.

Be an active participant

Speaking of being inspired: be a learner who shows up to every conference experience with an open mind and a positive attitude. Engage in the material and with your fellow participants, don’t just go through the motions.

Host exclusive gatherings

Find like-minded people or folks with whom you’re collaborating and carve out some time to connect deeply about your work. Conferences are great for re-connecting and fostering deeper relationships among your peers from across the country. I highly recommend exclusive gatherings that are fun and explore a unique part of the city.

Be a connector

Take peoples’ business cards and remember what you talked about by writing down notes on the person’s card after you’ve got it. And then, when you meet another cool person, think about how you might introduce them to one of the many other cool people with whom you’ve spoken. And if you’re a veteran of a particular conference – or you just know a lot of folks in your field – it is your duty to make connections among your colleagues and strive to bring awesome energy to the conference through the connections that you make.

Be the guy/gal on the Internet

Not only will tweeting and sharing and connecting and photobombing promote the value of the conference (and you, too), but by building a real-time digital record of your experience will allow you to review what you learned at a later time. All you need to do is follow the hashtag!

Write a blog post about how to get the most out of conferences

This is a great idea. The conference organizers might share it as part of the “how to prepare” email and – BAM! – you’re all of a sudden a very known player at the event. Or you had nine things in your article and it was getting later. Whatever the case, blogs are cool.

Have fun with it!

Conferences are awesome (or not so much) because of the people who attend them. Be a leader with contagious enthusiasm who inspires people around you and makes everything more fun.

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