9 Tips on Getting the Most out of a Conference

If you're like me and work in a small department, conferences are an incredible opportunity to learn about what's new in your field and meet people who do similar work. I went to my first two professional conferences this year, the Click Asia Summit in Mumbai and Ad-tech in New York. I was extremely excited to meet speakers I've read and heard of, people doing incredible things in marketing, and just meet a group of fellow marketers and chat with them about challenges we all face.

But if you have a tight budget (and who doesn't?) conferences, including traveling to them and staying at hotels, can be extremely expensive. So how do you make the most of every single industry event you attend?

1.  Find the best events

This is obvious, but also probably the most important. With so many events in the year, which one(s) give you the most bang for your buck? Research online, read blog posts on the last year's events, and ask people (both on Twitter and your real-life colleagues). What are your objectives? What do you want to learn about? What kind of people do you want to meet? Figure all this out and then check out which event makes the most sense for you.{C}

2.  Plan in advance

Register for the event and book hotels and flights early to get better rates. Make sure you give yourself enough time to familiarize yourself to a new place (assuming it's a new place), recover from jet-lag (if you're traveling that far), and schedule any follow-up meetings after the conference (if networking is an important objective).

3.  Research speakers, exhibits and attendees

I've spent hours poring over session descriptions, speaker bios and exhibitor lists. I found the interesting ones on Twitter or their blogs and read up about them. It helps me figure out who I want to talk to and which sessions I definitely want to attend. And if a blogger you read is one of the speakers, you know you've got to go meet them. (I've done it more than once, and it gives me a great high to meet a blogger I admire in person.) If the event publishes attendee lists, make sure to go over that as well. You could join LinkedIn groups created around the event and participate in conversations even before the event.