Making the Most Out of Conference
Attending a conference can be considered as an important step in someone’s career. In conferences, people learn various ideas and take decisions based on those ideas. Conferences are great experiences especially for students. Through conferences, the emerging young minds get a different kind of experience than the school or college. Conference can be a good opportunity for students to build their career.
Meeting new people and building networks are important for overall growth of a person’s career. Sessions and conversation in the conferences build an ability of expression in the students.
So, the conferences are important for anyone wishing to build a career; for young students, it is a golden opportunity. You might be wondering how you can make the most out of the conferences you are planning to attend. Here we have prepared a list of tips for you to take possible benefits from such conferences. The tips have been further sub-categorized to help you make clear picture of what to do and when.
Before the Conference
- Be Notable
The best way to experience a conference is being a participant (maybe a presenter or a volunteer) rather than being just an observer. If you participate actively, you will get the real-time experience rather than watching the experience of others. There will be from hundreds to thousands of people present in the conference just like you. Some are participants while some others are just observers. Participating in the conference is the best way of being notable in it. Moreover, just participation is not enough to make you notable. You need to exhibit excellence in whatever your role is in the conference.
- Make Connections Stronger
Meeting new people is obvious in the conference where you will make new connections, but valuing existing connections in order to make them stronger is also important. There are chances that the conference is going to have people with whom you are already familiar. In such cases, meet such people prior to the date of conference (Maybe for a coffee) and seek for possible spaces of cooperation. This helps you make your relation stronger with that person which can come helpful, even in the conference. Apart from those attending the conference, you might have to coordinate with other people with no relation to the conference (For instance you might need a recommender, who can be your teacher, employer, friend, or someone else). Developing cordial relationship with them can help you in the long run.
During the conference
- Keep Yourself Informed
Be informed about who and what kind of people you are going to meet in the conference so that you can interact confidently with them. Throughout the conference, you will need to be aware about the schedule. Keeping information on what is going to happen next or where you are going next can help you prepare for better performance in the conference. For such you can contact the organizers of the conference or the information team designated by the organizers.
- Choose the Activities that are Useful to You
Everything in the conference may not be useful for you. Usually conferences include a range of activities like talk sessions, discussions, and presentations, among others. These activities may be under various topics and sometimes they may even be run simultaneously. In such cases, you must be able to decide what you really need. The contents that are not beneficial to you should be avoided by you so that you can prioritize your time and effort in other activities. Using your time wisely is important for you to make most out of your participation in the conference.
- Do not Forget What You Learn
There are going to be a lot of activities throughout the conference. And various people tell about different ideas, perspectives and explanations. Experts may share their experiences. So, you will have a lot of information to gain from the conference. Such a large chunk of information may not be all set in your mind. And, on the other hand, it is not good to forget things learnt from such experiences. This dilemma can be solved with a simple approach. Keep records! Yes, keeping records is the best way of retaining information. The record will not lose the information even if you do. You can keep notes about the proceeding of the conference and its activities. You can even record the important things said by the speakers in the conference. Learning is easy, forgetting is easier!
- Remain Close with the Speakers
When you attend a conference, you will listen to speakers from various fields. Most of the speakers are the experts in their fields. You might get chances to interact personally with the speakers anytime in the conference. You should not hesitate to build relationship with them and present your queries to them. Even after learning from them through the conference, you can learn from them in the future also. Stay connected with them in the social media. After all, conference is the best place to make new relations and networks.
- Be involved in the Social and Cultural events
Whatever be the content of the conference, socializing is the priority. So, accordingly, there will be social and cultural events as well in the conference. Present yourself in your original cultural get up. And do not forget to have conversations with people about their. Sharing experiences is common in the social events of the conferences. You should not fall short of building connections there as well.
After the Conference
- Stay Connected
Connecting with people in the conference is not just for the time period of the conference. They can be your lifetime connections. After receiving a lot of contact information in the form of visiting cards and others, it is good for you to keep such information safely. You can follow up and interact with those people anytime you like if you do not lose the contact information. You can even invite them to your place and sometimes meet them when they are anywhere near.
- Share Your Experience
Just having an experience is not enough, you need to be able to express your experience. People are always looking forward to learn from others. Sharing your experience of attending the conference to your friends, coworkers, juniors, and seniors can be helpful to them as well. This can help you gain support from those people as well. People find a way for cooperation since you are a cooperative person if you share your experiences.
In this way, you can make the most out of your involvement in a conference. Importantly, attending a conference is getting prepared for others in the future!
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