Getting the most out of conferences

I’ve been involved in organizing some conference in my current role and on one of my rambles I was wondering if we’re making a difference to our members. When you’re a volunteer money isn’t your motivation.

My maternal grandfather was a pioneer teacher and my mother is a teacher and I guess I’ve inherited their altruism. Teaching and nursing are vocations, if you ask teachers and nurses I’m a very sure that they would tell you that they don’t do it for the money. I’ve written about my passion for this association and what the body of knowledge can do to enable us to take PNG to another level. The information that members have on the website alone is tremendous!!

At our next conference these are some tips I would give members to increase the value that they get from our annual conference.

HAVE AN ACTION PLAN

Deciding a conference theme is one of the first things to consider when planning a conference. When selecting the theme some thought is given to trends affecting business worldwide and the relevance to PNG. We are a developing country and therefore we tend to be classified as in the late majority or laggard category when it comes to technology adoption. What might be a burning issue, safe harbor for example might not be relevant to a Papua New Guinean audience.

When you get the program for the conference look at the theme and the presentations and try to get a feel for the message that the organizers are trying to get across. You might like to Google the theme to get an insight into what is happening around the world in this space.

As you’re looking at the program, you might like to list down some things that you’d like to learn or some advice you’d like to get on a specific issue that is relevant to work. Better yet, you could come up with a check list of learning objectives of your own and bring them with you on conference day.

The benefit of listing your learning objectives is that you turn up to the conference ready to learn.

BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT

On conference day you’d want to arrive early so that you get a seat that is preferable to you. Arriving early will ensure that when the conference starts your mind is relaxed and you’re mentally prepared for the conference to start. (For those of you saying, “No duh!!” But I’ll have you know that 75% of conference attendees arrive during the first speaker’s presentation in the conferences I’ve attended in PNG).

If you had that checklist we mentioned above then you can write down the answers to the questions you had whilst the presentations are going on. You might even gain new insights; list them down as well.

Don’t forget to ask questions. Sitting at or near the front helps as the presenter can clearly see you and you can’t see the majority of other attendees in the corner of your eye.

 There is no such thing as a silly question and often your question could steer the presenter away from a theoretical explanation of theories and concepts to a practical demonstration of the subject at hand. It also allows other attendees who may not be as outgoing as you are, to ask that burning question that they may have.

Attending conferences is a great way to network. Networking is a great way to exchange ideas and perspectives to help you in your role. It will also raise your profile among your peers and can lead to promotions or new clients.

The photo accompanying this post was taken after the last presentation at this year’s conference. It’s a bit dodgy but it has a lot of sentimental value for me as we were privileged to have three world class presenters grace our shores. We have post conference cocktails to allow members to network and for the really bashful ones to build up some Dutch courage to approach our presenters. (I love this country…LOL!!) It’s a cultural thing I guess, in high school we’re conditioned to revere our teachers so much that even as adults we struggle with asking them to explain something because we don’t understand it.

Heaven forbid us from contradicting a teacher!!

BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ACTION PLAN

If we plot the attendees of a conference on a bell curve, then 68% of attendees will not even consider what I’ve written about above. The top 14 %, that is 2 standard deviations away from the mean, may implement 1 and 2 but my guestimate is that the top 2% would actually take time to review their notes after the conference and I’m writing this in the hope that more of us will implement this ideal.

To really maximise value from the conference we could also add another column next to the learning objectives. You could list how the insights you've gained can help you at work. Add an action due date and tell someone about it, so you’re accountable for it. If you’re really keen then set up a reminder in outlook.

Years ago Sir Paulias Matane used to host this show called Chit Chat on EMTV. On one episode he told the story of some boys in his native East New Britain who would play a game where they would all walk across the beach and try to draw a line with their feet. The boy who drew the straightest line would be the winner. One particular boy would always draw the straightest lines and when they asked him what his secret was he stated that he used to focus on a coconut in the distance and consistently check his progress relative to the tree. If we want to be successful in life we must fix our eyes on what we want to achieve the consistently check our progress against it. When making the investment to attend a conference our employers expect a return on their investment. Ensuring that we have an action plan, being an active participant and being personally accountable for our action plan will help increase the return that our employers get on their investment. It will also help us retain knowledge and gain the skills to meet our career objectives.