Why Are You Attending Conferences?
To Meet People, Make Money or Both?
This week I’m attending my last conference of the year (2024). I wanted to share some thoughts about attending conferences, lessons learned from limiting my conference attendance for the past year and what I plan on doing in 2025.
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Latinas in Podcasting Virtual Summit
Celebrate and amplify the work and voices of Latinas in Podcasting!
When: October 24-October 25, 2024
Get Your Ticket
The event is free but we do need you to sign up and reserve your spot. Here are a couple of actions you can take to support the Latinas in Podcasting Virtual Summit.
Tell people about it! Allies, friends, etc. share this wonderful space with women you think would be served by the information and community being served by this unique experience.
Share in your podcast pre/mid or end roll
Are you a vlogger? Talk about the event in a piece of content.
Why Do You Attend Conferences
(As a Content Creator)
Most of the people who are a part of the Creators Getting Paid community are creating content online in some way. They are one or more of the following things: a podcaster, community builder, writers or videographer.
Ultimately, they are building brands while leveraging the internet in some sort of way. One of the benefits of exploring this type of career is the opportunity to: share your expertise, meet like-minded individuals, explore professional interests, visit a new town, grow your list and of course..make money.
After taking almost 11 months off from attending conferences I realized that there were several actions that I was taking post conference attendance that were making a difference in my business and brand. As the 2024 conference season comes to a close I think now is a great time to reflect on experiencing a successful conference season. Let’s get into it.
Reason #1 To Meet Like-Minded People
I’m very lucky to live in a town where people understand to some degree working online. There’s a large tech community, digital content creators and a high level of excitement around the idea of building an online brand. However, what I love the most about conferences is meeting other people who are doing similar work to what I’m doing. Some of my dearest friends I’ve met at conferences. Some of these friends I’ve known for 12 years. Yep, 12 years!
With that in mind, some advice.
Stop being so transactional at conferences! It’s so off-putting to meet people who are hard selling what they do vs. understanding that people like to work with people they know, like and trust. Outside of events curated during an event with a focus on sales or pitching, be very careful about hard selling what you do.
Connect people with other people-I love facilitating introductions between people-especially if their work compliments the other person’s work or they live in the same region.
Always say “yes” to experiences that make the conference smaller-If you’re in a hallway and people invite you to happy hour-say “yes” If there’s a morning run or yoga experience and you love to run or practice yoga say “yes” Do you have the opportunity to explore town with a couple of people-”yes” Those experiences have often been the highlight of my conference experience.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that time is the key. Building trust takes time.
Reason #2 Share Your Expertise
At this point, I’ve spoken at numerous events including giving my first keynote this summer. Conferences are a fantastic opportunity to develop, highlight and share your expertise. There’s a number of different approaches to doing this.
Host an interest focused meetup-You could host a meetup specific to the community that you’re building. It could be an unofficial meeting or an official meeting depending on how the event organizes events. I’m hosting an unofficial meetup at the event that I’m attending this week.
Pitch a panel session-I love being a part of a well-crafted panel. It’s a great way to share different points of view and insight into different topics of interest. Begin checking event calendars to see when calls for speakers go “live”
Pitch a solo-session-Panels are awesome, but speaking on stage solo is even better. Especially if you’re interested in eventually giving a key note at an event.
Host an experience-These are my favorite! Do you love exploring a town on foot, checking out a cute coffee shop or want to go surfing? Host a fun experience. While you’re there you’ll end up discussing all the things. Including whatever you’re an expert in.
Sharing your expertise doesn’t have to be a super formal exchange of information. It could just be naturally sharing answers, insights and excitement around a topic that you’re an expert on while you’re having fun.
Reason #3 To Make Money
There are so many reasons to attend a conference but there’s a point where we have to be candid about wanting to make money. In fact the conference that I’m attending this week has typically made me thousands of dollars months and years after the event.
Knowledge learned
People met and collaborated with
Expertise shared
Opportunities shared
And so much more.
In the Black
Conference attendance can add up. There’s a lot of different ways that people are encouraged to “invest in themselves” and attending or hosting an in-person or online conference is one of the ways that you can do that. I have a strict rule to always earn back the money that I’ve invested attending an event…preferably earning significantly more post event. Having this as a non-negotiable goal helps to keep me focused on the earning money for my brand and business part of conference attendance.
Want to Know How I Do It?
(Make Money at Conferences)
I’m breaking down how I’ve made money from conference attendance. I’m also sharing my conference plans for 2025.