Wonder how you can stand out at conferences among highly skilled professionals? Hint: it’s all about the preparation. Read on to find out more!
The day finally arrives. One flight and a taxi ride later, you make it into the conference room of a posh hotel in Boston. You sit down among a sea of highly intellectual-looking people watching even more legit people speak on a glitzy stage. But wait — that’s not what happened this year.
Because of 2020, you get to watch the same legit people speak… but from the comfort of your own home! That doesn’t change how valuable the conference can be though.
On October 27, 2020, I was fortunate enough to attend MIT’s Tough Tech Summit. Although it was very enlightening, I wasn’t able to understand several topics that were discussed or network with anyone. However, after having an insightful post mortem with our TKS director Michael Raspuzzi, I’ve compiled some super helpful tips so that you can 10x your next conference!
Imagine that you have your AP Physics C exam in a few weeks. Would you just show up a few weeks later and hope for the best? Unless you’re Sal Khan… probably not.
- Before the exam, you would study, study, study.
- On the day of the exam, you take the exam to the best of your ability.
- A few weeks after, you can now use your impressive score of a 5 in university applications and also apply the knowledge you obtained throughout many aspects of your life.
Like an AP exam, there are 3 parts to any conference. The pre-conference, in-conference and post-conference. Mastering all 3 is essential for conference success.
The Pre-Conference
Imagine you somehow got an opportunity to have a 1-on-1 with Elon Musk. Would you just show up on the day of and just hope for the best? Of course not! You would prepare as if your life depended on it, learning as much as you could about electric transportation, space, etc. so that you two would be able to sustain a somewhat intellectual conversation.
The same goes for any conference. The speakers there will all be super successful people with years of experience and expertise in their fields of study. To provide as much insight as possible, they will be going quite in-depth on high-level topics. It’s normal if you don’t understand what they’re talking about but… why would you want to be normal?
And so the question remains, how exactly should we prepare in advance?
Unfortunately, just browsing through the speakers’ LinkedIn profiles is not enough. By doing that, you‘ll get a surface-level understanding of the companies they’ve worked for and their education… but that still won’t help you understand what the heck they’re talking about. Understanding the nature of the speakers is useful but you can also do that by simply reading their short bios provided on the event website.
The speakers won’t spend most of their time talking about the specifics of each of the companies they’ve worked for. All that information is just one google search away. To provide the greatest amount of value, they’ll be talking about their experiences and worldviews.
It’s much more lucrative to also prep technically. Figure out what they’re working on and learn as much as possible about it.
Stalk the speakers like you’re stalking your crush 😳.
When you like someone, you’ll learn about their interests so that you’ll have something to talk to them about right? Do the same with the speakers.
- Stalk their Twitter and when you see some technical jargon that you don’t understand, stop and figure out what it means.
- Dive deep into the problems they’re trying to solve. Learn about the technical innovations/ concepts in their fields of study.
- If they’re in academia, read their publications!
- Interviews and podcasts will also give you a much more personal connection to the person.
However, don’t try to learn about everyone, quality > quantity so pick one or two speakers you’re the most interested in and optimize for them.
Now that you’re supercharged ⚡️ with all this new knowledge, don’t just let it collect dust in the back of your mind, do something with it! Create content to increase your legitimacy and also share what you learned with the world.
Furthermore, connecting with speakers before the conference is a big no 🚫. It’s a lot more effective to pay attention during the actual conference and get to know them and their values. This way, you’ll be able to make a much more meaningful impact when you reach out to them after.
In-Conference
Although the obvious thing to do during conferences is to pay attention and take notes, sometimes, the value of the conference is not in the talks, but in the attendees. Tune in to the conference when it’s interesting — ask technical questions, write down points that made you go “hm” …
Note-organization tip: write down concepts that you don’t understand in another colour so that you research them later.
… but when you don’t feel like you’re learning anything super insightful, feel free to tune out a bit and check out some of the attendees (the conference will likely be recorded anyways). The good thing about virtual conferences is that you can see the names and short bios of everyone there — and google is just a tab away!
Your network is what will help you enter into the real world. No man is an island. Having a strong network will unlock so many opportunities. Forming relationships with powerful people in your network will enable you to stand on the shoulders of giants. You’ll increase your knowledge about a shared interest and also have someone capable to fall back on when you need support. If you believe that earning the attention of the speakers is a far reach, try earning the attention of some attendees!
Networking hack: Sometime during the conference before the formal networking time, google all the attendees you find interesting and identify the top 20 that you would want to talk with.
However, keep in mind that just because you want to talk with them, it doesn’t mean that they’ll want to talk to you. You’ll need to provide value to them and show that you know what you’re talking about. If they’re working in a field that you’ve researched before, send them one of your articles! During the conference, you can even explore their company website and quickly make a one-pager comparing it to a similar unicorn company 🦄.
Post-Conference
Networking time!
Quick tip: Reach out to your 20 people as fast as you can. CEOs and professors have important things to do. If no one reaches out to them after 30 minutes, do you think they’re going to just sit there and keep waiting?
The reason why you got left on seen 10 times during your last conference was probably that normally, important people won’t go out of their way to talk with a 15-year-old. Why? Because most 15-year-olds don’t know anything yet. Oh, you learned that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell? Yeah, they learned that 20 years ago.
Instead of simply saying that you’re a 15-year-old, send them an article that you spent 15 hours on. Be intentional when reaching out, what value do you want to get and what value can you provide to them? As well, prepare questions in advance, speak professionally but authentically, and talk about topics that people actually care about.
Your first time networking will be scary, don’t expect it to be perfect either. But keep in mind that there was a first time networking for everyone. Think back to the first braindate you had… yikes 😬. But compare it to the braindates you have now!
The only way to get better at something is to just go out there and do it!
TL;DR
Before the conference:
- Pick one or two interesting speakers
- Dive deep into the fields they work in (get technical)
- Bonus points if you create some content with what you learned and send it to them soon after the conference!
During the conference:
- If the speakers are providing value to you, take notes and ask good questions
- If not, google and learn about the attendees so that you’ll have a higher chance of networking with them!
After the conference:
- Connect with people on LinkedIn
- Follow up with the people you networked with to build lasting relationships
- If you’re inspired, create even more content with what you learned!
Want to give these tips a try?
Here are some upcoming conferences:
Y Combinator Future Founders Conference 👩💼
Thanks for making it to the end of this article! 💞
If you would like to practice networking 😉, reach out to me on LinkedIn or email me: me.amymli@gmail.com. I’m always down for a 1-on-1 as well!
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