10 universal tips for visitors to any IT conference
Modern information technology is hard to imagine without conferences. Such events offer an excellent opportunity to share experiences, learn something new in their field, be aware of the latest trends. Without all this, the qualitative development of the IT sphere is simply impossible.
However, it is not enough just to attend the conference in order to get an eye on this. It is important to behave properly on it, so that upon completion of the event, be sure that the time and money spent on the seminar is fully paid off. Especially for such cases, we have prepared TOP-10 universal tips that will not only come in handy during any IT conference, but also help to reduce our expenses for attending the event and properly prepare for it.
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Recommendations are based on conferences, which makes our company: SQA Days , Software Project Management Conference , Analyst Days and a number of other ...
For those who regularly attend conferences, these tips may seem trivial and even a bit naive, but since not every year there are dozens of meetings, conferences and forums, we are sure that they will be useful to most of our readers anyway.
1. Carefully select events . Any conference follows a simple logic: you spend your time and money, and in return receive knowledge and experience. Naturally, the first two things should not be scattered. And that means trying to visit all possible IT events is not the most successful idea. It is unlikely that the Junior Tester will benefit from a conference on project management, at least at this stage of his career.
But you should not rush to conclusions. To make a final decision whether you need this event, carefully review the list of reports and participants. Actual topics often wander from one area to another, so it may be that the interesting question will be raised at a conference not in your specialty. And if you want to thoroughly understand it, then it is worth spending time (and often also money for a ticket) in order to learn the opinions and recipes of those who have already filled a lot of "cones".
2. For good events it is better to register early . To get to the conference, you must first register for it. It would seem a banal rule. But how many opportunities were missed to visit the IT forums because the subtleties of this process were forgotten. At some conferences, the number of participants is limited, at others it is necessary to register up to a certain number, and on the third one can be reached at all only by special invitations issued on personal request.
Therefore, if you saw an event that interested you, do not postpone the case. Become a member as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Otherwise, you can simply not get to the best and most useful events. In addition, often early registration is much cheaper than recording the last day.
3. Tell the manager about the upcoming conference . Many IT companies have a good tradition to send their employees to all sorts of training events. Naturally, in most cases, the attendance of such events is paid for by the company itself.
But, of course, you don’t need to demand “sponsorship” from the head, especially if your company for some reason does not have to pay for employees to attend events. Just let him know that you are going to attend the conference on certain days. This does not guarantee that your costs for the event will immediately pay off, but you will most likely be able to get paid days off. And the leadership will have the impression of you as a person interested in their professional growth - the next time it will be easier to talk about compensation for a conference ticket.
4. If you have something to say - say! Very often, along with registering as a conference participant, the opportunity to become a speaker is also offered. You should not immediately dismiss this chance, even if it seems to you that you are not fit for the speakers, neither by age, nor by status, nor by any other signs. It may well be that you can actually tell something that can really captivate and interest the audience. It does not have to be something comparable in scale to the presentation of the new iPhone.
Perhaps you are worried about any problem, and in the list of topics of the seminar there is nothing like it. If so, and you feel that you are able to convey your thoughts to the audience - act! Perhaps it is your report that most other participants expect.
Do not forget that the speakers are usually given a discount on conference attendance, up to the absolutely free entry.
5. If there is a possibility - come not one . It would be strange not to give this advice on behalf of the company that organizes IT conferences, but this is really important :) Because the faster your colleagues grow professionally, the easier it will be for you to grow.
Usually finding a friend who would be interested in the event is not so difficult. Participation in virtually any IT project involves working closely with like-minded team members, so there is every chance that many of them, like you, will be interested in the conference.
A joint visit to the event is very beneficial. First, group registration is cheaper. Secondly, if there are several people attending the event, it is possible to have time to visit more sections in order to exchange information about the reports made there afterwards. And thirdly, the more people come to the conference, the more useful contacts can be established.
6. Listen carefully to the speaker . It would seem another truism. But as practice shows, many conference participants are not able to do this. Meanwhile, you are not paying your money for drinking coffee and downloading an update for iOS via Wi-Fi organizers.
You should not be distracted by extraneous things at the time of the performance, it is better to turn off the phone altogether. A good way to keep your attention on the report is to record the main points of the presentation.
There is also no need to make hasty conclusions from the beginning of the presentation: a boring introduction does not guarantee that the middle and the ending will not carry you away. Do not neglect the words of the speaker, if for any reason his position on the problem does not coincide with yours. On the contrary, such a situation is an excellent reason to start a discussion later and, possibly, to jointly find the necessary solution. After all, you're the one who came for this, isn't it?
7. Do not miss the opportunity to chat. IT events are not only official communication during the sections. Dialogue can be no less informative during breaks. Coffee break is not only time for a cup of coffee itself, but also the opportunity to exchange a few words with other specialists in your area. Do you still have questions for speakers who, for whatever reason, did not want to voice to the audience? It's time to ask them now.
8. Share contacts with other conference participants. IT is a specific sphere. To solve many problems it requires a "collective mind", the mental efforts of one person is not always enough. And the conference is an excellent opportunity to find like-minded people among the invited specialists. It is unlikely that any of them will refuse to help you with the solution of a difficult professional task if he is sure that you will do the same. Therefore, do not hesitate to take contact information from the right people and leave them yours. Even if today it seems to you that you cannot offer programming gurus anything, and you yourself do not need the business cards of HR gaming studios, this does not mean that they won't be useful to you tomorrow when you start a startup or look for a new job.
9. Immediately after the conference, re-read your notes. The information that was repeated immediately after the study is best remembered. Remember, we recorded all the key points of the reports? It is time to get them and reread to refresh all the events of the last section. And in order for knowledge to be fixed for sure, it is worth referring to the records one day after the end of the event. So you definitely will not forget anything important, which means that the money spent on attending the event, as expected, will turn into knowledge.
10. Get ready to attend the next conference. Rarely when a seminar is held once. Most often in IT it is customary to hold “reusable” meetings, to which experts are invited from year to year and topical issues are raised. Therefore, it is not enough to visit one event. To become a true professional in your field, you need to become a regular at such events.
However, it is not enough just to attend the conference in order to get an eye on this. It is important to behave properly on it, so that upon completion of the event, be sure that the time and money spent on the seminar is fully paid off. Especially for such cases, we have prepared TOP-10 universal tips that will not only come in handy during any IT conference, but also help to reduce our expenses for attending the event and properly prepare for it.
')
Recommendations are based on conferences, which makes our company: SQA Days , Software Project Management Conference , Analyst Days and a number of other ...
For those who regularly attend conferences, these tips may seem trivial and even a bit naive, but since not every year there are dozens of meetings, conferences and forums, we are sure that they will be useful to most of our readers anyway.
1. Carefully select events . Any conference follows a simple logic: you spend your time and money, and in return receive knowledge and experience. Naturally, the first two things should not be scattered. And that means trying to visit all possible IT events is not the most successful idea. It is unlikely that the Junior Tester will benefit from a conference on project management, at least at this stage of his career.
But you should not rush to conclusions. To make a final decision whether you need this event, carefully review the list of reports and participants. Actual topics often wander from one area to another, so it may be that the interesting question will be raised at a conference not in your specialty. And if you want to thoroughly understand it, then it is worth spending time (and often also money for a ticket) in order to learn the opinions and recipes of those who have already filled a lot of "cones".
2. For good events it is better to register early . To get to the conference, you must first register for it. It would seem a banal rule. But how many opportunities were missed to visit the IT forums because the subtleties of this process were forgotten. At some conferences, the number of participants is limited, at others it is necessary to register up to a certain number, and on the third one can be reached at all only by special invitations issued on personal request.
Therefore, if you saw an event that interested you, do not postpone the case. Become a member as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Otherwise, you can simply not get to the best and most useful events. In addition, often early registration is much cheaper than recording the last day.
3. Tell the manager about the upcoming conference . Many IT companies have a good tradition to send their employees to all sorts of training events. Naturally, in most cases, the attendance of such events is paid for by the company itself.
But, of course, you don’t need to demand “sponsorship” from the head, especially if your company for some reason does not have to pay for employees to attend events. Just let him know that you are going to attend the conference on certain days. This does not guarantee that your costs for the event will immediately pay off, but you will most likely be able to get paid days off. And the leadership will have the impression of you as a person interested in their professional growth - the next time it will be easier to talk about compensation for a conference ticket.
4. If you have something to say - say! Very often, along with registering as a conference participant, the opportunity to become a speaker is also offered. You should not immediately dismiss this chance, even if it seems to you that you are not fit for the speakers, neither by age, nor by status, nor by any other signs. It may well be that you can actually tell something that can really captivate and interest the audience. It does not have to be something comparable in scale to the presentation of the new iPhone.
Perhaps you are worried about any problem, and in the list of topics of the seminar there is nothing like it. If so, and you feel that you are able to convey your thoughts to the audience - act! Perhaps it is your report that most other participants expect.
Do not forget that the speakers are usually given a discount on conference attendance, up to the absolutely free entry.
5. If there is a possibility - come not one . It would be strange not to give this advice on behalf of the company that organizes IT conferences, but this is really important :) Because the faster your colleagues grow professionally, the easier it will be for you to grow.
Usually finding a friend who would be interested in the event is not so difficult. Participation in virtually any IT project involves working closely with like-minded team members, so there is every chance that many of them, like you, will be interested in the conference.
A joint visit to the event is very beneficial. First, group registration is cheaper. Secondly, if there are several people attending the event, it is possible to have time to visit more sections in order to exchange information about the reports made there afterwards. And thirdly, the more people come to the conference, the more useful contacts can be established.
6. Listen carefully to the speaker . It would seem another truism. But as practice shows, many conference participants are not able to do this. Meanwhile, you are not paying your money for drinking coffee and downloading an update for iOS via Wi-Fi organizers.
You should not be distracted by extraneous things at the time of the performance, it is better to turn off the phone altogether. A good way to keep your attention on the report is to record the main points of the presentation.
There is also no need to make hasty conclusions from the beginning of the presentation: a boring introduction does not guarantee that the middle and the ending will not carry you away. Do not neglect the words of the speaker, if for any reason his position on the problem does not coincide with yours. On the contrary, such a situation is an excellent reason to start a discussion later and, possibly, to jointly find the necessary solution. After all, you're the one who came for this, isn't it?
7. Do not miss the opportunity to chat. IT events are not only official communication during the sections. Dialogue can be no less informative during breaks. Coffee break is not only time for a cup of coffee itself, but also the opportunity to exchange a few words with other specialists in your area. Do you still have questions for speakers who, for whatever reason, did not want to voice to the audience? It's time to ask them now.
8. Share contacts with other conference participants. IT is a specific sphere. To solve many problems it requires a "collective mind", the mental efforts of one person is not always enough. And the conference is an excellent opportunity to find like-minded people among the invited specialists. It is unlikely that any of them will refuse to help you with the solution of a difficult professional task if he is sure that you will do the same. Therefore, do not hesitate to take contact information from the right people and leave them yours. Even if today it seems to you that you cannot offer programming gurus anything, and you yourself do not need the business cards of HR gaming studios, this does not mean that they won't be useful to you tomorrow when you start a startup or look for a new job.
9. Immediately after the conference, re-read your notes. The information that was repeated immediately after the study is best remembered. Remember, we recorded all the key points of the reports? It is time to get them and reread to refresh all the events of the last section. And in order for knowledge to be fixed for sure, it is worth referring to the records one day after the end of the event. So you definitely will not forget anything important, which means that the money spent on attending the event, as expected, will turn into knowledge.
10. Get ready to attend the next conference. Rarely when a seminar is held once. Most often in IT it is customary to hold “reusable” meetings, to which experts are invited from year to year and topical issues are raised. Therefore, it is not enough to visit one event. To become a true professional in your field, you need to become a regular at such events.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244357/
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