Conference Outsource-People 2017, Krakow (day one)

Let me tell you my impressions of the last 2-day Outsource-People 2017 conference in Krakow (Poland). I think that many are interested in the question that we ask ourselves on the eve of each upcoming conference: should I or my staff visit it? I hope that this article will tell you whether to plan a trip to the next Outsource-People conference ?!


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I think I was not alone in my expectations to see many foreign guests, because the conference was held in one of the EU countries. And everyone already itched his hands to begin to get acquainted with them ... But more about that later. Let's take it in order.



If you have never participated in a conference of this type before, I want to draw your attention to the fact that most of the visitors are present only on the first day. After registration and payment of tickets, the organizers provide access to the full list of all participants, even for those who have paid only for the “standard” package.



If you want to meet with another conference participant, then you should first specify how many days he will attend the conference. I had a case at Outsource-People 2016 in Kiev (Ukraine), when I could not agree on the first day with an interesting person and with the expectation of a 2-day conference just missed the opportunity to talk with him. He was only on the first day of the conference.



Yes, yes, you heard right - immediately after registration you will have access to the list of all participants, which will be supplemented until the opening day of the conference. Name, city, company, position and, attention, you will have the opportunity to open up to 10 contacts, so that you can start networking well before the start of the conference itself, which is a huge advantage.



I recommend immediately after registration to start working with the list of visitors. In this list you will find not only guests, but also organizers and speakers. This will allow you to come to the event prepared and already with a list of specific dates and times of meetings. If you are unable to agree on a meeting with someone, then you will probably write “try to catch me there ..”. And you will probably have this opportunity.



At this conference there were ~ 220 people. For comparison, at the previous conference in Kiev there were about ~ 950 people. After getting acquainted with the list of those present, it became clear that “bringing a client” would be very difficult, especially a foreign one. Roughly speaking, the audience can be divided into Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians and about 10-15% of foreigners (I can not say for sure, not all indicate full data). I also want to note that a third of the speakers, whom I saw at the previous conference in Kiev, were also present in Krakow. The size of the companies that were represented by visitors varied from 20 to 120 employees in the company, which sharply distinguished this conference from Kiev where participants from companies were on average from 1 to 10 people in size.



What questions interested me and other participants with whom I managed to talk: SALES! Yes, it is sales! Not so much customer search, as the exchange of experience in sales. How to find sales, how to work with sales or sales department, sources of lead generation, etc. Many participants were looking for partners in the local market to share and exchange customers, if necessary. I was struck by the scale of this issue, up to 30% of sales can be carried out in the domestic market. The main reasons to share with a partner are different, this is a big project and you need a reliable partner, there is a client with a requirement for a stack of technologies that the company does not support, well, or just if the developers are idle, you can share it with “brother” (of course, at a “fraternal rate”).



Speakers and speeches. The conference had two streams. A bigger hall is “American Hall” and a smaller hall is “Europe Hall”. Choose where to go is very complicated by the fact that even on the official website most of the speakers do not have a description of what will be discussed at the speech and a brief essay about yourself. But on the first day, as I said, the task is not to miss those who came only for one day. And as it seemed to me (I do not want to offend anyone, and this is my subjective opinion), the organizers deliberately transferred all interesting speeches to the second day.



Lunch and coffee break. Those who were looking for communication could always be found in the lobby. There were also tables with tea of ​​different varieties, black coffee, cookies, fruit and coffee machines. For tea, a special thank you to the organizers, because drinking coffee all day is hard enough. Lunch - a standard buffet on the first floor of the hotel.



Organization of the conference. I would like to thank the organizers for the chosen place. I do not mean the hotel Park Inn Monte Cassino 2, where the conference itself took place. Yes, this is without a doubt a good hotel. But I would like to draw attention to the fact that the hotel is located on the banks of the Vistula (in the 2nd line), and on the contrary is one of the main attractions of Krakow - Wawel Castel and the beginning of the old city with all the other sights.



But to the deepest regret of all those present, it rained both days. And only two days after the conference passed with variable cloudiness. Those who stayed for the weekend were able to walk in Krakow. ( second day )