35 tips for those attending a technical conference

These tips will be useful for the most part for those who attend IT conferences for the first time - but others can also find valuable tips here. How to get the maximum benefit from the event - read in translation from Alconost .

1. Do not be afraid to meet people! Tell them that this is your first conference, and in most cases they will introduce you to someone else :)

2. Contact several participants / speakers before the conference and take with you more business cards to the conference.

3. Bring business cards to your organization if you are not looking for work. Bring your personalized business cards if you are looking for it. If you do not have business cards - make them.
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4. When designing your business card, do not make both sides glossy. It is important that the reverse side of the business card remains clean and suitable for writing with a ballpoint pen.

5. Every time you are given a business card, be sure to write down the reason why you met the person who left it for you, or at least the subject of your conversation with him. At the time of receipt of the business card, this information will be obvious to you, but not the fact that you can remember it clearly when you get home.

6. Meet with the speakers and just with the conference participants. The technical component of the conference is part of your success, but your social connections are also of considerable importance. The conference may give you both, and may not. The choice is yours!

7. If it is difficult for you to make contact with strangers, use the duty question: “What are you working on right now?”

8. Backpack and sneakers are preferable to a cool laptop bag and high heels (dress comfortably!).

9. It may seem to you that you are an outsider, and everyone else knows each other well. Do not be afraid to approach people and start a conversation with them, even if it seems strange to you :) If you like the performance, start the conversation first and let the speaker know about it!

10. Plan in advance the schedule of visits to sections and keep spare options in mind in case there is not enough room physically for one of the sections.

11. Get to know the other participants using the event hashtag before you go to it. The conference may turn out to be for the elite, so welcome and make friends with someone before you go!

12. Never hesitate to greet the organizers and speakers - especially if you want to help.

13. Select three people you want to meet. Prepare one question for each of them. Come to the conference early, find the first person from the list in the crowd and chat with him. A third of what was planned was done - a great start to the day!

14. Meet people. Skip session reports. You will get much more from meetings and socializing than from sitting down your pants on reports.

15. Leave a place in your schedule, meet people, listen to conversations in the corridors, take notes, relate the information received with your professional activity.

16. Do not forget to sleep. It is proved that in this case the information in the head will be kept longer.

17. Alcohol will not help you remember something better or have a better time. Remember that most people are introverts, and then your communication awkwardness will disappear.

18. Do not feel as if you are obliged to attend EVERY performance.

19. Try your best not to be an introvert. In our industry, this can be difficult, but if you succeed, you will not regret it!

20. Do not rely on WiFi, which will be at the conference.

21. It would be nice to have a snack in your backpack or pockets.

22. Find out if there will be slides or (even better!) Videos available after the conference. If they do, don’t worry about missing something, just relax and enjoy.

23. Take notes. Write tweets, make notes in a notebook, run through the eyes of everything written down an hour before bedtime. Any other known methods will also help you remember what you did.

24. During a coffee break or lunch, sit down at a table with random people and chat with them.

25. Ask the speaker about when it is NOT worth using the product / methodology he talks about. If he cannot answer this question, it means that for him it is just a marketing report.

26. Do not be afraid to go to the report or leave the report at the time when it goes. Only you decide which report is interesting and which one is not. The law of two legs: if you do not like the performance - leave. Go better for at least one gig not on your schedule.

27. If you have met and talk with your heroes - do not be nervous! These are ordinary people who are happy to do cool things.

28. The greatest meetings happen in the corridors, the queues for coffee and places where there are inspired people. Minimize the time spent in the halls for performances.

29. FORGET YOUR WORK. Do not even try to do it at a conference, because be sure to miss something important.

30. Write tweets from the conference hashtag to find out if someone wants to meet, talk or write off after the conference. Also, follow the conference hashtag to find people. Do not be discouraged by the missed message: meeting people and talking to them is always better than chatting on the Internet. In addition, the correspondence is usually kept in history.

31. Who needs free branded souvenirs? The main thing is communication and contacts! Meet people who have helped you for many years and say thanks to them.

32. Ask people what events they are going to attend after the conference. This is a great way to find out about related events and get an invitation to them.

33. Attend presentations on technology that you will NOT encounter from day to day, technologies that you do NOT use in your daily work activity.

34. Do not forget the additional external battery (Power Bank)! Writing tweets and notes will quickly drain the battery of your smartphone or other gadget.

35. After the end of the report, quickly go to the speaker to listen to the conversation or ask questions. Some invaluable information comes just from questions after the performance.

And what advice would you give? Write in the comments!


About the translator

The article is translated in Alconost.

Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 68 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources, translation of technical texts .

We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

Read more: https://alconost.com