When you attend a conference, you are with like-minded professionals who are eager to learn about new products and trends in the industry. Oftentimes, there will be social events to increase engagement, and many of you will stay in the same hotel and eat at the same restaurants.
Now think about what happens after a conference ends. Life starts to creep in, and some of those contacts that you made during the conference become an afterthought to work tasks or family obligations. After a while, you may lose contact with those whom you were trying to network with in the first place, which kind of defeats the purpose of the conference.
A similar problem could occur for the organizers of the conference. As we mentioned above, everyone has a lot on their plates, and their attention is very short. If you don’t strike while the iron is hot and stay connected with those who attended the conference, you could potentially halt the event’s momentum for next year.
Whether you organized the event and picked out the conference center or you’re just an attendee of a major industry conference, you should have a plan in place to remain connected. At Unique Venues, we have experience with both organizing and attending various conferences. Here are a few points we would recommend to make the most of the conference once it ends.
For Attendees
We feel pretty confident in saying that you will have many business cards after you come home from a conference. We also know that it is easy to feel overwhelmed or even complacent. You tell yourself that you’ll get around to it. However, before you know it, months have passed and you haven’t done anything to network with those you met. That’s why the goal is to get started as soon as possible when you’re still fresh on most people’s minds.
So how do you accomplish this? First, we encourage you to organize the contacts you made by how they may fit in your career. Common groups could include potential partnerships or job opportunities, industry thought leaders, and people who may help you achieve personal growth. Although you should try to reach out to everyone you met, the people in these groups are the first priority. Email and social media platforms are usually the best way to reach out.
Also, be sure to have an idea of how you’re going to follow up with them. You just don’t want to email them and say hi. Creating a plan for follow-up will be the first step in nurturing strong professional relationships.
For Event Organizers
Immediately after an event, you have a great opportunity to engage with those who attended as the event is still fresh in their minds. For example, you could use your social media platforms to post pictures of the conference. Also, you will want to construct a follow-up email to all of those who attended, thanking them for coming and hinting that next year’s event will be even more fun.
There are other ways you can take advantage of the post-conference buzz as well. For one, you can create a countdown timer on your website for next year’s event start. You will also want to create as much shareable content as possible. Your best bets for continued conversation and engagement include blog posts, Pinterest boards, Facebook posts, and tweets. And be sure to increase your social media monitoring to make sure you know when people are talking about the event.
If you make a continued effort to keep the attention of the attendees, you should see it pay dividends once registration starts for the next conference you organize.
