
Don’t waste time at conferences - andrzejkrzywda
http://righthello.com/2015/03/dont-waste-time-at-conferences/
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davemel37
From the title I assumed this post was arguing against attending conferences.
It in fact argues for attending, just going in with a clear agenda and being
prepared.

I agree on most points...and while I think being prepared and scheduling
meetings in advance is a good idea... You should leave yourself open for
serendipity.

Richard Wiseman did a study on what makes someone lucky or unlucky and
randomness is a big variable.

he writes,"Many people who feel unlucky are creatures of habit and are so
focused on a result that they fail to see everything else floating around
them."

So it's a good idea to attend conferences and develop a strategy to randomnly
meet people (I.e. introduce yourself to everyone wearing blue sneakers, or
some other random and arbitrary idea.) You never know who you'll meet. You may
just get lucky :)

I wrote about the study here...
[http://www.davidmelamed.com/2014/08/08/master-skill-lucky-
co...](http://www.davidmelamed.com/2014/08/08/master-skill-lucky-
conferences/?hvid=6VPfAy)

Edit: spelling, added quote from study and author of study.

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pm90
Well, the author doesn't say that you shouldn't meet random people, just that
you should have a plan to meet _at least_ a few people that might be
interesting.

~~~
davemel37
He does write, "You meet some people, you talk but the effect is close to
none."

He is perhaps right from an immediate agenda perspective...but in my
experience some of those relationships translate into much greater long term
opportunities.

I have a theory that the strongest relationships we have are people we have
interacted with in two separate places. (i.e. summer camp and than college.)

Same goes for conferences, some of the strongest relationships were built by
two random people meeting up at two different conferences.

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acomjean
My previous company went to conferences.

When I joined them they were looking move the business (power monitoring) from
residential to commercial.

They ended up going to some specific conferences associated with trade groups
I didn't even know existed eg: RFMA (Restaurant Facilities Management
Association).

They set up meetings if they could before hand. In the three years I was there
they went back to some conferences, dropped others. It was about building
relationships and they met some interesting people that actually became
customers. They got leads that didn't pan out. Overall it was a positive.

Don't forget to start early with prep. Shipping conference booth stuff out is
a pain and slow and often needs "Freight" class shipping. (Its big and heavy).

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diminoten
> But if you are going to be 101st no-name company, my advice is to save money
> and go as a visitor.

Who the hell is going to say to themselves, "Oh wow yeah this is totally me,
my idea and product is completely not worthy of distinction."

The problem is that _everyone_ thinks they're the Next Big Thing, or are at
least fooling themselves into thinking that. Okay, maybe not Next Big Thing,
but certainly no one's going to admit to being "101st no-name company", right?

~~~
jerguismi
Our startup is actually quite big, but I prefer not to go to conferences
presenting the company. I have done it, but feel that they are not the right
place to look for customers in our business (which is online B2C, I would
say). In the end, I would like to go just as visitor, have fun etc, instead of
trying to promote the brand.

~~~
dagw
Never go to present your company or brand. Go to present some cool new
technology or research (that your company has developed). If you present
something that catches people imagination, they'll go out of their way to hunt
you down and find out more about your company.

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mcbetz
People like conferences because they can get out of the office and socialize
with people who are similar to them. And surprisingly enough, quite often new
business partnerships, employments or, yes, friendships start at conferences.
Even with no rigid planning beforehand.

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at-fates-hands
I always go to conferences, but usually not for the reasons most people go.
Not only do I do some low level networking, but for me its more about the
tools and techniques.

Every single conference I've gone to, I've found new tools and techniques
people are using in enterprise environments as well as smaller start up
environments that I can start to work with, or experiment with. There's been a
lot of tools and techniques I've been able to integrate with my workflow which
came directly from conferences.

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mojuba
I wonder why software startup related conferences are usually not as
productive as consumer trade shows. From my own experience the former is
likely to be a total waste of time with no outcome for your startup, whereas
in electronics-related shows you will definitely meet some new suppliers,
retailers, investors (and of course your competitors too). You almost always
leave a consumer electronics show with _something_. Just curious, why is this?

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Avalaxy
From my experience it's just startups showing their stuff, and investors
looking for stuff to invest in. That's about it. It's mostly interesting when
you are in one of those 2 groups.

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codingdave
The message of the article is correct, but the details are all wrong (maybe).
Make decisions that drive customers to you, absolutely. But the actual
decisions and actions to make that happen will differ for every company,
depending on your size, market presence, and industry.

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npsimons
Should one go to a conference with no plan? Maybe - if it's a change of pace
and a good conference, it will probably do one good (ie, maybe not having a
plan will force one to think on their feet and make snap decisions on which
tracks to go to). On the other hand, should one do anything "non-
deliberately"[1]? Probably not. Ideally, one should always be thinking
critically, analyzing, learning, making connections. Conferences just
highlight this fact because they are high cost and high opportunity.

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29)

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bonn1
Dogmatic thinking is never good. I've been on many conferences and many could
been perceived as wasted time. And on one which was one of the worst I met
tons of 'useless' people and by accident one guy who invested in me $4M.

So you never know who will be 'useless' and on conferences you meet so many
people in a very short time, that it's ultra efficient. And you get
appointments easier because meetings can be quicker.

However, most important with any conference is that you try to get at least
5-10 appointments for a conference which means you have to reach out to min 50

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mpdehaan2
The argument against getting a booth (and just being a visitor) I don't quite
agree with.

One of the more annoying things I've found at conferences, as an exhibitor, is
when people come to your booth to sales pitch you on their thing.

If you want customers, don't go as a visitor and pitch the exhibitors. Get the
booth, but only if you are the right size where it feels like the leads will
exist and it will pay off.

You can also meet some investors at booths too.

It helps though if people have some awareness of what you do and signage that
makes that VERY clear.

~~~
sanderjd
I don't think your annoyance about people selling to you at your booth is an
argument _for_ having one. Yes, it's annoying to you, but I'm guessing those
people are glad to have had the chance to sell to you, even though you were
annoyed, which they wouldn't have had if they just had a booth somewhere that
you wouldn't have gone to.

Having really good "signage" on your clothing seems like a good strategy to
making yourself a roving "booth". Business cards are probably the most
important thing to hand out, and you can carry them on you.

It does mean you have to more intelligently select people to talk to, rather
than relying completely on them self-selecting to talk to you.

Of course, by far the best way to get noticed at a conference is to give a
great talk.

~~~
mpdehaan2
If you are crowded with potential customers, the guy trying to sell you a
product you don't want is not where you are going to spend your attention.
They also often are very slow to get the hint.

~~~
sanderjd
I'm not at all arguing that they aren't annoying. I'm saying that from _their_
perspective, it seems like a reasonable choice. Cheaper and not stuck at a
booth. If you're crowded with customers, then you're probably fine with a
booth, but roaming is probably a better solution for the people whose booths
are empty.

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glxc
"At conferences, don't waste time" and not "Don't waste time by attending
conferences"

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logicallee
sure, in this one case you're right. But this title change would set a
dangerous precedent. At Hacker News, we might soon end up with titles like the
New York Times.

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whage
don't waste time reading articles about how to not waste your time

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wiseleo
My strategy for interacting with people at conferences is to not talk about my
products until they ask.

This keeps my prospects list full of only truly interested people and lets me
not waste time on false leads.

I do recommend getting a booth, but as long as you are low-key you can get a
lot of business done just walking around.

Whether the person has a booth or they are just hanging out at an afterparty,
we are there for one reason, which is to find business partners, customers, or
jobs.

My product happens to be ideal for booth staff, so I do pitch them at their
booths and at networking parties away from booths, but only if they ask to
hear the pitch. I am not at all obnoxious about it.

Me: "Hi, I am Leon, please tell me your story" Them: either tell me their
pitch or "Sure, but what do you do?"

If they don't pitch me, I say Me: "I do many things, but I am more interested
in learning more about your product because I talk with many people and
recommend many products."

This is where many people do it wrong. If you launch into a pitch the first
time they ask you what you do without learning more about them that will
likely result in a very weak relationship and add noise into your system.

Them: "We do ..." Them: "So what do you do?"

If they don't ask, then I simply end the conversation and walk away.

Me: "It's a product for tradeshow exhibitors like you that helps you get your
first 1000 customers" Them: Either a variation of "how do you do that?" or an
expression of disinterest.

If they are not interested, I simply end the conversation and walk away.
Sometimes, I break that rule, but only where it makes sense and it is obvious
that the person is likely to be very interested. Talking to people who are not
engaged with you is a great way to hear "Sorry, we are not interested" when
you follow up in the future.

Me: "I'll show you [go through a quick demo using my own data]" Them: either
ask me for my card or ask to try with their information (about as strong an
indicator as it gets) or express disinterest.

If they don't ask to try my product with their own information, I end the
conversation and walk away.

As a result of this strategy, I have 826 highly interested people on my pre-
launch list. I also haven't upset anyone because I terminated those
conversations without ever pitching the person.

===

There are other things you can do to be more productive at conferences

That attendee to attendee conference networking app that is almost never used
for anything except looking at schedules is a good way to create your target
list of people you may want to approach. My app actually supports true 1:1
marketing if you wanted to invest that much time into it, but that is usually
not necessary.

The key to wasting less time is to terminate unproductive conversations early.
It's a flow chart. :) Keep your phone charged and carry external batteries.
Have an offline demo available and assume you will not have Internet
connectivity.

