

Kevin McDonagh on: How to attend a conference - tomh-
http://swombat.com/2011/2/25/kevin-mcdonagh-how-to-attend-a-conference

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sp_
The advice is really good for someone who wants to sell stuff. I kind of do
comparable things without wanting to sell anything. I just like to hear what
people are working on and what there plans are so I can stay in the loop of
new developments. My goal for a conference is 20 business cards, not 200 to
400.

The talking to new people thing is pretty important. I am terrible at this.
When I attended my first conference in 2008 a continent away I stood there in
a room of 400 people literally not knowing anybody. That moment it dawned me
that my boss just paid thousands of dollars to get me here so I better use
this opportunity. Three years later, one of the first five people I talked to
at that conference got me an H1-B visa and a six figures job.

There are related mistakes to make. I've been to so many conferences by now
that I know a lot of people I want to hang out with at any given conference.
It's easy to just keep talking to these people because that means I do not
have to leave my comfort zone again. This is obviously bad because I will not
meet new people that way. The same happens when you go to a conference with
other people of your company and just stick together the whole time. Do not do
this.

About this demoing thing. I used to demo our software a lot at conferences.
However, our software was so popular in our niche market that people always
asked me to see it. I don't think I ever pushed it on anybody. Demoing works
perfectly fine if you just leave the main room and sit somewhere around the
corner. Most of the conferences I attend are in hotels, so they have plenty of
chairs everywhere.

What is not mentioned in the article is that you should try to be a speaker at
conferences. It is not very hard to become a speaker and it puts you into the
spotlight. This makes it much easier to make new contacts. Additionally, many
conferences pay travel and hotel costs of their speakers which is awesome.

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christkv
This is an insanely annoying behavior being on the receiving end and in fact
will be decremental to your efforts if you do it to me. I go to conferences to
talk to people in the community not to have to listen to pitches. This reminds
me how the new york tech meetup turned from being a small venue cool place to
present a project you are working on into a huge deal with vc's, service
providers etc.

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swombat
I guess it really depends on why you go to conferences, and which event you go
to. I wouldn't pay the $1000+ price tag of some conferences just to "talk to
people in the community". Free meetups achieve that just fine.

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dagw
The nice thing about big conferences is that everybody makes an effort to show
up. People aren't going to fly in from all around the world to attend a free
meetup, whereas they might for a big conference. So the big conferences are
really the best chance you're likely to get a large part of the community
together for a chat. At the free meetups you'll mostly just be running into
the same few people who happen to live less than a 45 minute drive away.

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bedris
Regardless of whether you are trying to sell someone on your services, I feel
that this is a very good piece of advice:

 _The majority will thank your asserted approach, and are looking forward to
your conversation._

At a professional conference, oftentimes people are very happy to learn about
what you do and to tell you about their own work and interests, but are too
shy to initiate a conversation. Being proactive in this regard can be a very
good way to make new contacts and to learn about what is going on in the
field, even if you are not trying to eventually profit by signing them up as
customers.

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maximilian
Although I am a normally shy person, I find that at academic gatherings such
as conferences and workshops, I can very easily talk to people. "What do you
work on? / What is your topic area?" is such an easy question and they are
guaranteed to have a long interesting answer. Its rare to be in a spot to have
so many people around you with common interests, it should be easy to get
people talking.

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chomchom
I appreciate some greeting the behaviour of pragmatic conference attendance as
suspicious. I'm not advocating talk as any substitute for credibility but if
you have a good product and want attention you will have to get out there and
in front of people.

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jonstjohn
I appreciate that. What is annoying is the sales pitch that you don't want to
hear and have a hard time escaping from. If somebody has a good product that
you have interest in, an in-person demo and opportunity to ask questions is
great! Or a business that you're interested in working with -

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camtarn
Anyone got any good tips for attending a technical conference as a regular
developer rather than someone looking for business networking?

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briancurtin
Just look at the conference as a few days of hanging out with like minded
people. Just have fun.

My conference knowledge is limited to three years of PyCon, the annual Python
conference, but maybe it's helpful...

* Sit in the front row. You paid to be there, you probably traveled to be there, and you probably came because you wanted to learn something. Sitting in the back posting on HN is easy, but get up front and suck the brains out of the speaker. I like to write notes with pen/paper and save my laptop for later.

* If you liked a talk, go up and thank the speaker. Introduce yourself, maybe ask a quick question, then let them get on their way. You might have just found an interesting person to have dinner with when there's 500 random people in the hotel lobby trying to figure out where to eat.

* If no talks interest you in the given time slot, go roam around the hallways, the expo room, or grab a cup of coffee. See what people are up to -- everyone's there with a common set of knowledge/problems. I've learned a ton just from introducing myself to the other guy getting a cup of coffee and end up finding out he also works in the same field, doing the same stuff, we both know each other's companies, but we're solving our problems in totally different ways. Rather than killing time on the web for 30 minutes until the next talk, I just made another acquaintance to grab a beer with, and he made me think about what I'm doing at work.

* If there are development sprints, stick around and hack with people. At PyCon I believe we had 400 people the first day, and it was some of the most fun of the whole conference.

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camtarn
Thanks - really useful advice :)

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edw519
_1-minute demo / tablet pdf presentation_

Huh? Do people really do this?

The last thing I want to do is demo _anything_ about myself to a bunch of
people hunching over a tiny screen in a crowded room. Even Hacker News would
look like shit, no matter how well you tried to pull it off.

The next-to-last-thing I want to do is watch your demo, hunching with a bunch
of other people over your tiny screen.

I have enough technology back at the office. I came here to meet people and
get get to know them. So just shake my hand, share some cool stuff with me,
and meet me for a drink later. I'll remember you much better that way.

[EDIT: Replaced "the Mona Lisa" with "Hacker News". Thanks, JshWright.]

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swombat
Actually, I'd argue that almost anything on an iPad looks pretty gorgeous. I
do believe Kevin means demoing one-on-one. Novoda builds Android apps, so I
guess he keeps screenshots and demos of those apps handy to show prospective
clients.

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chomchom
Thats exactly what I do. Mind you, not usually within a crowded tiny room.
Sometimes talk is just not enough to earn trust, people want to see evidence.
A phone with the apps and shortcuts pre-installed is live demo hazard ridden
but generally a tablet is a nice backdrop to conversation.

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alexyoung
I prefer to have fun, learn things, then get very drunk afterwards. If I meet
people along the way that's cool too.

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roel_v
Slightly related, where are these conferences and meetups in Europe? Are there
just much less and are they smaller, or am I looking in the wrong places?
Where _should_ I look?

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chomchom
I find conferences through others in the same industry: <http://plancast.com>
<http://lanyrd.com> Mostly it is just through the grapevine
<http://twitter.com> and <http://meetup.com>, knowing lots of people within
the industry helps.

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roel_v
"knowing lots of people within the industry helps."

Yeah but that's Catch-22, of course :)

