How to Maximize Your Staff's Conference Participation
By Susan Tinnish
Hotels today scrutinize every expense — including educational conferences, workshops, webinars and educational meetings. Before sending a person to an industry/educational event (hereafter referred to as a conference), management wants to understand the organizational benefit. The benefit or return on investment (ROI) can take many forms including: **1. Accessing the Latest and Newest Information** - At conferences, thought leaders speak about current trends and new products and information. This allows employees to reconsider or view their work or processes differently. **2. Developing Professionally** - Conference attendance allows employees to access specific kinds of training or growth opportunities needed. **3. Learning from Luminaries** - Whether industry experts or acclaimed authorities, conferences afford access to thought leadership (Marus, 2013). **4. Tactical Brainstorming** - Conferences provide access to many different ideas; even when a specific idea does not apply it can trigger a creative spark. Fishkin describes conferences as “a brainstorming paradise and a terrific opportunity for new ideas to come bubbling to the surface.” **5. Increasing Motivation** - Attending a conference can inject a new energy into an employee (Pavlina, n.d.). **6. Testing the Elevator Pitch** - A conference allows employees to develop, refine and perfect their 20-second introduction (Fishkin, 2008). **7. Growing Personal Networks** - There is no substitute for a quality network. Conferences are opportunities to engage with peers, employees, clients, vendors, and business partners (Ernst, 2004). **8. Increasing Visibility** - Exposure at a conference can serve as the impetus for an employee to become a speaker. Serving as a conference presenter is a great way to gain the inside track and make valuable connections (Pavlina, n.d.). **9. Hiring and Scouting** - Conference attendees have the opportunity to view potential talent. It does not even require any face-to-face interaction as scouting can be done via observation (Fishkin, 2008). **10. Accessing Competitive Analysis** - A conference offers a great environment to scope out competitors (Fishkin, 2008). **11. Goal Setting and Self Analysis** - Time away from the hotel, access to new ideas and products, networking with speakers and fellow delegates offers the perspective of seeing new goals and focusing inward (Fishkin, 2008). **12. Creating Content** - Events provide opportunities to capture curate and even create content. Plan to leverage conference experience to create new content for blog, articles, or social media sites. Also considering curating content i.e., posting presentations to Slideshare or interviews others have posted. The content captured and created can supply a company's social media library with numerous posts and demonstrate a leading profile to clients, staff and prospective clients (Odden, n.d.). Spending time before, during and after the conference to focus on benefits and plan how to operationalize those benefits can greatly increase the value of attendance. This article shares tips for maximizing attendance before, during and after a conference. **Prior to the Conference** A common obstacle to realizing the full value from the professional conferences is that attendees and companies lack specific goals, do not select a good conference, lack the proper commitment to planning, executing and follow-up or fail to transfer the knowledge learned to the team. Discipline yourself and your employees to plan adequately for a conference. **Write a Conference Proposal and Contract** - When an employee expresses a desire to attend a conference, require them to complete a proposal specifying the investment and the benefits or value. The proposal will include goals for the conference and a contract specifying required follow-up. The investment represents the costs for attending the conference and will include all applicable expenses including conference registration, pre and post-conference workshop registration, materials fees, flight, lodging, food, business entertainment, ground transportation, mileage and parking (Doyle, n.d.). Benefits are more challenging to quantify. Connect the value of the conference to business goals. This should include tying educational sessions to the hotel's strategic initiatives, as well as relating sessions directly to the employee's own continuing professional development. The proposal will contain sections on educational and networking value derived from: Reviewing the conference schedule and the list of additional educational and networking events and identify those relevant to the hotel's goals and challenges. The proposal should answer the question, “How would this session help the hotel/organization?” More specific questions include: “Will it help the organization save money?” ; “Will it provide the organization with a competitive edge (e.g. marketing)?”; “Will it save the organization time?” and “Will it improve productivity?” 1. Reviewing the same schedule and identify those that are relevant to making the employee more valuable to the hotel/organization. Consider areas like product knowledge, management knowledge, communications skills, or industry knowledge. If sending a number of people to the same conference, document how attendance will help build the team or provide a forum for team members to discuss tools, technologies, and processes and how these innovations apply in the hotel or company to improve the product, service, workflow, or processes (Doyle, n.d.). 2. Listing others who will be attending the conference with whom it will be valuable to network. Quantify contacts (renewed) by peers, vendors, consultants, partners or competitors. Renewing relationships with existing contacts can be very valuable. 3. Identifying other attendees who would be valuable to meet (new contacts). Again consider speakers, peers, vendors, consultants, partners or competitors. 4. Identifying what the employee will bring back to the organization as payback for the investment. How can the hotel leverage sending one person to a conference to help others in the organization? How can the content benefit others through bringing back information on tools, technologies, processes, best practices, training and contacts. In all cases, connect the content to benefits (added value or reduced costs) to the hotel. Remember that the value can be derived from the knowledge, or skills obtained during the conference, networking with other professionals, or establishing new contacts. Many times the informal conversations prove the most valuable. This proposal becomes the basis for measuring the success of the conference attendance. **Schedule Time for Planning and Follow-up** - Conference attendees should schedule time on their calendar to review the proposal, their conference plans and the scheduled attendees. Further, time should be blocked out following the conference and three months after the conference for follow-up (Yonemoto, 2015). **Coach Employees on Networking** - One of the values of a conference is connecting with other attendee. Some people are naturally gregarious and will be comfortable networking in large crowds. Other employees will need coaching to approach people they do not know at a conference. Help employees develop a plan for networking events and strategies for reaching beyond their comfort zone to reach out to perfect strangers (Marus, 2013). **Plan to Be Away** - Plan to have other employee's serve as back-up so that employees at a conference can devote time to the conference and not be putting out fires or on their phones dealing with normal business situations that arise. **During the Conference** - Oftentimes a conference can be overwhelming in terms of the number of people or attendees. Having a game plan prior to arrival, helps stay the course. Planning includes the selecting the sessions to attend, predetermining who (the attendees or others in the hotel) will benefit from the information, note taking plans (iPad, laptop, paper, photos or video) and gaining access to copies of the speakers' presentations (Odden, n.d.). All this information should be specified in the proposal and contracted follow-up. **This section considers two activities during a conference: networking and attending sessions** **Networking Time** - It is a conference attendee's responsibility to talk with people from other hotels or organization. A good rule of thumb is not to join a group if the group is composed of fifty percent or more of colleagues. Another rule of thumb is that it is fine to travel in pairs but not to move in larger packs (Ernst, 2004). Use time with colleagues to take a break from being social, to learn about their experiences, or simply recharge. **Finding a Conference Buddy** Encourage employees to introduce themselves to other attendees. Ideally, this early introduction will result in finding someone to join up with during various social and networking events. A “conference buddy” can help meet others as well as make it easier to brave the large crowd of a conference reception. **Compare Notes** - When meeting new people, discuss the sessions with them. Compare notes as a natural way to network and to get other opinions (Odden, n.d.). **Use Food as an Excuse** - Talk with people at meals. Sitting with new people during meals offers the opportunity to meet everyone at the table (Ernst, 2004). **Network with a Purpose** - When attending conferences the conference attendance proposal should already identify goals for the kinds of and number of contacts desired. Initiate new connections with qualified prospects, peers, and consultants, marketing partners, vendors, and job candidates. Ask new contacts if they would be open for further contact after the conference. At the same time, reinforce connections with existing contacts. Each day, tally up these associations and plan the follow up. Immediately connect on LinkedIn, follow on Twitter, etc. Share useful tips, links and information that are relevant to them (Odden, n.d.). **Hallway Track** - Remember that possibly the most valuable parts of a conference is not what is gained in the sessions but what is learned from the other delegates, discussing the session topics and getting their perspectives. This informal learning may prove to the richest information from a conference. **Be a Social Planner** - If dinner is not pre-arranged, it creates a perfect opportunity to create a dinner plan early in the day and ask people to join; many attendees fail to think about where they are going to do for dinner. Berkun also shares this tip for dinning with coworkers: “One trick is to go to dinner together with coworkers, but require that everyone bring someone they met at the conference” (Berkun, 2003). **During Conference Sessions** Numerous benefits can be realized in attending conferences. The most obvious is to hear compelling presenters on important topics with useful tips. The educational value is often the main reason for attending a conference. These seven tips help attendees gain the most from educational sessions. **Target Interactive Session Formats** - Often speakers at conferences are subject matter experts - people who have great knowledge but may not be effective presenters. Session types with more interaction include posters sessions where professional summaries are posters, demos, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) or Birds of a Feather (BOFs) sessions. The latter two sessions are informal gatherings where like-minded people join for discussion (Berkun, 2003). Target sessions that promote interaction and contain worthwhile content. **Connect with Speakers** - Conference attendees should introduce themselves to speakers and ask a thoughtful question about some issue (Ernst, 2004). Odden suggest asking speakers a key question and recording on video (Odden, n.d.). **Ask Questions** - Berkun notes, “Learning is a contact sport.” He advises make the conference experiences engaging by asking questions. Talk to speakers, authors, booth staff, and people sitting nearby. Being an active participant in learning increasing the relevancy of the topics and conference (Berkun, 2003). **Be Reflective** - During each conference session, think about the following questions: (1) What is the most valuable thing learned? (2) What is the most surprising thing learned? (3) What are things still unanswered? Email these questions to the speaker. (4) What is a new perspective or insight? (5)What are the top 1, 2 or 3 items learned from this session and who in the hotel or company could benefit from them? (Yonemoto, 2015) At the conclusion of each session, take five minutes to document follow-up plans. These might be ideas to implement, conversations to have with others, ideas to share with colleagues or other actionable items. **Curate and Create Content** - Conferences often promote tweeting or using other forms of social media. Be an active participant. As necessary, learn how to use Twitter, FourSquare or other social media tools. The hotel or company may be benefit by actually curating or creating content for their website, Facebook page, blog or other social media site from the conference. Odden ( n.d.) proposes ideas like live blogging of speaker sessions, interviews with speakers (advance interviews to boost attendance or post-session interviews), interviews with other notable attendees, podcast interviews, or interviews with attendees. Snippets can be shared as quick tips or compiled. (Be aware of conference policies and laws on video and image capture.) **Have an Exit Plan** - Have a plan to leave a session after 15 minutes if bored or not learning anything new (Berkun, 2003). Then go into another session so the entire time is not wasted. **Learn to be a More Effective Presenter** - Reflect on how the information was presented. A speaker's format, sequence, design and presentation is a model to leverage (or avoid) when speaking at a conference or communicating and persuading people internally (Odden, n.d.). **After the Conference** By taking information back to the hotel, conference attendees maintain their skills and continue being a key player in the workplace. By sharing information with colleagues, an attendee fully leverages their conference participation and strategically supports the hotel. **Transfer Knowledge to the Team** - Collect actionable tips, statistics, useful tactics, insights, case studies and other useful information form conferences to share with the team. To make knowledge transfer from conference work, create a process for information distribution. Options include a report, presentation, webinar, video clip, internal learning management systems or knowledge base blog, or brown bag lunch discussion. Knowing in advance that an employee will be required to present the information gained at a conference back at the property helps focus on takeaways and practical interpretations of conference presentations (Odden, n.d.). **Reconnect** - Prior to the conference, time was set aside for post-conference follow-up. During the week after the conference, review notes and business cards. Send out emails and invites to further network with specific contacts. Identify those who require more time (i.e., follow up conversations, request for further information). Set up appointments or calls or time to compose an email (Yonemoto, 2015). This follow-up can lead to strong connections. **Evaluate** - Another post-conference task for which time should be set asides is for a post mortem. Approximately three months after the conference, review notes and business cards and progress against written goals for supporting company/organization objectives, achieving personal objectives, sharing information with colleagues, the number of contacts, and the number of meaningful professional relationships established (Yonemoto, 2015). **Eliminate Constraints** - Changes in behaviors and practices only become evident once the attendee returns to work. However, when employees return to work, they return to workloads and pre-existing organizational constraints. This is where management must reward new learning, attitudes or behavior; remove obstacles to allow implementation; create short-term wins to facilitate feelings of success; and build new norms through rewards, peer pressure, employment contracts, and accountability (Tinnish & Ramsborg, 2015). Summary The true benefit of attending a conference comes from a change in behavior, knowledge or attitudes. This change can occur in the conference attendee only, from the group attending, or because of sharing with the team by the attendee. Effective managers direct conference attendees to plan their learning at a conference, reflect on that learning and convey that learning through self-application or transference to other employees. The application occurs through changes in knowledge, behavior or attitudes. Change is manifested through on-the-job practices, new tools, improved techniques, new information, or new connections. Diagram 1 depicts this process.
*Diagram 1 Conference Learning Process*
