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After the Conference

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Last week, we talked about how to Make the most of being at a conference. Now, let’s talk about what to do when you get home.

140conf NYC VIP
Aliza Sherman making notes at the first ever
140 Characters Conference in NYC

Here is my best piece of advice.

Immediately after the event, write down the top five ideas from the event: five business ideas and five blog posts.

Follow up 
Take the five most promising people you met, and follow up with them. Send them an email that starts by reminding them of the details of where you met and what you discussed, and ends with a next step to move forward.

Report out
Report on the event online. Post it to your blog, Facebook, and any local forums that welcome event reports.

Get some local press: In a small town, you can probably write up your own report and submit it along with photos.
Post your photos from the event to Flickr and Facebook. Tag them with key words about the event and all the people pictured.

Report to your sponsors or potential sponsors for next time.  Now, the champion at this has to be Adele McAlear. Here’s what she did:

I videotaped sessions that my sponsors were interested in, then transcribed the video so that the content could be sliced, diced and searchable. I also went out of my way to meet people that were pertinent to my sponsors’ businesses and provided a report of those conversations and their contact information. I did an executive summary of the experience, relevant to my sponsors’ needs, and had the whole thing (1 1/2 inches thick) spiral bound. I burned the video to DVD and sent that along too.

I don’t know if you’ll do as well as Adele, but then again, you might not do as well at finding sponsors either. This is one place it pays to over-deliver, I think. In fact, why not send a thorough report to someone who was on the fence about sponsoring you? Consider it an investment in gaining future sponsorship.

Connect with others

Search for event posts and photos from other attendees. Comment and connect.
Ask for permission to use photos of you that you find. If you get a yes, save those photos to your computer and rename them to include the name of the photographer. “Me at TACVB by Doug Harmon” or something like that. The purpose is to give that photographer the credit if and when you use the pic. If you don’t get permission, then don’t use it.

Find the time
Afraid you’ll never get this done? I know about that post-conference rush to get back to work. The solution is to make an appointment with yourself. In fact, make several so you can do this in small bites.

Update: See the new after-conference 2-to-1 rule for another way to find the time.

And that’s it
That is the end of our events series. What did we miss?


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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

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Comments

  1. I’d add building a Twitter list and adding everyone you met on that Twitter list, even the people you don’t follow up with.

    It’s always useful to be on top of what they’re doing and jump in whenever you feel you can help

  2. Dragos, that is a terrific suggestion. You can also search for lists created by other attendees. You may not choose to follow everyone, but certainly look for those who you met and connected with. And don’t feel limited to twitter. Look for other social ways to connect as well.

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