7 Insider Tips on Conference Networking Like a Pro

Seldom do successful startups begin with an inexperienced, untrained, disconnected leader at the helm. Rather, startup founders often seek as much information as they can from those with experience in their particular field. Smart startup founders will then seek to form a relationship with those thought-leaders so they can continue to glean insight from a proven company founder.

Nowhere does such information-downloading and opportunities for connection better occur than at a conference. In the following list, three conference junkies share their best tips for making the most of your conference attendance.

1. Do Your Research

Travel and media writer Kristin Luna echoes what Dave Delaney, Director of Strategy at TechnologyAdvice, shared in his interview on “How to Conference.” Use social media to do your due diligence on people you think you’d like to meet. Be sure to use Eventbrite’s open attendee list to see who will actually be attending the event.

Luna recounts her success with social media networking prior to speaking at a parent blogging conference as a non-parent. She contacted someone in the event’s Facebook group who provided insider information about the conference that helped her deliver her speech. That person later become a close friend. Luna also parlayed a Twitter relationship into a writing gig for Southern Living.

2. Party Down

Luna recommends hitting the bar after an event as well. As a sometimes event organizer herself, she knows the benefits of offering after-parties. They provide a relaxed and comfortable environment where people might be less self-conscious in approaching each other, and especially in approaching any keynote speakers that might be in attendance. Additionally, these post-conference mixers may be the only time you meet other people who’ve attended different workshops than you did. Take advantage of this time to personally connect with others.

3. Introduce Others

If you know two people in a room who don’t know each other but should, be the one to introduce them to each other. Luna calls this “good business karma.” Though such introductions shouldn’t necessarily be made for personal gain, Luna adds that you never know how you might ultimately benefit from having connected those two people.

4. Refrain from Instant Following

Chief Rippler at Ripple Central Steve Harper suggests refraining from instantly connecting with someone on LinkedIn following an initial in-real-life meeting at a conference. Harper believes that “some people collect LinkedIn connections like coins.” Why does Harper choose that path? Because he believes you should show your worth to that connection over time before forging a more professional connection on LinkedIn.

5. Plan Your Conference Time

Harper encourages conference-goers to have a game plan before attending. Know the workshops, breakouts, and can’t-miss keynotes you want to attend. Look at the speaker and/or guest list and know who you want to meet. Give equal weight to the content of the conference as well as your networking opportunities. Don’t be that person who “attended” the conference but was never seen in a breakout session.

6. Be Real

Deb Cole, author of the first book on Twitter and Marketing Director for the New Media Expo, encourages face-to-face meetings at conferences so that social media relationships can go deeper. While there was a time when some believed that IRL conferences would be replaced by digital conferences, Cole has seen the opposite to be true. When people use social media correctly—to connect with other humans—their real-life meetups at conferences take on a much more robust character.

7. Don’t sweat the cost.

Cole knows that conferences can be expensive, especially when long-distance travel might be involved. However, she looks at the expense in terms of ROI. If the total cost of attending a conference is $5,000, but she meets a new connection that turns into a $50,000 business deal, her ROI is through the roof. In other words, she can’t afford not to attend. Plus, even more than possible financial gain, the relationships she makes and knowledge she gains will likely serve her well for many years to come.

To hear more tips on conference networking, listen to the TechnologyAdvice podcast interview above with Kristin Luna, Steve Harper, and Deb Cole, hosted by Clark Buckner:

Your Complete Guide to Working the Conference Scene

I have been going to conferences for startups, technology, and video games for the past 10 years. There are some subtle and massive differences between them that can give an edge depending on your situation and personality.

People attend conferences for three reasons:

Learn
Network/Meetings
Show off their company/product

Knowing why you are going is key. This will help shape your “presence” at the conference. In this case lets define presence as: The way you act, look, dress, and when you take your meetings. Next week I am attending GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco. It is the most important video game development conference and I have a certain presence for the show.

How to Dress

Video game conferences are not much different from tech & startup conferences. There is plenty of time and room for the top three reasons I listed above but the video game conference trumps all conferences in ability to look dress and act like a rock star.

Next week for GDC I will wear interesting dresses and clothing that I would wear on stage while playing with a band, I used to play keyboard in a couple of bands. I am a big fan of modcloth.com. My husband, Jared, will also wear clothes that make him stand out. The ability to make an impression is important. With a whole week of drinking, meetings, networking, and learning it is very important to be remembered at the end of the conference. Looking and acting like everyone else may help you in a corporation, but in the startup world I feel you need to have a different presence.

I believe this also works for tech and startup conferences but with a more subtle approach. Tone down on the bright colors and look a bit more professionally dressed. Potential investors and partners want you to be interesting, but they also want to make sure you can fit in at a corporate meeting to close deals.

Perfect Your “Meeting Attitude”

Do your homework before you get there. Find out who is going by searching Twitter and LinkedIn updates. People love to schedule meetings before a conference because it provides a schedule to plan their life arround. Before and after meetings prepare for the possibility of serendipitous meetings. These are meetings that could happen through the introduction to a new person from the meeting you have scheduled or through watching twitter while at the conference. It can easily get overwhelming but just keep a cool composure and take a couple of deep breaths. You can do it!

The attitude I try to take to meetings is the same I try to have throughout the entire conference. Be positive, polite, and open. Act like you own the place and care about everything. These actions and feelings help people open up and you can get your agenda accomplished easier while meeting new people. Most of the true deals will wrap up after the conference, allowing you to be more aggressive with terms. I find this is true for both video game and startup conferences.

Manage Your Meetings

The main difference between a videogame conference and a startup conference is when you schedule your meetings. Rule of thumb is at a videogame conference like GDC you never schedule a meeting before 11:30 AM. Video game development is a long hours profession with most workers getting up later in the day and working long into the night. The conference is a place for people to escape the grind by going to parties, concerts, and sometimes doing a lot of drinking. It is important to be courteous to this rule and it also allows you to send out emails in the morning to your team.

A startup conference is all about hustle. Packing in as many important things at one time has its benefits. Most meetings kick off at breakfast and continue through lunch. Making sure you get a good night sleep is important for all conferences, but you really need to be sharp and well rested for startup conferences. If you have any tips regarding other types of conferences please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Shannon Steffes is the Founder and Art Director for Furywing. She has been involved in tech and video game startups since 2005. Follow her at @shayozzy

The Ultimate Guide to Bootstrapping Your Next Conference

Editor’s Note: Conference speaker and startup friend Jared Steffes has some great tips on making conferences more affordable. Thankfully, we’ve done a lot of the work for you with our Everywhere Else Tennessee conference. Grab your tickets before the super cheap early adopter discount expires!

I want to share some tips about how I make the “biggest bang for the buck” while traveling out of town for a conference.

Conference Pass

Free Expo Pass!

Most of the time you do not need a main conference pass for larger shows. I go to shows to meet new clients and network with people. Typically you can get all the main points talked about at a conference through Twitter or video feeds after the show.

Getting into the show is the most important part and scoring a free expo pass is usually pretty easy. Search Twitter for anyone giving away free expo passes for the show you are planning to attend. It is pretty common because many shows gives exhibitors a bunch of free passes for their employees, but most exhibitors are 2 person shows. Some exhibitors will give away their free passes as a marketing tactic on Twitter or their Facebook leading up to the date of the show! I have a lot of luck with this.

Networking at the conference hotel bar the night before the show is usually a good place to meet an exhibitor. Make friends and kindly tell your bootstrap story. Usually they are happy to find you a pass or give you one of theirs. Return the karma by bringing people you meet to their booths if there is a possible business relationship. This is a huge win for everyone and the exhibitors won’t forget you the next time you need some help.

The last way to get a pass only works if you have an “in” with a decent sized blog or news site. I go to a lot of shows each year and usually my big blog friends are happy to get me a press pass in return for some articles about the show.

No Free Pass?

That’s ok! Search for “promo code” or “discount code” on Twitter and the internet for the show you are going to attend. There are usually always promo codes floating around somewhere for big %’s off the main price.

Travel

Driving

There is a huge benefit driving to a show. Gas is cheaper than flying if you get decent MPG’s. My rule is if the show is 12 hours or less from my home to reach then I will drive to it. It is cost effective for traveling in a group, you don’t need to rent a car, no plane tickets, and you can save on taxi costs.

Flying

Southwest has been my bootstrap staple for years now. Their credit card used to require $1000 in spending to get a free flight but their points system changed and now it requires around $1200. Still not too bad. You also get enough points by signing up for a card to get a long round trip flight.

If you are going to either coast from the Midwest both JetBlue and Virgin America are great to purchase flights from.

It is pretty important to plan your conferences at least 2 months ahead to get the best prices on flights. It is easy to do and dumb not to. There were times at Tap.Me I would get a $200 round trip flight to the Silicon Valley just by planning ahead, while others were paying around $700 and I knew they were going to go. Procrastinating is an expensive date!

Using a low frequent flyer miles to get there and back for free is awesome! The key is to travel on the not popular days and times. Tuesday and Saturday are typically the cheapest. Early morning and late at night are also typically the cheapest times to fly.

Parking

It is important to know what parking costs you may have because parking in a large city may defeat the costs saved by driving. Hotels and conference halls often charge around $15 a day and I have seen hotel parking in San Francisco for around $40 a day. Crazy!

Jared’s Pro Tip #1 – Parking at a recent convention was $20 a day and I secretly found out you can have the ticket validated by any restaurant for the price of an entree. $20 for a meal got me free parking! I could have gotten away with a cheaper meal but I deserved something good for dinner since I skipped lunch!

Rental Cars

Do not rent from a location at the airport. It will typically cost double compared to a place off site. I was able to get a Mitsubishi Lancer for $50 for a 5 day rental through Fox Rental Cars. They have a free shuttle from the airport and it was a nice place with well kept cars. The big rental companies at the airport would have cost me $110 for a smaller car.

Skip the insurance! Check your credit cards to see what they cover. American Express provides some free coverage but it does not include the important collision. With just a little search I was able to sign up for a program that costs $24 a rental for good ‘covers all’ insurance for up to 41 days. Awesome savings to CYA (cover your ass). At the car rental the insurance is $18 a day.

Scam.

Places to Stay

Friend’s Place

Almost free! It is almost because you should definitely buy your pal a meal and a gift. Being grateful keeps the good karma going that all entrepreneurs need!

Hotels

Conference rates tend to be useful for expensive cities like San Fran, NY, Seattle, Chicago, and LA. It is important to book early because the blocks often fill up and pretty soon you can’t get a room a the conference rate.

You can often get a cheaper hotel further from the conference and just pay transportation costs. I like to take public transit during the day and save the taxi for night. Usually I am exhausted or sometimes intoxicated at night after networking and just need to get back to the room to rest up and shoot out emails.

Starwood Resorts like the W, Westin, and Sheraton are often good to stay at because the big industry players will be staying there. I have met some important allies in the elevator or at the bar in these resorts. I have a Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card which is great for free rooms, upgrades, and cheap rooms. I suggest signing up for one the next time you need to use a Starwood resort. Search online for promotions for the card. You can often get more sign up points!

Share a room!

Someone is thinking the same thing as you, “Damn this is going to be expensive!” Ask on your social networks who is going to the conference. Once you know you can privately talk about sharing a room. I don’t think it is smart to broadcast you are looking for someone to share a room with. It is a sign of desperation. Being frugal doesn’t mean you have to stop being classy.

Time Shares

These can come in handy and everyone knows someone with one. RCI is the biggest catalogue for units, but they can often require 8+ months to get a room near your conference.

I purchased a Wyndham Vacation Ownership in their Las Vegas location. It allows me to stay in the places I travel most which are San Fran and Las Vegas. I can also convert the points to RCI. I was able to get a Wyndham Room six minutes from a conference I attended in Orlando for hardly any points because I waited to book the room within a 30 day half points discount window. It is risky but I noticed there was a lot of rooms 3 months from when I was planning this trip so I felt comfortable with the risk.

Meals

Luckily the Wyndham rooms come with a kitchen. I have some strange food allergies so it is nice to be able to cool some meals. I also like to travel with Cliff Bars and oatmeal packets. Breakfast is my favorite meal but let’s face it, you are very unlikely to have a breakfast meeting at a conference. Save your money for dinner where business gets done!

This trip is 5 days long. A meal is $20 on average. That’s $200 spent eating out for breakfast and lunch. I often go to the supermarket and buy my allergy friendly food for $29. Cereal, almond milk, tortillas, lunch meat, OJ, and cookies. Huge savings!

Jared’s Pro Tip #2 – Get your coffee, water, or pop outside the conference. Most hotels have free Starbucks in the morning. The cost of anything is exaggerated once you step into the conference doors.

Marketing Materials

Why do a large order of marketing materials when you are not exhibiting at a conference or you don’t know how the message will resonate with your target market?

Don’t!

I once designed a 4×6 flyer for a company I started, Matador, and had it printed at a Walgreens ready for pickup 20 minutes later. Look for a promo code for prints online and place your order. I was able to get 50 prints for the price of 25 with a promo code I found online. The price: $5.09. Pretty awesome deal and great quality!

Internet

Hopefully Internet is free at your show. I recently discovered Freedompop.com which provides 500 mb a month at 4G speed for free a month. You just need to purchase the device.

The next plan is to ask someone staying at the hotel for the pass code. People are typically cool with it because paying for wifi is sort of ridiculous now a days. If that strategy doesn’t work I can always jailbreak my iPhone and share its Internet.

Gifts & Swag

I am a strong believer of making sure my loved ones, partners, and employees know you were thinking about them while traveling. The smallest gifts can make people really happy, especially software engineers.

I tend to put a duffle bag in one of the pockets of my luggage and fill it up with swag from shows for my team. I’ll also pick up some gifts that relate to their personalities. Treat people like you want them around and you can expect the best from them!

9 Simple Tips to Actually Meet The Right People at SXSW

Learn Who’s Attending Ahead of Time

“Check in with people you want to catch up with to see when they’ll be onsite, and get on their calendars in advance. Once the event starts, send them a quick text or email to remind them about your meeting. Large conferences are too chaotic to ensure that you’ll just casually run into people. You have to make a concerted effort to ensure that the most innocuous of gatherings actually happen.”

Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work

Don’t Listen to the Talks

“Most speakers are covering material that can be found all over the Internet. If you want to meet people, hang out in the lobby and the hallways. Strategically position yourself in places that everybody has to walk through, which maximizes your likelihood of bumping into the right people. If you have friends attending, ask them for help with intros to the right kind of people.”

Emerson Spartz, Spartz

Leave Room for Serendipity

“You’ll want to line up some meetings ahead of time, but don’t forget to leave room in your schedule for grabbing lunch with the people you just met or sitting down for an impromptu talk. The benefit of being in the same place as a bunch of interesting people is that you can get very lucky and meet someone without any planning.”

Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

Partner With Connectors

“The best way to meet interesting people is through a warm introduction. There are two ways to find introductions at events: through individuals or through brands. Figure out how to add value to an individual so he or she will take the time to make introductions. Similarly, you can volunteer to help a brand at the event so you will be around when others contact them. “

Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

Get Exponential Introductions

“My strategy is to always meet a few awesome people early and ask them for the best one to two people they know that I need to know. Meet new people, then repeat this process as often as possible. With the right seed connectors, this can last through the whole event.”

Neil Thanedor, LabDoor

Book All Your Essential Meetings Ahead of Time

“When we send employees to a conference, we often have up to 25 meetings set in advance for them, along with specifically tailored agendas for each contact. By doing an aggressive email campaign before the conference, you can often confirm meetings well in advance so all you have to do once you’re there is go from appointment to appointment.”

Michael Costigan, Youth Leadership Specialist

Go Without a Schedule

“I have settled on the opposite of strategy — I just go and see what happens. If you go with a plan, you’ll struggle at SXSW because there’s no way you’ll stick to it. There’s no point in setting goals you can’t meet. SXSW is a week of serendipity. Who are the right people? You don’t know yet. Random meetings turn into meeting the right people.”

Andrew Angus, Switch Video

Be a Good Date

“There is a preparation process every time you’re about to go on a date: time, place, outfit and even a prospective conversation plan! That’s true of conferences as well. See what events are happening and who will likely attend in order to plan your agenda for a big industry conference. Select a couple of key events, meet some out-of-town business prospects and let the conversations start!”

Lauren Perkins, Perks Consulting

Forget Going to the Conference

“If you are seriously interested in only meeting people, forget the $600 conference badge — just go for the weekend to hang out. You don’t meet many people sitting and listening to talks, but if you know how to work the room over cocktails or know someone to get you into the right parties, then you will have accomplished your mission.”

Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences

Thankfully, the best startup conference is currently only $150, but time’s running out on early adopter tickets. Join us and some great speakers and investors on April 30-May 2. Head over to eetennessee.com to get yours now!

PandoDaily Bets on the South

Sarah Lacy & Gary Swart at Southland 2013

Just a little while ago, media company PandoDaily announced a new partnership with the Southland conference in Nashville, TN. PandoDaily will provide the programming, and Launch TN, the public/private organization behind the conference, will provide the Southern culture.

I spoke with PandoDaily’s Editor-in-Chief and CEO Sarah Lacy by phone this morning, and it was obvious the Southern girl in her is excited to strike up a partnership in the region.

“I really believe there are some great companies in the South,” she said. “It may not be as dense as the Valley, but there are definitely great companies to be discovered.” (Of course, here at Nibletz we knew that, didn’t we?)

That sentiment plays out in much of Lacy’s career, both with her books and during her time at TechCrunch. Her second book Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Global Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos was all about discovering entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and her final project at TechCrunch was the historic Disrupt Beijing.

“Some of the companies we saw in China are some of the best companies I’ve seen anywhere,” she stated.

With that discovery in mind, Lacy was eager to talk about some of the innovations the Pando team will be making to the traditional startup competition. We’re all familiar with the endless pitching that happens at tech conferences. There are dozens of companies, but because it has little benefit to the audience, few of them stay to listen, effectively undercutting the most important moment for the startup onstage. There are also strange dynamics when an investor is expected to offer feedback on a company he or she’s had 5 minutes to understand.

At Southland 2013, startups in the competition had to go through a selection process to be chosen. Under PandoDaily’s direction in 2014, that process will be even more rigorous and will result in only 10 companies competing. Conference-goers can sit through 5 pitches a day, right?

To guarantee that, Lacy will also innovate the actual format. Startups are often at a disadvantage during a pitch, because when an investor asks a smart question, it can appear disrespectful or argumentative for the founders to argue a point. However, if they’re quiet, they don’t get to fully defend their company. At Southland 2014, each startup in the pitch contest will have a personal coach in the industry. This person will spend time with the startup and get to know their company. Then, they will join the startup onstage and act as an advocate during the judge’s questions.

There’s nothing more entertaining that 2 experts verbally sparring, am I right?

Lacy was also excited about some of the video and audio they plan to experiment with.

“The best things about conferences happen backstage, and those are stories that don’t get told,” she said.

So, at Southland 2014, there will be cameras rolling backstage to catch some of those stories for the PandoDaily team to use.

I asked Lacy if this signaled a shift in content strategy for them, and if the fundraising rumors were true. Of course, she wouldn’t comment on the fundraising, but it would definitely make sense for them to begin seeking capital from outside of the Valley. Because they’ve raised money from almost everyone in Silicon Valley, they are free from any one investor owning a large portion of the company. As a media company covering these investors, that makes it easier to be less biased in coverage. If they’re beginning to branch out, raising money from the big VC’s everywhere else makes sense for the same reasons.

As far as shifting coverage to outside of the Valley, Lacy kind of shrugged that off, too.

“We aren’t putting reporters on the ground in every region or anything,” she said. “But we do hope to uncover the best startups around the country and connect them with our audience.”

The truth is, the South doesn’t get enough love. We’re often connected with horrible statistics in racism, education, obesity, and poverty. But every Southerner, including Sarah Lacy, knows there’s more to the story. There are amazing companies down South, doing things only a Southern company could do.

And, they’re servin’ it up with a, “Hey, y’all!”

Conferences.io Keeps Improving The Conference Experience

We ran into the guys from Conferences.io at last year’s Chicago TechWeek, and this year they’re even better.

Conferences.io is an app that improves audience participation during a conference. Say it’s time for a panel or fireside chat. Participants can go onto the platform and type in questions they might have for the speakers. Then, they can vote on their favorite questions, with the most popular ones rising to the top to be asked.

Conference staff can also create polls to gauge audience needs during the conference. For example, running late into lunch? A quick poll can let you know whether the audience would like a shorter lunch or a later afternoon.

Check out our interview with conferences.io, and stay tuned for more from Chicago TechWeek.

We’ve got more Chicago TechWeek coverage here.

Code On The Beach, A Coder’s Conference In Paradise August 16-18th

Picture this, the thick of the summer of 2013 and you find yourself at the amazing One Ocean Resort in beautiful Atlantic beach. You’re there with hundreds of like minded coders, developers and software engineers, learning, living and having fun. Oh and did we mention your wife and kids are hanging out by one of the pools or on the sandy beach? This sounds like a great “working” vacation right?

It’s a reality at Code On The Beach, a software engineering conference in Atlantic Beach August 16th-18th. The conference will cover topics from ASP.NET MVC to Windows Azure to HTML5 to SQL to mobile. Friday will feature intro and beginner tracks while Saturday and Sunday will feature intermediate to advanced level content. Conference organizers have made the session length longer so you can “dive in”, but they’ve also structured the event so you can literally take some time and “dive in” to the ocean.

Intro sessions on Friday afternoon
Intermediate to Advanced sessions on Saturday and Sunday
Great hospitality with a full beach resort experience
Family-friendly: bring your spouse and kids
Top speakers from across Florida and the U.S.
Longer session length allows for deeper dives
Open Space track where you can speak on any topic you desire
Nightly hackathons to benefit local non-profits
Opportunities to meet local industry leaders and employers
Steps from the session rooms to the beach or beachfront pool
Walking distance to excellent local beach dining and nightlife
Early registration starting at just $99 (compare to other weekend conferences!)

So if you’re like me and constantly on the road to conferences and events leaving your husband or wife at home to tend to the kids, no worries, Code on the beach will be a vacation for them too:

Catch sun or waves at the beautiful Atlantic Beach
Lay back or splash at the beachfront pool, with poolside docent services (hotel guests only)
Relax and get quality treatment at the ocean view hotel spa (hotel guests only)
Visit the 24/7 fitness center for exercise (hotel guests only)
Walk to nearby beach shops, dining, and nightlife
Attend beginner programming sessions so they can get in on the conference action too
Hack on projects with you at nightly Hackathons by Ignite for local non-profits
Travel to nearby attractions like the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens, Adventure Landing Water Park, and Talbot Island State Parks

You can get in on the early bird registration and a savings of $60 per night at the resort. The link to register for the conference is here. The link for hotel registration is here.

For more information visit codeonthebeach.com

While you’re checking out conferences, the early bird rate for attendees for Everywhereelse.co ends this weekend.

LeWeb Conference Rebrands As LeWeb.co

Europe’s top technology and startup conference LeWeb has rebranded their web presence to the more trendy and recognizable LeWeb.co. LeWeb was founded by Geraldine and Loic LeMur. LeMur is also the founder of Seesmic a Twitter, and social media client with deep integration with Sales Force.

“The Internet is moving faster than ever, so we need to continuously adapt to keep up,” said Loïc Le Meur, “we switched to the .CO domain because we believe it better reflects the spirit and ethos of the LeWeb brand – which is all about looking to the future and driving creativity online.”

The new .co domain names have been widely adapted as the domain suffix of choice for recognition around the globe. Despite the fact that .net, .info and other suffixes have been available a lot longer than .co the .co has become much more popular.

Twitter for instance uses t.co and Dave McClure’s 500 startups uses 500.co.

“We’re proud to be joining innovative companies like Twitter (t.co), Angel List (Angel.co) and 500 Startups (500.co), as well as the thousands of pioneering startups from around the world who are building the future of the Internet on the .CO platform,” said Le Meur.

LeWeb has been traditionally held in the winter in Paris where LeMur is from. He spends time between Paris and San Francisco. This year the LeMur’s added a summer conference happening from June 19-20th in London. The Paris conference will be held December 4-6th.

Linkage:

Nibletz is the voice of #startups “everywhere else” check out these new stories

We’re on a sneaker strapped nationwide road trip, check it out and support us here

­How to Dress