Andre's 3 Tips for Conquering the Conference

In honor of my HR friends attending LinkedIn Talent Connect and HR Tech this week in I wanted to revisit 3 quick tips to retain and execute what you learn at conferences. Enjoy!

Congratulations, out of a group of peers your boss selected you to attend a conference to not only continue your professional development but bring that knowledge back to your team. You’ve spent the valuable time out of the office learning new tips and tricks to make you more effective all the while networking with a group of peers in your field or industry. You’ve got pages of notes and can’t wait to get back to the office to share with your boss and team. Seems easy enough, right?

Unfortunately, for many of us the excitement of returning from an amazing conference is stymied by the whirlwind of our daily responsibilities (compounded with playing catch up from being out of the office). Luckily, you can follow these quick tips to overcome those challenges.

Tip 1: Tie Your Notes to an Action Plan

I recently spoke in New York at Jobvite’s Summit ’15 conference. During the closing session an attendee shared her excitement and pages of notes on what she had learned. When I asked her what takeaway she planned on implementing first with herself and her team, her expression changed. Her enthusiasm from learning so many tips and tricks had suddenly been tempered by the logistics of an action plan.

One easy tip is to always think, “How will I introduce this into my day-to-day” as you take notes. By doing so, you’ll find by the end of a session you’ll have a loose action plan to begin executing with your team. 

Tip 2: Focus on One Item You’re Excited About to Champion to Your Boss/Team

I’ll never forget the first time I attended SourceCon. I had an amazing few days with leaders in Sourcing from across the globe and as a new Manager of Global Sourcing I came back ready to completely revamp our entire Sourcing model. The reality of changing a 25+ person recruiting team immersed in their very busy daily routines helped me stop and refocus on an actual plan. 

Even though it was difficult to pick just one, I settled on the simple idea of sending a personal LinkedIn request within 48 hours of every candidate we had sent a LinkedIn Recruiter message to. This was easily adopted by both our Global Recruiting and Sourcing Teams for a one month trial run. Collectively, we found great success early on with many candidates responding at a high rate. Even better, I now had the team’s buy-in which let me introduce several other tips and best practices over the next few months. Win win!

Tip 3: Establish and Interact with Your New Peer Network

As important as the content of the various sessions I've attended at conferences; I've found there’s an equal (if not greater) amount of value in building the relationships from peers across different industries and company size. Whether you’re a 10 year veteran or just starting out in your career this is a fantastic chance to grow your professional network. I always set a goal to come back with no less than 10 new connections and usually end up with 15-20 (Hint: If you’re not a natural networker simply make a goal to trade cards with the 3-4 people around you in each session before it starts).

By exchanging cards or keeping a list of names, titles and email addresses take the responsibility as group leader to send an initial email setting the precedent you want to keep in touch and would like to invite everyone to share best practices (I've even gone a step further and created a LinkedIn Group). As an added bonus since you attended many of the same sessions you can hear how they are rolling out what they've learned from the conference. You’ll find their collective experience is a goldmine and will often-time validate your existing ideas (or spark new ones).

In closing, I love conferences. From SourceCon to ERE.net to Summit’ 15, as both an attendee and presenter I think there’s nothing better than stepping out of your day to day to interact with your peers and find out what’s working and what’s trending next in your profession. I've built my own Talent Acquisition Council of Elders from peers who were initial strangers until we met at a conference. The conversations in the years since have helped shape me as a leader and push the boundaries of recruiting techniques. Now you are equally equipped with these three simple tips to truly conquer the conference and roll out to your team upon your return. Good luck!