Business conferences offer a myriad of benefits to you as a business owner or leader. Learning from others is one of the best things you can do to help grow your business and to also develop yourself personally. This is so important; you need to have an understanding of what’s happening in your industry, with your competitors, what your customers want, and the wider world.  Things change at a rapid rate and attending both general business conferences and industry specific ones can be a lifeline. There are several ways you can maximise the potential for networking and increase your company visibility at a business conference.

Each conference will be different and have varying topics, speakers and agendas. The reason you choose to attend any particular conference might depend on your own company purpose, mission and vision. The conferences you attend will be specific to your overall goals, who you want to hear from or meet and the types of people or businesses you are wanting to reach. There might be times when a conference makes sense and other times when it could be a drain on your time and resources. For example, we attend BrightonSEO regularly which is the most popular search marketing conference in Europe. It is industry specific, affordable and accessible, and the takeaways are invaluable to us. We also attend the Brighton Summit which is a general business conference known for offering a certain type of fun and memorable inspiration unique only to Brighton. We don’t prioritise conferences that are too generic, expensive, or ones that are not accessible. That might change over time as we grow as a company, but for now, the ones we attend fit in with our company goals and values.

Taking things a step further and actually getting involved as a speaker, sponsor or even as an organiser can really boost your company visibility and ensure that you’re meeting and connecting with the right people too. To provide you with some useful ways you can make the most out of a business conference by getting involved, here are a few stories.

Clare Griffiths, educator, advocate for women in business and the founder of The Thrive Effect, has extensive experience helping to organise business conferences across the UK and beyond. In doing so, she’s positioning herself as a leader and influencer in her field. She says:

Brighton based Pragmatic, the UK’s leading WordPress agency, recruit directly from conferences. In particular, they’re often seen at WordCamps (global WordPress conferences) as attendees, sponsors and organisers so have a great opportunity to identify and get to know potential hires. People Operations Director, Tom Chute, says:

This tried and tested pragmatic approach absolutely works and has resulted in some excellent results for the agency which ultimately enables them to grow and further develop their expertise. Tommy Ferry, a WordPress developer at the company describes his experience, from the side of the recruit.

For us as well, WordCamps are high on our list of conferences to attend, speak at and also to help with the running of them. Getting involved on all of those levels at such an industry specific event keeps us informed and up to date. It also offers a valuable opportunity to connect and establish relationships with fellow experts and business owners who work in our field locally, nationally and internationally.

Furthermore, we are taking a leaf out of our own ‘play book’ and making the most out of a new business conference by aligning ourselves as the marketing partner for Re: Engage 2020. This is a brand new fast-paced, future-focused event exploring inclusive marketing and will be held at The Brighton Centre. Mark your calendars! Re: Engage 2020 organisers Sarah Harrison and Jana Lyon are currently speaking to sponsors and partners so get in touch with them now to be involved.

We are also the marketing partner and on the advisory committee for the inaugural Worthing Summit run by the Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce and Meg is one of the workshop leaders. Getting involved at this level helps us to stand out from the crowd – businesses get to know us and what we do – and we learn and develop ourselves and our company. Plus, we get to work with some fantastic people!

If you have something to offer an event or conference organiser that would add value to them and also help achieve your company goals, why not include partnering or sponsoring as part of your overall strategy? Or, simply put yourself forward to help with the planning and execution of your favourite type of conference.

For some practical networking tips which can be applied to conference-going, please read our previous post on networking tips.

If you have a story about making the most out of a business conference, please share it in the comments below, we’d love to hear it.

Meg Fenn, Director of Shake It Up Creative