Conference Secrets of a Master Networker

AJ Kulatunga
Aug 22, 2017 · 5 min read

Turning a conference into a successful return on investment for your career or your business requires some careful planning. Consider the tale of Harry and Trudy, two independent marketing consultants who have just started their businesses. They decide to attend Click! Digital Business Conference, hoping to learn some new ideas, meet some likeminded people and also find some new clients.

The conference is great and they decide to go back again the following year. Trudy sees Harry in the foyer and asks how business has gone since last year’s conference.

“Yeah it’s tough,” Harry admits. “The economy is down and people are struggling all over the place. Finding steady work is hard. How about you, are you struggling too?”

“I heard that things are tough out there Harry, sorry to hear you’re struggling. I’m doing okay but hey, you should come to my session. It’s about how to build relationships at conferences that lead to more work.”

Harry was stunned. “You’re speaking? How on earth did you score that?”

“Well I met the organisers at last year’s conference and they asked me to speak this year. I’m sorry Harry, I have to get ready. Come to my session and you’ll hear all the details.”

“Okay, I will. Good luck!”

So Harry attends the session and is blown away by what Trudy did during last year’s conference that led to an amazing year of work. He takes details notes and condenses it into three main sections:

Before the Conference

A few weeks before the conference, Trudy went through the conference theme and timetable. Because she hates wasting time, she picked the sessions that sounded interesting to her and then made a list of questions she wanted answers to from those sessions. For example, one of her challenges last year was how to create more sales. So she wrote down questions like “where do I look for clients?” and “how do I close more deals?” That allowed her to be more focused in each session.

She then introduced herself to the speakers via LinkedIN and explained what she was hoping to get from their session. This was the start of building a relationship with people who had more influence than her.

Trudy also connected with the conference organisers. She explained what she was hoping to get out of the conference and asked if they could recommend a speaker or a sponsor that would achieve that purpose. This worked well for two reasons. First it connected her to the organisers and second, when she met the sponsors, she could say that the organisers had asked her to speak to them which provided instant credibility.

During the Conference

At the conference Trudy’s primary goal was to meet the people recommended to her. She also wanted to be valuable to every person she met. To achieve this, she asked everyone a series of questions during their time together using the FORD-C Model:

  • Family: Do they have family in the city?
  • Occupation: What did they do for work?
  • Recreation: What did they do to relax
  • Dreams: What was their ultimate goal in life?
  • Challenge: What are they really struggling with now?

Trudy explained usually what happens at a conference is that people fling their business cards at each other and expect to win business. Instead these questions were about genuinely getting to know someone to build a trusting relationship with them. Sure, sometimes she doesn’t get enough of an opportunity to work through the entire list, but that’s okay. Those get up to the last question are high value individuals because they trust her with intimate information.

Regarding the conference sessions, Trudy would listen to the speakers and actively seek to answer the questions she prepared earlier. Then to network with the people in the room she had another tactic. She explained that in a room of 300 people, it would be exhausting to meet everyone, but the most important people in the room would want to talk to the speaker. So all she had to do was hang around the speaker and she would meet the high value individuals in the room. And because she’d made the connection with the speaker before, it was like hanging out with a friend.

After the Conference

One of the most common mistakes most people make is that they learn all these great things and meet these amazing people, but then do nothing with it. So within 24 hours of leaving the conference Trudy came up with her action plan which included what ideas she needed to implement and who she needed to follow up with to add value. With her action plan all sorted, she was free to continue running her business and whenever she had any down time she would complete a task off her action plan.

With all the people that Trudy wanted to build a relationship with, she would randomly send them an article or a video throughout the year that would either help solve their current challenges or move them closer to their dreams. That way she was able to build up a network of people who liked her and trusted her enough to do business with her. As a result Trudy was able to build a up a reputation that won her clients, more speaking gigs and strategic partnerships that allowed her to grow her business.

Harry caught up with Trudy after her session and thanked her for the information. “I can’t believe you did ALL of that, it’s so exhausting.”

“I know it seems like a lot Harry, but given the way the world is today, you have to work hard on the right things to get results. So what are you going to do with this new information?”

“I’m going to make my action plan and grow my business just like you,” said Harry.

But he never did.

-AJ~

AJ Kulatunga is a keynote speaker and management consultant on Entrepreneurial Thinking who helps companies embrace and implement innovation. Visit ajk.global

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AJ Kulatunga

Written by

I write about the intersection of people, technology and business, through the eyes of an Entrepreneur. ajkulatunga.com

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