A Beginner’s Guide to All Types of People You’ll Meet at Tech Conferences
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Most of conference-goers cannot get enough of meeting new people, making connections, and learning new stuff. Others use it as an opportunity to make fun or fall head-over-the-heels in love with a new business idea.
Whatever reason is yours, one thing is clear: the benefits of attending tech conferences are countless. However…
YOU’LL MEET NEW PEOPLE. LOTS OF THEM. AND THEY ALL WILL BE DIFFERENT.
So here are the portraits of people you will meet in a while. Understanding different personas of conference-goers will help you come up with the ways to network, learn, and grow together with, not separately from them.
So, instead of spending a lifetime in an introverted end of a conference hall, brace yourself for meeting new people. It’s gonna be amazing!
1. The Geek
You may imagine tech conferences as being large ballrooms with always-smiling types, loud-talking people, and live-tweeting folks. Though such a picture is accurate to some degree, this mental image should never freak you out.
Tech conferences are full of truly inspiring people — those who can get you excited and supercharged about what you’re doing by just taking a quick look at your works. Nerds, or so-called sponges, have an amazing energy to share what they know and learn what they do not.
So, instead of setting yourself aside from a person soaking up every ounce of information at a tech event — be that person. Soon you’ll leave an event being overwhelmed with ideas & things to write about.
2. The Party Goer
These people enjoy everything — from each free item available to every other portion of entertainment. They hope from one sponsor exhibit to another collecting all the ‘valuable’ free swag. Because, well, sometimes all you need is just a free stress ball. Or a USB flash drive. Oh, and yet another sticker. Stickers are never too much, you know.
Sure thing, party goers, also known as trick-or-treaters, are not just for a party there. But they never skip a drink available for free if they have a chance. It’s up to you to decide whether this role model suits you. But one thing is clear: if you are a party animal, you’ll never miss the fun.
3. The Influencer
Bloggers are everywhere. YouTube and Twitter, Telegram and Facebook, TED and Medium — there’s hardly a place where influencers haven’t yet found their way to. For this reason, you are very likely to meet those ultra-influential bloggers on a conference. They will listen to keynotes, attend all breakout sessions, and write down an outline of core ideas on their laptops.
If you do meet an influencer at a tech event — make sure you stay on your toes — they might be holding a camera or even be wearing a wire.
If you soon find yourself talking to a blogger one-on-one — you’ll have great chances of getting featured in their social media. Whether you want it or not — popularity is never a bad thing. As it goes by one old song — relax, take it easy — everything else will be fine.
4. The Networker
Some people prepare to tech conferences ahead of time. They find speakers in advance, follow them online, read their blogs, highlight key ideas, and even talk to them on LinkedIn and Twitter.
For some, this behavior might be disturbing, but really it’s not. A major part of the tech conferences attendees are networkers. They feel more like insiders when they build connections, establish partnerships or simply find new friends. Most often, networkers attend solo. That’s why they are open to communication whenever you reach out to them.
Don’t hesitate to come over and spark a conversation about your common interests. This won’t make you look creepy — you’ll just feel like you belong and possibly even discover opportunities you’ve been missing out before.
5. The Escapist
Among all those successful tech conference guests are people, who break out into a cold sweat from a single thought about networking. Introverts.
In their vocabularies, words like ‘mingling’ or ‘brainstorming’ mean also the same thing as ‘horror’. So if you want to reach out to them — just do it, but don’t be maniacal. You’ll see their interest in communication (or its absence) right off the bat.