SOMEHOW I MANAGE. dot. dot. dot. Michael Scott’s To-Do list For Conventions/Conferences

Welcome back, sorry i missed a week, i had to work on another piece.

Welcome back to the weekly series where i (we) analyze the business situations encountered by possibly one of the greatest bosses ever

World’s Best Boss

Here is Post #1 | Here is Post #2 | Here is Post #3

This week we take a dive into a subject that (at least in the Tech industry) is an integral part of our business path — Conventions / Conferences.

Episode recap: (watch the episode here)

In this episode,Michael and Dwight are attended the Annual northeast mid market office suppliers convention. They meet up with Michael’s boss Jan, and other managers of Dunder Mifflin. Their goal is to generate leads, meetings, prospects for their sales efforts, and of course enjoy the SWAG — stuff we all get.

In the episode michael shows us some of his conferences technique on how to allure people to you and how to behave of course. In the past 15 years i’ve attended 100+ of these events under several hats and for various reasons, but the nature of conferences makes it so you can come for any business reason and at any stage — only within time i’ve learned to fine-tune the events i’m attending and also tuning how to get what i need from said events.

With no particular order (because the episode is all about the convention), let’s review the Michael Scott conference to-do list, and usually attempt to extract the wisdom behind the man:

• Packing smart
  Michael’s packs his “Fun”jeans. which i really responded to and noticed that a lot of the people i went to big events made sure to bring thier “fun” items. It could be anything really, but the notion behind is one that extend to any conventions business trip. Dont just focus of the items you need to best display your goods and also consider some fun things to do. Besides, fun brings people together, especially in a stressed environment such as a conference.
• S.W.A.G
  Stuff We All Get. Yes conferences are full of them and sometimes you can even get drones and definitely tons of running shirts. just dont expect to do any good business walking around with a bunch of branded tote bags and cloths and stuff, i learned that it makes you appear less serious about why you attended the event. I just spend the last day of the event picking up good stuff and presents :)

• Beyond business hours
  Micheals is telling everyone he meets that he will be having a party that evening and even brought a lot of liquor. As you recall, in The Client episode analysis, Michael’s sales technique is being very easy and friends first business later, which for conferences is a great way to close or at least establish a real long-lasting connection. This is an obvious thing for me now, though it took a 5 days extravaganza in Moscow to understand.
  Me and a few other colleagues attended a government organizes bi-annual event which was visited by ~40,000 people and many delegations. One evening we went to a the oldest Russian hotel in Moscow to see the Opera and have drinks and finger food, long story short — my friend and i got drunk with the ambassadors of 2 African countries and were invited 2 months later to a private 1 week tour on their playground.
• Be on the stage or don’t bother
  this one i really embellished upon as Michael didn't really did this but its embedded in his character. Someone once told me that the only point of going to a convention is if you’re on stage. I have to admit it made sense to me simply because in the big events, there’s no way you will get to anyone and by being for even 2–3 minutes of the stage get you all the focus you need and will generate interest in what you’re offering. Whether its a hotel room party, big contest or spending 100$ as a tip to the waiter just to get some focus. of course there are plenty of other reason to attend a conference but the effort to be on stage on acknowledged in some way that you are there — can make the conference a success for you, find ways to get on stage.
• Hammermil strategic partnership
  This is probably my favorites thing Michael did and it’s all because he the threw that hotel room party with liquor he stole from his parents closet. Michael closed an even bigger deal that getting a new client for Dunder Mifflin, he made a strategic partnership with a completing service to office supplies, and now the offering Dunder Mifflin has, just became much more clearer to their potential customers.
  Strategic partnerships can happen in conferences because of the type openness attendees have wile attending. they see a plethora of companies, business partners, client, etc. and aspire to maximize the expanses of trip by bringing in as many opportunities as they can. thats a good angle that you can probably achieve only with the intimacy of conferences/conventions.

A short one this week, but next week we have an exciting episode to cover from the 3rd season, stay tuned by → following :)

have a good weekend,

RT