Broke Person’s Guide To Zero-Spend Conference Attendance

Conferences can be valuable experiences but they’re also pricey, both in terms of registration fees for the conference itself, and travel. While attending a conference this past week I had an epiphany: there’s an easy way to get most of the content from most conferences with zero spend. Here’s the big secret:

You don’t actually have to be there, or even register, to get the majority of conference content.

No cash? No problem!

Hacking (Almost) Any Conference In Four Easy Steps

I say almost any conference because I’m not gonna lie: if it’s the type of event that’s centered on training and certifications, this hack will not help. You have to pay for those in order to get the training materials. It’s also not going to work if the conference involves highly secure or privileged information, such as the type where you must be licensed in some capacity or be a member of a trade or professional association in order to even register in the first place.

Otherwise, read on for my, “Oh my god why didn’t I think of this sooner, it’s so obvious!” conference hack.

1. Visit the conference site and review the detailed agenda of sessions.
2. Make a list of the titles of the sessions you’re most interested in, the speaker for each, and the URL of the speaker’s blog or site. Don’t worry about session scheduling conflicts: include every session you want in your list.
3. Go to each speaker’s site and search on the title of that speaker’s session or the keywords of the session title to find all the most recent site or blog content that speaker has posted on that topic. If no search box is available on the site, do a general internet search on the presenter’s name or site title plus the session title or title keywords to find the content.
4. Read the content. If you have questions for the presenter, use the onsite comment sections, email forms or contact forms to ask them.
5. Check back on the sites a week or so after the conference is over, to see if the presenter has shared any of his or her conference content.

Yup. That’s it. And right now you’re probably forehead-palming because it’s such an obvious hack it barely qualifies as a hack at all.

This guy’s got the right idea.

Presenters Generally Re-Purpose The Best Stuff They’ve Already Got For Conference Talks

The speakers at conferences are usually invited specifically because of the popularity of their site or blog, and the relevance of their online content to the subject of the conference. While a truly conscientious speaker will try to bring something with added value to the paying audience, like handouts, slides and maybe a free document template or ebook pamphlet download, it’s a safe bet you can get most of what they’ve got to offer on their site — if not before the conference, then after.

When the conference is over those speakers still want to keep the traffic flowing to their own sites, keep their own books selling, and keep their own booking schedules full. They’re not going to limit their most valuable insights and opinions to conference audiences only.

You Will Miss Out On The Networking & Social Connection Opportunities

Those happenstance moments of connection that happen at large gatherings of people with common interests can definitely change careers and lives, so I am absolutely NOT saying you should avoid attending conferences altogether. If you can afford it or the boss is willing to write the check, by all means go in person.

But when there’s just no way to swing it: hack it from home, for free, instead.