Professional development is an important investment and conferences remain valuable experiences in many industries including education, business, and nonprofits. Whether you are attending in person or online, it is important to gain a return on your investment of time and funds.
According to Jillain Veil-Ehnert, director of foundation relations & research grants at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., here are 10 tips and a challenge to help you maximize your conference experiences.
- Download session materials from the conference app and make notes or highlight important content. Whether you go old school with paper and pen or annotate electronically, capture important details while they are on your mind.
- Watch recorded sessions you missed. Or re-watch favorite sessions. With so many interesting and informative sessions, you can extend conference learning by watching those that were recorded.
- Organize your electronic contacts or business cards you received. Make notes on conversations and possible follow-up steps for each person.
- Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn. Update your details if you presented a session or volunteered at for the conference.
- Follow your favorite speakers on social media. Tell them how much you valued their presentation – we all appreciate feedback and our presenters generously shared their time and expertise.
- Sign up for alerts from people, businesses, and organizations you interacted with or learned about.
- Follow podcasts that were referenced or promoted.
- Share resources with co-workers and colleagues not able to attend the Conference.
- Set aside time to reflect on your learning and convert your knowledge into actionable steps for building upon your skills and strengths.
- Create a personal plan for implementing the knowledge and strategies you discovered. Develop a professional workplan for pursuing opportunities you uncovered. Think about future professional development as well as grant strategy.
If you are using conference sessions for continuing education, document the sessions you attended. Follow your certification’s guidelines for documentation. In general, make note of the basic information: session title, speaker bio, session description, how it relates to your certification, and the amount of time you spent in the session.
Challenge yourself by committing to incorporating one idea or action you learned from the Conference each week for eight to ten weeks. Highlight your top eight takeaways, pick a day of the week, and make a commitment to completing the task by the end of that day. Eight weeks to ten weeks of innovative actions or ideas will set you up for future success.
