Conferencing With Confidence

Nervous about attending a conference? If you’re attending BlissDom Canada this year, you’ll be in the company of the friendliest and most gracious group you’ll ever meet. If you’d like me to put your mind at ease, I shared a few simple tips in this post called Be Conference Classy, Not Conference Clueless. 

This post is about a NEW conference strategy. Something different from common sense tips like wear comfy shoes, carry breath mints in your purse and drink plenty of water throughout the day because mingling is dehydrating.

This strategy is intended to add extra meaning and purpose to your conference experience.

First of all, blogging and social media conferences can be overwhelming. It’s a case of so much to do, so little time. You are presented with all kinds of amazing information and you want to soak it all in. You get fired up and want to know everything!

You’re also in a room filled with friends, new and old, and you want to catch up with everyone single one. The thing is, you can’t. Not really.

To get the most of your experience:

1. Choose an area or two of growth to explore. Improving your writing, monetizing your blog, learning SEO? Whatever it is, focus on the topic that interests you most — take notes, chat with experts in your area of interest, and seek out other bloggers who are interested in the same area. Any additional information you pick up along the way is gravy.

2. Be friendly and inclusive. If someone approaches you, engage and make him or her glad they took the time to speak with you. Also, don’t assume people know who you are. We bloggers tend to think we’re more important than we really are. Introduce yourself by name, twitter handle, and blog title. People may only know you by one of those, so by including all three, you’re giving them a chance to identify you.

3. Do some ground work. Some of the most creative and talented people from across North America will attend BlissDom Canada. You’ll want to connect with all of them. But again, you can’t. Not really and truly. Before the conference, choose a handful of bloggers whom you admire — find out more about them and choose one of their posts that you connect with. Then seek them out at BlissDom. Introduce yourself and compliment them SINCERELY. Maybe you like their blog layout or perhaps you related to a post they wrote about a challenge they faced, or maybe you love the photos they take. Tell them. We’re all quick to “like” an article on Facebook or to RT a blog post we enjoyed, but to receive such validation in person? That’s bliss.

See you at BlissDom!

Lisa Thornbury... @LisaThornbury... YMC's Party Mummy.... Author of ForeverinMomGenes.com