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5 Reasons Why Professional Conferences Are a Must

Featured Author:

Wendy Piersall

Sparkplugging.com CEO and founder Wendy Piersall has over 8 years’ experience working in a home office, and Sparkplugging is her third home-based business. Wendy's past experience includes several entrepreneurial endeavors, as well as holding two business development positions with Socrates.com and Paladin, a marketing recruiting firm. She also currently writes for the Entrepreneur.com Blog Network and resides in west suburban Chicagoland with her husband and three children.

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The opinions and statements made in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the opinions or representations of the University of Phoenix.

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Over the last two years, I’ve been to well over 10 professional conferences for my industry. The internet and technology field has a lot of events to choose from – but my approach has been to get to as many as humanly possible. While it’s easy to gloss over the importance of networking (don’t we all know it’s important?), conference networking is the ‘cream of the crop’. Sure, conferences cost both time and money to attend – but if I can measure the time I’ve spent and my ROI (return on investment), conferences come out on top.

1. Potential Clients

In every industry in which I’ve worked and attended conferences, I’ve landed nearly 100% of my biggest clients through a person met there. In fact, I can only think of one of my five- or six-figure contracts or deals that didn’t originate at a conference. Heavy hitters in our industries don’t waste time on little events – they go where the crowds are. And hence, that’s where you should go, too.

2. Partnerships

Plenty of events might not attract potential clients, but instead your competitors. Erase “competition” fears from your mind and think “co-opetition”. In most circumstances, there are a multitude of ways to profit, grow, and expand by forming joint partnerships. Creative cross-promotion usually equals a sum greater than its parts.

3. Raise Visibility

One of the biggest benefits my career has experienced from attending conferences is how much they have raised the visibility of my company among my peers. Consistently going to events, meeting more people, and publicizing the trips has enabled me to become somewhat well known in my industry. Doing this will enable you to leverage that visibility into even more publicity – most of it for free.

4. Educational Opportunities

The breakout sessions and seminars offered at conferences are usually quite high quality. Experts are usually presenting knowledge that they charge for elsewhere. And if they do a Q & A session at the end (most do), you can get solid advice from people with whom you normally wouldn’t be able to work.

5. Speaking Opportunities

If I had to credit just one thing with getting great exposure for my company, it would be my relentless pursuit of speaking opportunities. For bigger conferences, I will even speak for free just for the opportunity to showcase my expertise in front of a crowd. Nothing establishes you as an expert faster than speaking about what you know well. And if you’re afraid of public speaking, find a local Toastmasters group to join. It really is quite fun once you get over your nerves!