Sometimes your reputation as a professional, and perhaps even your career, can depend on having a successful business conference, event, trade show, or other public presentation. When it comes down to event venue Toronto services, you may want to get professional help with catering, lighting, entertainment, and other options. Here are a few tips that will ensure that your conference will run with the least friction possible.
Create Atmospheres for Networking
A business conference that has dozens or even hundreds of different professionals working together is one of the most productive networking possibilities in the corporate world. Encourage networking between clients, customers, vendors, partners, affiliates, and others by creating an atmosphere of inclusion and communication. This goes beyond simply giving out nametags so that everyone knows everyone else’s name. Instead, ensure that every is comfortable in the vicinity and demonstrate how it is possible for everyone to communicate.
Demonstrate an elevator pitch to the crowd, named due to its simplicity and brevity in the event that you need to sell yourself in the time that you meet someone on an elevator to where you get to your floor. This can be a fun roleplaying exercise or a serious demonstration, but should include your definition of your professional self and capabilities, a single sentence or two about what it is that you provide to a company, what your ideal customers or co-workers are, and what sets your business apart from all the others in town.
Be a Sponge Rather Than a Cheerleader
A business conference is a very different atmosphere than other social events like a party. Instead of going around ensuring that everyone is having a good time, you want to be a floater, taking in conversations without directly participating. By keeping your eyes and ears open you not only have a better way of determining how the conference is going, but also what business opportunities are available.
Trying to be a social butterfly that drops in and out of everyone’s conversations is rarely a good path to follow. Try to be at every major presentation in order to get a feel of how the largest movers and shakers are projecting themselves in the conference, and take notes when possible to remind yourself of important facts or of upcoming presentations. It is always possible to come across a single sliver of facts or insight that can change your professional capabilities or even your career.
Follow Through
Just like a batter needs to make good contact with the ball and then continue the swing, so too do you need to make sure that you put in effort even after the conference ends. Review all the notes you took and digest the information before talking with anyone. Identify the most important people you talked with or exchanged business cards with, then take the time to personally call them to discuss further details. Do this as soon as you are able to, since the conference may be lost in people’s memory if you wait longer than a few days.
About the Author
Sam Moser is a freelance web content writer who graduated from the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Sam usually uses the St. Andrew’s Club and Conference Centre to host business meetings.
