There isn’t any question that tech conferences are ubiquitous around the world, and it’s probably overwhelming deciding which ones to attend. If you never have attended one of these, it can do you some considerable good if you are with a company using digital media. Attending also does more than just help you become aware of what technology is out there.
You might run into some situations where you think you shouldn’t attend. Keep in mind the positives far outnumber any negatives. Address some of those cons and see whether you should do things a little differently to reap the benefits in attending.
Let’s take a look at some very good reasons to attend, some of which might surprise you.
Learning New Technology Methodologies
One basic reason to attend a tech conference is to discover new technology tricks and methodologies that could help your business grow. In this case, it may not necessarily mean seeing what’s new and investing in state-of-the-art devices. Instead, you may learn new processes with the technology you already use.
Nearly every tech conference worldwide offers educational courses and lectures to help you advance and learn. The key is to do advance planning on which lectures or hands-on training sessions you should attend. Doing this early helps you make the most of your time at the event while directly helping your business.
Learning How Other Companies Use Technology
Sometimes it’s good just to become an observer at tech conferences and see how various technologies help companies. It’s worth attending merely to see what’s out there and how it’s shaping the way businesses run.
Because of your busy schedule, you likely have little time to read up on the latest changes in business tech. You’ll be able to learn about all of it in one place, which is well worth the money spent for awareness.
Networking With Fellow Peers
Doing networking is already important anyway for your business since it brings valuable contacts for future talent searches or deals. A tech conference is an excellent place to network with power players in the tech industry. Just be sure to bring business cards so you connect with these people and companies.
All it takes is one connection with someone influential, and it could change your life learning something new, or through growth potential.
Elevating Your Own Brand
As Forbes points out, attending a tech conference (or any conference) is going to give you a chance to push your brand to influential people. Considering tech conferences usually bring in the most influential individuals in this field, promoting yourself there is one of the smartest things you can do.
It’s why you need to plan out who you’ll attempt to meet once attending. Linking up with just one influential tech entrepreneur could lead to an exciting partnership you’d otherwise never experience.
Why Should You Not Attend a Tech Conference?
This is really a trick question, because there isn’t any good reason NOT to attend. Although look at this way: Don’t bother to go if you’re just attending alone.
If you’re going to attend, take your co-workers with you. Doing so is going to benefit not only you, but your entire team. They need to know what’s going on in tech as well since they’ll be working with it to help your growth.
You can split up and have each of your employees attend events directly impacting their particular company roles. Now you can expand your knowledge base and easily earn back the fee you spent attending.
Having your entire team attending fosters more innovation, which is the true key to moving you to the next level.
Hopefully we’ll see you at a tech conference in the future, Ndevr has plans to hit a number of WordCamps, DrupalCamps, PHP, Node.js and performance conferences this year.
