How to be an SPN Annual Meeting Conference Commando
Chaz Cirame is founder/ Managing Principal of Cc: External Affairs, Inc and Senior Advisor for Iron Light.
This year marks my 11th State Policy Network (SPN) Annual Meeting. The event has grown from a gathering of a couple hundred influential people to a must-attend affair drawing over 1,300 attendees. While it isn’t too difficult to meet and talk with everyone you want at a smaller meeting, catching up with or meeting new people at Annual Meeting can be challenging.
Keith Farazzi, author of the best-selling book Never Eat Alone, offers a sage strategy for overcoming these challenges, which he calls “How to be a Conference Commando.” You can read more about Keith’s system and view his other useful resources on his website.
I’m sharing my favorite of his tips to help you master networking at SPN’s Annual Meeting:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents [Poor] Performance. Great military leaders know most battles are won before the first shot is fired. Whoever determines where, when, and how an engagement is fought usually gains an insurmountable advantage. So get focused.
Weeks before the conference ask yourself: Why are you attending? What do you want to achieve? Who do you want to meet? Be clear about what you want to achieve, create a plan and, execute that plan.
With over a thousand attendees, it is unlikely you’ll just stumble upon all the people you wish to connect with. Plan ahead and schedule meet-ups in advance. SPN has an Annual Meeting App to help you connect with fellow attendees. Use it!
Just as most people lose weight more effectively if they have a workout partner, you’ll make more useful connections if you team up with a wingman. You and your buddy can provide each other motivation, guidance, intelligence, and leads once you share your goals and objectives. Whether you are looking for a new job, trying to learn a new skill set, or seeking organizations to partner with on research or other projects, show up to the conference with somebody who’s on your side and working with you. You both will be more likely to achieve your goals.
Get to know the Big Kahunas. Connect with some of the most well-known folks at the conference or even the conference organizers, spend time with them, and observe how they interact with others.Every meeting has Big Kahunas who are there because they hold a position of leadership and influence. But, often the Big Kahuna holds that mantle because they are personally charismatic, interesting, or simply very friendly people who other attendees gravitate to.
Many important attendees will visit with them during the course of the conference. If you’re with the Big Kahuna, you’ll also meet their visitors. And, you can always ask him or her for an introduction to anyone you really want to meet.
The friendly, knowledgeable staff from SPN are more than willing to help you navigate your first meeting, learn the ropes, and make some of the connections you want with their members. Some of them are Big Kahunas themselves, and almost all of them are great connectors.
True commandos aren’t constrained by the conference agenda. Meet the folks next to you in a session or strike up a conversation with a fellow attendee in the coffee line.
One of the best opportunities to connect is at the plenary sessions. These meals do not have assigned seating, so invite people you meet during the week to join “your table.” Sharing a meal with is a great way to get over small talk, break the ice, and get to know people on a deeper level. Once you’ve made that connection, you need to master the Deep Bump.
You’ve successfully established a new connection and secured a time to reconnect later. It’s Deep Bump time! Move on, meet more people. Don’t be a co-dependent wall-hugger and attach yourself to the first person you meet. You’ve invested too much time and money in this conference to not take the opportunity to meet as many people as you can. You have a lifetime to build relationships with people you meet at the conference, but only a few days to meet them.
One of the most important, and often overlooked, commando moves is the follow-up, which bring us to Farazzi’s final point: follow up or fail!
Don’t wait until you return home to ping the people whose cards you’ve collected.
Send follow-up emails every night or write them during your flight home. Turn your new connections into long-term relationships by following up with a note or dropping in to say hello the next time you are in their state. Do whatever you can to ensure your new contact grows into a long-term relationship.
Don’t follow-up and you’ll become a conference commoner like so many others. In a year’s time you’ll look at that rubber-banded stack of cards on your desk, right next to the previous year’s cards and they will be just that—a rubber-banded stack of cards!
Use these tips to become a SPN Annual Meeting Commando and build valuable lasting relationships…and make sure to pack lots of business cards.
Look me up to say hello in Salt Lake City!
