Have you ever attended a convention that felt like a waste of time?
Conventions and conferences can be a good investment in your career. But they can also be time wasters if you don’t choose wisely. Becky Pike Pluth has some tips on how you can know if it’s a good conference BEFORE you attend.
First, conferences are a great way to network, grow relationships and hear research about your industry. If you’re looking for a specific conference in your industry, make sure to first look at the speakers before you decide.
Go on the website and look at the speakers. When you look at the speakers, look for people with a background in the following things:
- Scientific-based speaker: It’s important to go to speakers who are not speaking on behalf of their opinions but rather speaking from scientific research. Look for someone who is well known in their research or well known in that industry.
- Real-world learning professionals: Go to a speaker who is very active in the industry. They should be in the weeds of that industry and be able to speak on their experience from the real world.
- Statements backed with evidence: Look for research being presented in the blurb about the speaker. This will tell you that the person will not be speaking in hypotheticals but rather be speaking from evidence and research.
Second, take a look into the marketing of the conference or convention. If it seems too good to be true, pause and think for a moment. If you notice that the marketing of the event is a bit over the top, make sure to think before you attend this conference.
Finally, the last thing to look for in a good convention or conference is, debunked tactics. If the convention only uses shiny, fancy words like microleaning or neuroscience, you have to make sure to ignore the shine and see if this conference really knows what it is talking about.
Making sure you are going to a conference that will provide yourself and your company with something in return. Find conferences and conventions that will help your company achieve what it is looking to do in 2019.
One conference in particular, The Bob Pike Group’s annual conference in September, does not just use fancy, shiny words but rather is research based.
At this conference, you’ll learn that lecture-based training is boring and unproductive. A participant-centered approach turns training into an exciting and effective process that sparks curiosity in every learner. Your people will learn more in less time and have fun in the process. CTT 2019 is the only conference that models participant-centered training to you from start to finish.
Sign up today!
