What are the important takeaways when attending professional conferences?

This past month was full of excitement and an interesting workload for our teams. At this time, at the end of the year, or even more- end of a decade, we look back at ourselves, examining our performance and how to make it better in the decade to come. Luckily for that, we attended some big international conferences, each with its own agenda, looking for ways to upscale our existing efforts and grow from knowledge and experience.

The first summit was Employer Brand Leadership by TheMarker Labels and Xtra mile, intended to teach us both HR and Marketing people the values of investing in the people who make the company work, preform and alive. The key takeaway from that event was to first understand your current employees and work environment. What is the DNA and values that we each hold looking at our day to day work? How can the company grow using its people’s best qualities? While it’s was mostly for HR officials, marketing has everything to do with it, and with the success of the company bringing new people that will fit into the company DNA. In today’s digital era, the recruitment process doesn’t start with an interview, it starts from the first time the person is exposed to the position online and starting to investigate the company website, social pages, articles across the web and Glassdoor information.

Later on, we had the privilege of attending the App Promotion Summit in Berlin, meeting app owners and developers from across Europe, looking for innovating technologies helping apps perform better, reaching new audiences and maximizing marketing budgets.
With more than 2.47 million android apps and 2.2 million iOS apps worldwide, having more than 6,100 apps register to the App Store and Play Store daily, this competition is fierce, and everyone wants to make it to the top of the listings. This might the biggest summit among the app industry closing the year, so as expected it was a big conference with the best of the industry.

It doesn’t matter which conference you’re planning to attend in 2020, here are some key tips that are important to remember when planning your event schedule for the next year.

Don’t simply RSVP, plan!

We get tones of invites throughout the year. Some are more relevant than others to our day-to-day work, and some are important because of the people we know are going to be there. Traveling for a two days conference to the Pacific coast sounds like a blast, but at the end of the day will it return its investment?
Make sure to choose those really important ones, and plan ahead by researching the event, including the speakers and sponsors. Don’t waste precious time during the event itself trying to understand where to go and which panel to attend.

Look around you and start mingling. People just like you are attending as well, and you can learn a lot for them by simply asking why they chose this panel or session.

Get inspired: This is the time for you to get as much information and tools as possible. These events are expensive and take precious time from your daily tasks. But once there, devote your full attention and get as much as possible. Those panels and lectures we’re tailor-made for that event; they are full of knowledge that can benefit you and the company for the short and long term- depending on how you chew on that data and use it. Every now and then you need a break from your desk and your office. Get inspired and inspire others.

Limitless Networking: Of course, every event offers networking opportunities. Meeting face to face is essential for truly authenticate a relationship that was starting to build over email correspondence. Meeting someone you’ve been talking to for a long time, and now meeting in person, makes this “work” relationship more validated. With the help of the mobile and social apps you can get instantly connected to your peers from all over the world, especially to better manage your time during this one-day conference. Furthermore, since the event targets Senior growth practitioners, you interact with a group of people who share the same problems as you do on a daily basis: how to streamline app user campaigns on a global level, how to unify your loyal users across multiple media channels, what are the different strategies other companies are using, and how to best leverage those success stories for our own success.

It is FUN: The event and the networking don’t stop after conference hours. The after-parties organized by the sponsors will give you a range of options — from cocktail lounges with live music to exploring the nightlife of hosting city or country.