Most industries have dozens, if not hundreds, of conferences every year, though there may be only one or two “big” ones. Depending on your company and your position, you may attend a conference to advertise the business, make sales, learn new things, or just network.
But how can you tell if an industry conference is worth attending?
Start by Defining Your Goals
Before you can decide whether an industry conference is worth attending, you need to understand what “worth” means to you. What goals are you trying to accomplish by attending this conference? What types of things are you interested in?
These are typically the goals motivating conference attendees, in some combination:
- Learning. Some people attend industry conferences primarily for learning opportunities. They’re interested in picking up new skills, gaining new industry knowledge, or learning about upcoming industry changes, products, and services that have the potential to change the industry. You might be interested in knowledge for advancing your career, starting a new business, or even learning about your target demographics.
- Presenting/selling. Others are more interested in presenting or selling. They want to advertise the brand, build their reputation, or sell something specific to industry attendees. In some cases, this can be quite profitable, giving you an opportunity to sell your book, reach prospective new clients, or just spread the word about your brand.
- Networking. Industry conferences are also excellent opportunities for networking. Whether you’re looking for new partners, employees, or just people to trade information with, you’ll likely find them in spades at a conference.
What’s motivating you? What are you hoping to get out of this conference?
Research Conferences
Next, look up a list of upcoming conferences in your industry and start comparing them apples to apples. Figure out where they’re located, how much they cost, what kind of attendance they’re expecting, and what types of events and seminars are available. Already, you’ll be able to identify some industry conferences that seem very valuable and some that probably aren’t worth pursuing.
Study the Variables
With the data in front of you, you can study the most important variables:
- Primary cost of attendance. Most conferences are going to cost at least a few hundred dollars to attend per attendee, if not a few thousand. In many cases, these prices are easy to explain; if you land even a few new clients, or walk away with information that can advance your career, it’s worth the investment. But in other cases, the prices are difficult to justify.
- Secondary costs of attendance. You should also think about the secondary costs of attendance. If you’re the one paying, you’ll be responsible for the costs of travel, lodging, food, and event-specific interactions. In some cases, these costs can rise to be more than the primary cost of attendance.
- Presentation/selling opportunities. What kind of presentation and selling opportunities are going to be available at this conference? Are you going to get the opportunity to talk to people publicly? Will you be able to sell your main products and services? Have you attended conferences like this in the past, and if so, how much did you sell there? If you can estimate your net proceeds based on an estimate of how many new clients you can win, you can compare this net earnings figure to the cost of attendance.
- Networking opportunities. Next, estimate the networking opportunities you’ll likely receive by attending this conference. How many people typically attend a conference like this? Are there any prominent people who are going to be attending? And how valuable is networking to you?
- Potential knowledge value. We all know that knowledge is valuable, but estimating the objective value of specific knowledge can be challenging, especially in a conference setting. Do you anticipate learning skills or industry developments that have measurable value? Are you banking on learning more implicit, hard to measure things as well? If the knowledge you glean from this conference leads you to develop a new, hot-selling product, or earn a promotion and a pay raise at your place of business, the cost of attending is probably well worth it.
- Personal disposition. Also keep your personal disposition in mind. Are you genuinely looking forward to this conference, and are you interested in interacting with other people in your industry? Or do you typically hate navigating conventions? Your personal interest can justifiably increase the value of the conference to you – or give you more reasons not to go.
Chances are, if you dig deep enough, you’ll be able to find at least one industry conference that makes sense for you to attend. If you proactively acknowledge your most important attendance goals, spend time preparing, and treat your attendance as a genuine investment, you’ll walk away with plenty of value.