Donna Genie explains how to pick conferences worth your time. Skip events where speakers paid to be there, since they're usually selling something. Look for genuine experts and practitioners instead, and research who's actually speaking before you sign up.
As the new year approaches, it's time to check out where you're going to get some new knowledge this year and where you can get a burst of energy to help you move your business to that next level. Every year I look at conference lineups and kind of judge where I want to go. There are a lot of accounting conferences out there, and there's some that I really love and some that I would never go to. But when you're looking at places to go meet with your people and gain industry knowledge and make good connections, I want to give you a few tips on what to look for to make sure you're getting the best bang for your buck. Now, an example here is I was looking at some accounting conferences I was interested in trying that I had never been to, and one of which the agenda just came out, and it's not until October, but they just put out their initial efforts of what's going to happen at that conference, and they're still looking for sponsors for the event. So I noticed that they are looking for speakers to speak at the conference, and those are pay to play. Now, you may not think much of that at first, but let me give you a little insight. Typically, I, as an attendee at these conferences, am paying a fee to go to the conference. I'm paying for the hotel, the food, all the stuff to travel to get there. So I want to make sure I'm getting really valuable information. Which would you rather attend? A speaking. A person speaking on the stage who has knowledge to share because they're specialists, they're an expert, and they're the best one to talk to you about that piece of knowledge, or somebody who paid $5,000 to be a speaker at that conference, or $10,000 or $2,500, whatever the fee. Would you rather have somebody standing in front of you who paid to be there, or would you rather have somebody who has the best knowledge? Now, occasionally that could be the same, but most cases it's not. I know another conference that I've pretty much will not attend anymore because it's pay to play on all sides. If I go, I have to pay to be there, but every person standing on that stage has paid to talk to me. So guess what? They're giving me a sales pitch. They're not there just to impart knowledge. They're there to give me this much knowledge so that I'll pay to get all the rest for them. As a vendor, it doesn't taste good in my mouth. I don't know about yours. I want to learn information from the best in class, the best practices, the best things going on. And I would hope that conference organizers are trying to select the speakers who will know the most, not the ones who will pay the most or can pay the most. Typically, those have to be really big players to be able to pay that much to speak to an audience. You'll miss out on the smaller providers who can't afford to do that, but may have the better knowledge than the person who's giving you a sales pitch. Also, I want to know those people who are on the stage giving me that sales pitch. Are they the doers in the company who know all the ins and outs? Are they salespeople? I mean, if I was a big company and I was paying $10,000 to have one of my people speak on a stage, I'd want to generate sales, not just impart knowledge. So do a little background checking on all the conferences you plan to attend. Get that professional knowledge, professional development, but make sure you're getting it in the right ways.
