MBA2378 Q&A Wednesday: Should I attend SXSW or is it a waste of money?

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Tickets are not cheap. Would love your advice. This is a solid question because a lot of these conferences are expensive. South by Southwest is happening in Sydney in October. Tickets range from $1,200 to $1,700. That's the early price, gets more expensive later, and it goes on for over a week. So in this lesson we're going to explore should you go to this conference or any expensive conference that's going to cost you money, time and energy? How can you evaluate if this is a good investment in you and your business? Because conferences come every year. Is this one worth going to every year or a year? I'll show you how you can decide Whether it's South by Southwest or any other conference, let's get into it, let's get down to business. For those who are unfamiliar, south by Southwest is a huge conference slash festival that happens every year. It's usually in Austin, Texas. This year they have it in Sydney, in Australia. And the conference is usually about three major things. Technology and innovation, gaming and music and film. Most organizations, companies, experts are going to this conference because what's going to be discussed, what's going to be shared, is on the bleeding edge of these categories. But I want to step back a bit and talk a little bit about what criteria I use to evaluate if I should attend a particular event or conference. Number one, when you go to a conference, it's really about meeting interesting people. Everything that's happening at the conference, the sessions, the talks, the screenings, the expo, all those kind of events, it's kind of like the backdrop, it's kind of like the party that gets created to invite people and a chance for you to meet interesting people. Yes, there's great content and yes, there's some interesting things you're gonna learn and gonna kind of pique your interest and maybe even change your mindset on a few things. But the whole point of going to a really good conference is what kind of people in it brings together. It's hard to put a price tag on that because how are you going to manufacture that kind of situation where you have all these interesting people coming in one place where you can talk and meet with them? It's hard for you to pull this off on your own. It's hard for you to do this and make that happen. Yeah, you can meet up with people, have dinner, but that's a lot of effort. It's scattered over a lot of time and it's really forced and really hard to kind of make happen. So really what the conference is offering is a chance for you to meet interesting people. And why do I think that a lot of conferences are worth going to? Is because people that go to conferences, they're ambitious, they're hard working, they're big thinkers, they believe in investing in themselves and meeting new people just like you. So good people to learn from and to meet. I learned this from Derek Sivers. He has a great blog post on how to attend a conference. You can Google and find it. It's super easy. So with this in mind, I'm really just evaluating, will this conference bring interesting people that I can meet? Will it gather people that I want to get to know, people that I want to learn From. And in my case, I would say yes for south by Southwest, because this is the first time it's happening in Sydney. It's going to be a pretty big deal. And I'm trying to make up for lost time because we were in our homes for two years straight for Covid. Right. And we didn't have a chance to kind of meet new people. And we kind of have to do that now and get out of our comfort zone and get out of our introverted zone sometimes. So that's the first thing I want to kind of address when it comes to this question now. Is it worth the price? Well, yes. These tickets are expensive. This is not a conference that costs, you know, 300, 400, $500. But I'm going to tell you, I attend a lot of conferences. I am in this space. I speak on all the stages. And conferences in general have just gotten more expensive because things have gotten more expensive. Inflation. It's very hard to find a conference ticket that's $500. You're going to pay 7, 800, $1,000 for a conference ticket. And for what includes south by Southwest, all the different tracks, all the different sessions, the music festivals. It's over a week long. It's actually pretty good value, in my opinion. I usually have a couple rules of thumb if I'm going to meet interesting people. I was number one. Then it's a tick. Yes. If I feel like I will grow as a person, as a business owner from this, if I'm going to get better, am I going to have a few ideas I can think about or work on afterwards? It's going to be worth it. It's an investment. It's a pretty good business expense. Now, here is probably the most important thing you got to keep in mind. If you buy a ticket to any conference, if you're going to invest the money and you're taking time off on your calendar, go all in, okay? Don't get distracted with other things. Clear your calendar. Tell your team that you're not available. You made the investment. Reap the benefits of this investment. Right. If you're half in, half out, distracted, you're really going to feel like you didn't get the most out of it. You want to go all in. Be fully focused. Get into those sessions. Take notes, journal, take some photos, enjoy yourself. Maybe even do a video kind of documentation of what you learned in each session. A little vlog. You might even want to post that on social. Great content. Get to know people, get their contacts on your phone when they Say, hey, I run this website. It's called xyz. Look it up on your phone and save it. Bookmark it so you can check it out later. When they say, I got a YouTube channel, open up YouTube and subscribe to their channel so that you can show their support and watch our content later and follow up later with them so that you can have a lasting relationship. Go all in, okay? Have your meals there. Enjoy yourself. If you want to book a hotel. If you're coming out of town and you're close to the action, book a hotel right in the middle of the conference or the conference hotel itself. If I'm going to a conference out of town, I always book the hotel that is a part of the conference or right there. Because I want to optimize, for convenience. I want to be right there in the action. I just want to, you know, go up the elevator and roll into bed when it's all done. If you're in town and you are commuting from your home, awesome. Spend the whole day there. Have all your meals with the people that you meet. Just go all in. You paid the money. You have the time on your calendar. Do it now. If you don't have the time to go all in. If for some reason you feel like it's going to be a busy week or have other commitments and you're like, I'm going to pop in and pop out and meet some people and try to do it all, I'm not really a big fan of that. This is why I like to plan my year in advance. I like to make sure that I make time for these important events. And I'm not forcing it, okay? Because there's nothing worse than feeling like you're not 100% working or 100%, you know, getting the best out of the conference. This episode is brought to you by the Jordan Harbinger Show. Are you looking for a new podcast? That's smart, that's interesting, that has great conversations with some amazing guests. Well, I highly recommend the Jordan Harbinger Show. I'm an avid listener because in my opinion, it's the best interview podcast out there. The host, Jordan Harbinger, a good buddy of mine, he does a lot of great research about the guests. 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Now. I want to touch on a little bit south by Southwest specifically because that's today's question from Drew. I've never attended a South by Southwest. This is my first one, but I've heard nothing but Great things from it. I've heard nothing but interesting stories, innovations coming out of this conference, great speeches, There's a tremendous amount of fomo, south by Southwest when it happens on social media, because there's so much action happening. Just based off what I've seen and heard from friends who attended, this is a conference that's well done. This is worth doing. It's kind of one of the top tier conferences in the world. So if you're gonna go with a conference, you might as well go with one that has a huge and impressive reputation. The other thing I hear about south by Southwest and seen online is that it's a lot of fun. You get to try out brand new games, virtual reality, you listen to indie bands and great films get screened there for the first time. The latest greatest in technology gets featured at the expo. So you get to kind of try it firsthand and see where the feature is going. Generally this is a conference that makes you feel like, man, I gotta start thinking bigger. And I like those kinds of experiences because we get stuck in our business, in our world, we think in a certain way. It's good to step out of there for a moment and think differently about things, expand our perspective and learn what others are doing in different industries. So if you're going to go have some fun, enjoy it. You can work, learn, network and have fun at the same time. It could be fun and rewarding even though it's a business conference. Thanks so much for listening to the 100 MBA show. If you got a question you want to ask here on the $100 NBA show, go ahead and email me over at omar@100mba.net. I'll answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday. Let me know if you want to keep your name anonymous or use your first name. But by asking a question, you not only get the answer to that question, but you help other people that have a similar question and are in a similar situation as you. Before I go on to leave you with this. Part of your job as a founder, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, is to build your network. They always say your network is your net worth. And it's true because you could take it anywhere. You go out of business, you still have your network. You sell a business, you still have your network. You have tremendous success. Awesome. You still have your network. The point here is that your network is an asset that you get to keep and rely on and learn from and grow from and expand. So always invest in it. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Friday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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