Last year I attended my first work conference ever! As you can imagine, I was very excited yet nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. It is very common for employers to send their employees to work conferences all across the country (and sometimes even the world). Thankfully I have a very supportive boss who always encourages me to take advantage of all the opportunities that are presented to me. This specific conference was a communications conference where people from different universities all over California gathered to learn about communicating effectively, social media and best communication practices for public universities (which is the type of university that I work at).
Since this was my first conference there are definitely things I wish I knew before. Let’s get started:
What to bring
This is a big one because going to a work conference is not like going to work. I repeat it is not like going to work. Think about it this way. When you go to work you have your desk or work area and you know where everything is and you keep some things at your desk that you don’t have to carry back and forth from home to work and vice versa. I quickly realized that I was not as prepared as I would have liked for this conference as I wish I would have been. Here’s a short checklist of things you should bring to your first conference:
Business Cards- these are essential! At the conference that I was at there were people from all over California. When you are there you will undoubtedly be networking and when someone asks for a business card you want to hand them something they can keep. Sadly I forgot mine’s so when people would ask for one I would have to tell them that I forgot them. FAIL!
Charging cords and devices: This one is pretty self explanatory. This was another fail for me. The morning of the conference I didn’t think much of it and just grabbed my everyday purse and headed out the door without realizing that I only keep a phone charger at my desk and in my car. Thankfully, I had fully charged my phone before leaving my house so I made sure to not use it as much so that the battery would last all day- which again, thankfully it did.
Water bottle: I always think that it is a good idea to carry a water bottle with me at all times, just in case I get thirsty and there’s no water around. At this specific conference they had water dispensers but not water bottles, so bringing a water bottle definitely saved my life.
Hand Sanitizer: This one is optional but always good to have. You will be meeting a lot of people and shaking a lot of people’s hands so instead of having to go to the restroom lots of times, it’s good to have this handy to get rid of some of the many germs that are being spread around.
Sweater: I live in California and right before the day of the conference we had a few really hot days (like 100 degrees farenheit high) so I thought I obviously wouldn’t need a sweater but boy was I wrong. The location where the conference was being held was extremely cold. It seemed to me that they had the AC on as if it was 100 degrees outside. Thankfully I brought a sweater with me, which kept me comfortable. So this is definitely a must!
Notebook and Pen (or something to take notes with): This one seems obvious because, of course you’ll be somewhere where you’re learning so naturally you want to take notes right? Well, I had the intention of bringing a notebook and pen with me but of course, I forgot it at home. Luckily, for the most part conferences will often have booths where people give out pens and such but don’t be like me and prepare as much as possible.
Cash: This is always a good idea. My company reimburses us for all conference related expenses but it’s always important to carry cash (especially for parking purposes). You don’t want to be worried about not being able to park in the parking structure because you forgot cash.
What to Wear
This one is definitely a tricky one. On the confirmation email that the organizers sent out a few days before the conference they said to “Be comfortable. Please be sure to dress in casual business attire. Polo shirts celebrating your campus or department identity are always welcome”. After reading this I wasn’t sure if I should dress more on the casual side or if I should dress up a little more. Well, let me tell you. Most people on day 1 of this two day conference were dressed on the business side. A lot of people were wearing dress pants and a nice top while many even had blazers. So my advice here would be to definitely dress a little on the business side (then you can dress a little more casual on the second day if you wish).
How to Act
If I had to take a guess, I would say that a high percentage of new professionals would be just a little nervous about attending their first conference. A lot of people that I’ve come across, especially young professionals, get really nervous when it comes to networking and interacting with other professionals in the field. When I was thinking about this post and what I wanted to write about I thought about how I felt before attending this conference. I wasn’t nervous per se but, I was a little bit anxious, mainly because I didn’t know what to expect.
For this one my best advice would be to walk into the conference with an open mind and be prepared with a few questions you would ask people there as an icebreaker. I noticed that people would always ask each other the same kind of questions which would then open up to other conversations. Some of these questions were:
- “Hi. What school do you work at?”.
- “What do you do there?”
- “How long have you been there?”
- “Where did you work before?”
- “What’s your educational background/where did you go to school?”
These are all questions that are great conversation openers. From there the conversation naturally opens up and you’d be amazed at what you can learn from others. In terms of a conversation, I know that it can seem intimidating or make you anxious but always approach conversations with genuine interest and believe me, you will not only learn a lot but have a good time getting to know other people.
Fun Fact: The first person that I met told me that she had just started working at the university where she was from. When I asked her where she worked before it turned out that her previous job and my previous job were literally across the street from each other!. What a small world right?!
Anyways, all in all I learned a lot by attending this conference. The workshops were great and they just made me want to progress in my career even more. I also learned a lot of things that had nothing to do with the topics presented at this conference (hence all my tips above). I’m excited to have more opportunities like this where I can learn from my mistakes and learn even more new things.
I know this blog was long but I really think that it’s worth the read so that you can be as prepared as possible when you get the chance to attend your first conference.
As always thank you for reading my posts.
XOXO
Marisol
