Speaker 1: Today, I've done the following things as part of my job.
Speaker 1: I've made small talk with random strangers. I've hung out
Speaker 1: in a hotel room with my coworkers, and I've waited
Speaker 1: in long lines for the bathroom. I'm at the strange
Speaker 1: work ritual known as the conference. This is Game Plan. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Rebecca Greenfield and I'm Francesco Levi, and this week
Speaker 1: we're talking about conferences and all the strange and fun
Speaker 1: things that go along with attending them and if they're
Speaker 1: worth going to at all. And we're bringing you this
Speaker 1: episode from an actual conference. We're at w n y
Speaker 1: c's work At Festival, which is a festival for women
Speaker 1: in podcasting, and we're going to tell you kind of
Speaker 1: how we got here and what we think of it.
Speaker 1: But first we should back up and talk about conferences
Speaker 1: in general. Yeah, conferences are this huge, fourteen billion dollar
Speaker 1: industry and people can pay anywhere from a couple hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to a couple of thousands of dollars to attend them,
Speaker 1: Like I think Ted Talks cost thousands of dollars for
Speaker 1: people to go to and kind of spawned this whole
Speaker 1: world of people talking on stages for work. I think
Speaker 1: there's something about going to a conference where, if you
Speaker 1: work in a company, it's like it's almost a status symbol.
Speaker 1: If you get to go to the conference, if your
Speaker 1: boss has signed off on like the travel and expenses
Speaker 1: for you to get on a plane and go somewhere
Speaker 1: and stay in a hotel, it means you're important enough
Speaker 1: to invest that kind of money. And so I think
Speaker 1: that some people want to go to conferences just to
Speaker 1: be able to say they went to a conference. It's
Speaker 1: like makes you important, it's part of your job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you fantasize about being in maybe an exotic location
Speaker 1: and all the networking you're going to do and how
Speaker 1: it's gonna transform your career and you get a break
Speaker 1: from the dull drums of the work life and like
Speaker 1: getting out of the commute, which sounds really nice, but
Speaker 1: I think, as anyone who has gone to a conference knows,
Speaker 1: the reality is not that glamorous. I think you hit
Speaker 1: the nail on the head. Networking is a big part
Speaker 1: of conferences, and there's a there's a nice side to that,
Speaker 1: which is like I get to meet new people in
Speaker 1: my field and maybe advance my career or learn more.
Speaker 1: But it's also like, who really likes networking? I spend
Speaker 1: time at conferences and like hid behind columns and gone
Speaker 1: to the snack bar just to avoid those weird mingling
Speaker 1: sessions where you have to walk up to strangers and
Speaker 1: it's it's so unnatural. Yeah, and even bosses know at
Speaker 1: this point that conferences are maybe not worth all the
Speaker 1: time and effort and money. There was a Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal article that was a trend piece about people basically
Speaker 1: begging their bosses to go to conferences, and their bosses saying,
Speaker 1: you need to show us how much value you're going
Speaker 1: to get out of this, And it talked about people
Speaker 1: putting together power point presentations and showing specifically how they're
Speaker 1: going to meet specific goals that will help them bring
Speaker 1: in more sales or like increased marketing. You can't really
Speaker 1: just use this mushy Oh I'm going to meet people
Speaker 1: and yeah, that'll help the job reasoning anymore. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're here recording a podcast, Like we're trying to do
Speaker 1: our jobs while we're at the conference. And I think
Speaker 1: that part of our justification for being here is that
Speaker 1: we can actually do some work here. But you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are here just to experience the conference,
Speaker 1: and I think that are you know, many of their
Speaker 1: bosses probably wonder like whether they're really doing anything or
Speaker 1: if it's just a boondoggle. Yeah. And there was another
Speaker 1: a Business Week article that was about the female conference circuit,
Speaker 1: which we're participating in at the moment, and the reporter
Speaker 1: talked about how you can feel really great after you
Speaker 1: go to these conferences, like you feel empowered and full
Speaker 1: of ideas, but then often you get back to your
Speaker 1: desk and it's like you don't have anything actionable to
Speaker 1: show for it, And I think bosses hate that. But also, yeah,
Speaker 1: after you're like, well, why did I just spend all
Speaker 1: the time doing all that horrible networking if I can't
Speaker 1: really get anything out of it. Some people maybe are
Speaker 1: naturally really good at sending follow up emails and arranging
Speaker 1: meetings that stemp from weird, awkward conversations you have in
Speaker 1: the bathroom line with people, But I know I'm not.
Speaker 1: And I kind of wonder too, how much how you
Speaker 1: can get the most out of conferences and also enjoy
Speaker 1: them while you're in the moment. Yeah, speaking of enjoying
Speaker 1: conferences in the moment um, what got us thinking about
Speaker 1: conferences as part of your work life. Was that we
Speaker 1: saw this conference that so perfectly was appealing to us. Um,
Speaker 1: that's w n i C conference. It was for female
Speaker 1: podcasters and that's something that we do as part of
Speaker 1: our jobs, but also like would love to learn more about.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've been invited to lots of different
Speaker 1: conferences that are more tangential, but this was just so
Speaker 1: perfect that it was so appealing. And yet in the
Speaker 1: back of my mind, I do have kind of all
Speaker 1: these cons that we've been talking about. What are some
Speaker 1: other things that you're skeptical about? Like, what are you
Speaker 1: what is the big pitfall of conferences for you? Sometimes
Speaker 1: I think I hate panels. I've been to south By
Speaker 1: Southwest and people love it, they rave about it, and
Speaker 1: I got there and I was just overwhelmed and was
Speaker 1: asking myself, Wait, what am I supposed to do? I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to go to panels? And then what I think
Speaker 1: there's some industries. UM, Like I hear my dad, who's
Speaker 1: a doctor, talked about going to conferences and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I learned so much, and I think the panels are
Speaker 1: these specific things that he needs to learn to get better.
Speaker 1: At his job. But I don't find that the panels
Speaker 1: in our industry are that rounded in anything. They feel
Speaker 1: like a lot more vague and you just kind of,
Speaker 1: I don't know a better work, so they feel like yes.
Speaker 1: So I was very skeptical of just going to panels
Speaker 1: all the time and that being somehow helpful for my job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your dad's a doctor, Like, we're not going to hear
Speaker 1: somebody present a groundbreaking research paper for the first time
Speaker 1: on like a new piece of medical technology. If we're lucky,
Speaker 1: we might learn a little bit more about how to
Speaker 1: record a podcast well um, or how to meet people
Speaker 1: in the industry, or how to sell your podcasts or
Speaker 1: talk to advertisers. But also you might not. There's a
Speaker 1: lot that's in the hands of the organizers, and these
Speaker 1: things turn on how charismatic the panelists are, how much
Speaker 1: time they schedule for breaks in between, like how fatigued
Speaker 1: the audience is, like just the vibe of the room.
Speaker 1: And I mean, for me, one of the ways that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get through this conference is just lowering
Speaker 1: my expectations so much that my threshold is basically, if
Speaker 1: I can get one useful insight out of every day
Speaker 1: of this conference, I'll consider a roaring success. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: our expectations were pretty low for this conference, I would say,
Speaker 1: but we were wondering how other people felt, and so
Speaker 1: we talked to a few attendees about their feelings and
Speaker 1: expectations for the conference. So I wanted a little bit
Speaker 1: of a different perspective. UM. So I'm so much on
Speaker 1: the busy side. I really wanted to see what the
Speaker 1: creative side it was like, just in terms of a process.
Speaker 1: I know that so much goes into it, but I
Speaker 1: don't really get to see that side. I'm a podcast enthusiast.
Speaker 1: I'm like such a podcast nerd. So a lot of
Speaker 1: this is just like me being curious personally, but it's
Speaker 1: also really interesting professionally to see the other side of it,
Speaker 1: to get courage to know that I can start a
Speaker 1: new podcast. I was hoping to learn some skills about
Speaker 1: like the technical skills of podcasting and independent podcasting. UM.
Speaker 1: I've worked a little bit in it UM as a
Speaker 1: part of bigger companies, so I was really hoping to
Speaker 1: learn how to do it myself and UM to fill
Speaker 1: in any gaps in my knowledge that I've had so far.
Speaker 1: So I'm really here serving two masters because I want
Speaker 1: to grow my own show and have it me the
Speaker 1: best that it can be. And then at the same time,
Speaker 1: because I did produce other people's podcasts, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I'm doing everything I can do to
Speaker 1: make their shows the best that they can be. So
Speaker 1: definitely I was interested in meeting people um and then
Speaker 1: I also feel like having a lot of teachers is
Speaker 1: a really valuable thing life, and so learning from all
Speaker 1: the different presenters and how and they're talking about sort
Speaker 1: of the same things but also have really different approaches.
Speaker 1: The moment is also somewhere gets super interesting today. Everyone
Speaker 1: we talked to did have kind of realistic expectations. They
Speaker 1: did have a specific goal or some kind of goal
Speaker 1: that they were hoping to reach through this event. And
Speaker 1: that does seem like a good way to go into conferences,
Speaker 1: and something that you and I talked about going into
Speaker 1: this conference. We did sit down and say we have
Speaker 1: one goal, which for us was not to learn how
Speaker 1: to make a podcast, which is why a lot of
Speaker 1: people are here, but to increase our visibility of our show.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people here who work at
Speaker 1: great places, doing great things, and we want them to
Speaker 1: know about us, And I think that just to give
Speaker 1: a little bit of a plug for conferences, because we've
Speaker 1: been kind of down on them. There is something sort
Speaker 1: of indescribable just about being in the same place as
Speaker 1: other people like for us to reach that goal of
Speaker 1: becoming more visible and meeting more people in our industry.
Speaker 1: It's hard to know exactly who the right people to
Speaker 1: talk to are, but there's something about getting a bunch
Speaker 1: of people from the same field, in the same place,
Speaker 1: in the same city where you have conversations. And it
Speaker 1: might not be with exactly the people you expected to
Speaker 1: talk to or about the thing you expected to talk
Speaker 1: to them about, but something unexpected comes out of it.
Speaker 1: And that is both what's good about conferences and what
Speaker 1: can also feel like a weird boondoggle because you can't
Speaker 1: exactly explain that to your boss. I'm going to this
Speaker 1: conference and some magic might happen when I talk to somebody.
Speaker 1: All right, I hate to break up the magic that's
Speaker 1: happening over there, but there's a panel starting in a
Speaker 1: few minutes, so let's check back in later. So I'm tired.
Speaker 1: Conferences are really exhausting. We went to eight hours of
Speaker 1: panels Fords, and even though we work that much and
Speaker 1: we're in a day, it's just there's a lot of
Speaker 1: mental energy happening. And in between panels there were that
Speaker 1: week we tried to network and there were events, and
Speaker 1: I think that it's just, yeah, it's really exhausting. Some
Speaker 1: of it's probably down to the jet lag we did
Speaker 1: fly to l A. But I agree there's something about
Speaker 1: sitting and listening and using your brain and processing ideas
Speaker 1: that makes you tired and also hungry. I was weirdly
Speaker 1: revenous this whole time, Okay, but we had a goal
Speaker 1: and it was to increase our visibility, and first of all,
Speaker 1: I think that helped me handle the panels. Even just
Speaker 1: having that goal. It was like, if I'm not getting
Speaker 1: everything out of this panel, it doesn't matter because that's
Speaker 1: not even my goal. I think it was useful. I
Speaker 1: think coming to the conference was really useful for us
Speaker 1: to let people know that we have a show. Every
Speaker 1: person we talked to was like, oh, you're from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and do you guys do a podcast? Cool? What is it?
Speaker 1: We I said the name like twelve times. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's game Plan, It's game Plan. Um, So I think
Speaker 1: that just that was it. But again we wanted to
Speaker 1: see how other people at the conference felt about their experiences,
Speaker 1: so we talked to a few people. Conferences are weird.
Speaker 1: It's it's like you go and it's it's great because
Speaker 1: you want to get some information and there's usually really
Speaker 1: interesting people um presenting things and it's a great place
Speaker 1: to get inspired. But it's also like you're just with
Speaker 1: a bunch of strangers and like in rooms sitting next
Speaker 1: to strangers all day, and especially if you're not really
Speaker 1: good at talking to strangers. It's just it. It's strange.
Speaker 1: It can be strange. I think this one is a
Speaker 1: lot more fun than a lot of conferences I've been to. UM.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes they can be a little bit stuff.
Speaker 1: You're formal or kind of have a sense of being
Speaker 1: sort of dreagerous. I mean, there's also like this weird
Speaker 1: feeling of like people eyeing each other are up to
Speaker 1: of like are you actually interested in me or you
Speaker 1: just you know, are you just social ranking each other.
Speaker 1: I'm hungry. There's not food here, and I thought there
Speaker 1: might be. It's incredible and kind of reassuring to me
Speaker 1: that there's there's so much agreement among everybody we talked
Speaker 1: to and among you and me that networking just kind
Speaker 1: of sucks, and even if you're an extrovert, it's awkward
Speaker 1: and it's transactional and weird, and like you're going up
Speaker 1: to people you don't know and they know that you're
Speaker 1: talking to them because you want to get something from them.
Speaker 1: But there's two sides to the transaction, so we can
Speaker 1: help other people. That felt nice, and it made it
Speaker 1: easier to talk to people. I think, like, I'm not
Speaker 1: a natural networker, are you. I mean, I don't hate
Speaker 1: it as much as I think the average person, but
Speaker 1: it does. It's it gets it's again really exhausting to
Speaker 1: be on the entire time. And now that we've been
Speaker 1: here for three days, we can consider ourselves complete conference experts.
Speaker 1: I think we're pros at doing the conference circuit and
Speaker 1: we're ready to bring you our top five conference survival
Speaker 1: strategies Number one, Pick your conference. So this conference really
Speaker 1: uniquely appealed to us, and I think it being such
Speaker 1: an interesting topic for us made it worth it. I've
Speaker 1: been to other conferences that were too tangentile, so I
Speaker 1: think it's really important to pick a conference that is
Speaker 1: going to be as interesting to you and your job
Speaker 1: as possible. On the flip side of that, even at
Speaker 1: a conference where it is the ideal conference for you,
Speaker 1: there's no way that everything is going to appeal to you.
Speaker 1: And there will be some panels that are for people
Speaker 1: who want to start indie podcasts, for example, at this conference, um,
Speaker 1: and then there will be panels that are really specifically
Speaker 1: for you. So pick your conference, but keep your expectations realistic.
Speaker 1: Number two, tame the flow of information. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: so much thrown at you, and you can sort of
Speaker 1: feel obligated to record and remember everything everyone says, don't
Speaker 1: do it. I saw a lot of people filling up
Speaker 1: notebooks with notes, and more power to them if that's
Speaker 1: useful to them. But I know if I did that,
Speaker 1: I'd go home with a notebook that I'd never look
Speaker 1: at again. What I tried to do was write down
Speaker 1: literally one or two sentences from every panel that I
Speaker 1: found useful, and I made those sentences action items. So,
Speaker 1: like somebody mentioned something about how they surveyed their podcast audience,
Speaker 1: I made a note meet with the marketing team to
Speaker 1: talk about surveying our podcast audience. That kind of thing
Speaker 1: is that. Actually, I think you can go back to
Speaker 1: your desk and do it. Distills a panel down to
Speaker 1: what's really useful to you and you can just filter
Speaker 1: out everything else. Number three, walk out of bad panels.
Speaker 1: You don't have to sit there. I think that the
Speaker 1: stage can have this power over you. You're looking up
Speaker 1: at people who are really well lit, they're talking into microphones,
Speaker 1: and it might feel rude to leave, but you are
Speaker 1: there to learn stuff. And if a panel doesn't appeal
Speaker 1: to you, walk out, leave early, and definitely don't stay
Speaker 1: for the Q and A really ever Yeah, And when
Speaker 1: you walk out, you actually might get a lot more
Speaker 1: out of talking to somebody who also has walked out
Speaker 1: of the panel and is just standing in line for
Speaker 1: the bathroom. We're waiting to get a refreshment. Number four
Speaker 1: Keep your networking targeted. It can be really intimidating if
Speaker 1: you expect yourself to meet every podcast idol or high
Speaker 1: profile media professional at a conference. So pick one or
Speaker 1: two people that you really want to meet and try
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with them and have a specific
Speaker 1: goal for that conversation. So, for example, we had an
Speaker 1: a sale host of death, sex and Money on our
Speaker 1: podcast months ago, but we talked to her remotely and
Speaker 1: we never met her in person. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: to meet an a sale and put a face to
Speaker 1: the name. We did that. We met our goal. It
Speaker 1: felt achievable, and it was much easier, I think than
Speaker 1: walking into a room full of people and being like,
Speaker 1: I have to make an impression on all these people.
Speaker 1: And finally number five pack a portable charger. We did
Speaker 1: not do this. I had to sit in the bathroom
Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes and charge my phone, which meant I
Speaker 1: was missing important things at the conference, but also it
Speaker 1: was just an unpleasant experience. So yeah, do that. Do
Speaker 1: you know what the technical explanation is for why conferences
Speaker 1: suck so much power out of your devices? Because there
Speaker 1: is one and I can't really understand it. But our
Speaker 1: charger strategy was bad. I don't know something about networks
Speaker 1: crowded whif I doesn't matter. We're not a tech podcast.
Speaker 1: We're conference experts, not WiFi experts. And now it's time
Speaker 1: for half bag takes, happy fake takes. You can call
Speaker 1: into our hotline with your own half bake take at
Speaker 1: two and two six seven zero one Sex sex Francesca,
Speaker 1: what's your half big take. I have one that's inspired
Speaker 1: by this conference. It's about hotel rooms. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: know why, but when I get into a hotel room,
Speaker 1: I kind of trash it, like not rock star style.
Speaker 1: I don't go in and start ripping up the comforter
Speaker 1: and setting garbage cans on fire. But I'm just way
Speaker 1: messier in hotel rooms then I would ever be in
Speaker 1: my own life. I guess that's because somebody is getting
Speaker 1: paid to clean it up. But there's just a certain
Speaker 1: amount of like clothes on the floor and tells everywhere
Speaker 1: that feels fine in a hotel room and wouldn't feel
Speaker 1: fine at home. Yes, we are sitting in my hotel
Speaker 1: room at this very moment, and it's pretty disgusting. So
Speaker 1: I guess I agree with their hat big take, and
Speaker 1: I didn't even know it. Re Becca, what's your hat
Speaker 1: big take? Not conference themed? Staircase themed? I was okay.
Speaker 1: My hat big take is kind of twofold and one.
Speaker 1: I think it's okay to walk down the left side
Speaker 1: of the stairs if nobody is coming and you want
Speaker 1: to expedite the process. I think, like I know, the
Speaker 1: convention is walk on the right, so both people can
Speaker 1: walk on the right going up and down. If you're
Speaker 1: on the left, the people coming in the other direction
Speaker 1: can't walk your way. But if there's no one coming,
Speaker 1: like you run down those stairs. But the caveat is
Speaker 1: if somebody comes up the other side, you need to
Speaker 1: move out of the way immediately as fast as possible.
Speaker 1: And I know that not everyone does this because the
Speaker 1: other day I was walking up the stairs on the
Speaker 1: right side and some man on the left side came
Speaker 1: barreling down at me and scowled at me when I
Speaker 1: was doing my duty to walk up the right side.
Speaker 1: And I was like, dude, I get it, walked on
Speaker 1: the love side, but you can't be mad at me.
Speaker 1: Walk down the left side or up the left side
Speaker 1: for that matter, but be prepared to duck back into line.
Speaker 1: And you are taking a risk that you'll get some
Speaker 1: side I from the people who like dutifully waited and
Speaker 1: they're slow walk up the right side while you sprint
Speaker 1: it up the left, and then you're trying to like
Speaker 1: cut in. But I feel like it's a calculated risk
Speaker 1: and it's worth it because you're absolutely right, like yolo,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Are you gonna stand on
Speaker 1: the stairs forever like a dummy, while the left side
Speaker 1: is totally clear because no one's coming that way. There's
Speaker 1: one subway station in New York. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: name it, but you know what you are people in
Speaker 1: that subway station where everybody does is they just left
Speaker 1: side is totally clear, and people wait forever and ever
Speaker 1: in this endless line. Come on, let's be efficient, let's
Speaker 1: use their time. Well, I'm with you, Becca, you hear
Speaker 1: it a staircase sheep yolo and this has been half
Speaker 1: big takes, half baked takes. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: another episode of game Plan. You can find me on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I'm at rs Greenfield and I'm at Francesca today. You
Speaker 1: can tweet at us. You can call us and leave
Speaker 1: us a voicemail with a half big take or anything
Speaker 1: else you want to say about the show. It's two
Speaker 1: and to six one seven zero one six six. If
Speaker 1: you want to hear from us even more, sign up
Speaker 1: Fire newsletter. You can find it at Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: slash Newsletters and you click the game Plan box and
Speaker 1: then it will appear in your inbox. If you like
Speaker 1: our show, please go to Apple podcast or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen and just take a second to rate us, review us.
Speaker 1: All that stuff really helps increase our visibility, which we
Speaker 1: love you to help us with. The show was produced
Speaker 1: by Liz Smith and Magnus Hendrickson and the head of
Speaker 1: podcast is Franchise Pa Leavy. We'll see you next week. Bye.
Speaker 1: I know you're not recording. The red Line is done.