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Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,

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Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the

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Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and ours are more

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Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is about how

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Speaker 1: to make the most of virtual conferences. With in person

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Speaker 1: gatherings still restricted. Many professional groups are hosting their twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty and twenty twenty one conferences. Virtually Using these occasions

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Speaker 1: profitably involves a bit more strategy than just going in person.

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Speaker 1: But there are some upsides to the virtual model too.

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Speaker 1: When people first began working from home because of the coronavirus,

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Speaker 1: many folks tried to replicate whatever they would have done

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Speaker 1: in person. But many months then we're learning to innovate

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Speaker 1: rather than just replicate. The virtual world is like the

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Speaker 1: in person world, but different in some fundament all respects.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to conferences, there is this key difference.

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Speaker 1: An in person one requires you to go somewhere. It

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Speaker 1: is a day or several days apart. You are focused

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Speaker 1: on being outside your usual work life, and in many

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Speaker 1: cases you are set apart from your personal responsibilities too.

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Speaker 1: With virtual conferences, on the other hand, you are still

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Speaker 1: enmeshed in your personal life. Most likely you are in

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Speaker 1: the same home office that you were before. If you

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Speaker 1: were supervising kids digital learning, you are still doing that.

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Speaker 1: If you had traveled to a conference for four days,

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Speaker 1: you would have hired a dog walker put your dog

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Speaker 1: in an overnight care place. But you don't do that

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Speaker 1: for a virtual conference, so you still have to stop

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Speaker 1: now and then to walk the dog. Same with all responsibilities.

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Speaker 1: The point is that real life continues. The conference organizers

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Speaker 1: who are realizing that have made a few concessions to

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Speaker 1: this reality. In general, the programming is more limited a

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Speaker 1: few hours, rather than running from breakfast sessions to late

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Speaker 1: night hospitality suites. That's because most people will still be

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Speaker 1: doing their regular work around it. And second, each session

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Speaker 1: is shorter. People can't be shut in a room for

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Speaker 1: ninety minutes. They might watch a twenty five minute session,

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Speaker 1: they probably won't stay for a two hour one. Also,

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Speaker 1: zoom happy hours cannot be free for alls. You need

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Speaker 1: to put people in small, facilitated groups of fewer than

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Speaker 1: ten folks in order for any real networking to occur.

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Speaker 1: So hopefully whatever virtual conferences you are attending have figured

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Speaker 1: this out. But regardless, you can make the most of

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Speaker 1: the ones that you do attend. While in person conferences

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Speaker 1: are primarily about seeing people in person that you don't

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Speaker 1: work with directly, virtual conferences will be more focused on

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Speaker 1: the programming, so really study the guide. Make a note

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Speaker 1: of which sessions you think will be most you ful

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Speaker 1: to you. Since you are choosing fewer per day, you

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Speaker 1: can truly commit to these, Go ahead and hard schedule

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Speaker 1: them into your calendar. Then use the occasion of the

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Speaker 1: conference to do some of the networking that you would

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Speaker 1: have done in the past. Look through attendees to see

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Speaker 1: who you know in person, or virtually send notes to

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Speaker 1: these people. One useful reason to reach out tell them

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Speaker 1: which sessions you'll be attending because you thought they look good.

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Speaker 1: If these people have not taken the time to study

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Speaker 1: the guide, they'll be happy that you are providing this

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Speaker 1: service for them. You can also suggest getting together for

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Speaker 1: the same sorts of virtual coffees you would have. One

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Speaker 1: idea is to schedule a debrief after any sessions you

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Speaker 1: attend to gather with people you can discuss the material.

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Speaker 1: It's easy enough to call or set up your own

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Speaker 1: zoom session if you've got more than one person. Networking

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Speaker 1: is all about looking for authentic reasons to get in

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Speaker 1: touch with people, and this is definitely one. And you

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Speaker 1: can obviously take advantage of any social programming the conference

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Speaker 1: has set up to volunteer to do one on one

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Speaker 1: mentoring sessions, and if there are small breakout sessions, sign

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Speaker 1: up for those two. There's really no good way to

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Speaker 1: bump into people in the hallway or talk with new

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Speaker 1: folks while you're in line for the restroom, so you

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Speaker 1: are going to have to take advantage of any opportunities

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Speaker 1: to do small group interactions that you can. There are

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Speaker 1: definitely some things that are less than ideal with virtual conferences,

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Speaker 1: but and this is an important thing to keep in mind,

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Speaker 1: Precisely because you are not going somewhere for multiple days,

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Speaker 1: you can attend more virtual conferences than you would have

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Speaker 1: gone to in person. You don't have to find overnight

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Speaker 1: childcare or book extra hours, you don't have to spend

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Speaker 1: money flying somewhere and staying in a hotel, so you

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Speaker 1: could probably do two conferences for the price of one

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Speaker 1: in the past, if not more. Because some organizations are

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Speaker 1: charging less for virtual programming than in person, which makes

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Speaker 1: some sense. They're not paying for venues, meals, security, and

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Speaker 1: so forth. So at least some places are passing along

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Speaker 1: the savings. So rather than pinning all your hopes on

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Speaker 1: one conference this year, try to attend a few and

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Speaker 1: be satisfied with slightly less networking magnificence from each. It's

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Speaker 1: not going to be the same, but it doesn't have

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Speaker 1: to be the same. We can innovate rather than replicate,

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Speaker 1: and while not all is great, we can be happy

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Speaker 1: about some new upsides too. In the meantime, this is Laura,

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Speaker 1: thanks for listening, and here's the succeeding in the New

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Speaker 1: Corner Office. The New Corner Office is a production of

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