Why to go and what to do at a web design conference

May 11th 2009

I attended the Future of Web Design conference for the 2nd time last week, I first went in 2007 and since then I’ve been to the @media conference twice and dConstruct once as well.  During this time I’ve learnt a few things about how to make the most of the experience, based on these key points.

Be there

Well, obviously right? Yeah but no but don’t think you can just wait until it is over and download all the slides/mp3s/videos. It is not the same – I’d say the experience is largely about meeting other people (more about that later).

Choose carefully

Don’t go just for the sake of it, go because the speakers and presentations lined up are of interest to you. You don’t have to go to every web design conference that comes around and you don’t necessarily have to go every year.

“But I can’t afford the ticket or time”

Well, booking early helps

Buying the early bird tickets not only saves you money, it pre-commits you to the event so far in the future you can’t possibly argue you won’t have time. Whereas when you leave it to the last minute you’ll either not have as much work on as you would like so feel like you can’t afford the ticket, or you’ll be overwhelmed with project work and think you can’t afford the time. You CAN afford the time because you MUST: it is time well spent on professional development and networking! The other bonus of booking so far in advance is that by the time the event comes round you’ve already paid off the credit card bill and it feels like you’re going for free!

The other option might be to volunteer your services as a helper on the day. I’ve done this at @media and I know someone who volunteered for dConstruct last year.

Talk to other attendees at every opportunity (and not just your colleagues!) 

Conferences aren’t only about the presenters, there are tonnes of other interesting and experienced professionals there to learn from and share with.  As someone who tends to go to conferences alone, I can’t emphasize this enough.  You might think you are lucky to be there with your colleagues, but if you only talk to them you are missing out!

• queueing for a coffee or waiting for the next presentation to start? Talk to the person next to you
• seen someone you’ve always admired? Go and say hello (*)
• know someone is there that you want to meet but you don’t know what they look like? Dm/email/@reply them and arrange to meet at a break
• sitting alone at break time? Sit next to someone else on their own and ask how they are finding the conference
• don’t hang around with your colleagues/buddies the whole time. If you are there with colleagues or friends, try and make a point of splitting up one break time and talking to other people you don’t know. 

*Do talk to the presenters/celebrities – they want to meet people too

Presenters are just like you and me, they just had the nerve to get on stage and talk to us, so don’t think they don’t want to meet new people too.  And if you see someone you have admired from afar, do go and introduce yourself (†) because they are a real person too, they just have more followers/subscribers than we do (so far!). Don’t forget that the speakers might not know many people at the conference either, especially if they have come from overseas.

†Have questions or comments prepared to ask/share with someone you would like to meet 

This makes approaching them so much easier when you have more to say than “You’re my hero!”. Think of a blog post they’ve written that particularly interested you or a project they have done that you would like to know more about. If you can’t think of a specific question, check their twitter stream and see if there is something they’ve said recently you can respond to.

Have the right expectations

Remember that this is a conference and not a workshop. Don’t expect to get a tutorial in how to do that really cool thing that everyone is talking about these days, as that is not what the presentations are for. Go to workshops or read/download online tutorials for that kind of thing.

Go to the pre + after parties

If you have come from out of town and arrive the day before, make a point of trying to hook up with some other attendees the night before the conference. You probably have some friends from twitter that you’ve never met – now is the chance. This gives you the added advantage of having some friendly faces to see the next day at the conference and also frees up some time for you to speak to people you don’t already know on the big day. 

Also make sure to keep the evening after the conference free so that you can continue to socialize with those you’ve met during the day and meet new people as well.

Keep in touch with the people you meet

The whole point for me about meeting people at a conference, is that they are people I can keep in touch with via twitter, blogs and future meetups.  As someone who works from home, the people I meet (and those I haven’t met but who I follow on twitter) are my colleagues, my peers, and keeping in contact with them keeps me sane. 

A footnote

One person I met (at an unofficial pre conference meetup) was Yaili, a Portugese web designer living in London.  She posted an excellent blogpost shortly after #fowd called “How To Always Enjoy A Conference” which almost made me delete the draft of this post because I felt it was so similar. In the end I decided to post this anyway (5 days later – look, I had to design and build my blog first ok?!) because I hope I’m putting a slightly different slant on the story. I hope you will agree with this but go and read Yaili’s post too if you haven’t already.

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