So! You’ve been told that attending conferences are a fantastic way to build your business. Conference organizers won’t hesitate to shout about all the great connections, the successful JV’s and that one break that exploded someone’s business.

Is it true? Having attended several myself, I’ll very cautiously say… they could be.

A conference will absolutely not help you that much if you aren’t prepared to do a little bit of work before and after. It won’t help you, if you aren’t clear why you’re going, except the idea of mingling with the cool kids. Sorry, but that is a poor reason to go. I’d know that one because I made the same mistake. More than once.

A conference is not a vacation! It’s an investment. Because it is an investment and you’re spending a good chunk of money for travel, hotel, and food, you would be wise to try to increase your returns.

That doesn’t mean you can’t let your hair down, have fun, socialize, get to know others better. YES! By all means do all that. But…

Be sure you get more out of that so that in addition to having fun, you come home with a plan that will push things forward if not skyrocket it. I absolutely love how Brittany Leaning at Hubspot outlined several conference goals AND gave each a sample checklist to boot. A great place to start to make sure you get the most bang for all that money you’ll be spending going to one.

I’m definitely stealing one of those checklists for my next conference which, by the way, would be in November for Webcamp Live. Then, in March, I’ll be at NAMS. If you’re going to be at either one, seek me out and we can compare conference goal lists.