10 universal tips for visitors to any IT conference

    Modern information technology is hard to imagine without conferences. Such events offer an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences, learn something new in their field, and keep abreast of the latest trends. Without all this, the qualitative development of the IT sphere is simply impossible.



    However, it is not enough just to attend a conference to get out of this. It is important to behave correctly on it, so that at the end of the event you can be sure that the time and money spent on the seminar has fully paid off. Especially for such cases, we have prepared the TOP-10 universal tips that will not only come in handy during any IT conference, but will also help reduce your costs of attending the event and prepare for it correctly.


    The recommendations are based on the conferences that our company makes:SQA Days , Software Project Management Conference , Analyst Days, and a number of others ...

    For those who regularly attend conferences, these tips may seem trite and even a little naive, but since not every year attends dozens of meetings, conferences and forums, we are sure that most our readers, they will be useful in one way or another.

    1. Choose events carefully. Any conference follows a simple logic: you spend your time and money, and in return gain knowledge and experience. Naturally, the first two things are not worth scattering. So, trying to attend all possible IT-events is not a good idea. It is unlikely that a tester-junior will benefit from a conference on project management, at least at this stage of his career.
    But you should not rush to conclusions. To make the final decision whether you need this event, carefully study the list of reports and participants. Actual topics often wander from one area to another, so it may happen that a question of interest is raised at a conference not in your specialty. And if you want to thoroughly understand it, then it is worth spending time (and often also money for a ticket) to find out the opinions and recipes of those who have already filled a lot of "bumps".

    2. For good events it is better to register early. To get to the conference, you must first register for it. It would seem a banal rule. But how many opportunities were missed to visit IT forums due to the fact that the subtleties of this process were forgotten. At some conferences, the number of participants is limited, at others it is necessary to register up to a certain number, and the third ones can be reached only by special invitations that are issued upon personal request.
    Therefore, if you saw an event that interested you, do not put the matter in the long run. Become a member as soon as possible. Otherwise, you can simply not get to the best and most useful events. In addition, early registration is often much cheaper than last day recording.

    3.Tell the leader about the upcoming conference . Many IT companies have a good tradition of sending their employees to all kinds of training events. Naturally, in most cases, a visit to such events is paid by the company itself.
    But, of course, you don’t need to demand “sponsorship” from the head, especially if for some reason your company hasn’t decided to pay employees to attend events. Just let him know that you are planning to attend the conference on such days. This does not guarantee that your expenses for the event will immediately pay off, but it will most likely be possible to get a few days of paid leave. And the management will have the impression of you as a person interested in their professional growth - next time it will be easier to talk about compensation for a conference ticket.

    4. If you have something to say, talk!Very often, along with registration as a conference participant, the opportunity to become a speaker is also offered. You should not immediately discard this chance, even if it seems to you that you are not suitable for speakers either by age, or by status, or by any other signs. It may well be that you can actually tell something that can really captivate and interest the audience. It doesn't have to be something comparable in scale to the presentation of the new iPhone.
    Perhaps you are worried about a problem, but there is nothing like her in the list of topics for the workshop. If so, and you feel that you are able to convey your thoughts to the audience - act! Perhaps it is your report that awaits most of the other participants.
    Do not forget that the speakers are usually given a discount on attending the conference, up to an absolutely free entry.

    5. If possible, do not come alone . It would be strange to not give this advice on behalf of the company that organizes IT conferences, but this is really important :) Because the faster your colleagues grow professionally, the easier it is for you to grow.
    It’s usually not so difficult to find a friend who would be interested in the event. Participation in almost any IT project involves close work with a team of like-minded people, so there is every chance that many of them, like you, will be interested in the conference.
    Joint attendance of the event is very beneficial. Firstly, group registration is cheaper. Secondly, if several people attend the event, you can manage to visit more sections in order to exchange information about the reports delivered thereafter. And thirdly, the more people come to the conference, the more useful contacts you can establish.

    6. Listen carefully to the speaker . It would seem another common truth. But as practice shows, many conference participants are not able to do this. Meanwhile, you do not pay your money to drink coffee and download the update for iOS via Wi-Fi organizers.
    You should not be distracted by extraneous things at the time of the speech, it is better to disconnect the phone altogether. A good way to keep your attention on the report is to record the main points of the presentation.
    Also, there is no need to draw hasty conclusions from the beginning of the presentation: a boring introduction does not guarantee that the middle and ending will not carry you away. Do not neglect the speaker’s words if, for any reason, his position on the problem does not coincide with yours. On the contrary, such a situation is an excellent occasion to start a discussion later and, possibly, jointly find the necessary solution. After all, this is exactly what you came for, right?

    7. Do not miss the opportunity to chat.IT events are not only official communication during the sections. No less informative can become a dialogue during breaks. A coffee break is not only time for a cup of coffee itself, but also an opportunity to have a quick word with other specialists in your area. Do you have any questions for the speakers that for some reason you did not want to voice to the audience? It's time to ask them now.

    8. Exchange contacts with other conference participants.IT is a specific area. To solve many problems, it requires a “collective mind”, the mental efforts of one person are not always enough. And the conference is an excellent occasion to find like-minded people among invited experts. It is unlikely that any of them will refuse to help you with a difficult professional task, if you are sure that you will do the same. Therefore, do not be shy to take contact information from the right people and leave them your own. Even if today it seems to you that you can’t offer anything to a programming guru, and you yourself don’t need business cards of HR'ov of small game studios, this does not mean that they will not be useful to you tomorrow, when you start a startup or look for a new job.

    9. Immediately after the conference, re-read your notes.The information that was repeated immediately after studying is best remembered. Remember, we recorded all the key points of the reports? It is time to get them out and re-read them to refresh all the events of the last section. And for knowledge to be fixed for sure, it’s worth turning to the records one day after the event’s end. So you definitely won’t forget anything important, which means that the money spent on attending the event, as expected, will turn into knowledge.

    10. Be prepared to attend the next conference.It is rare that a seminar is held once. Most often in IT it is customary to hold “reusable” meetings, to which experts are invited from year to year and urgent problems are raised. Therefore, it is not enough to attend one event. To become a true professional in your field, you need to become a regular in such events.


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