A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to speak on a panel at a conference in New York City and was given a free pass to attend the all-day conference. Usually, I tend to go to these just for my panel, shake a few hands and drink coffee, then leave—no more than two hours tops. But, since it was a train ride away and they had some great discussions planned on topics like email marketing and big data, I decided to go for the day as a participant. The morning of the conference, my bag felt too heavy to lug around all day (laptop, charger cables, notebook, etc). So, I ditched my backpack at the hotel and showed up with a pen and a pad of paper. I took a deep breath and told myself I was ready to just absorb.
Man, did I absorb! I was completely in the moment all day: engaging with fellow participants, shaking hands, talking with vendors, and taking notes (and I remembered that I have actual handwriting!). I did one work call that I couldn’t escape from and I answered maybe five emails, one personal. By the end of the day, it hit me why I liked going to conferences in the first place: I was engaged and learning. I had to look way back into my conference history to a time where this happened. Then, it struck me what was wrong with my most recent conference experiences:
- I could never break away from the office
- My mind was four steps ahead in looking for the “right” panels
- I was too busy trying to find the “right” people for connections
- I wasn’t taking time to learn and explore
- My laptop, Twitter, Instagram, and stealing ideas
Nonprofits have a small budget to give to employees every year to help them with their professional development. The organization is investing in the employee’s skill set so that they can benefit the organization with their newfound knowledge and enhance the employee’s skill set. Looking back, I probably wasted some of those resources (If my employer is reading this, just remember how often I work late sand push our team). I also did myself a disservice by not taking the time to really listen and learn.
Now, I’m on a mission: I will attend every conference now with a clean mind and sense of purpose. I will:
- Stop jumping on calls and answering every work-related email
- I will plan my panel attending in advance to make sure it matches my needs to learn new things
- I will be more organic in meeting others and less worried about conference cliques or impressing influentials
- I will take notes and really listen to the panel (and not rely on trying to get the panel’s presentation as a substitute for notes).
- I will stop texting, tweeting, and posting and be in the moment. I’ll also try to listen just for the tactic to use, but get inspired to come up with my own idea.
I’ll get another swing at this at SXSW in Austin next month (and hopefully NTEN and few other places throughout the year). Hoping this will start a movement and that I can look around a room at a panel and see a sea of nonprofit professional faces looking up, listening, and learning together.
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