What to do after attending a big conference: learning tips from Content Marketing World 2017

I just returned home from a full-on week of conference workshops, breakout sessions, networking, and intensive learning at an awesome conference: Content Marketing World 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. I was sent by my company and grateful to have experienced such an amazing conference to help me in my role as Digital Content Manager.

As a first time attendee to #CMWorld, I was impressed with the conference organization, variety of sessions and tracks that were clearly mapped to the interests of all attendee types. For newbies, they held two sessions which I appreciated:

1) How to get the most out of your conference: CMWorld - top tips from past attendees for how to get the most out of the conference.

2) What Next: After the Conference - more tips from past attendees for how to bring back what you learned to your team and boss.

I am pretty organized and like to think I know how to get the most of a conference, but these sessions helped me really maximize my takeaways in a realistic way and I want to share them here. I believe these tips are applicable to anyone attending a big conference that is more than half a day of learning.

At CMWorld, I attended 22 different sessions in 4 days (+networking in between). I wasn't alone in my exhaustion at end of the week.

It is exciting and taxing to take in so many new ideas, you can feel paralyzed by the possibilities, and overwhelmed with where to start. What next?

Well thanks to the #CMWorld team for these great tips, there is a better way!

How to get the most out of your conference (like CMWorld)

• Turn off your email, if you can. Although you may be at the conference for work, work can also be a distraction from you getting the best value out of your professional development. I appreciated this reminder and tried to keep email at bay, but it was hard! The moments I let myself be pulled into email were the moments I missed something at the conference. I relate this to my experience in Yoga class, it's hard to turn off your mind in the beginning (or at least it is for me) but by the end of the class I am fully present. This happened to me at the conference, it became increasingly easier to turn off email as the sessions took place and I realized all that I was getting from the week. So, when you're trying to learn how to be better at your job, you have to forget about the job (just for a little while)!
• Be flexible. The conference had some sessions that required advance registration but others were essentially first-come-first-serve. If your preferred session was full, it was a good idea to have a few back-up sessions to choose from. I was lucky that my preferences were mostly available, but in the instance or two they weren't, I had a couple back-ups. BONUS: I was flying solo this conference, but for those attending a conference with colleagues, DO NOT attend together -- divide and conquer to get the most out of the conference.
• Make a ONE thing list. This was my favourite tip! Each session has multiple points you want to implement at work, and you just can't do them all. We can't be heroes about everything, so pick ONE thing, ONE takeaway from each session that you can do when you get back to the office and make a list. I made a list, and in some cases I might have had two in a session, but it was really helpful to have this list at the end of the conference.
• Present findings to your team. With your ONE thing list, now you can distill your top themes and learnings from the conference and know which sessions you want to go back through, revisit your notes, and share with your team.
• Stay Hydrated + Fuelled. This is my own added tip. I carried a water bottle with me all day, everyday; and enjoyed the snack breaks in the morning and afternoon. You need to physically feed your brain too! I find being in large convention centres and around so many people in air conditioned centres, to be dehydrating. So, I was glad to see so many water stations around the conference. Nicely done, CMWorld.

What Next: After The Conference

• Say Thank You. This may seem obvious, but it's something I appreciated being reminded to do because I agree, it is important. After attending a conference that your company paid for, say thank you to those who signed off on the expense. You were invested in as an employee, to better serve the company, and it's nice to close that loop with a note of thanks; in addition to the following...
• Review your ONE thing list. I went through my one-thing list and was really glad I did this. I already had forgotten some of the sessions from the first days, and having a list to scan was convenient. Next, take the list and turn it into your top 5 or 7 things learned at the conference. Keep it simple and relevant. I also distilled some themes observed from the sessions, across different speakers and will include in my note sharing.
• Email your team with your key takeaways or schedule a conference call. Once you have distilled your take aways, host a call or lunch & learn with your team to share and discuss the take aways.
• Follow up with new contacts. I love LinkedIn for this alone. I have gone through my business cards collected at the conference and added people I plan to stay in touch with and/follow. Same for the speakers, I started following the ones I liked most to ensure I can continue to learn from them (and I subscribed to some of their newsletters too).
• Write a blog post. If you have a blog, you could share a post, to your internal team on your intranet, or via your own platform of choice. I wanted to write this article in particular, because these are transferable takeaway to anyone looking to get better value out of their next conference experience.
• Share your notes. I use Evernote, and created a notebook just for this conference to share my notes easily. I saw a lot of others using Microsoft Word, hand written notes, and other tools; do whatever works for you of course, and makes it easy to share afterwards if you like.
• Re-watch / re-read key session notes. If you have access to watch the video recordings of the sessions after your conference, definitely do so. I can't wait to gain access to the CMWorld 2017 video session from this year. If you don't have access to video recaps, well, this is a good reminder to block time in your calendar to re-read your notes from the conference at a later time. Don't let them collect dust.

I hope these tips help you get the most out of your next conference too.

Do you have anything to add? Tell me in the comments below.