10 ways to get the most out of your conference investment

You’ve attended the Legal Marketing Association’s largest conference of the year. What do you do with all of those contacts you made as a result of your networking and all of that information that you gathered?

• Debrief: Debrief immediately. Write notes on the back of business cards on who you want to reach and what you want to accomplish as a result of your post-conference follow-ups.
• Send notes: Send hand-written notes to select individuals who you wish to connect with personally and send personalized follow-up emails to others.
• Connect on social media: Look everyone up on LinkedIn and connect with them and then do the same thing with Twitter if you haven’t connected with them already. While there are other social media outlets on which you can connect, we tell people to wait to connect on Facebook until you’ve established a bit more of a personal relationship.
• Reconnect with speakers: Review materials from the various speakers then send those you want to connect with an email with your thoughts, ideas or feedback as a result of their program.
• Answer surveys: Be sure to provide valuable and honest feedback on all of the post-conference surveys, when offered, in order to help the organizer to meet audiences wants and needs.
• Publish take-aways: Write and publish a blog or article about what you learned and how it can be implemented. Be sure to link to the bios of key presenters and/or books, articles or blogs that they have authored.
• Say thank you: Send thank you notes to everyone who is deserving. For example, did someone buy you a coffee, invite you to dinner, or share the cost of an Uber ride? If so, be sure to express your gratitude.
• Retweet: Search for valuable content from the conference on the Twitter stream #LMA22 and retweet it to your followers with a nod to person who shared the original post. And don’t forget to use the conference hashtag #LMA22, even post-conference.
• Invite: Invite key contacts to subscribe to your company’s eNewsletter, eAlerts or blog. Let them know why the information would be a helpful resource to them
• Reconnect: Schedule follow up calls or meetings with selected individuals with whom you wish to develop and more productive relationship.

Taking the time to capitalize on all of the great relationships you developed and information you learned will generate a more positive return on your conference investment.