Should your employees attend conferences? It depends on whether your business has a good return on investment strategy, that’s designed to maximize the event. Often, an organization spends lot of money on sending employees to an event and later realizes the most valuable takeaways were the shampoo bottles.
Conferences can provide a smart infusion of knowledge, as well as valuable networking opportunities. But you need to have a plan. In this episode of our Employee Productivity series, I outline how successful businesses approach these events and how you can easily boost your ROI.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- Should Your Employees Attend Conferences?
- How to get the best ROI from events?
- How to retain what you’ve learned at a conference?
- What to do after a conference ends to improve your business?
Video Transcript for Should Your Employees Attend Conferences?
Should you send your employees to conferences? I speak at a lot of conferences and I understand it’s important to get a good return on investment. These are some suggestions that I think can help maximize the experience.
Before you go, have a few goals in mind. Are there people that you want to meet and you set up appointments ahead of time. Are there pieces of technology that you want to see demonstrated and find out when that can happen? Or is there some sort of other information that you’re looking to come back with?
So have a game plan for when you go. Attend the conference, take notes. Do not expect that everything you hear will stay in your head. It will fade over time. I like notes. Doesn’t have to be a book but write down the key points.
Then when you get back, make sure that you have a little bit of time, first or second day, write up those takeaways.
Now maybe you could do that on the plane flying back but don’t go totally back into work mode until you’ve debriefed a little bit. Then within the next week or so, give a presentation to some of your colleagues about the things you have learned.
You want to make sure the information you collected doesn’t just stick in a notebook but gets out into your organization, so it can benefit everyone. Don’t fall into the trap of having the world’s best notes and those notes just get dusty on a shelf.
You want to make sure you go to the event, you can capture the information you need, you come back to your organization, you share it with people, and everyone is that much better because you attended
About This Video Series
Ken Okel’s ongoing Employee Productivity video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand tip that you can use right away, like how automation can help your team.
Got a productivity problem? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.
