BlogWorld is among the biggest conferences for bloggers and podcasters, and the team at Network Solutions has been going regularly for the past few years. Attending a conference has several benefits:
- Learning from speakers and attendees.
- Strengthening online relationships offline.
- Learning about new technology that’s being introduced, as well as trends and tips.
- Serendipitous networking with people you meet, not expecting anything in return, and the magic that happens:
- I met Jason Falls on an escalator at SXSW, and now we are great friends and he’s on the Social Advisory Board of Network Solutions/Web.com.
- Ramon Ray’s Small Biz Summit in NYC is where I met Small Business rockstars – Anita Campbell, Brent Leary Barry Moltz….
- I met Rebecca Scherr on a plane going to SXSW.
- I met Rohit Bhargava, author of Likeonomics, at an early 2007 event in D.C. about blogging, and we’ve collaborated on several small-business-focused events.
- I met Geoff Livingston at a Reston conference, and his firm Livingston Communications—now CRT/tanaka—helps us to this day with social media strategy and other projects.
- I met Alex Orfinger, publisher of the Washington Business Journal, at a D.C. Chamber event, and we’ve worked together to organize two GrowSmartBiz small business conferences.
I could add many more to the list. My advice here is not to go to a conference and sit working on your laptop or iPad, but to go and learn from meeting and talking to people. You learn not only from speakers, but fellow attendees as well.
Of course, you never know who you’ll meet at these conferences.
This is a video from last year’s BlogWorld. Please share your tips on attending conferences in the comments below.
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