After the Conference

Software developers spend the majority of their time in front of a pc, most likely in a single office, surrounded by familiar faces. Very few developers get the opportunity to interact in-person with the local and international Dev community.

The cost of sending developers to national- and international events is sometimes too high for small companies resulting in many talented individuals having no other choice than to settle for online events as the only way to stay in touch with the developing industry.

Online events are good, but the impact is incomparable with that of an in-person conference. The excitement, camaraderie, and energy found at in-person conferences offer a refreshing and inspiring experience that is difficult to portray, and which is best appreciated when experienced first-hand.

I just attended the SharePoint Saturday Cape Town event which was very well organized and backed by great sponsors and world-class speakers. The event left me inspired, enthusiastic and fired up.

The experience helped intensify my passion for technology. Since the event, I’ve spent hours unpacking key topics, and my notes are slowly starting to take the shape of useful blog post material.

I love this state of mental inquisitiveness.

The hunger and drive to learn, explore, discover and share is fantastic. It is during these times that I feel sharper, more innovative, and probably as close as I can effortlessly get to a state of ‘flow’.

The reality is we live in a demanding, fast-moving and ever-changing world, and it is so easy to get preoccupied with everyday responsibilities that we are at risk of drifting back to everyday busyness.

In my attempt to hold on to my post-conference-high for as long as possible, I researched practical actions I can take in-between conferences to remain fired up.

It’s up to you

What you get out of a conference is completely up to you.

We often confuse career with work. Work is the contract by which you sell professional services to an organization. Your career is in your own hands and should be directed by you. When we mix the two principles we easily fall into the trap of relying solely on the employer to chart our personal development path. To make the most of a conference you must personally take charge. This means you must formulate an action plan and sacrifice personal time and energy, and work wisely in sowing the seeds for future personal- and career growth whilst not neglecting to provide a sterling service to your employer.

It’s not only the event that counts

Marathon runners don’t really benefit from the actual race day. Instead, it is the months leading up to the event during which they benefit the most, and immediately after the event, they set their goals on the next. Mountaineers do the same. It is important that we view conferences in the same way. I got the most from conferences where I was a speaker because it meant I was actively involved before and after the event. I had to prepare a relevant talk, connect with the event organizers and attend pre- and post-event social functions. Even if you are not a volunteer or speaker, you will get the most from the event if you do not approach it as an once-off occasion but rather participate in event-related activities before and after the event. Take initiative, be proactive and create some of these pre- and post-event activities yourself.

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At the event

A great deal of what you can gain from the event depends on how you plan and structure your activities on the event day. Here are a few key considerations that worked for me:

1. Rest well and eat healthy before the event. A long day on your feet & socializing will drain your energy levels quickly so to ensure optimal focus during the sessions you want to be as alert and energetic as possible.

2. Carefully select the sessions to attend. Evaluate the speaker style, quality, topic relevance, etc. and cherry-pick the sessions which you believe you will benefit from the most.

3. Tap into Twitter. Find the event handle and occasionally check in on the Twitter feed. You will not be able to read all the tweets during the event, but the trail of Twitter posts can be used for later reference to event highlights and key notes.

4. Be disciplined. Your mind might drift back to office affairs and you might be tempted to check your emails. Although most of us can’t completely go off-the-grid, try your best to remain focused on the event and leave your emails for when the time is right. It only takes one ‘crisis’ email to completely derail you from the event. Trust that the team in the office are capable of handling matters in your absence and try to make the event your primary focus. Use your own discretion but try your best to be present without distractions.

5. Take notes & photos. We all enjoy sitting back and listening to a great presentation but make the effort of taking notes and when you can take a few photos. You will not remember all the key points and it might take a while to get hold of the presentation material so take notes. These will come in handy later when you want to blog or share the highlights with your team.

6. There is a time to be social and a time to be serious. It is likely that you will meet up with friends and old colleagues during the event and the social aspect of the event can derail you from your event plan. Enjoy the social interaction but attend the specific sessions you chose instead of simply tagging along with a group. Don’t go with the flow. Have fun but take the opportunity to learn seriously and keep to your event plan.

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After the event

You likely want to tackle the backlog of work from the office as soon as the conference is over, but before you jump in it is critical that you also plan clear and measurable steps to turn your conference experience into sustainable long-term value-add.

Notes – Immediately after the conference, while things are still fresh, write down your thoughts and flesh out any notes you took during the sessions to make sure they are clear to you later when you process the details.

Triage - Reflect on the sessions, conversations, and your notes and triage the topics to rank the key take-aways into immediate-, medium- and long-term investigations.

Communicate - Write a short email to your colleagues describing the event highlights and make a commitment to further share and present details on selected topics.

Plan – Set clear goals with deadlines and plan time into your schedule to ensure you block off the necessary time to research, process and absorb the information from the event.

Manage – Be disciplined and hold yourself accountable for reaching your deadlines and goals. You may be tempted to work on something which you may perceive as more urgent or more important but do not underestimate how much your career will benefit from these proactive activities and goals. Do not abandon your goals because you are ‘too busy’.

Use Blooms Taxonomy of Learning – In 1956, after forty years of intensive research on learning Benjamin Bloom concluded: What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with appropriate prior and current conditions of learning.”

The surest way to learn from a conference is to reach at least level two of Blooms Taxonomy of Learning. This means you must be able to explain a topic to someone else.

An infallible approach to propelling your career to success is for you to make a commitment to present selected conference topics to your colleagues by means of a presentation, demonstration, and Q&A session.

It is simple; within days after returning from the conference, invite a group of colleagues to a session in which you will present a conference topic. It is important to schedule the meeting well in advance so that you have a reasonable time to prepare, but do not delay sending the invite. The moment you’ve scheduled the meeting and received confirmed acceptance from invitees you will feel a sense of urgency and seriousness.

Because you are professional, and you do not want to be humiliated, you will be determined to prepare well which means you will unpack the topic in detail and supplement it with one or more brilliant and fully functional demos. Preparing for the much-feared Q&A session is the final encouragement you need to not settle for mediocrity and to push yourself even further during your research.

Chances are the topics you selected are not directly applicable to your projects or it could be that your company has not yet adopted the latest technologies. Waiting for an opportunity to actively apply the learnings from the conference in terms of project work might not be practical or you may have to wait months for the business to move in the specific direction.

Therefore, I implore you to take charge and go beyond the call of duty and invest a massive amount of effort and sacrifice a lot of your personal time. Do all the research you can and read, practice tutorials, speak to MVPs and produce high-quality blog posts so that you can get yourself to a position where you can confidently and comfortably transfer the knowledge to someone else.

You will be surprised by how much you learn and how well you remember the details when you proactively and voluntarily act as the company’s internal technical evangelist.

Your peers (and superiors) will find your contributions refreshing and not only is this a sure way to ‘ratchet-in’ what you have learned at the conference, but it is also a great way to earn respect and advance your career.

The sense of accomplishment and the feedback loop will stimulate a release of dopamine which is exactly what you need to remain on fire, passionate and hungry to learn more.

Keep the Momentum – It is critical that you don’t take your foot off the gas, and that you do everything in your power to keep a good balance between work, personal life, and research & learning. In the famous book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, author Stephen Covey explained the importance of sharpening the saw – “Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, good prayer (meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental renewal. It also mentions service to society for spiritual renewal.”

Learning, doing research, blogging, preparing for knowledge transfers, etc. are activities which will come at a cost in terms of your personal time and at times it might be difficult to juggle the various commitments in life, but the positive impact it brings in terms of your energy, enthusiasm, passion and technical abilities – in other words, the sharpened saw will make it worthwhile investment.

Stay Connected

One of the highlights of a conference is the camaraderie among attendees. Do not hesitate to connect with acquaintances after the event via Twitter, LinkedIn, and blog post comments. Sponsors love feedback on their products, so reach out to them, request a trial, and let them know what you think.

Speakers invest many hours in preparation and they show courage when speaking in front of an audience. Not all the sessions are recorded and, in most cases, the only way a speaker can measure the quality of his talk is when the audience provide feedback. I think only speakers truly know how much your feedback is appreciated. Connect with the speakers on social media and stay in touch. It will help you remain up to date and it helps the speaker appreciate the impact he/she has on the community.

In another post, I will write about the importance and benefits of having a mentor. If you connected with a technologist residing in your own city take the leap of faith and invite him/her for a coffee and explore considerations for a time-boxed mentoring arrangement.

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Have Fun

If you’ve also experienced the adjustment from ‘fire-in-the-belly-conference-high’ to ’I’m-too-busy-post-conference-blues’ I hope the principles outlined in this post will help you in the future.

I am eager to hear about your own experiences and the techniques you employ to make the most of what you learn at conferences, how to maintain the balance between productivity and learning, and how you remain fired up.

Conferences are great, being fired up with excitement and enthusiasm is wonderful and being hungry for knowledge is awesome.

Let’s enjoy it, and let’s treasure it.

After all, that is what engineering & technology is all about!!