How to Survive a Conference

worth going to at all. And we're bringing you this episode from an actual conference. We're at w n y c's work At Festival, which is a festival for women in podcasting, and we're going to tell you kind of how we got here and what we think of it. But first we should back up and talk about conferences

in general. Yeah, conferences are this huge, fourteen billion dollar industry and people can pay anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple of thousands of dollars to attend them, Like I think Ted Talks cost thousands of dollars for people to go to and kind of spawned this whole world of people talking on stages for work. I think there's something about going to a conference where, if you work in a company, it's like it's almost a status symbol.

If you get to go to the conference, if your boss has signed off on like the travel and expenses for you to get on a plane and go somewhere and stay in a hotel, it means you're important enough to invest that kind of money. And so I think that some people want to go to conferences just to be able to say they went to a conference. It's

like makes you important, it's part of your job. Yeah, And you fantasize about being in maybe an exotic location and all the networking you're going to do and how it's gonna transform your career and you get a break from the dull drums of the work life and like getting out of the commute, which sounds really nice, but I think, as anyone who has gone to a conference knows, the reality is not that glamorous. I think you hit

the nail on the head. Networking is a big part of conferences, and there's a there's a nice side to that, which is like I get to meet new people in my field and maybe advance my career or learn more. But it's also like, who really likes networking? I spend time at conferences and like hid behind columns and gone to the snack bar just to avoid those weird mingling sessions where you have to walk up to strangers and

it's it's so unnatural. Yeah, and even bosses know at this point that conferences are maybe not worth all the

time and effort and money. There was a Wall Street Journal article that was a trend piece about people basically begging their bosses to go to conferences, and their bosses saying, you need to show us how much value you're going to get out of this, And it talked about people putting together power point presentations and showing specifically how they're going to meet specific goals that will help them bring

in more sales or like increased marketing. You can't really just use this mushy Oh I'm going to meet people and yeah, that'll help the job reasoning anymore. Yeah, I mean, we're here recording a podcast, Like we're trying to do our jobs while we're at the conference. And I think that part of our justification for being here is that

we can actually do some work here. But you know, a lot of people are here just to experience the conference, and I think that are you know, many of their bosses probably wonder like whether they're really doing anything or

if it's just a boondoggle. Yeah. And there was another a Business Week article that was about the female conference circuit, which we're participating in at the moment, and the reporter talked about how you can feel really great after you go to these conferences, like you feel empowered and full of ideas, but then often you get back to your desk and it's like you don't have anything actionable to

show for it, And I think bosses hate that. But also, yeah, after you're like, well, why did I just spend all the time doing all that horrible networking if I can't really get anything out of it. Some people maybe are naturally really good at sending follow up emails and arranging meetings that stemp from weird, awkward conversations you have in the bathroom line with people, But I know I'm not. And I kind of wonder too, how much how you can get the most out of conferences and also enjoy

them while you're in the moment. Yeah, speaking of enjoying conferences in the moment um, what got us thinking about conferences as part of your work life. Was that we saw this conference that so perfectly was appealing to us. Um, that's w n i C conference. It was for female podcasters and that's something that we do as part of our jobs, but also like would love to learn more about. So you know, I've been invited to lots of different conferences that are more tangential, but this was just so

perfect that it was so appealing. And yet in the back of my mind, I do have kind of all these cons that we've been talking about. What are some other things that you're skeptical about? Like, what are you what is the big pitfall of conferences for you? Sometimes I think I hate panels. I've been to south By Southwest and people love it, they rave about it, and I got there and I was just overwhelmed and was asking myself, Wait, what am I supposed to do? I'm

supposed to go to panels? And then what I think there's some industries. UM, Like I hear my dad, who's a doctor, talked about going to conferences and he's like, oh, I learned so much, and I think the panels are these specific things that he needs to learn to get better. At his job. But I don't find that the panels in our industry are that rounded in anything. They feel like a lot more vague and you just kind of, I don't know a better work, so they feel like yes.

So I was very skeptical of just going to panels all the time and that being somehow helpful for my job. Yeah, your dad's a doctor, Like, we're not going to hear somebody present a groundbreaking research paper for the first time on like a new piece of medical technology. If we're lucky, we might learn a little bit more about how to record a podcast well um, or how to meet people in the industry, or how to sell your podcasts or

talk to advertisers. But also you might not. There's a lot that's in the hands of the organizers, and these things turn on how charismatic the panelists are, how much time they schedule for breaks in between, like how fatigued the audience is, like just the vibe of the room. And I mean, for me, one of the ways that I'm trying to get through this conference is just lowering my expectations so much that my threshold is basically, if I can get one useful insight out of every day

of this conference, I'll consider a roaring success. Yeah. So our expectations were pretty low for this conference, I would say, but we were wondering how other people felt, and so we talked to a few attendees about their feelings and expectations for the conference. So I wanted a little bit of a different perspective. UM. So I'm so much on the busy side. I really wanted to see what the creative side it was like, just in terms of a process. I know that so much goes into it, but I

don't really get to see that side. I'm a podcast enthusiast. I'm like such a podcast nerd. So a lot of this is just like me being curious personally, but it's also really interesting professionally to see the other side of it, to get courage to know that I can start a new podcast. I was hoping to learn some skills about

like the technical skills of podcasting and independent podcasting. UM. I've worked a little bit in it UM as a part of bigger companies, so I was really hoping to learn how to do it myself and UM to fill in any gaps in my knowledge that I've had so far. So I'm really here serving two masters because I want to grow my own show and have it me the best that it can be. And then at the same time, because I did produce other people's podcasts, I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can do to

make their shows the best that they can be. So definitely I was interested in meeting people um and then I also feel like having a lot of teachers is a really valuable thing life, and so learning from all the different presenters and how and they're talking about sort of the same things but also have really different approaches. The moment is also somewhere gets super interesting today. Everyone

we talked to did have kind of realistic expectations. They did have a specific goal or some kind of goal that they were hoping to reach through this event. And that does seem like a good way to go into conferences, and something that you and I talked about going into this conference. We did sit down and say we have one goal, which for us was not to learn how to make a podcast, which is why a lot of people are here, but to increase our visibility of our show.

There are a lot of people here who work at great places, doing great things, and we want them to know about us, And I think that just to give a little bit of a plug for conferences, because we've been kind of down on them. There is something sort of indescribable just about being in the same place as other people like for us to reach that goal of becoming more visible and meeting more people in our industry.

It's hard to know exactly who the right people to talk to are, but there's something about getting a bunch of people from the same field, in the same place, in the same city where you have conversations. And it might not be with exactly the people you expected to talk to or about the thing you expected to talk to them about, but something unexpected comes out of it. And that is both what's good about conferences and what can also feel like a weird boondoggle because you can't

exactly explain that to your boss. I'm going to this conference and some magic might happen when I talk to somebody. All right, I hate to break up the magic that's happening over there, but there's a panel starting in a few minutes, so let's check back in later. So I'm tired. Conferences are really exhausting. We went to eight hours of panels Fords, and even though we work that much and we're in a day, it's just there's a lot of

mental energy happening. And in between panels there were that week we tried to network and there were events, and I think that it's just, yeah, it's really exhausting. Some of it's probably down to the jet lag we did fly to l A. But I agree there's something about sitting and listening and using your brain and processing ideas that makes you tired and also hungry. I was weirdly revenous this whole time, Okay, but we had a goal and it was to increase our visibility, and first of all,

I think that helped me handle the panels. Even just having that goal. It was like, if I'm not getting everything out of this panel, it doesn't matter because that's not even my goal. I think it was useful. I think coming to the conference was really useful for us to let people know that we have a show. Every person we talked to was like, oh, you're from Bloomberg and do you guys do a podcast? Cool? What is it? We I said the name like twelve times. I was like,

it's game Plan, It's game Plan. Um, So I think that just that was it. But again we wanted to see how other people at the conference felt about their experiences, so we talked to a few people. Conferences are weird. It's it's like you go and it's it's great because you want to get some information and there's usually really interesting people um presenting things and it's a great place

to get inspired. But it's also like you're just with a bunch of strangers and like in rooms sitting next to strangers all day, and especially if you're not really good at talking to strangers. It's just it. It's strange. It can be strange. I think this one is a lot more fun than a lot of conferences I've been to. UM. I think sometimes they can be a little bit stuff. You're formal or kind of have a sense of being

sort of dreagerous. I mean, there's also like this weird feeling of like people eyeing each other are up to of like are you actually interested in me or you just you know, are you just social ranking each other. I'm hungry. There's not food here, and I thought there

might be. It's incredible and kind of reassuring to me that there's there's so much agreement among everybody we talked to and among you and me that networking just kind of sucks, and even if you're an extrovert, it's awkward and it's transactional and weird, and like you're going up to people you don't know and they know that you're talking to them because you want to get something from them. But there's two sides to the transaction, so we can help other people. That felt nice, and it made it

easier to talk to people. I think, like, I'm not a natural networker, are you. I mean, I don't hate it as much as I think the average person, but it does. It's it gets it's again really exhausting to be on the entire time. And now that we've been here for three days, we can consider ourselves complete conference experts. I think we're pros at doing the conference circuit and we're ready to bring you our top five conference survival

strategies Number one, Pick your conference. So this conference really uniquely appealed to us, and I think it being such an interesting topic for us made it worth it. I've been to other conferences that were too tangentile, so I think it's really important to pick a conference that is going to be as interesting to you and your job as possible. On the flip side of that, even at a conference where it is the ideal conference for you, there's no way that everything is going to appeal to you.

And there will be some panels that are for people who want to start indie podcasts, for example, at this conference, um, and then there will be panels that are really specifically for you. So pick your conference, but keep your expectations realistic. Number two, tame the flow of information. There's gonna be so much thrown at you, and you can sort of feel obligated to record and remember everything everyone says, don't

do it. I saw a lot of people filling up notebooks with notes, and more power to them if that's useful to them. But I know if I did that, I'd go home with a notebook that I'd never look at again. What I tried to do was write down literally one or two sentences from every panel that I found useful, and I made those sentences action items. So, like somebody mentioned something about how they surveyed their podcast audience, I made a note meet with the marketing team to

talk about surveying our podcast audience. That kind of thing is that. Actually, I think you can go back to your desk and do it. Distills a panel down to what's really useful to you and you can just filter out everything else. Number three, walk out of bad panels. You don't have to sit there. I think that the stage can have this power over you. You're looking up at people who are really well lit, they're talking into microphones, and it might feel rude to leave, but you are

there to learn stuff. And if a panel doesn't appeal to you, walk out, leave early, and definitely don't stay for the Q and A really ever Yeah, And when you walk out, you actually might get a lot more out of talking to somebody who also has walked out of the panel and is just standing in line for the bathroom. We're waiting to get a refreshment. Number four Keep your networking targeted. It can be really intimidating if you expect yourself to meet every podcast idol or high

profile media professional at a conference. So pick one or two people that you really want to meet and try to have a conversation with them and have a specific goal for that conversation. So, for example, we had an a sale host of death, sex and Money on our podcast months ago, but we talked to her remotely and we never met her in person. So I just wanted to meet an a sale and put a face to

the name. We did that. We met our goal. It felt achievable, and it was much easier, I think than walking into a room full of people and being like, I have to make an impression on all these people. And finally number five pack a portable charger. We did not do this. I had to sit in the bathroom for fifteen minutes and charge my phone, which meant I was missing important things at the conference, but also it

was just an unpleasant experience. So yeah, do that. Do you know what the technical explanation is for why conferences suck so much power out of your devices? Because there is one and I can't really understand it. But our charger strategy was bad. I don't know something about networks crowded whif I doesn't matter. We're not a tech podcast. We're conference experts, not WiFi experts. And now it's time

for half bag takes, happy fake takes. You can call into our hotline with your own half bake take at two and two six seven zero one Sex sex Francesca, what's your half big take. I have one that's inspired by this conference. It's about hotel rooms. Um, I don't know why, but when I get into a hotel room, I kind of trash it, like not rock star style. I don't go in and start ripping up the comforter and setting garbage cans on fire. But I'm just way messier in hotel rooms then I would ever be in

my own life. I guess that's because somebody is getting paid to clean it up. But there's just a certain amount of like clothes on the floor and tells everywhere that feels fine in a hotel room and wouldn't feel fine at home. Yes, we are sitting in my hotel room at this very moment, and it's pretty disgusting. So I guess I agree with their hat big take, and I didn't even know it. Re Becca, what's your hat big take? Not conference themed? Staircase themed? I was okay.

My hat big take is kind of twofold and one. I think it's okay to walk down the left side of the stairs if nobody is coming and you want to expedite the process. I think, like I know, the convention is walk on the right, so both people can walk on the right going up and down. If you're on the left, the people coming in the other direction can't walk your way. But if there's no one coming,

like you run down those stairs. But the caveat is if somebody comes up the other side, you need to move out of the way immediately as fast as possible. And I know that not everyone does this because the other day I was walking up the stairs on the right side and some man on the left side came barreling down at me and scowled at me when I was doing my duty to walk up the right side. And I was like, dude, I get it, walked on the love side, but you can't be mad at me.

Walk down the left side or up the left side for that matter, but be prepared to duck back into line. And you are taking a risk that you'll get some side I from the people who like dutifully waited and they're slow walk up the right side while you sprint it up the left, and then you're trying to like cut in. But I feel like it's a calculated risk and it's worth it because you're absolutely right, like yolo,

you know what I mean? Are you gonna stand on the stairs forever like a dummy, while the left side is totally clear because no one's coming that way. There's one subway station in New York. I'm not going to name it, but you know what you are people in that subway station where everybody does is they just left side is totally clear, and people wait forever and ever in this endless line. Come on, let's be efficient, let's

use their time. Well, I'm with you, Becca, you hear it a staircase sheep yolo and this has been half big takes, half baked takes. Thank you for listening to another episode of game Plan. You can find me on Twitter. I'm at rs Greenfield and I'm at Francesca today. You can tweet at us. You can call us and leave us a voicemail with a half big take or anything else you want to say about the show. It's two and to six one seven zero one six six. If you want to hear from us even more, sign up

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I know you're not recording. The red Line is done.