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October 25, 2007
Remember to Allocate Time for YOURSELF when you attend Events
One thing I forgot to mention in my recent Things I do BEFORE a (VON) Conference: post, was maybe the most important point of all: Give time to YOURSELF.
Whenever I go to a conference, I find it is very easy to get immediately absorbed in the environment and loose myself in my surroundings. One thing which I only recently started to do was to give myself 15 minutes every couple of hours to catch my breath, take in my surroundings and to re-prioritize my agenda for the rest of the day. This is how I’m sometimes able to squeeze in an impromptu meeting over a cup of coffee or spend a few quality minutes with a friend to catch up.
How often do you feel that when you are at an event you are operating in “autopilot” mode? By scheduling yourself onto your on schedule, you are giving yourself a chance to catch up for a few minutes and give yourself a better perspective on what is going on around you. There have been so many times I wish I could have scheduled myself a break in my schedule. Now I do it as part of the planning of my on-site schedule.
So what about you? What do YOU do in the preparation before an event to make sure YOU are getting the most out of it?
Tags: voip, von, Social Media, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on October 25, 2007 09:05 AM | Permalink
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Comments
After spending a bit too much time at conferances both large and small in NYC I've come up with an extremely systematic approach.
Before going to conference I create my own conference schedule in Outlook and sync is over with whatever mobile device I have on hand that day. After the morning social, while they are setting up or introducing the first keynote, I will typically review my schedule and revise it as necessary based on new people I have met (and what they are attending) and my professional workload for the day. Throughout the day I try to take 5 minutes here and there to re-analyze and scope out my schedule.
The most important step I take is this: I turn off my email. If you spend a day answering emails remotely from the conference, you aren't learning or internalizing. Dedicate three 10 minutes pockets to answer important emails, then turn your blackberry or Outlook client off. You'll learn that much more!
Thanks for the post!
Posted by: jon burg at October 25, 2007 02:20 PM