Acing the National Speakers Association Convention

Larry Chiang speaks on leveraging OPP (other people pain). Last month, Harvard Business School featured him in a cover story with a headline that is also the title to his book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School“.

photo credit Ian Griffin Holding this by Terminal 86 pretty much guarantees you’re flying to PHX for the NSA Convention at JW Marriott

By Larry Chiang

It is finally here, the National Speakers Association annual convention.

I have been called a conference pro.  Why?!  I go with the express written intention to ace a conference and learn street smarts that MBAs miss.

These tips below are part of my platform, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School” and will help you do well at an industry conference.

-1- Fly Right.

First realize that there is high likelihood there will be conference attendees on the same flight and the airport is a captive networking opportunity.  Maximize meet-ups by waiting at the gate versus the club lounge.  Holding a sign-up is cheesey-scary-genius, but an industry related book or a recent issue of “Professionally Speaking” is ideal to signal.

Also, forgo the free upgrade and fraternize in the cheap seats.  The rationale is that five good peeps you see and meet in coach is way better than one fat cat up in 1st.  Your United 1K elite flight status isn’t a complete waste, you can still pre-board and bring a buddie, so make a new friend.

-2- Pre-Conference Networking!

This critical manuver gets you 6-10 solid contacts.  Work the room like Susan Roane. Meet them via LinkedIn, Spoke, Twitter, Facebook or their blog.

-3b- Get Jiggy With the Jargon.

Leverage conference buzzwords to introduce yourself to fellow panelists, attendees, speakers and conference organizers.  For example, scrape Twitter, Google and Summize for the key conference terminology and nomenclature.  For example, Tim OReilly’s Foo Camp 2009 would prompt ‘foo camp 2009′, ‘#foocamp09′, ‘alpha Tech Ventures’ and “@timOreilly” searches.  Take those results and start palm-pressing (aka saying “hi”) via Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, wiki, conference guestbook and/or attendees’ blogs.

-4a- Work the Secret Society. One secret society you should check is Cigar PEG run by Ed Rigsbee. Another tip is to bribe the conference PR girl to reveal last minute A-list bloggers and press.

Promote a secret society of your own.  How?! Host a non conference approved happy hour. Picture a par-for-the-course conference at boring hotel #9.  Within the mix of stale meeting rooms and stuffy ballrooms is your ’secret’ hosted reception in a top-floor suite. Suite Cigar PEG is in JW Marriott’s Room 6112

Critical components to a well produced ’secret’ happy hour include blurbing word of the event to critical co-hosts.  The co-hosts promote it to their crew of friends.  Word-of-mouth is critical.  In the same way that college student text message each other about good deals, people will buzz about your party.

–4b- Sharing, feeding and getting a theme.  An option is to let the secret out of the bag with signage through out the hotel and posting on the hotel meeting TV bulletin board.  I prefer hosting with some food or at least having pizza delivered.

I love themed happy hours with guest interaction (e.g. a pirate on the high seas).  You can tag stickers on their name badges and dole out party favors. Cigar PEG is pre-themed with their “Angels and Outlaws” party

-4c- Off the deep end.  Get a confernce post party going by having your CEO make in-suite chocolate chip pancakes or eggplant parm.  Don’t offer utensils and wait for the sticky fun to begin.  Leave the HR and legal team at home or in the dark.

-5- Prep your elevator pitch of who you are and what you do.

This should coincide with your conference thesis and focus.  For example, if I go to a technology conference, my soundbyte is, “I head up a seminar company that collects college students’ cell phone numbers with a slice of pizza. We send text messages to encourage FICO preparation for college students.”

-6- Kiss alpha, gamma and beta ass.

Don’t make the mistake of just being a star-chaser and only kissing alpha ass.  Kissing gamma and beta ass means being nice to assistants & staffers (gammas)and of course fellow attendees (betas).

An extreme example is to kiss check-in staffer ass by making your check-in process turn into a vacation FOR THEM.  (See diagram VII Diagram of conf REGISTRATION.  Mother Hen, Chair, speakers, keynoter, panelist, lunch Keynoter, break out session speaker, attendee Important vs Involved)

Kudos if you smoke out the conference producer and PR point people. (See diagram XII checkin booth lay-out).  If they’re a self-published blogger or frequent commenter on TechCrunch/BusinessWeek/GigaOm, wax on about how you took notes on their comment.

-7- Multiple Targets, Multiple Bogies.

This means attending conferences with your team.  ‘Targets’ are people to meet.  Bogies are conference signal noise that come in the form of seller/beggar/moocher and cause interference.  When you go to a conference with a team, you’ll (a) need a ‘control’ that acts as a “central command”, (b) tight leashes on 1st time conference attendees, (c) ass early am meetings and (d) clear team objectives.

The RED zone is where deals get done. The green zone is where people keep walking The YELLOW zone can swell in size if the people keep walking in the GREEN zone are greeted by a POINT person.

–7b- Targets and Bogies at a Booth.  If y’all have a conference booth, you’ll want to get clear booth schedules, hire traffic stoppers (aka booth babes), hand out premiums, collect and rate leads every half-day and book second meetings for execs.
See diagram BOOTH MGMNT II

-8- Coincide your local media appearance in and around the conference.

Nothing legitimizes you more than a local TV news show interview (Phoenix ABC News Larry Chiang).  Another gambit is having a photographer shoot you while you’re on a panel or walking the expo floor.

Don’t over do it by loading up YouTube clips on your iPhone jacked into flat panel displays on perpetual repeat unless you’re 80% as cute as this shih tzu .

-9- Get in early and leave late.

The old way was to ‘big league’ by flying in late and flying out early.  You as the newly minted grad, doused in the scent of presidential timber, need to outwork, outflank and outshine industry veterans and stalwarts.

-10- Investing in Conference Treasure.

Hey, you spent $250k going to b-school (or saved $250k by NOT going), so why not tip bribe and comp $200.00 (of your own money) to boost your conference visibility or springboard to your conference goals.  I’m not recommending going into credit card debt, but manage your treasure to make more treasure (Chapter 2 of my book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School”)

–11- Peak on the Last Day.

Conserve your energy and don’t make career stalling mistakes when you’re tired.  Ideally, you and your effervescence still glow on Day 3 of a three day conference.

-12- Take Conference Notes.

Taking paper notes is a lost art but yields clear dividends including the compilation of post conference ‘To-Do’s, tracking who you sat with and when so you can follow up, clearing the conference haze of who will refer what and when, cutting and pasting a good topic idea and my favorite… ripping off an entire keynote to place into your book, “What They Dont Teach You At Stanford Business School” . I also take pictures of my notes and tag them on facebook.

-12b-  Fax or Email Non-Attendees Notes.

I also do something very old school… if there’s a person I’d like to do business with that ISN’T going to the conference, Ill offer to fax notes to them.  My new school gambit; if/when I hear of someone get cited at a conference (e.g. Ted Rhinegold of Dogster or Seth Sternberg at Meebo) I’ll text message them.  I out note take every GSBer I’ve ever met.

Get business card holders so you don’t pile… you file

-13a- Don’t Forget to Pack School Supplies

Conferences are like school, so I pack
– Sharpie or Chiesel Tip Colored Sharpie
– Business cards (and if you’re fancy a personal card if you’re job shopping)
– Fraiche Frozen Yogurt gift cards. Or Starbux to hand out to helpful people not in Palo Alto CA
– Business card holder.  Its a three ring binder compatible holder that sits in a plastic sleeve.  Biz cards will get lost in a shuffle.  Diagram 9.
– Easel boards they’ll have there but post-it nores you’ll have to swipe
– FedEx return ship labels (bonus if its your agency shipper number).  You can also hand these out to people who don’t want to carry their conference binder back with them
– EXTRA CREDIT bring a branded binder, lanyard or chain for your name badge, stickers for your name badge holder
-13b– Side Bar Ettiquette

If you HAVE to talk during ‘class’…

If you’re gonna talk to your neighbor its ten times more classy to jot a note or text them.  If you’re the speaker chatting with post keynote fans, take it outside the ballroom or risk getting chased by a gamma attendee trying to learn.  A gamma is a newbie business executive just starting career. It goes alpha, beta, gamma, delta and on down the Greek alphabet.

-14- Kiss Conference Chairperson Ass.

If you’re a pro, you’ll get migrated from attendee to VIP when this alpha mentions you from the podium.  You will reach stratospheric status if they walk you around the room introducing you.  Brown nosing is gross now that I live in SF, but tastefully kissing ass right near the crack is how you escalate to VIP status.

-15- Work in comforting 10 wall flowers.

Comforting ten per conference is very good but ten per day is legendary.  It is best to mingle as a single conference attendee whereas packs of two tend to rock-pile (where the two stones cling to each other and not meet others).  Build your karma and you might accidentally meet your next $20mm client.

-16- Promote something for someone without any benefit to yourself.

-17- Solidify and simplify your brand at the conference.

Me, I’m the FICO guy that can answer credit questions and I’ve helped dozens of people I’ve met at conference mixers raise their credit score.  I wrote a Business Week article helping and I can help you too.  Ideally, your brand is easy enough to regurgitate after two martinis, four hours of sleep over continental breakfast while on a blackberry.

-18- Sleep Right @ Conference Hotel.

Try to stay at hotel where the conference is, sleep at least three hours, avoid roommates, and work out at least 10 minutes.  If the hotel is full, waitlist yourself (and learn to love the waitlist by reading GigaOm blog tip #5 ).

Try to never ever
* booty call an attendee
* stay with a friend that lives in the city,
* eat alone,
* meet up with friends from that city

-18b- Manage your conference libido.

Just because you tipped 3 nickels for the two class room upgrade as per my previous Amazon post, it doesn’t mean you need to show off by inviting people up.

-18c- You can lose money chasing ass, but you can never lose ass chasing money.

Remember, ace back-to-back NSA conferences and you can live like an oil baron and rent out an entire floor the third year.  But while you’re a newbie speaker, leave your new dating interest you eyed by the watercooler a note under her door.

-19- Conference Man-charm

In Wall Street, Bud Fox says to his mentor, “I’ve always dreamed of one thing and that to do business with a man like yourself”.  Saying it with flowers is over-the-top, but sending a fruit basket is ‘PRO!’.  Read more on “man Charm” in my GigaOm post.

-20- Post Conference To-Do’s.

Two or three conference follow-ups can add to the fun part of the 80-20 rule.  Translation, follow-ups are easy and very beneficial.  Basics include logging contacts’ business cards, adding cell phone numbers, tagging some Facebook photos and pushing people along the deal process.  Advanced tips include calendarization of which conference VIP I will follow-up with in Outlook.  Because of notes I took, I will be 13 for 13 in conference follow-up.

-21- Goal Set.

People love people moving towards something.  Me?, I’m rocketship towards 11-11-11 .  It has the innuendo of all ones in a row implying an on-time payment.  By November 11, I will have booked 2,000,000 students with a FICO of 750.  I’ve another goal… migrating myself from conference attendee to Chairperson

BONUS
Fail Upwards And Waitlist Yourself For a Conference.  If you’re not crashing and burning twice a year, maybe you’re not reaching high enough.  Similarly, if you’re not getting towed twice a year, maybe you’re not parking aggressively enough.

Stay tuned. I am taking you behind the scenes when I cover (and crash) Sundance Film Festival to market my book’s movie rights. I’ll cover the four mistakes of actors turned directors and maybe host a Sundance after party.

Larry want to put two books on the bestseller list — his mentor’s book from 1983 and his book, ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘ that comes out 09-09-09.

This post was cranked out in about an hour so email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9.  It does proactive credit education using humor and runs credit seminars on campus.

Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line.