Larry Chiang closes deals in rooms that he was not even invited into. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After Chiang’s Harvard Law keynote, Harvard Business wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“ (its the same title as his NY Times bestseller. If you read his scandalously awesome “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post:
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By Larry Chiang
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 1K elite flight status isn’t a complete waste, you can still pre-board and bring a buddie, so make a new friend.
-2- We are not in CA. Dressing right California especially if you’re flying east for a conference pow-wow. If you’re a founder of a brand name company with three liquidity events under your belt, you can wear flip flops and smuggle a shih tzu inside your Duck9 lap-top bag. Until then wear some khakis and a blue dress shirt.
-2b- If you are CAUGHT underdressed, wear the flip-flops and burlap bag as if you did it on purpose. People who wear burlap bags on purpose… a) don’t make excuses for wearing a sack, (b) are comfortable at the mixer and (c) never ever comment that everyone else is super dressed up. My Underdressed Conference Attendee, press on and make that burlap bag shine.
-3- Pre-Conference Networking! This critical manuver gets you 6-10 solid contacts. Work the RSVP list like a tri Delt sorority girl from Arizona State University dialing for dollars. Meet them via LinkedIn, Spoke, Twitter, Facebook or their blog. Expect that 15% of the list won’t show but be aware of an extra 15% that will show.
-3b- Get Jiggy With the Jargon. Leverage conference buzzwords to introduce yourself to 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 2008′, ‘#foocamp08′, ‘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.
-3c- Ask for pre-conference introductions. Get warm intros to speakers via email from a mutual work friend. You might need to lay out an email for the introducer. You will more likely ace the conference by lining up meetings with industry leaders and ‘hitters’.
-4- Work the Secret Society VIP list. My best inside tip is to bribe the conference PR girl to reveal last minute A-list bloggers and reporters to you.
-4b- Work the Secret Society VIP & attendee list some more. This time tip the Bell Captain in charge of early am newspaper distribution $2/attendee to attach some ‘brand-my-company’ leaflets. It works well to staple a “Welcome to TechCrunch 50″ to a Wall Street Journal or Economist magazine. Bonus bonus if your company is also on page 3. Minus minus if your CEO has a print ad running from his modeling agency days on p25.
-4c- 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.
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.
-4d- 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.
-4e- Off the deep end. Get a confernce post party going by having your CEO make in-suite chocolate chip pancakes. 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 company that does FICO preparation for college students and I’m here to see how people
send text messages from a ten digit number.
-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) 
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/SiliconBeat/GigaOm, wax on about how you took notes on their comment.
*** BONUS ***
a party invite for you:
http://economist.eventbrite.com/
What a Supermodel Can Teach a Harvard MBA
If you liked this…
Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983. His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘
This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com
Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.
Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email
You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .
Larry speaks on stuff they don't teach in B-school to help you get street smart in doing business. In college, he started a business that helps college students with their FICO score. He loves entrepreneurs, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and after parties. You can reach him at:
