What makes a great business conference? If your answer is unlimited coffee, you agree with Julie. On this episode of the People Purpose Podcast, Chas and Julie go beyond the food offerings, and discuss ways to help you prepare for conferences you might be attending in the months ahead. Learn tips and tricks of how to make the most out of your time and money. Plus, learn the ins and outs of why intentional networking is a conference secret hack.
What makes a great business conference? If your answer is unlimited coffee, you agree with Julie. On this episode of the People Purpose Podcast, Chas and Julie go beyond the food offerings, and discuss ways to help you prepare for conferences you might be attending in the months ahead. Learn tips and tricks of how to make the most out of your time and money. Plus, learn the ins and outs of why intentional networking is a conference secret hack.
Hello, and welcome to the people purpose podcast, the show that explores all the ins and outs, the challenges, opportunities, HR people, managers and all people face at work every day. My name is Julie Develin, and I'm here with my co host, Chas fields. Hey, Jules Chas, how are you? Good.
Chas Fields:I'm actually really excited on this episode, but I can't get away yet to talk about what we're going to talk about.
Julie Develin:Yeah, as if people won't see the title.
Chas Fields:That never occurred to me. I do the production of this thing. And that never occurred. Yeah,
Julie Develin:but that's okay. Chess. That's okay. Every once in a while, like every once a while I come up with a nugget like that. That just blows your mind. And that really is what I live for.
Chas Fields:That's hilarious. So Julie, what's on your mind? Baseball.
Julie Develin:Baseball is on my mind. pitchers and catchers report this week. I am the Phillies. I feel like it's this I feel like it's our year, every year. But you know, when you have the beginning of baseball season is there's just so much hope and optimism and every single team I think feels that except for maybe a few which I won't I love your to
Chas Fields:your team had a good year last year.
Julie Develin:Yeah, it was painful. But the ending was painful. But yes, we did have a good year. But yeah, I mean, I'm just my Phillies fandom is greater than ever. And I just can't wait for the baseball season. So what about you?
Chas Fields:So it is that time of year where we think about the lovely loving holiday of Valentine's Day. That's coming up in a couple of days. How are we don't celebrate Valentine's Day in my house.
Julie Develin:Every day a love day for
Chas Fields:there is well like my kid in school and the cards and all of that that's obviously we still do that I still do the charts. There are some parents and I'm not back in those that do this at all. Because I'm like I'm all in on you giving my kid like these sweet little gift baskets or these sweet little like, pouches of like candy and all of this stuff because my kid doesn't really like sweets all that much. But some of these parents go all out. Restroom. That ain't me. And that's my wife. And we're okay with that. Because again, I'm all in on on sneaking my kids peanut butter cups. Okay, more often than he realizes. But no, it's also my wife's birthday. So usually we have a trip plan this year. She's actually traveling for work on her birthday. And I'll be honest, Julie, I haven't gotten anything yet. And I got to
Julie Develin:say, oh, yeah, you better hurry.
Chas Fields:So anyways, not why we're here. I'm excited for baseball as well. But you still you still that one. I know that sorry.
Julie Develin:Sorry. Oh, we are here to talk about the business side of the day I
Chas Fields:O. And so this Saturday 86% of employees said their employer should take at least some role in rescaling to ensure they aren't easily replaced by AI tools. Follow up with 63% saying it's entirely the employers responsibility to do so.
Julie Develin:Well, yeah, so I think that stat is apropos for today's episode, because what we're showing here are what this study showed is that the employer that employees are expecting the employer to take a role in reskilling, but we're talking about today, and I think we could just go into it at because I think some of what we say in this discussion is going to hit on that. We're talking about the conference episode tonight. Yes, offense episode. So we're going to discuss ways that to help you gear up and really us to actually for for conference season because let's face it, conference season is right around the corner. And you know, we see conference season as like what like April, May, June ish, and then again in September, October, November,
Chas Fields:early December. Yeah. So it's a major portion of our job. And I think to what we wanted to highlight was kind of the before how do we prep before what do we do during and then after all of the hustle and the A overstimulation and the learning and the experience. How do we take that info? And what do we do about it after? So I think you should probably talk about the before first. Well,
Julie Develin:yeah, I do want to talk about the before. But before, before we start, I want to, before we get into that, and again, you know, this isn't just going to be like tips and tricks on what you should do it. It's more about how we want to see people being a little bit more intentional about what conference they choose, and where, and things like that. So that's what we're talking about. And but before we get started, I want to know from you chairs, because you and I do get the privilege of going to a lot a lot of these conferences around the world. What are some of the features of the better HR conferences that you've been to? From your perspective?
Chas Fields:I'm not going to categorize HR? I'm going to do I'm going to do any in every conference. So the question that you asked is the better of them like for me? Yeah. So first off, my these are my personal preferences. And part of what Julie is challenging you to do is think about your personal preferences. They're going to evolve year over year, or I believe that they should evolve year over year, because one year you may want to go and network and businesses sustainable, and it's doing well, one year, you may want to go and just focus on personal development. And for me, that is probably the most important. So as we talk prior to this episode, Julie, the selection process is really important to me of where I'm going to go to learn. It wasn't until I was on the speaking circuit, that I realized how many conferences there actually are, right? And how finite and directive these conferences have with their agenda, to maybe I want to go speak there, maybe I want to go learn there, maybe I just maybe we want to have a booth there at UKG. Because there's a there's a cross representation into a market that we can sell into. And this year was a prime example that I wanted to go to a conference out in Vegas that we didn't have a presence app. But I saw this entrepreneurial track where I was like, Ooh, what is on the top of minds of entrepreneurs and how they grow their business. So for me, not only is it a content producing element, but where can I sharpen my skills? Or rescale, if you will, as my world of work continues to evolve? Is that a question? That?
Julie Develin:Yeah, actually, you went really in depth? Because, you know, if you were to ask me the same question, some of the features of the best HR or conferences in general that I've been to, I was gonna say they have to have coffee the entire time. Because I think that's like, it's a little things. It's like, it's like a big deal. Right. As a speaker, as a speaker, I like to have coffee on the stage. Yeah. And I know that's not on the conference to provide it. However, the ones that do and the ones that provide it throughout the day, I find the best conferences.
Chas Fields:You're right, because number one, those conference rooms are usually cold. Yes, yeah. Even if it's just the heating element, but it's so fun to watch that, you know, let's say they're conferences that just do it like mid morning and mid afternoon. I've never seen a beverage section at a conference, especially when there's coffee empty.
Julie Develin:Right? And I'll tell you, I'll say, obviously, we work for UKG UKG does a great job at our conference of having coffee the entire time and beverages and healthy snacks. For me, like for me, aside from the content, those are some of the most important things, another one of the most important things and something that makes a conference good is easy parking. If you're driving, there are things that you just don't think of, right? I mean, there are people if you have a conference experience, where it's tough to get to, or it's, you know, you can't park or you have to pay $50 to park up to your attendance. Right. Again, just some of the features that I think that you and I, from our perspective, what makes a good conference, do
Chas Fields:you look at the talk tracks and like the presenters that are going to be there?
Julie Develin:Oh, yeah, I mean, that's obviously number one. And I think it's important for people to know that conferences, conferences, pick their keynote speakers, generally, eight months to a year prior to the conference, right? So so a lot of times you're able to see who the keynote speakers are Prior to going now, what they don't do is they don't choose the breakout speakers quite as quickly. Now some conferences do, you know if we're again, we're not just talking about HR conferences here. But that's where my perspective comes from HR conferences and I find that, you know, there, it depends on the kind of committee that's planning these conferences. And is it a third party planning the conferences? Or was there a change in leadership of the conference planning committee? There's different factors that go into this. So you say, am I going to look at the keynotes and the present? Or am I going to look at the presenters and who's going to present? Odds are when you sign up, if to get that quote, unquote, Early Bird rate, you're only going to know the keynotes. Yeah.
Chas Fields:And the agenda, the agenda is not usually fully fleshed out. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't pay for the early bird registration. It's funny, you bring up the keynote thing, I signed an agreement. Eight months in advance at a conference a to a conference that I was speaking at eight months in advance, and they're like, Well, what do you want to talk about? And I'm like, eight months is a long time to think how much business could change in eight months. So it was like this very generic, like topic. But then as it got closer, I developed content that was very specific to that audience I was speaking to, and it was up north. But that's actually a really good point. Because it's a it's a, you have to set your own expectations with how the conference is planning it. So maybe that's some feedback we can give. It's like you want to give an early bird discount pricing? Well, maybe if you had a fully fleshed out agenda, you may see higher uptick in the early bird pricing. Yeah,
Julie Develin:definitely. Definitely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we could again, here we go. We could do a whole episode on what the experience of speakers at conferences, but that's for another day. So let's talk briefly before, right, what are some of the things that that you can do before registering for an HR conference? I think, yes. Obviously, looking at who are the keynote speakers? Who are the presenters, looking at the topics that are going to be covered is definitely another thing. Obviously, the cost, the cost is important. But remember, we said that side of the day, people are expecting their employers to help them with upscaling and rescaling right. I mean, why should employers be covering more of the cost for these conferences for people?
Chas Fields:I would say yes, and here's why the information that you get, you're going to learn something, right, you may not agree with everything that your speakers and that your breakout, people are saying, but you're gonna learn something at these. And a lot of times when we send teams to go to conferences, it's for them to learn. But I would almost position it as a value case to say, I'm going to bring these back to teach my people as well, right. So they're on investment is not just for you, it's for the people that you'll be teaching the people that you'll be sharing with, you probably can't send an entire team to a conference, maybe you can, maybe you can't, but if you don't have the finances to do so, if you were intentional in the before of setting what you want to get out of it. Right? Hey, our business is struggling in these three areas, I'm going to go to six sessions on these three areas. And then I'm going to come back, you know, share that information with my team and then come up with an action plan. We now have a measurable ROI. And I know that that's what a lot of business leaders who want
Julie Develin:measurable ROI from the investment they made in the in the training. Sure. That's
Chas Fields:right. I think for me what I what I honestly, one of the best things that I do before, personally, before I go to the conference, is there are many networking groups, you know, whether it's a regional chapter, or there's a Facebook group, or reach out on a simple post that LinkedIn, Hey, Julie, I'm going to be at XYZ conference, who in the greater DFW area, you there, and you follow that hashtag. And all of a sudden, you're meeting people before you get there. So that way, it's like, let's assume you and I don't know each other, but you use that hashtag from the conference. I can be like, ooh, Julie's kind of in my space, I want to meet her when we get there. And it simplifies the networking, in my opinion, because then I can shoot you a DM and say, Hey, Julie, I'm gonna be there as well. That's, that's man, that's powerful. So.
Julie Develin:So the before piece, you know, are the basic things that sometimes we don't think about, like I would also say, think about geography. Now, what do I mean by that? You know, oftentimes we only look at conference says within a 1015 20 however many mile radius, but if you continue to only go to those conferences, you may not be getting as much perspective as possible. You know, Chas mentioned earlier just how many HR conferences there are. Google it. There are 1000s of HR conferences that go beyond the traditional let's just say at Sherm, right, it goes beyond traditional Sherm. There are tons and tons of organizations that are HR or work focused, because it's not HR, it's also leadership, its management, its training and development. It's recruiting. It's XY and Z. I mean, there's management, you know, what I mean? Management, ethics,
Chas Fields:leadership development. I mean, yeah,
Julie Develin:it can be overwhelming. But again, that's why before the conference, it's important before registering, it's important to set an intention. What are you looking to get out of this is very, very important. Now, we have to move into, you know, how do we make the most of our time during the actual conference? What do you think chess?
Chas Fields:I love that, but you have to kick this one off, because I know you're adamant about the during peace. Like flies, see if my pants my
Julie Develin:thing about the dooring piece? Is this? I find that I hate forced participation. Okay. I don't like force participation. Now. I don't know that anybody really does. But I also think that if you're going to go to a conference, and you know, there's going to be workshops, and you know, there's going to be because so much so often we get the feedback, or so often we get from conference planners, Hey, how is this going to be interactive? And then we make it interactive? And the people that show up? They're like, Yeah, I'm just gonna not be interactive, which is a
Chas Fields:major disconnect, by the way, because speakers are expected to make it interactive when the vast majority, like if you have an early, like, if you have the first session of the day, there's a really hard that's really hard to have interaction early I've ever
Julie Develin:spoken. At, you know, seven 7am. Early Bird session. Yep. I had one Sherm national. Yeah. And it's, it's yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty wild. But, you know, I think that it's important to, to, when you're choosing sessions to go to, don't just go to the ones where your friends are going, like, just because I find that people, obviously, people flocked to whoever they know. And that's important. I do, too. I do, too, all of us do it. But sometimes it's getting outside of our comfort zone. And getting to a place where we're able to network with like minded people who we don't normally network with, you know, that's why we're here. I've said it a million times, I learned more, I hope people learn more from each other than they do for me, you know, and that's generally how it works. As speakers, we bring the topics and we bring the ideas, it's up to the people listening to put those ideas into practice, if they work for their organizations, right, if they don't, you know, that's another thing too. And it's also, you know, a lot of conferences have different tracks that you can join. So it's really easy to just stay focused on one of those tracks, which, again, let's say it's dei and B, you're trying to increase your organization's impact in that area, maybe you do want to take the DI D track only, and you're not there for the onboarding, or whatever. But recognize that all of those other things can play a role in your di and B strategy as well. So it's about looking for, you know, what, what, what are going to be the most impactful for you. Now, the other thing, the other thing is that sometimes, you know, you'll, you'll have two or three different sessions that you want to go to at the same time. And that's, that's tough, especially at smaller conferences. But go ahead,
Chas Fields:I have a tip for that one. So I love the fact that you're talking about going to different sessions, I would encourage you to choose a session that you genuinely don't care about, or know nothing about to go and sit in. Right? That's a it's hard. It's not easy when it comes to paying attention, but force yourself to do that because we talk about rescaling. It's like oh, yeah, I have a thought on that. And you can enter a room and have a conversation piece with that. And to the point that you were making jewelry. There are certain conferences that have agreements in place that if there is a recording, you can get the transcript. Right? Let's say you don't you don't watch the record. Do you want a transcript and you can get the notes with it? I actually really liked that method. You know, because then it's you don't have to sit through all of it all of it. If you're a reader, you can pick off the high points and go hand in hand with the PowerPoint or PDF that comes with it. So there are options other than you have to go to the session to get the content and the material. And I think people don't always know that, Julie, or it's like, oh, my gosh, I wish I could have went to that session. Yeah. All you have to do
Julie Develin:is ask, ask the conference organizers. Oh, and by the way, the other thing that that I would recommend during the conference is to stay engaged if that conference is utilizing a conference management app. Because there's a lot of times there's fun contests on the conference management app, there's conversations, there's ways meetup, there's meetups, among groups, if you're, you know, looking for someone to have lunch with, you can, you know, find other folks who are there, you know, alone and, or other folks who want to network. So, I mean, so much to so much to unpack with during the conference. But you know, I would also say that, when you visit the there's always an exhibition area. And we all know how much I love that the swag, right? I've tampered that down a lot, because I have way too much of it. Except when there's really good
Chas Fields:swag. But anyway, a lot better. You have gotten a lot. Yeah,
Julie Develin:I literally don't need any more pens. I just don't. I mean, um, but when you go to the expo, you know, make sure that you're you're you know, you're also looking at who's there, and what are some of the things that those providers might be able to help you with, or the connections that you make, because it might not be immediate, but it might be a few years down the line, or Oh, I remember meeting X, Y, and Z at this conference. So again, lots lots of things to talk about there when the in person but engaging in networking. And also, you know, making sure that the notes that you take are in a place where you can easily find them. So many people want the PowerPoints but so often the PowerPoints aren't going to give you the full story. PowerPoints are there as just a guide. And you know, it's just it's difficult. So I think taking notes is also really important.
Chas Fields:And I will say from a speaker's perspective, we intentionally don't put a lot of words on our PowerPoints because we want it to be the conversation that makes you had that aha moment. And you're going to see hundreds of slides at these conferences. And for it's kind of like the advertising thing. We've talked about the unconscious decisions that we make, right, Julie, you drive down the road, and you never see the billboards anymore, you drive down the road, and you never see the advertisements anymore, because we're so inundated, or similar to conference where you are learning so much. So find three to five takeaways within each of those, make sure you title your presentation, and what are the session that you're in, and three to five key points. And I think that kind of leads us into the after, right where it's, you leave the conference, you're energized, but your energy is also significantly depleted, because you know, your peers for three to five days or whatever it is, give yourself some grace to go back, decompress from the conference, and then review your notes three, four or five days later. Because if you try and do immediate when you go back, you're not giving your self a chance to rest. And really, that's what you need to kind of let it sink in and be like, oh, I want to do this, this and this great, make your list and then walk away from it for three to five days, does that make
Julie Develin:sense to recognize it's a marathon, not a sprint with the things that you take away from a conference. I mean, unless there are things that are actionable that you can implement immediately. And not everything that the speakers bring is going to work for your particular organization. But there might be you know, a couple of tidbits in there. I mean, the other thing is making sure that you're bringing this information to other people in your organization, you know, sharing the knowledge that you gained with your colleagues who maybe you know, couldn't attend for whatever reason. So what this does is it's actually twofold. It helps the organization and helps those folks but also helps you because you're recalling the information, and you're able to sort of reflect on what it is that you heard. I think too, oftentimes speakers will recommend books, or they'll have a book, you know, that they'll recommend, you know, research those, if something, you know, seem to stick out to you for for learning, you know, at another time. So, you know, again, there's there's a lot to a lot to unpack here, but it's also about intention after the conference. Yeah,
Chas Fields:you spend a lot of money to invest in yourself or your organization did to write. And I will say, I think there's a little bit of conference remorse that may come up, if you didn't get a chance to take advantage. We get it, that business happens while you're at these conferences. So I think a lot of times in people that I've interacted with, they have a little bit of conference remorse, where it's, I wish I didn't have XYZ going on at work, so I could have paid more attention. And then it becomes it goes back to that return on invested capital with your with your team and your peers to say, Okay, what did you learn? Well, I couldn't pay attention, because I was dealing with this employee issue virtually. Right?
Julie Develin:Why are you there? Why are you at the conference? If you're just going to continue to work, right?
Chas Fields:That's right. So so we have to be you know, we have to set clear expectations with ourselves that treat it as if you are on PTO, or out of office, even though you're being paid for it, to go do it, or at least I hope you're being paid for it. And I would also encourage, having worked with a lot of programming teams, and you have worked with a lot of programming teams with these conferences, they take your feedback very seriously. And when I say that I wish companies that we work with take feedback, as serious as these conference programming people do. Because it is, number one, it's a very difficult job. It's a volunteer job. They're trying, a lot of times they're trying to appease the masses of all of the people they want you to come and learn. And then people don't give feedback about what they liked, or disliked or hey, do this, again, I would strongly encourage you to fill out that survey. Because these people care truly like Yeah,
Julie Develin:and we have speakers care to, you know, we want to know where we hit the mark maybe where we didn't, again, recognizing that not every you you are going to go into a session, a speaking session with whatever thought it is in your mind that you're going to get out of that session. And it may not always be the case that you get whatever it is out of that session, because speakers can't read your mind. Or if there was something that you wanted the speaker to go deeper into. Hey, here's another thing reach out to the speaker after the conference. Yeah, you know, connect with them. I love it, by the way. Yeah. Oh, yeah, me too. Me too. Or I love when people write me. And they're like, I didn't agree with X, Y, and Z, like, Oh, tell me why. Because, again, I'm giving you things from my perspective. And from my research. Yeah, that's it, you know, you may have a different purview,
Chas Fields:I would say to when you get back, you need to set a goal on when and how you're going to implement what you learned. Okay. And where we, you know, Joe, and I talk about updating HR strategy frequently, and planning a year, 18 months, three years in advance. In this instance, it's a much shorter runway, because you will eventually forget the information if you don't take action on it. Right? You're guilty. I know, guilty
Julie Develin:sample example. Think of the lab HR conference you went to? And what were the top three takeaways? Can you can you think of it? Can you say I'm not asking you to do it? I'm asking. I'm asking, you know, people who, you know who are listening? Yeah. But I could take that I can take that to another level and say, think of the last workplace training you went to? And what were the things you got out of it.
Chas Fields:And if you aren't doing it, then your people sure aren't doing it, right? Example of domino effect. But I would say, you know, obviously, give yourself Grace time to decompress, but then set a goal within three months, I want to have X, Y, and Z done from what I learned from this conference. And it's a micro step. It's a big project. But it's a simple micro step that's going to hold yourself accountable. And that way, it's top of mind for you and for your people. I will tell you, Julie, what I'm guilty, and I've been to several conferences, just as someone who's going to learn, right, it's part of my continuing ed that I want to do. And I, you know, I don't want to go and speak I want to go listen, and I want to go learn. And I can tell you there are times that I've come back with so much and I'm like, Okay, how do I compile all of this information? How do I take all of this and develop it into something? And then I get a phone call. And then I get an email and then I get a chance I need you hear as I need you there. And that stuff gets pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. And before you know it nine months has gone by and I'm like, Oh, what was that thing I learned nine months ago, because that's what I want to focus on here. So be proactive and diligent and how you're going to leverage the content.
Julie Develin:And also don't put too much pressure on yourself. You know, because some of it could be that you just want to go and learn for yourself and not not make changes in your organization. A lot of folks who are out of work. Also go to conferences. All right, you know, so they can learn new skills and learn, you know, see what's going on out there, if you will. Yeah. Anyway, we didn't even talk about networking. But I think it goes without saying that if you make connections at the conference, you know, keep up with those connections, especially the ones that are that are important for you, or the people that you really connected with. Well, Chas, what did you find your purpose in today? Well,
Chas Fields:before I said, I love how you always do that, in your talks, I've sat through, I don't know, a dozen 100 And your talks, dozen 100. That's really good English. And you always talk about connecting with the people after the fact like you make it a point in your talks, because that really does matter. You know, it really does. Well, one day, you may not have a job or you, you want to make a transition to another job. And you meet, I've met so many great friends in the in the HR and change and payroll community that I would have never interacted with had I not gone to a conference. I love that you're like, hey, follow up with him. It's true. I found my purpose in today that, number one, I love the conference season. And I love getting jazzed up for what we're gearing up for in the coming days, and how we're going to utilize kind of the content we're helping others with. But more importantly, I'm fired up to go learn something new. What about you?
Julie Develin:Yeah, my purpose. I feel like I feel like you have to be more intentional about the conferences that you choose to go to. And you also have to set your expectations for yourself, right at the expectations for yourself and recognize that after the fact if your expert if the conference didn't meet those expectations, ask yourself why was it you or was it the conference? Because I think that that can go a number of different ways. But, you know, I think also purpose is to go to a conference to be a large one, right? There's tons of local organizations that have conferences, and if you're in HR, explore a leadership conference, explore management, conference, explore conference, for the industry, in which you work that isn't HR focused.
Chas Fields:So you'll learn a lot. I was gonna say that, Hey, you want to make a better relationship with with someone who's not in your position? Maybe it's finance or executive, go to an executive leadership conference, right? That doesn't have to be HR just because you're an HR. I love that. So with that, be sure to like and subscribe on all platforms, please. It helps us give us a review. It really, really helps us. Go share this with your network. And of course, as always, make sure you check out the latest blogs and research from our lovely sponsors of workforce Institute by visiting workforce institute.org. With that, Julie, I think we are done. Thanks for listening. Cheers, y'all.
Julie Develin:Thanks. Bye.