Why You Should Make Time to Attend Conferences

We’ve just come to the end of the busy October/November IT Conference season - or “silly season” as I call it, as so many IT Conferences take place in a such a short period of time!

As always, I’ve returned from my travels feeling fairly exhausted, but inspired, with handfuls of business cards from the people I’ve met and personal notebooks stuffed full of scribbled down ideas and thoughts gleaned from the Conferences to help take my business forwards.

Returning to the office, I never cease to be surprised by the number of conversations I have with the owners of IT Solution Provider and Managed Service Provider (MSP) businesses who ask me to share with them my thoughts on the Conferences I’ve attended before wistfully sharing with me that “I’d love to be able to go, but I’m just too busy”.

Does that strike a chord with you and your own business? Are you aware of the amazing Conferences that take place within our industry, but never seem to make plans to attend one yourself because you’re too busy? If so, here are 3 reasons that you really need to make plans to take advantage of the opportunity to attend the next IT Conference.

Are you working in your business or on it?

The most common excuse for not attending IT Conferences is that “I’m too busy”. This being “busy” will often be because as business owner, you’re the boss, technical support team, HR department and probably the Pot washer too!

After a while of having your nose to the grind stone to keep everyone happy and survive day-to-day, you might think that it’s impossible to find the time to do anything other than work in your business.

The thing about being “busy” is though that you get to choose what you spend your time on each day, as does everyone else. The difference between the successful MSP business owners and everyone else is that the successful MSP business owners realize that to grow their business beyond where it’s currently at, it’s necessary to regularly step away from the business and take a more strategic view on what needs to be done.

Few places provide better opportunities to step away from working “in” your business and to be inspired with ideas to work “on” your business than IT Conferences.

Inspiration, Ideas and Techniques from Speakers

Any good Conference will feature it’s fair share of speakers - experts and respected authorities in their field who, for the price of an admission ticket to the Conference, will share some incredible insights into the IT industry, as well as practical advice and ideas that can help your business grow.

These speakers are often attendees at the Conference themselves, so if you’re lucky you’ll also get to mingle with them or pick their brains for solutions to your own businesses specific challenges.

How much would a one-on-one Consultation with most IT business experts cost you - if indeed you could pin them down for the time in their dairy?

But Speakers alone aren’t the only value to be found it IT Conferences.

Learn from your Peers

As a veteran of years worth of IT Conferences across the World I can share with you that while the Speakers and organized content is always worth attending for, the real value to any Conference is the conversation you have in the corridors, over Coffee and at the hotel bar with your peers.

Your peers are the fellow IT business owners who are out there making it happen. They’re successful enough to be attending the IT Conference themselves, and so without fail, they have something to share that could make a difference to your business.

It might be an idea, a connection or a solution to a shared problem. It might be all three of those things. I know from experience that talking to your most successful peers - and IT Conferences are where they tend to gather - has given me some of the most amazing insights that have subsequently helped my business grow.

Conclusion

I’ve listed but two good reasons to attend IT Conferences - speakers and peers - yet there are many more good reasons besides. Nearly every IT Conference attendee I’ve ever spoken to over the years has always told me that they’ve returned from any IT Conference with one or more “nuggets”. Ideas that will help take their business to the next level.

If you’re too busy to attend an IT Conference, then you’re effectively saying that you’re too busy to listen to good advice that will help your IT business grow.

Time spent at a Conference is not time wasted, it’s an investment in growing your business.

Richard Tubb works with MSP's to help them focus on what is important, free up their time and make more money. You don't have to do it alone any more!

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