- Review the conference agenda
Go online and decide which of the topics would be most useful to your professional development.
- Does the session fulfil a content goal? (meaning it should be educational), and/or
- Does the session fulfil an interpersonal/networking goal? (for example that you're keen to introduce yourself to the person who's presenting)
- Introducing yourself to a particular speaker - a plan
- Email them in advance to say that you're looking forward to attending their presentation, and that you hope to say hello afterwards.
- After the session, if you do get to introduce yourself, make a point of connecting on LinkedIn with the presenter, maybe with a reminder, such as ‘we met today after your talk on XYZ, which was excellent by the way. And I would very much like to stay in touch with you so as to....’ - or something to that effect.
Should I skip the keynote speech?
Keynote speeches are often entertaining and fun to go to, especially if the speaker is famous or renown in the industry – and they can be good conversation starters for networking with other delegates.
That said, they often don’t have a whole lot of networking value so can be skippable if you have other priorities.