{"id":7536,"date":"2011-10-02T16:10:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T23:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7536"},"modified":"2011-10-02T16:12:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T23:12:31","slug":"the-hidden-value-of-conferences-and-symposiums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7536","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Value of Conferences and Symposiums"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Leveraging your participation in a conference to the benefit of yourself, your team and your network<\/strong><\/p>\n

If all you are planning on doing at the next conference you attend is to learn something from the sessions and the exhibits, my advice would be to save your money, focus on your work, and \u2018get the dvd\u2019. As we all know, attending conferences isn\u2019t just about the sessions, the keynote speakers, or the product demos. The values you attain from attending conferences are all in the periphery, they are about the \u2018X Factors\u2019, those that help you , your team and your company get ahead professionally.<\/p>\n

As project and program management professionals, keeping up with the latest techniques, tools and methodologies is part of what keeps us relevant and in hot demand across industries and geographies.\u00a0 Managing our time to allow for professional development in addition to keeping up with demanding schedules and managing our teams, we need to ensure that we spend time the continued need to develop our skills, build our network and share our knowledge with others.<\/p>\n

Attending a conference or a symposium can be a good way to get a check in all the boxes above, while also allowing you to de-couple from the work environment and the team and focus the attention to you.\u00a0 The goal should be to find opportunities to attend a conference where you can add valuable skills, knowledge or connections to help you as well as your company and together achieve your common goals.<\/p>\n

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Project and Program Management professionals tend to be thirsty for knowledge and to network with others, it is after all one of our core skills, communication, and what we spend a large portion of our time doing.<\/p>\n

As part of my development I have chosen a couple of conferences in the month of October and will be looking to achieve all of the objectives above, to further my knowledge, my network and add knowledge back to the field. I\u2019ll be attending a Six Sigma\/Lean conference at Cisco, an IT Strategy Conference in Chicago and the Silicon Valley PMI Annual Symposium in San Jose. It\u2019ll be a busy month for sure.<\/p>\n

Choosing to attend and participate in a conference can have a wealth of additional hidden values and benefits that most of us don\u2019t think about when we go. I usually go into a conference with these in the back of my head and hope to utilize some of them along the way as I participate. Since many of our blog readers attend conferences both in the San Francisco Bay Area and other places in the world, I thought that I would share it with you, and perhaps you can share with me some of the hidden values and benefits you derive from attending conferences.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of the areas on my list that I\u2019ll touch on:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n