Two weeks ago I launched my first startup after close to 6 months of development. I spent mostly weekends and late nights hacking away on it, as most of my time is taken up by my day job. When I launched Fonadu, I really only had a few blogs on board and almost no one interested in advertising. Having spent most of my time coding, I now had time to go out and contact both publishers and advertisers.
Last minute notice
I shifted my focus to client acquisition, putting together a list of top, influential blogs I wanted to contact. I did some reading on them, and sent out a few dozen emails the first night. Within 45 minutes, Irvin, one of the bloggers I wanted the most for Fonadu contacted me back and told me he was definitely interested, but was really busy preparing for BlogHerFood. “are you going?” he asked. Within the first 60 seconds of reading blogherfood website, I knew I had to be there. With over 300 of the industries top food bloggers slated to be there, it was a dream conference for client acquisition. The problem? The conference was in 5 days, and the tickets were sold out. Flights were close to 400 dollars to Atlanta, and driving wasn’t a plausible option for me. I immediately got on twitter and searched for someone selling their ticket. After 30 mins of searching, I found someone willing to sell it. I tweeted and emailed her. 15 minutes after, I had a ticket. With the flights being close to 400 dollars, I purchased a 99 dollar non revenue buddypass. Two hours later, I emailed Irvin back and informed him that I would be attending.
Cute Story, Now What?
I was excited and fortunate to have found out about BlogHerFood, but I still had a lot of work to do. The conference was now five days away, I didn’t have business cards, any idea who was attending, or even what the conference was about. Worse, no one in the food blogging world really knew me. I needed some sure fire ways to maximize my time spent at the conference. Here are the conference tips I devised:
You Don’t Need To Be A Sponsor
My most effective time spent at the conference was giving things away for free. I got personal, one on one time with some of the top food bloggers by tweeting things like, “anyone have wordpress questions? Im in room 200 #freehelp” As a software developer and someone who is extremely familair with WordPress, I was able to make improvements, both small and large, for some very thankful bloggers. I helped non-technical food bloggers with everything from JavaScript debugging to installing Google analytics, in return I was able to pitch them on Fonadu.
Do Your Research
At a conference, you will be meeting a ton of people. You can’t meet everyone, so be sure to do research prior to getting there. Target the people you want to speak to, follow them on twitter, make notes of their interests. Actually read their blog. Look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook, and any other site you can find them on. If you have similarities, find them. People do business with people they are comfortable with, by doing your work early, you can map who you will have connections with in advanced, making your time spent more efficient.
Take Notes Like You’re In School
At a conference, you’re going to be receiving hundreds of business cards. Some from people you talk to over lunch for an hour, and some you meet for 30 seconds in an elevator. Every few hours, try and run up to your room (if you’re staying in the conference hotel) or give yourself some quick quiet time to take some notes. For every business card you have, try and write a sentence about it with something to jog your memory later. For example: “Toni Gemayel – Met in the elevator. Talked about ad network. Tall, dark, and handsome.” This way, at the end of the conference, you will actually remember what you and that person spoke about, transforming that stack of a hundred business cards into more efficient business leads.
Be Social
Im not just talking about Twitter, get out and socialize like the internet doesn’t exist. I’m talking about witty jokes and good ole fashion business charm. Know your audience and cater toward them. If you don’t know where to start, just simply say, “tell me more about blank”. People love to talk about themselves, this should produce endless conversation. Its during these social events that you can really get to network and know people. Be careful to pick out who is there to relax, and who is there for work. Some people use conferences for vacations. That’s okay, but that isn’t why you there.
blogherfood, conference guide, lifehack
