Accounting Events 2019: [Part 6 of 7] Do’s and Don’ts During The Event

After discussing how to use events for networking, we need to address what are the Do’s and Don’ts for the event attendees and how the attendees can ensure they are getting the maximum of the event.

If you have never attended the events and conferences, then you must be nervous or find yourself wondering what if something will go wrong during the events. Also, you may doubt yourself thinking what if an opportunity is missed just because of lack of experience at such events about what to do and what not to do during the event. Such kind of doubts and questions are not unusual for new attendees, and that’s where this blog will help you.

This blog will serve as a guide for the newbies at event as well as those who frequently attend the events to make their visit more productive and useful. In this blog, we will provide some tips to make your attendance a better experience and while keeping your participation an effective one.

Things to DO at Events

1. Take Notes

Hearing a good speech will not make a change or will be useless if you forget the key takeaways of it on returning to home. It is essential to write down important notes and key points of speech or sessions you took during the event. Also, it is not necessary that you pen down the exact words, but what you learned or understood from that point or specific line.

2. Listen

Listening is among the most key skill, particularly when you are trying to learn something. Be an attentive attendee and remain in the moment. Don’t be one of those attendees who enact like they are entirely indulged in the speech or session but just checking on their social media accounts and messages.

Ensure that you avoid distractions from the meeting by keeping your phone off, or at least on the silent mode. Focus on the speaker, otherwise what’s the purpose of attending the event if all you want to do is texting there.

3. Do Carry Enough Business Cards

It can be an awkward moment when you meet someone and just when you reached your wallet and finds out that you are out of business cards. So, bring plenty of them and whenever you find out a promising network or hot lead offer them your business cards. The business card is one of the essentials that you should carry during the event.

4. Say “Hello”

It is highly recommended to introduce yourself to everyone who appears to you like a hot lead or business network. If you are an accountant or any other business professional, then it would be great to network with a like-minded professional with whom you can share your experiences and best practices and many more.

For that, you have to say “Hello” and introduce to them. Don’t just wait and hope someone else will come to you and introduce themselves but take the charge and make most of the ocassion.

5. Stay Ahead of Schedule

Save yourself a place to sit and avoid the last-minute rush. Listen to the speaker from the beginning, and also you don’t want to be the one disturbing the whole session in between. Also, by reaching there a few minutes beforehand, you have extra time to post on the social media sites and to take important calls and messages. So, be seated a few minutes before the event starts.

6. Talk to Organizers

Tell the organizers what you liked about the event. They must be going through much trouble and hard work to make that event successful. If you loved the management or even lighting or music, then tell them about it. Such personal compliments make their day special and, also they will look at you as a kind and intelligence professional.

7. Make Use of Breaks

In between breaks during the events can be used as another opportunity to talk and connect with other attendees. Use such intervals as a chance to take care of your social media influence and promotion.

You can share what you learn at the events on social media. Since most of the events make it to the trending ones, it will be a good chance for you to gather more followers and buzz.

8. Share Because Sharing Means Caring

It can be seen as the most critical tip or suggestion of this blog. Knowledge is similar to happiness, and it grows as you share it with others. At events accountants, CPAs, entrepreneurs, and other business professionals come to network and to gain new knowledge.

Sharing what you have learned while working with your team and your company, can give value to them, and you would appear to be an intellectual, useful, and knowledgeable connection to the other attendees.

Don’t

1. Don’t Be With the Same People

It is one of the most common mistakes that many people do. The first 3-4 people they met during the event, they keep them for the rest of the sessions and don’t engage in the conversation with new professionals.

They get so comfortable with them that they forget the primary purpose of attending the events which is networking. So, don’t make this mistake and keep engaging in conversation with different persons, accountants or any other professional.

2. Don’t Shape Your Perceptions Immediately

Now imagine this, a speaker came and gave his session, and you had not liked the session, and you started bragging about it to others. Stop right there!

Just do the exact opposite, try looking for points and comments you liked or found important and discuss them with others. You will see that more people are encouraged, and they would be glad that they talked you and listened to you.

3. Don’t Discuss Your Tragic Stories

This is also a general situation that many people found themselves during a group conversation. When you mention your bad day story, others will even start doing that, and suddenly the whole discussion may get changes to “who has the worst story?”. So don’t do that and if someone else initiates such topic try to mold the conversation more relevant topics like the event, technology, accounting industry, etc.

4. Don’t Multitask Unnecessarily

This may look like a wrong statement but believe me, it’s true. Don’t have your laptop start doing your work and stuff in between the talk. You paid for this event to listen to these speakers, and now you are focused on something else.

This will be the worst thing you can do with your hard work earned money- injustice. Your work and the desktop table will be there waiting for you when you return.

5. Don’t Miss Visionary Speeches or Keynote Speeches

These are the sessions and speeches that are conducted by the visionaries and innovators. These sessions make any event memorable or creates hype around the world. So don’t miss such speeches and witness the speech that might change your perception about almost everything.

6. Don’t Show “I am the Best” Attitude

A conference is a place where people meet and share their views, ideas, best practices, innovations, etc. Almost all of the professionals sitting in the audience has had many wins and failure stories, so don’t show them look “I am the best” attitude.

It may make you look like a person who has the weakened and arrogant thought process. Such perceptions will make it difficult to build relationships with other attendees and professionals, and you may lose a great opportunity to network. Show them the real you, a mixture of success and failure stories would be the best option to portray yourself.

Bonus Tips

• You must be eating the food and have some drinks all during the event to avoid dehydration.
• Eating a little or having little breakfast just after you check-in would be recommended. You may be occupied throughout the day, and you need the energy to do so.
• Don’t rush to the speakers just after they finish their speech or session this is highly unrecommended and will be seen as highly unprofessional. Wait for the moment to talk to them and if you don’t find one connect to them afterward through the internet (social media, email, and others).

Wrapping Up

Hope, now you will be able to attend the events without any doubts and queries in mind and with a clear vision. In our next blog of the series, we will cover how to manage takeaways from the events.

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