3 Benefits of Attending Events In-Person

Practical tips you can leverage for your tech job search

Events are great places to meet new acquaintances, old friends and…cartoon characters!

Last month, I attended the Salesforce World Tour in London.

This is an annual event held in London’s ExCel conference centre to bring together over 10,000 people from Salesforce ecosystem partners, customers and ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to learn about how businesses are leveraging technology to create better experiences for their customers.

This is just one of the many hundreds, perhaps even thousands of events available to anyone interested in the wonderful world of tech.

Now that we've spent two years getting accustomed to remote working as the ‘new normal’, it’s very easy to get complacent about the need to attend in person events.

Of course, it’s possible to attend a remote webinar, a remote meeting, even a remote conference complete with booths and breakout rooms so that you can ‘step away’ and have a 1-1 conversation with those ‘visiting’ your online booth.

However I personally believe it’s not a like-for-like replacement for an in-person meet-up. I heard recently that “it’s possible to maintain authentic relationships remotely, but not form them” which I found some truth in. 

The spontaneity that comes with an in-person event is what contributes to an authentic human relationship; for example speaking with the person next to you in the queue for coffee, joining a conversation on a booth by hovering nearby and overhearing something interesting, or spotting something interesting as you walk past a quiet corner of an exhibition hall. 

This is why, although I primarily work from home and often find that’s where I produce my most efficient work day-to-day, in-person events are where the best relationships can be formed, and as you know if you’ve been reading our blog recently, networking is critical if you’re looking to break into tech.

This blog post will provide you with practical tips on how to maximise your success at events if you’re looking to get into the tech industry in a post-covid world, and three ways attending events can benefit you, including taking tips from my own story and experience at my first tech conference, Salesforce World Tour.

My Story

Three years ago, I attended the World Tour after a recommendation from someone already in the industry. It was free to attend, so I booked the day off my job at the time and headed over. 

I still have my pass from my first event!

At first, I found it overwhelming, as it became obvious that a lot of people knew each other and I was totally new to this industry. I’d spent time ahead of the event networking on LinkedIn and lined up two interviews that day. 

In between, I planned on attending some of the talks going on, however it turned out that the rest of the day, I was a total keeno running around each and every stand on the exhibition floor, picking up business cards of HR managers and hiring managers. 

By the end of the day I had a huge stack of business cards. Turns out I didn’t need them (yet at least😉)after all: my first interview was with Pracedo, which ended up being my first employer in consulting. The second interview of the day was with the person that ended up referring me for my current role 3 years later.

As you can imagine, I’m therefore a pretty big advocate for in-person events.

1. Networking

It can be intimidating approaching people at the booth…but just go for it, they are always very friendly!

As I’ve heavily alluded to, the number one benefit of attending an in-person event is networking.

It’s rare that you’d need to book an appointment to speak to someone at a booth, so you get much easier access to companies that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to reach otherwise.

Also, by attending events you can find out about companies you didn’t even know existed, which is invaluable if you’re not already in the industry.

If you feel intimidated going up to the booth when you don’t know anybody, a straightforward but effective opening line is simply “[Is there somebody here / Do you have a contact for the person] that looks after recruitment or hiring?”

Have your elevator pitch ready (you can read how to formulate this in this article) but most of the time, people are just happy to chat so try not to be intimidated. Aim to come away from each booth with at least a contact to follow up with.

Don’t forget that like yourself, there’s probably plenty of people attending the event that don’t have a booth set up, and are just ‘walking the floor’.

Unless you bump into them at a post-event drinks meetup, or just spontaneously whilst working the floor yourself, the best way to meet others is getting in touch via LinkedIn or email before the event to schedule a meeting.

2. Inspired by Industry Trends

Understanding industry trends is really important when looking to make your move into tech.

Either when researching what kind of company you want to work for, or what kind of role best suits your skill set, you’ll need to understand what the growth areas are and what are the ‘hot topics’ in the industry.

There are often inspirational and motivational talks at tech conferences

Not only that, but it can really help you feel inspired and motivated by the amazing things that technology can achieve.

Industry events are the perfect place to get an understanding of these in depth as businesses look to be seen as the most innovative and forward facing thought leaders in these areas. Often these are brought to life using real life use cases of when an innovative technology solution has delivered value for a client, or it could be through “the art of the possible“ demonstrations of what the future could look like using a particular technology.

It’s very possible that looking at trends and growth areas could be one of the drivers that’s determined your decision to consider moving into technology in the first place.

For example, I’d originally done my degree in English, and was signed up for a Masters in journalism, before realising that my dreams of being a UK Carrie Bradshaw (or more likely, Bridget Jones) and unlike them, being able to afford a city lifestyle and expensive shoes were not likely to materialise through a day job writing a lifestyle column in the 2020’s - especially since I wasn’t very good at it. One of the reasons I decided to go into tech consulting was because it was a thriving industry with a lot of growth potential, and I wanted to be part of the positive change that technology could bring.

However beyond that, within the technology industry itself there are growth areas and cutting edge technologies that create a lot of buzz. If you can get a good understanding of these and demonstrate that in an interview, it could be a differentiator and prove you are committed and enthusiastic about growing your knowledge of the tech industry. 

Here are just a few of the ‘hot topics’ in tech at the moment:

Events are a great place to learn about use cases of technology

• Web3 - This is a term used to describe a decentralised internet owned and operated by its users, such as blockchain technologies used by cryptocurrencies and NFTs

• AI - AI uses data to analyse and create meaning much faster than a human could hope to. If you’ve ever been recommended a show on Netflix, or been redirected to a faster route on Waze, then your experiences have been facilitated by AI technology.

• The Metaverse and VR - it’s not a coincidence that Zuckerberg decided to rename his company ‘Meta’. The metaverse is a virtual world that enables users to explore and experience a hypothetical reality, usually through a headset.

• Sustainability - Already been called ‘the new digital’, sustainability is being built into digital solutions to enable global economies and businesses to manage and measure environmental things like carbon and responsible consumption and production

• DevOps - most companies want to do it, but don’t have a framework, practices and tools in place to be able to deliver it, and most want to learn more about it

• Agile - see previous point 😉

You can read more about hot topics and industry trends that crystallised at World Tour in this article (which also talks about the talent shortage and skills gap in the industry) by Bryan Berumen, the Head of Accenture’s Salesforce practice in the UK.

3. Last but not least…Swag!

Water bottles, cuddly toys, bottle opener keyrings, enough pens to last you a lifetime.

You may not have quite remembered the name of that really interesting tech startup where you had a really promising conversation with their HR manager, but the notebook you picked up from their stand has their company logo and name on it…bingo!

Every time you go to use your notebook, you’ll be reminded to follow up with your CV - plus, you got a free notebook!

Remember swag etiquette though: if you’re going to take some free stuff, you need to be willing to give your email in return.

Conclusion

There are thousands of events out there, from intimate networking breakfasts like Level Up London, to industry meetups like Community Meet-ups, to huge conferences like the World Tour.

If you’re interested in Salesforce specifically, Salesforce Ben provides a list of related events each year, however there are tonnes of others across the globe you can get involved in. If you know of any other networking events going on for those looking to get into the tech industry, let us know or comment below. And of course, if you’re looking for guidance on how to approach an event of which could be best for you, then please reach out to our team.