How to get the most out of seminars

Want to get practical and profitable business benefits from attending seminars? Here are some tips to follow to make sure that you time and money is well spent.

Analyse your needs. Ask yourself and other colleagues and departments about current challenges and future projects. Then shortlist the seminars that will address the issues.
Ask what tangible benefit you get. Some seminars provide essential information, some are informative discussions and some are interactive and provide insights to help you transform policies and practices to improve success such as a health-check for your company.
Do your research. Dig into the company and the individuals holding the seminar to find out if their level of expertise is up to what you’re looking for.
Plan your seminar visits. If you’re like us there are usually two or three seminars on at exactly the same time that you want to go to. If you can’t split the seminars between the team then you can always stick your head into all three, exchange cards and contact names and then take away any surveys or offers like a health-check to do later.
Pre-register when you can. Some conferences insist that you pre-register and others let you roll along. On the whole, whenever you can, it’s a good idea to pre-register your interest so that you can find out extra information, be first in line for discounts and so you can build an early relationship with the seminar holders.
Before the seminar. Read around the subject, list questions you want answered, if you’re going as a team make sure everyone knows their tasks and that you arrange a debrief afterwards.
In the seminar, link the subject to your situation. Make sure that you link what you’re hearing to the challenges that you’re facing in your company. Ask the speaker to explain how his company’s ideas or products or services can help you achieve your business goals.
Network, network, network! If a conference is running free seminars then take advantage for they’re a great way of making contacts and of getting free advice and benefits that seminar holders may be persuaded to give out.
Take action after the seminar. Gone are the days when you just went to conferences and seminars and exhibitions for the fun of it (if they ever existed). Treat the seminar as a business opportunity now’s the time to arrange meetings with speakers so that you can investigate what they’re offering. Remember, companies may well look favourably on business that comes to them directly from an event.
Find the exhibition stand. Many seminar speakers at conferences will come from an organisation which will have a stand. It’s worth visiting it to try out any products that they have recommended so that you have a clear picture of what they’re offering.

If you haven’t already done so, then put Thursday 26th January 1100hrs in your smartphone or diary because we’re running a seminar at the Learning Technologies show in London. See us in Theatre 4 on level 1 for a presentation that we think will put your company on the road to project success. And don’t forget to visit us on Stand 73, level 1 in the free exhibition itself!
Useful Links

ILX Group delivers free PRINCE2 seminars in the UK, Australia, Europe and South Africa.
ILX Consulting provides everything from maturity assessments and organisational health-checks, through ITIL, MSP and PRINCE2 implementation, to programme and project performance management. It has a proven record of delivering tangible improvements in capability, productivity and customer satisfaction to a businesses and organisations.
ILX Connect can help companies implement PRINCE2 training.
The APMG has a slew of useful information about PRINCE2 accredited training options.
The PRINCE2 e-learning experience provides cost-effective, rich and collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.