What’s your take on conference take-aways?

Networking and skill-building are my most essential tasks – every single day – because in my industry, stagnating is moving backward.  While I meet a lot of people online and harvest skills from webinars and podcasts, face to face can be my oxygen mask my digital life needs reviving. Enter the almighty conference, still one of my favorite ways to learn, grow and meet other entrepreneurs.

Attending conferences can be costly in a multitude of ways though, and it’s tricky to balance the gains versus the expense. Ever try to measure the ROI of a conference? If it’s a valuable conference, the swag is the least of my gains. If it’s not so great, the swag might be the only thing of value I bring home – which is a crime, if you ask me.

I’ve been offered a ticket to attend the Art of Marketing Conference in June and I’m more than a little excited. I’ve never attended one of these conferences before, but I can already see the value – a whole lot of value actually.
.

7 reasons I’m looking forward to The Art of Marketing, Toronto

Reason # 1 – Quality of presenters. Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Seth Godin (my not-so-secret marketing idol) are just two of the speakers on the agenda. Seriously.

Reason # 2 – Pre-conference sharing. Between Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, I’m loving the information-rich content being shared by their team. If this is a foreshadowing of the actual event…

Reason # 3 – Learning opportunities. I always learn something from other attendees, whether it’s watching how they network or picking their brains for solutions to challenges. Hello networking breaks.

Reason # 4 – Practical skill development. I’m a storyteller but I’ll admit data can outpace words when it comes to understanding the back-story or your online community. Charles Duhigg, author of the Power of Habit, understands that and will be sharing some of his secrets. Please don’t tweet me during his presentation.

Reason # 5 – Harnessing innovation. David Usher, Juno award winning musician and creativity guru will be sharing how to harness innovation. Considering his achievements, I’m hoping for a goldmine of do-the-next-day ideas.

Reason # 6 – Return on interaction. Word on the street is that attendees are type-A marketers who thrive on connecting and sharing. My people.

Reason # 7 Connection. Because I spend a lot of time at my computer, I crave face-to-face connection – in much the same way I crave oxygen. Putting on my own oxygen mask before I attend to the person beside me…

Want to join me at the Art of Marketing Conference in Toronto? The organizers are offering a special promo code to my readers. Click on over to Art of Marketing and check it out.

Let’s continue the conversation on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (whichever one works best for you) or leave a comment below.