It’s Over! 5 Tips to Make Your Conference Last
You got your boss’s OK to spend on that ticket and the hotel. Or you found a budget line for the Global Media Summit or some other fabulous event. Now, your big question is this: How can I be sure I received all the benefit, all the goodness and all the impetus that this expenditure of time, money, energy and travel cost? Put another way, how can I maximize my investment?
Such an important question. A prayerful planning group pulled together speakers, resources, musicians and created a several day event—just for your benefit! All the prayer, calls and contracts resulted in several marvelous days. But it’s over!
Here’s a few ways to make those days, now history, a continuing inspiration and guide.
- First, pray for an open mind and heart! Jesus is interested in each detail of our lives, and this time at a conference had the power to create change in direction, in focus or in relationships. Place a conference flyer in your Bible and add it to your prayer list. Pray for the leaders and the speakers and musicians.
- Secondly, in your conference notebook find an empty page or the back page of the book and create your personal list of people to follow up with and resources to check out. Using the back page makes this easy to locate as you review it regularly.
- Thirdly, review your notes or whatever you wrote down, highlighting key quotes or key speakers you want to examine or use further. For example, you may have heard Suellen Roberts speak and made a note of her visionary remarks. You may have written down, “Allow God to unfold what you are doing.” Or another quote from her, “God wants to speak to us more than we want to hear from Him!” Wow, you think, I want to be able to find that again! Highlight it, and you’ll be able to do so easily.
- Fourth, do some background work on people who really touched your heart. Locate their books. Find their YouTube videos. See if they have a regular program or podcast. See if they are listed on the Christian Women in Media Association Speaker page. With Google or another search engine, this is easier than ever.
- Fifth, be your own coach. Counsel yourself to check back weekly on these highlights that impacted you and on the website of Christian Women in Media. Change happens when you create regularity of contact. And a weekly reminder of the good things you found will set up a lasting impact.
Following these basic guidelines can make all the difference in maximizing the time you spent building into new relationships and new resources that came your way. Now for regular touchpoints!
Jan Shober is a media analyst, blogger and Vice-president for Strategy for Finney Media, specializing in helping you create experiences that cause your audience to come back for more.
Jan began her media journey as a ten-year old with a neighborhood newspaper—and continued shadowing her love of words to work in radio. She spent time in South America working in international media and about twenty years with Focus on the Family first in creative for audio then in distributing media.
Her big reason for her work? Her life mission to help more people grow in Jesus. See more about Jan’s journey at: http://finneymedia.com/about/our-team/
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