My Advice for First Timers

The article, Tips for First Time Attendees, was published on the official ILTA blog the other day.  In my opinion, the best advice they gave was to plan your activities ahead of time, specifically the article reads:

“Map out your session attendance early by any of the methods provided online, and stop at the registration desk or the “Ask ILTA” desk at any time to get your bearings.”

This is great advice, but I wanted to add one addendum too this, because I did not do it my first few times at conference and since I started my conference time has been better spent.

The vendor hall is filled with tons of companies, some you will be familiar with and some you will not.  While the hall is a great place to talk to loads of vendors, it is a loud and crowded place where people are rushing to complete vendor bingo cards and collect the free swag so often given away at conferences.  You can make some great contacts, but if you really want to get a good demo, you need to move away from the vendor hall and to the private demo room.  Many vendors have these suites scattered about the conference center where they keep a few of their best demo/tech folks locked up performing small demos to select groups of people.  You need to take advantage of the demo rooms/suites as you will often be talking with the best of the best at the company.

Here is my advice.  We still have a couple of days until conference kicks off.  Call any vendor that you really, really, want a product demo from today, and get a time setup in their demo room.  It works out much better to pre-arrange than try to get on the schedule once you arrive.  If you are not sure who you want to meet with, or come across someone you think you should meet after you arrive, try to get to their booth ASAP after the vendor hall opens on Monday and schedule a demo.  In some cases you may just be able to meet with a company rep, over coffee or drinks, if the demo room is booked or not available when you are.  Don’t be afraid to ask!

Conference has some amazing sessions, but the ability to meet with company presidents and lead programmers for the best legal specific software around is a huge boon.  Knowing what is coming down the pipe from the CEO of the company that makes your favorite software is hugely beneficial and the demo rooms are a great, quiet place to uncover this information.