Are Industry Conferences Useful for Job Seekers

Are Industry Conferences Useful for Job Seekers 6 TheMarker's Com.vention 2007 will be taking place March 18th and 19th at Airport City outside Tel Aviv. The first day has an international theme concentrating a very full program of local and foreign Internet celebrities such as Yair Goldfinger and Loïc Le Meur. The planned speeches and talks will cover the latest Web trends and looks to be interesting, especially if you weren't fortunate enough to have been at an event like Loïc's LeWeb3 in December 2006. In parallel, there will be workshops by people like Orli Yakuel and Eyal Shahar talking about Web2.0. The second day focuses on major Israeli business leaders and how their industries have adapted to the Internet Age. It appears that this will be the ‘enough talk, how will it help me?' day / the practical, applicable lessons day, as opposed to the food-for-thought discussions from the first day. If your company is not in hitech and you'd like to know which Internet technologies can help your operations, this second day is the day that you should put on your calendar. Day 2's workshops cover topics like SEO, blogging and creating Internet buzz cheaply. I'm a job seeker, why should I care? Network, Network, Network. Going to an industry conference is a terrific way to meet industry people â€" you strike up conversation with other people standing in line, going through security, receiving your badge, looking for electrical plugs, complaining about lack of Wifi or some other amenity taken for granted in this setting (perhaps â€" running water at a plumbing conference?), waiting for a speaker to begin, getting food, queuing for the washroom, dancing on a table, etc. The opportunities are endless, and every person you meet is another connection waiting to happen. The same goes for you â€" people will want to meet you, so you need to be prepared:eval Top 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of a Conference 10 Conference Networking Tips Networking Tips, Links Resources If you go to the Com.vention or another hitech conference, it would also be useful to know some of the secrets of successful Internet conference marketing. If I'm a job seeker, how can I afford it? What's to afford? It's true that entry to Com.vention 2007 officially costs NIS 400 +VAT for one day or NIS 650 +VAT for both days, but if you contact the editors of the.co.ils asap you may still be able to get one of the free invitations that they're giving away.eval There aren't any free passes, now what? Try contacting the conference organizer in advance to request a free pass or discount. It doesn't take much time and you may be pleasantly surprised by their reply because in the end, organizers want all their seats to be full. In that vein, I would only recommend doing this if the conference isn't already sold out. Also, be sure to explain clearly to the organizers where your interest is coming from; if it makes sense to them, they may decide to invite you. Another tactic if you have the time â€" offer to volunteer at the conference. This will get you in the door for free and although you will be limited in enjoying the full experience of being there, you would probably still be able to take advantage of your time by doing some networking. If satisfied, the organizers could decide to thank you with a pass for the following year. If all these tips weren't enough to get you into the Com.vention 2007, a last minute announcement is that the sessions are streaming over the Net. Thanks to Moshe Maeir for that tip.