I am a month off of the 2018 IAAP Summit that was held in Austin, TX and I have to tell you that it was an amazing experience. Not only were there top notch speakers, but the networking was incredible. I am a self proclaimed introvert, so networking is a stretch for me. A special friend suggested I write about my experience, and share the details. Here is how I approached this conference.
First and foremost, I made sure to schedule downtime to regain my energy. I had so many things that I wanted to do that were out of my comfort zone that I had to schedule alone time. All I needed was a few minutes of quiet time (5 to 10 minutes worked for me) and I was ready to present my best self. At times, I can lose the confidence that I need to fulfill all my dreams. I just need a few minutes to talk myself back into doing what I know I want to do but my brain might tell me that I can’t. Anyone relate?
Secondly, with all the choices of exceptional presenters, you need to come up with a game plan ahead of time. IAAP had an app that allowed you to pick your presentations based on the times and days. It was very helpful. I needed to take it one step further so I created an Excel Spreadsheet to indicate when I had free time.
Thirdly, and this is where the fun and amazing yet scary/way-out-of-my-comfort-zone happened. Many of the speakers at this conference have been my favorite people to follow on social media. These amazing women are my heroines in the Administrative arena and I wanted to meet them . . . one on one. WHAT?!?!?!?! Yep, I wanted to meet them and have a conversation. I wanted to get to know them as individuals like I was with a long time friend. After all, I knew them for years from blogs, books, websites, social media, webinars etc. You name it, anything they had made available to the public I gobbled up. But how was I going to do this? They know nothing of me.
As soon as I came up with this wonderful idea, my brain began to shoot it down. What if they don’t reply? What if they say no? They are going to think I am weird . . . maybe a stalker. I could have stopped at that moment and never taken the chance, but this was something I really wanted and I pushed through the anxiety and sent each of them a quick message saying that I would love to buy them a cup of joe and would they be interested. To my delight they responded! Kind notes saying “I’d love to see if we can find some time to meet up”, “I would love to chat, when do you arrive?” and “thanks so much for reaching out”. Slowly, but surely, my free times became filled with coffees. I was going to meet some of the women who I admire most in the Admin industry. These women had taught me to be the ADMIN that I am today. I Googled each name and took notes. I searched every nook and cranny of the Internet to find out about each of them and then came up with three or four questions for each woman. I was prepared.
Summit came and went. I had the time of my life!!!! I met each and every Goddess I asked to coffee and then some. In the excitement of the moment, I forgot the questions that I had prepared. I wanted to just BE in the moment. I had the opportunity to just hang with each lady like we were lifelong friends and it was awesome! I have only one regret . . . I was too awestruck to put myself out there for one individual. I won’t let that happen again, Lucy Brazier!!!
And my final tip for getting the most out of a conference is to teach what you learned. Go back to your employer and tell them how much you enjoyed the conference, what you took from it and how you would like to share it with the rest of the organization. I have chosen five of the topics from the IAAP Summit that I will be sharing with the Admins at my school in the upcoming months.
Attending a conference is a gift. Put yourself out there and make the most of it!!!
Jackie