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In today’s eager to learn society, there are so many interesting and high-quality conferences to attend. Every niche and sector is catered for, industry leaders share their most pivotal knowledge and valuable insights are gained. Letting employees leave the office for an event is a small cost for the long-term benefits you’ll reap.
From development opportunities to brand awareness, here are four reasons you should encourage your employees to attend conferences.
- They’ll Bring Back Learnings That Can Be Shared With the Team
- You’ll Gain Marketable Content For Your Business
- Countless Opportunities to Connect With Key Influencers and Network
- Shows You Value Your Employees’ Personal Development
1. They’ll bring back learnings that can be shared with the team
When employees return from an event, they’ll be eager to share the information they gained with the rest of the team. This encourages collaboration and improves team communication across the board.
Not only does the employee benefit from attending, but the company does too. Having a dedicated time to run through learnings from a conference is a great way to nurture ideas and align business ideologies.
It also gives your employees an additional incentive to engage during the conference sessions so they have some takeaways of value. Also, getting out of the office can spark new ideas that shake up your business, so it’s a win-win situation if you invite your employees to attend conferences.
2. You’ll gain marketable content for your business
Social media changed the way we interact with conferences. Hashtags, live feeds and video snippets cultivated this new and exciting way we document these events. It starts before the event even kicks off - posting on socials can result in engagement from speakers, organisers and other attendees.
Conferences are the perfect way to harvest useful content - they are no longer just something you attend for knowledge. Even if you’re not at the conference, this social-centric way makes it easy enough to follow along with the action.
For example, our hashtag ‘#LoveInbound2019’ had speakers, attendees, organisers and takeovers all engaging via socials.
Encourage employees to take over your business’s socials whilst at the conference. Sharing photos throughout the day, interacting with hashtags and posting takeaways that they found interesting is a great way to showcase to your target audience your business is forward thinking.
3. Countless opportunities to connect with key influencers and network
Conferences are one of the best ways to meet new people and a more natural way to network. Conversations flow more and there’s a shared interest already established.
Before the event, do some research on those looking to attend and make a plan. Don’t be overly strategic about it; just note down key people you think would be beneficial to chat to during the event. It doesn’t have to be deep and abstract - it could just be about their recent marketing campaign that really impressed you.
Taking a look at the event hashtag on social media can give you some insight into the guest list and can be a helpful guide. Your employee might get there and be completely captivated by something unexpected so don’t just limit them to your research.
4. Shows you value your employees’ personal development
Conferences provide a unique learning environment. Not only are there beneficial talks from industry leaders but often there are workshops that encourage involvement. Finding a fitting conference yourself or even put the decision in your employees’ hands - both are subtle ways of showing them that you are invested in their learning.
After being inspired by the conference, the employees who attended will want to action what they have learnt in their daily working life. If you want your business to grow, you need to take an interest in developing those people who are a part of it.
Now you know the reasons why you should encourage employees to attend conferences, why not check out our free event Love Inbound and attend in 2020?
Register your interest for LOVE INBOUND 2020
Adore inbound marketing or simply want to see what the fuss is all about? After positive feedback and genuine interest, we have decided to hold another LOVE INBOUND event after the success of this year.
At the moment, we’ve got the official date down as 26th February 2020 and it’ll take place in the same venue, Holmes Mill. Register your interest below to hear from industry leaders, experts in Hubspot and others who are passionate about marketing.
