13
SAI’s business development director, hopes to return
with new digital-marketing ideas and relationships
with potential clients and helpful contacts.
A record 70 million people will attend conferences
in the U.S. and Canada this year, with attendance
expected to peak next month, industry research
shows. The experience can be overwhelming.
Conferences usually last one to four days. Content
Marketing World offers 80 breakout sessions, with
time to attend only 11. It sprawls over 270,000
square feet of the Cleveland Convention Center.
Sessions include “Breakthrough Moments in Content
Marketing.” Eight networking sessions are scheduled
to allow the 2,600 attendees time to meet.
Along with the usual speeches by celebrities and
exhibits, Content Marketing World provides social
activities such as “our own music festival” with a
Beatles tribute band and “Shooters on the Water,”
an after party starting at 10:30 p.m.
No matter what session conference attendees pick,
they worry they’re missing a better one. The best
networking may be in one session while the best
speakers are elsewhere, Ms. Stanley says. She
comes in with her schedule highlighted in neon yellow
for “must attend” sessions and amber for “maybe.”
“You really have to be on your A game,” she says.
“You’re networking and getting all that information,
plus giving your pitch and telling people about your
company. It’s exhausting.”
She works out to build energy, rising by 6 a.m. to
lift weights and run 3 to 5 miles. On the treadmill,
she mentally rehearses different versions of her
opening pitch to suit different people. To help her
resist the free candy and junk food that abound in
most exhibit halls, she stuffs granola bars into her
shoulder bag.
Ms. Stanley resists the temptation to befriend other
new arrivals and travel with one group. “I have to
stay focused on my goals, getting new ideas and
new contacts,” she says.
She positions herself by the coffee pot for the first
networking session; talking about the coffee can be
a good icebreaker. She considers introducing herself
to another attendee standing alone nearby, but she
hesitates, and the opportunity is lost when another
attendee approaches the man. Ms. Stanley tells
herself. “You’re here to network. One, two, three, go!”
Meeting conference speakers, who tend to be high-
level executives, is a key networking opportunity
for Ms. Stanley in her search for corporate clients.
She is nervous as she waits in line with a dozen
others to introduce herself to Katrina Craigwell,
global manager of digital marketing at General
Electric Co., after Ms. Craigwell’s presentation
on a successful digital-marketing campaign. Ms.
Stanley plans to take Ms. Craigwell’s ideas, such
as promoting GE research with videos on social
media, back to her SAI team. She also hopes Ms.
Craigwell will put her in touch with colleagues at GE
who might be interested in SAI’s services.
Brazilian by birth, Ms. Stanley values Latin cultures’
emphasis on warmth and spontaneity. When her
turn finally comes to speak with Ms. Craigwell, she
says, “You were wonderful. I felt as if I knew you.”
The executive responds with equal warmth and
promptly emails Ms. Stanley’s contact information
to a colleague.
Later, as she prepares to introduce herself to another
speaker, Ms. Stanley gives herself a pep talk: “What’s
the worst that can happen? He’ll say no. What’s so
awful about that?” Her friendly approach sparks a
conversation about how SAI might help his company,
and they part with plans for another meeting. Ms.
Stanley notes on each business card the follow-up
steps she promised to take.
By late afternoon, her energy wanes. She downs her
third coffee of the day. Hungry after having only a
salad for lunch, she allows herself a bag of Doritos,
then heads for the last breakout session of the day.
Blocked at the door by a security guard and a sign,
“Session Full,” Ms. Stanley talks her way in with a
joke. The guard laughs and opens the door.
Ms. Stanley passes up an opening-night pub crawl.
Networking with strangers over drinks “has never
proven effective for me,” she says. The music festival
on the second evening is unusual enough to lure her.
She leaves after 45 minutes. “I prefer to go to bed
early and be focused on the next day,” she says.
Ms. Stanley once slept through a meeting because
her cellphone died, she says. She now arranges a
wake-up call from her hotel, in addition to setting
the alarm on her smartphone.
At a breakout session on the last day, she finds a
seat near the front, only to realize that she already
knows the information being presented. Usually,
she avoids sitting too close to the front so she can
see who else is present, and also so she can slip
out quietly if necessary. “I picked the wrong seat”
this time, she says.
On the last day, more than an hour before a closing
keynote speech by actor Kevin Spacey, hundreds line
up for seats. Ms. Stanley strides past them on her way
to a panel discussion. “I’m not going to not network
so I can be in the front row for Kevin Spacey,” she
says. “You have to keep in mind your goal.”
Later, Ms. Stanley takes stock: She has reaped several
good ideas and a grasp of emerging trends such as
using journalistic techniques to attract customers on
social media and the Web. She collected 20 business
cards, initiated promising relationships with four
potential clients, and made five “fair-to-good” new
contacts. She isn’t done. Many people only took her
card or gave her a colleague’s name. But she will
follow up with them all.
HR
Write to Sue Shellenbarger at
.
Reprinted by permission of Wall Street Journal , Copyright
© 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Worldwide. License number 3484300144322.
> “YOU REALLY HAVE
TO BE ON YOUR A GAME,”
SHE SAYS. “YOU’RE
NETWORKING AND GETTING
ALL THAT INFORMATION,
PLUS GIVING YOUR PITCH
AND TELLING PEOPLE
ABOUT YOUR COMPANY.
IT’S EXHAUSTING.”
