Sarah LeHan is a Climate Content Associate at FischTank PR, a leading climate tech, finance and real estate PR firm

How do you make the most of a conference? Of course, the answer will depend on an individual’s role and objective(s). Maybe you are staffing a company booth, calming down a senior leader with stage fright before they take the podium, or meeting people to sell a product or service. But if you’re a young professional primarily attending to learn more about the industry, with no specific duties beyond generally networking or learning about recent trends, how should you approach the mass of people, ideas, and (yes) self-promotion that descends upon exhibition halls like marketers descend on the word “disruptive”?

Here are a few lessons from my recent visit to a recent clean energy conference. They may especially benefit people who can occasionally get lost in or overwhelmed by a crowd.

In short? Manage expectations, bring snacks, and seek quiet.

Tip #1: Manage Expectations

Different conferences represent different opportunities. Investigating a conference before you attend (whether by scouting out the website or chatting with colleagues who have attended previously) can help you get a sense of how much you’ll see journalists debating recently passed legislation vs company booths competing to lure hungry passers-by with bite-sized candy bars.

For example, after discussing the climate technologies, policies, and trends behind at a conference in November, I was surprised to show up to another industry conference in February and see people more focused on swapping business cards for equipment orders or solar landscaping services than discussing ideas. Looking back, it makes sense: some conferences focus on the big picture and others on the more granular details. Going forward, I want to do a better job researching past attendees and their purpose at prior events of the same kind before I go so that I can tailor my expectations and goals accordingly.

Speaking of goals, another important part of managing conference expectations is defining what success looks like. This year, I’ve entered each event hoping to exchange at least five business cards. Each time, I’ve naturally reached or exceeded that number just by chatting with people, but it has helped to have a benchmark. That way, if my energy starts to flag towards the end of the day, I can compare where I am against where I wanted to be and see whether I’ve done that ever-ephemeral term – “enough.”

Other ideas? I often like goals based on “active time” (where I have a stopwatch running that I stop when I take breaks) because it focuses on the process rather than weighting a specific outcome. With conferences, that could look like aiming to spend two hours listening to talks, two hours engaging with booths in the exhibition hall, and two hours of networking more socially. If you’d prefer a list, you could make it numerical: attend X number of talks, visit X number of booths, talk with X people, etc.

Defining what success looks like for you helps it easier for you to have a day you find successful!

Tip #2: Bring Snacks

When packing for a daylong hike, it’s de rigor to throw apples, nuts, or a sandwich into a backpack. When scrambling in a hotel room or train station to make a conference’s opening speech, food may seem less essential. Didn’t the agenda say the event included food? Can’t I walk around the corner to a deli if need be?

Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no: I’ve attended conferences with three full meals and healthy snacks all day - and conferences that served food once, twice, or not at all. And sometimes, what’s served might just not complement your taste buds or health preferences. In those cases, some stashed fruit or granola bars can go a long way.

My lesson? Snacks should be as automatic an accessory to an overnight-travel conference as your laptop: much better to have and not need than need and not have.

Tip #3: Seek Moments of Quiet

Most people do not attend conferences to sit quietly in a corner. However, if the conference is an all-day affair with events from morning through the evening, moments of quiet can be essential. Taking a walk, browsing posters, watching the crowds, or even reading a book are all ways to pause and collect yourself.

Originally, I thought “making the most” of an event meant I had to actively engage every minute. But inevitably, I would hit a wall. It made me realize that by taking some time to myself – especially in the mid- to late-afternoon when conferences often start to switch from a “let’s learn” to a “let’s chat” – helped me recharge. Stepping away from the hubbub should be considered an investment in (rather than distraction from) your overall conference plan.

Go get ‘em

There you have it: three tips for early-career professionals on how to make the most of a conference.

• To manage expectations, investigate the conference beforehand and set concrete goals.
• To fuel your brain, pack healthy snacks just in case.
• To recharge your social energy reserves, seek out moments of quiet.

For bonus points: introverts and/or the general populace might chuckle at “Networking for introverts: a how-to guide” from The Economist. While not, personally, an introvert, I somehow laugh more each time I read it.
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