Conference anyone?

Oh Wow. It's time to start planning for the conference season. Whether you are attending a conference or presenting at a conference, it's always exciting. There are three important things that you may want to know if you are presenting or will have a booth at a conference. Prepare, prepare, and  prepare. 

First prepare your materials.  Make sure your materials are current and up to date. Review your data and compare with current data.  If you are showing or selling a product make sure the product works and take more than one for demonstration. Lots of hands on a product can break that item and then what will you demonstrate? You don't want to explain how the product broke after only a few hours. 

Second, have a second set of eyes look over your information. A friend or family member can do this for you. If you write it and you read it, then you will read over the mistake and never know it. 

Third prepare yourself. A great way to become comfortable with demonstration or presentation is set up a camera and video yourself. Have a friend or family member operate the camera so that you will have an audience. One rehearsal isn't enough, do it a minimum of three times. This is important, view the video on a TV. If you see it on TV, it will give you a better idea of what you are doing. Once you have done that, make any changes and do it again 3 more times. By then you should be a little more comfortable and have most of the bugs worked out. 

If you are attending a conference have fun and expand your network, push your comfort zone farther then you ever thought you would. Meet people and ask lots of questions. Most people are a little nervous at a conference. It is OK to be nervous and it is even better to be nervous and have a great network of nervous new friends.