Many in-person financial-themed conferences have gone virtual due to the current pandemic, but you can still have a great experience attending one. I just participated in the Finance Innovation & Excellence Summit 2020. This event was spread over two days with live morning sessions. I met some amazing people and had valuable takeaways to apply. This virtual conference included great public speakers on finance optics over video streams and with a chat window during each session.
If you’re planning to attend a virtual finance conference, here are eight tips to maximize your experience:
1. Interact with the event by using the chat function to provide questions and input during the live video stream. This provides feedback to the speaker and encourages other attendees to post their thoughts.
2. Post in the conference’s forums. You can post questions and answer questions in the forum. This is a way to get more content from speakers who also participate.
3. Network with specific attendees and speakers to grow your network. Add people to your LinkedIn connections. You may be able to meet people in other parts of the world where you would never get the chance normally. For example, I met people from various countries that I have not physically not visited yet.
4. Download the conference’s phone app if it is available. You can often find the conference agenda, conference participants, forum, private messaging and other options. For the recent conference I attended, I used the Whova conference application on my smartphone.
5. Give your feedback to the conference speakers. Many speakers like interacting with the audience, which may be more limited in a virtual setting. Following up with questions during or after the talk is another way to learn more from a conference speaker.
6. Download the speaker content that you find informative. Many times, a speaker will provide interesting content that becomes hard to recall later after listening to multiple conference speakers. You can often save the presentation files and sometimes a copy of the actual video presentation.
7. Join live meetup video sessions with conference speakers and other conference participants.
8. Participate in content about which you want to gain more knowledge. Sometimes conferences have different tracks to follow, and if you always pick a technical track, try something different. You can certainly look to reinforce your knowledge on technical topics, but I would advise you to explore a new area every now and then.
I attend finance conferences as a way to enhance my professional development. I believe we should all be continuous learners and take the opportunity to learn and stay up to date on professional topics that tie into our careers. I miss walking into a giant hall with my financial executive peers, but I saved money by attending virtually and met people from all over the world.
These virtual conferences are a new experience for many people, so do not be afraid to reach out and help your fellow conference attendees navigate this new world of virtual finance conferences. I helped people troubleshoot an audio issue that I was able to work around. As the saying goes, you get out what you put in. It is your conference to attend so participate as best as you can to get the most valuable experience.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
