Seven Lessons from ISTE 2011

This week I attended one of the biggest conferences in the US of A for education technology as the Director of Marketing for TestSoup.  Not only was it TestSoup’s first conference, it mine as well.  Although we didn’t shell out the cash to reserve space for a booth, we did work with five other companies on co-hosting a tweetup — one that we dubbed EdTech Karaoke and attracted several hundred attendees.

Here are my reactions to the experience, in no particular order:

• You don’t have to have a booth to make attending a conference worth-while, especially if you’re still a small company.  Some companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on their booths (just judging from their appearance), but even the fancy ones weren’t packed all the time.  But while the associates from these companies were stuck “manning the helm” we were free to wander around and approach people.  We may not have reached hundreds as they did, but this freedom allowed us to make a more personal connection with the people that we did meet.
• People love their SWAG. It really did help to have free stuff to hand out to folks, both as an initial ice-breaker and as a way to get them to pay more attention to us.  Sometimes all it would take is to whip out a few free pencils and I had people’s full attention.  We also printed post cards to hand out along with our business cards.  This generated a very positive response.  Most people collect so many business cards that they lose track of who is who.  Post cards, however, were a rarity.
• TAKE NOTES! This one, I can’t stress enough.  Like I said, you meet so many people and make so many connections at these things that you need to take some notes to keep everyone straight and to ensure you don’t miss out on any important opportunities.  The system I used was to carry a small notebook with me and to write down a few details from each interaction, although after day one I realized that this meant that I would need to match each interaction up to a business card later — a difficult task indeed.  On day two, I took to writing down notes on the back of business cards.  We’ll see if I evolve even more the next time around.
• It really did wonders to co-host that tweetup. Talk about an ice-breaker!  People would see us wearing our “EdTech Karaoke VIP” badges and would literally run up to us to get theirs.  In the beginning, all we did was hand out the badges and say, “See you at the party!”  Then we realized that this was a great opportunity to make more connections, so we started talking with these people a little bit before we let them get away.  And, of course, we got to work the room at the tweetup itself.
• If you want a turn to speak, listen first. ISTE may be unique in this aspect, but I found that most people at the conference were very enthusiastic about what other people were doing to promote educational technology.  Still, they were there to get the word out for themselves too.  I found most people more willing to listen to me if I first asked them about what they were doing.  It helped establish a rapport on which I could build.
• Everyone is on Twitter. And if they’re not, they should be.  I have honestly never seen so many smartphones, netbooks, and iPads in one place.  The incredible amount of sharing that goes on at these things is driven almost entirely by tweets, short blog posts, and other interaction via social media.  It is a way for many people to stay in touch after the conference is over and to help them figure out what to do before the next one.  It has certainly made me look at social media in a whole new way.  Twitter may not be the backbone of your marketing efforts, but it should definitely be part of your plan.
• The follow-up is when the real work begins. So far, all I’ve done is unpack and organize all the materials I came home with into a heap on my desk, jumbling my notes, business cards, and flyers all together.  Now comes the fun part: sorting, cataloging, and using all these small-but-valuable souvenirs to help TestSoup’s growth.  This is absolutely the most important bit of the conference, which is ironic considering it happens after the fact.  But it cannot be ignored.  I plan on making a spreadsheet to keep track of who is who and what we can do to help each other out., then systematically reaching out to each and every person on the list.

That’s about all I have for now.  If you’re still hungry for more conference tips and tricks, check out this excellent post from Barbara Hemphill, the Paper Tiger Lady.

About the author: John J. Walters is a freelancer with WasabiVentures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.