“an investment in knowledge always pay the best interest.”
-- Bengamin Franklin

While these wise words are always spoken, sometimes it is not enough when trying to convince management of the necessity to attended an IT conference.  Many times you need to make a stronger case in writing.

Here’s what you need to do.  First, answer the questions below, then prepare an estimate of the costs (airfare, hotel, meals, transportation, etc), and then plan back-up for you work while you’re away.  Now, write down and present it to your employee, in person if possible.  Prove why your attendance is a true investment that will benefit them just as much as it will benefit you!

Questions:

1. How are the most important issues or plans facing your organization right now?
2. What role do you plan in dealing with these issues or reaching the plan goals?
3. What sessions or opportunities at the conference relate to and support your role/contribution?

Ask for approval to attend early!  Last-minute requests are never the best way to go and early registration saves you money.  Then, follow up with your employer if you don’t get an answer right away.  As busy as every organization is, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks.

Beware “Innovation”

As marketers, we love to innovate! However we advise caution if planning on using “We need to innovate” as a justification in this current economic climate. This year’s research has shown that most organizations are in “Recover and Refocus” mode and we have developed the program accordingly. The term “innovation” may create the impression that you will return from the conference with risky, costly or disruptive ideas that have little immediate benefit to your organization.

Today was a bit of a strange day.  We had a spring storm come in, and dump a bit of snow on the ground (12” or so).  Didn’t seem to affect the people attending session too much.  They were still well attended.

The snow did cause some travel issues, unfortunately.

We did get a couple people that braved the snow and came to the exhibition hall.

While the snow caused some problems, the breakfast and the closing party were very successful.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the closing party and the improv comedy.  As soon as I get a change to extract the video snip-its, I’ll post them a few of them on the blog.

The .NET sessions were popular today, as to be expected, but so was Nehemiah’s “Maintaining Legacy applications”.  Nehemiah asked his session attendees, what their skill levels were, and found a large chunk of them new to MultiValue (5 years or less).

The connectivity session, and the 2 document imaging sessions also were popular.

As I talked with attendees, I found that many people were looking forward to talking to the vendors in the Exhibition Hall.  When walking the exhibition hall, most vendors were always talking to someone.

By the close of the exhibition hall today, a few vendors made comment about the new faces, and that there was a lot of interest.  In attendee was heading back to the office that afternoon to get an ok to purchase one of the tools she found on in the hall.

We had a good turn out from the local MultiValue users today in addition to the full conference attendees.  The Ice Cream was very popular, as to be expected.

I was able to gather a lot of information and announcements for the conference recap article that will be in the May/Jun issue of the magazine.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and I’m looking forward to Closing Party.  For those of you that have full conference attendance, make sure you full out your passport and turn them in.  The prizes will be given out at the party.
 

Well, day 2 of the conference was just as well attended as the first day.  We started with the Entrinisk sponsored breakfast, and then had sessions all day long, before the Sneak Preview party. The Dashboard topics this morning seemed to be a hot topic, and the Case Study this afternoon on converting green screen to GUI was very full.

Talked with many more of the attendees today and was able to point them to solutions they needed.  I was also able to schedule some impromptu training for some "newbie" MultiValue developers that came to the show for some training.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the sessions, but haven't reached the "information overload" level yet.  Still have 2 more day to try and get them to that point.

The Sneak Preview party was well attended.  Everyone got to see and talk to all the exhibitors before all the Exhibit only attendees come in tomorrow.   The party was sponsored by the Colorado MultiValue User Group, which I thank for their support.

Well, it’s the first day of the conference, and thing are going well.  For those of you that are wondering about the attendance, we are down by 7% from last year.   The other conference at the hotel, just down the hall, is down by 50%.  I’ve talked to a few other show organizers, they if they aren’t just flat cancelling their conferences, the industry across the board is down by an average of 30%.

In the welcome address, I talked about a few predictions I have for the upcoming year and beyond.  We had standing room only in the general session.  I tried to get an audio recording to post here, but apparently I don’t know how hit a record button on the digital recorder.  Sorry.

After my general session, we started our workshops.  Many people have already expressed being satisfied with what these workshops provided for them.  I know I have received a few complaints about having to pick from 4 or 5 different session that were all scheduled at the same time.

I would consider that being successful.  If I can schedule a list of session make it hard time to pick just one, then I have been successful in the change to the conference program I started 3 years ago.

We ended the day with a class on writing articles, and how it can enhance your position in your company as well as a few other benefits.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), there are another set of good sessions, before the sneak preview party.  I’ll post some pictures of the conference and party tomorrow.

I a few session that I was doing today, so I didn't get to my Twitter updates.  You can follow the Spectrum Conference Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/intlnathan

Clif Oliver is also doing some Twitter updates as well. If you are interersted in following his you can find it at: http://twitter.com/clifoliver

The first and foremost communication should be your company’s standard request form or a formal memo directed to your manager requesting attendance and why. Be sure to include the ROI and cost savings for attending (see below for some examples.) A sample of a memo requesting attendance can be found at http://www.intl-spectrum.com/Conference/WhyAttend.aspx. Schedule a follow-up meeting with your boss to discuss the request.

In your memo and follow-up meeting focus on how attending the conference is relevant to your company and/or your team’ goals and future projects. Here are some talking points to help you make a case for attending:

• International Spectrum has been hosting this conference for over 25 years and it is regarded by the industry as “the premier MultiValue Educational event.”
• I am going to look for a solution for “this” problem.
• I believe “this new technology” could benefit the company and I would like to learn more about it.
• I plan on meeting with “x” vendors to discuss these issues.
• I am going to talk with several companies about “x” technology we are looking at.
  

Ask how to make it happen and get the ball rolling:

• Do I get corporate travel involved?
• Do I need to have dollars in the budget right now? Is there money in another departmental budget that is unused?
• What are some of the things that I should look for while attending?
• Is there a branch office in the area that I can visit?
• If you are serious about purchasing “x” software can a vendor schedule an on-site visit to demo or meet with current users?

It is only natural for an administrator to ask, "How can we justify spending money to participate in a conference when we are facing budget reductions?" The answer lies in the value of the conference's content and the focused interaction it provides. Sometimes learning one new piece of information or gaining better understanding about only one process can justify the entire cost of attending International Spectrum. And making one professional contact can be worth much more.

As companies decrease training budgets, they still require IT to do more with less. As companies increasingly turn to technology to compensate for a lack of employees, the needs for up-to-date solutions and products become more important and cheaper to implement. Since International Spectrum brings all the tools providers under one roof, you save time and money on research by seeing everything in one place.

The cost of attending this conference is often less than the cost of attending classes at other training sites or online. By offering workshops, peer-to-peer discussions, and varied IT and Enterprise presentations, International Spectrum 2009 offers you the knowledge of multiple trainers, professionals, and companies that are focused on the use of different techniques, methodologies, and products designed to increase your productivity and ability to meet the challenges your company or organization faces.

I've written a lot about attending the International Spectrum Conference.  How I've included 4 podcasts that may be more interesting.

Conference ROI - Justifying conference attendance to management

In this Mp3, we will be talking about how you explain to your management why it is important to attend the International Spectrum Conference.

Conference ROI - Hard return

In this Mp3, we will be talking about specific hard return values you can use to help justify conference attendance.

Conference ROI - Intangables

There is a lot of hard ROI number you can use to help justify your attendance, but many of the best cost savings is in the Intangables.

Getting the most from your Conference attendence:

The following Mp3 file takes about the different ways you can get the most from your conference attendance.

For years we explored how we could generate interest and use in our legacy system with upper management. Our legacy system requires users to navigate an extensive menu system and enter multiple responses to get to vast array of available data.   Upper management types have failed to develop the patience or interest to use our legacy character based system.

Last year we attempted to gain final approval for a tool to enable browser base reporting via our intranet. We decided on a tool we first got a glimpse of at Spectrum 2006. Although, we had planned the year before and had an approved budget, are CFO failed to let us pull the trigger to purchase.

I attended Kevin King of Precision Solutions session, Quick Start: Programming in PHP, at Spectrum 2008 in New Port Beach.

Using information from this session on syntax and processes needed to create and deploy PHP applications, I was able to create several browser based inquiry options that replicate the report data of existing menu options. These new browser based inquiry options are able to be used without the need to know our extensive menu system and without having to respond to numerous prompts . These new options allowed the user to point and click to generate useful report. We used these new browser based options to generate interest and ideas from our user community, and to demonstrate to our CFO the merits of our pursuit of a tool for web based reporting.

Our CFO has now given approval for the purchase of the tool we selected for browser based reporting.

Bruce W. McAdoo
Wagner & Brown, Ltd.

More information on the Conference:

Http://www.intl-spectrum.com/confernece/

Justifying your conference attendance to management can be challenging for some IT staff. Much discussion is focused on the legitimacy of attending conference and trade show programs. The reality is that conferences are among the most cost effective methods of obtaining education and information, and in establishing a network.

Conference sessions allow you to:

• Learn first hand from industry experts that have successfully implemented technology solutions
• Keep up to date on new and emerging technologies
• Take the opportunity to create a professional network
• Create talking points to communicate more effectively with vendors
• Get immediate answers and solutions to issues within your organization
• Discover new products that can decrease expense and increase revenue

Trade Show / Exhibition Events allow you to:

• See the latest in technology
• Hear new product announcements
• Visit all of your vendors in one location
• Get answers directly from vendors on the exhibition floor
• Do some comparison shopping
• Seek solutions and find new technologies
• Talk directly to your MultiValue database provider to get answers to questions
• Talk with others who are using or considering a product or service you are researching

Happy holidays to all!

It’s the end of the year - time to relax, family enjoyment, and gift giving - and time to start planning for 2009.

Now that 2009 is just around the corner, it is time for me to start talking about what is coming up: The International Spectrum Conference and Exhibition 2009 in Denver, Colorado on March 23rd – 26th. That is less than four months away.

Have you taken a look at the conference details yet? If not, please do. You’ll find many informative sessions that you shouldn’t miss. You will also find on the conference web site some documents and materials to help you justify attending the 2009 conference to your management. We all know how hard it is to explain to your management why it is important to go to any conference. Look through the materials in the “Why Attend?” section to see sample trip reports, a Letter to the Manager, and other information to help out.

You’ll also find a conference blog that contains other information you will find useful — from new sessions, to speakers’ posts on what they will cover in their sessions, to exhibitor information and events.

If you are having a hard time talking your management into paying for the attendance, don’t forget that the Exhibition Hall is FREE to all attendees and “walk-ins”. This gives you a chance to see all the tools, products, and enhancements from your favorite MultiValue vendors, including seeing new products that would benefit your company’s business systems.

The Exhibition Hall is open on Wednesday and Thursday. Full Conference attendees get to preview the Exhibition Hall on Tuesday night during the Preview Party.

To find out more on the 2009 Conference, visit:

http://www.intl-spectrum.com/conference/2009/

Look for the Conference Brochure landing on your desks soon with more helpful information.