5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Next Learning Conference

The skyline view of Toronto — The view of Toronto from the Stratus restaurant

Before the pandemic, I was constantly going to conferences, and every time I went, I always left disappointed. There was all this hype and buzz about how great the event was going to be, but it never lived up to expectations. The thing that always bothered me though was that everyone else seemed to be having a good time, so what was I doing wrong?

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ve seen that I recently attended D2L’s Fusion in Toronto. And unlike past conferences, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this event. After reflecting upon the last 3 days, I realized that I didn’t follow any of my old patterns for going to events and I believe this is why I got the most out of this learning conference. So, what did I learn?

On today’s episode, I’m going to share with you my top 5 tips on how to get the most out of your next learning conference.

Network with People Far in Advanced

Meeting up with fellow instructional designer, Richard Wack after talking on LinkedIn for forever.

This was the first conference I went to solo, and because of this, it forced me not to just hang out with my team members. We go to conferences to meet other people, but it was so easy to only be with my friends and stay in my comfort zone. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with hanging out with your teammates, but if you don’t network with others, you don’t leave with any new formed relationships. Traveling alone to a conference forced me to find other people going to the event.

The first step I did was share on my socials that I was going to Fusion and told people to contact me if they were going. Sure enough, I heard from several friends, peers, and even fans of the podcast that they were going as well. It wasn’t long until I had a list of people I was excited to finally meet up with for the first time in-person. This one step brushed aside feeling nervous about going alone and had me feeling ready and excited.

Make Plans Now

Once you have figured out who is going to be attending the conference, try to make plans right then and there. Something I found is that it’s really hard to be spontaneous with plans during conferences. Everyone already has their agenda for after the sessions, dinners, breakfasts, etc. Get on their books early to be included in those plans. I was reminded of this lesson a few times when I ran into people I didn’t know where going to be at Fusion and I wanted to catch up, but couldn’t. They already had team dinners and such that they had to attend, which is totally understandable. A bit of planning goes a long way.

Schedule Sessions Early On

If you are attending a more well-known conference, you should have an app to download with each session and their details. If this is the case, I’d highly recommend to go through the sessions and sign up in advanced for which ones you want to attend. This helps for two reasons. The first is that you can connect early on with the speakers. You can mention that you are excited for their talk and when you go to introduce yourself after their presentation, they’ll recognize you. The second is that this creates your agenda for the week, and helps you to stay organized. The worst is when a ton of people leave one session all at once and your stuck in a crowd not knowing where to go next.

Also, I’d highly, highly recommend signing up for any networking event they are hosting. Once again, we go to conferences to meet other people and to learn. Going to a networking event will introduce you to others who share your interests. I signed up for every networking event I could at Fusion. The folks I met at the networking events were the ones who I kept on bumping into over the 3 days. Since I went alone, this was also oddly comforting to see people I recognized.

Stick to Your Routines

I met up with friend of the show, Dr. Tom Tobin the first night I got to Toronto. Tom is a conference pro and a frequent traveler. We got to talking about what it’s like to travel so much and I asked him for any tips he was willing to share. He said his best tip would be to stick to my normal routine. He talked about how he always felt off after conferences and it was because he would change everything with his diet, sleep patterns, and exercise routine.

So, he said to stick to my normal ways as much as possible, and I did exactly that. I still got in my early morning workouts and tried to go to bed before 11 PM. Just as Tom described, I felt great every day and never felt like I was in a chaotic environment. Since I went to Fusion for a speaking engagement, this tip was truly helpful for me. I wanted to be at my best for my presentation and Tom’s tip definitely helped.

A selfie of Luke at the hotel gym holding a dumbbell. — Attempting to follow Tom’s advice with sticking to my workout routine.

If you are finding this difficult to do, I would encourage you to start a small workout group for accountability. One of the sessions on Fusion’s app was something called, “Jogging with John.” I remember chuckling reading this and thinking, there is really a session to go for a jog with John Baker, the President of D2L? Sure enough, this was true, and Tom shared with me about how he was one of the original members for this kind of workout session. With Tom being a frequent runner and marathoner, it only made sense to find like minded people to exercise with.

Who knows, maybe Lifting with Luke will be a thing for next year’s conference in Savannah?

Following Up

Once the conference is done and you’re back home, I’d make it a point to follow up with the folks you met. It’s pretty much impossible to say goodbye to everyone. There were plenty of people who I saw once and said I’ll see you again soon, and then we never crossed paths again. It feels a bit odd meeting these great people and then not knowing if you’ll chat with them again soon. So, be the one who takes that initiative and contact them via email or LinkedIn. Either way, I’d send over a note and say how great it was to meet them. The small act of kindness will go a long way and this will help them to remember you in the future!

Once again, thank you for coming to my presentation about using Gen AI to improve online learning experiences. It was so amazing finally meeting up with so many of you who I’ve been talking to online for years. There was about 200 people in my session and all of you who came up at the end to say hello or to take a picture was so special. I’m going to do my best to travel to more conferences.

Also, a huge shout out to D2L! It was an incredible conference and all of the D2Lers did an amazing job. I really appreciated the invitation to come and speak, and they were so kind and generous with their time.

I hope these tips help. Have fun at your next learning conference!

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