Surviving Conferences

Do you thrive at conferences? Then don't read this post.

With the real estate private equity conference season in full swing, we offer some hacks to help you navigate industry events

Real estate private equity conferences are upon us. Name tags and perma grin. Or happy reunions with industry colleagues. Definitely rubber chicken. Whether you love or dread them, we offer some of our tried and true hacks to maximize the return on your investment of cost and time. The key is to plan ahead. Here’s our proven conference playbook.

Hack #1. Set a specific and narrow objective for the event. Examples of conference goals include gaining market insights, competitive insights, investor meetings, and partnerships. Networking, counterintuitively, is not a great objective. It's too broad and often results in aimless conversations and small talk.

Hack #2. Obtain the attendee list 2-3 weeks in advance. Contact the people you want to meet ahead of time.

Hack #3. Suggest short meetings, such as coffee or cocktails, lasting 15-20 minutes. This increases the likelihood of people agreeing to meet. Lunches and dinners usually involve groups and can be more social and distracting.

Hack #4. Think about who you want to meet and who can introduce you to them. Equally important, consider what valuable introductions you can make. Flag the introductions you believe will be valuable and inform those individuals that you want to introduce them.

Hack #5. Refine your story. Dust off your elevator pitch and develop a concise narrative that aligns with your objective.

Hack #6. Wear comfortable shoes. A life rule in general, but especially in this setting.

Hack #7. Limit yourself to attending a maximum of 2 panels per day.

Hack #8. For introverts: plan downtime. These events can be exhausting and feel never-ending, especially by day 2. Taking 10 minutes late in the afternoon can be a great recharge.

Hack #9. Follow up with people within 24 hours.

These are the tactics that have worked for me over the years. Head to our LinkedIn page to share your favorite best-practices, survival hacks.