You took great care in selecting an administrative or executive assistant conference. Then you spend a lot of time and energy attending the conference. Now what? If you are like most people who attend conferences, you go home from the event and jump right back into home and work life; maybe toss your materials in the trash can or a drawer in the office (never to look at them again, even though you say you will.)
In reality, we should leverage our investment. Here are things you can do after you have attended an administrative or another industry conference:
• Continue networking via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• Tell your executive how you are applying what you learned at the conference.
• Utilize the checklists and action items provided at the conference
• Recognize and reward yourself for growth and changes!
• Review your conference notes as soon as possible. Flag important pages; highlight action items.
• Within a week after the conference, email the people you met. Let them know you enjoyed meeting them and that you would like to stay connected.
• After 30 days, revisit your conference participant booklet. Select action items and tips that you want to re-emphasize for the next 30 days.
• Complete the conference survey, if offered. Give constructive feedback. Some assistants are not very nice about the feedback they give. Remember, the people who hosted the event did so with good intent. They worked very hard to produce the event. I have no problem with people giving feedback about our administrative conference as long as they are tactful about it.
• Visit the speakers’ web site to extend your conference learning. You might want to purchase one of their books, read their blogs, or sign up for one of the online courses.
• Select 5 powerful tips that you will take immediate action on.
• Write a thank you letter or note card (not an email) to your executive. Let her or him know 2 or 3 learning outcomes as a result of your conference attendance.
Keeping your enthusiasm going weeks after the conference is important. Also if your executive sees that you maintain enthusiasm from attending the event, they are more inclined to support you the next year.