Want to get the most from the conferences you attend? I found that having a plan before attending a conference is the best way to make full use of your networking time. I applied the following simple pointers whilst attending The NAC (National Achiever Awards) last month and found that my results were much more positive. Here are my top 10 tips for the ultimate networker at any business conference…

1. Create a plan
Know which speakers you want to hear and trade stands you want to go to. Do some research on the type of people you would like to meet and set up appointments in advance. Make calls and send out emails a few weeks before to schedule a time to meet for lunch or a coffee break. Hoping you will ‘run in to them’ is not the best idea as you may not get to spend enough speaking with them as you’d hoped.

2. Tweet, Facebook and Blog
Write about the sessions you plan to attend, find out the twitter hash tag for the conference, post comments and have discussions with other attendees and speakers.

3. Lead the conversation
Be engaging. Use questions such as:

What did you think of that session?
What else are you looking forward to attending?
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learnt from this conference?
Are you planning on going to any other conferences?

4. Connecting others
Once you meet someone interesting who may be beneficial for someone else, be the person that connects them together. Even with people you may know outside of the conference. They’ll remember you

5. Talk to the people sitting next to you
Always try to start up conversations and not wait to be spoken to first. Take the time before a session begins to say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ once you have broken the ice it will make it much easier to build conversation with them after. Every person around you is an opportunity, make sure you always try and sit with someone new after each session and strike up some kind of conversation.

6. Put the technology away
Don’t break into habit of texting and emailing on breaks, this gives the impression that you are unapproachable and uninterested in taking to other people. Use inviting and open body language.

7. Read up on others work
Most people are writers, bloggers and tweeters these days. Take the opportunity to gain knowledge about others. When you meet them they’ll be impressed you are so interested and know a lot about them. Let’s face it, everyone tends to love talking about themselves, a perfect way to get conversation flowing!

8. Business cards
You can never carry enough business cards with you at any conference. Write something on the back of the card that you have spoken about with the other person, or attach a photo so people have no problems remembering you. We are all guilty of not being able to match faces to cards at the end of an event. Make it easier for them and for you. Put any interesting and useful links on your cards – a great way to get people talking about you.

9. Sending a LinkedIn or Facebook request straight away is a big NO
Avoid sending out social networking requests straight after your meeting. Most people only tend to accept people they have established relations with. Instead kindly ask if they wouldn’t mind if you added them to keep in touch. They are more likely to accept your request later rather than ignoring it in the first place.

10. Follow up
Always follow up with people you have met or it would have made no difference meeting them in the first place. Drop them a quick email the next day saying how much you enjoyed talking to them and plan for any future discussions.