Standing out in the Crowd

by Trish Alegre-Smith

Where's Waldo?

How others can find you in the crowd of the “mega-convention"

I was one of 10,000+ people in attendance and this was my first conference of the year. It was hard enough to find my room in the 700,000 square feet of the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center let alone figure out how I was going to connect with other attendees—and stand out somehow. Compare this to the annual National Military Spouse Network Milspouse Summit that caps attendance at around 100 attendees to keep things intimate and approachable and this task seemed daunting if not impossible. So what was my plan?

Step 1: Connect on social media ahead of time.

With so many attending and less than a week for the convention I needed to re-think my approach to “meeting” people. First action was to follow and start using the convention hashtags (#imagingusa and #imagingusa2018) on social media—posting what I was doing to prepare for the trip and engaging with others who were using the same hashtags. Second action was to follow convention speakers and vendors on social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) who I wanted to see while I was there.

Step 2: Decide what I wanted to accomplish.

This convention was my most expensive professional conference of the year when travel and lodging costs were included. Every dollar and minute spent mattered. What did I want to get out of this experience? Not only did I want to meet peers in my industry but connect with others that would continue to inspire me and push me to grow. I also wanted to meet vendors and take the time to personally thank those who helped me when I first started my business. Finally, I wanted to explore potential collaborations with other attendees with similar goals.

Step 3: Arrive early.

"To be early is to be on time; to be on time is to be late.” These words echoed in my head during my days in Air Force ROTC! And it still applies when it comes to large conventions like these. I took advantage of pre-convention classes and workshops to “get ahead of the wave” that was coming when the convention officially kicked off. Guess who also shows up early? Speakers and vendors—making it more likely I'd meet them before everyone else.

Step 4: Be myself.

For those who have met me I'm not a “look-at-me” kind of person—I'm closer to being described as an “introverted extrovert.” This presented a unique challenge as I traveled solo and didn't really know anyone there. It also presented an opportunity. I had no obligations and no other choice but to get to know the new people that I met—especially if we were in the same classes and hotel and mutually wanted to avoid meals at a “table for one.” It felt more natural for me to connect like this and made conversations flow easier. It didn't feel like “networking” as much as getting to know potential friends.

At the end of the week I accomplished everything that I wanted to do—and it wasn't as hard or as scary as I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to my next conference—even though it won't nearly be as large as this one.

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