Attending conferences inside KSA

Attending and participating in conferences within the Kingdom is one of the best things you can do to support your career. It allows you to learn more about the latest developments in your field of specialization or field of knowledge, acquire new skills, and build important professional relationships.

But finding opportunities to attend conferences, and successfully participate in them, can be a bit difficult, especially with all those speakers and those sessions and the chances of getting to know strangers you meet for the first time.

Receiving delegations to attend scientific conferences is a service that we provide at the highest level to all our customers, as well as farewell delegations to various events.

First: Find the right conference

The first step is to find the right conference you want to attend or participate in.

In fact, there are dozens, even hundreds of conferences that are held annually in various parts of the world and in all fields and fields of knowledge. Some of these conferences may have sponsors who cover all or part of the costs of travel and participation, while others may not.

Do not hesitate to review the various opportunities available and choose the right one for you.

Second: Pre-conference advice

In order to ensure that you fully benefit from your experience at the conference, you must first prepare well before this important event, as you can do so by adhering to the following:

Increase your presence and visibility

One great way to maximize your conference experience is to actively participate in it. You can do this through any of the following:

• Submit a research paper as we explained at the beginning of the article.
• Participate as a moderator for the various sessions of the conference.
• Participate as a volunteer in the conference to carry out some support tasks.
• When you read the conference call for the first time, always research if any of the above options are available to apply for, or contact the conference organizer by e-mail and ask about any opportunities available to participate.

When you attend a conference, you will be just one person among hundreds of other attendees, but if you can participate in it and attend an effective role, you will stand out from the rest, and you may have opportunities to get to know many important personalities closely.

Strengthen your relationships before the conference

There is no doubt that the conference is your chance to meet new people, but it may be the right place to strengthen some of your old relationships as well.

If there are any people you know who will attend the conference, or you would like to communicate with them again (such as clients, old friends, or friends of your friends), do not hesitate to contact them before the conference date and agree to meet during this important event, and perhaps a cup of coffee or Have a meal together.

Third: Preparing the conference paper

Don’t just attend a conference if you can participate in it. Share your experiences and knowledge in front of the audience. Many conferences open the door for submitting research papers or conference working papers. They are short documents, similar to a brief research thesis, in which you share your knowledge and experiences.

If you are a specialist in a specific field, and you find yourself with deep experience and knowledge, why don’t you try to present your own paper and participate in that conference that you dream of attending?

Fourth: tips during the conference

You’ve finally arrived at the conference, and it’s time to begin your journey of building new professional and academic relationships.

As difficult and confusing as it seems to you, it is actually very fun, and not an impossible task. Follow the following tips to get more and better benefits:

Prepare plenty of business cards

It’s not cool to go to a conference without having business cards that identify you.

Recently, many people have started giving up business cards due to the proliferation of other digital means of communication, but this is a big mistake.

Exchanging phone numbers or email addresses will take longer than exchanging cards. And if you don’t make it easier to communicate with you, no one will contact you.

So, if you are planning to attend any major conference or event, always make sure to prepare a lot of your business cards, and if you do not own any of them, do not hesitate to design and prepare them.

But make sure here that your cards are unique and express you!

Prepare a short cover letter about yourself

Just having business cards doesn’t mean you’re ready to attend the conference. Before you start distributing your cards, you should give a small cover letter about yourself.

This cover letter must include the following:

• your full name.
• Your job (or what you do in your life in general).
• The purpose or motivation for being at this conference.
• In addition to the need to include the above information, make sure that your speech does not exceed 30 seconds in length and that it is directly related to the topic of the conference.

Attend as many sessions as possible

Yes, cool people don’t attend many sessions during conferences, they come to enjoy meeting new people and making more connections!

You probably think that this is what you should really do… Well, it is undoubtedly great to meet new people during conferences, and we will talk about this later in the article, but do not underestimate the new information and knowledge that you can also gain by attending the various conference sessions.

Before the conference starts, browse the events schedule and choose a group of talk sessions or seminars you want to attend.

Don’t overdo your attempts to get acquainted

No one likes those who insist on getting to know each other, so don’t be one of them!

Think about it, what’s the point of getting to know over a thousand people in just two days? It is impossible to be able to build fruitful and real relationships with each one of them!

Don’t waste your time trying to get to know a large group of people. Instead, focus on meeting a few of the right people with whom you can build meaningful, high-quality relationships.

Here are some simple tips in this regard:

Speakers at the conference

Try to meet and get to know every speaker you have enjoyed or attended. But don’t spend too much time talking to him, because he’s bound to meet hundreds of other people besides you. Be tactful, and give these people enough personal space.

Conference organizers

It is really wise to meet with one of the conference organizers. Although very few people care about them, but you really have to do it.

Conference organizers can open the way for you to participate in future conferences for free, and they also know exactly the important after-conference party venues that you will definitely need and benefit from (we will talk about this later in the article).

Competitors

Your competitors do not necessarily mean they are your enemies. You can build friendly relations with them, and who knows, it may end up in a future partnership, or a collaboration of some kind.

Rest of the audience

There is no specific advice regarding meeting and getting to know the rest of the audience. This often happens spontaneously and automatically. As long as you’re not sitting alone against a wall, you’re bound to meet some amazing people.

Tour the exhibits during the conference

Most conferences have various exhibitions packed with the official sponsors of the conference and companies offering their services and products as a form of advertising and marketing.

Take at least an hour to walk through the gallery, and see if there are any companies that interest you. Even if you don’t buy anything, you can learn a lot from galleries and their owners.

Besides, you may get a lot of free services or products that may help your business to grow, or you may get good discounts on products.

Even if you are not a business owner, visiting these fairs may help you find your next dream job!

Tips after the end of the conference

When the conference is over and you’re going home, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve taken all the possible benefits. You can actually still achieve some additional benefits, however, by doing the following:

Time for some friendly follow-up

During the conference, I collected many business cards and added more new friends on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Now that this event is over, it’s time to do something with all of these new people in your circle.

About a week after returning, start sending each person you meet a friendly follow-up message, expressing your pleasure in meeting and speaking with them. Do not hesitate to arrange an appointment for a voice call or a direct meeting with anyone you want to cooperate with and develop your professional relationship with.

Share what you learned during the conference

I gained a lot of useful information during the conference, and definitely got to know some interesting people. So why keep what you gained to yourself?!

You can do any of the following:

• Share what you have learned with your colleagues at work or study, or even with your friends.
• Send video clips of some of the sessions you attended that you found to be of great value in a particular field to someone you know who is interested in the topic of the session.
• Give a short speech about the most important things you learned from your experience at the conference.
• Tell your manager about some important people you have known, and suggest building working relationships and partnerships with them.