Tips and Tricks for T-shirt Entrepreneurs

Conferences, Are They Worth It?

Posted on October 21st, 2006 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Offline Promotion, CP Connect.

I was going to make this post about the CP Connect Conference in general but I got side tracked with an important point. If you have never attended a conference on a subject you are interested in… attend one! This is not just relevant to the CafePress Connect conference but for any conference. In this day and age of information on the internet you might say, “What’s the point of traveling to a conference when I can probably learn what is going to be said by looking stuff up online or maybe even just watching the reports that get posted later on?”

Well, I’ll tell you. Nothing beats in-person interaction. There is a vast difference in looking something up online and being able to absorb it in person… and to be able to ask questions during a session or individually of the speaker later. There is also the factor of being able to discuss the topic with your fellow audience members after the presentation. Discussion can lead to enlightenment.

When you’re looking up something on the net, you *might* be able to post a question or engage in a discussion, say on message board forums about it, but when something is just-happened-live fresh, discussion is easier and more spontaneous. And getting a specific question answered right then and there, is, of course, priceless.

Another big bonus of attending a conference is the social aspect of being amongst peers. Don’t underestimate the value of this. In some cases a conference may be the only time some people get to speak to someone face to face about a topic that consumes a lot of their time. I know that before I attended my first video game conference, aside from my boyfriend and his friend, I had not met anyone else who played games as much as I did. Perhaps we were all freaks, but darn it, we were all freaks together! Attending a conference makes you realize that not only are you not alone, but you share some of the same passions and problems with others… and you can share solutions.

One might counter what I’ve said by saying you can get camaraderie online, through chats or message boards or even email exchanges. I say yes, this is true… to a certain point. Man (and by this I mean all of humankind) is a social animal. Like it or not there is something that is triggered when we are together. Brainstorm sessions work for a reason. People can feed off of other people’s energy. Before you know it, you are breaking out with new designs, new ideas, and a new outlook on the path of your business.

If this all sounds a little too touchy-feely for you, I apologize. But I must use this sort of language to explain the magic that can happen at a conference and no where else. You are with peers, you are often with professionals who influence your business to whom you can give direct feedback (CafePress staff showed up in force for that, let me tell you). You are immersed in this for 2 days (or more), away from your ordinary routine and regular distractions. Is it any wonder then that *during* the CP Connect I knocked out a new t-shirt design? Is it any wonder that though I was on two panels myself as a 5+ year veteran of CafePress and a longer eCommerce Veteran… I still learned something from a panel meant for beginners?

Alright, enough with these hard to measure benefits of conferences. I will throw out more practical reasons to attend a conference. They are tax write offs. You can deduct the price of the ticket, you can deduct travel and lodging. You can deduct 50% of your food and entertainment expenses. You can make business deals during a conference. You can get free stuff. You can learn about tools with practical, money saving applications. You can list your involvement in a conference on your resume or as something to show your seriousness to a would-be money lender or investor. You can learn things ahead of your competition. You can scope out your competition.

Well, there you go, an incomplete, and likely slightly incoherent, long winded response to a question.

Is attending a conference worth it?

Yes.

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Agree, disagree? Agree with a few exceptions? Reply and speak your piece!

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