It’s been a while since my last post, but I can explain. Last week, I went to ACM South East, an academic conference for people in the field of computing. That got me thinking about the great opportunity freelancers have by attending conferences in their field. While ACM SE was a general purpose conference, there are tons of different conferences more oriented to each field of computing, and beyond that each professional field. Conferences overall can help your freelancing career by providing specific opportunities for you not really available anywhere else.
First of all, conferences generally have a keynote speaker and subsequent presentations and workshops. These provide a great opportunity to learn from the best in the business. Learn from people who have been there before and can tell you first hand their experience. Furthermore, learn from people right on the bleeding edge of your profession. This allows you to get a head start on things that will soon be in the mainstream and therefore, in high demand.
Conferences are also some of the best opportunities to network. It’s actually pretty surprising that I haven’t written about networking here yet because I feel it is one of my biggest strengths. It’s also one of the most important things for a freelancer to do. Conferences for people in our professional field mean that people in our professional field will be the ones attending. So go, shake hands, exchange business cards, and find a good yin to your yang. Connections make the world go round and there is no better place to make them than at a place full of people that do what you do, or things that compliment what you do.
They are fun! It might be someplace oriented around the work you do, but generally you get to travel and see someplace new, you get to meet new people, and the stuff you’re learning about is stuff you enjoy learning about (not to mention, they are a nice little vacation AND business expense all at the same time).
Finally, I want to leave you with a few upcoming conferences in web design and computing:
- An Event Apart
- Anyone that is a web developer knows about A List Apart. It’s highly influential and one of the best sources for web design and development. An Event Apart is their set of conferences, in four major cities and starting in May, with some of the biggest names in web design. If you can go to this conference, do it because it will be a great experience.
- HOW Conference
- A design conference for developers, HOW is held in Austin, TX from June 24th-27th. It’s got some big names on the ballot, like Cameron Moll and Felix Sockwell.
- Google I/O
- For a few years now, Google has held their own conference in San Francisco where developers can go to learn all things Google. I attended this one last year and it was a great experience. There are sessions and workshops on Android, Maps and other Google APIs, and software development in general.
Tags: articles, clients, network, networking, partners, people, relationships | Posted in Advice |
