Thoughtful article in today’s Financial Times (subscribers only) quotes 49-year-old Yolanda Barnes, a research director at an estate agency who attends 20 conferences annually. This veteran of the conference circuit prefers attending smaller conferences. She finds it easier to gather specialized information.

Larger events are better for networking.

Example: many experienced speakers attend the big National Speakers Association Convention purely for networking.

Yolanda prefers halls with natural light (note: avoid underground venues such as the San Francisco Moscone Center) and dislikes stage-managed ‘live’ discussions which “lack intellectual repartee and the spark of real debate”.

She concludes by sharing her tips on attending conferences:

“Listen imaginatively. Even if the speaker’s area is not relevant to you you will find a way of translating it to your particular speciality. And it’s always better to attend a few good sessions than to try to cram everything in,” she says.

“As a researcher I might want quite different things from a meeting or conference to other delegates. But you should always stock up with business cards and leave enough time for chatting with other professionals and asking questions.”

Other resources for you to check if you are conference-bound include:

• Bill Lampton’s Ten Tips on Attending a Conference

My favorite - Tip #8:

Buy the tapes and audio CDs recorded during the sessions.

• Stephen Abram’s Conference Tips

I love his measure of value for attending:

I met at least one new person every day.
I learned at least one useful thing I didn’t know in a session every day.
I had at least one substantive discussion with a vendor about a new product that I might need.
I had fun, every day.

• This summary of a discussion among graduate-students on tips and tricks for conferences.

My favorite bit of advice:

If you are giving a talk, do not read your paper. Do not fight with the organizer over time. Do not be convinced that the audience will be enthralled if only you can get this one last point in. Do not edit out whole sections on the fly as you notice time running out. If you find yourself falling in love with your own prose, exercise caution.

• Finally, this insightful article from lifehack.org gives some ideas on how to attend a conference without being there!

The trick, of course, is to use the web to capture content, example:

For tech conferences, I’ve found that IT Conversations, part of the Gigavox Media network, have some GREAT coverage. I should also mention PodTech, another really great source for interesting conference coverage.

What are your tips for attending conferences?