Spinning My Network

This week marked my first experience attending an industry conference and expo, the American Society of Training and Development’s International Conference and Exposition, chalk full of keynote speakers, over-decorated, over-energized booths, almost 400 topic-specific sessions spanning three days, and somewhere around eight thousand attendees meandering the monstrosity that is the Colorado Convention Center in the lovely city of Denver, Colorado.

I flew out Sunday evening, after being delayed over two hours, and didn’t arrive to my hotel until around 11pm. No time for fun, the first keynote was 8am, Monday morning. I walked two blocks to the CCC and checked in, got my little name tag, and followed the masses to the Wells Fargo Theater located as far as you could walk while still being inside. I didn’t have much of a plan for my three days, so the fact that I could just walk the same direction as everyone else made it easier. The featured speaker was great, a fellow by the name of Jim Collins, and feeling mildly inspired, I was ready to take on the conference.

Still imitating a lemming, I ended up at the expo, freshly opened and ready to invade your personal space. I made my way down every single aisle, wide-eyed first day of school style, managing to exchange words with no one. Which means, since I had left my apartment at 5pm the night before, I hadn’t said much more than ‘thanks’ and the address of the hotel to the cab driver in about 16 hours. I was beginning to feel like an outcast walking among that many people with no one to talk to. Everyone else chatting, hugging, connecting and reconnecting, me, not. “Because nothing sucks more than feeling all alone, no matter how many people are around” (J.D., Scrubs, S2E18, My T.C.W.). This continued all the way through the generously provided lunch. I say generously provided, but when I realized how much a ticket to this event cost, I guess it made sense. Full, I stood in back to avoid being harassed by the invasive booth workers, creating my game plan of booths that I needed to stop by to minimize the amount of unnecessary contact, considering there were over 200 booths and about 10% actually applied to me. It was in this phase of my journey that I randomly bumped into three coworkers on their way to an early afternoon session. It was nice to talk to people.

The topic-specific sessions varied in their format, from 200 person lecture hall types, to round tables set up for frequent group interactivity, to cleverly disguised sales pitches. I attended two of these sessions Monday afternoon, the first offering not much more than a cool demonstration that was inapplicable to my profession, the second offering quite an eye-opening reconstruction of my entire professional processes. The second one was worth my time. That was the essence.

I had dinner with my coworkers that night, which included a bacon potato pesto soup and encrusted pork tenderloin on top of elk jalapeno-cheddar sausage hash and spicy sweet potato mash; yup. I then spent the rest of the evening in the hotel bar, networking, the focus of the trip, and this post.

Somewhere in between the giant theater speeches about innovation and inspiration, the crop fields of booths with their most ‘talented’ assets front and center, and the dozens on dozens on dozens of private sessions, you spend your ‘down time’ doing everything possible to meet and greet anyone that sparks your interest, on any level. My first iteration of this took place while I waited for my afternoon smoothie, a tasty treat doubling as filler until dinner. My first three preferences were unavailable (out of mango, strawberry banana, and strawberry), so I settled on peach, while the screwy, unreadable credit card of the young woman behind me rewarded her with a free chai. Alas, a conversation was born, and ‘networking’ commenced. Later that night, at the hotel bar, you know, the hotel that was about 90% conference-goers, ‘networking’ continued. Whether out of desperation (only one other person in the bar at 8pm), proximity (an interesting person grabbing a seat nearby), or interest (mutual recognition of personality and conversation), I met, chatted with, discussed industry specific ideas, learned about parts of the field that I never gave much thought to, and generally, realized the scope of the profession that I find myself attached to, along with a laugh or two.

Throughout the next two days, I listened to lectures that were so elementary, I probably could have taught it myself, I sat through keynote speakers that used music as much as language to get a message across, and gathered information from booths that were actually relevant, all while keeping my ears and eyes open for those I had already met, strengthening something so recently ignited, or seeking new networking opportunities to pack on like pounds for the winter.

Networking, as I’ve come to know it, is fascinating; so many angles, so many outputs. Me, I had a few things on my mind. I was looking to meet people in the industry (which was everyone), just to help understand the field that I find myself under-educated in. The more you talk about it, the more others talk about their side of it, the clearer the landscape of the training world is painted. As a young professional, understanding the landscape is as important as perfecting your craft. I was also looking for anyone doing what I’m doing, instructional design, to once again, talk the business. Just being in a room full of 200 instructional designers was an uplifting experience, knowing that there are more out there, just like me, dealing with the same issues, and surviving. I was looking for personal connections too, for various reasons. Reason one, in case I no longer find myself employed by this wonderful company and need to reach out to some similar-industried people. Reason two, in case one of these similarly-industried people finds themselves out of a job and could be an asset to my team. Reason three, because I needed company. Humans weren’t meant to be alone, and it was nice to grab a drink, meet up for a lunch, stop at a booth for a chat, or enjoy a cross-convention walk with those I had met; made the trip worthwhile.

So, I hope this wasn’t the last time I get to be so immersed in my professional field that you forget you still have a job. I learned a lot, ate a lot, walked a ton, and met some folks that hopefully won’t be strangers. I think I like networking.