How to Stop Attending Conferences and Start Profiting From Them
🕰 BEFORE THE CONFERENCE
(If you skip this, don’t bother going.)
🎯 STRATEGY
- Define your single objective
(Fundraising? Partnerships? Hiring? Customers? Mentors?) - Identify top 10 people you want to meet
- Write down what you want from each person
- Prepare a short list of intelligent questions to ask them
🧠 RESEARCH
- Get the delegate + speaker list
- Study LinkedIn profiles of priority people
- Identify common interests / mutual contacts
- Prepare talking points for each target
📧 OUTREACH
- Send pre-conference emails/DMs
- Request 10–15 min meetings in advance
- Confirm calendar slots
- Create a simple meeting schedule in your phone
🗣 ELEVATOR PITCH (Memorise this)
Prepare one sentence:
“We help ___ do ___ faster/cheaper/better by ___.”
If you can’t say it in 15 seconds, you don’t understand your business.
🧾 LOGISTICS
- Print simple name tag with big bold letters
- Carry updated visiting cards (just in case)
- Keep your LinkedIn QR ready
- Wear comfortable shoes (networking is sport)
- Carry a small notebook (NOT a brochure bag)
🚀 DURING THE CONFERENCE
(This is not cinema. Don’t sit and watch.)
⏰ TIME MANAGEMENT
- Reach early
- Stay after sessions
- Minimise sitting inside halls
- Maximise hallway presence
🏛 ZONE STRATEGY
- Visit VIP areas
- Spend time at coffee counters
- Linger near speaker exits
- Attend socials & informal mixers
🤝 NETWORKING RULES
- Approach people proactively
- Smile (it’s free)
- Introduce yourself clearly
- Ask about their work first
- Intelligently bring the conversation to yours
- Respect time limits
- Exit gracefully and exchange contacts
🧠 CONVERSATION QUALITY CHECK
Avoid:
- ❌ Begging for funding
- ❌ Pitching unprompted
- ❌ Boring monologues
- ❌ Hero worship
Do instead:
- ✅ Ask sharper questions
- ✅ Listen more than you talk
- ✅ Connect people to others
- ✅ Offer value FIRST
👀 OBSERVATION
- Note who influences who
- Spot talent and dealmakers
- Observe investor behaviour
- Identify competitors and collaborators
📬 AFTER THE CONFERENCE
(Where winners separate from noise.)
✉️ FOLLOW-UP WITHIN 48 HOURS
Send personalised emails:
- Reference your conversation
- Mention one specific insight
- Add value (article, connection, idea)
- Propose next step clearly
🧾 RECORD KEEPING
- Update contact list
- Categorise: Investor / Partner / Talent / Friend
- Note potential opportunities
- Schedule reminders to reconnect
🙏 ORGANISER APPRECIATION
- Send a thank-you mail
- Mention what worked
- Give constructive feedback
- Offer support for future events
(Organisers remember gratitude. Investors remember discipline.)
🧨 THE FOUNDER ATTITUDE
(If you don’t carry this, no checklist will save you.)
- Be curious
- Be useful
- Be visible
- Be memorable
- Be professional
- Be human
🏁 FINAL REALITY CHECK
If after a conference you:
- Didn’t make new contacts
- Didn’t book follow-ups
- Didn’t learn investor behaviour
- Didn’t understand the ecosystem better
Then you didn’t attend a conference.
You spectated.
🧠 Dr Malpani’s Final Advice
“Conferences don’t change your life.
Conversations do.”
Go prepared.
Go confidently.
Go purposefully.
And next time — work the room harder than the keynote speaker.