Getting the most out of the Sales 2.0 Conference (even if you’re not here) #s20c

I’ll be joining a few hundred sales & marketing professionals at the Sales 2.0 Conference this week in San Francisco.  The event officially starts tomorrow morning, but many attendees will start networking tonight.

Every out-of-town event offers a common set of opportunities for attendees, but here are a few recommendations specific to Sales 2.0 – most for those joining me this week, but a few for those watching from afar as well.

If you’re here…

Cancel as many calls and meetings from back at the office as possible. You’ve made the investment to come here, make sure you take advantage of everything – the sessions, the speakers, the networking, the hallway conversations that could be your most important takeaway or new opportunity, etc. Use your auto out-of-office response to make it clear you won’t be able to respond quickly to email. This’ll make it easier to ignore inbound emails and focus on the event.

Hang out in the lobby tonight. Head down to the Four Seasons lounge after dinner tonight for a drink, and introduce yourself to whomever is around. Chances are they’ll be here for the conference too, and your networking will have already begun.

Get up early Monday and have coffee with fellow attendees before the keynotes start. This isn’t a day for sleeping in, or checking email until the last minute. Take advantage of every moment to learn from your peers who also made the investment to come (some of whom came to meet you!).

Try not to work (much). The set-up in the general session will be roundtables with wifi, perfect for ignoring the keynote and responding to email. Of course, you could have done that in your room or back at your office. Go ahead and check during speaker transitions if necessary, otherwise take advantage of the speakers and get to know those around the table with you.

Take great notes. Here’s a rundown of how I take, organize and process notes, at conferences and elsewhere. Check this blog tomorrow for a piece specifically on how to take better notes at a conference.

Don’t sit next to people you know. Of course you want to reconnect with those you don’t see very often, but don’t spend all of your time with them. Expand your network by switching up where you sit for every new general session.

If you must work, do so in a public place (instead of your room). If you really need to concentrate, go find your quiet place. But if you’re just catching up on email, do it somewhere others might run into you (or where you might see someone you really wanted to meet walk by).

Follow the hashtag stream and retweet stuff you like to your back-home followers, colleagues and peers. Great way to give yourself a public reminder of points and topics you thought were particularly good, and to share insights in real-time with others not able to attend.

Meet and thank the sponsors. They paid a lot of money to be here with you, and most of them have really interesting products or services that might help you significantly. At minimum, I bet they have knowledge and/or best practices to share if you just stop by and ask.

No eating alone, and no room service. San Francisco has an unending assortment of amazing restaurants, and there are plenty of other attendees here by themselves this week. Find them and invite them to dinner with you.

And if you’re not here…

Follow us on Twitter. Put #s20c as a stream in your Hootsuite or Tweetdeck for the next couple days. Should be some good stuff.

Download the presentations afterward. All of the decks from this week will be available on the Selling Power Web site afterward.

Introduce yourself to speakers, sponsors and attendees. You’ll see us on Twitter, and can look most of us up elsewhere online. You can still actively participate in the networking, even if you’re remote!