4 Reasons Career Workshops & Seminars are So Important, and How to Maximize Your Chances of Attending!  

Perhaps you saw an interesting conference online, or someone in your network shared a discount code for a professional seminar, or you are looking for a venue where you can learn something new and do some industry benchmarking at the same time. Whichever of these scenarios fits you, the point is, you’ve found an opportunity that interests you, where you can learn and grow, for just 2-3 short days out of the entire year.

This happens to many of us, but how many of us then look at the cost or location, and drop the notion without even attempting to get supervisory approval? Why? Maybe we’re embarrassed to ask for budget to spend time developing ourselves, or we don’t want our bosses to think we just want a free trip to sightsee in New York, D.C., or San Francisco, or we don’t want to take the time out from our day job for fear we’ll fall behind on real work.

Let’s reconsider some of these reasons, discover instead why attending a conference might be a great idea — and why (and more, importantly, how!) you should bring it up to your management. 

You’ll Gain Efficiency
Sure, you might be taking a few days “off work,” but if it’s a conference that might give you tools to work smarter and more efficiently, you will likely be reaping the time investment benefits for years to come. Conferences now aren’t just about sitting and listening; many have workshops or learning labs that provide takeaway tools to arm you with templates and new competence.

Asking for Supervisory Approval: Check out the agenda and look for labs, workshops or sessions that you think would make you more effective in your job. Then, when asking for time off and budget, specifically point these out to your boss: “I’m really interested in taking this workshop.  I’d love to learn some ways that I could take our reporting to the next level, and do it much more quickly and effectively.”

You’ll Learn Benchmarks and Best Practices
You have launched a program that is new to your company, or your company or department doesn’t already have much insight as to how to compare your work to your industry peers. Solution? Conferences are the perfect place to learn what other companies are doing so you can see where you stand within the scope of the industry.  Finding out if you are doing more, less, better quality, unoriginal or unprecedented work in the space helps you understand where you can teach — and where you can learn.

Also, being able to come back to work and explain, “No one has done a program like this before and people were loving the idea; we have the chance to create an industry best practice here, and we should let our executives know that we are breaking new ground and turning heads in the business” will impress not only your direct supervisor, but your executives and perhaps even the community.

In the same way, if you are starting to work on something new to you that others have accomplished, now is your time to network and learn from others’ mistakes before you commit them yourself.

Asking for Supervisory Approval: 

• • • Let your boss know other industry peers or competitors that will be attending, presenting, or speaking.
    • Be specific about what you might be able to glean from them.
    • Consider how the conference can help you accomplish your next project with greater knowledge and ease.
    • Mention the potential for learning as contributing to the greater good; i.e. how you will have the opportunity to learn about programs and projects for your overall team, and then bring back them back to share.

You’ll Broaden your Niche Skillset and Develop your Expertise
Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• • • If you work for a smaller company, perhaps you are the only person in your “department.”
    • Or you perform multiple functions — or a large cross-section of responsibilities — that, in a larger company, might fall under a variety of employees with niche skillsets.
    • Or you need to develop a higher level of mastery in a certain subject matter.
    • Or you have a very focused skillset, but need to broaden your scope of knowledge in tandem with how you have been assigned new, or more, functions.

If any of these apply, a professional conference, where you learn from speakers across industries, can provide a chance to develop new skills and techniques and help you accomplish your work more effectively. Bringing a new depth or breadth to your knowledge will make whatever function you need to focus on more productive upon your return.  Furthermore, you’ll be able to network with new peers   on whom you can call on for advice as things come up down the road.

Asking for Supervisory Approval: Describe to your boss the depth or breadth of skillset on which you hope to focus at this conference. Make sure (especially) to point out if this function has a high level of visibility in your organization, or is essential to the success of a prominent project. Then mention sessions you can attend, or presenters who will be concentrating on the exact know-how you need to acquire.

You’ll Meet Potential Investors, Partners, and Employees
Depending on your role or industry, at a conference there is potential for you to better meet the needs of your business and/or customers by partnering with other organizations, raising funds from new investors, or even hiring for your team. After all, large industry get-togethers are perfect venues to encounter new people in a low-pressure situation, and create relationships that could make a difference to the future of your business.

So see what opportunities you might have on your plate currently, and what sort of a conference might bring the people-potential for networking. Perhaps you have an opening on your team you’d like to engage passive talent for, or there’s an industry-wide event where you can meet experts to partner with, or sponsors who might want to invest in your cause or business.

You may in fact find multiple partners to keep in your network at the same conference; a fully executed  partnership may not be an immediate result of the gathering, but bringing people into your network with future possibilities in mind can reap both short- and long-term rewards. 

Asking for Supervisory Approval: Analyze current gaps, along with the people resources that could alleviate those issues. Bring to light how new opportunities that broaden your network, in a focused way, would benefit your team as a whole. You might even consider suggesting you and your superior attend together to improve the range of people you can engage.

No matter what your motivation, getting out of the office and into the world to take a closer look at the diversity and range of external knowledge, best practices, resources, and talent within your field will benefit both you and your company. Don’t be shy in asking for something that will be of value on multiple levels, and be sure to outline the profits and purpose you are seeking.

Remember, you are worthy of budget and development.  Many departments have a portion of budget dedicated to such a principle, and even if yours doesn’t, if you can show how your new knowledge will create a great ROI for your position, team, or business, everyone wins.  So rather than feeling like you are asking a favor of your boss, focus on showing him/her that you are dedicated to your own betterment and continuous improvement for the company.  You might be surprised how easy it is get approval!