Why You Should Attend the IoT Community’s IoT Day Slam 2020 IoT Conference

I bet you have a lot of things going on right now. The last thing on your mind is why you should go to an IoT conference on April 9.

Let me share several ideas on why you might want to go to this year’s IoT conference. These events can be a great morale builder during challenging time. I want my teams performing at higher levels throughout this crisis.

This event has been going on for several years. Every year it gets better. You can attend the event for free this year thanks to the IoT Community and their sponsors. All these organizations are committed to your success. Register for your free tickets here

This year’s IoT Day Slam 2020 IoT Conference is being provided to our community online. This current crisis is changing how we do business forever. Keeping up with current trends is critical to your future career success.  This event provides the foundation for many opportunities to connect with other people in our IoT Community. I’ll be sharing more over time.

My early conversations with executive leadership tell me that IT organizations have responded with increased agility over the past 60 days. This may provide the reset so many of us have been looking for with our stakeholders.

Many organizations are looking to make other changes to help increase the role IT has in the organization’s business strategy. IoT has the ability to transform the way we do business.

Have you ever been to a bad virtual conference? I have. I thought they should have paid me for sending my team. Here’s the good news The IoT Day Slam 2020 IoT Conference is not the first virtual conference they’ve hosted. This conference started several years ago online and technology has continued to improve. They are committed to providing you an excellent conference experience.

Here’s an interesting challenge, your career will last a lot longer than COVID-19. For many leaders, we need to get our teams focused on what we can do, not what we can’t.  It’s critical for us to provide our teams with a clear vision of the future of IoT and what’s needed to get there. The success of many careers will be judged on how they respond to this crisis.   

What I love about the IoT Day Slam 2020 IoT Conference is the event speakers are professionals who work every day in our field. Dealing with the same problems we do, the same bosses, and same funding challenges that we face every day.

I believe 2020 is the year where we as IoT professionals can proactively move many of our initiatives into the C Suite. That’s a big promise. All these global events and changing cost structures are going to provide you with a very strong foundation for change.

In my experience, a single idea from a professional conference can provide the key to success in selling your ideas in the C Suite. The people you hear from at the event share what they see has worked and what didn’t. This type of collaboration continues to be much more critical as supply chains and manufacturing capabilities are examined for opportunities to leverage the Internet of Things in new and more powerful ways.   

This conference provides you an opportunity to network with a wide range of individuals in a very short time. I’ve attended many different conferences both as a tech leader and an influencer. When I have a team at an event, I make sure I get results for my team’s time and financial  investment.

Here’s how I get the most out of attending a virtual event.    

1. Review the agenda to see who and what I want to learn more about.

2. Empower team members to decide who should attend which presentations. I make sure the team knows they should reach out to experts if they could be a great resource for their projects and what information they need to know to consider the presentation a good time investment.

Because this is a virtual event, your team members can go over the videos after the event. I also do screen captures of information so I can share with other team members.     

3. Reach out to the people who spoke at the conference within 48 hours of seeing them speak. Make sure you share how much you enjoyed their presentation. Tell them what you enjoyed. As a professional presenter, the quick evaluation provides feedback but not on what stood out to your audience. Always remember, some day you may be asked to present. 

4. Always ask for a set of the slides. I get them about 75% of the time.  When I get the slides, I have the information I need to engage my boss and the C Suite on why we should consider doing a project. I let the experts support my case to executive stakeholders. Many of the speakers illustrations can drive key points home powerfully.  A single question borrowed can transform the conversation with a challenging executive.

When presenting at an event the speaker invests significant time finding great material to share. Depending on factors outside my control, my slides may not be seen. Most presenters keep a copy of their deck for several weeks. Then they prepare for their next event.

 This speaker driven approach to networking allows you to build out your professional network more quickly. Since they are in my LinkedIn network, I’m able to follow them no matter where they end up. Many of my better collaboration partnerships come from this simple networking process.

As an IoT leader, it’s important for you to have strong network of professionals and experts that you can collaborate with during your implementation. The quality of your network determines how easily your implementation goes.

I’ve heard many stories from CIOs and leaders about how their job was cut in half by knowing the right person at the right time in their implementation. Not a bad investment for a single invitation on LinkedIn. By the way, if you want access to a great IoT Community send me an invite.

I look forward to seeing you at the IoT Community’s IoT Day Slam 2020 IoT Conference on April 9^th.  Really, don’t miss your free tickets for you and your team.  Register for your free tickets here

See you there.