Earlier this month, I attended the American Urological Association Annual Meeting in San Antonio and returned home with a list of compelling topics our clients can use as thought leadership angles for bylined articles, social media posts, speaking submissions and more. Here are some tips for how you can keep thought leadership top of mind when attending events and conferences:
Mine the conference program for overall trending themes and interesting topics related to your organization’s area of expertise.
My client had several experts presenting data on their specific device, but I made sure to also attend sessions on the general disease state they treat and sessions with content about their competitors. By doing this, I was able to pull out recurring themes from the presentations themselves, as well as from the questions the moderators and audience asked. Flipping through the conference agenda also helped me list out some ideas of what topics are top of mind for my client’s target audiences.
Pay attention to conversations happening “in the wild.”
I’m not suggesting you eavesdrop, per se, but especially during major conferences and events, attendees in some ways “take over” a section of the city for the duration. So, whether you’re out to eat, shopping for souvenirs, at the airport or the hotel bar, chances are other conference-goers will be there, too, talking freely about topics that might be of interest. You never know what you might overhear that could spark ideas for good thought leadership topics.
Ask yourself, “What unique perspective do I bring?”
If the product or service you provide is in a crowded space, it is even more important to be able to clearly answer this question. A good thought leadership topic becomes a great one if your experts can provide valuable, unique insights that perhaps your competition isn’t able to.
Listen for important nuggets that make sense to share with the broader team.
A few of our Tech & Manufacturing practice group team members also recently attended a local technology conference and were making connections with people they met who they wanted to introduce to client contacts and other folks in their network. They were also soaking up all things artificial intelligence (AI) and where the industry is headed. To make sure the rest of their practice group, and at some level, our entire agency is kept abreast of all the latest trends in the tech industry, they are sharing back the highlights of the conference as quickly as they can.
Don’t let it marinate too long.
Put a date on your calendar and block off the time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and get the thoughts out of your head. The sooner you start sharing once you’re back from the event, the more you’ll remember and the more excited you’ll be about the topics!
Events and conferences present a unique opportunity to fully immerse yourself in a specific topic area, see your business or your clients’ businesses from multiple perspectives and see industry trends playing out in real time. These situations have the potential to be overwhelming; but with a little prep work, you can strategically use them to gather valuable thought leadership topics and content that will continue to pay off months down the road.