All,
Attending a student PE conference in the coming months and was wondering from a professional's point of view what should students be doing to make the most out of these? Usually, at student conferences I see professionals swarmed by sweaty students thirsty for attention, who only brag about themselves, effectively barring the chance for the professional to say anything useful to the crowd. First of all I am not the person to gloat as a student to someone who clearly is 20x more qualified than myself, and not use the chance to learn itself. Second I never see this strategy have success, but I don't want to stand around doing nothing. What's a good strategy to employ so that I'm not only learning as much as possible from speakers/professionals but also able to establish connections that can provide guidance to set me up for future success.
Additionally, this past summer at my work, my boss would frequently attend PE/VC/Tech conferences and when I asked why, he told me it was the greatest opportunity to network and connect. Apparently, half of the live deals at the time were sourced back to such a conference. Would also love to hear about your guys' thoughts on professional events and what a new professional going in should do at such conferences to make the most of the money spent and to potentially set up future opportunities.
Might be a noob question, but would love insight so I can hit the ground running at such events.
IDK what these student conferences are but if you can get a list of the attendees (from IB/PE firms), you can try to hit up those individuals before the conference and see if they're willing to connect for a info interview (can be over the phone), then make a note to meet up in person.
For me, conferences have been such a clusterfuck soI need to set up meetings beforehand as above. Otherwise I just end up aimlessly talking to people, half of which end up in convos that are complete wastes of time.
It's a conference focused around learning about the industry and career opportunities with your typical keynotes, sessions, and networking galas. As you said, it can become a clusterfuck.
That's great advice. I'll look into that and really appreciate you informing me of that strategy
Try to connect with the people on a personal level. Often times it becomes a rapid fire Q&A about finance. Try to get to know what they like to do in their free time and connect with them. This will make you so much more memorable than all the kids asking stupid finance questions that are not specific to the person or can be googled online
100% agree. what's an appropriate way to do this though. I presume if there's a crowd of people talking to one individual it's probably not a good idea to ask "how's your day been".
Assuming you mean more along the lines of when in a more informal setting be more personable. Great advice, thanks!
I can't speak to this student conference because I've never been to such an event. (TBH it sounds like torture, getting swamped by 10,000 students, most of which will act the way you described)
For professional conferences, nobody attends these for the conference themselves. Everyone knows the companies/funds/banks attending beforehand. My days are fully booked before I even arrive and I rarely take time to listen to the speakers etc. It's usually grabbing coffee and/or lunch with people in and around the convention center. During the evening there are typically investor dinners hosted by the service providers (bankers/lawyers/accountants/etc.).
Great advice, will see how much I can apply that concept to student events. Very interesting to hear it's about the connections and catchup. Wonder what sorts of business deals are initiated at such events.
As a poster above said, get your hands on the attendee list and then set up as many meetings as possible. If you have the money even try to set up some dinners if you can (though the people at this conference will probably already have dinners set with their peers to catch up/talk deals).
Got too much student debt to afford dinner and as you said they'd rather have dinner with peers than some schmuck like me. Will shoot for coffee instead, appreciate the advice!
For regular industry conferences, I make a list of people attending that I think we have synergy with and then reach out and try to book a meeting. Attend ALL mixers.
And yes, great for deal flow. About to get offload a company I invested in @ 15x to a VC I met at an event in NYC a few months ago.
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