Another conference season kicks off in NYC…

As soon as the leaves start to fall, another conference season kicks off in NYC…

The problem is that the majority of conferences (and events for that matter) are a complete waste of time. All of those large, annual, open-to-the-public meetups are an excuse for companies to burn marketing budgets and attendees to expense bar tabs.

There isn’t often much substance.

But, as I’ve learned over the years, the key to a successful, meaningful conference is not the sponsors in attendance, but the size and niche of the event.

“Niche” themes create smaller conferences. And smaller conferences lead to higher-quality relationships built by the attendees. After all, smaller events are more intimate. You repeatedly run into the same people at every workshop, panel, speaking event, meal, and mixer.

And those interactions are crucial.

The best part about any conference is all of those serendipitous moments that happen BETWEEN the main events: The conversation you strike up with the person sitting next to you while waiting for a presentation to begin; The colleague from another company that you bump into while riding the elevator; The new potential customer you meet at the happy hour…

It’s these moments that make an event valuable. It’s all about the people…

People like Nathan Cooper who was kind enough to capture a selfie with me at last week’s Emerging Manager Summit hosted by Equal Ventures!