What should you consider before deciding whether to attend a conference? The weather? Exotic location? Nah! Although one should not discard those entirely. But seriously, there are things you should consider before deciding whether to attend a conference.

Roy Ginsberg has a helpful post on Attorney at Work today that may help you decide whether to attend a particular conference or not. Here are few:

• Who will attend? If it is a conference that your desirable clients will attend, then without a doubt you should plan on it. This will offer the opportunity to enhance your relationships with existing clients, and possibly provide the opportunity for them to introduce you to new ones. If you are not sure what conferences your clients attend, ask them and/or do research on past conferences;
• Will there be networking opportunities? With most conferences that’s a given. But be selective in those activities where there will be greater opportunities for one-on-one discussions, such as sightseeing tours and other casual events. At meals, plan to identify and sit, when possible, with potential clients;
• Be selective on breakout sessions. Not only consider the educational benefits, but again where potential targets will be. These sessions may offer smaller, more intimate opportunities to network; and
• Most importantly, follow-up. The single most common reason that lawyers fail to gain work from attending conferences is the lack of follow-up. Have a game plan to contact by letter, email, telephone call etc. people of interest you meet at a conference.

Now, back to the point about where the conference is located. As Ginsberg notes “All things being equal, San Diego during January sure sounds a helluva lot better to me than Washington, D.C. in the summer.” Or Boston in the winter. As it turns out, San Diego is the site for the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference in April, which is also a great time of year in that beautiful city.

Much of the advice given above is applicable to LMA’s conference depending on your goals. If you still haven’t decided whether you are attending and you’re a legal marketer take a look at my earlier posts (here and here) about the upcoming conference. What I have gained most from these conferences over the years are the contacts made, and the marketing and business development ideas acquired.