A good while ago, when I was a first year university student, I had a meeting in a hotel lobby. As I sat there, waiting for the other person to arrive, I noticed the conference crowd registering for a conference - and boy, was it exciting! I had never been to a conference and so I day dreamed for a few minutes how cool it would be to actually be sent on one. Just imagine: for starters, you need to have a job, at which you are thought worthy to be sent to a conference during the working hours on full pay. And then you'd walk into a five-star hotel, pick up your attendee badge, pick up your goodie bag and head straight to the tea station, where you'd be effortlessly handing out your business cards and networking with the professionals alike - joy. 

Now, I have come a long way since then. I graduated, worked in a few jobs and I have been thought worthy of sending on a conference. Must I say, the hotels are not always five star, the speakers are often derogatory, the networking is tedious and inundated by sales consultants trying to score new clients - not to mention the info packs which are so full of advertising material, they are just not worth the papers its written on. Yet - it is the necessary evil: to get out, to hear a different perspective, to be stimulated intellectually and to win a prize every now and then (always happens to me, yay). And just today I have encountered an article which I wish was printed and put into every goodie bag - How to Get a Lot More Out of a Conference. It has tips for networking for introverts (it almost makes it easy), it tells you how to choose a stream in an unusual way, and most importantly, what to do with all of this new info you receive - an ingenious file-and-retrieve to quote system. I wish I had known it before, as it happens.