Be A Pro At Cons: Maximizing Your Conference Experience

Conferences are awesome, no doubt about it. Getting together with people in your field from all over the country to talk shop; there’s nothing quite like it. Some of the best friends I’ve made in the design industry, I met at a conference! But are you getting the most out of your conference experience? 

Conferences can be expensive; ticket cost, travel, lodging, it all adds up pretty quick. Top that off with missing work days in order to attend? It’s easy to see why many people miss out, or leave feeling like their experience wasn’t worth the cost of everything involved when all is said and done. 

I’m breaking down my strategy for attending conferences and how it’s benefitted my career, and hopefully it can help you level up your Con game as well!

Designer Conferences

Designer conferences are where all the cool kids from the ‘gram come together to talk shop, then party the night away. You can meet people whose work you admire, get inspired, put faces to IG handles, take workshops, and learn how to improve your craft. But have you ever gone to a conference and felt unprepared? Didn’t have stuff to hand out, or couldn’t think of the right questions to ask at the right time? Believe me, you’re not alone, but if you take some time before the conference to make a game plan and set achievable goals, you’ll walk away much more satisfied.

Into The Woods Conference 2023

Lincoln Design Co has been a leader in the brand design and illustration scene for years, and when they announced they were putting on their own conference, I was stoked. When I saw the price tag, I was skeptical, but I knew a lot of big players and designer legends would be there, so I figured the investment would be worth it, but only if I went in with a game plan to get the most bang for my buck. 

SET YOUR GOALS

I started by setting some goals:

1. Meet the people who have inspired me throughout my career

2. Make a good impression

3. Get on people’s radar

Goal #1 was the most easily achievable. Go to the conference, talk to people, boom. Nailed it. Next question.

Goal #2 took a little more planning. Sure you can just be a nice person, shake hands, crack a few jokes, but that’s forgettable in the long term. I wanted to do something awesome that got people’s attention; a grand gesture if you will. Something that would last well after the conference. Everyone likes free stuff, especially if it’s nice! So I decided to bring some portable, tangible samples of my work, and hand them out to everyone I talked to at the conference.

Goal #3 ties into #2, but is more focused. I wanted to make a good impression on specific people: fellow artists yes, but art directors and agency owners in particular. If I could impress these people, it could lead to future job opportunities that would be hard to come by otherwise. If I could land a couple projects from the people I meet at this event, the tickets would pay for themselves.

In the months leading up to the conference, I designed a poster for the event in a similar style to some of the work that Lincoln does, but put my own spin on it. I documented the process and shared it on Instagram, all the while tagging Lincoln and the Into The Woods accounts, and gaining exposure by them sharing the poster on their stories. I spent about 3 days making the artwork itself, posting regularly and trying to be very active on Instagram during that time. This led to some more followers, sure, but I got a couple followers that I had been wanting for a long time: @lincolndesignco and the one and only @madebyjames !!! Gaining that recognition for work that you’re proud of from people whose opinion holds high value to you is a really great feeling.

MAKING SWAG

Now that I had this rad poster artwork, I needed to do something with it. Money was tight, and printing was expensive, so I had to come up with another solution. 

I heard about Trevor of Wizarco from The Chop Up on Lincoln’s YouTube channel, and I knew he was doing a lot of the printing for Into The Woods, so I decided to reach out and see if he was interested in some printing/design trade. Luckily enough, he was! So I cranked out some more portfolio worthy pieces for Wizarco and got some free stickers and poster prints in trade. Talk about a win-win!

We handed out the posters for free to anyone who wanted one, and they became super popular! Leave a good impression: Check!

In addition to the posters, I prepared a ton of sticker packs to hand out to everyone I met to help get my name and brand out there. Designers love stickers, so it was the perfect freebie to hand out (though I think I overdid it with 3 different themed sticker packs - one would have been much easier to deal with!)

Cost-wise, I had been accumulating small batches of stickers from Stick Mule’s weekly deals for a while, and spent around $100 on sticker pack bags and toppers. I never intended to sell anything at the event - the goal was always to give them away as marketing collateral. By making generously filled, thoughtfully designed sticker packs and handing them out for free, I was able to 1. Meet people with an easy icebreaker (free shit), 2. Make a good impression, AND 3. Get on people’s radar! I didn’t have a ton of money at the time, but spending $100ish bucks to help achieve all my goals was TOTALLY worth the investment. 

TO SHIRT, OR NOT TO SHIRT?

As designers, we all love a sick graphic t-shirt. But is it worth hauling them to a conference to give away or sell? Unless you are an approved vendor at the conference with booth space and everything, I’d say it’s not worth the money, effort, and space it takes up. I considered getting the poster artwork printed on tees too, but the cost was way too expensive to justify. I did bring some old apparel that I had been sitting on for a while (since I drove to the conference and didn’t have to check any luggage), but I gotta say it was more of a hassle to lug them around, find the right size for people, and go back and forth bringing stuff from my hotel room down to the event space. I’m glad I got to give them away, but I’d recommend keeping your swag on the small side unless you have dedicated space and time to unload it.

FIND A ROOMIE

Lodging at these events can be pricey, and the room I booked had two beds, so I was definitely interested in splitting the cost with someone. Trevor and I hit it off from the get go, so I offered him the extra bed and he was game for it! Turned out to be one of the best decisions I made for the whole trip. Not only were we both able to save some money, but we left as lifelong friends. We go to these conferences to meet people and make connections, and the best way to do that by far is to share a living space with someone during the trip. You get to talk about the experience and reflect on what you each took away from that day, offer advice and perspective on each others’ goals and business, and really just have someone to hang out with. Couldn’t recommend it more!

NETWORKING

Put yourself out there! It's super awkward when you first show up and don't know anyone, but know that everyone else is feeling the same way. Just go up to some people, break the ice with a joke, and ask people about what they do. You never know when you'll meet someone who could be looking for someone with your skillset to hire for an awesome project.

Pro Tip: when you exchange business cards (PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO BRING BUSINESS CARDS!), take a minute to write down what you talked about on the card so you can remember it later. Better yet, send them a quick DM on Instagram (or email) to get a conversation started so you can both remember the interaction later. In an industry littered with instagram handles, it can be hard to remember names, so starting that conversation can be a lifesaver once you get home from the event.

MAKE IT EASY FOR OTHERS TO HELP YOU

One thing I really wanted to do while attending Into The Woods was show my work to other illustrators I really admired and get their feedback. Most people generally want to be helpful in these situations, but don’t burden them by wasting their time and being unprepared. Before the conference, I saved some specific illustrations in my Photos app on my iPad so I could whip them out quickly and easily if the opportunity arose and swipe through them without having to connect to Wifi or wait for Instagram to load. I’m so glad I did this, because I happened to grab a seat next to Brandon (one of Lincoln’s senior illustrators) about 10-15 minutes before the speakers came on stage in the assembly hall and got some valuable feedback on my work. Being prepared for a moment like that was huge.

Additionally, take some time to write down specific questions that you’ve been struggling with so you have them ready if and when you get an opportunity to ask someone with more experience in that field. I signed up for the Illustration workshop, so I knew I would have access to ask some pro illustrators real questions that could help me get better at this craft. I wanted to get other people’s take on finding an illustration agent/some kind of representation to try to get bigger jobs. I asked if other illustrators had opinions on agency life vs freelance, how they price things, and all sorts of minutia that ties into this career path. It felt good to be prepared and not wrack my brain to think of a question only to remember it after the opportune moment had passed.

THE TAKEAWAY

In addition to all the great friends and connections I made, my poster ended up landing me a job doing another poster in a similar style not long after the conference, which basically covered the cost of the ticket. It also impressed the art department at a huge company, and now I’m in talks with them about doing some freelance work!  Two awesome jobs came from that one poster (so far), and I never would have had those opportunities without sticking to the strategy I planned out from the start.

Other Industry Conferences

CA Craft Beer Summit:

When I decided to go full time freelance in 2018, I wanted to break into the craft beer scene in Sacramento, where I was living at the time. I did a fun beer label project in college and wanted to try to do more projects like that professionally, so I made a couple more self initiated beer label projects and started posting them. A few months later, the CA Craft Beer Summit came through Sacramento, so I got a ticket and networked my ASS off. I was one of the only designers there, as it was more focused on people in the brewing industry, so I didn't have much competition. I did meet up with one designer I had been following, Ryan Wheaton of Craft Brew Creative, who became a great friend, mentor, and resource to this day (and we roomed together at the Summit the next year too!).

The first two days of the summit were full of workshops, lectures, and wandering the main floor where everyone had their booths set up. I asked questions geared towards how breweries approach graphic design, finding designers, and the value they put on branding, which led to people approaching me afterwards to dive in deeper to the subjects I knew about. I made sure to stop by all the label printer booths as well, because every designer should know a few good printers! The third day of the summit was a huge beer festival with over 160 brewery booths lined up. I stopped by each one, handed them a business card and asked if they ever worked with freelance designers, which landed me my first few beer label projects!

By attending a conference that is targeted to an industry that you want to design for, not towards the designers themselves, you are guaranteed to stand out. You get to walk around a huge room packed with potential clients, and you get to be one of the only designers they will interact with that day. Additionally, you can see the kind of things that they care about, where the pain points are in their industry, and you can adapt your proposals to help address those problems specifically. When you learn the ins and outs of a specific space, you become a go-to expert that they can rely on to solve their visual problems. It may be awkward at first to put yourself out there, but the payoff is so worth it.

Once you’re established as a designer in the industry of your choice, you can approach the conference runners and try to put together a presentation to hold at the event; a case study on a branding project, your analysis on packaging strategy, the value that investing in good design brings to a business, etc. By presenting yourself as an expert in your field servicing their industry, people will trust you with their business, leading to a net positive for all parties involved.

OK I GET IT, CONS ARE COOL, WRAP IT UP!

To recap, remember to:

• Set Goals

• Invest in Yourself

• Be Generous

• Plan Ahead

• Use Your Time Efficiently

• Make Connections

• Go Where Your Clients Are

Now get out there and Be A Pro At Cons!

Article by Kilian McMann  |  @greatravendesignco  |  greatravendesign.co