Before I get blacklisted by everyone at the event, let me first say that this is a self-reflection and has nothing to do with the quality of the event or the information presented at the event. I do feel compelled, however, to share insights that may ultimately make future events, such as Social Media Day Miami 2013, better for people individually; certainly for me.
This won’t apply to everyone, but I’m almost certain that many attendees who read this will agree that in retrospect, they made the same mistakes that I’m about to outline here.
Social Media Day Miami kinda sucked for me because I showed up without a clear plan. You see, most of us go to networking events without a clearly defined goal and/or a structured plan to reach that goal. We simply walk in the door hoping for a fortuitous encounter with someone or something. Nothing wrong with this. But fortuity is fortuity and we can’t control it. So while Ms. Fortuity decides whether she wants to help us out or not, we can be helping ourselves by executing on a predefined plan. That way, we control the value and success of an event and we don’t leave it to chance. Again, lack of preparation is not a crime, but it does leave a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table. Case and point:
At today’s social media event, I wanted to get entrepreneurs to individually answer one simple question about the event on camera so that I could then compile the footage and use it as good, interesting video content to share with my audience. I also wanted to meet influential bloggers and identify opportunities to become a guest blogger on their site. Those were my 2 goals and yes, they were poorly defined. Here’s why:
1)Â Â I did not quantify either goal. I should have decided to get 10 entrepreneurs to do an on-camera interview and to have a conversation with 5 influential bloggers.
2)  For the interviews, I didn’t define my question(s) in advance. Preparing my questions in advance would have given me the time to really hone in on what questions (and subsequently what answers) would provide the most value to the people who would later watch the compiled video; my blogging audience.
3)  I didn’t do homework on which bloggers I consider influential. The speakers, facilitators, and attendees of the Miami Social Media event were clearly marked on the website. Had I just taken the time to read briefly about these people and make a mental note of their workshops and their faces, I could have systematically worked my way to each of them throughout the event, introduced myself, then asked to connect and guest blog.
4)  This one is just embarrassing. My friggin HD Flip camcorder wasn’t fully charged! I didn’t confirm in advance that it did indeed have the juice required to record the interviews and for this reason, it died after a few minutes.
As you can read, poor preparation on my part has me singing the blues. The event was somewhat of a wash for me. Not because the content being shared there was not valuable, but because I didn’t take the time to plan or execute on a strategy that would help me most. I simply showed up with this subconscious HOPE that the event would push me forward in my business.
Can you see how we constantly miss opportunities to fully maximize on our networking? Can you see how the core principle of planning in advance for business encounters is so valuable? What I failed to do was define my goals clearly, outline the most effective steps needed to achieve those goals, and I also failed to fully execute on those steps during the event.
Luckily, Ms. Fortuity has a crush on me and I did meet a few really good contacts. It’s just hard to swallow the fact that a good event could have been a great event for me, had I just followed a plan. Well, you live and you learn. Lesson learned.
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