One week from today marks the 1st day of WE20, the annual conference for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)! This is definitely my favorite conference to attend, and it’s a jam packed event full of networking with fellow STEM professionals and learning from industry leaders.
This year’s conference will be a virtual experience due to COVID-19 restrictions. Although I was initially bummed that I wouldn’t get to travel to a new city, I’m still excited to have this virtual professional development opportunity!
Last year’s conference was held in Anaheim, CA, and I featured my top 9 must-haves when traveling to a conference on the blog. While I still stand by all those recommendations, this year, I won’t need all of those items since the conference will be online.
Today, rather than show what I’m bringing to this year’s conference, I want to share with you how I’ll be planning out my time to get the most out of this experience.
1. Set Conference Goals
If you’ve been around my blog, you know how much I love goal setting! Attending a conference is no different. I like to make a plan for what I want to get out of the conference so I can make the most of my time while I’m there (regardless of whether it is in person or online).
When I was in college, my main goals when attending annual SWE Conferences were to get the most job interviews out of every one from my section (my competitive nature is one of my best and worst traits) and explore the city that I was visiting.
Since I have a full-time job now and I’ll be attending the conference from the comfort of my own home, my goals for this year are a little different:
- Attend at least 1 session per day for the full conference (November 2 – 13).
- Meet at least 2 other SWE members I didn’t know before.
- Learn one new technical skill and one new soft-skill.
I try to keep a balance between making my goals too generic and too specific. The virtual format will be new for everyone this year, so I’m not sure what to expect. Regardless, I think these goals will be pretty manageable for this year!
2. Review the Conference Schedule
After I set my goals for the conference, I review the conference schedule to see what sessions are of interest to me. WE20 covers a wide breadth of topics, and each year offers fresh and new content to learn from. Reviewing the conference schedule beforehand ensures that you’ll find sessions that align with your conference goals and you won’t miss any topics you want to learn more about.
WE20 officially starts on November 2, and will run for 2 weeks. There are several sessions a day, both on demand and live. WE20 has made all the conference content available for a year after the conference is live, so I’m not as worried about attending all the sessions live like I have been in past years.
Here is my plan for the sessions I want to attend live:
| November 2 – Digital Body Language: The New Rules of Trust and Collaboration | November 3 – Engage Systems You Need to Live the Life You Want |
| November 4 – Power of a Nudge | November 5 – Make a Difference! Empower the (SWE)Next Generation |
| November 6 – HP Tech Talk: HP’s Microfluidics: Innovating for the Next Billion-Dollar Business | November 9 – Keynote: Linda DuCharme, President of Upstream and Integrated Solutions, ExxonMobil |
| November 10 – Mega Session: Gloria Cotton, Microaggressions: A New Way to Define and Address These Subtle Acts of Exclusion in the Workplace | November 11 – Get Those Voices in Your Head to Work for You |
| November 12 – Time Satisfaction: Because There Are No More Minutes! | November 13 – Right User, Right Context, Right Time: Study of Manufacturing Data |
3. Schedule out Sessions
Since this will be a fully virtual conference, I don’t really have to take off work like I did in previous years. This is definitely one of the bonuses of having a virtual conference – I don’t have to worry about scheduling time off with my manager and my team!
As I plan out the sessions I want to attend, I always double check on my calendar that they don’t conflict with anything that’s already there. Since I don’t plan on taking off any time from work, I have to ensure that the sessions I want to attend aren’t at the same time as my other regularly scheduled meetings.
Once I choose the sessions I want to go to each day, I block them out on my work calendar so that others will see me as unavailable during the times of all the sessions.
I’m thankful that my job has a relatively flexible schedule, and I don’t have too many meetings. However, it never hurts to ask your supervisor if you are allowed to schedule out an hour on certain days for some professional development hours.
If you’re unable to take off hours or flex your schedule around a conference, see if there are any other options available – like weekend or evening conference sessions. WE20 also will have all the content from the conference available for a year, so even if attending sessions in person isn’t an option, you can watch them later on-demand.
4. Connect with Colleagues
Although meeting new people is one of my favorite parts of attending conferences, I also love getting to connect with my fellow SWE-sters from my region during the conference. Getting to share experiences, learn about sessions I missed, and catch up during the week really rounds out the whole experience of the conference.
When attending conferences in person, I usually make a point to join (or plan) group dinners with my current SWE section that I’m attending with. However, with the virtual format and CDC guidelines in place, attending an in-person gathering this year really isn’t an option.
So, in accordance with the virtual format of the conference, our SWE section is planning a “virtual” dinner that we can all attend to discuss our favorite parts of the conference. Planning small meet-ups with your peers, even if they are online, can help you stay connected with them and learn more about the conference overall rather than going it alone.
Another easy way to stay connected with other conference goers is to have a shared group chat. I’ve been using GroupMe for this for years, and it works really well! It allows for easy polling, DM-ing people in the group, event planning, and – best of all – it’s free. I’ll definitely be utilizing this platform to keep in contact with my fellow SWE members during this year’s conference.
Virtual conferences definitely aren’t the same as attending them in person, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a fun learning experience in their own way. By planning out your conference, regardless of whether it’s virtual or in-person, you ensure that you’ll have the time to attend everything you want. You’ll also ensure that you will get the most out of it that you can!
I can’t wait for everything that the conference brings over the next few weeks. Are you attending WE20 or any other virtual conferences this fall? Let me know in the comments!
What are your tips for preparing for conferences and other professional development events?