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get ready for Web Directions Summit - Web Directions

get ready for Web Directions Summit

John Allsopp

27th September, 2023

@johnallsopp

Attending Web Directions is super exciting & packed with opportunities to learn & connect.

❤️ But those two days in October can be gone in a heartbeat!

⚙️ A bit of preparation ahead of time can go a long way 

🆘 We’re here to help: here’s a simple 4 Step Guide so you can make the most of your investment

 STEP 1: Buy a Ticket

Haven’t done this yet? Rookie mistake!

All is not lost because we’ve just extended 🕊️Early Bird ⏰ pricing by ONE more week: you’ve got till midnight on FRI OCT 6 to grab a bargain:

💵 Use friend100: take $100 off the early bird price for Summit (Oct 26+27) Silver, Classic and Streaming tickets

💸 Use friend200: take $200 off a Summit Gold ticket which also incudes Code Leaders (Oct 25) + Summit (Oct 26+27).

💰There’s also huge discounts for freelancers, juniors and not for profits–details here.

🎟️ Want to bring a group of 5+? You’ll get a free pass to Code Leaders on Oct 25.

 STEP 2: Prioritise your objectives

✨Learning new things?

✨Growing your network and joining a community?

✨ Anyone specific you really want to connect with?

✨ Finding job opportunities?

✨ Having fun? (Yeah, that’s ok too 🎢 )

You probably want to do a bit of all these things, but getting clear on which are the most important to you can really help guide your choices during the event.

 STEP 3: Icebreakers, active listening & your elevator pitch

We TOTALLY get it: for lots and lots of people, starting a conversation with a stranger is daunting. But practising a few simple techniques can be totally life-changing.

Arm yourself with some icebreaker questions.

You can play it safe with “what’d you think of that session?” and branch out from there. We recommend steering clear of the Taylor/Olivia beef though.

HINT: ChatGPT can probably give you some GREAT ideas for this!

When someone answers give them 100% of your attention.

The Improv-inspired trick here is to “get out of your head” and reeeeaaalllly listen to your new friend’s replies to your questions. Because guess what, the ideas for a followup question will all be there in what they are saying to you. Next thing you know, that conversation will be flowing like a river.

Prepare your elevator pitch.

This is another trick from Improv. Sometimes people take the easy Icebreaker option and ask you what you do. That’s fine!

Preparing a couple of sentences with more colour and detail, to take you beyond “I work for The XYZ Corporation” can give your interlocutor something to go off when it’s their turn to speak again.

“I work for The XYZ Corporation, maybe you’ve heard of us? We’re disrupting the local alphabet market”. 

 STEP 4: A cool networking tool

I love this simple trick: for the duration of the event, make the QR code for your LinkedIn the homescreen on your phone.

Here’s instructions for saving a photo of your QR code, and then once you’ve done that, just make it your homescreen. Boom. Or use a service like this free no signup required one to create a QR code for your website or socials!

Ready to do this thing? Grab your Early Bird tix and see you in 4 weeks! 

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Thoroughly enjoyed Web Directions — met some great people, heard some inspiring presenters and added a whole bunch of things to my to-do list.

Joel Roberts Web Developer