How does your organization approach sending people to industry conferences?

Our reader poll today asks: How does your organization approach sending people to industry conferences?

• We strongly encourage it in all cases 6.98%
• We encourage it when it makes sense 67.45%
• We allow it in high-priority situations 9.30%
• We discourage it but occasionally allow it 5.11%
• We rarely, if ever, allow it 11.16%

Go to the show! The trade show, that is. It looks like 75% of you actively encourage your associates to participate in industry conferences. For the 25% of you who take a harder stance on letting people attend, the concern is likely that people will treat it like a boondoggle and not get any value from it for the organization. To alleviate this concern, agree with them ahead of time on what they’ll come back with. For example, you could ask them to come back with 10 sales leads, two new industry best practices, possible acquisition targets, or new technologies your company could consider. Giving people homework to deliver on gives them purpose at the conference and enables you to hold them accountable for delivering value for the organization. If they deliver on their assignments, you can send them to future events. If they fall short and don’t deliver, they lose their conference privileges.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog.  It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!).  SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.