MBA2378 Q&A Wednesday: Should I attend SXSW or is it a waste of money?

0:08Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show. Powerful business advice you can count on with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is Q &A Wednesday. On Q &A Wednesdays, I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. Today's question is from Drew, and Drew asks, Should I attend the South by Southwest Conference, or is it a waste of money?

0:41Tickets are not cheap. Would love your advice. This is a solid question because a lot of these conferences are expensive. South by Southwest is happening in Sydney in October. Tickets range from$1 ,200 to$1 ,700. That's the early price. Gets more expensive later. And it goes on for over a week. So in this lesson, we're going to explore, should you go to this conference or any expensive conference that's going to cost you money, time, and energy? How can you evaluate if this is a good investment in you and your business? because conferences come every year. Is this one worth going to every year or a year?

1:19I'll show you how you can decide whether it's South by Southwest or any other conference. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. For those who are unfamiliar, South by Southwest is a huge conference slash festival that happens every year. It's usually in Austin, Texas. This year, they have it in Sydney, in Australia. And the conference is usually about three major things, technology and innovation, gaming and music and film. Most organizations, companies, experts are going to this conference because what's going to be discussed, what's going to be shared is on the bleeding edge of these categories.

1:59But I want to step back a bit and talk a little bit about what criteria I use to evaluate if I should attend a particular event or conference. Number one, when you go to a conference, it's really about meeting interesting people. Everything that's happening at the conference, the sessions, the talks, the screenings, the expo, all those kind of events, it's kind of like the backdrop. It's kind of like the party that gets created to invite people and a chance for you to meet interesting people. Yes, there's great content and yes, there's some interesting things you're going to learn and going to kind of pique your interest and maybe even change your mindset on a few things.

2:41But the whole point of going to a really good conference is what kind of people it brings together. It's hard to put a price tag on that because how are you going to manufacture that kind of situation where you have all these interesting people coming in one place where you can talk and meet with them? It's hard for you to pull this off on your own. It's hard for you to do this and make that happen. Yeah, you can meet up with people, have dinner, but that's a lot of effort. It's scattered over a lot of time and it's really forced and really hard to kind of make happen. So really what the conference is offering is a chance for you to meet interesting people.

3:18And why do I think that a lot of conferences are worth going to is because people that go to conferences, they're ambitious, they're hardworking, they're big thinkers. They believe in investing in themselves and meeting new people just like you. So good people to learn from and to meet. I learned this from Derek Sivers. He has a great blog post on how to attend a conference. You can Google and find it. It's super easy. So with this in mind, I'm really just evaluating, will this conference bring interesting people that I can meet? Will it gather people that I want to get to know, people that I want to learn from?

3:53And in my case, I would say yes for South by Southwest because this is the first time it's happening in Sydney. It's going to be a pretty big deal. and I'm trying to make up for lost time because we were in our homes for two years straight for COVID, right? And we didn't have a chance to kind of meet new people and we kind of have to do that now and get out of our comfort zone and get out of our introverted zone. So that's the first thing I want to kind of address when it comes to this question. Now, is it worth the price? Well, yes, these tickets are expensive. This is not a conference that costs, you know, 300, 400,$500, but I'm going to tell you, I attend a lot of conferences.

4:28I am in this space. I speak on all the stages. And conferences in general have just gotten more expensive because things have gotten more expensive. Inflation. It's very hard to find a conference ticket that's$500. You're going to pay$700,$800,$1 ,000 for a conference ticket. And for what it includes, South by Southwest, all the different tracks, all the different sessions, the music festivals, it's over a week long. It's actually pretty good value in my opinion. I usually have a couple of rules of thumb. If I'm going to meet interesting people, that was number one, then it's a tick yes. If I feel like I will grow as a person, as a business owner from this, if I'm going to get better, am I going to have a few ideas I can think about or work on afterwards?

5:09It's going to be worth it. It's an investment. It's a pretty good business expense. Now, here is probably the most important thing you got to keep in mind if you buy a ticket to any conference. If you're going to invest the money and you're taking time off of your calendar, Go all in, okay? Don't get distracted with other things. Clear your calendar. Tell your team that you're not available. You made the investment. Reap the benefits of this investment, right? If you're half in, half out, distracted, you're really going to feel like you didn't get the most out of it. You want to go all in, be fully focused, get into those sessions, take notes, journal, take some photos, enjoy yourself.

5:49Maybe even do a video kind of documentation of what you learned in each session. A little vlog you might even want to post out on social. Great content. Get to know people. Get their contacts on your phone. When they say, hey, I run this website. It's called XYZ. Look it up on your phone and save it. Bookmark it so you can check it out later. When they say, I got a YouTube channel. Open up YouTube and subscribe to their channel so that you can show their support. And watch our content later. and follow up later with them so that you can have a lasting relationship. Go all in, okay? Have your meals there.

6:22Enjoy yourself. If you want to book a hotel, if you're coming out of town and you're close to the action, book a hotel right in the middle of the conference or the conference hotel itself. If I'm going to a conference out of town, I always book the hotel that is a part of the conference or right there because I want to optimize for convenience. I want to be right there in the action. I just want to go up the elevator and roll into bed when it's all done. If you're in town and you are commuting from your home, awesome. Spend the whole day there. Have all your meals with the people that you meet.

6:52Just go all in. You paid the money. You have the time on your calendar. Do it. Now, if you don't have the time to go all in, if for some reason you feel like that's going to be a busy week or have other commitments, and you're like, I'm going to pop in and pop out and meet some people and try to do it all, I'm not really a big fan of that. This is why I like to plan my year in advance. I like to make sure that I make time for these important events and I'm not forcing it. OK, because there's nothing worse than feeling like you're not 100 percent working or 100 percent, you know, getting the best out of the conference.

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8:36I don't want to ruin it for you. Go ahead and listen to it. You'll absolutely love it. You can't go wrong. Every episode is brilliant. It's no wonder the Jordan Harbinger Show was named Best of Apple in 2018. Search for the Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, I want to touch on a little bit South by Southwest specifically because that's today's question from Drew. I've never attended a South by Southwest. This is my first one, but I've heard nothing but great things from it. I've heard nothing but interesting stories, innovations coming out of this conference, great speeches.

9:13There's a tremendous amount of FOMO around South by Southwest when it happens on social media, because there's so much action happening. Just based off what I've seen and heard from friends who attended, this is a conference that's well done. This is worth doing. It's kind of one of the top tier conferences in the world. So if you're going to go with a conference, you might as well go with one that has a huge and impressive reputation. The other thing I hear about South by Southwest and seen online is that it's a lot of fun. You get to try out brand new games, virtual reality. You listen to indie bands and great films get screened there for the first time.

9:50The latest greatest in technology gets featured at the expo. So you get to kind of try it firsthand and see where the feature is going. Generally, this is a conference that makes you feel like, man, I got to start thinking bigger. And I like those kinds of experiences because we get stuck in our business and our world. We think in a certain way, it's good to step out of there for a moment and think differently about things, expand our perspective and learn what others are doing in different industries. So if you're going to go have some fun, enjoy it. You can work, learn, network and have fun at the same time.

10:24It could be fun and rewarding, even though it's a business conference. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 MBA Show. If you've got a question you want to ask here on The$100 MBA Show, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. I'll answer it right here on Q &A Wednesday. Let me know if you want to keep your name anonymous or use your first name. But by asking a question, you not only get the answer to that question, but you help other people that have a similar question and are in a similar situation as you. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Part of your job as a founder, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, is to build your network.

10:58They always say your network is your net worth. And it's true because you can take it anywhere. You go out of business, you still have your network. You sell a business, you still have your network. You have tremendous success. Awesome. You still have your network. The point here is that your network is an asset that you get to keep and rely on and learn from and grow from and expand. So always invest in it. Thanks so much for listening. And I'll check you in Friday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

11:29Thank you.